Looking Back

From the Sunday Times 50 years ago

KISSES for Vice Squad Detective-Sergeant Jimmy Morris resulted in 24-year-old Olga Blood being jailed for 12 months in the Regional Court, Durban, this week. Blood, who is Coloured, was found guilty of inciting Detective-Sergeant Morris to contravene the Immorality Act.

Morris and Detective-Constable Tromp went to a house in Overport, Durban, at night on April 2. They knocked on a door and were told to enter. They found Blood lying on a bed dressed in a nightie. Blood jumped from the bed, called Morris “Darling, darling”, and kissed him on the cheek. Morris said he thought Blood had mistaken him for someone else because she asked for R3 “like last time”.

When she undressed, Morris announced that he and Tromp were policemen and that she was under arrest. — May 17 1964

From the Sunday Times 25 years ago

THE young mother who spurned the love of mass murderer Barend Hendrik Strydom made a startling revelation yesterday.

Guilt-ridden and distraught, Mariana Beukes, 20, declared: “I now wish I’d had an affair with him. If I hadn’t rejected him, I might have stopped the killings.” Strydom, 23, was living in Pretoria West with Mrs Beukes, her policeman husband Rhodie, 23, and their 18-month-old son at the time of the November 15 massacre in Pretoria’s Strijdom Square.

Three hours before his senseless orgy of death, in which seven blacks were shot and another 15 injured, former policeman Strydom arrived at her office. “He was smiling and handed me an exercise book in which he had declared his love for me. I was busy and told him I’d read it later,” Mrs Beukes said. — May 21 1989