Ben Booysen — On The Devils Trail Tracking Down The Krugersdorp Killers

what's your dream what's your goal what's your motivation what's important to you what's your passion what can you do to change the world this is what's involved conversations with thought leaders and change makers from around the world hear stories of hope and inspiration to help motivate people like you to live your life find your passion passion and live your dream together we could all bring positive change to our world now here's your host David Watts and once again it is what's involved now every now and again on the show we take a bit of a detour and we look at things other than motivation inspiration business etc etc this episode is one such because a book came across my desk a little while ago and I thought okay this is interesting and I got to tell you I was absolutely hooked and I thought why not I'll share the book with you guys you can decide what you think as well the book is called on the devil's trail how I hunted down the Krueger's door killers by Ben Bluxom Boysen hello Ben welcome thank you very much I appreciate it's lovely to have you on the show with us now generally when we start off these kind of things what I like to do is find out a little bit more about my guests a little bit more about their background now naturally with the nickname Bluxom in there I'd like to figure out where that came from so tell me a little bit about being you know where you grew up did you always want to be in the in the police force those kind of things yeah I grew up in all of the old Transvaal and Mpumalanga and Western Transvaal it's now South Ting and North West so my father used to work on the mine so I was in 14 different schools some way along the line in my school career and eventually I got fed up left school then at nine and became a cop and yeah and I was more difficult from small so my mother's uncle start calling me Ben Bluxom because I always did the wrong thing at the wrong time and found it by myself you know to do stuff and AI it went into the police force but in the police force I got that nickname because of other stuff that I did so yeah that is more where the Ben Bluxom is coming from it's an interesting show name and I'm sure one that as you say has been with you for a long time so Ben what made you want to be a policeman though I mean if you've you've grown up in sort of various parts of the country where did you decide okay please that's the way I want to do I always hate it when when children got injured by other children and bullied and and yes I saw a little bit of of anger also in some of my family members where women was assaulted and children were assaulted and it stuck to me and I didn't like it and you know eventually decided I need to become a cop and send people like that to jail all right and I mean I'm just guessing just having read about you I haven't met you personally yet but once you once you were in the police was it was it all plain sailing I mean if I recall in those days you you had to do sort of very much like a basic training kind of thing didn't you yeah when you go into the police you do a basic training of six months but it differs sometimes it's a year sometimes in six months I think currently it's more than two years you go in and out the college before becoming a real policeman yeah and it is it's difficult in the old days you know you you didn't have the opportunity to to question people telling what to do and you know for me with my experience and stuff that I had in life I question a lot if I don't like something I ask questions and then you need to prove me right so yeah it was difficult for me in the beginning of my of my police career yeah I think back I think back to when I was cuz I was I was in the military and it was the good old days as well when you when you had to do two years of national service and I remember getting into a lot of trouble when I started asking questions and but why and explain this and there was many times I had to run and get leaves from trees and then it was the long wrong leaf from the wrong yeah I know that story so Ben you got into the police and and your your police career was it was a good one how did you end up though in a place where you got to take on this particular case now when I came into the police I went to the riot units and then I went to the reaction units that was part of the riot units but we didn't actually just fight riots we also went and look out terrorists and find bombs and all that kind of stuff and eventually I decided I need to become a detective because you know this was actually boring every day doing the same thing and then I became a detective I went to the tick of course in 1987 and then I was a normal detective because I didn't want to go to a space unit because in the old days at the normal detectives you you learn to investigate everything and child abuse fraud assault murder robbery and then eventually I think in 2000 I went to organized crime and organized crime eventually became the walks that they are today and yeah and I had a fallout with my commander at the walks and I left the office so to say and moved him with my wife at the province and then Brigadier Victor was asking around for a investigating officer that can can lead this this task team to do this investigation and my name came up and he found me and I said yes I will do it but I'm not working in a task team I'll work alone because too much evidence get lost with too much policemen are involved and yeah eventually I got all the cases and I did it on my

