After a string of police botches, Captain Ben Bliksem Booysen took on the Krugersdorp Killers' case in 2016.
By the time Booysen took over, 11 people had been brutally murdered by a group calling themselves Electus per Deus (Chosen by God).
In On the Devil's trail: How I hunted down the Krugersdorp Killers, Booysen, in collaboration with journalist Nicki Gules, divulges shocking details of police incompetence, and exposes sensational new information around the killers, their crimes, and life in prison.
Booysen and Gules sat down with facilitator Andrew Brown (an author and cop himself) on the first day of the Franschhoek Literary Festival on Friday to discuss the book, the process of writing it, and the people contained within its pages.
The festival made its in-person return from 13-15 May, after being cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19. It brings together authors and readers with informal discussions and spirited debates about books and everything related.
Plenty of Booysen's personal life is captured in the book. He has left the police service four times, but has kept going back.
On why he left, Booysen told the audience: "The first time, I assaulted a sergeant. The second time I left, my child was very sick. The third time, I went to work for my uncle. The last time was a very difficult time because they didn't want to promote me and I didn't see eye-to-eye with the brigadier."
When asked why he went back, Booysen said "it's like a drug", adding that he gets excited every time he sees a police van drive past.
Gules got involved after she joked to a friend that she was going to write this book. She knew she wanted to tell the story from Booysen's perspective.
Watch their gripping full discussion in the video above.
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