All language subtitles for BOETIE.BOER.S01E01.720p.SMAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.x264_track3_[eng].1

(dramatic music)

(Anchor) Port Elizabeth serial
killer, Stewart "Boetie Boer" Wilken

has been handed
seven life imprisonment sentences.

Wilken was found guilty on
seven murder charges

and two of sodomy last week.

(Brett) Suddenly we had
a serial killer.

The likes of a Station Strangler,
or an ABC Killer.

His name was
Stewart "Boetie Boer" Wilken.

And his crimes were just as bad,
if not worse.

(camera shutter clicking)

(Sidney) He had a very
intimidating presence about him.

He looked the part.

(Roslyn) He has learned the language.
He has learned the slang.

And in that way he
could mask who he actually was.

(ominous music)

(ominous music)

(Gérard) My name is
Gérard Labuschagne.

I'm a clinical
psychologist by training.

But I spent fourteen
and a half years as the head of

the South African Police's
Investigative Psychology Section.

This section essentially provides
the same kind of services

as the FBI's
behavioural analysis units.

So,
essentially profiling violent crime.

A lot of work has to do with serial
murder cases, serial rape cases.

And typically your
more unusual types of cases

that a detective might not have

necessarily encountered
in their career.

In about 2006 a colleague and myself,
Lieutenant Colonel Jan de Lange,

decided to go down
and interview Stewart Wilken,

who by that stage had been in prison
for almost about 10 years.

Of course he doesn't have to
worry necessarily about

the consequences of
whatever he tells you.

So we might get maybe a more honest

or perhaps better to say,
a more comprehensive account

of what actually occurred
with his crimes,

and his motivation for his crimes.

(dramatic music)

-(electric gate buzzing)
-(metal hinges squeaking)

(Gérard) You look at
his horrific deeds. You--

Your brain goes to those places
where you visualize this monster.

(camera shutter clicking)

(Gérard) And I suppose as
a clinical psychologist

that wide range of
pathological behaviour,

I guess, just definitely attracted
me to his particular case.

(Gérard) So essentially what
we had is a white,

Afrikaans speaking
South African male.

He had been convicted of
killing seven people,

although he confessed to numerous
more in his written confession.

And he was basically serving
multiple life sentences

at that particular point in time
at a private maximum security prison

in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

(tape cassette player whirring)

(ominous music)

(light-hearted music)

♪ Beware of the wolves my baby ♪

♪ They're spying for love ♪
♪ From the porch tonight ♪

♪ And as the light begins to dim ♪
♪ They'll start the skinning ♪

♪ Of your innocent body ♪
♪ Naked in the night ♪

♪ So come and shine your light ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Shine your light ♪

(ominous music)

(Ursula) On the 26th of
January 1997,

I was working my standby duties.

(pager ringing)

(Ursula) I got a call to contact
Algoa Park police station,

and they informed me of
an inquiry that was lying there

of a missing child.

(metal hinges squealing)

That inquiry was already lying there
for two days,

and they couldn't explain to me why.

I saw that Henry Baker didn't go home
from the 22nd of January.

So it's already a week that
almost passed

before anybody actually
noticed that this child is gone.

(camera shutter clicking)

(Ursula) I thought,
"No, I can't leave this.

I'm gonna go and
make inquiries immediately."

(knocking on door)

(Ursula) I went to
his mother's house, Ellen Baker.

She explained to me that

the child was last
seen with Stewart Wilken.

And from there,

Henry Baker has disappeared
and nobody knew where he was.

(dramatic music)

(Roslyn) The first time
that I learned about Stewart Wilken,

also known as "Boetie Boer",
was in the 90s.

when I started out as a journalist,
at "Die Burger".

I was surprised to hear that

a white man was living
in our communities

as if he was born and raised there.

And that he was accepted by
the people in the communities.

At that specific time,
where everything was--

wasn't normal, you know, for us.

The unemployment,
the uprising that happened.

(crowd shouting/screaming)

(Roslyn) And to learn that
he was married to a woman of colour,

that was actually more surprising
because at that time,

we didn't hear
about marriages between races.

And people calling him
"Boetie Boer". Because "Boetie",

is a name that you give to
somebody that is family.

