Criminal Heritage

Potchefstroom experienced its post festive season slump in the first week of January 1913 when a Special Edition of the Potchefstroom Herald shocked the residents from their stupor. I wrote an article about this for the Centenary Edition of the Herald, published in May 2008. (Click here to read more stories from Lennie).

"A shocking tragedy occurred on the night of the 31st of December on the farm Wonderfontein 653, Potchefstroom District, situated between Welverdiend and Bank Stations. A farmer named Mauritz Herman Otto Oberholzer, aged thirty-six years, being murdered, it’s alleged, by his wife, a woman of the same age."

This opening statement begins the story of a shocking murder that occurred on New Year’s Eve 1912. To report this, the Herald published the Special Edition on 3 January 1913. This included a thorough report on the events, a report on the initial court proceedings and interviews with a family member and the person who found the body.

It is stated that the woman attacked him while he was asleep, first slashing his head with a heavy axe and then completed the killing by means of an iron jumper (most probably a crow-bar). She then placed a loaded gun in his arms.

The town of Carletonville was only founded in the 1940s and the nearest magistrate’s court was in...

On the road from Reitz to Bethlehem (R26) in the Free State one crosses over the railway line about 10km out of Bethlehem. Inspecting the area under the bridge one finds a grave next to the rails a few meters from the bridge. It is marked by some upright railway sleepers, totally overgrown and with a largely illegible gravestone. I could just make out... ‘Nov 1931’. 

Who is buried here? And why next to the rails, not in a cemetery?

The person laid to rest here is Cornelius van Heerden, aged 22 at the time of his death. He was what we nowadays would call a troubled youth. At the beginning of November 1931 he had been in court charged by his father for theft by conversion. He received a suspended sentence due to his age and being a first offender. Earlier in the month he was fired from his job with the railways for absenteeism and the day before the incident he was in court on a charge of negligent driving.

He lived with his parents at Bethlehemspoort, about 7km out of town. On the morning of the 26 November he went into town and bought ammunition. On his return he announced to his brother that he was going out to do some shooting.

First, as reported by various sources, he went around the neighbourhood asking for Dawie Viljoen who was farming nearby. It is speculated that he wanted to kill him because he laughed during an incident when van Heerden fell off a...

The story of the Foster Gang is one that continues to grip audiences around South Africa and the world. Below is a remarkable recollection of the saga by A.J. Hoffman, one of the detectives on the case. The piece was translated from Hoffman's book 'Op die Spoor van die Misdadiger' by his grandson Andre. Thank you to the team from Kensington Heritage for sending it through.

Before my mind's eye I see them now; Robert Foster, aka Robert Ward Jackson, the most notorious gang member in the history of South African crime; John Maxim, alias Maxwell, originally an American cowboy and Carl Mezer alias Smith the youngest of the gang and also the worst. I can still see Foster's thin face and his shaggy hair hung in tatters over his narrow forehead as I remember. His eyes were far from one another, and his lips thin and crooked. John Maxim was well built and wide, he was dark with a thick moustache. Carl Mezer was shabby and messy and there was a wild look in his eyes. He always looked a scared and pathetic figure.

As a detective my responsibilities were largely in locating native criminals, I seldom encountered murders committed by whites. But when the Foster gang was in operation, every officer was put on the trail of the bandits. I also...