Despite the horrendous crime statistics, there is a certain degree to which our society revels in the morbidity and elevates certain criminals to iconic levels.

Like the Ted Bundy's of America, South Africa has its own list of famous criminals. Names like Dina Rodrigues, Daisy De Melker, The Stander Gang, The Station Strangler, and more recently, Collin Chauke and Ananias Mathe, have permeated and become permanent fixtures in the collective South African psyche.

We take a look back over the past century at criminals who have transfixed the media and the public alike. Crowds have gathered outside the trials of these individuals, occasionally in outrage, but more often than not, in fascination.

Baby Jordan murder

Probably the most vilified woman in recent years, Dina Rodrigues masterminded the first contract killing of an infant in South Africa. Rodrigues hired Sipho Mfazwe, Mongezi Bobtyane, Zanethemba Gwada and Bonginkosi Sigenu to kill baby Jordan-Leigh Norton, the six-month-old daughter of her lover Neil Wilson. Wilson had previously been in a relationship with Jordan's mother Natasha. In an apparent bid to rid her lover of the 'unwanted' child, Rodrigues promised the four men R10 000 to kill baby Jordan and make it look like a botched robbery.

The men gained access to the Norton home on 15 June 2005 on the pretence of delivering a parcel (a plan conceived by Rodrigues), where they tied up Jordan's uncle and nanny, before slitting the infant's throat. Rodrigues and her four co-accused were found guilty of conspiracy to murder, murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

SA's most notorious poisoner

One of the most notorious women in South Africa, Daisy De Melker, was charged with the murder of two of her husbands and her son. A nurse by training, Daisy received substantial inheritance with the deaths of each of her husbands.

In 1923 she poisoned her first husband William Cowle by giving him the poison strychnine in a dose of Epsom salts. She inherited £1795.

She then poisoned her second husband Robert Sproat in 1927 by putting strychnine in his beer. This time she inherited £4000 and £560 from his pension payout. In 1931 she married her third, plumber Sydney Clarence De Melker. Luckily for him, she decided to murder her own son.

In 1932 she murdered her 19-year-old son Rhodes Cecil Cowle by putting arsenic in his coffee. She received £100 from his life insurance.

Sproat’s brother became suspicious and got a court to exhume the bodies of all three. Traces of strychnine and arsenic were discovered in their bones and hair. Although there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Daisy of the murders of her husbands, in 1932 she was hanged for the murder of her son.

'Bonnie and Clyde'

South Africa’s very own Bonnie and Clyde, Charmaine Phillips (19) and Peter Grundlingh (35) embarked on a string of bloody murders and robberies over a two-week period in 1983.

They shot dead four random strangers (the motive appeared to be robbery) on their trip across the country before being apprehended by police as they bought clothing from the Salvation Army.

The pair was convicted on all charges and Grundlingh was hanged in 1984. Because of her age, Phillips was spared the death sentence, but given 20 years in prison. She served her sentence and was released in 2004. She currently works in a hair salon in Kroonstad.

Crazed political assassin

Dimitri Tsafendas was the parliamentary messenger who stabbed prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd to death during a parliamentary session in 1966.

The illegitimate son of a Greek man and black Mozambican woman, it is unclear whether Tsafendas killed Verwoerd for political reasons or because he was insane.

Three months prior to the assassination, Tsafendas was diagnosed with schizophrenia (he believed a giant tapeworm in his stomach gave him orders). At the trial he was found to be insane and was declared a State President’s prisoner. He spent 28 years on death row at Pretoria Central Prison (C-Max), before he was moved to a psychiatric hospital. In October 1999 he died in Sterkfontein psychiatric hospital aged 81.

King of the Wit Wolwe

On 15 November 1988, Barend Hendrik Strydom "king of the Wit Wolwe" donned army fatigues and with his 9mm pistol and an arsenal of over 200 bullets, went on a killing rampage in Strijdom Square and Du Toit Street in Pretoria. The rampage became known as the Strijdom Square Massacre.

A member of the right-wing fundamentalist group, the Wit Wolwe, Strydom walked down the street killing every black person he encountered. After killing eight people and wounding 16 he was outwitted by Simon Mukondoleli, who managed to take his gun away.

Strydom was sentenced to death, but was released after serving only four years following the amnesty during negotiations to a democratic South Africa. At the TRC he argued his actions were an 'act of war'. He is still a member of the Wit Wolwe.

