The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, currently features on Netflix in a fictional crime-drama movie Unabomber, released on 25 September 2026, and a 2020-documentary, The Unabomber In His Own Words. In summary, reclusive Ted Kaczynski, holding a PhD in mathematics, turned out to be the elusive Unabomber, a domestic terrorist who since 1978 dispatched 16 mail bombs, killing three people and injuring 23, for over 17 years, in protest against the ‘Industrial Society’. Ted Kaczynski has been labelled a modern-day Luddite, referring to the early 19^th century sabotage effort by textile workers in the United Kingdom, led by Ned Ludd, who protested against automated machinery, concerns over worker pay, labour savings, child labour, working conditions, and output quality. But Ted’s protest was much more personal.

I am not going to elaborate on the facts of the case, but rather refer readers to watch the documentary, The Unabomber In his Own Words, on Netflix. My field of expertise focusses on the profiling and psychological diagnoses of Ted Kaczynski.

The FBI profiles

Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski was initially profiled by special agent John Douglas, founding father of FBI Behavioural Science Unit and profiling, supplemented in 1995 by FBI supervisory special agent, profiler, pioneer of forensic linguistics and a member of the Unabomber Task Force, James Fitzgerald’s analysis, which led to Ted’s arrest on 3 April 1995.

Special agent John Douglas profiled the Unabomber as follows: The Unabomber probably drives an older car but keeps it in good condition. He may have a wife or girlfriend, but she knows there’s a certain part of the house, a basement, a special room, that is off limits.

In the same way other people might talk baseball, he likes to discuss the bombings, how stupid the FBI is, how smart the bomber is. He probably visited the scene of his early bombings, talked to police, asked questions, maybe even offered advice. The Unabomber is believed to be a white man now living or working around San Francisco.

In 1995, when Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto was published in The New York Times and The Washington Post, John Douglas amended his profile of the Unabomber as “now in his late 30s or 40s, meticulous, underachieving, intelligent and relatively anti-social. In his off-limits room, the Unabomber probably keeps a scrapbook or diary of his deeds.”

In 1995, John Douglas was about to retire and special agent and profiler James Fitzgerald, who had a Master’s degree in psychology, attended one of Douglas’ last lectures.

The Netflix 2026-movie Unabomber depicts female FBI agent Joanne Millar as the linguistics expert who finally unravels the case. The producers of the movie denied that Millar’s character was based upon a specific person and did not consult with retired special agent James Fitzgerald, which is a pity. Coincidently agent Joanna is depicted going solo stalking Ted in the woods, with a gun in her hand, as I was depicted in the series Catch me a Killer, based upon my autobiography – It never happened in either case and it would have been a stupid irresponsible act that could jeopardize a major investigation. Poetic licence is often taken when depicting police procedure. I cannot understand the Hollywood alure for a woman in uniform with a gun in her hand, but let us leave it there. In a 30 September 2026-interview with Business Insider Africa, James Fitzgerald comments one learns to live with certain poetic licence, but not all. Elevating a criminal or serial killer to hero-status, along with synthetic sensationalism are my main objections. Gratefully, there were no scenes of synthetic sensationalism in Unabomber, as was the case in Monster, The Lizzie Borden Story.

Returning the Unabomber: Special agent James Fitzgerald compared Ted Kaczynski’s signed 23-page 1970’s-document and several other documents authored by Ted, provided to the FBI by his brother David, with the 1995, 35,000-word manifesto published in the press. In a letter to the Saturday Evening Magazine, signed Theodore J. Kaczynski, Chicago, Illinois, James Fitzgerald read ‘You can’t eat your cake and have it too’ an idiolect that featured in the 1995-manifesto, which became the smoking gun that secured a search warrant.

During a 4-September 2026- podcast This Is Your Brain with Dr Phil Stieg, James Fitzgerald discusses his update on Douglas’ profile: “he is more isolated than we thought. We made him older than Douglas originally thought he was because the first bombing was on a college campus in Chicago. And Douglas thought he may have been like 20, 21. But I upped his age a little bit because of some of the, he used words like “Negro” and “chick” and “broad” in the manifesto, archaic terms as we described them. So all these things helped us age him. And I think our profile near the end was about as close as it was going to get. I feel pretty good about the profile and how it came out with my colleagues at the Unabomber Task Force.”

Although he later acquired a master’s degree in Forensic Linguistics, James Fitzgerald was not a qualified linguist when he faced the mammoth task of analysing Ted’ Kaczynski’s extended corpus, but his interest and dedication led to a first in forensic linguistics being recognised as a legitimate reason for a search warrant of Ted Kaczynski’s cabin in the woods in Montana on 3 April 1995. A hoard of evidence awaited the FBI in that small, hidden, dirty little cabin.

Insanity Plea and Psychological Diagnoses

In the face of damning evidence – such as incriminating notes, the typewriter used for typing the manifesto, and a live bomb found under his bed in his cabin, Ted’s defense team, federal public defenders Michael Donahoe and Judy Clarke, decided to enter an insanity plea, to bypass the death penalty. Ted objected.

His defense team planned on using a photograph of a neatly dressed Ted as an assistant professor at Berkeley University, taken by his colleague George Bergman in 1968, and compare it to the disheveled wild man arrested in the woods on 3 April 1995, as proof of a deteriorating schizophrenia.

Ted objected to the insanity defense, since depicting him as a “mad man” would negate his life’s work and threaten his ego identity as a genius intellectual. The defense team then switched to using the fact that at the age of 16, as an undergraduate at Harvard, Ted was a lab rat in a dubious psychological experiment. This forms the essence of the movie Unabomber (with a brilliant performance by Russel Crowe as Dr Henry Murray) and highlights Ted being deceived and betrayed by an academic he idolized. His trust in the intelligentsia was eroded and later Ted selected many academics and scientists as his victims.

The psychological experiments were conducted in the late 1950s to early 1960’s by Dr Henry Murray, director of the Harvard Psychological clinic to determine the effects of stress in interrogation strategies, using aggressive tactics. Dr Murray was well-established in developing interrogation strategies for the Office of Strategic Services of the US Government, a World War II precursor of the CIA, it is explained in the documentary. Retired CIA agent Glen Carle, who was involved in high profile Al Qaeda interrogations, described these enhanced interrogation techniques as mind altering and perverse.

Ted was deceived into thinking the experiments was a debate platform where he could hone his oratory skills on his philosophical ideas, whereas his opponent was trained to humiliate him on a personal level. Ted’s identity was tied to his genial intelligence and his objections to the “Industrialized Society”. For three years he struck to the experiments and the humiliation, and he later explained it was to prove that they could not break him.

The experiments have become a topic of contention, casting Dr Murray as the evil scientist and Ted as the victim. His brother David commented that the opinion that the Harvard experiments turned Ted into the Unabomber is too simplistic, but they were harmful to him. His family did not know about these experiments - although the movie depicts Ted forging his mother signature as consent.

To avoid the death penalty, Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence without parole, but was has he criminally insane or not and did his incarceration actually elevate his mental wellbeing?

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In the back of my mind, I killed you
And I didn’t even regret it
I can’t believe I said it
But it’s true,
I hate you

The lyrics of D4vd’s 2022-hit Romantic Homicide echo an ominous premonition. The video of his song One More Dance, released in February 2025 depicts a body being stuffed in a car trunk. Seven months later on 8 September 2025, the dismembered and decomposing body of his 14-year-old girlfriend Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found in the trunk of his abandoned Tesla, in Hollywood Hills.

David Anthony Burke’s (stage name D4vd) pretrial hearing is set for October 2026. David has been formally charged with murder on 31 August 2026, as well as charges for continuous lewd and lascivious sexual acts with an individual under 14, and mutilating human remains. The murder charges include special circumstances linked to financial gain that could make him potentially liable for the death sentence. David pleaded not guilty.

It is the task of a profiler to get into the mind of a suspect and figure out what he was thinking. David Burke is no longer just a suspect. He has been charged with murder. A hypothetical train-of-thought analyses with some neuropsychological clues could provide insight into what he was thinking. This article should be regarded as a profiling exercise, based upon information available in the media.

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Celeste’s last night

Text messages exchanged between David and Celeste during the months leading up to her death indicate Celeste was unhappy about David’s relationships with other girls and she threatened to expose their relationship – she was a minor – and ruin his career, shortly before the release of his latest album. On the evening of 23 April 2025, he arranged for an Uber to bring her to his Hollywood Hills West Mansion and she arrived at 22h10, with a confirmed drop-off by the Uber driver. The prosecution alleges within the next 20 minutes, Celeste was killed. In a text message at 22h35 David asks her where she was. The prosecution view this as a cover up message. Her phone ceased working that night.

Had David been mulling about Celeste’s threat to end his career for a few weeks? Reportedly he was worth $10 000 000 at the time and about to release a new album and embark on a tour. What were his intentions when he had her delivered to his home that night? Did he lure her or did he want to talk things over?

Maybe David had fantasized of getting rid of Celeste, but when she appeared at his front door, his senses and thalamus in his brain registered the reality of the situation, and at that moment David’s fantasy realized into action. The thalamus (registering sensory information) and amygdala (emotional seat) were triggered by cortisol, the stress hormone, possibly sending shock waves down his sympathetic nervous system and David could have acted. Such an act might have been impulsive but should not be mistaken for involuntary. Being able to send text messages and drive a car indicate David was in control of his senses and actions before and after the alleged event.

Whether David had a plan of getting rid of Celeste, it was not well-thought through. David did not consider an alibi for himself, he decided to create an alibi for Celeste’s whereabouts. About an hour and a half after Celeste had arrived, it is alleged David drove along the California State Route 154 and dumped evidence in a remote spot, where Celeste’s US passport was discovered in January 2026. Dumping her personal belongings far away, does not address the problem if her body was in his house, nor the Uber records. Like most people who are not professional assassins, David did not think straight. There was no long-term planning, or pre-frontal cortex activity involved – more a short-term impulsive amygdala over-reaction to a threat.

The aftermath

The next morning 24 April 2025, after returning from his drive, David had a radio interview and attended a release party for his Withered album. Imagine his thoughts at that party.

People often fantasize about murdering someone standing in their way of achieving a desired goal. They wish them dead. Some may even fantasize about a method of killing such as shooting, poison or stabbing. The fantasy script usually ends with the killing, because then the source of aggravation is removed. No-one can be arrested for having a fantasy. However, when someone’s fantasy takes shape and progresses through action to planning, researching and obtaining items needed for the murder, they are crossing a line. Objectively speaking, killing another human is not a difficult act. However few people consider the difficult part – getting rid of the body. The Lockard principle states every contact leaves a trace. Bodies are heavy and messy and neighbours would certainly notice if a body is carried out of the front door. Public surveillance cameras are everywhere now. Serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen came up with the plan to dismember the bodies. Nilsen remarked this was the part of being a serial killer that he liked the least. When FBI profiler Robert Ressler asked Jeffrey Dahmer if he ate the body parts of his victims uncooked Jeffrey answered: “Of course not Mr Ressler, I’m not that crazy!”

Dismembering a body sounds like the actions of a mentally disturbed person, but it is not. It is deliberate and aimed at concealing a crime. In a previous article (25 November 2024 Jack the Ripper, The Thames Torso Murders and Walter Sickert? Modus Operandi and Signature) I wrote about the difference between disembowelment – disorganized serial killer (Jack the Ripper) and dismemberment – organized serial killer (The Thames Torso Killer) who overlapped each other in location and time.

Returning to the day after Celeste’s alleged murder: Getting rid of a body was a dilemma that should have occupied David’s mind, if he had killed Celeste, or did he manage to compartmentalize this reality and focus only on the exciting part of promoting his album’s release and upcoming tour? Can people do that? Denial is a psychological defense mechanism of rejecting reality to avoid anxiety, but it works only temporarily.

During the days and weeks after Celeste’s murder, strange items purchased on-line under aliases were delivered to David’s house, indicating perhaps David was seriously thinking about the disposal of a body. The same day as the album release party a shovel was delivered. Burying a body takes a lot of physical effort and a suitable location needs to be found where the body will unlikely be discovered. David rented his home. If he had buried Celeste in the garden, chances are she would be discovered at some time. So, the shovel plan is impractical.

A week later, two chainsaws were delivered. The implication is, if he allegedly had killed her, her body has by then been decomposing inside his home for a week. It would be putrid and leaking bodily fluids if not kept in some kind of cold storage. (Forensic findings later indicated the body was not frozen). Four days later a body bag, heavy-duty laundry bags and an inflatable pool arrived. Clearly a plan was taking shape. Then a month later on 7 July a burn cage - a metal cage, usually a box, used to contain flames similarly to an incinerator - arrived. This is around 46 days after Celeste had last entered David’s house. Anyone familiar with decomposing bodies will be able to recall the stench and insect activity of a body in that state. Anyone else cannot even begin to imagine it.

Surveillance footage from 29 July 2025 show David was the last person to drive his Tesla, which was abandoned on Bluebird Avenue, near his Hollywood Hills residence. Footage shows David walking home after parking his car. As he was walking, was he thinking about how was he going to explain a decomposing, dismembered body in his own vehicle parked not far from his house? He never even reported the car stolen to create an alibi. Did David consider future consequences of a discovery, or did he only focus on the short-term future? A week later, on 5 August 2025 David left on his Withered Album tour.

David was 20 years old at this time. Research indicates the human pre-frontal cortex matures around age 28. This includes the ability for long-term planning, considering a range of consequences of actions, calculated risk-taking and informed decision-making. David was acting like a teenager, focussed on short-term solutions and immediate gratification of desires. Teenagers are notoriously pleasure driven. The dopamine generated from the anticipation of his upcoming tour had overridden the anxiety. One can deduct if a person is exposed to a decomposing body in his home for 45 days, he would have become used to smelling and dealing with it, not considering the effect the odour would have on someone who is not used to it. The car was eventually reported due to a “putrid smell”.

There is nothing romantic about homicide. On 8 September 2025, after remaining in the trunk of David’s car for four months in the summer heat, Celeste’s body was discovered. Her torso and head were in one bag and the rest of her body in another. Two of her fingers were missing. Celeste and David shared matching tattoos on the same fingers and his name was tattooed on her ring finger. Had David hoped that by amputating the identifying digits and due to the fact that she would have been unrecognizably decomposed, she would not be identified? Did the man not research any forensic techniques pathologists apply to identify a body? My friend and colleague, pathologist Professor Ryan Blumenthal would only shake his head in disbelief.

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The relationship

David and Celeste met when he was 16 and she was only 11 years old in 2022 and their relationship allegedly became sexual by November 2023, when David was 17 and Celeste was 13 years old. Two months later in January 2024, she had an abortion. Text messages indicate she had remorse about the abortion, (I killed my kid for you) but also that she wanted a Balenciaga hourglass purse as an “abortion gift”. By November 2024 they had broken up, because Celeste wanted more than “just sex and hanging around” but they continued to see each other and had sexual relations. By April 2025, their text messages reveal Celeste was deeply unhappy that David had other relationships, while he led her to believe that they had a future together. She threatened to make their relationship public and ruin his music career.

Investigators found evidence that David had a prolific collection of child pornography on his devices.