my wife is telling the police forces full colonel on the West End okay which explains the connection to the West End so you said to the guys that you you're gonna take on this case alone because of the evidence etc etc was there history in the in this particular case that we're talking about of sort of police bungling it up messing it up I think in 2012 the people were that was involved in the investigation at that stage there was a certain colonel that was put in charge of them and I think they much more tended to the the devil's thing on this you know the the Satanism thing on this and they didn't investigate the crime so yeah and eventually because of that I think a lot of evidence went missing the docket went missing eventually I told today we couldn't find original dockets so yeah I don't know how and why did they do that on purpose or was it just a lack of of interest or a lack of experience or what the situation is but them yeah in when I got into this case and I investigated the 2015 16 murders eventually I I came upon the 2012 murders as well and then I had to do all that investigation and taking statements from 2012 all over again and that was a little bit difficult job sure well I want to get into this this this whole case and what it was all about because the title of the book on the devil's trail is is a is an interesting title and you know there's there's been a I think there was a series made about it devil's dork so when we come back we're gonna chat a little bit more about that my special guest is being boys and he is the author on the day of on the devil's trail how I hunted down the Kruger's door killers will be back in just a bit you're listening to what's involved with David Watts have you been to our website check it out www dot what's involved calm and while you're there click on the coffee mug icon and buy David a cup of coffee to love it and we're back what's involved there is my guest is Ben Boyson author of on the devil's trail how I hunted down the Kruger's door killers then give me a bit of a background about about this this whole case and set the scene for us so this was a series of killings and and over a period of time what was the history there what what sort of happened and that that led them to needing somebody like you to go in and investigate yeah the the main culprit in this case is Cecilia Stein and she got all these people around in believing that she's a Satanist that came out of Satanism and that she is looking after 150 orphans that came from Satanist mothers that was killed and she needs to feed them and she needs to pay people to look after them and that's in America and she can astral travel she can go out of her body and within two seconds she she'll be in America and look at the children and see if they are okay and stuff like that and then she looked in this lady Ria Kronovolt and yeah eventually she also had a lot of other people inside and one of the people inside her was a little girl and eventually when this little girl wants something she was called Anya and then they need to give her a bottle like a baby titty to suck on and stuff like that and eventually this Ria didn't want to do all the stuff anymore because she talked to to Rex Ben Dickson that was was also one of the people that was killed and she because she wanted to write to him another book and then Celia got very very angry about it because she left actually Cecilia and then Cecilia convinced all these people to commit murder and killed all the people around Ria to hurt Ria so then they killed Natasha was Maria's right hand at the stage and they killed Rex Ben Dickson and eventually Doc's wife was also killed they tried to kill Maria's daughter and son but luckily daughter was overseas and the son didn't become killed so that was that was actually good and then Ria decided she needs to leave the country because she told Cecilia told her that also threw some bombs at some of the meetings that she had Christian meetings that she had and when she left she told Maria that you think the bombs were was scary people are going to die now and then people start dying around Ria and you know Ria told the police at that stage everything that I've told you now and yeah I don't know what happened people were talking to custody looked after the main guy who should have testified against them and even his girlfriend protective custody and eventually they tell them though they must leave but in the meantime they lost their families they lost their jobs they lost their homes so yeah and then the second killing spree just started because they needed money so yeah because at that stage only Miranda was working and South Valentine was working and everybody around them was was was eating from their salaries and then they tried to rob the mayors and the mayors didn't have anything and at that scene also they become the main suspects because the vehicle was seen there and eventually then Zaf decided that then you need to be to disappear so he fight his own death by killing somebody else and then they needed to look after him because he's diabetic and he's dead now so you must have somebody else's name they booked him into a place and eventually they ran out of money and then the killing spree started for looking for money so yeah it's it's very odd people this yeah it sounds like very odd people and I mean I've been to Krugerstorpe a lot and I must be honest before I'd never known that it was actually it had a history and it was called Devil's what's it Davis dork Devil's town yeah was there a lot of satanic practices going on around there at that time because I remember a good couple of years ago there was there was a lot going around about Satanism satanic practices etc etc I'm a bernone boy and and I remember growing up there was apparently also loads of Satanism around the bernone area the mind dumps etc etc etc and then it all suddenly seemed to fade away but these guys took on a totally different approach to stuff because I'm trying to figure out even having gone through the