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Catch ME a Killer by Pistorius, Micki (2001) Paperback
"When I interrogate a serial killer I dive into the blackness of his soul. I am familiar with his feelings of emptiness, loneliness, depression, death, omnipotence and fear. I dive deeply to get a grip on his torment..." A profiler who wants to understand the mind of the serial killer must have been prepared by life experiences before he or she can dare to venture into the abyss. A person who has led a protected life will not survive.
Unknown Binding
First published November 25, 2001
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About the author
Micki Pistorius
8 books40 followersMicki Pistorius, who has a doctorate in psychology, spent six years as a profiler with the South African Police Service. As head of their investigative psychology unit, she was involved in more than thirty serial killer cases and participated in the training of more than a hundred detectives in the investigation of serial homicides. She is regularly invited to lecture in France and still acts as a consultant to different South African agencies.
She is the author of Catch me a Killer, Strangers on the Street, Fatal Females, and Profiling Serial Killers and other crimes in South Africa,all published by Penguin. Her first novel, Sorg, was published by Penguin in 2006.
Micki’s official website is available at www.mickipistorius.co.za.
She is the author of Catch me a Killer, Strangers on the Street, Fatal Females, and Profiling Serial Killers and other crimes in South Africa,all published by Penguin. Her first novel, Sorg, was published by Penguin in 2006.
Micki’s official website is available at www.mickipistorius.co.za.
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July 17, 2020
I was largely disappointed by this book. I had previously read Pistorius' book "Profiling Serial Killers: and other Crimes in South Africa" and thoroughly enjoyed it and was excited to learn more about serial killers in South Africa from her. However, "Catch Me a Killer..." left me irritated and unsatisfied.
I found that Pistorius came across as incredibly conceited as she described her personal life and her estimation of why she understands serial murderers as well as in her boasting of her talents in her field. I mean, of course, she is good at her job, but she needn't have patted her back quite so fiercely. The book is half an autobiography and half a documentation of her early work with the SAPS with too little information on both topics to make this book feel complete.
While she is clearly eccentric, her storytelling leaves much to be desired. I felt that the narrative was all over the place with too much descriptive prose about places and people and not enough on a particular case. Pistorius would often begin a scene with some activity or anecdote that was completely unnecessary to the narrative only to use it to tie up that particular day or event. This left me feeling irritated because I don't care about mooing at cows and that after a hard day at work you were glad you did it - it didn't fit in the text and came off as an attempt to be understood more by the reader which fell flat. This book clearly needed a better edit as there were pages of anecdotes that I, as an editor myself, would have taken out as "fluff".
Pistorius also jumped from one case to another, giving off vague references to another case, then returning to the original case being discussed, then referring to a whole other case and then back again. This made it hard to follow and often lead to me feeling like I had questions about all of the cases that she didn't provide answers for. This is particularly true about her suspicions about the possibility of a mastermind surrounding the murders committed by Moses Sithole and David Selepe. She alluded to her suspicions finally being confirmed or denied and then says no more about it. Oh, the frustration!
The further I got into this book, the further away from Pistorius' original point I felt it got. The beginning of the book suggests that she is going to break down the mind of a serial killer in order to help explain their motives, thought processes and the events that lead to the serial murders. However, Pistorius vaguely touches on this subject with most of the cases she wrote about and not at all with some of them. The whole book felt disjointed and unfinished. I craved more information on the early childhood developments that this or that killer fixated on that lead to their horrid crimes, but was only given a short summation at the end of the book instead of the deep dive I expected.
Additionally and most frustratingly, Pistorius' analogy to the "abyss" didn't gel with my brain. I understood what she was trying to convey however I didn't buy it at all and it left me rolling my eyes every time the words "the serial killer in my head" and "the dive into the abyss" popped up on the page. If she had explained it more as the shared consequences of life that put her on the same frequency as the killers she was hunting, then maybe I would have believed her more but unfortunately, her abyss made me feel irritated that she wasn't giving me enough information on her main point and too much information about how she dealt or didn't deal with her PTSD.
Overall, this book isn't a complete lost cause. The subject matter is widely intriguing and educational and gave me a deeper sense of how the SAPS works and how effective they are. I enjoyed reading about how cases were investigated, even if the information was vague, in a time where SA was a changing country. I particularly loved learning new things and histories of some parts of the country that I know little about. This is a book for people interested in reading about the more horrific crimes this country has seen and gives the reader insight into SA's law enforcement.
I found that Pistorius came across as incredibly conceited as she described her personal life and her estimation of why she understands serial murderers as well as in her boasting of her talents in her field. I mean, of course, she is good at her job, but she needn't have patted her back quite so fiercely. The book is half an autobiography and half a documentation of her early work with the SAPS with too little information on both topics to make this book feel complete.
While she is clearly eccentric, her storytelling leaves much to be desired. I felt that the narrative was all over the place with too much descriptive prose about places and people and not enough on a particular case. Pistorius would often begin a scene with some activity or anecdote that was completely unnecessary to the narrative only to use it to tie up that particular day or event. This left me feeling irritated because I don't care about mooing at cows and that after a hard day at work you were glad you did it - it didn't fit in the text and came off as an attempt to be understood more by the reader which fell flat. This book clearly needed a better edit as there were pages of anecdotes that I, as an editor myself, would have taken out as "fluff".
Pistorius also jumped from one case to another, giving off vague references to another case, then returning to the original case being discussed, then referring to a whole other case and then back again. This made it hard to follow and often lead to me feeling like I had questions about all of the cases that she didn't provide answers for. This is particularly true about her suspicions about the possibility of a mastermind surrounding the murders committed by Moses Sithole and David Selepe. She alluded to her suspicions finally being confirmed or denied and then says no more about it. Oh, the frustration!
The further I got into this book, the further away from Pistorius' original point I felt it got. The beginning of the book suggests that she is going to break down the mind of a serial killer in order to help explain their motives, thought processes and the events that lead to the serial murders. However, Pistorius vaguely touches on this subject with most of the cases she wrote about and not at all with some of them. The whole book felt disjointed and unfinished. I craved more information on the early childhood developments that this or that killer fixated on that lead to their horrid crimes, but was only given a short summation at the end of the book instead of the deep dive I expected.
Additionally and most frustratingly, Pistorius' analogy to the "abyss" didn't gel with my brain. I understood what she was trying to convey however I didn't buy it at all and it left me rolling my eyes every time the words "the serial killer in my head" and "the dive into the abyss" popped up on the page. If she had explained it more as the shared consequences of life that put her on the same frequency as the killers she was hunting, then maybe I would have believed her more but unfortunately, her abyss made me feel irritated that she wasn't giving me enough information on her main point and too much information about how she dealt or didn't deal with her PTSD.
Overall, this book isn't a complete lost cause. The subject matter is widely intriguing and educational and gave me a deeper sense of how the SAPS works and how effective they are. I enjoyed reading about how cases were investigated, even if the information was vague, in a time where SA was a changing country. I particularly loved learning new things and histories of some parts of the country that I know little about. This is a book for people interested in reading about the more horrific crimes this country has seen and gives the reader insight into SA's law enforcement.
August 11, 2019
THE AUTHOR
Micki Pistorius is South Africa's most famous criminal profiler. She also happens to be the aunt of Oscar Pistorius. It should be noted that this book was published in 2003, a decade prior to the death of Reeva Steenkamp, and the author had to sit out what was described as "the country's biggest-ever murder trial", because she was family.
THE BOOK
Part memoir, part true crime, 'Catch me a Killer' sheds light on the darkest core of the human psyche. Through first-hand accounts of some of the most harrowing cases she worked during her early career, the author examines the motives and psychology of serial killers and rapists. It focusses on a six-year period in her life, 1994 - 2000, when she was a member of the South African Police Service (SAPS), during which time she founded and headed up the investigative psychology unit. In the five years that she worked as a profiler, where she held a rank equivalent to colonel, she was involved in more than 30 serial killer cases. After resigning from SAPS, she joined a private investigation company, and she continues to consult for several government agencies today.
SA SERIAL KILLER STATS
According to the author (the stats in this book are probably a bit outdated), SA has the second highest rate of serial murders globally (behind the USA), and the third highest murder rate in the world (behind Colombia and Swaziland). The high rate of murder illustrates the amount of work that a SAPS Murder and Robbery detective has to cope with, and yet SA holds the record for apprehending serial killers within three to six months of a special investigation team being established, provided the killer stays active.
DEFINITION OF A SERIAL KILLER
A serial killer is a person/s who murders several victims, usually strangers, at different times and not necessarily at the same location, with a cooling-off period in between, during which they either willingly refrain from murder, or they are incarcerated and unable to commit murder, or they move to another place where they carry on undetected.
Serial killers are psychopaths. They generally present themselves as normal people to the rest of the community. Their killings are usually revenge-motivated. They feel like they have been a victim in life and have no internal locus of control. They are arrogant. They do not take responsibility for killing; they are of the opinion that it is law enforcement’s responsibility to prevent them from killing. Even when they have been arrested, not even the threat of a prison sentence will prevent them from killing again.
NATURE VS NURTURE
Serial killers are not born. They are made. These so-called ‘monsters’ develop as a result of deeply ingrained and unbearable pain, a consequence of what happened to them during childhood. They kill as a way to express their pain and anger. It is an existential manifestation to them. Most serial killers suffer from one or more personality disorders. But they are NOT insane.
It takes a person about 20 years to ‘become’ a serial killer. The process starts during the first five years of life. According to Freud, every human being passes through five psychosexual developmental phases. They are the oral phase, anal phase, Oedipus or phallic phase, latency phase, and the genital phase. A person can fixate in any of these phases and failure to resolve the fixation would be cause for pathology. A layman’s term for a fixation would be a mental short-circuit. It is an individualistic reaction to being exposed to too much or too little of something.
EPIPHANY
To become a serial killer, a person must have fixated in one or more of the phases, which caused a fantasy to evolve in the subconscious. And there is ONE phase that ALL (male) serial killers fixate in, and that is the latency phase. This was possibly the most startling revelation for me in the entire book...
LATENCY PHASE
All (male) serial killers that the author interviewed had fathers who were emotionally absent to them as young children. They never had the chance to identify with a father figure at the beginning of the latency phase, which starts at around age six. This is the time when kids go to school, socialise, and incorporate society’s moral and ethical values, and this marks the development of a conscience. These children simply didn’t learn to socialise and empathise like other children, and they didn’t develop a conscience.
