Tonight's serial killer bedtime story is about Vasili Komaroff.
A horse-trader during the early days of Stalin, Vasili was known as "The Wolf of Moscow" for his unbridled reign of terror. A peasant, Vasili typically killed for money. His first victim was uncovered in 1921. Many others followed with frightful regularity. There were 21 in all: strangled, bound, doubled-over and dumped in vacant lots around the Shabolovki District. Authorities linked the killings to the horse-trading market un Moscow that happened every Wednesdays and Fridays. As authorities soon discovered, anyone who left with Vasili to see his horses was never seen or heard of again. When police went to his home to question him they found his latest victim stuffed in a sack in the stable. Panicked, "the Wolf" jumped out the window and escaped.
Several days later he was picked up and confessed to the tune of 33 killings, 11 of which were not under investigation. Over the next few days he uncovered five new corpses for the authorities. The other six victims he dumped in the river and their bodies were never recovered. Vasili implicated his wife Sofia as an accomplice. They were both found guilty of multiple homicides and sentenced to death. On June 18, 1923, they went to the "big horse-show in the sky" via firing squad.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: John Wayne Gacy
Tonight's serial killer bedtime story about John Wayne Gacy will help even the worst of insomniacs go into a deep sleep.
Straight out of the he's-such-a-nice-guy file, Johnny was the type of man who liked to dress in a homemade Pogo the Clown outfit to entertain kids. A lonely and sadistic contractor, Johnny also liked to entertain young boys privately in a very different fashion. The prototypical organized killer, he had all aspects of the murder worked out before each kill.
Once he entered his murderous fantasy, there was no turning back.
He enjoyed handcuffing his victims, anally raping them, beating them to a pulp, offering to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, reciting verses from the Bible and strangling them to death. In 1978 he was tracked down by the police in Chicago. Thirty bodies were found buried in the crawl space underneath his house, explaining his wife's complaints about the constant stench. As a prisoner, Johnny Boy started a new career as an artist, painting mostly colorful clown pictures, which have been shown in galleries nationwide. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.
On November 11, 1998, the Chicago Tribune reported that police, acting on a tip from a former detective, were searching for human remains in a parking lot behind Gacy's mother's house. Authorities believe there could be as many as four bodies buried 3 1/2 feet deep. Former Detective Bill Dorsch, now a private investigator, told prosecutors of a night in 1975 when he found Gacy holding a dirty shovel next to the alley where the new search is proposed. "I stopped and said, 'John, what are you doing out here at this time of night with a shovel?"' Dorsch said. Gacy replied: "Well, with all the kind of work I do, there just isn't enough time in the day. So here I am."
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Straight out of the he's-such-a-nice-guy file, Johnny was the type of man who liked to dress in a homemade Pogo the Clown outfit to entertain kids. A lonely and sadistic contractor, Johnny also liked to entertain young boys privately in a very different fashion. The prototypical organized killer, he had all aspects of the murder worked out before each kill.
Once he entered his murderous fantasy, there was no turning back.
He enjoyed handcuffing his victims, anally raping them, beating them to a pulp, offering to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, reciting verses from the Bible and strangling them to death. In 1978 he was tracked down by the police in Chicago. Thirty bodies were found buried in the crawl space underneath his house, explaining his wife's complaints about the constant stench. As a prisoner, Johnny Boy started a new career as an artist, painting mostly colorful clown pictures, which have been shown in galleries nationwide. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.
On November 11, 1998, the Chicago Tribune reported that police, acting on a tip from a former detective, were searching for human remains in a parking lot behind Gacy's mother's house. Authorities believe there could be as many as four bodies buried 3 1/2 feet deep. Former Detective Bill Dorsch, now a private investigator, told prosecutors of a night in 1975 when he found Gacy holding a dirty shovel next to the alley where the new search is proposed. "I stopped and said, 'John, what are you doing out here at this time of night with a shovel?"' Dorsch said. Gacy replied: "Well, with all the kind of work I do, there just isn't enough time in the day. So here I am."
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Fernando Hernandez Leyva
Tonight's serial killer bedtime story about Fernando Hernandez Leyva is no April Fool's joke.
Mexican police said a Cuernavaca man they arrested on charges of assault and kidnapping had confessed to killing more than 100 people. Jose Castillo, chief prosecutor of central Morelos state, told a news conference that police arrested Fernando Hernandez, alias "Pancho Lopez." Castillo said he was unaware of any criminal who had a more violent record in Mexican history.
Hernandez also appeared at the news conference, telling reporters: "I committed about 100 homicides and six kidnappings." Castillo said police in four different states had sought the man they knew as "Pancho Lopez" in connection with 38 slayings and dozens of violent assaults and kidnappings. "I killed them because I had to," Hernandez added. "I don't know how to do anything else."
On April 4, a criminal court judge in Cuernavaca, 35 miles south of Mexico City, ordered Hernandez Leyva held over for trial along with three alleged accomplices on several murder, robbery and kidnapping counts. Hernandez Leyva is suspected in 137 killings, six kidnappings and several robberies in Mexico City and the states of Morelos, Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato and Michoacan.
The 36-year-old suspect told reporters that he is innocent of most of the charges. He admitted to kidnapping a journalist in Jalisco and to killing of a police officer. Hernandez Leyva said judicial police officers had beat him and threatened to rape his wife and take away his children unless he confessed to the crimes. Authorities made no comment about his allegations.
When Leyva was transferred to a state prison after crowds of victims' families in Cuernavaca called for his blood. "We want to lynch him," said Joel Uribe Landa, one of about 50 people gathered outside the Morelos state prosecutors' office, where Hernandez Leyva was taken for questioning before being transferred to the state prison. The unusually heavy police detail present during the transfer served a double purpose: to protect the suspect from angry protesters and to make sure he didn't escape, as he has done at least twice over the last 13 years.
Prosecutor Jose Leonardo Castillo Pombo said Hernandez Leyva is a suspect in kidnappings, robberies and as many as 135 murders in five southern Mexican states. Castillo Pombo said he opposed the death penalty, but added that "if the country is legally prepared to apply it, Mexicans should hold a referendum, so that public opinion can decide."
As evidence rolls in from prosecutors in outlying states, the number of potential murder charges against Hernandez Leyva continues to rise. Eleven more murder investigations forwarded by prosecutors in western Jalisco state name him as the prime suspect, bringing the caseload to 33 in four days. But under Mexican law -- in which sentences are served concurrently -- the most Hernandez Leyva is likely to face is a sentence of 50 years in prison, with time off for good behavior.
Hernandez Leyva was arrested in 1982 in Cuernavaca, 35 miles south of Mexico City, on robbery charges but escaped from jail by tunneling through a wall. He was arrested again on suspicion of murder and robbery in 1986, but again escaped from Mexico City's Western penitentiary. Morelos state officials have applied to the federal government for him to be transferred to a maximum security federal prison.
On April 12 Leyva attempted to hang himself in his jail cell. The confessed serial killer, who weighs about 300 pounds, used a rope to try and hang himself from cell bars, but the rope broke and he suffered only abrasions on his neck. A police psychological exam of suspect released earlier concluded that Hernandez Leyva is a "psychopath" who murdered for "personal satisfaction."
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Mexican police said a Cuernavaca man they arrested on charges of assault and kidnapping had confessed to killing more than 100 people. Jose Castillo, chief prosecutor of central Morelos state, told a news conference that police arrested Fernando Hernandez, alias "Pancho Lopez." Castillo said he was unaware of any criminal who had a more violent record in Mexican history.
Hernandez also appeared at the news conference, telling reporters: "I committed about 100 homicides and six kidnappings." Castillo said police in four different states had sought the man they knew as "Pancho Lopez" in connection with 38 slayings and dozens of violent assaults and kidnappings. "I killed them because I had to," Hernandez added. "I don't know how to do anything else."
On April 4, a criminal court judge in Cuernavaca, 35 miles south of Mexico City, ordered Hernandez Leyva held over for trial along with three alleged accomplices on several murder, robbery and kidnapping counts. Hernandez Leyva is suspected in 137 killings, six kidnappings and several robberies in Mexico City and the states of Morelos, Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato and Michoacan.
The 36-year-old suspect told reporters that he is innocent of most of the charges. He admitted to kidnapping a journalist in Jalisco and to killing of a police officer. Hernandez Leyva said judicial police officers had beat him and threatened to rape his wife and take away his children unless he confessed to the crimes. Authorities made no comment about his allegations.
