Disturbed - The psyche of South Africa's most cold-blooded criminals (Paperback)

Why do people “lose their heads”?

Chris Mahlangu, who murdered Eugene Terre’Blanche, did not just bludgeon him to death, it was reported that Terre’Blanche’s body had been hacked and beaten 28 times with a steel pipe, a piece of broken steel from burglar bars. And this while he was lying on his back sleeping. It was a bloodbath. One young man clubbed a nurse to death with a piece of wood and her boyfriend into ICU. Another bashed both his adoptive parents unconscious with a cricket bat before stabbing each in the torso more than 20 times and then slitting his father’s throat. A male prostitute struck his friend so many times with a knobkierie after his “indecent suggestions” that he died of a skull fracture. Why would a heterosexual man who often sleeps with prostitutes pick up a boy at a shopping centre and molest him?

Five case studies about real-life South African violent criminals as told by seasoned crime writer Carla van der Spuy and clinical psychologist Dr Henk Swanepoel. The book contains information about personality disorders, each criminal’s background, the day of the crime, the court case, Dr Swanepoel’s interviews and findings, to the follow-up prison visit – face to face with the offender.