WARNING SIGNS
Children often give clues that they are disturbed in their play and in their art. Many serial killers had domineering or over-protective mothers, and report themselves as very lonely children who felt alienated and isolated from, and were often bullied by, their peers. The absence of friends, poor performance at school, excessive daydreaming, continuous masturbation during the latency phase, signs of abuse (physical, mental, or emotional) or neglect, as well as the triad of bed-wetting, fire-setting, and cruelty to animals - which psychoanalysis regards as a child’s revenge and mental self-defence mechanism - are all red flags.
These children go on to experience ardent sexual and aggressive urges, but because of a lack of socialisation during the latency phase (see above), they are not socially equipped to form relationships or handle these urges, and so they develop fantasies. During the teenage years they rehearse these fantasies. And they usually start killing in their early twenties.
MOTIVE FOR FIRST KILLING
There is always a catalyst that triggers the fantasy that had been brewing inside the killer’s mind since childhood to become a reality. A moment when their fragile self-esteem is challenged or threatened, and it reminds them of the time when they were not in control of their life or their body. A flashback to the original childhood trauma causes a psychological imbalance, and the only way they feel they can regain control is by doing to others what was done to them, in order to restore the mental homeostasis.
The motive for killing is intrinsic, an irresistible compulsion, fuelled by fantasy. As children they were passive victims. As adults, they identify with their aggressors. The passive-active role reversal process and compulsion to repeat the trauma influences their idiosyncratic selection of victims. They can either directly repeat what was done to them by choosing victims who represent themselves, or they may symbolically avenge their suffering.
MOTIVE FOR CONTINUED KILLINGS
They experience the power over life and death as omnipotence, and become addicted to the godlike sensation that having control over someone else’s life gives them. There is also a correlation between their early fixations - the seed from which their particular fantasy germinated and evolved in the subconscious - and the fantasy they act out on their crime scenes.
IS REHABILITATION POSSIBLE
Serial killers KNOW right from wrong. And their urge to kill CAN be controlled - as proven by the sometimes long cooling-off periods during which they commit no murders, and by the fact that some refrain from murdering all their victims. But most incarcerated serial killers have admitted that as soon as they are released they will murder again. They cannot be rehabilitated, and the best way of preventing a person from becoming a serial killer in the first place, is for trained professionals and concerned members of the public to learn to identify the warning signs of a troubled child (see above), and intervene before it’s too late.
HOW TO CATCH A KILLER
It is the job of the investigative psychologist to try and decipher the serial killer’s particular fantasy from their crime scenes. The fantasy will point to the fixation, which gives law enforcement a key to understanding the killer they are investigating - what kind of upbringing and/or trauma they might’ve experienced. The profiler will look at the killer’s general modus operandi, and then tackle each crime scene separately, noting any changes that creep in, how the killer’s fantasy is developing, the mistakes they made, how they tried to correct them, and how they improved.
PROFILE DESCRIBES A PERSONALITY, NOT A PERSON
The press seems to have the attitude that the investigation team owes them a profile. This is a misconception. The profile belongs to the investigating officer as it is their aid - an instrument by which they can eliminate suspects and concentrate on those who fit the profile. A profile describes a personality and not a person, as two people could have similar personalities. To release an accurate profile and a lot of details about a person when one is close to apprehending them could always provoke them to run.
RECOMMENDATION
Besides being a bit repetitive (the book could do with a good edit), and a tad alarmist and sensationalist in parts (I just don't buy the author's assertion that a five-year-old child has the capacity to fantasise about raping and mutilating his mother), this is a compelling read. A front-row seat to a fascinating subject. Highly recommended for all fans of true crime.
Micki Pistorius is South Africa's most famous criminal profiler. She also happens to be the aunt of Oscar Pistorius. It should be noted that this book was published in 2003, a decade prior to the death of Reeva Steenkamp, and the author had to sit out what was described as "the country's biggest-ever murder trial", because she was family.
THE BOOK
Part memoir, part true crime, 'Catch me a Killer' sheds light on the darkest core of the human psyche. Through first-hand accounts of some of the most harrowing cases she worked during her early career, the author examines the motives and psychology of serial killers and rapists. It focusses on a six-year period in her life, 1994 - 2000, when she was a member of the South African Police Service (SAPS), during which time she founded and headed up the investigative psychology unit. In the five years that she worked as a profiler, where she held a rank equivalent to colonel, she was involved in more than 30 serial killer cases. After resigning from SAPS, she joined a private investigation company, and she continues to consult for several government agencies today.
SA SERIAL KILLER STATS
According to the author (the stats in this book are probably a bit outdated), SA has the second highest rate of serial murders globally (behind the USA), and the third highest murder rate in the world (behind Colombia and Swaziland). The high rate of murder illustrates the amount of work that a SAPS Murder and Robbery detective has to cope with, and yet SA holds the record for apprehending serial killers within three to six months of a special investigation team being established, provided the killer stays active.
DEFINITION OF A SERIAL KILLER
A serial killer is a person/s who murders several victims, usually strangers, at different times and not necessarily at the same location, with a cooling-off period in between, during which they either willingly refrain from murder, or they are incarcerated and unable to commit murder, or they move to another place where they carry on undetected.