The age of consent for sexual relations differ in many countries. There is a reason why governments enforce a legal age of consent. From a psychological perspective girls aged 13, like Celeste was, do not have the emotional maturity to deal with a sexual relationship. Celeste texted David she wanted more than just sex and hanging around. What did she imply – did she expect a 17-to-18-year-old boy to commit to her?

Priscilla Beaulieu was 14 years old when she first met 24-year-old Elvis Presley in 1959. After their fourth date, her father insisted if the relationship was to continue, he wanted to meet Elvis in person. Elvis and his father arrived and agreed to a code of conduct pertaining to the relationship between him and Priscilla. Despite Elvis returning to America, a long-distance relationship continued, intercepted by periods of no contact and Elvis having other relationships, which he denied to Priscilla. In 1962 aged 17, Priscilla visited him in Los Angeles, again under strict conditions and finally on 1 May 1967 Elvis and 22-year-old Priscilla got married in Las Vegas. In her memoirs, Elvis and Me, Priscilla confirmed she was a virgin until her wedding night.

Seventeen-year-old boys do not think of marriage – they do think of sex - and 13-year-old girls should not be thinking about serious relationships or marriage – unless they were living several centuries ago. Men want to make money before they think of settling down and supporting a wife and babies.

I have been a relationship therapist for many decades and observed when women have sexual relations, they tend entertain the notion that this automatically implies a one-on-one relationship and they expect fidelity – many men do not. Men regard a sexual relationship as casual far longer than women do. Sex is not a commitment. However, when women discover the men are not monogamous nor committed to a future, they feel used. Embedded in the collective subconscious of the female psyche is the primal fear that their bodies can be abused and raped by men. Although many may consciously consent to a sexual relationship, subconsciously they expect monogamy and meaningfulness. When this is denied, they feel used and they turn vengeful. A woman scorned. This script is often played out in adult relationships leaving both partners confused and hurt, and if some adults struggle with it, how much more a 13-year-old girl?

Obviously, this script does not pertain to all relationships. Many adult women have the maturity and independence to be comfortable with their sexuality, their right to have sex when they want and with whom they want, and in-depth discussions with them reveal they still put a high premium on reciprocal fidelity. So do many mature men.

But this level of maturity cannot be expected from teenagers or young adults. Celeste’s young-girl dreams of a wedding and having a baby, were dashed and destroyed. No 13-year-old-girl should have to express “I killed my kid for you” and then typically teenager demand a designer handbag as compensation. Clearly Celeste did not have the emotional maturity for a sexual relationship. David’s collection of child pornography indicates he did not have the emotional maturity either. Child molesters are focussed on exploiting children, not marrying them. David’s dream of reaching Elvis’ or even Michael Jackson’s level of fame was threatened and he would have wanted to preserve it all costs.

The relationship between Celeste and David was doomed from the start and there is no fairy-tale Elvis-Priscilla ending (they divorced.) Hopefully underaged children can learn from this tragedy, but I doubt it, sadly. There is nothing romantic about homicide.

I would like to congratulate the Ekurhuleni Task Team under command of Major-General Mbuso Khumalo, who arrested four suspects found in possession of property believed to have belonged to murder victim Elizabeth Tsonto Moselakgomo, whose body was found on 12 September 2026 in Rhodesfield. She was one of 12 women whose bodies were found between June and September 2026 in greater Ekurhuleni.

At the breaking of this case, I commented that whether it is a serial killer at work or not, the establishment of a Task Team so soon was commendable and the speedy arrests of several suspects these past few weeks, attest to their dedication.

Last week, on 7 October 2026, Ekurhuleni Metro police officers were patrolling near a dam in Tembisa, when they heard a woman screaming and saw her running towards their vehicle. The 27-year-old woman told them four men in a white Toyota had attempted to kidnap her. The police officers gave chase and were fired upon by the suspects, who fled into the cemetery and the direction of Esselen Park.

In a previous article, Breaking News: Eight Women killed in Kempton Park, South Africa – Serial Killer or not? I discussed the possibility that the Ekurhuleni murders could be the work of a lone serial killer, based upon the fact that there is a particular victim profile, corresponding modus operandi in certain cases and the murders are located in a specific area. However, I also cautioned that opportunists could use this to conceal single murders which now seems to be the case in the arrests Fortunate Masilela and co-accused Tsakane Msithin regarding the murder of 33-year-old Jabulile Ntimba whose body was found at Dawn Park; Victor Rampedi has been charged with the murder of Ntombifuthi Nxumalo and Busisiwe Mahlangu’s romantic partner was arrested shortly after her murder.

Despite my qualification in media interviews that there could be another motivation behind these killings, unfortunately sub-editors write attention-catching headlines, and in some instances it has been presented that I proclaimed there is definitely a serial killer at large. I maintain there may be other possibilities.

I wrote in my article:

“There is speculation that this current case could be the work of several people working in cohesion. This is highly unlikely. Mass murderers, spree killers, assassins, war lords, school massacres, hostage takers, human traffickers, bank robbers, house robbers, car hi-jackers and serial killers all kill multiple victims, but they all have different motives. Serial killers are solitary and do not form part of groups – in some rare cases they may have one partner.” I feel this needs exploration.

I do not have insight into the current investigation and based upon unfolding developments and the recent escape of the young woman, it could be considered that a group of men are working in cohesion to kidnap, rape and murder women. Their motive could be political, racial, revenge, hatred, gender-based or financial. If this is the case, it would categorise them as mass murderers, or spree killers, not serial killers.

The definition of a mass murderer is: one or more persons, several victims one, event, one location and the motivation could be hate, revenge, racial or territorial – these would include tavern massacres, faction fighting, familicide, or politically motivated assassinations of politicians.

When bodies are blatantly left where they will be easily discovered, it can be interpreted as a statement.

The definition of a spree killer is one or more persons, two or more victims, one event, which can last several days or weeks, at two or more locations with no cooling-off period in between. The motivation is thrill-seeking. In 1983 Charmaine Phillips and Peter Grundling killed four men on a killing spree travelling from Durban to Johannesburg. Grundling was sentenced to death in 1985 and Charmaine was released on parole in 2004.

A lone serial killer’s motivation stems from a deep-seated intrinsic fantasy that is acted out on the crime scene.

There have been many examples of loosely formed groups who commit multiple murders for various reasons. The 1999-Australian Bodies in a Barrel Case is one where bodies were moved and concealed, not revealed.

In May 1999, eight dismembered bodies were discovered in barrels in a bank vault in Snowtown, north of Adelaide Australia. It turned out three men, John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner, and James Spyridon Vlassakis had killed 12 people between August 1992 and May 1999. Besides the three men convicted on the murders, an accomplice Mark Haydon was convicted of helping to dispose of the bodies. There were several other accomplices implicated in the murders and disposal of the bodies. Some people knew about the murders but did not report them.

None of the perpetrators or victims, bar one, were from Snowtown. Justin Bunting lived in Salisbury North, with Robert Wagner and Mark Haydon as neighbours and James Vlassakis and his mother lodged with Bunting. In 1999 Mark Haydon rented the abandoned bank building in Snowtown. The bodies had been transported to the bank vault from various locations, after their murders. Some of the victims were family members of the murderers and all were tortured before being murdered.

The ringleader of the group was Justin Bunting, who was sexually molested at the age of eight. Justin targeted paedophiles, transsexuals, homosexuals and abhorred obese people and drug users. He believed he had a mission to rid society of these people and roped in his friends to commit the murders and dispose of the bodies. During torture victims’ banking details were extracted and the group benefitted from continuing to draw social security benefits and pensions, but this was a side-line. Justin Bunting’s victims were forced to call him; “God”, “Master”, “Chief Inspector” and “Lord Sir”. He was a psychopath bent on revenge.

It was the disappearance of Elizabeth Haydon, Mark Haydon’s wife, that led investigators to Snowtown and the discovery of the bodies in the barrels. Investigation into James Bunting led to the discovery of more bodies buried in his back yard.

In September 2003, Justin Bunting was convicted of committing 11 murders and Robert Wagner of ten, three of which he had confessed to. They were sentenced to life without parole. James Vlassakis pleaded guilty to four of the murders, including those of his half brother and step brother. In 2004, Mark Haydon, whose wife Elizabeth was also a victim, was convicted on five counts of assisting with the murders of which he admitted to two. Mark Haydon was released on parole in 2024 and James Vlassakis’s parole has just been announced in September 2026. James Bunting had a personal hatred for what he considered sexual perversions.

Gender-based violence, male privilege, entitlement to rape, patriarchism, tribal faction or revenge may be behind the Ekurhuleni murders, but we do not know yet. Establishing a motive does not stop the murders. Whatever the motive I urge women to be vigilant and not to walk alone and yes, I agree this is unfair, as they should be free to walk where they want, but if being vigilant will save your life, then be vigilant.

History does not have a good record regarding the sanctioning of raping women en masse. In my August-September 2026 articles I discuss war-rape where the motive is for the conquerors to humiliate the defeated and the women are regarded as booty or enslaved; raptio when women from another tribe are kidnapped and raped to secure wives; rape of the anumpheutos, referring to women who choose to stay celibate and not marry; rape by caste as in the case of the Yazidi and Dalit women. Despite government decrees, thousands of women are considered “free-game” to be raped and killed purely because of their ethnic group. Some of these mass rapes happen during war and form part of ethnic cleansing and some just happen because the women are considered “untouchables” and expendable. The women are sold into sex slavery and passed on between fighters as temporary brides.

Let us see the external action in the call for municipalities to clean up their act regarding the physical safety of women, let us see more action and speedy conviction in domestic violence cases, and can South Africa become the nation where addressing the deeper psychological issue of some men’s attitude towards women actually happen? We are all in this together and we can make a constructive difference. Kudos to the men and women out there who are standing up against gender-based violence.

The public should not revert to vigilantism. The suspects who attempted to kidnap the woman a week ago were armed, which can explain how easily a woman can be coerced into a vehicle. Citizens confronting suspects could be shot. Allow the investigative team and the police to do their work and please supply them with information by calling the Crime Stop Line at 08600 10111 or the Whatsapp line at 083 790 0659 or Warrant Officer Elvis Manyike at 082 465 7249.

Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one

A doggerel is verse warning others to not follow the executed person’s example and to avoid their fate. Lizzie Borden was found not guilty for the brutal murder of her parents, yet the doggerel expresses public opinion that she should not have gotten away with it.

Episode VI of Netflix’s series Monster, The Lizzie Borden Story introduces the audience to Aileen Wuornos and Shelby visiting the Borden house as a modern Bed and Breakfast. This setting provides ample opportunity for another chain of exhibitionistic treatments to close ups of the dead bodies of Andrew and Abby; Aileen and Shelby making love in the room where Abby was killed, eating pizza in the kitchen with Aileen hallucinating about the bodies on the kitchen table and a grand finale of Aileen meeting Lizzie’s ghost in the attic. Lizzie, dressed in a lacy conservative white Victorian nightdress framed by candlelight, mimicking a Madonna, serenely looks down upon Aileen, who with venerable adulation, gazes up at Lizzie telling her she is famous and that she loves her because she stood up for herself. Aileen recalls being raped by her male family members and her tragic youth.

While Aileen Wuornos was sexually molested and raped multiple times in her life, there is no evidence that Lizzie Borden was ever sexually molested. Although it was rumoured, the police could never establish a motive for Lizzie killing her father. The deduction therefore is that Aileen is not in awe of Lizzie taking revenge for being raped, but rather Aileen is in awe of Lizzie expressing her frustration through violent murderous acts. Like a Madonna, Lizzie gently stretches out her hand and touches Aileen’s face, absolving her. Then Aileen and Shelby make love in Lizzie’s sacred dove cote, and they are joined in a dance by Lizzie and Maggie.

Through the rest of the series, Aileen is interspersed in time-warped historical scenes, blending in with Lizzie’s contemporaries. The scriptwriters and producers took more than ample artistic license since they seem not to take into consideration the time the Borden House was turned into a Bed and Breakfast In 1996, Aileen was already on Death Row, being convicted in 1992. She could not have visited it. The audience is off course ‘treated’ to Aileen’s 2002-execution, for there is no way such an opportunity at killing off another person could be missed. “I am not a serial killer” states Aileen as she justifies the murders by explaining in explicit detail how she was raped and tortured by a convicted sex offender on parole.

There is no historic record that Aileen Wuornos ever had an obsession with Lizzie Borden.

Returning to Lizzie’s time in 1893. She is arrested an awaiting trial, however due to her financial status, her cell/ room is decked out with paintings, has a view of the garden, she is served tea in a silver teapot by the prison matron and her meals are ordered from the city hotel. While Lizzie gives inconsistent evidence, Emma, who tried to extract a confession, chops down Lizzie’s cherry trees at home.

In another explicit sex scene, the actress Nance O Neil secures inside information from the court bailiff and decides to capitalize on Lizzie’s predicament. Conveniently, Lizzie is returned in custody to her own home to award her privacy with her lawyers. She decks the halls and walls with cherry blossoms and is visited by Nance O Neil, who coaches Lizzie and warns her the skulls of her parents will be presented in court.

I remember during the Phoenix serial killing investigation, the mortuary attendants were on strike. I walked into the Durban Murder and Robbery boardroom one day, where the skulls of the victims were boiling in pots on primus stoves. Although this was primitive, it was necessary to remove all flesh from the skulls for facial reconstruction to be conducted in an attempt to identify the victims. However, the episode left none of us untouched, especially due to the lack of dignity to the victims. To see Lizzie fake a faint in court when presented with the skulls and overshadowing the voice of the prosecution, makes me wonder at the scriptwriters’, directors’ and producers’ lack of real-life experience, lack of compassion and to what level of exploitation they would sink in order to generate synthetic sensationalism. I should cease to wonder.

Emma’s change of heart and Lizzie’s Oscar performance swings the jury into her favour. When she leaves court triumphantly, she gazes into the eyes of a lace-veiled Maggie. Historically Bridget Sullivan testified in court but she did not incriminate Lizzie.

Lizzie becomes Nance’s benefactor and they are best friends for ever, celebrating in Lizzie’s new house. Lizzie Borden moved to 7 French Street and named her opulent mansion ‘Maplecroft’, where she entertained her wealthy friends. At a dinner party Lizzie hallucinates that Maggie is there asking her a question about the murders. Once more this scene serves absolutely no purpose, save that the audience is exposed to another nauseating repetition of a bloodied Lizzie’s face. Then she meets the real Maggie in the crypt of the house. They read from Elizabeth Bathory’s book and the audience watches as Elizabeth is walled up alive and her decomposing corpse discovered much later. Historically this is incorrect. Elizabeth Bathory died in her sleep in her castle, but typically predictable, the makers of this series cannot allow another chance to pass by without exposing the audience to another horrible dead body – the stuff bad comic books are made of.

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During the 18^th to 19^th centuries, large crowds would gather at public executions and salivating in anticipation while waiting for the main event, they would buy the crime broadside – a one pager with a drawing of the crime, the criminal, a synopsis of the trial and the confession.

Some people have a genuine academic interest in criminology and their research and work contribute to the benefit of mankind, while others have a macabre fascination and a bloodlust reminiscent of the crowds at a Roman gladiator spectacle. During 19^th century Brittain the Penny Dreadful also referred to as Penny Horrible, Penny Awful and Penny Blood, were short 8-page booklets fulfilling a role in satisfying a need for cheap sensational fiction.

