Brydon Brandt

Brydon Brandt (born 15 April 1964) is a South African serial killer who murdered at least four people in the Eastern Cape between 1989 and 1997. He first murdered two prostitutes after picking them up from bars in Port Elizabeth, then a female roommate in 1996. The next year, he murdered a male roommate during an argument and was arrested after other residents of the boarding house alerted the police. He subsequently confessed to all of the murders and pleaded guilty to them in 1999. He is now serving four life sentences.

Early life Brandt was born on 15 April 1964 in Welkom, the sixth of seven children. He alleged that his mother had undiagnosed mental illnesses including depression, and that she breastfed him until the age of nine. He also claimed his father was a violent man who encouraged his sons to fight. Brydon, being the youngest son, did not fare well in these brawls. To discipline them, his father reportedly tied his children to a chair and beat them with a sjambok. He abused his wife as well. When Brydon turned 10, he said his second oldest brother began to molest him, and his oldest brother forced the younger brothers to engage in incest with their sisters. The family kept to themselves, and the children were not allowed to make friends with other children outside the household. The Department of Welfare eventually caught on to the abuse, and several of the Brandt children, including Brydon, were removed from the household.

Brandt was sent to an industrial school, where he claimed he was sodomised by other boys. He also got in trouble for assaulting a teacher. After completing grade 10, he became a soldier for the South African Defense Force (SADF). In the army, he said he was part of the Military Police, who are responsible for supervising other soldiers and investigating crimes and disciplinary problems within the departments of defence.

Sensing something was amiss, the two women walked up Marine Drive to look for Schoeman, and they found her body along the road shortly afterwards, hidden in shrubbery. After removing the wine bottle from her vagina, they fled the scene and did not report the murder to the police.

By September 1997, Brandt moved to a new boarding house and became roommates with 52-year-old Clinton Dean Morris. The two were drinking buddies who got along well. However, on the night of 17 September 1997, they got into an argument over money. Brandt ended up strangling Morris to death. He then cut up the mattress he killed him on, and then dumped it, along with Morris' body, into a large dustbin outside of the boarding house. Other residents heard the pair's scuffle and quickly found Morris' body upon searching for him. They immediately called the police, who found Brandt walking along the street in bloodstained clothes. They arrested him without hesitation.

Legal proceedings Five days after his arrest, Brandt made a full confession to Morris' murder to a magistrate. He also confessed to the three other murders, which he had not been linked to yet. Additionally, he confessed to a fifth murder: that of a prostitute in 1996. He said he left the body in Donkin Park, but there were no records of a body being discovered there. His psychiatric assessments showed that he shared many characteristics of a person with antisocial personality disorder.

In May 1999, he pleaded guilty to the murders of Natlazo, Schoeman, Julia, and Morris and received four life sentences.