When Leyva was transferred to a state prison after crowds of victims' families in Cuernavaca called for his blood. "We want to lynch him," said Joel Uribe Landa, one of about 50 people gathered outside the Morelos state prosecutors' office, where Hernandez Leyva was taken for questioning before being transferred to the state prison. The unusually heavy police detail present during the transfer served a double purpose: to protect the suspect from angry protesters and to make sure he didn't escape, as he has done at least twice over the last 13 years.
Prosecutor Jose Leonardo Castillo Pombo said Hernandez Leyva is a suspect in kidnappings, robberies and as many as 135 murders in five southern Mexican states. Castillo Pombo said he opposed the death penalty, but added that "if the country is legally prepared to apply it, Mexicans should hold a referendum, so that public opinion can decide."
As evidence rolls in from prosecutors in outlying states, the number of potential murder charges against Hernandez Leyva continues to rise. Eleven more murder investigations forwarded by prosecutors in western Jalisco state name him as the prime suspect, bringing the caseload to 33 in four days. But under Mexican law -- in which sentences are served concurrently -- the most Hernandez Leyva is likely to face is a sentence of 50 years in prison, with time off for good behavior.
Hernandez Leyva was arrested in 1982 in Cuernavaca, 35 miles south of Mexico City, on robbery charges but escaped from jail by tunneling through a wall. He was arrested again on suspicion of murder and robbery in 1986, but again escaped from Mexico City's Western penitentiary. Morelos state officials have applied to the federal government for him to be transferred to a maximum security federal prison.
On April 12 Leyva attempted to hang himself in his jail cell. The confessed serial killer, who weighs about 300 pounds, used a rope to try and hang himself from cell bars, but the rope broke and he suffered only abrasions on his neck. A police psychological exam of suspect released earlier concluded that Hernandez Leyva is a "psychopath" who murdered for "personal satisfaction."
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Fun With "ME2"
Enjoy your own simulated “ME2” avatar character but have a fondness for killing the rest? Impressed by the Satin Strangler but think you can do better? Here it is. Exactly what you’ve been looking for. The Satin Strangler ME2 challenge.
This is an extension of the perfectly twisted and therefore popular Serial Killer Challenge. Refer to the ME2 website for details on getting started. You will need the Education, Business Accessories, After Hours, and Spare Time plug-ins.
Start by creating your Satin Strangler ME2. Will she be the stylish courtroom defendant, or the crazed serial killer from the original artist drawings? It’s up to you. Load up on satin stockings through your favorite wardrobe and accessories site, and she’s ready for action.
In this case the modified torture chamber room and isolation chamber will have most of the same characteristics but will now be called the ME2 Satin Suite. You’ll need another room for your stockings and any other weapons of choice. Always keep all doors set to “Lock . . . Allow ME2 Owner Only.”
Lure neighbors and other men into the Satin Suite, and then lock the door. Until there is a better strangling option, your victims will have to die on their own in the Satin Suite. Leaving your stockings in the suite with them will constitute a kill for the final tally. Trapping multiple victims at once gets bonus points, but having victims escape will cost you. The big points come for a “nookie-kill” combo.
Avoid suspicious activity, and don’t leave any clues. Stay away from community lots, where the police are snooping around for clues to the murders and posting sketches of the suspect. Leaving any stockings around the house or outside will surely alert the police to the trail, so be careful.
Scoring:
Bonuses:
Deductions:
Good luck, may the best strangler win, and may you all forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
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This is post #31 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).
This is an extension of the perfectly twisted and therefore popular Serial Killer Challenge. Refer to the ME2 website for details on getting started. You will need the Education, Business Accessories, After Hours, and Spare Time plug-ins.
Start by creating your Satin Strangler ME2. Will she be the stylish courtroom defendant, or the crazed serial killer from the original artist drawings? It’s up to you. Load up on satin stockings through your favorite wardrobe and accessories site, and she’s ready for action.
In this case the modified torture chamber room and isolation chamber will have most of the same characteristics but will now be called the ME2 Satin Suite. You’ll need another room for your stockings and any other weapons of choice. Always keep all doors set to “Lock . . . Allow ME2 Owner Only.”
Lure neighbors and other men into the Satin Suite, and then lock the door. Until there is a better strangling option, your victims will have to die on their own in the Satin Suite. Leaving your stockings in the suite with them will constitute a kill for the final tally. Trapping multiple victims at once gets bonus points, but having victims escape will cost you. The big points come for a “nookie-kill” combo.
