Today the Big Book of Serial Killers by Jack Rosewood is taking us to South Africa, where Moses Sithole raped and murdered 38 women. On November 17, 1964, Sithole was born in Boksburg, South Africa. His father died when Sithole was five years old, and soon after, his mother abandoned him and his siblings. They went to live in an orphanage for three years before he ran away to find his mother. His mother then sent him back to the orphanage that he said mistreated him. He eventually ended up living with an older brother.
Sithole began committing rapes in his twenties. His third victim testified against him, sending him to prison, where he was sexually assaulted. After his release, he began to commit murders.
His rouse consisted of Sithole posings a businessman offering employment. He even created a fictional charity to go along with it. Once he gained their trust, he would offer to walk them through a field to the headquarters. As soon as they were no longer visible and no one could hear them, he would rape and strangle them. Sithole would sometimes call a relative of a victim to taunt them. He claimed all 38 victims before 1995.
In August 1995, a witness claimed to see Sithole with a victim. Police then looked into him and found his fake business and his history of rape. Sithole was smart enough to go on the run and contacted a journalist to let them know he was the killer. This is just the start of how dumb he was. When he called the journalist for the THIRD time, he left a number to call him with. The journalist gave it to the police, who quickly went to the payphone he called from, but Sithole was already gone. Sithole then contacted his brother-in-law to provide Sithole with a gun. Instead, the brother contacted the police. Sithole thought it might be a trap and tried to run. When the police came, he ran at them with an ax which got him shot twice. He didn’t suffer any fatal injuries, so he was taken into custody.
Once he was arrested, he confessed to the murders, and on December 5, 1997, he received a fifty-year sentence for each of the thirty-eight murders. He was also sentenced to twelve years for each rape. And to top it all off, he got five years for each of the six bank robberies he was involved in.
Currently, Sithole is in a maximum-security section of Pretoria Central Prison. He is also HIV positive, and so are his wife and child. He is being treated right now, but his wife and child didn’t qualify for health care, so they died.
I love the serial killer you have! It’s genuinely so exciting and so fun to read. The tragic childhood affected his personality and mental being as an adult. one of the best blogs yet!
Wow, this might be the craziest serial killer story you’ve summarized yet. I think it’s important to note that Sithole’s tragic upbringing could have contributed to his criminal adulthood. Also, it’s interesting to hear that Sithole didn’t commit murders until after he left prison – I’m sure his treatment in prison contributed to that.