All language subtitles for BOETIE.BOER.S01E02.720p.SMAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.x264_track3_[eng].1

(ominous music)

(lighter flicking)

(Gérard) Majority of serial murderers

commit their first murder
at the age of 29.

So by '89, '90, Stewart
would have been about 25, 26.

So,
his starting point isn't surprising.

But why at that point did he suddenly
decide to go over into murder?

There probably is some trigger, which
we might not ever know what it is

and he might not even know
what the trigger is.

If you want to harm people,
you first have to dehumanize them.

And that's the first
step towards making it easy

to do something to these people
if they're not human.

(plastic bags rustling)

(Gérard) But the substances often
become something that

removes your inhibitions.

Making it easier for you
to engage in this behaviour

that your thoughts that
have been festering underneath.

Now we get to this point in 1990

where he ultimately
targets his first murder victim.

(camera shutter clicking)

(Gérard) But in this case,
his first victim is a young boy.

Why he targets a young boy
instead of perhaps

adult women which
he describes as whores?

We're not quite sure.

(Boetie Boer) Hey.

(dramatic music)

(coughing/choking)

♪ 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 ♪

(Veronica) Good morning.
This is Veronica Fourie,

with the news at nine.

The body of a 15-year-old African boy

was discovered on the Cillié High
School grounds this morning.

Police officers on the scene say that
the boy was raped,

and strangled to death.

There are currently no witnesses,
and the police ask that

anyone with information to please
contact the Mount Road station.

(cars hooting)

(Brett) In the mid-century,
Port Elizabeth

was an industrial city on the rise.

And because there were all these
motor manufacturing plants

and that's why it earned the moniker
of Detroit of South Africa.

It was very prosperous.
People came to PE to get a job

because you knew you could find a job
in the motor manufacturing industry.

So, PE was a blue-collar city,
but a prosperous one.

And one that was on the rise.

And where people were, you know,
generally earned a good living.

They could put food on their table.

They could put a roof
over their heads.

And of course, that was the PE
of the 1960s, shall we say.

And that started to change,
naturally in the 80s

when international pressure
forced the American car companies

to-- to withdraw from South Africa.

(dramatic music)

So PE, unfortunately,

went through a real turmoil
in terms of its social fabric.

When the economy started to decline
there was a definite shift

in terms of where people were living.

And these people were
all part of various industries.

(Derrik) I think we were
quite a close community.

I always liked to joke and say
it was small enough

so you knew everyone's business
but big enough

so you could run away
from the sheriff if you owed money.

(ominous music)

(Derrik) So, in my time growing up,
Sydenham and North End

were like the industrial workers.

There were some really
good people living there.

People worked hard,
and they lived hard as well.

But there were also
the struggling lower class

that were almost integrated,

or in between the people that
were like, doing okay.

You know, so, we found a lot
of people living off the bread line.

a lot of drug abuse,
a lot of alcohol abuse.

I used to call it the
"mom-hits-dad" kind of environments.

(Brett) The areas like Sydenham and
North End had an interesting make-up.

Because you there had your
not-so-well-off white people.

It was the sort of "grey area"
of residential Port Elizabeth

where anyone could
live quite cheaply.

Stewart Wilken grew up in those
northern parts of Port Elizabeth.

There was a lot of domestic violence

obviously aggravated by
poor living conditions

among some families, not all,
but among some families.

And probably abuse. Physical abuse,
and even sexual abuse.

So, you put a child like
that into a family situation

where there is maybe
domestic violence,

maybe there is financial pressure

and there is already (stammering)

a foundation for problems.

And a child growing up like that
who already lacks social skills

would easily fall prey to--
to that environment.

(Gérard) If we look at what
we know about Stewart Wilken

there is kind of like,
almost this dark hole

where we have to try and
piece together Wilken's history

from what he tells us, which you
know, how accurate is that or not?

From statements that were
taken at the time by for example,

his later adopted mother

to try and piece together the
background of Stewart Wilken.

(tape cassette player whirring)

(Gérard) What seems to be
the consensus is that

he was born in Boksburg,
in November 1964.

He already had an older sister,
Emma, at the time.

Then at some point,
the mother and her partner relocate

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.

(children moaning/crying)

(Helper) Let's go home.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.

(Gérard) So he's found in
the telephone booth

actually by the helper.

And she's obviously very
concerned about these little kids.

She knows that her employer,
the Du Plessis'

have had other kids
in a foster capacity.

And were getting grants from the
government to look after these kids.

(ominous music)

(Helper) It was getting dark,
and I thought maybe

I could bring them here.

(tape cassette player whirring)

(tape cassette player stopping)

(Gérard) And according to Stewart,
the Du Plessis' aren't motivated

by the altruistic need to help
children who have been abandoned.

They're motivated by their financial
grants that they're getting

from the government
for looking after foster kids.

So it's not a happy life.

(Gérard) The Du Plessis' would
go away for the weekend

fishing with other kids,
and Stewart would be left at home.

And there wouldn't be food.

The maid would go
next door to actually

sort of try and get
food from Mrs Wilken.

(tape cassette player whirring)

(Young Stewart crying)

(dog barking)

(dog barking)

(dog yelping/whimpering)

(Gérard) And that ultimately
led to the neighbour,

Petronella Wilken,
essentially reporting the Du Plessis'

for their abuse
towards young Stewart.

And she then kind of took him over
and I believe eventually adopted him.

(church bell ringing)

(ominous music)

(ominous music)

(scratching/scraping)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(film projector whirring)

(tape cassette player whirring)

(indistinct chatter)

(Gérard) So, what we start to see,
is how these events

that he's describing,
play out later on in his life

and how they stick with him.

Now, whether they are
an accurate representation

of those events or not,
we don't know.

But what we do know,
is that for him

they stuck in his mind,
and as I said in some way,

influenced his behaviour later on.

(dramatic organ music)

(Gérard) So at one point we see him

sort of being slotted into
Sunday school.

That kind of was very,
very common in those days

and most of us
didn't appreciate being forced

to go to Sunday school on a Sunday.

But in that environment
where he's been taught

that God's there to help you,
Jesus loves you,

if you have a problem, pray.

(tape cassette player stopping)

-(police station buzzing)
-(sirens wailing in distance)

(dramatic organ music)

(Gérard) And according to
his own statement

he ends up actually
being abused by the deacon

who ultimately
ends up sodomising him.

And he calls out to Jesus to help him
and God and Jesus don't help him.

(dramatic music)

(tape cassette player whirring)

We have him now continuing, in
what we refer to as primary school.

But things aren't going well.
He's not doing well academically,

obviously behaviourally
things aren't going well.

But of course,
as you get older in a way,

your problematic behaviour
becomes more serious.

And he eventually gets sent off
to what we call an industrial school

which is perhaps a glamorous term

for a school where
problematic kids are sent.

And essentially, you're now
with all the other problematic kids.

And the teachers
are obviously teachers

who are dealing with problematic
children and perhaps not necessarily

in the most psychological,
in-tuned ways.

You might even say that some of
those teachers went to these schools

because they had certain,
perhaps, even sadistic tendencies.

In a way it's a great environment
if you want to abuse kids

because A, you have
a potential victim population

that are problematic kids
that people don't believe

because they're problematic children.

So whose side are you gonna take?
The teacher,

or the kid,
who we know has behavioural problems

who's had lots of accusations before,
accusing the teacher

of doing something wrong, sexually,
or otherwise, towards them?

What are we going to do with you,
Wilken?

I said, do you think you're special?

(ominous music)

(tape cassette player whirring)

(dramatic music)

(Gérard) None of the times,
when he's describing his time there

does he ever really mention friends.
So he's literally by himself.

He doesn't have a family out there
that's visiting him, supporting him

in the way perhaps, he needed
to be visited and supported.

And where does he go to?
You know, he can't even turn to God

because already he's
been felt rejected by God.