Avoid suspicious activity, and don’t leave any clues. Stay away from community lots, where the police are snooping around for clues to the murders and posting sketches of the suspect. Leaving any stockings around the house or outside will surely alert the police to the trail, so be careful.
Scoring:
+2 for each general character killed
+5 for each neighbor killed
Bonuses:
+2 for each new victim if multiple victims are already trapped
+10 if the victim is a best friend
+15 if the victim was the killer’s crush
+25 if your ME2 can “nookie” with the victim before killing him
Deductions:
-2 for each neighbor who declines an invitation to come over
-5 for each victim you fail to trap
-5 for each victim that escapes
-5 if a romance flops
-20 if your killer has a baby
-25 if stockings are left outside where they can be found
-50 and out of the contest if your killer dies of anything other than old age
Good luck, may the best strangler win, and may you all forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
-----
This is post #31 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).
“Like” TSSB on Facebook.
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Sunday, March 1, 2009
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Donald Harvey
Crawl under the covers. Here comes tonight's serial killer bedtime story about Donald Harvey.
The most prolific killer nurse of the trade. When he was not offing his patients, Donny enjoyed hanging out in the morgue and studying tissue samples. An amateur Satanist, he would joke with the hospital staff about "getting rid of patients." Little did they know, it was no joke.
Harvey murdered with abandon from the early seventies to 1987 when he was finally caught. He claimed that his killings were "mercy" killings even though he sometimes chose horrible substances to bring on death. He also did not limit his work to those hospitalized. He killed a neighbor out of spite by lacing her drink with hepatitis. He would also poison his male lover and then nurse him back to health to win his affection. On another occasion he poisoned his lover's family, killing the mother. He was convicted of thirty-four deaths but it is believed that he actually tallied eighty-seven kills.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
The most prolific killer nurse of the trade. When he was not offing his patients, Donny enjoyed hanging out in the morgue and studying tissue samples. An amateur Satanist, he would joke with the hospital staff about "getting rid of patients." Little did they know, it was no joke.
Harvey murdered with abandon from the early seventies to 1987 when he was finally caught. He claimed that his killings were "mercy" killings even though he sometimes chose horrible substances to bring on death. He also did not limit his work to those hospitalized. He killed a neighbor out of spite by lacing her drink with hepatitis. He would also poison his male lover and then nurse him back to health to win his affection. On another occasion he poisoned his lover's family, killing the mother. He was convicted of thirty-four deaths but it is believed that he actually tallied eighty-seven kills.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Strangulation
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Many of our loyal readers lately have been asking about strangulation. I suppose TV coverage isn’t providing enough for you. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s something to satisfy your appetites for gore – a few excerpts from one of my favorite pieces of bedtime reading, “Death by Strangulation,” by Dr. Dean Hawley.
Strangulation sometimes causes no external evidence. In other cases scratches and bruises occur on the neck. These are often from the fingers of the assailant, or even the fingers of the victim from attempts to pry free. Ligatures, such as the satin stockings used by Destiny Blande, can cause distinct abrasion patterns as well.
All of these marks can become more prominent after death as the skin dries out. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall as the coroner sits there eating his lunch while strangulation marks appear on the neck of the corpse?
But remember, not all of the evidence lies in the neck.
The exact findings at autopsy vary, and may be related to the different ways that strangulation can cause death. We each probably have our favorite ways that this can happen. Pressure on the carotid arteries can cut off blood flow to the brain, and blocking the jugular veins can stop the blood returning from the brain, either of which leads to unconsciousness and eventually death. Pressure on the larynx can prevent air flow to the lungs, causing suffocation. Then, of course, there’s my favorite, the possibility of causing an abnormal rhythm from carotid artery reflex signals to the heart.
Okay you wild asphyxiaphilics – we know this information will take your breath away because you’re Crazy 4 Crazies.
-----
This is post #28 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).
Many of our loyal readers lately have been asking about strangulation. I suppose TV coverage isn’t providing enough for you. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s something to satisfy your appetites for gore – a few excerpts from one of my favorite pieces of bedtime reading, “Death by Strangulation,” by Dr. Dean Hawley.