In the late 80s
and early 90s, there were

three kinds of people
in the coloured community.

There were the people that thought
and believed that white is right.

There was a lot of respect for the
white person, for the white man,

because many of them
worked for white people.

The second group of people were those
people that would embrace everyone,

because in the early years,
we were living together

in harmony in South End and Salisbury
Park and Fairview and Willowdene.

We lived together
in harmony with all races.

And then the third group of people

would be the
politically enlightened people,

who would frown upon a white man
living in the northern areas

because it's--
because of the white man

that we live where we do live now.

(camera shutter clicking)

-(birds chirping)
-(dramatic music)

(Sidney) My experience from
dealing with the fishermen is

there was not a lot white men
at that stage.

A large part of the local community
were your coloured community

that worked on the boats.

If you were to consider the smell,
the constant rolling sea,

no proper conditions
to prepare meals.

And if you look at
some of the fishermen

that you had to share the space with,
you had to be a proper seaman.

(engines chugging)

(Sidney) It was tough to
work out there.

But for a fisherman that had no
education, that was able to fish,

it wasn't something strange
for a fisherman that would

have a two-week or
a ten-day stint out on the sea

and return and be paid 15,000
rand for those two weeks.

Now, during the 80s, start 90s,
it was a lot of money,

um, which made for a
lot of people to want

to become involved in that industry.

I spent about ten years
with the narcotics branch.

A lot of our attention
in our workspace

went into the issue
of dagga smuggling.

And we had it on good authority
that there was a lot of runner boats

during that period that made sure
that your fishermen that worked

on those boats were sufficiently
stocked with whatever was needed to

make you work those type of hours.

(Interviewee) A number of people
are doing a lot of things.

We do have drugs.

(Reporter) Is mandrax
a big problem here?

Well, yeah, there are people
who are selling drugs.

(Sidney) It was an industry
within an industry.

The boats running out to those boats
to serve them in that capacity.

(Sidney) Mandrax obviously was a
good way to enhance the abilities of

people that worked in these boats.
So, I can't generalise and say

all fishermen
were using dagga and mandrax.

There was definitely
a big enough market to

make it worthwhile
for these boats to serve them.

And those were the type of things
that made it bearable

for you to be hanging over
the boats in the adverse conditions

and make sure the quota
is fished up as quickly as possible.

Now, if you're a user,
you stay in an environment that

there's a lot of users,
there's prostitutes around,

there's a lot of shebeens
where the trading of these things

happened and suddenly
you're loaded with 15,000 rand

and you return to your space
where you stay.

You're gonna be the local hero.

(sinister music)

(camera shutter clicking)

(crowd ululating)

(Ursula) Those years
you really had to have a passion

before you made a
decision to go to the police.

And when I was little I always used
to say I want to be a policewoman.

To see the men
have so much control, um,

I think I wanted
a little bit of that.

And as a female growing up,
it was difficult,

it was difficult
living in a man's world.

I decided that I wanna do something

that's worth something
to someone else.

I wanted to make sure
that children are safe.

(inquisitive music)

(Cherie) So I met Ursula in college,

and when I moved to Child Protection
Unit we found each other there.

We were partners at
Child Protection Unit

and I absolutely
loved working with her.

She was an
incredible investigating officer.

And we became very,
very good friends.

(Ursula) So, he's been gone a few
days, and the last person...

(Cherie) She had a very great
suspicion that something is off

and this child
might not be around anymore.

(Michael) Twelve months ago we had a
Wilken case, a young girl--

(Ursula) My captain,
Michael Shanagan,

informed me that Stewart's daughter,
Wuane, was also missing,

and they could
never find her body or anything.

I said, "No, something is off.
It can't just be coincidence

that two children are seen
the last time with the same person,

and disappears."

So, all of us actually went to search
for this previous inquiry of Wuane.

Those years, there wasn't anything
to link computers, cases.

It made it quite difficult. You had
to go physically to the docket store,

go through every docket
and go and see what you can find.

-Yes, that's it. Wuane Wilken.
-(Michael) Well done.

(Cherie) But it came to a point
where we decided we have to bring

the suspect by the
name of Stewart Wilken

and they called--
His alias was "Boetie Boer",

bring him in for questioning.

As a white man,
you're going to be standing out

like a sore thumb
in that community.