And once you've been rejected
by both of those categories

it's like who else is left
but yourself?

There's actually
a very interesting statement

which comes out later on,
that he says,

"I then realised I had to be my
own mother, and father and family.

That real sense of, it's me,

and perhaps in a very selfish way,
I'm going to look out for myself.

(dramatic music)

(tense music)

(Derrik) Most persons
with deviant behaviours

in the early 80's, late 70's,
would go to the Defence Force

where the hope was that the
discipline and the tough programming,

would get the kid right.

(Derrik) Obviously for Wilken,
he finds it horrendous.

The discipline,
which he really struggles with

that intense training,
the breaking down

that goes with you know,
your military training

to get you into a fighting soldier.

He never really is able to function
in that kind of an environment.

(Gérard) I think at that
point in his life,

any form of authority,
was an abuse of authority.

Because the church had abused him,

the school environment
had abused him,

the legal system hadn't helped him.

So I can imagine that
he's primed to react negatively

to anybody in authority, bullying
him, and telling him what to do.

(Derrik) I recall him telling
us he ends up in Detention Barracks,

DB as it was known in the old days,

where he basically just wants to die,
he doesn't want to live anymore.

You know,
the guy must have been feeling

he doesn't belong on this planet.

(melancholy music)

(tape cassette player whirring)

(Gérard) And of course,
he's found by fellow servicemen.

(Gérard) And his life is saved.

And of course, the huge irony
is that wasn't a turning point

where he kind of
got his life on track.

Nothing really changed in
terms of his viewpoint

but the greatest perhaps irony is
that if he hadn't survived that

we wouldn't have sat
with what we have here today

with 12, possibly more people
having been murdered by his hand.

My name is Doctor Giada Del Fabbro.

I'm a clinical forensic psychologist.

I do therapy work,
but I also do a lot of

psycho-legal work,
criminal evaluations,

in terms of you know,
understanding criminal psychology.

I'd come back from the UK

where I'd studied a Master's
in Forensic Psychology.

So I contacted Gérard,
who had then recently taken over

from Micki Pistorius at the
Investigative Psychology Unit

and he mentored me, really.

I think in terms
of the serial murderers

and, you know, the way that
they commit their crimes.

What, consistently,
across these individuals

there's a deep sense of inadequacy
powerlessness, vulnerability.

But that is, you know,
their whole make-up is structured

to avoid engaging
with any of those feelings.

Serial murderers might be trying
to reclaim that original decision

around life or death
that they had no control over.

And yet, you know,
ended up with a life

that was really painful and cruel.

(tape cassette player whirring)

(Gérard) And I guess it's this
total rejection of society

because I guess he felt,
what has society offered me so far?

What has authority offered me so far?
Nothing.

(Boetie Boer coughing)

(Gérard) So,
we have now a young Wilken

who's not really
doing much with his life.

But eventually one day
at the Sydenham Hotel

he meets a young woman
by the name of Lynn.

(pop music over speakers)

(indistinct chatter)

(Gérard) And thereafter starts the
relationship between the two of them,

which would go on for
a number of years.

(Ursula) This is the
initial statement

that we took from Anthea Lynn Loots.

The procedure with her was quite
long. She's not very educated.

It's a woman that
didn't look after herself.

I couldn't understand what.--
why would Stewart even

have such an obsession about her.

She was rough.

Her speaking terms was rough.
She didn't play around with words.

I think Anthea actually knew
that Stewart was busy...

with prostitutes.

She let him go away for months and
she was too glad when he was gone.

(Gérard) She describes incidences
of verbal aggression,

physical aggression.

Of him strangling her,
holding her down, etc.

Sometimes forcing himself upon her.

(Gérard) Substances now
are playing a larger role.

Alcohol and other types of substances

and essentially the wheels
start to fall off the bus.

(Derrik) He starts to really use
more drugs, he's drinking heavily,

and then his sexual appetite
changes as well.

He turns to sodomy.
Although he's not killing her,

he's basically testing
the grounds for...

for sexual, how can I say,
sexual violence.

