Introducing…World of Secrets – The Apartheid Killer

0:00 Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Jennings. I want to tell you about World of Secrets, a BBC podcast where you can hear major global investigations. Season three is a true crime story called The Apartheid Killer. He shot his victims after dark in South Africa in the nineteen eighties, but only went to jail for twelve years. You're about to hear a series trailer for The Apartheid Killer. If you want to hear more, you can search for World of Secrets wherever you get your podcasts. World of Secrets The Stories they Don't Want Told. Hi, it's mcia dig Okay here. I'm one of the presenters of the World of Secrets, the BBC podcast that tells major global investigations with gripping storytelling. I've got some big news. Our production teams have been really busy. We've been making four more seasons of World of Secrets, being released between now and the end of twenty twenty four.

0:51 Stories they Don't Want Told, holding the powerful to account. Search for World of Secrets wherever you find your BBC podcasts, and then follow us so you get every season and every new episode automatically. The first of these four seasons is available now World of Secrets. The aparthe'd kill off. In the nineteen eighties on the streets of a South African coastal town called East London, people began disappearing after dark.

1:33 Families have spent years, more than that, decades trying to find their loved ones, the missing. I used to wait for him outside, sometimes dominate and much. I said, no, my son, you will come. Don't worry, you will come. People were desperate. We were looking for him. You couldn't find him and nobody knew where he was. He was very painful for me because I look out for my father and now he was not there anymore. I don't know what to do. The way he died, he died like he was a criminal.

2:13 That's very sad. It will always be there. When they told my father died, I was scared and angry because there's my father, my father, Who. Was this man? And how did he die? And why didn't his family even know where he was buried. We spent the last four years investigating Edward's death, piecing together a puzzle. If you look at the greater context of South Africa, people are buried all. Over nineteen killings and disappearances which took place in this town between nineteen eighty five and nineteen eighty nine.

3:00 And behind them all there was one man. It's such a stage where he was now hunting, hunting, little hunting. I'm Mayander, Charlie and I'm Charlie Northcote. This is World of Secrets from the BBC World Service Season three. The Apartheied Killer. In this major investigation, we're on the trail of one of the worst serial killers in South African history. The whole scale of it is just it's chismerizing. A man who unleashed a reign of terror. He would appear in the dark and that person who was in that space would not know that the sky was about to appear.

3:43 He was known propay a killer. Even if you've seen it the town, everybody will say, here's the killer, here's the killer, here's the killer. He was a killer. But the remarkable thing to many this man was a hero. When he shot someone, they would say, well, then. Good job, keep up the good work. He was a kind of vigilante killer. He was a dirty, hairy character, this great savior of the white community, protecting their businesses and was much loved. How could he get away with so much killing and for so long? Was he really a lone wolf or did he have help?

4:25 And now what I'm getting you now is, even. If you recorded, it's astounding that anybody could get away with it. That justice system ultimately ignored all of those bodies and all of the families. The message it SAYD says we don't care. We just don't care. And the most shocking thing, this serial killer is no longer behind bars and is somewhere in South Africa. And we have found him. World of Secrets Season three is available now. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts.