police and the detective squad in particular, were assaulted with the usual accusations of incompetence and indolence. Weeks snowballed into months and eventually a whole year followed the murder of Ryan Devlin. Only then, in the spring of the following year, did the beleaguered people of the little Northern Cape town start nurturing a guarded optimism. It was a weary and fragile hope at best. And no-one dared utter the words aloud. But could it be? Could it actually be? That the curse – that was Daddy Long Legs – may actually have lifted? Could it be that the murders had finally ceased?
As the spring of that year passed into the inevitable summer, autumn and winter, the nascent hope in the hearts of this community blossomed into something that began to resemble certainty. Yes. The curse had been lifted. For whatever reason, the murders had stopped. And Daddy Long Legs was no more. No-one dared question their blessing, lest the hubris of human smugness somehow reverse this grace. But in time, the people of Hope accepted that it was true. And finally they began to speak of it. To share, openly, their conviction that Daddy Longs Legs was no more. It was a joyful time indeed. Even the failed crops of the preceding years could not dampen the sense of relief. In time, they also began to forgive the police for their failure to bring the killer to justice. Instead of demanding that the psychopath be apprehended, the people of Hope were just too damn glad that he had ceased his reign of terror.
Of course, the homicides came up for review each year following that autumn of ‘88. Homicide is after all, homicide. However, although no-one said it openly, none of the local detectives believed that the case would ever really be solved. Every now and then, young detectives from Kimberley or one of the other surrounding towns would come to the little Northern Cape town, hoping to win fame and glory by finally being the one to crack the case. But it was not to be.
As subsequent studies would prove, serial killers only stop killing when one of three things happens : they die; they’re imprisoned or they re-locate. Whatever the case, any of these three immediately made it someone else’s problem. And so eventually, the Daddy Long Legs case was put on permanent back-burner.
But there were also other, larger forces at work. And unfortunately, the serial murders in Hope became an unintended victim of history.
Less than two years after the murder of Ryan Devlin, on the 2 nd of February, 1990, F.W. de Klerk would make his historic speech declaring the unbanning of the ANC, the release of Nelson Mandela and the commencement of negotiations with the resistance movements. Mr Jaco van der Merwe, the bittereinder who had been one of only two people to notice the first twisted poem in the Hope Gazette all those years ago, immediately began making plans to emigrate to Australia.
Two years later, on the 17 th of March, 1992, the oft-forgotten whites-only referendum was held. It was to be the last whites-only election ever. After more than forty years of National Party Apartheid rule, the white people of South Africa declared their intention to negotiate the end of their own minority rule. It was the last bastion of European rule in Africa. It was indeed an unprecedented event. Never before, in the history of mankind, had a ruling class thus abandoned their own hegemony, their exclusive grip on power. It was as singular as it was epic. Of course, South Africa’s reputation for unprecedented historical events was only further cemented when Nelson Mandela, soon to be the new democracy’s president, advocated forgiveness and clemency, choosing re-conciliation over retribution and vengeance. With the understandable exception of a few, his people duly followed his example. Once again, history had no precedent to offer to this moral and political singularity.
In a few short years, South Africa had changed from political embarrassment and
As the spring of that year passed into the inevitable summer, autumn and winter, the nascent hope in the hearts of this community blossomed into something that began to resemble certainty. Yes. The curse had been lifted. For whatever reason, the murders had stopped. And Daddy Long Legs was no more. No-one dared question their blessing, lest the hubris of human smugness somehow reverse this grace. But in time, the people of Hope accepted that it was true. And finally they began to speak of it. To share, openly, their conviction that Daddy Longs Legs was no more. It was a joyful time indeed. Even the failed crops of the preceding years could not dampen the sense of relief. In time, they also began to forgive the police for their failure to bring the killer to justice. Instead of demanding that the psychopath be apprehended, the people of Hope were just too damn glad that he had ceased his reign of terror.
Of course, the homicides came up for review each year following that autumn of ‘88. Homicide is after all, homicide. However, although no-one said it openly, none of the local detectives believed that the case would ever really be solved. Every now and then, young detectives from Kimberley or one of the other surrounding towns would come to the little Northern Cape town, hoping to win fame and glory by finally being the one to crack the case. But it was not to be.
As subsequent studies would prove, serial killers only stop killing when one of three things happens : they die; they’re imprisoned or they re-locate. Whatever the case, any of these three immediately made it someone else’s problem. And so eventually, the Daddy Long Legs case was put on permanent back-burner.
But there were also other, larger forces at work. And unfortunately, the serial murders in Hope became an unintended victim of history.
Less than two years after the murder of Ryan Devlin, on the 2 nd of February, 1990, F.W. de Klerk would make his historic speech declaring the unbanning of the ANC, the release of Nelson Mandela and the commencement of negotiations with the resistance movements. Mr Jaco van der Merwe, the bittereinder who had been one of only two people to notice the first twisted poem in the Hope Gazette all those years ago, immediately began making plans to emigrate to Australia.
Two years later, on the 17 th of March, 1992, the oft-forgotten whites-only referendum was held. It was to be the last whites-only election ever. After more than forty years of National Party Apartheid rule, the white people of South Africa declared their intention to negotiate the end of their own minority rule. It was the last bastion of European rule in Africa. It was indeed an unprecedented event. Never before, in the history of mankind, had a ruling class thus abandoned their own hegemony, their exclusive grip on power. It was as singular as it was epic. Of course, South Africa’s reputation for unprecedented historical events was only further cemented when Nelson Mandela, soon to be the new democracy’s president, advocated forgiveness and clemency, choosing re-conciliation over retribution and vengeance. With the understandable exception of a few, his people duly followed his example. Once again, history had no precedent to offer to this moral and political singularity.
In a few short years, South Africa had changed from political embarrassment and
Similar Books