Serial killers are psychopaths. They generally present themselves as normal people to the rest of the community. Their killings are usually revenge-motivated. They feel like they have been a victim in life and have no internal locus of control. They are arrogant. They do not take responsibility for killing; they are of the opinion that it is law enforcement’s responsibility to prevent them from killing. Even when they have been arrested, not even the threat of a prison sentence will prevent them from killing again.
NATURE VS NURTURE
Serial killers are not born. They are made. These so-called ‘monsters’ develop as a result of deeply ingrained and unbearable pain, a consequence of what happened to them during childhood. They kill as a way to express their pain and anger. It is an existential manifestation to them. Most serial killers suffer from one or more personality disorders. But they are NOT insane.
It takes a person about 20 years to ‘become’ a serial killer. The process starts during the first five years of life. According to Freud, every human being passes through five psychosexual developmental phases. They are the oral phase, anal phase, Oedipus or phallic phase, latency phase, and the genital phase. A person can fixate in any of these phases and failure to resolve the fixation would be cause for pathology. A layman’s term for a fixation would be a mental short-circuit. It is an individualistic reaction to being exposed to too much or too little of something.
EPIPHANY
To become a serial killer, a person must have fixated in one or more of the phases, which caused a fantasy to evolve in the subconscious. And there is ONE phase that ALL (male) serial killers fixate in, and that is the latency phase. This was possibly the most startling revelation for me in the entire book...
LATENCY PHASE
All (male) serial killers that the author interviewed had fathers who were emotionally absent to them as young children. They never had the chance to identify with a father figure at the beginning of the latency phase, which starts at around age six. This is the time when kids go to school, socialise, and incorporate society’s moral and ethical values, and this marks the development of a conscience. These children simply didn’t learn to socialise and empathise like other children, and they didn’t develop a conscience.
WARNING SIGNS
Children often give clues that they are disturbed in their play and in their art. Many serial killers had domineering or over-protective mothers, and report themselves as very lonely children who felt alienated and isolated from, and were often bullied by, their peers. The absence of friends, poor performance at school, excessive daydreaming, continuous masturbation during the latency phase, signs of abuse (physical, mental, or emotional) or neglect, as well as the triad of bed-wetting, fire-setting, and cruelty to animals - which psychoanalysis regards as a child’s revenge and mental self-defence mechanism - are all red flags.
These children go on to experience ardent sexual and aggressive urges, but because of a lack of socialisation during the latency phase (see above), they are not socially equipped to form relationships or handle these urges, and so they develop fantasies. During the teenage years they rehearse these fantasies. And they usually start killing in their early twenties.
MOTIVE FOR FIRST KILLING
There is always a catalyst that triggers the fantasy that had been brewing inside the killer’s mind since childhood to become a reality. A moment when their fragile self-esteem is challenged or threatened, and it reminds them of the time when they were not in control of their life or their body. A flashback to the original childhood trauma causes a psychological imbalance, and the only way they feel they can regain control is by doing to others what was done to them, in order to restore the mental homeostasis.
The motive for killing is intrinsic, an irresistible compulsion, fuelled by fantasy. As children they were passive victims. As adults, they identify with their aggressors. The passive-active role reversal process and compulsion to repeat the trauma influences their idiosyncratic selection of victims. They can either directly repeat what was done to them by choosing victims who represent themselves, or they may symbolically avenge their suffering.
MOTIVE FOR CONTINUED KILLINGS
They experience the power over life and death as omnipotence, and become addicted to the godlike sensation that having control over someone else’s life gives them. There is also a correlation between their early fixations - the seed from which their particular fantasy germinated and evolved in the subconscious - and the fantasy they act out on their crime scenes.
IS REHABILITATION POSSIBLE
Serial killers KNOW right from wrong. And their urge to kill CAN be controlled - as proven by the sometimes long cooling-off periods during which they commit no murders, and by the fact that some refrain from murdering all their victims. But most incarcerated serial killers have admitted that as soon as they are released they will murder again. They cannot be rehabilitated, and the best way of preventing a person from becoming a serial killer in the first place, is for trained professionals and concerned members of the public to learn to identify the warning signs of a troubled child (see above), and intervene before it’s too late.
HOW TO CATCH A KILLER
It is the job of the investigative psychologist to try and decipher the serial killer’s particular fantasy from their crime scenes. The fantasy will point to the fixation, which gives law enforcement a key to understanding the killer they are investigating - what kind of upbringing and/or trauma they might’ve experienced. The profiler will look at the killer’s general modus operandi, and then tackle each crime scene separately, noting any changes that creep in, how the killer’s fantasy is developing, the mistakes they made, how they tried to correct them, and how they improved.
PROFILE DESCRIBES A PERSONALITY, NOT A PERSON
The press seems to have the attitude that the investigation team owes them a profile. This is a misconception. The profile belongs to the investigating officer as it is their aid - an instrument by which they can eliminate suspects and concentrate on those who fit the profile. A profile describes a personality and not a person, as two people could have similar personalities. To release an accurate profile and a lot of details about a person when one is close to apprehending them could always provoke them to run.
