Stephanus Swart

On 6 May 1927, a spree shooting took place around Charlestown, Natal, South Africa. Nine people were killed and three were injured before the perpetrator, 38-year-old Stephanus Swart, killed himself during a manhunt. The fatalities included Swart's wife, his stepdaughter, and five police officers.

The shootings became known as the "Volksrust massacre" , the "Swart murders" , and the "Pottershill murders" .

On 4 May, Swart summoned his lawyer Peter Gerard Maasdorp from Volksrust. Maasdorp was aware of Swart's mental state and contacted police, asking them whether he should delay a meeting with Swart until they had arrested him for the incest charge. Station commander Gerald Ashman instead encouraged him to head over and convince Swart to turn himself in. Maasdorp and his hired driver, B. Plaats, arrived in the afternoon hours. Maasdorp learnt that Swart had not left Potter's Hill for five days, which he mostly spent wandering around the property, having forced the farm workers to do the same. At night, Swart would lock himself inside and await the arrival of police inside with a primed gun. Over the course of the day, Swart engaged in an hours-long "tirade about the injustice of life", speaking well into the night, at which point Swart asked Maasdorp to draw up a final will and testament. The 28-page document also contained a suicide note, again containing the words "blood for blood" and ending with a request for "the news and the prime minister, General Hertzog to get a copy". Feucht was sent back for medical treatment, with Ashman telling his officers to shoot and kill Swart if they spot him. During the search, Swart killed Constables William Mitchell and William Crossman, whom he had shot again while on the ground to ensure their deaths. Sergeant J.A. Grové was mortally wounded. Captain Ashman and Sergeant Van Wyk were killed when Swart ambushed them at the entrance and shot them multiple times. The remaining police officers engaged in a brief shootout with Swart, who took the horse left behind by the labourer earlier and fled the scene on horseback, having taken Ashman's Webley revolver. Shortly after, as Swanepoel came close to Mount Prospect, he was met with a black man who had been given a note addressed to Swanepoel by Swart, saying that he intended to return and kill Swanepoel anyway if he made it back alive.

According to The Star, after the murders of Knight and Roets, Swart also killed a black man before arriving in Charlestown.

Swart was buried in the grounds of the Charlestown police station in a coffin that was reportedly too short for his body.

Victims

Killed Inspector Gerald Collins Ashman, 55 Constable William Hunter Crossman, 22 Sergeant Jan Antonie Grové, 29 Head Constable William Charles Mitchell, 49 Sergeant Annes Heyn van Wyk, 34

Anna Catharina "Fannie" Stephanus Knight (née Eksteen), 31 Cornelis Johannes Erasmus Roets, 20

Anna Catharina "Annie" Swart (née van Vuuren), 69

Unidentified African man

Injured

William Ferdinand Feucht, 32 Frank Nixon Hatley Margaret Priscilla Pulford (née Hatley)

Perpetrator

Stephanus Andries Johannes Swart was born on 21 July 1888 in Ladismith, Cape Colony, as one of seven children to Stephanus Andreas Johannes Swart and Susara Susanna Elizabeth van Tonder. News reports and later retrospectives noted that there was little information on Swart's background. A descendant described the Swart family as impoverished migrant workers who moved frequently to work on farms. His mother died in October 1905 in Laingsburg. and despite Annie being thirty years older than Swart, the pair married on 1 December 1920 in a lavish ceremony. It is believed that Swart entered the relationship for Annie's farm and money while Annie was likely drawn to Swart's height and physical strength. It was reported that during the wedding, Swart hired a three-car motorcade, each with the Vierkleur flag of the South African Republic, but Swart's new son-in-law, Willie Knight, switched one of the flags for the Union Jack, which caused Swart to hold permanent animosity towards Knight.

In popular culture A local legend was told by a local African family, who had taken wedding photographs at the structure. According to them, when the groom posed for a photo of himself leaning against the memorial, the resulting photo depicted "a young white woman in an old-fashioned dress" in place of the memorial.