The HISTORY® Channel Africa (DStv 186) unravels crimes from the past this October, with an extensive line-up of suspense-filled historic crime shows including a new local documentary. The HISTORY Channel will be casting the spotlight onto crimes in history every Monday to Wednesday evening from 19h25 onwards.
One of South Africa’s best-known journalists and authors, Mandy Wiener, plays host to Great African Crimes with Mandy Wiener, on 22 October at 21h05. The gripping local documentary details three crimes that made South African headlines.
Mandy looks at the notorious case of Daisy de Melker, who many claim is South Africa’s first documented female serial killer. While Daisy was only found guilty of murdering her son in 1932, she also lost a fiancé, four children and two husbands all under mysterious circumstances. Her story still echoes with dark secrets and unanswered questions.
The local doccie also uncovers one of South Africa’s most audacious bank heists – the Krugersdorp tunnel robbery. The robbers carried out an elaborate three-month long plan tunnelling from an empty shop nearby into the bank vault. They made off with a haul that would be worth more than R45 million today and were never caught.
Finally, Great African Crimes unpacks the brazen shooting of the legendary racehorse Sea Cottage. In June 1966 three members of Durban’s seedy underworld; a bookie, a night club owner and his henchman, got together to hatch a plan to try and prevent the bookie from having to pay thousands on the Durban July.
Of the documentary Mandy Wiener says, “I hope viewers find the crime stories that we’ve chosen compelling and interesting. There are brilliant African stories to be told in a highly professional way that can compete with shows and stories from across the globe. Africa is rich with content.”
Other brand-new shows that form part of the HISTORY Channel’s ‘Crime Month’ include the second season of Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman, American Godfathers: The Five Families and Greatest Prison Escapes with Billy Hayes.
Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman every Tuesday at 19h25 (starts 15 October) profiles history’s greatest escape masterminds and their plans, from inspiration to execution. Viewers also get a glimpse into the thrilling manhunts that followed. The series creates an up-close-and-personal view of what the prisoners were faced with in executing their break outs. Interviews from some of the prisoners themselves, their families, their cell mates, the guards, and prison employees involved in each case give you a front row seat into these escapes.
This is followed at 20h15 by Greatest Prison Escapes with Billy Hayes (starts 15 October). Billy Hayes’ legendary escape from a Turkish prison was the basis for the Oscar-winning movie Midnight Express. Now, with his unique first-hand experience Billy takes us into the world of great prison escapes.
American Godfathers: The Five Families every Monday at 19h25 (starts 14 October) is a three-part documentary series that explores the creation, rise and fall of New York City’s five mafia families. Over a fifty-plus-year period these five families had a hand in every facet of organised crime in America from bootlegging and drug trafficking to extortion and gambling.
Then, The Mafia and Britain on Wednesday at 19h25 (starts 16 October) looks at the seemingly unlikely connection between the mafia and Britain. In this series, Ross Kemp travels across multiple nations investigating Britain’s deep and surprising links with the mafia.
Don’t miss these and other compelling crime shows this Crime Month, only on the HISTORY Channel – DStv 186.
