Cedric Maake

Maake is known as the "Wemmer Pan Killer" because it was in this area (Wemmer Pan) of Johannesburg that he targeted most of his victims, beginning in April 1996. At first the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS), the unit primarily responsible for investigation of serial killers in the Johannesburg Police Area,[2] did not link his crimes together, believing that they were the work of two separate serial killers due to the difference in patterns between the murders. During the investigation of Maake's murders, two separate criminal profiles were created; one for the "Wemmer Pan" murderer and one for "Hammer" murders.[3]

On the 28th of December 1996, Antonio Alfonso was working in Hill Gardens Café in High Street, Rosettenville. Cedric Maake entered the café and without warning attacked Antonio with a hammer. He stole R400 from the cash register and fled. Antonio survived the attack.[1] Maake used his ill-gotten gains to celebrate the new year and on the 6th of January 1997. On a morning, around 10:00, Maake entered and robbed a shop owned by Magan Khanjee where he struck Khanjee, until he was unconscious, with a shifting spanner and stole five pairs of trousers from the shop.[1]

Two days later, Maake bludgeoned Kenny Chan with a hammer and stole money from the till. His crimes only got worse. He struck Khantilal Lutchman with a hammer and stole his wallet in a tailor shop. The same incident happened to a Abdul Bulbulia in Newtown. His first murder victim was Dhansuklal Patel who died in hospital after Maake bludgeoned him with a hammer and stole his wallet.[1]

The Wemmer Pan murders involved several patterns of victims. The first were men and women walking alone who Maake bludgeoned to death with rocks. The second group of Wemmer Pan victims were couples in cars around the Wemmer Pan area whom Maake would assault, shooting the men and raping the women.[3]

The second criminal profile the police created involved murders of tailors in the inner city area, killed in their shops with hammers.[3] The connection between the Wemmer Pan murders and the Hammer killings were made by Superintendent Piet Byleveld on 12 January 1998. Maake took Byleveld to a pawn shop in La Rochelle in the south of Johannesburg where he had sold the bicycle of Gerhard Lavoo, a victim in the Wemmer Pan murders, for R 120. The alias he used on the receipt was "Patrick Mokwena", the same alias he had used to check in a shirt at one of the tailors before Maake murdered him.[4]