South Africa’s serial killer, known as “The ABC Murderer”, Moses Sithole.

Moses was born on the 17th of November 1964 to parents Simon and Sophie Sithole in Vosloorus, a township near Boksburg, in Transvaal Province, South Africa, now known as Gauteng. Moses was one of five children. His childhood consisted of poverty from the results of the Apartheid. At 5 years old, Moses' father died, which pushed all the responsibility to their mother. Sophie couldn't provide for her children, and she ended up choosing to abandon them at the local police station. Moses, 8 years old at this time, suffered abuse within the orphanage. One article stated the abuse was caused by his sister sexually abusing him and female workers within the orphanage resulting in him running away to seek refuge with his mother. Once he found her, she made him go back to the orphanage. After 3 years of systematic abuse, Moses once again ran away but this time to his older brother Patrick’s place to work in the Johannesburg gold mines and other odd jobs. Psychologist experts say his aggression towards women might’ve come from being abandoned by his mother.

Moses later confesses during his time detained for the 1996 trial, that he blames the fact he became a murderer, on the woman who first reported his raping spree 9 years ago. 1989 is where he believes it all started, Buyiswa Doris Swakamisa, who was attacked in February 1989. Even though through allegations, 1987, would be the first known rape case, the victim a 29-year-old woman, who later testified against him during his 1996 trial. Three known victims had come forward, including his 1988 then-girlfriend, who he assaulted, and her 15-year-old sister, who he raped and strangled to the point of unconsciousness, and Buyiswa Doris Swakamisa.

Swakamisa hadn’t made a report to the police at the time of the incident, since he had threatened her with a machete. Soon after the incident, Swakamisa spotted her rapist at her workplace and called the police. When police arrived, they arrested him and escorted him for questioning but alongside him in the back of the police van was Swakamisa, no one else, just them in the back. He was reportedly threatening to kill her family. Luckily, she persisted with her case. After his conviction, he was put away in Boksburg Prison for seven long years. Within prison situations hurting or abusing of any kind towards women and children were heavily looked down upon within prisoners, which made him an easy target in prison.

During his time in prison, he exchanged letters with another inmate's aunt, Martha Ndlovu. He was trying his best to pursue her.

“He began to write me letters. Initially, I didn’t respond, but after a while, I agreed (to a relationship). So, I started to visit him regularly until he was released on parole in November (1993),” she had said during her time on the witness stand.

After his release for good behavior, Moses moved in with Ndlovu in Soshanguve, Pretoria. They then got married in March 1994, three months after the birth of daughter Bridgette. A year later, on July 31, 1995, their marriage ended after a heated argument over school keys. He worked at the time as a youth counselor, he would use the keys during the evening for a counseling meetup. The school allowed him to borrow them from time to time, but at one point he refused to turn the keys back in. Which concerned his then-wife, Ndlovu states during the trial, “When I asked him why he took the keys, he became very angry, saying I shouted at him.” Moses packed his bags and left, and Ndlovu didn’t speak to him or see him again until October 1995 when he was arrested.

Moses was known to be charming, well-spoken, and intelligent, making it easier to persuade his victims. As South Africa ended the discriminatory practices of Apartheid, many black women would search for higher-paying jobs in the white rich neighborhoods, and Moses used this opportunity to hunt for victims. He would go between Atteridgeville, Boksburg, and Cleveland, naming him the ABC murder, scouting for black women via job opportunities through his ‘Charity Program’, “Youth Against Human Abuse”. It was said he would leave an application and schedule ‘appointments’ for an ‘interview’ with him. He would even escort them personally to his ‘office’ by bus and made a ‘shortcut’ through outlying fields where he beat, tied them in their clothing, raped, and strangled them, sometimes with their underwear. Records show he might’ve started this process as early as 1994.

July and September of 1994, five bodies were found, ranging from 18-32 years of age, in Cleveland, Johannesburg, and Pretoria West, Pretoria. In Atteridgeville, Pretoria, January through July 1995, ages 2-27, five bodies were found, four adults and the 2-year-old son of one of the victims, who died from exposure and an injury to the head. During May and June with weeks apart between them, four bodies were found in Pretoria West, Pretoria. In Onderstepoort, Pretoria, May through August, six bodies were found and three of them were unidentified. The other three ages range from 25 to 30. In Boksburg, July through September, six bodies were found, ages ranging from 25 to 43.

A body was also discovered on September 16, 1995, at the Van Dyk Mine near Boksburg. Further investigation revealed mass graves, Forensic experts recovered 10 bodies in varying degrees of decomposition over 48 hours. The victims were also raped and killed directly over older bodies, and their hands were bound to their necks to make them unable to struggle without strangling themselves. Moses would also masturbate while his victims died. Many were also left with pieces of clothing draped over their faces as if to prevent them from staring at their killer in death. He was so paranoid that even weighed the clothes down with stones. During this time, the community was terrified and hardly wanted to go out anywhere alone, no one knew who was killing. They would plead for the officials to quickly find the mass killer. The media loved it and broadcasted it everywhere.