Strangulation sometimes causes no external evidence. In other cases scratches and bruises occur on the neck. These are often from the fingers of the assailant, or even the fingers of the victim from attempts to pry free. Ligatures, such as the satin stockings used by Destiny Blande, can cause distinct abrasion patterns as well.
“Ligature abrasions follow a predictable pattern of horizontal circumscription about the neck; distinguishable from the marks left by suicidal hanging, where a suspension point causes the ligature furrow to rise toward one ear.”
All of these marks can become more prominent after death as the skin dries out. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall as the coroner sits there eating his lunch while strangulation marks appear on the neck of the corpse?
But remember, not all of the evidence lies in the neck.
“. . . In addition to the blunt force injuries of the neck, strangulation produces evidence of asphyxiation, recognized as pinpoint hemorrhages (petechiae) in the skin, conjunctiva of the eyes, and deep internal organs. Petechiae are non-specific findings that can develop from any cause of asphyxia including strangulation, hanging, drowning, sudden infant death syndrome, aspiration of gastric contents, profound depressant drug intoxication, and some natural diseases. The presence of petechiae does not prove strangulation, and the absence of petechiae does not disprove strangulation. In addition to petechiae, one may also (rarely) find interstitial free air in the lung or mediastinum.”
The exact findings at autopsy vary, and may be related to the different ways that strangulation can cause death. We each probably have our favorite ways that this can happen. Pressure on the carotid arteries can cut off blood flow to the brain, and blocking the jugular veins can stop the blood returning from the brain, either of which leads to unconsciousness and eventually death. Pressure on the larynx can prevent air flow to the lungs, causing suffocation. Then, of course, there’s my favorite, the possibility of causing an abnormal rhythm from carotid artery reflex signals to the heart.
Okay you wild asphyxiaphilics – we know this information will take your breath away because you’re Crazy 4 Crazies.
-----
This is post #28 in The Satin Strangler Blogs (TSSB).
Start TSSB from the first blog post.
See links to all 105 posts in TSSB.
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Sunday, February 1, 2009
Serial Killer Bedtime Stories: Moses Sithole
Tonight's bedtime story is about Moses. No, not that Moses.
A surprisingly intelligent and gentle mannered Moses Sithole is allegedly South Africa's worst serial killer. The suspected Gauteng serial killer, Sithole was charged in the Pretoria Supreme Court with 38 charges of murder, 40 charges of rape and six of robbery. Between 1994 and 1995 he allegedly strangled women in the Pretoria, Johannesburg and East Rand areas. Most victims were lured to secluded fields where Sithole allegedly assaulted, raped and strangled them with their own underwear or belts.
The series of murders started in June 1994, shortly after Sithole had served house arrest for rape. Between 1994 and 1995 South African authorities were alarmed by the growing number of dead women appearing around Pretoria and Johannesburg. Several of the women were left with their hands tied behind their backs. One woman was blindfolded. Many were found with their heads covered with clothing. Apparently he murdered his first victim because she had shouted at him when he asked her for directions. "I cannot remember her name," he said. "I killed her and left her there. I went straight home and had a shower."
Robert Ressler, the F.B.I. Behavioral Science Unit's former chief, was called in to help with the investigation. Ressler concluded that the killings in Cleveland, a suburb of Johannesburg, and Boksburg, a suburb of Pretoria, were linked. In his psychological profile of the killer he indicated the possibility of two killers acting together.
On October 18, 1995, after a week-long nationwide hunt, police shot and wounded Moses Sithole, an ax-wielding ex-convict with six aliases. When he was arrested, authorities thought Sithole might have been acting in conjunction with David Selepe but no evidence has been uncovered suggesting that both men knew each other. Unfortunately for Selepe, he was killed by police while in custody.
On October 22, 1996, Sithole appeared in court and was charged with 38 murders and 40 rapes. On November 14, Sithole's trial was postponed after the suspect appeared in court looking very pale and with his pants soaked with blood. The HIV positive killer was rushed to the hospital where he was treated for a wound on his knee. According to his defense team, the injury came from a fall he sustained at Pretoria Central Prison.
A jailhouse confession videotape -- made by Charles Schoeman on the condition that Sithole and three other prisoners would get a share of the royalties -- shows a visibly relaxed Sithole in a cell either smoking or chewing on an apple while giving a chilling account one of his victim's lasts moments before death. Sithole -- an avid talker -- was a willing party to a series of video and audio tapes made by fellow prisoners. In them he told fellow prisoners that he hated women and felt he was teaching them "a very good lesson" by murdering them.
