Book details hunting down the ‘Devils Dorp’ killers
ON THE DEVIL’S TRAIL – HOW I HUNTED DOWN THE KRUGERSDORP KILLERS
Ben ‘Bliksem’ Booysen
Written in collaboration with Nicki Gules Melinda Ferguson Books
Review: Barbara Spaanderman
ON The Devil’s Trail is an extraordinary story about a group of relatively uncomplicated killers – making it all the more gripping and gut-churning.
The killers of Krugersdorp posed as satanists (Electus per deus headed by Cecilia Steyn).
People swallowed their story, and they killed for a very simple reason: money. Each time the money ran out, they would select a victim very specifically for how they saw their bank balance and with direct access via an ATM card. They would make appointments with their victims, arrange to meet at shopping centres – apparently safe. And because of an apparently perfectly plausible reason, the victims were lured to an apartment where they would give over their ATM details and be killed for their efforts.
Ben “Bliksem” Booysen is a relatively straightforward cop with a nose for nonsense and is very sceptical. He says in the opening sentence of the book: “This is just an ordinary story.” You just need to peel away the drama.
Nicki Gules is assistant editor for news, investigations and projects at the Sunday Times, covering crime and criminal justice. She has captured Ben Booysen’s language and expression to a T and with her strong editorial skills shaped his story of the killers of Krugersdorp into a gripping tale of merciless greed.
Krugersdorp has been known as “Devilsdorp” for over 100 years because of its background as a mining town, and where killing, murder and mayhem have been part and parcel of its existence.
Booysen has lived in Krugersdorp with Christelle, his cop wife, and their four children, for much of his life.
When he was asked to take over the Electus per deus case, his scepticism was finely honed.
Cecilia, a so-called “intergenerational satanic witch” could spit blood while dramatically writhing on the floor as demons took over her body. A group called “Overcomers through Christ” felt it their duty to rid Cecilia of her satanic affliction.
“But it all turned out to be a total lie,” says Booysen. “The blood she spat out had been drawn by herself from her own body. She stored it in the fingers of latex gloves that she kept in her mouth, biting them open when the time was right.”
Nothing about Cecilia added up other than that she was a good actress.
Ria of “Overcomers through Christ” kept rushing to “rescue” Cecilia until “she had lost everything” – flat, ministry, children. The furious Cecilia, with her lackeys, threw petrol bombs outside a house where Ria ministered.
Cecilia had the scent of blood in her nostrils and wanted people to die. “And people did die. Cecilia made sure of that.”
Parallel to the story of how Booysen captured the group, not before 11 people had been murdered, is Booysen’s own biography.
On The Devil's Trail is not a book for the squeamish. Coarse language and graphic descriptions of the bizarre group's actions make up a lot of the story.
Ultimately one asks, who on earth would want to live in such a mad place? It’s scary to think how influential a group of nutters can be, and how easy it was for ordinary people to be suckered in all aspects of their deviousness.
Cecilia was sentenced to 13 life sentences and 152 years.
Booysen retired after the case.