RECOMMENDATION
Besides being a bit repetitive (the book could do with a good edit), and a tad alarmist and sensationalist in parts (I just don't buy the author's assertion that a five-year-old child has the capacity to fantasise about raping and mutilating his mother), this is a compelling read. A front-row seat to a fascinating subject. Highly recommended for all fans of true crime.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2010
Could have been much more than it turned out to be if the author at least some of the time shifted the spotlight from herself. Her insistance that she is eccentric, different etc became a bugbear throughout the book. Even when she complimented her fellow profilers and officers she would quickly snatch it back and shine the spotlight on herself again - essentially taking back every compliment she gave. No-one is as good as she is.. and as worthy of a relationship. She just does not understand why it's not working out for her. Maybe she should just read her own book. That might clue her in. Herself is what she is about - there is just no space for anyone else. No wonder she felt hostile vibes from Brixton etc. She would not get off her own stage! What I did enjoy about the book was the glimpses you got about SAPF crime and robbery units. They are up against incredible odds - yet some keep at it day after day.
April 3, 2014
So this was quite an interesting read after Byleveld. It's very different. It's differently written and I guess it's a different side to the investigative story. I think I definitely preferred Byleveld. There is something about the way this was written that I didn't quite like. Sometimes it got confusing and I felt like she hadn't been clear about things. And I'm also not into this whole "and then I swam into the abyss" nonsense. But whatevs. It's her story, it's what she believes and feels. I don't quite buy it. But either way it's still a very interesting read. Again because who can believe the sheer quantity of serial killers we have in this country. It's kinda frightening, really. Glad to hear they're so good at catching them :)
June 17, 2018
This one is different from the common ruck of profilers' memoirs. Micki Pistorius is a distinctly unusual personality in the police world, to say the least -- telling us as much about her personal life, deepest belief system and private habits as she does about the killers she's helping to catch. This book packs 5 years of high-paced profiling into 253 pages, and she really captures the feeling of being presented with one killing after another at a rapid pace, all day long, every day. No wonder she burned out so fast!
July 26, 2009
I usually love reading things written about serial killers and profilers so this was seriously disappointing. The author is just so impressed with herself that her inflated ego gets in the way of the narration. Don't bother.
January 21, 2021
Wasted by the esoteric bullshit (I Can feel the killer and he feels me too - OMG I dive into his psyché - P.S. I like sacrifice so much) and the psychodynamic Freudian bullshit (hum this killer has fixated on the anal phase, but this one on the latency phase)
September 18, 2018
Interesting but very Freudian.
May 6, 2024
Micki Pistorius is a South African forensic psychologist who worked for the South African Police Services (SAPS) on cases involving serial killers in the 1990’s. I learnt about her when I read books by her successor, Gerhard Labuschagne. He didn’t say much, but her surname peeked my curiosity because it was the same one as the famous blade runner, paralympian champion, and girlfriend killer, Oscar Pistorius. After a basic internet search, I learnt that she was his aunt.
I didn’t really have any interest in her except that I added a few of her books to my future reading list, as I found those by Gerhard Labuschagne very interesting, and thought that similar writings on serial killer cases would be enjoyable too. It’s only when I learnt that she had been the profiler who’d been on the case of the notorious Station Strangler, that I decided firmly to get this book, which contains her account of that case.
The bit of reading up I did on the case, makes me believe that the man convicted, Norman Afzal Simons, is not guilty, and has been unfairly held for 28 years, though he was only convicted for one of the murders attributed to ‘the station strangler’. Given that very flawed eyewitness identification and no DNA or other biological evidence pointed to him (They pointed to some other unknown person!), I had no hopes that I will read about a well profiled case in this book, but I did it, to know what made her believe so badly that he was the one. She starts her introduction in a way that doesn’t appeal to the scientist in me. Lots of airy fairy business and a sense of false airs about herself and what she talks about as almost clairvoyant abilities. She gets ‘vibes’ she says. I was already not impressed when I read this. She mixed up her religious conviction with her factual work, holds the serial killers’ hands as she goes down with him into the dark ‘abyss’ and drags him back into the light with her. Her own mind flips between that of her normal self and a dark serial killer type self. She believes she sacrificed her marriage for her job and that though there is an intimacy between her and the detectives who work on cases together, this is no threat to their marriages. I do believe she may have had an immature inflated sense of self at the time of writing this book.
The first chapter, covering the case of the station strangler, was as disappointing. Contrary to her successor, her accounts were less facts based and more ‘inner feelings’ based. She focused strongly on her personal experiences around the activities she was involved with, than actual events that took place. There was zero evidence discussed. She seems to focus a lot on being a woman in a male dominated environment, inadvertently telling us she is very special for that reason, let’s not talk about her self proclaimed the alleged clairvoyance. It’s no wonder that the other detectives turned cold towards her and largely excluded her towards the end of the investigation, only calling on her once Norman was arrested. A complete failure indeed because it emerged later that their interrogation that lead to Norman’s so called confession had illegally happened while he was still undergoing psychiatric evaluation and that he had been severely traumatised and disoriented when it was given. Goodness, it’s badly written, and the case was very badly handled overall. She is just Jesus and Einstein together in female form with a black miniskirt and stockings with high heels. Who wears that to their first gig as a forensic psychologist, going into the hood of a suspected child killer? She focuses so much, in a very disrespectful way on Mitchell’s Plain being this place that she feels she fits in. She is delusional and clearly coming off an apartheid hangover, pretending to be one with the coloured community. Claims to feel that this is where she fits in, even writing a poem in the ‘local dialect’. Oh dear. But ok, it was her first case. Which would make a few things forgivable, but a man spent 28 years in jail for that! Sadly.