Watching episodes I and II of Monster, The Lizzie Borden Story, I still had hopes that the series would provide an insight into the mind of Lizzie Borden and perhaps keep on track with the historical facts. I accepted that it used poetic licence in character development, however as the series progressed it ventured so far down the rabbit hole and ended up somewhere in a putrid sewer.

In a previous article, Synthetic Sensationalism of Serial Killers in the Media (published on Patreon in August 2024) I referred to my stance that the media amplify serial killers’ notoriety, turning them into mythic figures, almost comic book super-heroes or supervillains, and the feeding a dark cult-like adulation.

If I should compose a Crime Broadside on Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, I would write that it embodies everything I abhor and turns out to be a typical synthetic sensational exhibitionistic exploitation, no better than a really bad Penny Dreadful.

Episode III opens with Lizzie and Maggie deeply in love, framed by cherry tree blossoms and unceremoniously dumped dead pigeons, discussing the benefits of killing the Bordens with an axe. Maggie explains riffles are for hunting, a knife is too sexual, but an axe is the most personal way to kill someone. In Andrew’s carpentry workshop we encounter Andrew’s axes, carrying female names as opposed to his former brother-in-law John Morse, the butcher’s knifes, carrying male names. At a dinner party actress Nance O Neil elaborates on a woman’s freedom to travel without a burdensome husband and children, while Andrew and John discuss oxen and steers, both castrated males. Andrew loses his cool due to an overdose of oestrogen at the dinner table. Andrew is supposed to represent the patriarchal attitude towards women, yet he is clearly henpecked by his wife.

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I have received several requests to review Netflix’s series Monster, the Lizzie Borden Story. The facts: In 1892, in Fall River Massachusetts, American socialite 32-year-old Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted for killing her father Andrew Borden and her stepmother Abby Durfee Gray with a hatchet in the family house.

The opening scene of the first episode, aptly called Bloodbath, depicts Lizzie Borden (played by Ella Beatty) selecting an axe. Her stepmother Abby (Rebecca Hall) is making up a bed, when she is bludgeoned to death by Lizzie swinging the axe repetitively. Lizzie’s father Andrew (Charlie Hunnam) returns home, lights his pipe and is then also attacked in a bloodlust frenzy. The camera zooms in on Lizzie, drenched in blood, with a satisfied expression on her plain face. The bloodthirsty no-holds-barred attack, with its synthetic sensational value, sets the tone of the series, and one expects boundaries are going to be crossed in the rest of the series.

In the first episode, making Snow White’s wicked stepmother look like a weakling, Abby is cast as a malicious stepmother, taking great pleasure in belittling and humiliating Lizzie, whom she urgently needs to marry off to get her out of the house. A rehearsed acceptance speech of a marriage proposal goes horribly awry when Lizzie’s ‘menses’ leaks onto the silk upholstery of Abby’s settee, causing the would-be suitor to make a hasty retreat, after he called her horse faced. At dinner Abby refers to Lizzie as an “old maid with a dying womb” and mentally sluggish.

Abby’s sadism surpasses the verbal abuse of Lizzie and extends to physical cruelty when she throws scalding hot soup into the face of a maid, opening the door for the Irish-German maid Bridget Sullivan (Vicky Krieps) – called Maggie by the family – to enter. In my mind, in the first two episodes Bridgit/Maggie Sullivan is cast as the true antagonist, portraying many of the characteristics of a cunning female serial killer, who kills for money. The fact that Lizzie eventually swung the axe, is a by-product of Maggie’s masterplan.

Like Mary Poppins, Maggie has a magical carpet bag and during her interview she manages to remove the blood stain from the settee and is thus hired by Abby. But Maggie’s skillset encompasses far more than knowledge on chemicals to clean upholstery, as she is quite competent in mixing all kinds of powders into concoctions, to dye her hair and achieve other more devious results.

In Andrew’s carpentry workshop where he manufactures caskets, Maggie demonstrates her knowledge of axes, and she detects blood on one of them which Andrew had used to chop off a tall man’s feet to fit him into the coffin – depicted in graphic detail and dark humour. Maggie is also quite willing to serve Andrew’s lustful needs, and confirms she will do anything for money. In the next episode she extorts money from Andrew to give herself an abortion.

Lizzie’s personal history is scarcely touched upon in the series and deserves more attention, as it points to a deeper understanding of the motivation of real-life Lizzie Borden. There were some rumours that Andrew had an incestuous relationship with his daughters, but these were never proved nor refuted, neither was the possibility that Lizzie was gay. These were a taboo topics to be discussed during the Victorian era. Lizzie had a complicated relationship with her father. She was the last of his two daughters, with her sister, Emma being 9 years older and the middle sister Alice, who died as an infant. When Lizzie was three years old, and Emma 12, their mother Sarah, passed away. Clearly the father’s sympathy would have tilted more in favour of the toddler who had just lost her mother, than the older sister. Although the Netflix series has Andrew marrying Abby shortly after Sarah’s death, in real life he waited a few years. Lizzie had no living mother and at her critical stage of 5 – 6 years, Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray. Lizzie later stated that she called her stepmother “Mrs. Borden”. Lizzie’s ages carries Jungian significance.

Instead of Lizzie’s youth, the series rather focusses on Maggie setting her sights on grooming and seducing a child-like Lizzie, who innocently prances about cherry blossoms and cherishes her beloved white doves in the dovecote, reminiscent of a Disney scene where Snow White talks to the birdies.

The topic of blood – introduced in the opening scene – plays a pivotal role in the series. In most cultures and religions blood symbolizes a life-essence. Blood sacrifices, both human and animal are intended to appease gods and families demand loyalty based upon bloodline. White doves symbolize purity and love. Maggie enlightens Lizzie that blood – her menses – is a sign of life and not a sign of shame as Abby makes it out to be.

Maggie uses Lizzie’s menses problems to introduce Lizzie to a vibrator – operated by a handle, like a manual drill. Vibrators were used in the 19^th century to address medical problems and “female hysteria”, but Maggie clearly had found a more sensual purpose for the menace-looking devices. Maggie also mail-orders a contraption consisting of a wooden phallus, powered by steam that would penetrate Lizzie’s perforated hymen, to alleviate her heavy menstrual periods. Gratefully, the viewer is spared a demonstration of these contraptions, and Lizzie’s seduction is sealed in a tender scene when Maggie kisses her in the sacred dove cote amongst cooing white pigeons.

Much more dangerous than a kiss shared between women during the Victorian era, is Maggie polluting Lizzie’s mind with concept that money means freedom and that a woman of means does not need a husband. Even Emma, Lizzie’s elder betrothed sister, admits their father’s estate is worth $300,000 and that she has no intention of ever marrying her fiancé. To a girl, her father is the source of money and protection and Victorian girls had to be passed on to husbands with the means to take over that protection. Abby makes it very clear that Lizzie has exceeded her sell-by date when it comes to her father’s protection. A seed is planted in fertile soil when Maggie suggests they should kill the parents. Lizzie refuses and Maggie realizes she clearly needs to do more psychological work on her protegee.

Maggie gifts Lizzie a book, who cannot read the French. At night in her bedroom, the polyglot Maggie reads Lizzie the history of 17^th century Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who was endowed Castle of Csejte by her husband Nádasdy as a wedding gift. Nádasdy had passed away in 1604 and since Elizabeth had inherited his wealth, she enjoyed the freedom to reign over her own estates, where from 1590 to 1610, along with four of her handmaidens, she tortured and killed as many as 600 girls, with the purpose of bathing in their blood in her pursuit to retain her youth. Since so many went missing, authorities had no choice to listen to the populace and investigated.

Upon finding countless mutilated, dead, dying and imprisoned girls at her Castle of Csejte, Elizabeth was apprehended, and she blamed her four handmaidens. They were tortured by having their fingers torn off, being burnt alive and beheaded. In the Netflix series the Countess has the bodies of the handmaidens bled. In reality Elizabeth Bathory was spared the death penalty due to her aristocratic birth, but she was confined to her castle for the rest of her life, where she died in her sleep in 1614.

Eager to impress the object of her infatuation, Lizzie invited Maggie into the dove cove where she had prepared a bath of cherry juice to imitate the blood and the girls both strip naked and as they submerge their bodies in the bath, Maggie comments: “If only this were blood”. Lizzie has become the handmaiden under the spell of Maggie.

The scenes of Elizabeth of Bathory’s henchmen slaughtering the young maidens is depicted in gothic detail and Lizzie’s sacred dove cote soon becomes a similar crime scene, when Abby, irritated by the cooing of the doves, slaughters the virginal-like white doves. (In real life, it was Andrew who slaughtered the doves.)

Abby gaslights Lizzie implying she did her a favour by removing her obsession with the doves so she could focus on snaring a husband. A bloodstained Lizzie demands action from her father, who sidesteps and blames her for not being a son. His bloodline is threatened. He calls her too dim-witted to understand, but Lizzie understood all too well. The killing of her doves, representing her innocence, tips the scales in Maggie’s favour. The doves lost their lives, Lizzie lost her virginity and innocence and the rage that had been brewing under the surface is let loose with vengeance.

With a seed already planted in her subconscious, it is Lizzie who tells Maggie they are going to kill her parents. Maggie derives a plan to kill them with oysters and in the series Andrew and Abby vomit the soup and blood with such velocity, that the scene reminds one of a space rocket emitting fuel on blast-off. Miraculously both parents survive the attempt. Episode 2 ends with Lizzie telling Maggie she knows exactly how they are going to kill her parents, as she retrieves the bloodied hatchet from the dove cote.

What was the Jungian significance of Lizzie losing her mother at age three and acquiring a stepmother at age 5 – 6?

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I recently visited South Africa in August 2026 and unbeknown to me on my way to OR Tambo International Airport, a serial killer was active, unceremoniously dumping bodies next to the motorway. At the time of writing of this article, 16 September) the South African Police had not yet confirmed a serial killer is at large, although the body count stood at eight. Gauteng Provincial commander Major-General Fred Kekana announced they had established a multi-disciplinary task team, under command of Major-General Mbuso Khumalo, deputy commissioner of Gauteng Province, comprising of murder and robbery detectives, forensic and cyber units and of course the Investigative Psychology Unit, that I founded almost 30 years ago, now under command of Brigadier Mandla Thusi. I can remember the pressure these police officers are experiencing, as well as the paralyzing fear pervading the community. The acting police minister Firoz Cachalia was briefed by the acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane, and president Cyril Ramaphose weighed in by promising that no stone will be left unturned. The stage was set.

During the past few two days, three bodies were discovered one after the other, bringing the body count up to eight, since the first was discovered in July 2026.

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It is not a habit of mine to interfere in a current police investigation. However at this stage, due to public outcry, the SAPS needs to take a stand on whether this is a serial killer case or not. Perhaps the fact that the boyfriend of the first victim was arrested, muddled the first impression of the investigation. Certainly, it is possible that some of these victims could have been killed by someone they knew – it has happened in the Phoenix serial killer investigation that a boyfriend dumped his girlfriend’s body in the sugar cane fields in Kwa-Zulu-Natal, hoping we would add her to Sipho Twala’s body count. Experienced detectives and profilers can quickly establish a copycat or an intruder, so this possibility should not derail an investigation and I am confident the current task team consists of experienced detectives.

Derived strictly from media information, what we know about the victims are the following:

Victim 1: Found 15 July 2026, a 37-year old woman tied up with cable ties, near R21 allegedly killed by her boyfriend, who was arrested.

Victim 2: Found 24 August 2026, near R21 a 32-year-old woman, partially dressed.

Victim 3: Found 10 September 2026 at Rhodesfield, Kempton Park, near Blesbokspruit a badly decomposed partially dressed body.

Victim 4: Found 12 September 2026, the partially dressed body of 38-year old, Elizabeth Tsontso Moselakgomo was discovered near a hotel in Rhodesfield. She had been out running and reported missing since September 10.

Victim 5: Found 14 September 2026 at the R21 near Olifantsfontein, the partially dressed body of a 35-year-old woman was found right next to dwellings.

Victim6 : Found 15 September 2026 at the side of road Kwa Themba Springs, near a clinic (45 minutes from Kempton Park) – the victim was strangled and naked.

Victim 7 : Found 7 September 2026 in a river in Clayville next to Tembisa Mall, the body of a 20-year old woman, dressed only in underwear.

Victim 8: Found 15 September 2026 in Olifantsfontein – no details released.

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Is this a serial killer or not?

At this stage clearly there are similarities in the victim profiles, the concentrated vicinity of the murder scenes are accessible within a 30-minute drive, and certain aspects of the modus operandi made public, such as the victims are clearly dumped and not killed at the scene and they are partially dressed, would be enough to me to declare a serial killer active.

There is speculation that this current case could be the work of several people working in cohesion. This is highly unlikely. Mass murderers, spree killers, assassins, war lords, school massacres, hostage takers, human traffickers, bank robbers, house robbers, car hi-jackers and serial killers all kill multiple victims, but they all have different motives. Serial killers are solitary and do not form part of groups – in some rare cases they may have one partner.

What is the difference between a robber, killing several people, during different events, at dispersed locations and with a cooling-off period in between and a serial killer who does the same? The answer is Motivation. Some multiple murderers are motivated by greed, religious dogma, political conviction, hate, revenge, but the serial killer is motivated by a deep intrinsic subconscious psychological gain that they themselves are not even aware of. This motivation is based upon the serial killer’s fantasy, which he shares with no-one else and it is the task of the profiler to unravel the fantasy and seek the serial killer’s signature on the crime scene.

Of course retrieving undisputed forensic evidence such as DNA on a crime scene could undoubtably lock in a conviction, but detectives still have to search for and find the suspect to whom the DNA belongs. In the Station Strangler case we processed more than two thousand suspects and in the end he was identified through the profile, not the DNA.

Vigilance versus vigilante

It is already the public’s perception that a serial killer is at large and the police have issued a serious warning to women to be vigilant. I appreciate this. During the Atteridgeville serial killer case, we issued similar warnings, but they were not taken as seriously as this one. I am touched that private individuals whom I have never met, contact me on LinkedIn asking for advice or just sharing their stories about the fear they experience. I can only reiterate that women should not walk alone, do not be the last one to disembark from a taxi – this was how Lazarus Mazingane captured his victims, activate the live location trace on mobile phones, and trust your gut. Remember serial killers do not froth at the mouth and they can be very charming, like Moses Sithole.

Unfortunately the current task team may also have to deal with conspiracy theories, false leads, fake news and possible vigilante activities. During the Station Strangler investigation a mob swarmed a private residence and the detectives had to be airlifted onto the roof of the dwelling to fight off people trying to set the house on fire. All these activities distract detectives from doing serious work and I would urge the public to restrain themselves from such illegal acts.

Serial killer investigations are notoriously difficult and complicated because they are stranger-upon-stranger investigations. It is highly unlikely that the victims knew the killer at all or that the victims knew each other. Detectives will need to first identify them, then trace their last movements and rely very much on the public to provide information. In the Station Strangler investigation a private clinic nurse Romy alerted us to a patient matching the description of the profile. In the Atteridgeville serial killer case a relative of Moses Sithole alerted us… I appeal to the public to contact Warrant Officer Elvis Manyike directly at 082 465 7249 if they have any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem.

