Today Casper Kruger was felled by a shot from a police sniper during a hostage drama at Pinetown police cells.
At the time, the police had no idea that Kruger, who had been in custody for a month, was one of the country’s most wanted serial killers.
Although his fingerprints had been sent for analysis at the time of his arrest, there is often a six- to eight-week wait for the results.
Kruger’s life came to an end after he decided to make a break for it by holding four police officers and several prisoners hostage in the Pinetown Police Station last Sunday. But things turned nasty.
Sharpshooters were called in and, after negotiations failed, it was one shot to the mouth that killed him instantly.
Earlier in the day, a food parcel was delivered to Kruger. A woman, believed to be his girlfriend, had been seen several times in a silver car with two other men.
Captain Karen Middleborough had become suspicious and ordered a search of his cell. It was there that the four officers were confronted by Kruger who was armed with a firearm.
In the ensuing shootout, Inspector Eric Maphri was seriously injured by wounds to his chest and Middleborough was wounded in the hand.
It is not known when exactly police became aware that the man in their custody was not “Jacques du Plessis” arrested for hijacking.
Kruger was arrested in November 1991 for the murders of pharmacist Adriaan Combrink, telephone operator Johannes Loggienberg and bank manager Johannes Kruger. All three were gay.
Found guilty in 1992, along with accomplices Petrus Nieuwenhuis and Philip van der Merwe, Kruger received three death sentences and 33 years imprisonment.
Kruger and Van der Merwe targeted gays at the Botanical Gardens in Emmarentia, Johannesburg. They beat their victims up, extracted cheques, bank pin numbers and cash before killing them.
The proceeds of their ill-gotten gains were used to buy large quantities of liquor and hire women from escort agencies.
Nieuwenhuis only participated in one of the killings and turned State witness against Kruger and Van der Merwe.
However, with the winds of change blowing through South Africa, Kruger’s death sentence was commuted to three life imprisonment terms and 22 years.
Kruger had a history of escape attempts: his first was from the holding cells of the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court while he was awaiting trail. A blade was smuggled into the cells and he sawed his way out.
He and notorious suitcase killer Jano Nortje (he had chopped up his victim, an elderly man, and was arrested while in possession of a suitcase containing the man’s remains) escaped from Pretoria Central in May 1997. He was given an additional eight years.
He escaped again from a clinic, where he had been taken after complaining of illness.
Kruger had apparently met a woman at Knowles Spar, Pinetown, for the purpose of doing a “business deal”.
Pinetown police communications officer Debbie O’Brien said the woman and Kruger then travelled to a venue in Otto Volek Road in Pinetown.
There he took out a gun and tied her up and put her in the boot of his car. However, the woman managed to untie herself and escape before alerting police.
Kruger was arrested a few days later on March 8 for hijacking, when he gave his name as Jacques du Plessis.
Last Thursday he appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court for his bail hearing. However, the court was not satisfied that police had properly confirmed his identity and he was remanded to April 14.
Senior police officials were at the scene in Pinetown and the “top brass were very angry”, one source told the Daily News.
Police spokesperson Director Bala Naidoo said investigations were under way as to how a gun was smuggled into the cells.
“We would be interested in speaking to her (Kruger’s girlfriend), but we cannot start jumping to conclusions,” he said.
Asked about Kruger, Naidoo declined to be drawn on the matter saying that investigations were at a sensitive stage.
The Daily News knows that the woman worked in the marketing department of a local community newspaper. She would not comment.