With the community scared and the media going crazy, President Nelson Mandela personally stepped in and appeared in Boksburg with high-ranking justice officials, where he asked the public to help be on the lookout for the strangler. While ex FBI Agent Robert Ressler continues to put the profiling in the works, important connections were popping up at the gravesite revealing that one of the victims had been last seen on September 7. Investigators ask around and the victim’s coworkers, mention a man named Moses Sithole came by offering her a job and gave her an application form. When another victim showed up with the same connections to Moses, the police found their top suspect. Early October 1995, a Capetown newspaper, The Star, received an anonymous telephone call from a man claiming to be the killer. A South African journalist named Tamsen de Beer, working for The Star, recalls the caller identifying himself as “the man that is so highly wanted,” describing his murders as “an act of revenge for prior miscarriage of justice.” The caller, who we all guessed is Moses, goes on and describes his 1987 rape case, saying it was “a crime I didn't do.” He further claimed that during his seven years in prison he was being “abused” and “tortured” by fellow inmates. The police got even luckier, Moses goes on and talks about his parents and sister who died while he was in prison. He claims in retaliation for the wrongs, “I force a woman to go where I want, and when I go there, I tell them, ‘Do you know what? I was hurt, so I’m doing it now.’ Then I kill them.” When the journalist asked how many victims he had killed, Moses claimed 76, almost twice as many as the police had found at the time. Moses then signed off with directions to the corpse of “a lady I don’t think the police have discovered.” With the many clues, Moses gave without realizing it. Helping Ressler remembered an old news article about a man jailed for a rape case back in 1987, which lead him to Moses Sithole, a 31-year-old ex-convict and youth counselor who had not been seen for a while.

When it was clear that Moses might be their guy, no one had anything idea where he might be, and which he continues to kill, forcing the police to go public with Moses' face information in every newspaper. Making Moses fear for his life now his face is plaster everywhere. He tried to seek help from his brother-in-law to obtain a gun, his brother-in-law informed the police about the interaction and allied to catch Moses at their agreed meet-up. October 18, Moses armed with a hatchet, arrives at the scene but before entering through the doors, he notices an officer and makes a run for it. The officer runs after him, Moses runs into an alley, strikes with the only weapon to defend himself, causing him to injure the officer, the officer then shot Moses in the leg and stomach. During the trial, Moses’s defense team stated that’s not what happened, the officer bumped into Moses in front of the meetup and just started to shoot him.

Moses survived his wound and soon transferred from intensive care to a military hospital, where he was diagnosed with HIV. Even in custody, he bragged about teaching his victims “a very good lesson” by killing them. Robert Ressler’s profile on the “ABC'' killer suggested that there was a possibility of two “Team Killers” working together, the other being David Selepe, linked to a half-dozen murders of women in Cleveland, but Moses denied ever meeting David, and there was no evidence connecting the two. David was never asked, and he was shot dead in December 1994, after attacking a police officer visiting one of his crime scenes.

While Moses was detained one of the inmates took an illegal interview video and audio recordings, and captured Moses boasting and explaining in great detail about his crimes. A year passed before Moses made his first court appearance, being charged with 38 murders, 40 rapes, and six counts of robbery on October 22, 1996. On November 14, the trial was postponed due to Moses showing up with pants drenched in blood. He was rushed to a hospital, treated for a knee wound that happened at the Pretoria Central Prison. His August 1996 court showing was delayed once again, due to Moses vomiting blood from a stomach ulcer. December 5, 1997, Jurors convicted Moses on all counts, and the following day, he was sentenced to a prison term of 2,410 years, with no possibility of parole for at least 930 years.

Fun Facts:

1. Despite having the highest known body count in South Africa, Moses isn’t prolific because the crimes were only two years long. The most prolific serial killer in South Africa is Bulelani Mabhayi, who murdered eleven women and nine children within five years.

2. He was an inspiration on Criminal Minds for the following unsubs:

   1. Season Two

      1. “Sex, Birth, Death” - Ronald Weems targeted women and carved messages to law enforcement's on their bodies.

   2. Season Four

      1. “The Instincts” - Claire Bates killed at least one young boy, committed earlier crimes against women before their murders started, and had signatures involving making taunting phone calls to the victim’s families.

   3. Season Six

      1. “Middle Man” - Michael Kosina, a serial rapist and later serial killer who raped women before their murders, later targeted women and took them to remote fields, where they beat, raped, and strangled them to death.

   4. Season Nine

      1. “The Caller” - Daniel Milworth committed crimes before their murders, killed at least one young boy, strangled their victims with ligatures, and made taunting phone calls to the victim’s families.

      2. “The Black Queen” - John Nichols and Sam Russell, serial killers who were both accused of committing a string of killings of women. Nichols and Russell worked together as a killing team, maybe a reference to Sithole and Selepe, that might’ve worked together.

Work Cites

-, Fredrik - CSDB, et al. “Fredrik - CSDB.” CRIME SCENE DATABASE, 20 Oct. 2016, crimescenedb.com/moses-sithole-the-gauteng-killer/.

Billyjones2k14. “A&E Biography Moses Sithole The South African Strangler - Video Dailymotion.” Dailymotion, Dailymotion, 25 Jan. 2015, www.dailymotion.com/video/x2fjs47.

Blanco, Juan Ignacio. “Moses Sithole: Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers.” Moses Sithole | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers, murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sithole-moses.htm#:~:text=THE%20love%20affair%20between%20alleged,Supreme%20Court%20heard%20this%20week.

Brown, Victor. “Moses Sithole Biography, Age, Crime, Arrest & Jail Term.” SANotify, 26 Jan. 2021, sanotify.com/moses-sithole/.

“Moses Sithole.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 16 Oct. 2020, www.biography.com/crime-figure/moses-sithole.

“Moses Sithole.” Criminal Minds Wiki, criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Moses_Sithole.

“Moses Sithole.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Jan. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Sithole.

Ndala, Mfundo. “Moses Sithole - The ABC Killer | TRUE CRIME TUESDAY.” Youtube, 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2xZqgKClbY&feature=youtu.be.

“The Trial.” Crime+Investigation UK, 29 June 2017, www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/moses-sithole-south-africa-s-worst-serial-killer/trial.