Gods running rampart and mortal maidens being raped is a popular theme in Greek mythology and reproduced in contemporary art, glorifying the domineering male over the fleeing, protesting or sometimes even ‘acquiescing’ mortal woman. Do depictions of gods raping women encourage men to romanticize and justify the act, claiming it is sanctioned by religion, the law or medical myth?

Zeus raping the Titans, Olympians and Nymphs

After his victory over the Titans, Zeus was crowned King of the Olympians and he did not waste time in raping victims among the Titans and then marrying them. Metis, one of the Oceanid daughters of Oceanus and Tethys was his first wife and from her womb he took Athena to whom he gave birth through his head. He also married Themis, one of the Titan daughters of Uranus and Gaia who gave birth to the Horae: Eunomia, Dike and Eirene, and the three Moirai: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. He seduced the Oceanid Eurynome and fathered the three Charites: Aglaea, Euphrosyne and Thalia. He also lay with the Titan Leto, and fathered the twin Olympian gods Apollo and Artemis, By the Titan Mnemosyne, goddess of memory, he fathered the nine muses. Zeus raped Nemesis the daughter of Erebus, the primordial deity of darkness and his sister Nyx, the Night. Nemesis is regarded as the avenger of crime.

Zeus also raped his own mother, the Titan Rhea, who changed herself into a serpent to avoid him. Zeus turned himself into a serpent and mated with her.

Then he turned his attention to the Olympians and raped his sister Demeter who bore Persephone, and finally he raped and married his sister-wife Hera, goddess of marriage. Being married did not deter him.

Finally, Zeus turned his attention to a myriad of mortal women, but he restricted himself to royalty, for after all, he was the King. Zeus often fell in “love” with royal princesses and would transform himself into a potent animal or element, so the mortals were not overwhelmed by his greatness. The offspring of these unions would become demi-gods.

Zeus raping the lineage of Io

Io was the mortal daughter the river god Inachus and the Oceanid nymph Melia. Not only was she an Argive princess but she was also a priestess in the cult of Hera. Zeus covered the earth in darkness and raped Io. He turned her into a heifer to protect her from Hera’s wrath, but Hera sent a gadfly to sting Io and she fled until she eventually reached Egypt, where Zeus restored her to human form and she gave birth to his son Epaphus.

One of Io’s descendants was Europa, a Phoenician princess and the daughter of Agenor, the Phoenician King of Tyre. Zeus, taking on the shape of a bull (ironically after Io had been turned into a heifer) raped Europa and she gave birth to King Minos (father of the Minoan civilization of Crete) Rhadamanthus another Cretan king, and Sarpedon.

Further along the line of descendants of Io was Danaë, another Argive princess and daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and his wife, Queen Eurydice. Zeus raped Danaë in the form of a golden shower and she gave birth to the hero Perseus, slayer of Medusa and founder of the Mycenaean civilization.

Perseus married Andromeda and they had a son called Electryon, who had a daughter called Alcmene. Amphitryon accidently killed Electryon and eventually married Alcmene. Whilst Amphitryon was away on a campaign, Zeus desired Alcmene and instructed Helios the sun god to extend one night into three. He convinced Alcmene he was her husband Amphitryon and raped her. She conceived and borne the hero Hercules.

A contemporary of Danaë was Semele daughter of Cadmus, brother of Europa and therefore another descendant of Io. In the shape of his token animal the eagle, Zeus spotted Semele as she was slaughtering a bull in his temple. Remaining in the shape of an eagle, he seduced her and initiated an affair. Tricked by Hera Semele persuaded Zeus to reveal himself in his godly glory and she was struck dead by concomitant thunderbolts and lightning. Semele was pregnant with Dionysus, whom Zeus rescued and implanted in his thigh. Dionysus, like Athena, was born as a full god and not a demi-god.

Antiope was a princess and the daughter of King Nycteus of Thebes, descendant of Cadmus, of the bloodline of Io. Zeus taking on the form of a satyr raped her and she gave birth to Amphion and Zethus.

Alcmene was not the only princess duped by Zeus into believing she was sleeping with her husband. Cassiopeia was married to King Phoenix of Phoenicia and raped by Zeus in the image of her husband. She gave birth to Atymnius, a beautiful boy, who became the lover of Sarpedon and Minos, the sons of Europa by Zeus.

Zeus did not restrict himself to the bloodline of Io. Callisto was the daughter of King Lycaon and a follower of Artemis. Zeus transformed himself into the figure of Artemis to pursue Callisto, and she slept with him believing Zeus to be Artemis. She bore him the son Arcas, but Hera changed her into a bear and just before her own son killed her, she was transformed to become the constellation of Ursa Major the bear.

Leda was an Aetolian princess who was married to King Tyndareus of Sparta. In the guise of a swan, Zeus raped her and she gave birth to the demi-gods Helen of Sparta, and Pollux by Zeus and the mortals Clytemnestra and Castor by her husband Tyndareus.

The other male gods were as guilty of rape, but Zeus was the King of the Gods, the Sky Father and a formidable warrior, who killed his mighty father and led his siblings to beat the Titans. Zeus epitomizes ultimate male supremacy – a god not held accountable to anyone. Emperors, kings, sultans princes and presidents emulate Zeus and the gods and even some ordinary men begin to think they are gods and with impunity they believe they are entitled to rape.

Roman Mortal Gods misbehaving

Emperor Tiberius held wild salacious parties at his private Villa of Jupiter on the Isle of Capri. Tiberius raped and sexually molested young boys and sexually assaulted aristocratic women, causing one woman, Mallonia, such trauma that she was driven to suicide. Tiberius was advised that it was legally forbidden to execute a virgin. To bypass this law and punish the family of the disgraced politician Sejanus, Tiberius ordered the executioner to rape Sejanus’ young daughter, Junilla, before she was put to death.

It was at his uncle’s villa on the Isle of Capri and under these circumstances that Caligula, the third Roman Emperor was raised. Caligula was a megalomaniac, who fashioned himself as Jupiter – the Roman version of Zeus – and, like the god, his sexual exploits had no boundaries. Caligula is documented by ancient historians to have forced prominent senators to bring their wives and daughters to the palace for sex, and humiliating them by openly reviewing their performances. Rumors that he had sexual relations with his sisters, have not been proven.

Emperor Nero had an incestuous relationship with his mother Agrippina, whom he eventually had killed. Like his uncle Caligula, he sexually assaulted the wives of senators.

Emperor Vespasian did not declare himself a god, but according to Suetonius, on his deathbed, he joked: “Vae, puto deus fio.” (Dear me, I think I’m becoming a god”). Vespasian was a good emperor but his son Emperor Domitian also regarded himself as a god and, following the autocratic precedent set by Augustus, Caligula and Nero, he would continually harass the wives of men of high reputation.

Emperor Elagabalus raped a Vestal Virgin and transformed the Roman Forum into an open-air brothel.

Susan Brownmiller in her 1975-prize winning book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, coined the term Heroic Rape. Is modern society perpetuating the myth that rape is a romantic act epitomizing vigor, libido, virility and the courage of gods?

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It is in the hands of the gods, the ancient Greeks used to believe. By the throw of the dice, one is born into a certain social class, ethnic group, or caste in some countries. Who determines the hierarchy of supremacy and by whose decree does one ethnic group or class or caste have the right to dominate, torture or rape another in a free-for-all spree?

Class systems of Greco-Roman Antiquity

In ancient Greece social class division was determined by birth, wealth, occupation and citizenship,

Originally, the Aristoi or aristocrats were the Eupatrids, meaning “those with good fathers”, whose ancestral lineages could be traced back to the first kings of Athens. One famous member of the Eupatrids class, Solon (c. 630 – c. 560 BC) in his reform law lay the foundations for Athenian democracy, by dividing the population into different classes and allocating voting rights to some. The Aristoi held political power and top military positions. They claimed a right to rule based upon their ancestry. Most of these noblemen exploited their positions.

The Aristoi were followed by the Perioikoi consisting of farmers, traders and artisans, who were wealthy but had limited political power. Then there were the Metics, free foreigners who were not citizens. They were also successful traders and merchants but they could not own land and had no political rights, yet they were compelled to do military service when called upon. Freed slaves worked as labourers and were paid. Lastly came the Douloi who were slaves. Slaves who previously were royalty in their countries of origin were all reduced to the same status as all other slaves. They had no rights and were regarded as possessions.

The division of class was applied to men. Women had no citizenship and their class and rights were tied to their fathers and transferred to their husbands. In Sparta women had more rights, but Sparta was ruled by kings and was not a democracy.

The Romans had a similar system and distinguished between the patricians – the old families tracing their lineage back to the kings of Rome and the plebeians or commoners respectively. Later plebians could rise to become a novus homo, a ‘new man’ and enter the society of the nobility, but they were never considered true patricians. The majority of the Roman senators were patricians.

The equites or equestrian class were elite commoners, similar to the Knights of England and ranked just below the senatorial class. They acquired wealth. Emperor Vespasian was of the equestrian class.

Freedman or liberti were lower class plebians and became Roman citizens after being freed. Mostly they worked as labourers for merchants, farmers and traders, but some of them acquired wealth through trade and their descendants eventually became Roman senators.

Slaves were mostly prisoners of war, which could include royalty but some people became slaves due to debt or misfortune and their status was not necessarily permanent. Slaves worked in households and on farms. Some slaves rose to high positions such as the personal secretaries of the aristoi.

Freeborn women in Rome were citizens. By the second century BC depending on her marriage contract she was either under the legal control or potestas of her husband or her father. Marriages were arranged by the fathers for political alliance or financial gain and the age of lawful consent to a marriage was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. Romans were allowed to divorce and wives retained control over their dowries.

Social classification of South Asia

The Indian Varna system is based upon occupation while the Jati system refers to caste. The four varnas are the Brahmins: Vedic scholars, priests or teachers; the Kshatriyas: rulers, administrators or warriors, the Vaishyas: agriculturalists, farmers or merchants and the Shudras: artisans, labourers or servants. The Jati refers to caste, sub-caste, clan, tribe, or a religious sect. Communities that belong to one of the four varnas or classes are called savarna Hindus. Those who do not belong to any varna were called avarna.

The Dalits of India do not form part of the four varnas and are considered outcasts and ‘untouchables’. Scholars regard ‘untouchability’ as a social class distinction that development after the establishment of the varna and caste system, reaching a peak during 600–1200 AD. There are several theories on the origin of “untouchable”, mostly centring around so-called unclean work such as leather tanners, or sweeping, working with meat or bodily fluids or manual labour. Members of the higher classes disassociated themselves with those of lesser material means and involved in manual labour associated with impurity.

Besides the Dalits, the Burakumin of Japan and the Baekjeong of Korea, the Ragyabpa of Tibet, the Romani people and Cagot in Europe, and the Al-Akhdam in Yemen were all considered “untouchable”, comparable to the peasant class of the medieval European feudal system. Discrimination manifests in societal rules pertaining to not sharing cutlery, segregation in space to eat, at festivals and burial grounds, and in temples. “Untouchables” are treated as pariahs and outcasts.

Untouchability has been outlawed in Pakistan and in Nepal it has been criminalised and the constitution of India includes Dalits as one of the Scheduled Castes, providing them the right to protection, affirmative action and official development resources.

However, despite government decrees, thousands of women are considered “free-game” to be raped and killed purely because of their ethnic group. Some of these mass rapes happen during war and form part of ethnic cleansing and some just happen because the women are considered “untouchables” and expendable. The women are sold into sex slavery and passed on between fighters as temporary brides. On 2 July 2017 AOL.com reported about a Yazidi woman held captive in a cellar by ISIS, who was starved for several days “and was finally given a meal by her captors. When finished, they said “We cooked your one-year-old son that we took from you, and this is what you just ate”.

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Raptio refers to the mass abduction of women for the purposes of forcibly marrying them, as opposed to bride kidnapping, when a single woman is abducted by a specific man who rapes and marries her. Raptio also differs from war rape. In war rape, the motive is for the conquerors to humiliate the defeated and their women are regarded as booty or enslaved. The motive behind raptio is to provide wives and the tribes or villages affected are usually not engaged in war with the marauders. In raptio women may be treated more leniently after the forcible abduction, for the men prefer compliant wives. However, marital rape is certainly not excluded in raptio for many of the women resent the abduction and were certainly taken against their will.

The War of the Benjamites

One of history’s Biblical narratives of raptio occurred some time between 1400 BC and 1200 BC and was triggered by the gang-rape episode of the Levite man from Ephraim’s concubine - though some feminists argue she was his legitimate wife. The woman had left her husband due to abuse and returned to her father’s house in Bethlehem. He set off to fetch her and on their journey home, they travelled through the Benjamite city of Gibeah. The only man to offer him hospitality for the night was an elderly fellow tribesman from Ephraim who had been living in the town for years. That night the Benjamite men hammered on his door demanding the old man hand the Levite over to them so they may “know him.” This could point to having sexual relations with the man. To protect his guest the old man offered the Levite’s wife and his own daughter to the crowd. He pushed the Levite’s wife through the door and the men gang raped the woman all night long until she lost consciousness. Upon discovering her body on the doorstep the next morning, the Levite took her home, dismembered her and sent the limbs to the 12 tribes, demanding vengeance.

The tribes vowed that no tribe would give their daughters as wives to the Benjamites and they mustered a force of 400,000 men. The Benjamites refused to hand over the men from Gibeah who had raped the woman, which led to the battle in which all but 600 Benjamites were slaughtered.

Fearing that the tribe would cease to exist, the Levites attacked the city of Jabesh-Gilead, who did not join them in the war, and abducted 400 virgins as wives for the Benjamites. The remaining 200 proceeded to abduct virgins dancing at Shiloh.

Raptios of Rome

Certainly antiquity’s most famous narrative of raptio is the Abduction of the Sabine Women. In the eight-century BC, when Romulus the first king had founded Rome, he realised there were not enough wives for the men, who consisted mainly of bandits. None of the neighbouring tribes were eager for their daughters to marry the Romans. To celebrate the festival of Neptune Equeste, the Romans invited all their neighbours including the Sabines. During the festival the Roman men grabbed all the Sabine virgins and fought off the men defending them. The Sabine men retreated.

The only matron among the women was Hersilla, daughter of Titus Tatius the king of the Sabines, who became Romulus’ wive. According to Livy, Romulus addressed each of the women in person, declaring “that it was all owing to the pride of their parents in denying right of intermarriage to their neighbours.” He offered them free choice, a life in honourable wedlock, and a share in all their property and civil rights, and “they would be the mothers of freemen.” Reminded of their free choice, the women acquiesced and bore their Roman husbands children.

The Sabine men returned to retrieve their daughters and a fierce battle ensued, however Hersilla stepped in between the Sabines and the Romans and implored them make peace for the sake of the women and their children, whereafter a peace treaty was signed.

About two centuries later in 510 BC, Sextus Tarquinius (Tarquin), last son of the last King of Rome Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, brought the monarchy to a fall by raping Lucrecia, a noblewoman. Lucrecia committed suicide and the Roman nobility exiled the royal family of Tarquin from Rome and turned it into a Republic.

By 250 AD, Rome was an empire and another episode of raptio occurred, but this time the victims were Roman women. The Gothic tribes raided the Roman provinces of Moesia and Thrace, killed the Roman emperor Decius, and abducted a number of women many of whom were Christian.

