Mzansi can’t resist a true-crime series offering. And to fill the demand, of late, there has been a saturation of content from the genre.
The latest to drop is “Boetie Boer: Inside the Mind of a Monster”, which is based on the life of serial killer Stewart “Boetie Boer” Wilken, and his reign of terror in circa ‘90s.
Wilken’s story is a testament to the popular Mark Twain quote: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it's because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn't.”
After all, it’s the kind of gore we find in Hollywood serial killer movies, not real life, or so we thought.
Director Jasyn Howes met Wilken, who is serving seven life sentences for his killing spree in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha)in the ’90s, when making the five-part series.
And it’s interesting because while Wilken’s crimes were atrocious, it was overshadowed by the crimes of the ABC Killer, Moses Sithole and the Station Strangler.
In the first episode that recently dropped on Showmax, the documentary features interviews with those involved in his incarceration, the psychologist on the case, the media who covered the story and community members.
At the time when the story rocked the community, SA was on the cusp of democracy. And while Wilken being married to a coloured woman and living in the neighbourhood was unusual, he fit in as he lived and worked like a local.
This obviously made him comfortable in turning the neighbourhood into a hunting ground, where his victims were female sex workers, boys and street children. He didn’t discriminate with race, though. Everyone was fair game.
He admitted to engaging in necrophilia and cannibalism.
Episode one, which featured re-enacted scenes with actors, is spliced with archived footage and news stories. At first, Wilken is as cool as a cucumber. But in the course of the interrogation, his menacing side surfaces and he eventually confesses to his evil deeds.
The director also looks into his troubled childhood, which doesn’t absolve him of any guilt but does, to some extent, contextualise his evil state of mind. There’s also the unresolved matter of what happened to his daughter that comes to light.
The series is not for sensitive viewers.