Independent Newspapers.
February 16, 1998 - In Tanzania's Mwanza and Shinyanga regions, an alarming number of elderly women are being killed for witchcraft. Major General James Lubanga, the Mwanza regional commisioner said that the problem of witchcraft is common and behind every misfortune they believe somebody is involved. Africa News Service.
March 6, 1998 - A human skull and a puffadder (snake) was found on a principal's desk in the Dete district. A witch doctor claimed that these were acts of witchcraft designed to kill the school headmaster. Independent Newspapers.
April 3, 1998 - A security guard was shot by a 50-year old man outside an office block on Pritchard Street, central Johannesburg. The killer believed that the guard used witchcraft on his daughter. Independent Newspapers.
May 7, 1998 - A man who murdered his aunt is jailed for 11 years in Umtata. Hloniphile Mdludlu, 52, told Eastern Cape Judge Cecil Somyalo that after his uncle died he consulted a sangoma (witch finder) in Gauteng who told him that his aunt, Nodimile Mdludlu, 70 was bewitching members of his family. Independent Newspapers.
May 16, 1998 - Last year, police in the Northern Province investigated over 150 murders of suspected witches. The problem has become so serious that a village has been set aside by the police as a "witch sanctuary". The village is named Helena and is about 60 kilometers from Pietersburg. Independent Newspapers.
In Africa, villages have been set up as havens for individuals banished from their villages for witchcraft. Helena, which is located about 60km from Pietersburg, is one such village. .
In what has become an endemic problem in the Northern Province over the past five years, Helena is one of 10 officially recognised "witch sanctuaries" introduced by the South African police force in the region to help stem the tide of witchcraft-related killings. In 1997, South African police investigated over 150 murders of suspected witches, which is not an easy task due to the nature of these "supernatural" crimes and people's reluctance to talk.
Intro One morning in late February 1998, Carly Hudson, Erika Allison and Daniel Booher were contacted by Special Agent John Ciccone of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) of the Los Angeles division Group II. With us was Special Agent William Queen. Ciccone knew that Quee...