Modern raptio abductions

Raptio is not limited to antiquity. In June 2026, the Nigerian army managed to rescue more than 300 people abducted by Boko Haram, however last month in July 2026, Boko Haram kidnapped 25 female students, 11 male students and 1 teacher in the Borno state. This was the third abduction incident since May 2026.

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The Greek term Anumpheutos refers to women who choose to stay celibate and not marry. They choose to forsake oikos, the home-centred life of married women. Greek mythology bodes ill for men who rape virgins and marry them. As a kourotrophic or child-nurturing deity, the Greek goddess Artemis, twin of Apollo, is regarded as the patron and protector of young children, especially young girls. Artemis chose to remain an unmarried virgin goddess who gathered virgin nymphs around her to join her in her hunts in the forests.

Aura

One of these was a maiden called Aura from Phrygia in west-central Anatolia, who was reputed to be a “manlike” virgin. One day Aura made the fatal mistake of comparing her smaller breasts as superior to Artemis’ more ample bosom. Offended, the goddess arranged a punishment for Aura involving Dionysus, God of wine and revelry to fall in love with Aura. Aura was a sprinter and soon outran Dionysus, however the god drugged her with wine and when she passed put, he tied her up and raped her while she was sleeping. (Recognized as a modern-day paraphilia termed somnophilia).

Aura woke up and not only did she find her virginity robbed but she was also pregnant. Aphrodite exiled her from the clan and according to fifth-century Nonnus in his epic poem the Dionysiaca an enraged Aura “made empty the huts of the mountain ranging herdsmen and drenched the hills with blood”. Aura gave birth to twin boys, and tried to feed them to a lioness, who would not devour them. Aura then threw one of the boys into the air and as it crashed down to earth, she ate it, committing cannibalism. Artemis, herself a twin born from a raped mother, Leto, rescued the surviving twin boy, called Iacchus. Aura then drowned herself in the river Sangarios, where Zeus turned her into a spring. Zeus, being the male supreme god who had raped Leto, Artemis’ and Apollo’s mother.

Daphne

Perhaps Apollo suffered from sibling rivalry and his twin sister’s nymphs’ determination to preserve their virginity would be offensive to this god, for Apollo’s vanity could match his beauty and being rejected was unacceptable to his ego.

Daphne, daughter of the Thessalian River god Peneus, also chose to live a life of chastity and join Artemis’ nymphs. Like the other nymphs she avoided men, especially Leucippus, son of a king, who wooed her. Leucippus grew his hair long, dressed like a girl and joined Daphne’s hunting party, thus forming a close alliance with her. However, one day when they all went for a swim, it was revealed that Leucippus was a man and Daphne and her entourage speared him to death.

Witnessing this, Apollo, who had also fallen in love with Daphne, pursued her. When he caught her, she prayed for deliverance and was turned into a laurel tree, either by Zeus, or Gaia the Earth-Mother goddess. Apollo embraced the laurel three and proclaimed in future all the male winners of games held in his honour would be crowned with a laurel wreath. Daphne was spared being raped and retained her virginity, however she was quite bloodthirsty when Leucippus’ gender was revealed.

Daughters of Leucippus

Phoebe and her sister Hilaera, priestesses of Artemis, were the daughters of Leucippus, a Messenian prince, and Philodice, daughter of Inachus, the first King of Argos. They were betrothed to their cousins to Idas and Lynceus, the sons of Aphareus. Yet just before their wedding, Zeus’ sons by Leda, the mortal Castor and the god Pollux, (the Dioscuri and brothers of Helen of Troy) abducted the women, raped them and took them to Sparta to become their brides. The term “rape” in classical antiquity (from the Latin raptus) generally implies “heroic abduction”, which historically conveyed a forced taking or carrying off of a woman for marriage or sexual violation. Both Phoebe and Hilaera bore their husbands sons, but when Idas and Lynceus eventually engaged the Dioscuri in battle, the mortal Castor was killed. Pollux implored Zeus to reunite them in the stars, which is called the star sign of Gemini.

The Danaides

The Danaides were the 50 daughters of Danaus, King of Libya, who were forced to marry their cousins, the 50 sons of Danaus’ twin brother Aegyptus. Danaus and his daughters fled from Libya and finally landed in Argos, where he challenged the current king, Pelasgus, who finally abdicated, leaving Danaus to rule. However, Argos was struck by a drought since Poseidon had dried up all the springs. He was angry because Inachus, the first King of Argos had declared the land the property of Athena. One day, one of the Danaides, Amymone, was sent out to fetch water. While out, she fell asleep and was attacked by a satyr who wanted to rape her. Poseidon intervened and threw his spear at the satyr. The spear lodged in a rock and when Amymone retrieved it, a spring gushed from the rock and the drought was broken. The spring is near to the lake of Lerna.

In the mean time the 50 sons of Aegyptus had caught up with Danaus and demanded their brides. Fearing a war, Danaus consented but he gave each of his daughters a dagger and instructed them to cut off their husband’s heads after they had fallen asleep on their wedding night and bring the heads to him as proof of their deaths. All of them beheaded their husbands except Hypermnestra, who spared her husband Lynceus because he respected her desire to remain a virgin. The heads of the 49 princes were buried near the lake of Lerna.

The Danaides were not raped by gods – their abductors were mortals who were beheaded – gods are immortal and would get away with it.

The 49 Danaides were condemned to Tartarus – the Underworld where the wicked were sent as punishment. The women were forced to carry a jug to fill a bottomless pithos to wash their sins off. Because the water constantly leaked, they would forever try to fill the pithos without succeeding.

In contrast to mythology where raping anumpheutos boded death to the male, in the history of mankind, raping an anumpheutos bodes ill or death for the victim. The Marry-Your-Rapist Law still exists in many countries, where women are forced to marry their rapists or killed if they refuse.

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Mythology is larger than life, and behind the epic scenes and masterful dramatization of Christopher Nolan’s cinematic version The Odyssey, lurks a plethora of dark psychopathological phenomena.

The Shadow of Post-Traumatic Stress

The scene of Odysseus’ massacre of Penelope’s suitors presents a larger-than-life big screen depiction of how a warrior suffering from a post-traumatic stress flashback can morph into battle mode within seconds. Among the young rivals strutting their arrogance, Odysseus is nothing more than a beggar, eliciting disdain and contempt of the men in that hall. Yet the moment his hand wraps around the familiar bow, it triggers his transformation into the seasoned warrior he is. Odysseus personifies testosterone. Not only did he fight battles for ten years, but he had also won a war. Victory releases adrenalin and testosterone – a lethal cocktail.

In a post-traumatic flashback, the body registers exactly the same physiological responses it experienced when the incident occurred. Odysseus’ body tenses up, his pectoral muscles flex the moment he lifts the bow and as he nocks the arrow against the taunt bowstring, his pupils constrict and he takes aim and then he releases. Odysseus has no need to check if his arrow even sailed through all the rings of the lined-up labryes. He spins around, trusting the repetitive reflex motion of picking an arrow from the quiver, nocking and releasing, imbedded into his cell memory. One by one his arrows find their mark in the bodies of his enemies. He has danced this dance many times before. He feels invincible and would challenge even Hades himself (which coincidently he had done before he returned.) Penelope’s suitors stood no chance.

Penelope Weeping over the Bow of Odysseus by Angelica Kauffmann (Public Domain)

A massacre unfolded before her eyes. He killed the maids too. Could she have pleaded with him not to kill them? Would he even have heard her? One cannot reason with a man in full battle mode. In the din of battle, a warrior cannot hear you – his rational higher brain is locked down, and he has switched to the reptile brain, where movement becomes automatic reflex. When his anger is spent and the shutters of his rational brain slowly opens to the light of reason, he is stunned by what he has done. Then follows the remorse, the guilt and the knowing anything can trigger a flashback. With no therapy available, such men often return to battlefields, the only place they feel competent or at home. Odysseus’s return to Ithaca did not temper his restlessness. It simmered beneath the surface.

The Shadow Dance of Limerence

In a previous article I referred to Odysseus’ longing for Penelope, as a psychological case study of limerence – a crush on steroids. In Christopher Nolan’s version, at the end Odysseus and Penelope sail off into the sunset. In Homer’s version, they broke up. Bequeathing his kingdom to Penelope, Odysseus took up an oar and gave free reign to his wanderlust. Penelope did not want him back – no mystery there. He preferred to remain entangled in his limerence fantasy, casting Calypso as the leading lady replacing Penelope as the “girl on the island”. Limerence is fueled by the uncertainty if the love will be requited or not. Somewhere on an island there may be a woman who desires him. Travelling inland in the opposite direction of the island, means avoiding a confirmation of either yay or nay, and it keeps the hope alive. Odysseus’ return to Ithaca did not turn out as he had hoped.

Current surveys indicate between 40 – 60% of people experience an episode of limerence in their lifetimes. I describe limerence as a shadow dance between the limerent and the limerent object and it has a devastating ripple effect on marriages and the afflicted.

The Shadow Dance of Rescuers and Damsels-in-Distress

Why did Odysseus not vie for the hand of Helen?

To unravel this shadow dance, one needs to trace the background of the Odyssey and revisit the Iliad. According to Homer, Helen’s mortal father, King Tyndareus of Sparta summoned all eligible kings and princes to vie for Helen’s hand. Odysseus arrived with all the others, but he did not bid for her. Why? She was after all the most beautiful woman on earth – a face that launched a thousand ships.

Odysseus was a Hero, not a Rescuer and he recognized Helen as the prototype of a Damsel-in-Distress. He admired her cousin Penelope for her intelligence and independence, so he bargained for her hand.

The mythology of Perseus and Andromeda serves as a case study for the shadow dance of the Rescuer and the Damsel-in-Distress.

When Queen Cassiopeia, wife of King Cepheus of Aethiopia, boasted her daughter Andromeda was more beautiful than the nereids, the sea nymph daughters of Poseidon, the sea god was obviously not pleased. And after watching Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, everyone knows it is not a good idea to anger the sea god – just look what he did to Odysseus!

Poseidon sent the sea monster Cetus to ravage the coast of Aethiopia as divine punishment. After consulting a fortune teller, it was decided the only way to appease the monster was to bind the beautiful princess Andromeda naked to a rock and sacrifice her. Andromeda, lavishing in the role of Damsel-in-Distress was quite willing, perhaps not just to save her father’s kingdom, but she may have had a hidden agenda that a hero may happen to be passing by. And she was right. The hero Perseus, who had just returned victoriously from beheading Medusa, happened to fly past on his winged horse Pegasus, spotted her and gallantly saved her and of course married her, although she was betrothed to someone else.

Perseus should have taken the etymology of Andromeda’s name into consideration: The Greek “andros” means man. “Medo” means to protect or rule over, “medomai” means to deliberate, contrive, or decide, related to the verb, “medeia” which means to plan, or cunning. Medeia can refer to the sorceress Medea, ex-wife of Jason of the Argonaut fame, who killed her own sons, and to Medusa, the archetype of a female monster who turn men into stone with a mere look – and whose decapitated head happened to be Perseus’ secret weapon, with which he stunned Cetus.

Nevertheless, Andromeda, ruler of men, and Perseus’ marriage leads to the hero rescuing his mother Danae from her abusive husband, accidentally killing his grandfather Acrisius and finally becoming the ancestors of Arteus, the King of Mycenae and father of Agamemnon – who led the Achaeans into the Trojan War, to restore the honour of his brother, King Menelaus, whose wife Helen had run off with a young Trojan prince.

Odysseus was wise not to choose Helen.

Hercules was another descendant from Perseus and Andromeda. The citadel of Troy was difficult to conquer due to its impenetrable walls, which the gods Poseidon and Apollo had assisted to build. Both gods were displeased with King Laomedon of Troy because he did not reward them. King Laomedon had many children, including Hesione and her younger brother Podarces. True to form, Poseidon sent the sea monster Cetus to plague the city and like Andromeda before her, Hesione was tied naked to a rock to appease the monster. Perhaps Hesione had hopes of marrying a hero who would rescue her too, like her predecessor Andromeda. Luckily three heroes arrived, Hercules, Telamon, and Oicles on their return from the expedition against the Amazons. Hercules promised to save her, but dashed her marital hopes when he bargained with King Laomedon to gift him the wonderful horses he had received from Zeus as compensation for abducting Ganymede. Hercules rescued Hesione, but he gave her as a wife to his friend King Telamon of Salamis. Once again King Laomedon reneged on his promise and refused to deliver the horses to Hercules, who promptly proceeded to massacre the king and all his descendants except for Hesione. She pleaded for the life of her younger brother, Podarces. Hercules gave the city of Troy back to Podarces who became King Priam of Troy.

King Priam never forgot his sister and when she was an old woman, he sent his son Paris and grandson Aeneas to retrieve her from the Greeks, and it was on this trip that Paris was seduced by Helen, Queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus. They eloped and that led to the Trojan War.

Andromeda, Hesione and Helen were all Damsels-in-Distress who brought about the downfall and deaths of many men.

What prompts this shadow dance of a Rescuer and a Damsel-in-Distress? The answer lies in neuropsychology.

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In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus sits on the beach of Ogygia, island of the seductive nymph Calypso, staring out at sea, pining for his wife Penelope with whom he has had no contact for 17 years. Christopher Nolan in his cinematic version The Odyssey expands on Homer’s theme that Odysseus seriously suffers from the intrusive thought that he has to return to Penelope, to such an extent that he can focus on nothing else, not even the seduction of Calypso, immortalized by the performance of the actress Charlize Theron.

Odysseus’ longing to return home manifests as an obsession and the object of his obsession is Penelope. Regaining his rightful place as King of the island-kingdom of Ithaca is secondary to Penelope. Odysseus remembers Penelope as she was, a young bride in her prime and his son as an infant. Odysseus’ memory of Penelope is flawless. Even if she has aged, in his imagination his image of her shimmers and glows – he will embrace her, gently caress any wrinkles on her face, comb his fingers through her greying hair and all will be warm and wonderful.

Odysseus’ emotions fluctuate between hope and despair. What spurs him on is the uncertainty of whether he would be welcomed back or not. Odysseus is well aware that he has lost his spoils of war, his return was delayed with 17 years, of which he spent seven years in the company of a seductive nymph, and he has grown old. Yet he cannot get Penelope out of his mind, despite the seductive beautiful nymph whose bed he shares.

Despite the romanticized version depicted in the movie The Odyssey (inspired by Homer) when he finally set foot on his island-kingdom of Ithaca and reunited with Penelope after 20 years, Odysseus was probably confronted with a very different reality. Penelope may have developed a dowager’s hump from bending over her loom all day long, she may have a sagging bosom, or a potbelly, and certainly she had liver spots on her hands and a hardness to her face. Besides her physical transformation, Odysseus probably did not calculate the personality development of a young girl growing into an abandoned mature woman in her forties, into his equation of a warm welcome.

Penelope was not happy to see him. He was a beggar, he brought no spoils of war home, he suffered from post-traumatic stress and massacred the eligible young men and their fathers and the maids in a single night in her great hall and guess who would have to clean up that mess? With the return of the rightful king, Penelope had to abdicate her position as ruler of Ithaca.

Odysseus’ fantasy about his ‘homecoming’ was shattered. And so was Penelope’s who had held herself as ‘the martyred faithful wife, waiting for her husband to return’. This protected her from being compelled to marry and submit to someone else, but when he returned, she had to submit to him. (Helen of Troy who had defied her husband King Menelaus of Sparta eloped with a young lover, Clytemnestra, who killed her husband the high-king Agamemnon upon his return and Penelope, Queen of Ithaca, were all related and clearly these women were not the submissive type.)