Facts contained in the tapes were repeated in a confession to the police and in a phone conversation with a Johannesburg journalist. An unknown caller, identified by voice experts as Sithole, claimed to be the Gauteng serial killer and gave details of where he had left the bodies of several of his victims.
Sithole officially became South Africa's worst serial killer On December 5, 1997. when he was found guilty of 38 murders and 40 rapes. Sithole -- who's overwhelming arrogance had ultimately brought about his downfall -- sat emotionless, taking down notes throughout the three-hour judgment. After the judgment, he gathered up his briefcase and left the courtroom with a smile on his face. The next day, as people in the gallery cheered and applauded, Sithole was sentenced to 2,410 year in jail. Relatives of the victims shouted for his head and called for the return of capital punishment. The judge -- who also made a plea for the restoration of the death penalty -- said he would have sentenced Sithole to death without hesitation.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
A surprisingly intelligent and gentle mannered Moses Sithole is allegedly South Africa's worst serial killer. The suspected Gauteng serial killer, Sithole was charged in the Pretoria Supreme Court with 38 charges of murder, 40 charges of rape and six of robbery. Between 1994 and 1995 he allegedly strangled women in the Pretoria, Johannesburg and East Rand areas. Most victims were lured to secluded fields where Sithole allegedly assaulted, raped and strangled them with their own underwear or belts.
The series of murders started in June 1994, shortly after Sithole had served house arrest for rape. Between 1994 and 1995 South African authorities were alarmed by the growing number of dead women appearing around Pretoria and Johannesburg. Several of the women were left with their hands tied behind their backs. One woman was blindfolded. Many were found with their heads covered with clothing. Apparently he murdered his first victim because she had shouted at him when he asked her for directions. "I cannot remember her name," he said. "I killed her and left her there. I went straight home and had a shower."
Robert Ressler, the F.B.I. Behavioral Science Unit's former chief, was called in to help with the investigation. Ressler concluded that the killings in Cleveland, a suburb of Johannesburg, and Boksburg, a suburb of Pretoria, were linked. In his psychological profile of the killer he indicated the possibility of two killers acting together.
On October 18, 1995, after a week-long nationwide hunt, police shot and wounded Moses Sithole, an ax-wielding ex-convict with six aliases. When he was arrested, authorities thought Sithole might have been acting in conjunction with David Selepe but no evidence has been uncovered suggesting that both men knew each other. Unfortunately for Selepe, he was killed by police while in custody.
On October 22, 1996, Sithole appeared in court and was charged with 38 murders and 40 rapes. On November 14, Sithole's trial was postponed after the suspect appeared in court looking very pale and with his pants soaked with blood. The HIV positive killer was rushed to the hospital where he was treated for a wound on his knee. According to his defense team, the injury came from a fall he sustained at Pretoria Central Prison.
A jailhouse confession videotape -- made by Charles Schoeman on the condition that Sithole and three other prisoners would get a share of the royalties -- shows a visibly relaxed Sithole in a cell either smoking or chewing on an apple while giving a chilling account one of his victim's lasts moments before death. Sithole -- an avid talker -- was a willing party to a series of video and audio tapes made by fellow prisoners. In them he told fellow prisoners that he hated women and felt he was teaching them "a very good lesson" by murdering them.
Facts contained in the tapes were repeated in a confession to the police and in a phone conversation with a Johannesburg journalist. An unknown caller, identified by voice experts as Sithole, claimed to be the Gauteng serial killer and gave details of where he had left the bodies of several of his victims.
Sithole officially became South Africa's worst serial killer On December 5, 1997. when he was found guilty of 38 murders and 40 rapes. Sithole -- who's overwhelming arrogance had ultimately brought about his downfall -- sat emotionless, taking down notes throughout the three-hour judgment. After the judgment, he gathered up his briefcase and left the courtroom with a smile on his face. The next day, as people in the gallery cheered and applauded, Sithole was sentenced to 2,410 year in jail. Relatives of the victims shouted for his head and called for the return of capital punishment. The judge -- who also made a plea for the restoration of the death penalty -- said he would have sentenced Sithole to death without hesitation.
Sweet dreams, and may you forever remain Crazy 4 Crazies.
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