book and really reading my brain still a model and I must take my hat off to you for sorting this all out because it's incredibly confusing about what the motivation was what actually happened there's a there's a part of the story maybe we'll get into it later where we're one of the ladies used to get possessed or whatever and there would be should convulsions and blood coming out of it and all sorts of things I get so now there you are man alone having to work your way through this absolute mess how how did you start I mean because the killings were there were killings and then they stopped for a bit and then picked up again and that's when it got quite quite well it got even more strange and at one stage I believe it was that they were called the appointment killings yeah yeah I know for sure you know what there is a lot of Satanism still around on the Western and on Port Elizabeth and on the Eastern but most of the Satanists doesn't commit murders and stuff you know they will they will make a young girl pregnant and they will jump on her to get the fetus out and they will eat the fetus or they've got all this stupid rituals that they that they do but if they commit murder you can see that it is a satanic ritual murder but these murders were never satanic these murders were actually brutal but she convinced them out of the Bible to do this so this was not a satanic cult this was a Christian cult the Cecilia was the only satanic person in this cult convincing these people out of Christianity to go and kill all the victims that is what's the most strange about it if you went into Miranda's classroom it was only Bible verses against the wall you will never say that she was a serial killer that loves to kill people and got a big kick out of it and I arrested the two children of Miranda because when they draw the money of the appointment murders appointment murders was happening in the flat way Miranda was staying and she was sleeping in the room where the killings actually happened but they will took a person into the room and then they will she will point the fire on them and then LeRue will bind them dance in the their feet and then they will take the courts and then they will send the daughter down Marcel to go and look if the courts is working and if the courts is working then John Barnard was with her and then she'll use his phone to phone a mother and say the court is working and when they get back at the flat in the people were killed already and then they will load it in the back of their vehicles and dumped so actually at this stage when I took over only the children's was arrested for being a position of the of the credit cards or the bank cards and but the explanation or myself explanation was that Nigerians gave it to her brother with the pin numbers and they was they actually should just go and draw money for the Nigerians so that they were not really linked and linked 100% to the murders so when I took over Zach was arrested and then I opened a fraud docket on from discovery on the money that was supposed to be paid out to Cecilia and then I arrested them all on the fraud docket to get them out of the public and if there is any evidence that they can destroy that they cannot destroy it and luckily I did that because eventually somebody phoned me and said go and search Cecilia Maranda's classroom and when I searched across them eventually I found a lot of ammunition and you know I also had ammunition charts against them and yeah and then I found Maranda's new wall and I went to to the jail and I went to speak to LaRue a son and he was telling me how his mother loved him and he says there and she will never drop them and everything like that and then I turned the wall around put it in front of him and said who's handwriting is it and he said it's my mother's I said okay read our much mother loved you and his mother does own him and his sister in that new wall and left everything to Cecilia and so yeah that cracked him up totally and then he starts spilling the beans but then also after that I need also to go everything that he told me I need to go and get evidence that what he tells me is the truth and that was a little bit difficult but eventually I got everything yeah we're gonna talk a little bit more about that my special guest is Ben Boysen and he is the author of On the Devil's Trail how I hunted down the previous door killers I mean when you think about it you know the group called themselves electus per dio or deus I don't know how you pronounce it but chosen by God and 11 people had been murdered we'll find out more from Ben when we come back this is What's Involved this is What's Involved don't forget to subscribe and leave a review more next and we're back with What's Involved my special guest Ben Boysen are we talking about his book On the Devil's Trail how I hunted down the krugus drop killers now Ben through through all of this you were still operating by yourself am I correct yes I was still operating by myself and I've got other cases also that was still on my name that I also need to get attention to that was also running court so yeah it was a little bit difficult but I managed to do it and yeah but why why this particular case why did this have such an impact on you where you were so determined that you were going to bring these people to justice you know since I became a detective all my cases is like that you know I used to work for for the orgs anti-corruption unit and I locked up a lot of policemen in all the ranks and being committed to committing of corruption and stuff like that so it is in my genes to to lock up people that that is criminal so to see that they is locked up or what they did so it's not especially just this case and that I did it but the thing that that got that actually worked on my on my