(Roslyn) I think he
could fit in very well,

because of his interactions
and his being colleagues,

if you can say that,
with his fellow fishermen.

He has learned the language,
he has learned the slang,

and in that way he could mask
who he actually was.

(suspense music)

(knocking on door)

(Ursula) Veronica
is Stewart's current wife.

...with the Child Protection Unit...

I'm here to speak to your husband,
Stewart, is he here at the moment?

She said,
No, he's not staying here,

but he will come back later that day,
and then she will contact me.

(Veronica) Okay,
I'll tell him you were here.

Have a good day. Thank you.

(Ursula) A few hours later,
I get a call from Veronica

to say that Stewart
is now at her house.

(Sidney) He had a very
intimidating presence about him.

He looked the part also.

He looked scary
in terms of his physique.

He wasn't kept properly.

And considering his circumstances,

you could understand it maybe,
but yes, no, no, he was--

He had a scary, scary persona.

(car door opening)

(Ursula) So we took his statement
at that stage,

asking him where he was
and where he gave his alibi,

that he slept in Missionvale
the previous night

um, at a friend's house,
called Whitey.

The next day we went to
Whitey's house.

I still remember it was very early,
and when I got to Whitey's house,

Stewart was there,

busy making porridge
and potato skins for the kids.

(Ursula) I will never forget that
because he was quite nice

to the kids, and he came forward
as being a nice guy.

Just a normal guy
that really cared for kids.

(ominous music)

(Ursula) I left. I didn't talk to
Whitey immediately, or anyone there.

I went back later on
to follow up with his alibi,

and I was told that he didn't
sleep there the previous night.

So, nothing was
making sense at that point.

It was already eight days that
Henry was missing at this point,

um, so we needed to arrest Stewart
to interview him further

in regards to finding Henry.

On the 31st of Jan, 1997,
we went back to the docks.

Myself, Cherie Kruger
and Michael Shanagan.

We were driving into the port when

Stewart was busy walking out
with a bag.

We stopped the car next to him, where
I actually read his rights to him.

(ominous music)

(Derrik) So my name is Derrik
Norsworthy. Born and bred PE boy.

A former murder
and robbery detective.

And I was the
lead investigator in '97.

The Stewart Wilken serial killer.

(Cherie) Derrik was at the murder
and robbery unit at that stage.

He was very, very well known.

He was an incredible
investigating officer.

He actually dealt
with very high priority cases.

So, we knew that we could trust him
to assist us with our case.

That's why we decided to
actually approach him.

(Derrik) So this
would have been the start of the

CBD for the city
from basically its beginning.

Very colonialist built.

This taxi rank is a good memory.
Well, a funny but good memory

because I once chased a guy
and had a shoot-out with him.

I grew up here, central,

close to where several of
the murders took place.

I played in the parks
where the bodies where found.

So, I am middle-class family,
average boy.

Went on to a distinguished
career in the forces.

And then left in 2006.

(dramatic music)

(Derrik) So,
they brought him to our office.

What we basically set up
and planned was

that I would sit in
the first wooden cubicle with him

and he didn't obviously know this,
but there would be

two other murder and robbery guys
sitting on the other side,

as well as Ursula and Cherie.

So if something went south or went
wrong, they could come to my aid.

And then once he walked into
the office and sat down,

I took my firearm out and then
went and locked it in a cabinet

behind him, purposely,

to show him that we weren't
antagonistic towards him.

There's no fear
from outside to talk to him.

We were gonna have this friendly
conversation between the two of us,

and basically see
if we could establish

what had taken place
with the Baker's case.

The basic conversation started with
the warnings, which is always legal.

He was again confident now.

"I've got no reason.
I don't know why I'm here."

"I don't know why everyone thinks
I did something to this poor boy.

Blah, blah, blah. I knew him."
"I dated the mother."

So, you know, he used facts
and he stated things which,

by nature of this kind of
investigation

might put you at ease that,
"I don't really know why I'm here.

I've got nothing to hide. I'll talk
to you, whatever you wanna know."

(eerie music)

(Derrik) So while I was interviewing,
I had a picture of my own daughter

in a little pink dress with these
piercing blue eyes standing staring,

and I kept watching his face
staring up at her, you know?