Odysseus and Penelope had to ‘work at their marriage’ but this did not go well. Did he sit on the rocky outcrop of his island staring out at sea, pining for Calypso, the nymph on the island? Did he experience the same calling for her as he had for Penelope who had disappointed him? What man would not miss such a nymph? Did the alluring Calypso now occupy his thoughts and distract him from rebuilding his kingdom and his marriage? Would she take him back?

Book 11 and book 23 of Homer’s Odyssey tells shortly after his homecoming, Odysseus left Ithaca once more with an oar to travel inland until he found a place where no-one would recognize the use of an oar. In Homer’s Odyssey Penelope and Odysseus had split up.

Why did Odysseus travel inland and not back to Calypso? Calypso had replaced Penelope in his fantasy of the ‘girl on the island’ – both were island-bound women. Did he wonder if Calypso would take him back? Did he yearn to rid himself of the obsession of this fantasy woman in his mind? Or did he actually enjoy the uncertainty of not knowing? Odysseus did not want the untarnished image of an almost unreachable nymph on an island who perhaps desired him too, spoiled by reality, as was the case with returning to Penelope. If Odysseus had his senses about him, he would have realized Calypso was an immortal nymph who would never grow old, but he preferred to suffer the unrequited love, so he travelled inland.

Odysseus was suffering from limerence. In a 2025-article titled “What happens when love tips over into the infatuated state of ‘limerence’? neuroscientist Dr Tom Bellamy, quoted a 2025-survey suggesting that as many as 50–60% of the population had experienced limerence.

Dorothy Tennov, an American psychologist coined the term “limerence” in her 1979-book, Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love, and it describes a mental state characterized by intrusive thoughts, an idealization of the limerent object, an addiction to the uncertainty of whether feelings are reciprocated or not, an undercurrent of perpetual anxiety and mood swings depending on rejection or attention from the limerent object. Does it sound familiar?

Odysseus’ idealization of a loved object – seeing only the beauty even in the blatantly flawed, is called crystallization. Crystallization is a concept, developed in 1822 by the French writer Stendhal, which describes the process, or mental metamorphosis, in which the characteristics of a loved one are transformed into perceptual diamonds of shimmering beauty.

Limerence is a descriptive concept, rather than a diagnosis or disorder and it is not in the DSM, but it is real. I refer to limerence as the “ girl on the island fantasy” – much like Odysseus’ fantasy about Penelope and Calypso, who were both women living on islands, and as a psychologist I have encountered it in my practice.

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Christopher Nolan’s 2026-The Odyssey starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, King of Ithaca and Trojan veteran war hero, Anne Hathaway as his queen Penelope and Charlize Theron as the immortal nymph Calypso on her island Ogygia, is no doubt an epic cinematic masterpiece, with the focus not only on the physical homecoming of Odysseus, but also the psychological journey of a man, afflicted with post-traumatic stress, racked by guilt and suffering from nostalgia.

Calypso

With the Trojan War behind him, after many trials and encounters Odysseus, having lost his entire fleet, shipwrecks on Ogygia, island of the nymph Calypso. There are different versions of her lineage, but what they have in common is Calypso is a sea nymph, and Odysseus is regarded as the Admiral of the Seas. It is only natural that he is drawn to her. Calypso is also a healer and her superpowers is described as the ability to ‘mind-control” and heal through song. Calypso is an ancient psychologist – not that we mind-control, but we do focus on healing the mind through words.

In Christopher Nolan’s version he took poetic license by blending the Lotus Eaters’ episode with Calypso, insinuating Calypso kept Odysseus captivated by drugs. This is more suited to Circe, who used herbs and potions to transform the men. Circe used mind-altering drugs to obfuscate – men turning into swine could have been due to hallucinations. Circe is not a psychologist, but rather described as a witch and she bewitched. Her black magic did not work on Odysseus, nor did it heal him and chronologically after escaping Circe’s spell, he arrived on Calypso’s island, still a broken man suffering from post-traumatic stress. Odysseus’ ship was wrecked, symbolic of his shipwrecked manhood and soul, that needed healing. And Calypso complied.

Calypso did not bewitch, which implies lack of will. She seduced, which implies he had a choice. Homer, Nolan and many before them imply Odysseus stayed on Ogygia against his will. Really? In the seven years he spent with Calypso, Odysseus, a seasoned seafarer, did not try to escape once? The mighty Admiral of the Seas preferred to pine on the shore like a love-sick boy? Come on, Homer!! Calypso promised him sensual pleasures and immortality. Odysseus stayed voluntarily – He was a man, she was sensual – do the maths.

Nostos is a common theme occurring in Ancient Greek literature, pertaining to an epic hero returning home, often by sea. The return is not only about returning home physically, but also focuses on the hero retaining or elevating their identity and status upon arriving home. Nostos is the root of nostalgia.

Why would Odysseus want to leave Ogygia? Perhaps, typical of those afflicted with wanderlust, Odysseus felt stuck or bored– he had no other company except Calypso on that island. What if Calypso was an intelligent woman with whom he could talk to? After all he was considered the wisest of all the Achaean kings. What if after they made love, he told her the stories of all his adventures of the Odessey and she became the adoring audience, every man requires? Men love that … “Yes Dear…”. But what if that was no longer good enough for him?

Did Odysseus pine for Penelope, a wife he had not seen for 17 years? This amounts to a nostalgic romantic version of events. Or was he taken to task by his superego or conscience’s cultural expectation that a man is obliged to tend to his responsibilities. Odysseus felt duty bound to return to his kingdom – his queen was a by-product. He had to honor his legacy from his father Laertes, by then a shadow of the great king he once was. In his youth Laertes was one of Jason’s Argonauts, and perhaps Odysseus had inherited his wanderlust from his father. Perhaps this image of his heroic father as an ailing fragile old man confronted Odysseus with a preview of what lay ahead for him. Perhaps that was what he was thinking about when he pined on that beach? Odysseus was a man of adventure, he needed trouble and he needed male buddies. He needed to return as an able-bodied king to pass on the legacy of his father to his son Telemachus. That is what men are supposed to do.

Calypso obviously transgressed by having an affair with a patient, and Zeus (such a hypocrite), did not approve of goddesses sleeping with mortals. Calypso received a summons from Zeus to let Odysseus go. The virgin warrior goddess Athena was Odysseus’ personal protector and mentor and probably jealous of the carnal pleasures he was enjoying with Calypso, a minor goddess. Athena was a direct daughter of Zeus, with no mother, so she whispered in her father’s ear… and Zeus could not resist his daughter’s request. Note, it was not Odysseus who implored Athena to intervene on his behalf to deliver him from Calypso’s seduction.

Calypso lamented Athena’s jealousy, but she loved Odysseus so much that she aided him and provided the tools and timber he needed to build a new ship. Metaphorically Calypso aided Odysseus by providing him the tools and material to rebuild the ship of his manliness, his soul, although she knew this was to be the vessel that would take him from her. (If you something set it free…) She loved him enough to respect his freedom of choice to decide whether he would stay or go. He decided to go and the moment he dusted the sand of her island from his feet, his post-traumatic stress symptoms returned.

Did Odysseus expect a hero’s welcome when he returned to Ithica? He had encountered the spirit of deceased Agamemnon in the Underworld who informed him how his wife Clytemnestra had killed him. Queen Clytemnestra had ruled Mycenae with Agamemnon’s cousin Aegisthus. Neither were pleased with the thought that Agamemnon would want his kingdom back and Clytemnestra was jealous that Agamemnon had the audacity to flaunt the Trojan princess Cassandra, known for her gift of prophesy, as his spoil of war. Odysseus did not take heed.

So, after setting sail and another three years and perhaps another tryst or two, or three, Odysseus finally arrives on his island kingdom of Ithica, once more shipwrecked and as a beggar. Unlike Agamemnon and the other returning victorious kings, Odysseus had lost his spoils of war – he had to return home empty handed, after spending seven years living with his mistress. Did Odysseus have enough insight to realise his wife would not be overly happy with this situation, or did his honor or ego set such a high premium that it never crossed his mind?

Queen Penelope

In the great hall of Ithaca Queen Penelope was entertaining her young suitors. She is always praised for her virtue as “the faithful wife who waited for her husband, weaving and unravelling her wedding gown”. Did this accolade suit her or is it a gender-biased patriarchal view? Was there a hidden agenda behind it?

Is it possible that Penelope perhaps secretly enjoyed and expected the admiration of the suitors as homage to a ruling queen? Does it not make sense that she would much rather have retained her powerful position as queen, over choosing a candidate to marry and being subjected to having sex with a subordinate who would lord it over her as her new king-husband would have been entitled to? Penelope was in her late thirties to early forties by then. There is no way she was going to exchange her power for sex – her first marriage to Odysseys was not a love match to begin with – he bargained with her uncle, King Tyndarius Helen’s mortal father, to marry Penelope. So, the accolade of “faithful wife believing her husband is alive after missing-in-action for 20 years” suited her – until he turned up.

The Homecoming

And what did Odysseus find when he turned up? His palace was overrun by younger rivals! Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus took up Queen Penelope’s challenge that whoever could shoot with King Odysseus’ bow, would win her hand – and promptly when he touched his own bow (lots of Freudian symbolism here), he slaughtered all her suitors – with the aid of his son. To his credit, Odysseus was suffering from post-traumatic stress and anything could have triggered him. However, these men were not HIS rivals – he was already the lawful husband and king – they were HER suitors on HIS territory. He killed them to protect HIS honor and to pacify his own bruised ego and his jealousy. Her honor was a byproduct.

In fairness Odysseus might argue that he was obliged to fulfil his responsibility, his duty to his queen and kingdom, which was noble. (In medico-legal terms, he might have had a case to plead non-pathological incapacity). Yet in this act he robbed his kingdom Ithaca of its collection of eligible bachelors and young men who could have become potential soldiers in time of war, and he killed some of their fathers, his peers who could have been his counsellors and he killed the maids who had slept with the suitors. This did not make him a very popular king whom the ordinary Ithacans had waited for in anticipation to return home. Especially not among the women, who had already lost husbands and sons serving the war in Troy, necessitating them to toil like men and there were no husbands for them. So wise Odysseus, as he was known, made a serious error of judgement within his first few days of returning to his kingdom.

Returning to Penelope. Was she impressed by his show of force? Certainly not. From Penelope’s point of view, when he first arrived and even after he shot the suitors with the bow, she did not trust him nor did she believe him. He had to reveal the secret of having built their marriage bed in a tree, before she believed him. She had no choice and as “faithful wife who had waited for her husband”, Penelope, probably in her menopausal years, was obliged to have sex with her husband whom she had not seen for 20 years, who suffered from post-traumatic stress and who had just massacred his own men… and the maids and “just who do you think is going to clean up that bloody mess in the Great Hall?” On top of that, he had cheated on her with many women, including his mistress with whom he had lived for seven years. What woman would believe her husband’s excuse “But darling, it was impossible for me to leave…”? Penelope who had been faithful and did not have sex for 20 years was surely not physically aroused by this prospect. In addition, she now had to relinquish her rule of her Queendom to the rightful King. All these thoughts were mulling in her head as she lay there in her musty marriage bed in the tree, with her husband grunting on top of her.

From Odysseus’ point of view, he had done his duty to return his kingdom. Not as a hero, but as a beggar, which was humiliating. He vented his rage, lost his cool and cleansed his palace of the ‘vermin’, which might not have been such a good idea and it did not really make him feel any better about himself, nor honorable, but there is nothing like sex to restore a man’s self-image and bruised ego for a few hours. Now he had to ‘work at his marriage’, reunite with his wife, who was by then a 40-year-old frigid woman in her menopause, who did not have sex for 20 years, with a low libido and serious passive-aggressive issues! Is this what he came home to? She who lay there cold as ice staring at the leafy canopy of their marriage bed, with a frown and a sour look on her face, thinking of King and country.

Homer wrote Odysseus and Penelope returned to their old routine. He described it as ‘thesmos’, a term referring to a law, divine ordinance, or custom established by tradition and authority. It has religious overtones, more a sense of obligation that anything connected with love, passion or romance. Once more, Odysseus was bored.

What about his reconciliation with Telemachus? Although Telemachus assisted him to kill the suitors, the boy had no warrior experience. Telemachus was a mommy’s boy who was bullied by her suitors. When his father pitched up out of the blue and recruited him to kill the suitors, Telemachus saw this as his chance to vindicate his humiliation – his mother’s honor came secondary. Telemachus for all intentions had grown up, and his father’s return offered him the ideal opportunity to untie his mother’s apron strings, and spread his wings.

The Wanderlust

As a psychologist I would venture that neither Odysseus nor Penelope were very happy about ‘trying again’ and ‘giving it a second chance’. They had serious marital problems and no access to couples’ therapy. Penelope turned into the typical passive-aggressive wife, with the icy tone: “Nothing is wrong, Odysseus, I am FINE” and Odysseus, like many men in this scenario, silently retreated and took to the hills.

Perhaps he missed his 20-year-old dog Argos, who had died of excitement when he saw him for the first time again, which was just another reminder that the life he had left behind was very different to the one he returned to. Add to this the King’s obvious unpopularity with his subjects, there was a lot on his mind as he sat on the hill, gazing out over the sea towards Ogygia… Did he pine for Calypso’s warmth and sensual pleasures? Yet he had left her to fulfil his duty and responsibilities as a husband and a king! The honorable thing to do. “Fat lot that helped me,” he acclaimed as he slapped his thigh and struggled to get up – the old war wound was playing up a little.

He could have opted to become a fat and complacent old man like King Menelaus, who brought a disgraced Helen back to Sparta where they “tried again” to “give it a second chance”, but Helen had no option. Penelope did, as she was not disgraced. Perhaps he feared his wife would one day kill him, as Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon! After all, Helen, Clytemnestra and Penelope were all cousins. Such were his thoughts as he descended the hill.

Odysseus returned to his palace and to Penelope’s relief he opened up the “I want a separation, I need to find myself” discussion. Penelope must have had a celebrity lawyer, for she took Odysseus for every penny he did not have and secured the kingdom as a settlement. Her “dutiful wife” image no longer served a purpose. She was free to become quite a cougar to the few remaining suitors who happened to be absent on the day Odysseus had slaughtered their peers, if she wished. Queen Penelope was in her element – an older woman who has had her passions legitimately re-awakened, catching up on 20 years and everyone knew Odysseus, the King, was alive, so she had no obligation to marry anyone else, ever again. The Queen truly became independent. It was essentially a win-win situation. Odysseus retained his wanderlust and Penelope kept the Queendom.

Telemachus, the crown prince, was not that popular on the island kingdom either, for he had aided his dad in killing all his peers. In effect he had killed the brothers of all available future girlfriends on the island and his marriage prospects dropped drastically. So, he left, seeking his own adventures and eventually he married Nausicaa, whose name, ironically, means ‘Burner of Ships’, but not before he had a tryst with his father’s ex, Circe. Telemachus never became King of Ithaca. Penelope was glad to see her son go, he was a bit of a Mommy’s boy, but typically of the stereotyped males of his time, he had the audacity to try and keep her in her place at the loom.

