Police chased them all over the state in a massive manhunt before they were captured. Their crimes, said the trial judge, were “staggeringly wicked.” Grundlingh, 35, was hanged on Tuesday, July 30th, 1985, in Pretoria Central Prison, but Charmaine Phillips, who was only 19 at the time, was jailed for life in view of her age. She was released on parole in August 2004 after serving nearly 20 years of her four life sentences.

Alex Dodd of Mail & Guardian writes: “Central to this haunting crazed couple- on-the run archetype was the image of Phillips – a blue-eyed, blonde-haired angelic 19-year-old who confessed to murdering the four herself. She was supposed to be everything the apartheid system had appointed itself a protector of at that time: a meek, white, Arian poppie. And with her dramatic murderous confession, she subverted notions of what it meant to be a white South African woman at the time. This fragile- boned young babe had the power to kill. And instantly, to the media, she became the bad angel skopped out of consensual heaven.”

Victims of CharmainE Phillips and Pieter Grundlingh:

Jun. 14, 1983 – Gerald Meyer, 34, was shot dead at Umhloti in what was then Natal. His body was found on a dusty road near Verulam.

Jun. 19, 1983 – Vernon Alexander Swart, 28, was tied to a tree next to the Melmouth Vryheid Road and shot dead. Charmaine testified she shot him because she got annoyed at his “babbling.

Jun. 25, 1983 – Barend Eugene Greyvenstein of Ermelo was found at the roadside at the Kinross Dam, shot dead.

Jun. 30, 1983 – Martin Mofosi was found shot dead near Bloemfontein.