Marlene Lehnberg

Marlene Lehnberg (15 October 1955 – 7 October 2015) was a South African woman who was more commonly known as The Scissor Murderess. She was 18 years old in 1974 when she hired Marthinus Choegoe to stab Susanna Magdalena van der Linde, the wife of Lehnberg's 47-year-old lover Christiaan van der Linde, to death with a pair of scissors. At age 19, she was then the youngest woman to be convicted of murder in South Africa. Both Lehnberg and Marthinus Choegoe were condemned to death. However, both sentences were reduced to prison terms. Lehnberg served 11 years of a 20-year sentence in Pollsmoor Prison outside Cape Town. Choegoe's sentence was reduced to 15 years.

The case set a precedent in South Africa in terms of juveniles and capital punishment; while the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 permitted the sentencing to death of a person under 18 years, S v. Lehnberg made clear that an abundant presumption, given the presupposition of immaturity, would be in favour of a prison sentence for minors convicted of capital crimes.

Background In February 1972, Lehnberg began her first job as a clerical assistant/receptionist at the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Rondebosch, Cape Town. She started work in the orthopaedic workshop alongside Christiaan van der Linde. Van der Linde was the workshop's chief technician and Lehnberg, a bright, intelligent and attractive 16-year-old, was apparently drawn to him from the start.

Lehnberg's upbringing had been both ultra-conservative and strict. Her father was puritanical, a man who rarely displayed any affection towards his daughters. She had not been allowed to socialise and had never been to the cinema during the time she was in high school, she was a very intelligent young girl academically and often came first in her class but had no experience of boys or men, she was very naive and innocent and tried hard to get attention via her studies. She was drawn to van der Linde, a person whom she saw as a being warm and friendly father figure. She later recalled "he said "welcome" and my heart beat faster."

Van der Linde and Lehnberg struck up a father-daughter type relationship which grew closer as the months passed. In April 1973, a year after they first met, the couple began an affair.

The affair Throughout the remainder of 1973, Lehnberg and Van der Linde continued to meet in secret at Rondebosch Common and Paarden Eiland. Then, early in 1974, their intimacy stopped. Van der Linde suspected that they were being watched because his wife was receiving anonymous telephone calls.

Despite the fact that Van der Linde had declared that he would never leave his wife and family, Lehnberg was convinced that the only obstacle to them having a more permanent relationship was the presence of Van der Linde's wife Susanna.

By July 1974, Lehnberg was becoming desperate and started talking about leaving Cape Town. Christiaan van der Linde persuaded her not to, but by September she had finally tired of the situation and decided to confront Susanna. Lehnberg called and explained that she and Christiaan were very much in love and were seeing each other every night. She wanted to know what Susanna van der Linde intended doing, but Susanna van der Linde hung up on her. A few weeks later, Lehnberg telephoned again. This time she made an appointment to go and see her. They met in Bellville early in October.

Initially, Lehnberg had hoped that she and Susanna van der Linde could come to some sort of arrangement concerning Christiaan, but this meeting was to change all of those ideas. Not only did Susanna van der Linde tell Lehnberg that she would never give her husband a divorce because of the children, she also added, she didn't mind playing second fiddle as long as Lehnberg didn't mind either. It was obvious to Lehnberg that Susanna van der Linde was prepared to do anything to keep her husband.

Run-up to the murder It was around this time that Lehnberg met Marthinus Charles Choegoe, who had lost a leg in a motorcar accident. He had come to the Orthopaedic Workshop to have an artificial limb fitted. He was unemployed and his disabilities, both physical and social, had destroyed his self-esteem. This may have made him particularly susceptible to Lehnberg's approaches.

Lehnberg first contacted Choegoe by letter, which she wrote to him care of Solly's Trading Store, his local shop. In the letter she asked him to come and see her at the Orthopaedic Workshop, adding that if he was clever he could still earn good money. When he arrived at the workshop Lehnberg gave him R1.00 and asked him to meet her at the Rondebosch town hall at 7 p.m. that evening, at which time she gave him a bottle of gin and said that she wanted him to murder a woman for her. Choegoe declined at first, saying that he was afraid of being sent to the gallows.

After some discussion Choegoe finally agreed to Lehnberg's request. Several days later he went to the address in Boston, Bellville which Lehnberg had given him, later claiming that he planned to warn Susanna van der Linde that her life was in danger. But instead of warning Susanna van der Linde of Lehnberg's plans, he simply asked her for some money. She said she didn't have any and went back inside the house.