With the paperwork signed and delivered, Odysseus picked up an oar, swinged his rucksack over his shoulder and took off. After all, he was a man of adventure and had a few more trysts in mind.

Happy-Ever-After Odysseus

In Christopher Nolan’s ending of the movie The Odyssey, Odysseus and Penelope embrace a self-imposed exile and Telemachus takes his rightful place as king. Facing the open sea, Odysseus on his ship’s bow predicts the collapse of the Bronze Age, and a future where he will be forgotten.

Alternatively, perhaps Odysseus set off on his travels to find a place where no-one would recognize the function of an oar. The Admiral of the Seas, attempting to get as far away from the sea as possible. Why? Was he trying to get so far away from Ogygia because he could not forgive himself for leaving Calypso?

As an older man, on his travels, Odysseus had time to reflect, to recover from his post-traumatic stress, and his guilt feelings, to overcome his ego and to relinquish his position as a king, to become Odysseus the truly Wise, once more. Perhaps he realised the greatness of the love of Calypso – she loved him not for his crown or his kingdom or the spoils of war… she loved him as a Man, even with his post-traumatic stress and his vulnerabilities exposed, she healed him, she loved him enough to let him go… she loved HIM. Would she take him back, would she have waited for HIM, unlike Penelope who wore her role as ‘dutiful wife” like a sanctimonious hypocrite with a hidden agenda? Would Calypso still be there? Would she reproach him with a ”I told you so” if he beached on her island once again?

And then he remembered … of course she is there. She is immortal. She is a goddess and she promised him her sensual pleasures and immortality. So, Odysseus, wise man as he was, abandoned his self-pity, and did the truly honorable thing. He dropped the oar, turned around and returned to Ogygia, just as a Man, offering her nothing more or less than himself and his love.

Calypso and Odysseus by Friedrich Preller the Elder (1864) (Public Domain)

On Ogygia Calypso had not waited like a “faithful dutiful wife”. She amused herself with Hermes occasionally, as she was a goddess after all. But when Odysseus set foot on her island once again, she embraced him, with a “Welcome Home Odysseus”. Did they live happy ever-after? Of course they did and they indulged in their sensual pleasure on their island. If they did not, then Odysseus would have been forgotten. But just the fact that Christopher Nolan made a blockbuster epic movie about him proves he was not forgotten, he became immortal, through Calypso. The story of Calypso and Odysseus is immortal.

“I did because I wanted to and I couldn’t stop” said Leono Vergotine, convicted South African multiple child rapist, and recently declared a dangerous criminal. Can people control their sexual urges? Do they act against their better judgement? Do they even have judgement or a moral compass at all?

Historical Overview of Temperance

In ancient Greek the “virtue of temperance” can commonly be translated as sôphrosune meaning self-restraint, and enkrateia, meaning control over oneself or self-discipline. To the 4h-century BC Greek philosopher, Aristotle, temperance pertained to bodily pleasure. Aristotle differentiated between self-control and self-restraint. A person who exhibits self-control wisely refrains from giving in to unwise desires – the desire to rape. A person who exhibits self-constraint does not have unwise desires in the first place because they have wisely shaped their character in such a way that their desires are proper ones – rape never even crosses their minds.

In ancient Rome, Virtus (Latin Vir means man) referred to masculine strengths such as valour, excellence, courage, character, worth and temperance or self-control. (Of course, these are worthy virtues for any gender).

Second-century AD Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius argued that temperance separates humans from animals: “[I]t is the peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the senses or the appetites, for both are animal; but the intelligent motion claims superiority and does not permit itself to be overpowered by the others.”

What separates humans from animals is reason, the ability to think, to consider long-term consequences, to make judgements on appropriate conduct. These human qualities are functions of the higher brain, or the prefrontal cortex. Mammal brains have certain prefrontal cortex functions, such as planning in hunting or problem-solving skills – figuring out how to escape from a labyrinth. Animals can be trained to extend the gratification of their needs, for instance dogs are trained not to eat until a command is given, but this is due to operant conditioning, as opposed to their instinct. According to Abraham Maslow’s theory on the hierarchy of needs, the pinnacle is altruism – the need to overcome the desire to gratify our own needs and rather act to the benefit of all. Can animals act to the benefit of all? Yes. In a baboon tribe there will be a lookout who warns the whole tribe of pending danger. This is a survival tactic, not altruism. So, animals can behave like humans in some ways, but animals have no moral restraint, no temperance. Temperance is lacking in humans who behave like animals.

Motivation is what moves us to action. The difference between egoistic and altruistic motivation concerns who is intended to benefit from the anticipated course of action. Egoistic motivation is driven by self-interest: the person is acting for their own benefit or to fulfil their own needs and desires. This is not necessarily selfish behaviour, people are programmed to be self-centred, to ensure their survival, they view the world from their own experience and perspective. (If is also still a far cry from narcissism).

Malignant egoistic motivation implies not just the pursuit of self-interest but an intentional maliciousness towards others, deliberately causing them pain and suffering. It is unrealistic to expect all human beings to reach altruistic motivation – the highest of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, for the better good of all – but when egoistic pursuit of pleasure exceeds its self-centred boundaries to the detriment of others, we are sailing into the stormy waters of a Dark Personality and this is when the so-called authorities need to step up and take action to prevent and curtail malignant egoists from causing extensive harm to others.

Akrasia – Against better judgement.

Akrasia refers to the phenomenon of acting against one’s better judgment—the state in which one intentionally performs an action while simultaneously believing that a different course of action would be better. In Plato’s Protagoras, Socrates presents a radical thesis that fundamentally denies the existence of akrasia. He famously declared, “No one goes willingly toward the bad or what he believes to be bad; neither is it human nature, so it seems, to want to go toward what one believes to be bad instead of to the good.”

Socrates obviously never met Leono Vergotine and others like him.

Better judgement implies considering long-term consequences of actions – delayed gratification as opposed to impulsive action. An example would be giving in to the immediate desire to commit a sexual offence – with full knowledge that it is an offence – but not considering long-term negative consequences such as imprisonment, despite being aware of them.

What makes these criminals so dangerous is not only are they acting from an egoistic stance to please themselves, but their higher brain (orbito-frontal cortex) or considering long-term negative consequences for themselves is not functioning. It is their impulsivity that makes them so dangerous. Learning to curtail impulsivity is not something they are going to achieve in a prison environment.

Leono Vergotine raped three children, scarcely six months after being released from prison where he served 12 years of a 15-year sentence for raping a minor. Clearly he did not learn anything, let alone temperance in prison. One would think life in prison would deter him from ever wanting to return to it, but this did not stop Leono Vergotine from committing the same offence. He knew the legal consequences of raping a child, he knew that it was a criminal offence, he knew the difference between right and wrong – he just did not care, because he was so set on his egoistic gratification of his immediate pleasure.

In criminals we cannot even consider that there may be an altruistic viewpoint of considering the effect of their acts upon the victim. The altruistic viewpoint would point to a moral compass the offender does not even possess – the temperance. Certain rehabilitation programmes focus on reconciliatory behaviour and developing insight into the consequences of their actions, but recidivism in sexual offences are high.

Autonomous motivation is associated with acting according to one’s free will or doing something because one wants to do it, as opposed controlled motivation, which implies external pressure into doing something. No-one forced Vergotine to rape the children.

In civil and criminal law, the “reasonable person” or “reasonable man” is a hypothetical individual who approaches situations with an ordinary degree of reason, care, and intelligence. A rational person calculates the risks and consequences of their actions and would logically expect immediate arrest if a police officer is present when they intend to commit a crime, which outweighs any potential motive for the crime. Would Vergotine have raped the child if a police officer was present? No, he would not. At that moment he would have been able to control himself. Vergotine raped the child because he wanted to, not because he couldn’t stop himself.

Passive pedophiles do have temperance – they have a moral objection to molesting children, despite their attraction to them and they may even voluntarily request chemical castration to curb their libidos. They structure their environments not to be in situations that would leave them alone with children. Not all pedophiles are attracted to all children either. As one once explained, even a heterosexual male desiring an adult woman does not accost every woman he finds sexually attractive – he controls himself. Much in the same manner, not all pedophiles accost children they are attracted to. They control it.

I do not believe any rapist or child molester should ever succeed in trying to convince us that they “could not control themselves”, for only a very small percentage of them would continue with the act in the presence of a police officer and those that actually do – all the more reason for them to be locked up. Probation officers, social workers, psychologists, the legal fraternity and parole boards need to be aware of Dark Personality traits. Thank you acting Judge Amanda van Leeve for recognising these traits and declaring Vergotine a dangerous criminal and removing him from society indefinitely.

Nothing rallies up a community so fast and furious as child rape. Their rage runs rampart and when vigilantes are set on vengeance, rapists are castrated there and then before authorities can step in. People justify their jungle justice that a death sentence is too lenient for child rapists and they deserve a worse punishment. Governments do not condone vigilantism, which is in itself a crime, but they take note of the underlying sentiment, and some consider chemical castration not as a punishment, but as a deterrent. But does it deter?

Leono Vergotine, the Ceres serial child rapist

Named after the Roman goddess of agriculture, the town of Ceres is situated in the Warmbokkeveld district, about 170 kilometers north-east of Cape Town, South Africa, and the name may be recognized globally on fruit juice cartons. Flanked by the Matroosberg and Hex River mountains, Ceres is a fertile agricultural valley. The town was rocked by an earthquake in 1969, which caused serious damage to the Old Cape Dutch architecture and many people died.

Shockwaves hit the town again in September 2022, when 41-year-old Leono Vergotine was arrested for multiple child rape. Investigating officer Warrant Officer AJ van Rooy discovered a flash drive containing the pornographic videos and images of Ceres’ children. He set out to identify the victims. It turned out Vergotine had raped a 16-year-old girl in September 2022, raped a 15-year-old boy while allegedly filming the attack, and groomed and raped a nine-year-old child on multiple occasions, while also recording the incidents. An 18-year-old young woman also opened a case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm against him.

Warrant Officer Van Rooy built a solid case and by the time the case went to trial in June 2026, State Prosecutor Renee Uys charged Vergotine with 79 charges, including rape, sexual grooming, assault, and possession of child pornography. Detective Captain Shaun van der Heever, Section Commander of the Investigative Psychology Section of the Western Cape, profiled Vergotine as a calculated and deliberate predator.

Acting Judge Amanda van Leeve commented on the victim impact reports, presenting a devastating picture of the psychological trauma his victims still endure. She handed Vergotine five life sentences, with an additional 78 years imprisonment, which effective means an indefinite period behind bars. In a landmark decision she also declared him a dangerous criminal and invoked Section 286 of the Criminal Procedure Act, a rarely used provision that ensures there will never a moment where a parole board can consider his release.

Just before sentencing, State Prosecutor Renee Uys presented a six-page rap-sheet of Vergotine, dating back to 1998, which included convictions for housebreaking, indecent assault, theft, escaping from custody, robbery and possession of an illegal firearm. But what rocked the community in their foundation was the damning fact that Vergotine had been convicted of the rape of a minor in 2010 and sentenced to 15 years, of which he spent 12 years in jail. Scarcely 6 months after his release on parole in June 2022, he resumed raping children.

“You are a modern-day monster,” Judge Van Leeve told Vergotine, who, when previously asked why he had raped the boy, answered “I felt like it and I could not stop.” After his sentence, which Vergotine met with a steely gaze, he left the court building and showed an obscene sign to the audience, flaunting his arrogance and lack of remorse.

I am proud that my legacy of founding the Investigative Psychology Unit in 1994, is still standing strong and played a role in bringing this serial rapist to justice. The investigating team, led by Warrant Officer Van Rooy, including the profiler Captain Shaun van der Heever, State Prosecutor Renne Uys and Acting Judge Amanda van Leeve all served justice, however the parole board did not.

Vergotine will be 120 years old if he lives to serve his full sentence, but a lifetime in prison is no match for the lifetime of anxiety these children will face, fearing that those pornographic videos may surface on the internet. This tragedy could have been prevented.

South Africa has the infamous title of the Rape Capital of the World, according to Interpol. In 2003 former schoolteacher and Scout master 42-year-old Dean Foster was found guilty of indecent assault and child pornography. His defence team pleaded for voluntary chemical castration in stead of a prison sentence and the Durban Magistrate’s court sentenced him to three years correctional supervision with conditions. These included house arrest for the duration of his sentence, to fulfil 16 hours of community service and to pay R10 000 to Childline as well as chemical castration for the duration of his sentence. The case was seen as an anomaly, as South African law does not formally recognize chemical castration as a standard or statutory criminal punishment

Glenn Sullivan, the Louisiana child rapist

At the same time in 2022 when Vergotine was raping children in Ceres, South Africa, 52-year-old Glenn Sulivan of Louisiana USA repeatedly raped a 14-year-old girl. He had groomed her and threatened her and her family to prevent her from reporting his crimes. Then she fell pregnant and DNA tests proved Sullivan to be the father. The girl reported the rapes to the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office. “So many of these types of cases go unreported because of fear. The strength it must have taken for this young woman to tell the truth in the face of threats and adversity is truly incredible,“ commented Judicial District Attorney Scott M. Perrilloux in a news release.

On 17 April 2024, Sullivan pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree rape. Judge William Dykes sentenced him to 50 years in prison and court-mandated physical castration as part of a plea agreement,

According to a 2008-Louisiana law men convicted of certain rape offenses may be sentenced to chemical castration, but they can choose to be physically castrated, a week before their release from prison. Glen Sullivan elected this option, which means he skips the chemical castration and would only be physically castrated, one week before the end of his 50-year sentence, when he would be more than 100 years old.

Indonesia and Turkiye

In April 2016 after a 14-year-old girl was gang-raped and murdered Indonesia introduced chemical castration and the death sentence as punishment for child rapists. The ringleader of the gang was sentenced to death and four other men involved were sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Indonesian Doctors Association stated that its members would refuse to perform the procedure on ethical grounds.

In February 2018 a 20-year-old man was arrested for raping a 3-year-old girl during a wedding party in the southern province of Adana, Turkiye. Prosecutors demanded he serve 66 years in prison. In that same month Turkiye introduced chemical castration as punishment for child rapists, on a case to case basis at the discretion of a judge.

Imran Ali, the Pakistan serial killer and serial rapist

On 23 January 2018, 24-year-old Imran Ali was arrested for the rape, sodomising, torture and murder of 7-year-old Zainab Amin Ansari, whose body was discovered at a garbage disposal site near the city of Lahore in Pakistan. Ali’s DNA linked him to more rape and murder cases. A month later on 17 February 2018, Ali was found guilty of the rape and murder of Zainab and 12 other underage girls. He was sentenced to four counts of the death penalty, one life term, a seven-year jail term and ₨3,200,000 in fines. He was executed by hanging on 17 October 2018.

Zainab’s murder incited mob riots in Pakistan, involving vehicles being burnt and police and citizens clashing. Four people died in these protests. The community was angry that child disappearances did not receive the attention from the police as it should have.

In the aftermath of Zainab’s murder Pakistan passed the Zainab Alert Bill, stipulating a minimum mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for child abuse and legal action against any law enforcement officials who cause any unnecessary delay in investigating such cases within two hours of a child being reported as missing. On 15 December 2020 Pakistan’s president Alrif Alvi signed into law an anti-rape ordinance to allow chemical castration of repeat rape offenders.

