Book Extract
Inside the twisted mind of a cold-blooded killer, Jose Da Silva
As the head profiler of the police service, Gérard Labuschagne delved into the minds of some of the country’s most notorious murderers. In this extract from his newly released book he interviews Jose Da Silva, who lured an interior decorator into his townhouse and killed her because she was a ‘Sandton snob’
On the evening of Jose Da Silva’s arrest, I was at home on the couch when I got a call from Senior Superintendent Leonie Ras from Forensics, informing me that a suspect in the Harrowyn case had been arrested. She asked me to come out and interview him. During my master’s studies, when I was doing my research, I had interviewed serial murderers in South African prisons, but this was the first time I was interviewing someone in the context of an active investigation, let alone at their house and not in a prison setting. I decided to interview the suspect in the bathroom, where the incident took place. I had a quick look around the living room and open-plan kitchen, and peeked into the fridge. I don’t really know why I did this, but I often do it. I guess you can tell a lot about a person by the contents of their fridge...
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