(eerie music)

(Cherie) We were
in the office adjoining to that.

It was actually a drywall,
so we could hear the conversation

that was transpiring.

He was very calm and collected. He
really seemed like an ordinary guy.

Nothing, you know,
that would have said,

"Oh, my goodness,
this guy is off the rails."

It literally took hours and hours
and we were pacing up and down

and we were anxious
and then we would think,

"Okay, this is it.
Now he's going to admit."

And then he would stop and he
would go into another direction.

So, it was really
extremely nerve-wracking.

At no point in time
while the interview was going on

did we really know whether this guy
was going to admit to anything.

(telephone ringing)

(Derrik) A robbery case came in
and because I was on standby

I had to attend, so I left the site.

(Derrik) Listen,
I've been called into a robbery case.

Do you mind taking over?

(ominous music)

(Ursula) I was sitting with Stewart
alone in the office

while Derrik went to
attend to the scene.

Stewart was very quiet
but looked around him all the time.

I think we didn't
even have a metre between us.

I still remember seeing
the tog bag but thinking

we never actually
went through the tog bag

and there I'm sitting alone
with Stewart in a room

that we thought might have
murdered someone

and I kind of felt
uncomfortable at that moment.

It felt to me like Stewart was
looking right through me.

I still remember he was
talking about when he was young,

but he didn't divulge anything about

all the bad stuff
that happened to him.

He made it out as
if he had a very good life

and talking about everything,
and his daughter,

and he still mentioned that
he actually misses his daughter

and he doesn't know why
she had to be taken from him.

It feels like
everybody's taken from him.

I just looked at Stewart and I'm
like, "Where's this coming from?"

I didn't talk a lot
and I was quite confused

because now suddenly
he began to look different to me.

It's as if he became
a different person in that room.

(ominous music)

The hair that was so neatly combed,
wasn't neat anymore.

He was going through his hair
all the time with his hands.

He became agitated in that room,
as if something was pushing him.

Suddenly he opened his tog bag.

He took out a knife,
quite a big fisherman's knife.

Then he took out a woollen beanie.

And he is sitting with me
alone with this knife

and he puts this beanie on his head.

And then he said to me,
"Do you wanna see them?

Do you wanna see their bodies?"

(eerie music)

(door opening)

(Ursula) And at
that moment Derrik and them,

I heard the guys
came back from the scene.

So I ran out of
the office and I'm like,

"This guy is saying,
do we want to go and see him?"

That's when
Derrik went into the office

and started talking to Stewart.

(Derrik) When I walked in, I told
him I'd been trained by the FBI

and I could see after that
his demeanour sort of changed.

You know, he became a lot more,
"Oh, okay, okay."

And then it was-- At one point he
got to the point where he said to me,

"I want you to take me now to
the Elizabeth Donkin hospital

because I'm mad. I'm insane."

So the interview with the break had
been going on for about four hours.

We'd provided him food, so we'd
have a bit of a chow together.

Establishing this rapport which is
part and parcel of what we do.

It got to the point
where I told him,

"Listen mate, you're not going to
any mental institution

and, you know, we've got enough
evidence at the moment against you

to potentially detain you.
So, you know,

your chances of going home tonight
is not gonna take place."

So I mean, the interview changed.

He kept on looking
up at my daughter's picture.

At one point, he just
straightened his arms like this

and he made his eyes like this,
and he jumped up and said,

(tape recorder whirring)

(Derrik) For me, it was about
making sure the process is right.

I considered it to be
a once off opportunity.

Evidence gathering,
in line with the law.

Realising obviously,
this would be a high court matter

and there was no way we would have
even attempted it without the lawyer.

-(dogs barking)
-(birds chirping)

(Alwyn) I'm an attorney of
the High Court of South Africa.

During the late 90s I was
the attorney for Stewart Wilken,

alias "Boetie Boer".

I represent persons

being prosecuted for
different crimes.

I do not necessarily
defend these persons.

I convey their defence to
the court to the best of my ability

because they lack the knowledge

and the know-how of
the litigation process in court.

(telephone ringing)

(Alwyn) I was on holiday
at the time with family of mine

and it was...
early evening, late afternoon

when I received a telephone call from
Warrant Officer Derrik Norsworthy.