And this-- and it leads to a point
where she no longer can tolerate it.

So she gets him to book himself

into the Elizabeth Donkin
Mental Institution

where we don't know exactly
what the diagnosis was

but we were told,
he's diagnosed as being a psychopath

with a potentially split personality.

(Gérard) Now, the problem with a
diagnosis such as being diagnosed,

as being a psychopath
is it's not a treatable condition.

So, you can't keep someone
in a hospital for it.

It's what we call
a personality disorder.

It's kind of like
the core of who you are

and how you see the world
and how you interact with the world.

You might see the world differently
and as a psychopath typically does.

They feel that, they don't really
have much feelings for other people

so it becomes a very
self-centred type of lifestyle.

You do what you want to
do when you feel like doing it.

You don't learn from your mistakes,
you don't change.

So, as shocking as it may sound

obviously in light of
what he did later on

they wouldn't have kept
him in a psychiatric hospital

for the psychopath issues.
They would have treated him

for maybe the depression
that's also maybe there,

or the other treatable issues.

But once those treatable issues
are resolved, or in remission

he would have been discharged
back into the community.

(ominous music)

(Derrik) So,
this is where it all starts.

Murder number one.

The terrible thing about
this poor boy was he was placed in

reformatory for housebreaking.

He decides,
because of the harsh conditions

to run away and live on the streets.

He's outside, he's living on his own.

Mom last sees him in December of '89.

And in February of 1990,
Wilken takes him.

(Boetie Boer) It's okay,
keep going, keep going.

I'll get you food items, okay?

(Gérard) He describes, in Afrikaans,
how he met the young boy

in the area of Sidwell, and he took
him to the Cillié High School.

(ominous music)

Sh...

-(Boetie Boer groaning)
-(boy choking)

(Derrik) He's a street child.

He's brought to a place
where Wilken detests.

The society,
the institution of school

a place that's hurt him
and broken him.

It's been coming for a while,
it's built up,

it's those urges inside of him. He's
been trying to suppress them, maybe.

In 1990, a caretaker
arriving for a normal day's work

came to this exact spot.

Found this young boy strangled
set out spread-eagled,

legs apart, completely naked.

(camera shutter clicking)

Wilken's killing spree...

Everything he would later do
and murder, starts here.

What stands out for
me about this street boy

is the fact that he was able to be
identified, by name, by his mother.

Which shows that there were family
ties, there was a bond.

But in the other cases,
the other children,

we weren't able to identify them,
or know who they were.

(Ursula) I attended the Cillié High
School during the 80s, and...

the one morning I
actually saw a child's body

while I was going up the steps.

The one thing
I could remember very well

was that I thought the child's
bones-- legs was broken open,

and I couldn't understand what
monster must have done that.

And I think that's
where I made a decision

that one day I will go to the police.

(tape cassette player whirring)

(tape cassette player stopping)

(Gérard) Then the next victim is
a black female,

about 25 year old, female,
and he meets her in Russell Road.

(ominous music)

(ominous music)

(Gérard) He offers her R50 for sex,
and they agree.

So they go to the nearby primary
school, Dagbreek Primary School.

She gets undressed
and they start to have sex.

(ominous music)

And then he decides afterwards, that
he wants to have anal sex with her

which she refuses.

(Gérard) She then fights against
having anal sex with him

and he tells her to keep quiet.

(Gérard) He then takes her panties,
and strangles her.

(Woman choking)

(Gérard) And while he's strangling
her and raping her anally

he actually ejaculates.

(Boetie Boer panting)

(tape cassette player whirring)

(camera shutter clicking)

(Giada) There's a psychological
theorist called William Fairburn.

He uses a saying that says
"A child would rather be the devil

in a world where God existed
than have no God whatsoever."

And in terms of these serial killers
then becoming like demigods

there's a sense that they've given up
on the fact that God is there.

So they will be God, and the world
will be this evil, terrible,

destructive place that
needs to be managed by them.

(tape cassette player whirring)

(tape cassette player stopping)