Stewart Wilken – Episode 7 begins with a frantic search for a missing 12-year-old boy in the Eastern Cape of Port Elizabeth. The lead investigation tells the volunteers that Shane Miller (Johannes Jordaan) was expected to be staying with his grandmother but if that was the case, he never made it. As the search gets underway, one particular volunteer Stewart Wilken/Boetie Boer (Albert Pretorius) appears to be having a memory/daydream of a boy sitting at the water’s edge. He’s soon following close behind the boy where he asks if he has a dog. The boy doesn’t respond and Stewart’s repose is soon interrupted by another volunteer who’s asking if he’s found anything. Although he claims he hasn’t Shane’s body lies at his feet.

Elsewhere, Micki Pistorius (Charlotte Hope) sits down for an interview where the questioner quickly notes that she doesn’t like to give anything away. After she teases him about playing the psychologist, the interview eventually leads to why she decided to pursue serial killers. She contributes that to Robert Ressler (Sean Cameron Michael) and his book, ‘Whoever Fights Monsters,’ although she doesn’t consider them monsters at all.

Later that day, Micki checks into her hotel room and proceeds to make a call to Erika Bothes (Donna Cormack). Their conversation reveals that she is set to interview Stewart Wilken ‘The Cannibal Killer’ before his trial. Before doing that she meets with the man who got ‘Little Brother’ to confess, Detective Martin Cawood (Jacques Theron), who takes her on a tour of Wilken’s crime scenes. Upon arriving at Shane’s resting place, Cawood tells Micki how he used a photograph of his daughter to get Wilken to confess. It’s also revealed that Wilken killed six children, all boys, except for his own daughter, Sonia. In addition to that, Wilken also killed four female adult prostitutes. It was in part, his random nature of killing that allowed him to escape justice for so long and also what makes his story so fascinating for Micki.

After touring Wilken crime scenes, Micki returns to her room to study her notes and prepare further for the interview. During this time, Cawood shows up and tells her that Wilken has backed out of the interview because of the interview she gave earlier that day. As it turns out, the interviewer completely spun her statements to make her seem like a self-righteous “bit*h.”

Micki and Cawood attend Wilken’s trial the following day. Cawood makes sure to point out Wilken’s wife before Justice Naude (David Bennie) reads Wilken’s crimes and asks for his plea. After Wilken pleads, ‘not guilty,’ Naude warns the attendees that the trial might be extremely distressing for some due to the sadistic and violent nature of the crimes. He calls a short recess before the trial resumes with Advocate Theunis Hofmeyer (Frankie Nassimbeni) questioning Rodney Miller (Brendan Murray. The brief Q&A reveals that Wilken had been staying with the Millers when Shane went missing because he was having marital problems. Carol, Shane’s mother was good friends with Rihanna Miller. Even more interesting is the claim that Wilkens killed Shane to bring him peace from Rodney’s abuse.

Later that evening over drinks, Cawood apologizes to Micki that she didn’t get her interview with Wilken. She says that she can still testify without the interview but it’s a shame that she won’t be able to question Wilken, being that his crimes are more sadistic than any she’s ever witnessed. Micki is a bit hunger over when she learns the following morning that she’s now being called by the defense Hardus Van Graan (James Van Helsdingen). For some undefined reason, the prosecutor no longer felt he needed her testimony. Micki meets with Hardu before being sworn in to learn that his play is to make the judge rule that Wilken isn’t mentally culpable to stand accused. She says her job is to try to explain Wilken’s behavior and that is what she will do.

Micki’s testimony is rather explicit as she attempts to explain to the court how early and frequent childhood abandonment led to Wilken’s acts of sadism. She claims that he learned to act in sadistic ways as a sort of defense mechanism, starting with biting his foster mothers at an early age. She also attributes Wilken’s choice of victims and methods of killing to him killing his mother as well as himself over and over. Her testimony goes on for several minutes and is so explicit that it causes Violet Nyosi’s father, Amos (Chris Gxalaba) to burst out in protest. Things only get worse when she starts speaking about Wilken’s anal asphyxiation and he begins pleasuring himself. The outburst only confirms Micki’s later claims that Wilken cannot control his urges.

During a lunch break, Micki persuades Advocate Marais (Pierre Van Heerden) to speak to Wilken on her behalf. She’s hoping that after her testimony Wilken realizes that she isn’t out to get him. Although he agrees, he tells her to not get her hopes up. Later that day, Wilken learns that he’s been found guilty of seven counts of murder. The courtroom erupts and the further announcement of seven concurrent life sentences drives them further.

Seemingly sometime in the future, Micki receives word that Wilken has agreed to speak with her. Despite Cawood escorting her to the prison, he immediately excuses himself after merely introducing the two at the prison. Micki’s first question is what changed his mind about the meeting, to which his response is the trial. She then asks about his worst childhood memory. Shockingly enough, he claims it was at the age of eight when one of his foster dads refused to buy him a red fire engine. Their discussion continues with him sharing stories of being burned with cigarettes, being teased by deacons, and smoking dope at the age of eight.

As far as his fantasies and urges for raping and killing, Wilken claims he can’t remember a time when they weren’t with him. It just wasn’t until later in his life that he started acting on them. He soon becomes so riled that he has to excuse himself to go ‘toss.’ She thanks him for asking. Cawood returns just as Wilken is leaving. Upon his return and after joking about him washing his hands, she questions him about hiding the boy’s bodies and not the prostitutes. His response is that he wanted to go back and have sex with them. As for the prostitutes, he wanted them paraded out because sex is a gift from God and should not be sold. He also claims that he killed his daughter to save her from being abused by her stepfather. Both Micki and Cawood are surprised when she asks if he has any questions and he asks what took them so long to catch him. He claims he wanted to stop killing but could have never done so until he was caught. The question is left unanswered.

It wouldn’t be for another six months that Micki would meet with Wilken again. At the governor’s request, she and Cawood are returned to the prison in an attempt to calm Wilken. Apparently, he’s suffering some sort of psychotic break and is experiencing horrible visions. Upon meeting with him, it doesn’t take Micki long to realize that Wilken is seeing his victims coming for him. She manages to calm him for the moment, but his paranoia returns later that night. The episode ends by revealing that Wilken is still alive and experiences regular hallucinations. He applied for bail the same year this episode was made, but the conclusion to that is not revealed.

 

Catch Me A Killer Review

I must say this was an incredibly interesting story. If you take the time to look into the real case, you’ll see that some of the facts are different but mostly stay on track with the episode. I understand this was edited and made for TV but I would have liked to hear or perhaps see more about Wilken’s sadism. I by no means consider myself a sadistic individual but the constant claim that Wilken is one of the most sadistic serial killers is extremely intriguing, given the atrocities of others.

I would have liked to hear more about what exactly it is that makes him so different. Although a lot of the content runs together and at times it was hard to tell past from present, I’d give the episode a 6 out of 10. Oh, the bit about the newspaper up the bum to prevent maggot infestation was something I’ll never forget.

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