health during this case was and I never had always a police vehicle to do the work sometimes I needed to work with my own private vehicle and yeah and sometimes like you know every time the court was in session I needed to serve 252 sapunas and to all the witnesses and I was running around on that and I was running around on my other cases and I was battling with transport and I was battling with office space and I was battling with senior officers that didn't believe what is going on and trying to derail the case and I was running around knowing there's a heat on my life of a million dollar rant if somebody killed me they will get a million the rant and you know all that little stuff you're in your back and eventually I got sick with pneumonia and I didn't went to the doctor and I didn't book off sick and just one morning when I woke up I couldn't speak and I was totally totally even my wife just said you going to the doctor today with your illness or your food and I was looking at my food I said but there's nothing wrong with my food and she told me I'm gonna fucking shoot you but today you go to the doctor yeah and then took me up to the doctor they took me to hospital immediately and then I've got the oversized heart and yeah so much better yeah well that's good to hear and I'm dead she didn't end up shooting you but beneath these these people I mean it's still goggles my mind how one woman can can kind of I don't know brainwash all of these other people I mean were they mentally unstable what was the reason because you know I mean you kill 11 people there's got to be a problem yeah yeah you must remember I only can prove 11 people I also got other cases that I knew that they were involved but they were too old to link them to prove to a court that they kill these people so it's not just 11 people it's more than 11 people but you know it's like any cult leader overseas big churches somebody some priest start convincing the whole of the congregation that they need to kill themselves and eventually you know there's a mass murder or a mass suicide and it's not the same yeah you know she she brought them into a inner circle they weren't allowed to see other family they weren't allowed to have any other friends and with all the manners that she's got that she needs 48 hours 24 hours protection every day from the devil because the devil wants to rape her and my father wants to rape her through a what's a ghost and all that kind of stuff she brought him into the circle and in her and in there and she always show them movies about serial killers and stuff like that and so she she played with their mind for a for a long time so eventually when she start telling them to do stuff they they so much believed in her and she showed them videos where she walked on water but it's stuff that she took from from movie scenes because in the movie scenes you can't see the face of this person walking on the water and she will show them these days I'm walking on water and she will show them that she she contains from a person to a wolf and yeah and and actually this is very clever people Miranda's IQ is 140 daughters got six distinctions in metric zog Valentine cum laude is studies at University so it's not stupid people she's actually the only one that's got standard seven and she totally you know took their minds Wow that's now was she the same one that did the blood coming out of the mouth and then that later also got found out to be not true yeah she's the one that on high nights they call it high nights that this all the special dates in the in a certainical calendar then on the high nights the devil will come and and and right because the devil want to impregnate with his baby she even's got a marriage certificate that she produced to them where she and the devil got married and then she will put plastic gloves she will take the fingerprint the finger of plastic gloves and she will throw her own blood and put it inside the hands and then she will put it in into her mouth when they don't see it and then when the devil because I died when she's laying there on the ground and crawling and being thrown against the wall and stuff like that and then she start beating this rubber gloves and then the blood will come out and then she was spoon blood and while the children is laying on the bed in the same room looking at what's happening to their mother and shouting they will please don't take my mother and the others it's actually sick that's why I never showed the high night videos also in the high court because I didn't want the public and the people inside the court to to to see that what she's actually also did to her children being having a children in the same room where the devil wants to write but that's that's actually very very secret no Ben it is and we get a wrap it up when I come back and just find out about the aftermath of everything and then just talk a little bit about how you are doing this is what's involved my special guest Ben Boyson author of On the Devil's Trail how I hunted down the Kruger's Dope killers back to wrap it up in just a bit we'll be right back with more what's involved David would love to hear from you to leave a voice message visit what's involved calm and click drop me a voice note and we're back with Ben Boyson wrapping it up so Ben eventually and I didn't want to dive too much into the book because it's it's a fascinating read it's something I'm gonna need to read again though to make sure I understand everything that happens there but eventually they were convicted how many how many people were convicted and and what and for how long okay there were six that was convicted the second one was killed and likes wife that was with him when he killed Natasha Berger and and funny joy she was killed eventually because she didn't want