Gruesome. The crimes and criminals that shook South Africa

Title: Gruesome
Subtitle: The crimes and criminals that shook South Africa
Author: De Wet Potgieter
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Zebra Press
Cape Town, South Africa 2015
ISBN 9781770229082 / ISBN 978-1-77-022908-2
Softcover, 15 x 23 cm, 240 pages, several b/w and colour photographs

About: Gruesome. The crimes and criminals that shook South Africa

In Gruesome: The crimes and criminals that shook South Africa, investigative journalist De Wet Potgieter follows the trail of a number of criminals in South Africa's history. These violent crimes, perpetrated from the late 1980s into the new millennium, vary from fanatical far-rightists who killed their innocent countrymen, to assassins who executed high-profile, state-sanctioned murders. He takes the reader behind the scenes of some of the most controversial events in our country and, with his fearless style of writing, pulls you right into the belly of the beast. In Gruesome: The crimes and criminals that shook South Africa, he shares information that has never before been made public.

What really happened on the night of 17 June 1992 in Boipatong? What motivated the horrific attack on Alison Botha? What caused the ostensibly conformist policeman Andre Stander to become an unscrupulous bank robber? Who was the first person to see the connection between Gert van Rooyen's victims and a probable human-trafficking network? Potgieter relates how, as a journalist, he went about reporting on each of these cases. Gruesome: The crimes and criminals that shook South Africa takes you back to the bloody newspaper headlines of yesterday.

De Wet Potgieter's productive and sometimes controversial career as a journalist started in 1975, shortly before the Soweto riots and South Africa's invasion of Angola. Initially he worked as a military correspondent and crime reporter for several newspapers. In 1988 he was appointed as an investigative journalist by the Sunday Times. He worked there for seven years before moving to Rapport, where he delivered front-page stories for 11 years. A number of sensational books have appeared from his pen in which facts stranger than fiction have been revealed.

Among them are Contraband, South Africa and the International trade in ivory and rhino horn, Total onslaught: Apartheid's dirty tricks revealed, Kwart voor 'n bloedbad and Black widow white widow. In the latter he lifted the veil on Al-Qaeda's activities in South Africa. He also regularly conducts extensive investigations into international criminal syndicates. De Wet Potgieter lives in Centurion and, after more than 40 years, is still writing full steam.

Content: Gruesome. The crimes and criminals that shook South Africa

Preface
Acronyms and abbreviations
The Noordhoek 'Ripper Rapists'
Boipatong, Trust Feed and the Third Force
The Strijdom Square Massacre
A Mistress Breaks the Silence
Innocently Mowed Down: The Truth Behind the Deaths of Scott Ayton and Felix Coetzee
State Murderers in the Service of Apartheid
The Pompous Bank Robber
The Young Terrorist's Remorse
'The Pope Is Dead'
The Child-Sex Monster of Malherbe Street
Addendum A
References
Index