In that first chapter, she comes across, to be honest, as exactly that privileged self that she claims would be unable and unprepared to handle such traumatising dark work. She indeed sits above it and seems to be there for just the recognition and accolades. Everyone is just a subordinate character in her story.
I had underestimated the book though, and her abilities, and although she weaves in the themes of Mitchell’s Plain as her spirit animal suburb, and this abyss that she moves into with serial killers, and her clairvoyance, the book does get better and quite enthralling. She redeems herself and her credibility to the reader by presenting the other cases that she was involved in profiling, and even keeps it personal with insight into her romantic life (or perpetual failure thereof), which is relatable I think. I did after all enjoy this book very much and the details of the cases are very very dark, shocking, chilling and indeed the stories of nightmares that one just can’t turn away from.
It is a worthwhile and enjoyable read. I will definitely be reading more of her books.
I didn’t really have any interest in her except that I added a few of her books to my future reading list, as I found those by Gerhard Labuschagne very interesting, and thought that similar writings on serial killer cases would be enjoyable too. It’s only when I learnt that she had been the profiler who’d been on the case of the notorious Station Strangler, that I decided firmly to get this book, which contains her account of that case.
The bit of reading up I did on the case, makes me believe that the man convicted, Norman Afzal Simons, is not guilty, and has been unfairly held for 28 years, though he was only convicted for one of the murders attributed to ‘the station strangler’. Given that very flawed eyewitness identification and no DNA or other biological evidence pointed to him (They pointed to some other unknown person!), I had no hopes that I will read about a well profiled case in this book, but I did it, to know what made her believe so badly that he was the one. She starts her introduction in a way that doesn’t appeal to the scientist in me. Lots of airy fairy business and a sense of false airs about herself and what she talks about as almost clairvoyant abilities. She gets ‘vibes’ she says. I was already not impressed when I read this. She mixed up her religious conviction with her factual work, holds the serial killers’ hands as she goes down with him into the dark ‘abyss’ and drags him back into the light with her. Her own mind flips between that of her normal self and a dark serial killer type self. She believes she sacrificed her marriage for her job and that though there is an intimacy between her and the detectives who work on cases together, this is no threat to their marriages. I do believe she may have had an immature inflated sense of self at the time of writing this book.
The first chapter, covering the case of the station strangler, was as disappointing. Contrary to her successor, her accounts were less facts based and more ‘inner feelings’ based. She focused strongly on her personal experiences around the activities she was involved with, than actual events that took place. There was zero evidence discussed. She seems to focus a lot on being a woman in a male dominated environment, inadvertently telling us she is very special for that reason, let’s not talk about her self proclaimed the alleged clairvoyance. It’s no wonder that the other detectives turned cold towards her and largely excluded her towards the end of the investigation, only calling on her once Norman was arrested. A complete failure indeed because it emerged later that their interrogation that lead to Norman’s so called confession had illegally happened while he was still undergoing psychiatric evaluation and that he had been severely traumatised and disoriented when it was given. Goodness, it’s badly written, and the case was very badly handled overall. She is just Jesus and Einstein together in female form with a black miniskirt and stockings with high heels. Who wears that to their first gig as a forensic psychologist, going into the hood of a suspected child killer? She focuses so much, in a very disrespectful way on Mitchell’s Plain being this place that she feels she fits in. She is delusional and clearly coming off an apartheid hangover, pretending to be one with the coloured community. Claims to feel that this is where she fits in, even writing a poem in the ‘local dialect’. Oh dear. But ok, it was her first case. Which would make a few things forgivable, but a man spent 28 years in jail for that! Sadly.
In that first chapter, she comes across, to be honest, as exactly that privileged self that she claims would be unable and unprepared to handle such traumatising dark work. She indeed sits above it and seems to be there for just the recognition and accolades. Everyone is just a subordinate character in her story.
I had underestimated the book though, and her abilities, and although she weaves in the themes of Mitchell’s Plain as her spirit animal suburb, and this abyss that she moves into with serial killers, and her clairvoyance, the book does get better and quite enthralling. She redeems herself and her credibility to the reader by presenting the other cases that she was involved in profiling, and even keeps it personal with insight into her romantic life (or perpetual failure thereof), which is relatable I think. I did after all enjoy this book very much and the details of the cases are very very dark, shocking, chilling and indeed the stories of nightmares that one just can’t turn away from.
It is a worthwhile and enjoyable read. I will definitely be reading more of her books.
December 6, 2023
#CatchMeAKiller – Micki Pistorius
#PenguinRandomHouseSA
It has been said that books can change lives. In the case of Micki Pistorius, it would certainly seem to have been the case. As a psychology student in 1992 she stumbled upon a book by the FBI-profiler, Robert Ressler, titled "Whoever fights monsters”. An adaptation of a quote from Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” was issued as a warning on the first page: “When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” She would learn to understand this when she was appointed as the first profiler of the SAPS in February 1994 as she would henceforth be required to enter the abyss to meet the perpetrator in its darkest recesses.
