Pierre Basson

Pierre Corneille Faculyn Basson (3 January 1880 – 22 January 1906) was a serial killer in Cape Colony, South Africa. Basson is also known as "The Insurance Killer". He murdered and buried at least nine people in his backyard in Claremont, Cape Town, so he could later claim their life insurance payout. When police officers arrived at his house, he shot himself.

Early life
Basson, the oldest of four siblings, was born in the Claremont suburb of Cape Town in 1880. At a young age, he began hurting animals for pleasure. He tortured birds to death and cut off cats' feet to watch them suffer. When he was 12, he sliced a boy with a knife. Afterwards, he stopped committing violent offenses for a number of years, but gained a reputation as a petty thief—which caused issues at home.

When Pierre was around 17 years old, his father passed away after a short illness. In addition to becoming the head of the household, he received a small amount of money from his family's insurance company.

Murders
As an adult, Basson lent money to people. Borrowers had to name him as beneficiary for their life insurance policies after which he killed them between 13 February 1903, until 22 January 1906, to claim the money.

In February 1903, he brought his brother Jasper, who was 17 years of age, to Gordon's Bay to go fishing. He had insured Jasper for £3,500, a large sum of money at the time. On his way back to the hotel where they were staying, Basson met two people and informed them of the horrific accident in which his brother drowned. The body was never found, and the insurance was paid to Basson. Shortly after that incident, several friends of Basson who had named him as the beneficiary of their life insurance policies were found shot, drowned, or dead by other means. Surprisingly, there was no evidence to support Pierre Basson's accusation of murder.

He took his own life when the police uncovered the grave of his last victim, Wilhelm Schaefer (a German farmer). Despite not having any money, Basson wanted to purchase his land. After Schaefer received the complete purchase price in cash, ownership would be transferred. When the two men went to see Schaefer's lawyer, Schaefer made the decision that he had to be there for the transaction and have documentation confirming Basson had paid before transferring ownership. Basson made numerous attempts to obtain the farm without making a payment by using various lies, but none were successful. In order to prevent Schaefer from demonstrating that the payment receipt was a forgery, he intended to kill him. Basson strangled him with a cable and used chloroform to overwhelm him. After being stripped, the body was lowered into a large pit at night. When a passing Bantu woman observed them, she called the police.

His last words to his mother when the police started excavations in their yard were: "I'm going to go to the police. I did not do anything wrong."

He was posthumously convicted of murder after 1906.