Elifasi Msomi

Elifasi Msomi a.k.a. The Axe Killer (1910 – 10 February 1956) was a South African

Background

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Msomi initially raped and murdered a young woman in the presence of his mistress, keeping her blood in a bottle. Unimpressed with his 'new' powers, his mistress alerted the police who arrested Msomi. He escaped shortly afterwards, giving credit for his escape to the all-powerful tokoloshe.[1]

Msomi returned to his murderous ways, killing five children before being re-arrested. He duly escaped again. Msomi was arrested a month later for petty theft. The stolen items turned out to belong to his victims and he was soon identified as the murderous culprit.

Msomi readily assisted the police in finding some of his victims' remains including a missing skull.^[1] Whether he gained further satisfaction from revisiting his crime scenes or felt diminished responsibility in light of the tokoloshe's influence is unclear. During his trial, Msomi claimed that he was merely a conduit for the evil tokoloshe.

Two psychologists disagreed, stating that Msomi was in fact of much higher than average intelligence and further that he derived sexual pleasure from inflicting pain.^[2] Msomi was sentenced to death by hanging at Pretoria Central Prison.

Superstition

However, Msomi's reference to the tokoloshe and his numerous escapes had caused a high level of consternation amongst some of the Zulu community. Upon request, the judge permitted a deputation of nine Zulu chiefs and elders to attend the hanging in order to confirm that the tokoloshe did in fact not save Msomi from his death.^[2] Even so, one chief felt that Msomi might return after death as a tokoloshe himself.^[2]

See also

• List of serial killers in South Africa
• List of serial killers by number of victims

References