The professional road was rocky at best. She encountered the closing of ranks in her face several times, the camaraderie and esprit de corps between brothers-in-arms excluded those perceived as outsiders, especially women. She also encountered bizarre initiation rituals, such as the consumption of the so-called “spookpis’ and “leeutande’ – several white spirits fermented in the sun, spiced with raw garlic.
She was involved in highly publicized cases, such as the Station Strangler, the Phoenix Cane Killer, Boetie Boer, and the Saloon Killer, and is revered for her groundbreaking theories on the origin of serial murders, but the abyss claimed its toll in failed relationships and post traumatic stress disorder. Her childhood habit of hiding in the garden in her “safe place” (causing her mother to dress her in red enabling her to find the wayward child) continued into her adult life where she would build herself a hidey hole underneath her desk, thereby earning the label of eccentricity.
The memoir subtitled “A profiler’s true story”, will equally appeal to true crime afficionados. Although primarily autobiographical, more attention should have been paid to technical correctness. The incorrect reference to serial “killers” instead of “murderers” occur throughout and it is also incorrectly stated that the presentation of evidence derived from the proverbial poisoned tree is illegal, whilst it is simply inadmissible, and that a person can be acquitted at an inquest hearing, whilst they can merely be held not prima facie guilty of an offence or neglect causing death.
Sameul Taylor Colderidge’s “The Rise of the Ancient Mariner” (1798) is utilized as a recurring theme and the author dedicates portions thereof to the reader, the victims and their families, the murderers, and the detectives, respectively.
The memoir was first published in 2000. The 2023 version contains updated information in some cases, as well as a new chapter and has been published alongside a TV-series based thereon.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Uitdieperdsebek
#PenguinRandomHouseSA
It has been said that books can change lives. In the case of Micki Pistorius, it would certainly seem to have been the case. As a psychology student in 1992 she stumbled upon a book by the FBI-profiler, Robert Ressler, titled "Whoever fights monsters”. An adaptation of a quote from Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” was issued as a warning on the first page: “When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” She would learn to understand this when she was appointed as the first profiler of the SAPS in February 1994 as she would henceforth be required to enter the abyss to meet the perpetrator in its darkest recesses.
The professional road was rocky at best. She encountered the closing of ranks in her face several times, the camaraderie and esprit de corps between brothers-in-arms excluded those perceived as outsiders, especially women. She also encountered bizarre initiation rituals, such as the consumption of the so-called “spookpis’ and “leeutande’ – several white spirits fermented in the sun, spiced with raw garlic.
She was involved in highly publicized cases, such as the Station Strangler, the Phoenix Cane Killer, Boetie Boer, and the Saloon Killer, and is revered for her groundbreaking theories on the origin of serial murders, but the abyss claimed its toll in failed relationships and post traumatic stress disorder. Her childhood habit of hiding in the garden in her “safe place” (causing her mother to dress her in red enabling her to find the wayward child) continued into her adult life where she would build herself a hidey hole underneath her desk, thereby earning the label of eccentricity.
The memoir subtitled “A profiler’s true story”, will equally appeal to true crime afficionados. Although primarily autobiographical, more attention should have been paid to technical correctness. The incorrect reference to serial “killers” instead of “murderers” occur throughout and it is also incorrectly stated that the presentation of evidence derived from the proverbial poisoned tree is illegal, whilst it is simply inadmissible, and that a person can be acquitted at an inquest hearing, whilst they can merely be held not prima facie guilty of an offence or neglect causing death.
Sameul Taylor Colderidge’s “The Rise of the Ancient Mariner” (1798) is utilized as a recurring theme and the author dedicates portions thereof to the reader, the victims and their families, the murderers, and the detectives, respectively.
The memoir was first published in 2000. The 2023 version contains updated information in some cases, as well as a new chapter and has been published alongside a TV-series based thereon.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Uitdieperdsebek
Read
August 24, 2025This is a good book for true crime junkies.
i felt a bit mixed about this but because it is a real person writing about real murders. i have decided to not rate it.
When reading this book remember: those killers are people. their victims where people with mourning families. all of this book is real. not fictional. real.
If you are interested but worried you won't understand the depth of it I'd highly recommend watching the series. I read this to compare and the series leaves very little information out
i felt a bit mixed about this but because it is a real person writing about real murders. i have decided to not rate it.
When reading this book remember: those killers are people. their victims where people with mourning families. all of this book is real. not fictional. real.
If you are interested but worried you won't understand the depth of it I'd highly recommend watching the series. I read this to compare and the series leaves very little information out
November 7, 2025
Full disclosure: I watched the show based on this book and I binged the crap out of it. So I HAD to read the book, too. I was not disappointed. I liked getting the background/behind the scenes take from the police force and Dr. Pistorius during that time in her life. If you like true crime, Psychology, and/or fascinated by how people become serial killers (heavy lean again on Psychology) then you should definitely give this book a try. I read the updated version that gave updates on the detectives she worked with and some of the killers she helped put behind bars. Very interesting.
April 3, 2024
While I enjoyed the book, I was disappointed that there wasn't more information on the cases she covered. While it's a memoir, she was cagey about many aspects of her life. You either write a memoir and bare your soul, or you decide to protect your privacy and stay mum. You can't have it both ways.
June 3, 2025
An interestibng read, If there was more focus on the cases and less of stuff thats not so interesting, this book would have been great.
May 19, 2025
This was a fascinating memoir and I applaud her very difficult work. The tv series was also very good and a look at Africathat we raely get in the US
December 12, 2024
I read this while completing my LLB degree, with major interest in criminal law. It is an absolutely riveting read. The author’s insights into the minds of serial killers and the process of profiling them were both chilling and fascinating. The real-life cases discussed were gripping, and the narrative kept me engaged from start to finish. It's a thought-provoking exploration of human psychology and criminal behavior that will stay with me for a long time.
I highly recommend it to anyone interested in criminology or true crime.
I highly recommend it to anyone interested in criminology or true crime.
February 27, 2017
Phew! An interesting book but it’s quite heavy reading about one serial murderer after another! No wonder she had to move on! The writing style makes it easy to read but after a while it got me down a bit. Then I couldn’t wait to finish reading the book. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in crime and particularly in serial murders.
April 15, 2009
An insightful Profile of South Africa’s leading Profiler
This is Micki Pistorius’s much acclaimed autobiography as an investigative psychologist with the South African police service. It documents her involvement in the country’s most notorious serial killing investigations, and offers an excellent behind-the-scenes account of how, amongst others, Moses Sithole, the Saloon Killer, the Phoenix Killer and the Station Strangler were captured. Concurrent with the story of the killers and killings, Micki allows us a glimpse of her professional development, and the many hurdles she faced in the police service, particularly in the company of hardened and distrustful detectives from the various Murder and Robbery Units in South Africa.
Her biography is a raw story, nothing like the clean-cut profilers on television. She is a brave woman who faced things better left unsaid, and paid a hefty Faustian price for her success. It is a pity that for all her honesty about the killings and the murderers – even some aspects of her personal life – I was left feeling that I still did not know much about this remarkable woman. But then, she certainly deserves some privacy after such gruelling and taxing work.
A great big thumbs up for her meticulous and descriptive accounts of South African serial killers and the police work that went into catching them. Readers of crime fiction and students of psychology and criminology alike will gain a lot from reading this book. – Penguin
This is Micki Pistorius’s much acclaimed autobiography as an investigative psychologist with the South African police service. It documents her involvement in the country’s most notorious serial killing investigations, and offers an excellent behind-the-scenes account of how, amongst others, Moses Sithole, the Saloon Killer, the Phoenix Killer and the Station Strangler were captured. Concurrent with the story of the killers and killings, Micki allows us a glimpse of her professional development, and the many hurdles she faced in the police service, particularly in the company of hardened and distrustful detectives from the various Murder and Robbery Units in South Africa.
Her biography is a raw story, nothing like the clean-cut profilers on television. She is a brave woman who faced things better left unsaid, and paid a hefty Faustian price for her success. It is a pity that for all her honesty about the killings and the murderers – even some aspects of her personal life – I was left feeling that I still did not know much about this remarkable woman. But then, she certainly deserves some privacy after such gruelling and taxing work.
A great big thumbs up for her meticulous and descriptive accounts of South African serial killers and the police work that went into catching them. Readers of crime fiction and students of psychology and criminology alike will gain a lot from reading this book. – Penguin
November 17, 2011
4.5!
This is a great book; being South African it was a rude awakening to how ignorant and self absorbed one can be in one’s own life...not to any idea what is happening in the world around you.
Micki is definitely eccentric maybe even more than she professes to be in her book but one hell of women! To achieve what she has in a man dominated industry / career, is amazing. \
But more importantly to face and deal with death, heartache, and sorrow and extremely SICK individuals, in her everyday life, and still remain somewhat sane...is mind boggling.
Really good read written by a highly intelligent author. Well worth it!
Some people go on about her talking too much about herself...but this is what the book is about! HER achievements, HER experiences, HER view and HER opinion as a profiler for the SAPS specializing in serial killers!
This is a great book; being South African it was a rude awakening to how ignorant and self absorbed one can be in one’s own life...not to any idea what is happening in the world around you.
Micki is definitely eccentric maybe even more than she professes to be in her book but one hell of women! To achieve what she has in a man dominated industry / career, is amazing. \
But more importantly to face and deal with death, heartache, and sorrow and extremely SICK individuals, in her everyday life, and still remain somewhat sane...is mind boggling.
Really good read written by a highly intelligent author. Well worth it!
Some people go on about her talking too much about herself...but this is what the book is about! HER achievements, HER experiences, HER view and HER opinion as a profiler for the SAPS specializing in serial killers!
July 28, 2008
An absolutely phenomenal account of serial killers in South Africa. Pistorius is considered one of the best profilers in the world, by the best profilers in the world. She has worked with and learned from the most talented profilers at the FBI, and is perhaps single-handedly responsible for the numerous records South Africa has broken in the solving of serial crimes and the speedy apprehension of serial killers. I own another one of her books and a second one is doing the rounds in my books club, and so I hope to eventually read each and every one of her books.
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August 12, 2014It's a cutthroat, gripping and well thought book. If you would like to get into the criminal mind and understand how they think, it's worth a read. Not bad at all.
January 1, 2013
Interesting subject matter.
October 6, 2013
A good and interesting book indeed
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