A week later Choegoe and Lehnberg met in Rondebosch once more. This time he admitted that he was too afraid to go through with the murder. Lehnberg gave him a radio and promised that she would help him to receive an artificial limb if he did away with Susanna van der Linde. Choegoe went to Bellville again but on this occasion he simply walked past the house and made no attempt to enter.

Shortly afterward Lehnberg sent Choegoe a second letter, again urging him to go through with the murder, using a knife if he had to. She got another message to him, asking him to telephone her at work. During the subsequent conversation Lehnberg insisted that Choegoe go through with the murder. She promised to give him a car and have sex with him after the crime had been committed.

Murder In October 1974 Lehnberg handed in her notice at the hospital and told van der Linde that she was going to leave Cape Town. On 24 October Lehnberg collected Choegoe from his home in Retreat and drove him to Bellville in her car. He was armed with a hammer which was to be used to kill Susanna van der Linde. Lehnberg dropped him off in the vicinity of Boston and sped away. Shortly afterward Choegoe was spotted by Susanna van der Linde. She was alarmed because she had seen him in the area on more than one occasion. She telephoned the Bellville Police Station and Choegoe was picked up by the police about two blocks from her house. At the police station he was beaten and warned not to return to the area.

In the face of repeated failure Lehnberg decided to take matters into her own hands again. A few days after Choegoe's failed attempt, she approached Rob Newman, a 24-year old engineering student whom she knew, and asked to borrow his Llama pistol. When he refused she asked if he would kill someone for her. Again he refused but on 28 October Newman's pistol was stolen from his room. He reported the theft to the police and suggested Lehnberg as a likely suspect.

Around 8.30 a.m. on the morning of Monday 4 November 1974 Lehnberg arrived at Choegoe's home. She said that her car was packed and she was on her way to Johannesburg, but before she left she needed Choegoe to come with her to van der Linde's house. He claimed in a statement that it wasn't until she handed him the Llama pistol on the way to Bellville that he realized that she wasn't just going to say goodbye.

They arrived outside the house just after 9 a.m. Susanna van der Linde was alone inside. From this point on Choegoe's and Lehnberg's account of what followed differ.

Different accounts Lehnberg claimed that she got out of the car, rang the doorbell and returned to the car while Choegoe entered the house alone and committed the murder. Choegoe, however, maintained that they acted together throughout. Choegoe's account was supported by a neighbour of the van der Linde's, Mrs. Marais. On the morning in question, Marais had walked past Lehnberg's white Ford Anglia twice in the space of ten or twelve minutes while it was parked opposite the van der Linde house and on both occasions the car was empty.

Choegoe said that after Lehnberg rang the bell they went into the house together. When Susanna van der Linde saw them both she became frightened and threatened to phone the police. She attempted to get away, but was tripped by Lehnberg, fell and hit her head on the door. While Susanna van der Linde was on the floor Lehnberg struck her on the jaw with the butt of the pistol. On Lehnberg's instructions Choegoe began to throttle the semi-conscious Susanna van der Linde. Lehnberg then gave him a pair of scissors she had taken from the sideboard. Choegoe said he remembered stabbing Susanna van der Linde three times but the pathologist later noted seven stab wounds, six of which had penetrated the chest.

After the murder Lehnberg squirted green dye over Choegoe using a gas pistol Susanna van der Linde had asked her husband to buy after she had seen Choegoe in the van der Linde's neighborhood. (A non-lethal gas or dye pistol uses a carbon dioxide cartridge to propel dye at a target.) Police use them during car chases and civil unrest to mark vehicles and participants for later identification. Choegoe, however, was released in June 1986 and became an evangelical preacher, while Lehnberg was paroled in December of the same year.

Lehnberg ended her life in October 2015, five days before her 60th birthday. She had suffered from osteoporosis for years and had also been diagnosed with breast cancer. She could no longer take the severe pain she was in and committed suicide alone at home, and in relative obscurity. Choegoe died in a car accident in 1992 on the N7 near Nuwerus in the Western Cape.

The third member of the tragic triangle, Christiaan van der Linde, died a lonely man in 1983. After the trial, he moved to Krugersdorp so that he could visit his wife's grave on her family's farm in the Magaliesberg mountains every day. He expressed remorse of ever having met Marlene Lehnberg.

Aftermath After the trial a law known as the "Marlene Lehnberg Clause" was passed in South Africa, preventing convicted criminals from profiting from their crimes, since it was believed that Lehnberg planned to sell her story to the press for a large sum of money.