to go forward with all the killings so the rest of them are six seats Miranda and the two children and Zach Valentine John Barnard and Cecilia stain that all got convicted between all of them they've got 39 life sentences and 2,035 years I think I think it's it's one of the biggest sentences also in the history of South Africa and I think in prior 94 I would have gone six hanging poles because these people would have been hanged prior 94 so yeah and there's also a case court where the only I case court in the history of South Africa where people were found guilty on murder and the racketeering so it's never happened in the history of our country before this Wow then would you say I mean if you and you've met and dealt with these people that Cecilia for example was just inherently evil she's totally inherently evil I saw a bad side only once when I took a warning statement and out of the blue I've told her that Zach had sex with his wife before she was killed and she became another person you know you can see the the height and the devilish inner eyes it looks like she's going to attack me but then somebody walked into the room where I was busy taking a warning statement and to proceed she changed back to a normal self yeah she's pure evil Isaac Valentine is pure evil Miranda is pure evil John Barnard was in the wrong place in the wrong time and yeah the children was brought up in that evilness and that is the normal because since they know since 18 years old nine years old in years old they were in in this woman's vicinity so they grew up with this occult videos and murder videos and being taken to to some of the murder scenes Marcel when she was very very young and yeah they grew up so I don't know eventually I think they they can be released maybe in 25 years time but you know being then in jail for 25 years what you're going to do when you came out that's gonna be difficult this it's another life it's another world so it's going to be difficult them to to adapt in a normal society now then you mentioned two things number one when your health you said you're okay now but there was also the question of this hit that was out on your life was this was this part of this case or was this something else it was part of this case I was also busy with another case at that stage I was investigating Robert Lindenbach's murder and also there was it out on me but also on one of my my daughters and yeah but I saw that that quickly in code with this aspect and his lawyer and that stopped immediately but eventually when I sent all these people to jail it came to my attention from people that was in jail was in Syria saying that Cecilia wanted my youngest daughter to be killed to to punish me for what I did to them so my youngest daughter is not staying in the same town as me anymore sure that is terrible but now it's done I mean there's a series out of it it was horrific time but where are you Ben are you are you okay now and you know are you retired with what's been doing now yeah this state's been is only doing a radio and TV TV interviews about those buildings and stuff I don't want to do private investigation because I don't think it's fair to the community of South Africa that they need a private investigator to investigate the murders of all the families and loved ones I think that's still is the work of the police that they need to do they get a salary for that I can't take somebody's money and investigate the murder in this there's actually a unit the police force that's supposed to do that and at the end of the day even if I catch the killer or say this is the killer I can't arrest the killer I can't take the killer to court I need to give every evidence back to the police and yeah and what is the police going to do it at the end of the day so it's out of my hands and I don't want to put myself in that position that I I'm taking people's money and I and I can't produce and sent a murderer or a robber or something to jail because it's not my my job anymore now and either one of the interviews or in the book I recall that you said this is just one story and you have many other stories is there war books on the horizon are we going to hear more from Ben Boyson about some of your other stories yeah I eventually will write another book on on my other investigations and I did a lot of investigation killings robberies suicides and stuff I'll probably eventually will write another book but at this stage while my wife is still in the police I will not write another book I can understand that Ben it wraps it up for for us thank you so much for taking the time out and having a chat to us it's I'm amazed that that you are still a sane rational normal person after going through just this part of your job and I think I'm not alone in saying thank you for everything that you you've done and particularly for the families of the victims etc etc in bringing these people to justice and well we do have they never get out but Ben thank you so much thank you very much for the opportunity I appreciate it a lot there we go that wraps it up Ben Boyson my guest there on the devil's trail it's available in most good bookstores and I'm pretty sure you can get it online as well it is yeah it's a challenging read but it's a good read and just the fact of what these people could do is absolutely mind-blowing anyway as I said it wraps it up for this edition of what's involved to each and every one of you look after yourselves take care and thank you for listening thanks for listening to what's involved we hope this episode inspires you to find your passion and live your dream don't forget to rate review and share the podcast and to see what's happening what's going on and what's coming follow what's involved on Facebook and Twitter at what's involved thanks again for listening