I took the call and I could
then immediately sense that

something was untoward.

I was told by Derrik that
Stewart Wilken had been picked up.

He gave me the background as to
the child that had disappeared

and the fact that
he was the last person seen

in the company of the child.

He indicated to me that they
are busy questioning Stewart Wilken,

and that Stewart indicated that
he would like me to be present

during the questioning.

(Derrik) I confronted him with the
fact that we had evidence against him

which proved
he was lying about Bakers.

We had evidence against him with
relation to his--

his daughter's disappearance.

And then he looked at me and he said,
"Do you want all 12 of them?"

So I call that my
kakking-in-the-broeks moment.

It's that moment where
you know for the first time,

uh,
I don't know how else to say this.

You know why God put you in a place.

So you go through training, things
happen to you. You get these breaks

and it's always lekker to
have it and you think it's

nice to be able to put it on your
wall, get certificates, but

I don't believe God does that for--
By chance, you know?

So you're sitting in this moment,
you know why you're here

and we've got what we call a
"live one" sitting in front of you.

So, at that point it's make or break.

(Alwyn) He indicated to me that
Stewart Wilken wants to confess.

I was flabbergasted.

And I was then told that
he wants to go do a pointing out

of the body of this young boy.

(ominous music)

(Leon) I was a state advocate
based in Port Elizabeth,

and I was the state advocate
responsible for prosecuting the

case against Stewart Wilken in 1998.

It was probably the biggest case
of my career at that stage.

I'd never come across anything like
this where you have multiple murders.

I think the concept
of serial killer was at that stage

relatively unknown in our country.

It was, to an extent, overwhelming

because it started
reaching media attention

and I'm a person
who don't like the limelight

but I mean, I the pressure,
but I had the benefit of having

a strong team around me
to support me.

(Brett) The newspapers back in those
days were the only real source of

accurate information because the
trouble with radio and television,

it was all controlled by the SABC
which was state controlled.

So the newspapers played a huge
role in people's lives.

People used to queue up outside
Newspaper House to buy newspapers

and I think the broader community

relied on the Herald
and the Evening Post, as it was then,

to get that information which
they couldn't get anywhere else.

In 1997, when he was arrested

it sounded like
something out of a movie.

(sinister music)

(Brett) Suddenly,
we had a serial killer like,

the likes of a Station Strangler,
or an ABC Killer.

His name was
Stewart "Boetie Boer" Wilken,

and his crimes were just as bad,
if not worse.

The public's perception of crimes
like what they read about

happening in Cape
Town and Johannesburg

were now on their doorstep,
and it was quite horrifying.

(Veronica) The police say the cause
of death is due to strangulation.

Most of the stories we covered
were domestic violence.

In court,
as I heard psychologists and

psychiatrists being
in the witness box

they always refer to
the fact that it was low income,

low education and things like that
that actually led to this.

So domestic violence, child abuse,
those kind of things were really bad.

And it actually still is,
because the media was now more open

and we could report on everything
which we were prohibited previously.

But when the Boetie Boer case broke,
it was on the lips of everyone.

Port Elizabeth is a city,

but in cases like this
it becomes a small town.

And everybody talks about it,
and everybody asks you,

especially us being journalists,
"Do you know anything more?"

I remember some
of the reports really revealed some

gruesome facts that
we got from the crime reports.

Like women's bodies being mutilated.

Having sex with the bodies
of the people that you murdered.

Then going back.
I remember the one body was

so mutilated, it was cannibalism.
People were so shocked about this.

(ominous music)

(Brett) These details emerged in '97
and of course,

thereafter for the next year,

between his arrest and his conviction
and sentencing in early '98.

Everyone knew "Boetie Boer".

(Leon) In this case,
the investigation

was not yet totally complete.

I think that the first two cases
had been in the docket,

but there were a variety of
other cases that

were still being investigated
because Mr Wilken made a confession,

which he admitted to
a number of offences.

We had to go and find those cases
in the archives. Unsolved murders.

And so, at an early stage,
after having been assigned the case

I started engaging with
the head investigating officer,

Derrik Norsworthy.

(Derrik) The only two victims
that were different

his daughter, and Henry Baker.

(Leon) The big challenge
obviously was

to understand how we're
going to present this evidence.

How we're going to
prove these offences

especially if everything
is placed into dispute.

Some of these cases were quite old.
I had to go and visit all the scenes.

Look at all the footage, photographs.

Interview the witnesses
that were still around.

It was quite a lengthy process
until we came up with

a final charge sheet where we were
confident and we were able to prove

X number of cases.
There were 10 murders that we

prosecuted Mr Wilken with,
eventually.

And that trial started about
a year later, after his arrest.

-I think it was February 1998.
-(dramatic music)

(electric gate buzzing)

(metal hinges squeaking)

(Alwyn) What happened is, I explained
to Stewart Wilken at the time.

I said, "The evidence against you
is overwhelming.

Whether you receive life
on one count

or life on several counts,
life is life."

If it is your instruction that
we plead guilty to these charges

in order for us to place a better
picture in front of the court

in order for the court to understand
who and what he is dealing with

it would be a lot better to
have all the information

and place all the information
in front of court at one stage.

Well, the fact is, you are going to
prison. There's no way to avoid it.

So in light thereof, I asked
Boetie Boer to tell me what happened,

when did it happen,
how did it happen,

what took place
and he volunteered the information.

It was not as if I
had to drag anything from him.

He sat there as if he was very proud

uh,
telling me these things that he did.

It's difficult to be objective.
If you sit across a person

and this person is relaying to you
how he committed murders,

and it is clear that there's--
there's no remorse.

He relayed the information to me
as if the world owed him.

Whatever happened
was not as a result of him.

He is the victim.

And everybody needs to see him
as the victim

and see him in that light as well.

Even when speaking about
the murders that he committed

he would try and convey the message,

"It would never have happened

if such and such and such,
did not happen to me."

(tape cassette player whirring)

(sombre music)

(Gérard) The reason why I wanted to
go see Stewart is his case

was very different to the average
South African serial murderers.

So Stewart was unique in
the sense that he was a white male

and he had targeted literally
just about every kind of group

of category of people
we had in South Africa.

He targeted adult sex workers,
coloured and black.

The sex workers were female. He had
black street children who were boys.

And then in terms of the activities,
we had paedophilia cannibalism,

necrophilia, incest, and
that's just such a wide spectrum.

You know, the necrophilia is not a
very common thing amongst all

murder series, even internationally.

You know, I had a few cases
in South Africa that

had cannibalism as an element.
But it was very, very rare.

You know, often when you meet
these people you only know them

through the crimes they've committed.
So of course you're gonna build up

this image that they're
these horrific monsters

and that is a portion of who they are
if you look at what they've done.

So your other 99.9999 recurring
percent of this person's life

he's doing the things that
everybody else is doing.

You know, working, fighting.
I mean, not necessarily good things

but he's doing the things that the
majority of the population are doing.

Going to the toilet,
trying to get food.

So we have far more in common
with these offenders.

Yet we tend to sort of, only try
intentionally or unintentionally

formulate our understanding of them
through the crimes they've committed.

So whenever you do meet them,
it's not what you expect.

(tender music)

(Gérard) It doesn't look like
this monster that

you've built up in your mind.
They are more relatable than not

and which is typically
why people say,

"I can't believe that
so-and-so was arrested.

They've got the wrong person."

You know, until that individual
starts to confess and point out

all the crimes he's committed.

So I think part of what makes
serial murder so terrifying

is that it's literally the person
next door, that you've worked with

for however many years,
who was your neighbour,

you might have even dated at some
point, who is the serial murderer.

And that's what's so scary,
how do you differentiate from them?

Because in their normal life,
they look exactly like us.

It's only through their crimes that
they're so different to us.

(indistinct shouting in distance)

(Gérard) What we do know is,
he was born in November 1964.

Then at some point,
the mother and her partner

relocated to Port Elizabeth.

And it's here in Port Elizabeth
where Stewart Wilken and his sister

are allegedly abandoned
and literally found,

by the first home that
takes them in, in a telephone booth.

But sadly, according to Stewart
the Du Plessis aren't motivated by

the altruistic need to help
children who have been abandoned.

They're motivated by the financial
grants that they're getting from

the government for
looking after foster kids.

So, it's not a happy life.