Master of disguise

Made even more famous by the Hollywood film 'Stander', the Stander Gang were unusual not only for the unprecedented number of robberies, but also because the leader — Andre Stander — was a policeman.

Stander began robbing banks and building societies while he was working as a policeman, donning disguises so that he wouldn’t be recognised. A fellow policeman found out about his double life and he was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Stander escaped from prison with fellow inmate Patrick McCall, taking hostages and guns in the process. They later freed Allan Heyl and the three made up the notorious Stander Gang.

Between November 1983 and January 1984 they robbed over 20 banks amassing more than R500 000 in loot. Police launched a huge manhunt. On a fake passport Stander fled to America (where he was later killed in a shootout) and Heyl fled to Greece.

McCall stayed in South Africa and was shot by police. Heyl later tried to rob a bank in Britain and was caught — he served nine years in prison and was extradited to South Africa where he remained in prison until 2005.

Cash-in-transit kingpin

A former member of the ANC armed wing, uMkhonto weSizwe, Collin Chauke was accused of 30 murders and 17 armed robberies.

Believed to be the kingpin in several cash-in-transit robberies, Chauke was held at Pretoria Local Prison, but he escaped in 1997 and eluded police for the next two years — taunting the chief investigator by sending him Christmas cards.

He was eventually arrested in Nelspruit in 1999, with two accomplices and his girlfriend. Police were tipped off by four members of the public who shared the R350 000 reward.

He was given a 15-year sentence in 2001 for robbing a depot of the SBV security company of R12.6-million. He died in 2003 in Kalafong Hospital from causes which were not revealed for "family reasons".

The ABC Murders

South Africa’s most notorious serial killer, Moses Sithole, was found guilty of 38 murders and 40 rapes. They were nicknamed the 'ABC Murders' because they began in Atteridgeville, continued in Boksburg and ended in Cleveland. Described as an attractive and charming man, Sithole lured many of his victims to their deaths in broad daylight.

In 1989, Sithole was sentenced to six years for the rape of Buyiswa Doris Swakamisa. He was released in 1993 for good behaviour. Between January and April 1995, the bodies of four women who had been raped and strangled were discovered. The women were tied up and strangled with their own underwear.

Over the next few months more bodies were found. In September 1995 a body was discovered at Van Dyk Mine near Boksburg. Further investigation revealed a mass grave of 10 bodies. Police sought the expert help of retired FBI profiler Robert Ressler and Sithole, who had arranged to meet a number of the women as a potential 'employer', became a suspect.

He was apprehended when he contacted a family member. He was sentenced to 2410 years in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 930 years. He is incarcerated at Pretoria's C-Max.

The Station Strangler

Between 1986 and 1994, the Station Strangler terrorised the Cape Flats sodomising and killing young boys (between the ages of nine and 13) whom he lured away from the station and game arcades.

By early 1994, the tally of dead boys had reach 22 with the discovery of 11 bodies buried in the sand dunes in Mitchell's Plain. The community and police embarked on the largest manhunt South Africa had ever seen and eventually school teacher Norman Afzal Simons was arrested.

Because of a lack of evidence, he was only tried for the murder of one of the boys — Elroy van Rooyen (11) — he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2005 an inquest was opened into the deaths of the other boys.

Houdini's prison break

Dubbed 'Houdini' for his miraculous escape, Mozambican Ananias Mathe is the first person to have escaped from Pretoria’s C-Max in its 36-year history. He escaped in 2006 by allegedly smearing Vaseline all over his body and slipping through a 20cm by 60cm window. However, more recent investigations have suggested that his escape was probably the result of help from, or negligence by prison warders.

Mathe (29), who claims to be a former Frelimo soldier, was recaptured two weeks later when he stole a car fitted with a tracking system. When confronted with arrest, he stabbed a man in the face with a screwdriver and was shot in the leg and bottom.

Following an operation, he was returned to a secure cell in C-Max where he awaits trial for over 50 charges including murder, rape and hijacking.

From the movie-like script of Daisy De Melker to the political lunacy of Barend Hendrik Strydom and the sociopathic tendencies of Moses Sithole, the enduring public fascination remains the same. Like the scene of a gruesome accident, we are inexplicably drawn to these macabre crimes and the criminals who commit them. Perhaps it is because the crimes are unfathomable, but perhaps it is because they are just beyond the ordinary — something that, with a push, could happen to or by any one of us.

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