Amnesty International responded to Pakistan’s ordinance of mandatory chemical castration that it would be cruel and inhumane and that Pakistan should focus on the crucial work of reform that addresses the social causes of sexual violence. On 19 November 2021, Pakistan abolished mandatory chemical castration because the Islamic Ideology Council found it un-Islamic.

The question is: Does chemical castration work?

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Der Wechselbalg (Changeling) by Henry Fuseli, 1781(Public Domain)

Can a person be found guilty of murder if they were influenced by a psychotic person and trapped in a Folie a Deux shared paranoid delusion? Suffering from a mental illness can be a reason for acquittal of murder, but is Folie a Deux regarded as a mental illness?

Michael Cleary and family 1895

On 15 March 1895, 26-year-old Bridget Cleary was immolated by her husband, Michael who believed she was a changeling and that fairies had abducted his true wife and replaced her. Due to a twist of fate, Michael and Bridget had managed to secure a cottage, reserved for labourers in Ballyvadlea, Ireland, because her father Patrick Boland, a retired labourer, lived with them, but this house was rumoured to have been built at the site of a fairy ringfort, Kylenagranagh Hill. Ringforts are the ruins of prehistoric circular dwellings in Ireland.

Almost two decades before this incident in 1877, French psychiatrists T Charles Lasègue and Jules Falret conceptualized the paranoid delusional disorder, Folie a Deux also known as Lasègue–Falret syndrome. They described a shared psychological disorder in which delusional symptoms are transferred from one psychotic individual to one or more closely associated healthy individuals. When the same syndrome is shared by three it is Folie à Trois (’three’) or Quatre (’four’), shared by a family is referred to as Folie en Famille (’family madness’) and Folie à Plusieurs when many people are involved.

In a case of Folie a Plusieurs, Michael managed to draw Brigid’s father Patrick and her cousins into the paranoid delusion that she was a changeling. Events that led up to this tragedy were Bridget contracting pneumonia and becoming bedridden. Along with her husband and father, her aunt Mary Kennedy and her cousin Johanna Burke tended to her. By 15 March her condition had worsened and a priest arrived to give her the last rites. Michael told him he had no faith in the medicine the doctors had given her. Michael had secretly consulted with Denis Ganey, a fairy doctor who prescribed beestings from a cow. Convinced his wife had been replaced by a changeling, Michael, her father and her cousins conducted a ritual where she was forced to drink the beestings, urine was poured over her, she was dragged to the fireplace and prodded with a red-hot poker. After midnight on 15 March Michael brandished a piece of burning wood before her mouth and demanded that she say her name three times. When she failed to do so he doused her with lamp oil and set her ablaze. Michael and one of the cousins carried her burnt body from the cottage and buried it in a shallow grave. She was found a week later.

Michael Cleary, Patrick Boland, Mary Kennedy, James Kennedy, and Patrick Kennedy were indicted for murder. Other family members were indicted for “wounding”. Michael Cleary was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years of penal servitude; he spent 15 years in prison. Sentences of the others varied from penal servitude to hard labour.

Michael and Susan Carson 1983

About a century later between 1981 and 1983, Michael Bear Carson and Susan Bear Carson were convicted for murdering three people whom they believed were witches in Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.

One day, divorced Michael, born James Clifford Carson, informed his daughter in a letter that God had assigned him the name Michael Bear. His second wife, Susan Barnes, became Susan Bear Carson. After Susan had threatened to scratch the devil out of her five-year old stepdaughter, Michael’s first wife took her daughter on the run to hide from the couple.

In March 1981 the body of aspiring actress Karen Barnes was discovered in an apartment basement in San Francisco. She had been stabbed 13 times, and her skull had been crushed. Suspicion fell upon her room mates, Michael and Susan Carson, who had evacuated the premises. By May 1982, the couple lived and worked on a marijuana farm in Alderpoint, California. Michael shot a fellow labourer, Clark Stephens, burnt his body and buried him and the couple were on the run once more. By January 1983 they were hitchhiking near Bakersfield and were given a ride by 30-year-old Jon Charles Hellyar. An argument broke out and Michael shot Charles Hellar in full view of other motorists who called the police. Already on the police’s radar for two murders, the couple were arrested. They confessed to the murders and then retracted the confession.

Here is where the shared paranoid delusion step in. Michael and Susan believed themselves to belong to a special religion, calling themselves Vegetarian Moslem Warriors. Susan had declared Karen Barnes a witch wo deserved to die for renouncing their religion, and for “draining Miss Carson of her health and yogic powers.” Susan declared Stephen Clark a witch for sexually assaulting her and Charles Hellar was a witch, for calling her a witch and sexually abusing her.

They were sentenced 25 years for the murder of Karen Barnes and 50 years to life and 75 years to life for the murders of Stephen Clark and Charles Hellar.

June and Jennifer Gibbons, The Silent Twins 1981

It is interesting that Michael Cleary set his wife on fire, and Michael and Susan Carson burnt the body of Clark Stephens, Fire seems to hold a fascination for those afflicted with paranoid delusional disorder, perhaps subconsciously referring to the Fires of Hell or the Hell Fires of their own conscience, as discussed in previous articles.

In 1981, at the same time when Michael and Susan Carson were running rampage due to their paranoid delusion, the twins June and Jennifer Gibbons were committing arson, vandalism and petty theft, but not murder. Born to Caribbean immigrants, by 1974 the family had settled in Haverfortwest, Wales. The twins by then had developed their own idiosyncratic language, with a Bajan Creole foundation. The twins were ostracised at school, a factor that strengthened their dependence upon each other and their peculiar communication developed into cryptophasia, a language developed by twins that only the two children can understand. It escalated when the twins refused to talk to people at all, and only spoke to each other, and their younger sister. This earned them the moniker The Silent Twins. Attempts at separating them into different boarding schools to encourage communication failed when they became catatonic. They were reunited and isolated themselves in their bedroom, where they enacted elaborate plays. The twins were creating a fantasy world, where they ruled supreme. The twins wrote down these plays about young men and women who exhibit strange and often criminal behaviour. June’s novel titled The Pepsi-Cola Addict, about a high-school boy seduced by a teacher and sent away to a reformatory where a homosexual guard makes a play for him, was eventually published in 2023. Jennifer’s Discomania, about a young woman who discovers that the atmosphere of a local disco incites patrons to insane violence, was published posthumously in 2026 by Penguin Random House.

As teenagers they abused drugs and alcohol and committed the crimes and in 1982 they were subsequently sentenced to indefinite detention to Broadmoor under the Mental Health Act. They were held for 11 years and heavily medicated.

The twins had made a pact that if one should die, the other would continue living and start talking. The shared delusion steps in when they decided that Jennifer should sacrifice herself and die. In March 1993, during their transfer from Broadmoor to the more open Caswell Clinic in Bridgend, Wales, Jennifer slept with her head in June’s lap in the ambulance. Upon their arrival at Caswell Jennifer had fallen into a stupor. She was taken to the hospital, where she died soon after of acute myocarditis. There were no drugs or poison in her system. For the first time, June spoke up. She said: “I’m free at last, liberated, and at last Jennifer has given up her life for me.” She described the experience as a tsunami, washing her of her sins and being free of her sister.

By 2008, June was living quietly and independently, near her parents in West Wales. She was no longer monitored by psychiatric services. In 2023, June explained as children they had in fact been speaking English, but others had mistaken it for an invented language due to the severity of their speech impediment. They stopped talking because they feared people misunderstood them.

Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering 1985

Whilst June and Jennifer were at Broadmoor in 1986, the consultant forensic psychiatrist, Dr Hamilton wrote a report where he diagnosed an 18-year-old man with Folie a Deux.

In 1984, 20-year-old Elizabeth Haysom, met German-born 18-year-old Jens Soering, at an orientation event at the University of Virginia and they fell in love. The next year Jens brutally murdered Elizabeth’s parents, Derick and Nancy Haysom, due to Elizabeth’s allegations of mistreatment by her parents and Jens fearing that the parents would break them up. Six months after the murder, the couple fled to England where they assumed false names and committed a series of fraud. They were arrested and during the interrogation, Jens confessed to the murder. Dr Hamilton assessed Jens and found him to be trapped in a Folie a Deux situation, and not responsible for the crime, but was this enough to get Jens off on a murder charge?

How do these case studies fit the profile of Folie a Deux?

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“Hell” is traditionally understood as a place where people are punished for crimes they committed by burning in eternal flames, but we have already established that bodies cannot burn in hell, for after death the body no longer has any sensation. The metaphysical interpretation is that likewise the soul experiences anguish equivalent to a body burning. This would entail elements of persecution, accusations, judgements, punishments, never-ending reminders of sin taking on demonic forms, a condemned soul not measuring up to a feather, as in the Egyptian mythology – not being good enough. In this case, “Hell” is a state of mind. In Christianity the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “Hell.” However, non-Christians can also feel persecuted, guilty and a need for punishment to redeem themselves. In psychology, we refer to this as a paranoid persecution of a guilty conscience.

The motives of a paranoiac crime

In 1931, Frensch actress Huguette Duflos was brutally attacked by knife-wielding 38-year-old Marguerite Pantaine, outside the Theatre St. Georges in Paris. This seemingly senseless attack gripped the imagination of the French population. Marguerite was found guilty and committed to a mental hospital, where she was treated by the psychologist Jacques Lacan. In 1932 Lacan published his thesis titled On paranoiac psychosis as it relates to the personality, based upon the case study of Marguerite whom he called Aimee. Lacan discusses the subconscious motives of paranoiac crime, by analysing Marguerite’s writings. One of the principles of modern profiling is to use autobiographical and biographical works as a source. Although she was just a railway clerk, Marguerite had secret ambitions of pursuing a literary career, but her poems were rejected by publicists.

As a psychoanalyst, Lacan referred to Sigmund Freud’s concept of the ideal self, set up by our conscience, or superego. If we do not live up to this “ideal” we are punished by persecutory guilt feelings. The superego echoes the disciplinary voice of a parent in our psyche.

Freud came up with the concept of ‘self-punishment paranoia’; how certain criminal acts relieve oppressive feelings of guilt that build up before the crime.

Marguerite attacked the incarnation of her ambition, Huguette Duflos, a beautiful socialite and actress who represented her ego-ideal. Huguette was part of a social class Margeurite was excluded from.

In a 2010-article, titled Rejection Sensitivity and the Rejection–Hostility Link in Romantic Relationships, researcher Rainer Romero-Canyas of Columbia University and colleagues define rejection sensitivity as the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection. In response to perceived social exclusion, highly rejection sensitive people react with increased hostile feelings toward others and are more likely to show reactive aggression than less rejection sensitive people in the same situation.

The worst human self-evaluative threat is shame. It occurs when a person perceives that important aspects of their identity, like their competence, personality, or social status, could be negatively judged by others and that they will be unmasked and shamed. Public shame is one of the worst experiences for a fragile ego.

Marguerite’s own inferiority complex of “not being good enough” and rejection sensitivity were inverted into a complex thought process of: “I am actually such an important person, that other important persons are jealous and out to get me.” This was projected onto Huguette, whom she accused of slandering her. Huguette became the embodiment of Marguerite’s persecuting superego – the hell fire of her own conscience. Marguerite’s only path to redemption from her own accusing conscience, was to commit a crime and be punished by society. Lacan noted that when she was found guilty and incarcerated Marguerite’s paranoid delusions gradually disappeared.

In 1933, two years after the murder of Huguette Duflos, France was once more shocked by the horrific double murder of a respectable mother and daughter by their maids, the Papin sisters. Jacques Lacan identified this as a case of folie a deux or shared paranoia.

Born into a working-class family Christine and Lea Papin were packed off to an orphanage by their living mother. They were rejected, abandoned and ridiculed. In the orphanage, they were trained as maids. By 1926, 21-year-old Christine and 15-year-old Léa worked as live-in maids at 6 rue Bruyère, Le Mans, the home of Monsieur René Lancelin, a retired solicitor, his wife Madame Léonie Lancelin, and their younger daughter Genevieve. For seven years the two sisters dedicated their lives to servitude and their employers were satisfied. Then Madame Leonie began to develop depression and as her condition deteriorated, she began criticizing the maids and physically abusing them. A childhood wound of the mistreatment doled out by her own mother, triggered resentment in Christine, which she shared with her impressionable younger sister and the paranoid projection fell upon the Lancelin women as the source of their misery.

On Thursday, 2 February 1933 this situation culminated in a horrific murder. The family had been invited to a dinner and Monsieur Lancelin planned to meet his wife and daughter at the destined event. When they did not arrive he went home to find the house in darkness and the doors bolted. He called the police who forced an entry. A terrible scene awaited him. On the first floor landing he found the bodies of his wife and daughter, mutilated beyond recognition. In a confession it emerged Christine had gouged Genevieve’s eyes out and while Lea was doing the same to Madame Lancelin, Christine retrieved a knife and a hammer from the kitchen and the sisters proceeded to slash and bludgeon the Lancelin women. When Monsieur Lancelin came upon his wife, her eyes were found in the folds of the scarf around her neck and his daughter’s eyes were found one under her body and another at the end of the hallway. The sisters had also slashed the women’s buttocks with the knife.

The police had thought the same fate befell the Papin sisters, but when they finally broke their bedroom door open, they found the sisters naked in bed and a bloodied hammer beside them told the tale. They confessed, but said they acted in self-defence. They were not believed and found guilty of the crime, but psychologists, including Jacques Lacan, found them to be sharing a folie a deux. Lea was sentenced to ten years and Christine’s death sentence was commuted to life in an asylum, where she suffered hallucinations and she attempted to tear her own eyes out. Brutal attacks on the eyes can indicate a paranoid motive, as it is the eyes that watch, communicate contempt and accuse. Despite gouging out the eyes of her victims, Christine’s conscience still persecuted her when she looked in the mirror and saw her own accusing eyes. She never escaped the persecution of the fires of hell of her own conscience and eventually starved herself to death.

In her 1981-article, The Lives and Legends of Jacques Lacan Catherine Clément notes: “Christine and Léa Papin were at first sentenced to be guillotined on the town square of Le Mans. Aimée (Marguerite Pantaine sic) was confined to a mental hospital. And yet the difference between the two acts was not one of kind but one of degree. To be sure, social aggression had assumed ancient proportions, and the open-mouthed horror of civil society in the face of such acts accounts for the primitive harshness of the sentence, proportionate to the disproportionateness of the crime. Later the sentence was reduced, as if society finally took note of the fact that the act committed was a question not for the courts but for the hospitals. Had the sentence been maintained, it would have confirmed the existence of crimes that had long since been wiped from the slate of the Law. A dead past had worked its way to the surface, and this past was not simply that of two sisters who had been reared in a climate of extreme emotional deprivation. The prudent thing to do was to entrust the whole matter to the psychiatrists and the analysts. For the “‘acting out’ had transgressed the boundary between the imaginary and the real, the myth and the fact, the repressed history and the sudden actuality of the deed.”

Catherine Clement is pleading for a psycho-legal evaluation of these case studies. The Papin sisters pleaded self-defence. In essence, paranoia is a psychological defence mechanism to protect the self or ego. How is it possible that any person’s conscience can persecute and punish them to such an extent that they develop a paranoia, capable of driving them to murder? What tools would we need to profile paranoia?

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