How evil Apartheid murderer went on horrifying rampage shooting 39 black victims as young as 12 while being hailed a 'hero' by deluded locals - as he insists he is 'proud' of the 'vigilante' killings in South Africa

A convicted murderer who killed dozens of black men and boys has described how he feels no remorse and believes his actions were sanctioned by police in Apartheid-era South Africa.

Louis Van Schoor carried out a three-year killing spree in the 1980s, using his role as a security guard for white-owned businesses in the coastal city of East London to 'hunt down' and take out intruders with 'maximum force'.

The former police officer would be barefoot as he homed in on his victims, some of whom were children, with his sense of smell, before shooting them with a pistol loaded with bullets which were 'designed to kill'.

At least 39 people were killed by Van Schoor, and he was sentenced to more than 90 years in jail. But to the anguish of his surviving victims and their families, the evil killer has been free for two decades after serving just 12 years behind bars.

Now, in an astonishing series of interviews with BBC Africa Eye recorded over the past four years, the so-called Apartheid Killer has revealed horrifying details about his crimes which raise new questions about his early release - and point to the complicity of the police in the cold blooded killings. 

Once a burly and imposing figure, the 73-year-old grandfather is now wheelchair-bound after having his legs amputated following a heart attack.

In a sign of his depravity, the killer detailed how he had refused general anaesthetic when he had one of his legs cut off, laughing that he was 'curious' to watch the procedure.

'I could feel when they sawed through the bone,' he said. 'I could feel the jerking as they were cutting but before that they got an electric soldering iron and they burned the main arteries, to stop it bleeding and you could smell the meat burning.'

Refusing to see himself as a criminal or serial killer throughout the documentary, he insists he shot his victims 'because of crime'.

'I was a crime fighter, and if you're successful, you're going to be called monsters and serial killer, and whatever you want. Which I don't agree with,' he said.

'They were justifiable homicides, and that's the bottom line,' he went on. This view was not just Van Schoor's, but also that of the authorities in the majority of his cases.

Despite killing at least 39 people, he was only convicted of seven murders, with the other 32 recorded killings still classified as 'justifiable homicides' by the police.

Apartheid-era laws allowed people the right to use lethal force against intruders if they resisted arrest or fled once caught - a defence Van Schoor used to maintain his innocence as he claimed that his victims were running away when he killed them.

But evidence has mounted to contradict his claims, with harrowing testimony from victims who survived being shot be Van Schoor unearthed by the BBC investigation.

A number of people said Van Schoor shot them after they surrendered while their hands were up. 

Others said he had toyed with them, falsely questioning if they would prefer to be arrested or shot before shooting them in the chest.

Another victim told how after being shot in the abdomen, he begged for water, before Van Schoor kicked him in his wound.

Shockingly, every killing he carried out between 1986 and 1989 was reported to the police by Van Schoor himself.

The shameless killer's own testimony in the documentary is perhaps the most chilling account of what took place.

'Every night is a new adventure and that was exciting,' he tells the interviewer. 'If the alarm went off at a factory or shop I'd never drive straight up and stop in front of the place.

'I'd stop two or three businesses away with night binoculars and then walk down. I normally worked barefoot, quiet. I relied a lot on my nose sense.

'If somebody breaks in, their adrenaline gives off an odour and you can pick that up. You kind of get that feeling that you are hunting a different species.'

As more and more people went missing, black citizens in East London became increasingly fearful, and word spread about a tall, bearded man who they nicknamed 'whiskers' who would stalk his victims with a gun before using it without mercy.

'He was a kind of vigilante killer. He was a Dirty Harry character,' says Isa Jacobson, a South African journalist who has spent 20 years investigating Van Schoor's case.

'These were intruders who were, in a lot of cases, pretty desperate. Digging through bins, maybe stealing some food… petty criminals.'

While Van Schoor terrorised the city's impoverished black community, many white business owners who used his services hailed him as a hero.

One man even made money selling bumper stickers that said 'I love Louis', decorated with a heart made of bullet holes.

Despite the horror he unleashed on his victims, Van Schoor boasted: 'I don't have sleepless nights. I don't have things coming up in the past haunting me.'

One of his victims was father Edward Soenies, who he murdered in 1987. His body was placed in an unmarked grave by authorities before his family was informed. 

Edward's sister, Marlene said: 'It was devastating for the family. We couldn't get his remains. 

'We believe that his spirit is roaming round here and he's looking for home. He's not with his ancestors. He doesn't know where he is.'

Edward's son, Raymond, was just six years old when his father was killed, and waited two years before he discovered he was dead.

'After my dad died, I changed completely because of the anger I carried. My dad loved me very much, so when I remember those things, it's heartbreaking,' he said.

Of the day his father disappeared, he said: 'I would sit outside and wait until dusk. I waited for him to come home. My grandmother said don't worry your father always comes home. But I felt in my heart that something was wrong. I found out two years later my father died and he was killed by Van Schoor.'

The documentary also captures the emotional moment when the family's 35-year fight to exhume and rebury Edward was finally successful. 

This long-awaited closure brought the family a sense of peace, Raymond said. 'My father comes in my dreams. I see the spirit of my father was there and he was happy. 

'Everybody in the family is with him now. He's free. Now also, I'm free now. I'm the proudest guy in the world and I have peace now.'

Many families remain in turmoil as Van Schoor walks free when their relatives were unlawfully killed and prosecuted for their supposed crimes. 

Van Schoor was finally arrested in 1991, soon after Nelson Mandela's release from prison began a sea change in apartheid South Africa.

'Due to the shift in the political situation of our country there had to be a scapegoat somewhere and they picked me,' Van Schoor claimed.   'All of those years it was right and then, all of a sudden, it was wrong.' 

His trial was one of the largest murder trials in South African history, and he was sentenced to more than 90 years in prison. 

However he was allowed to serve each term concurrently, and was freed on parole in 2004.

Some have claimed that he shot as many as 100 people. While Van Schoor said the number was not that high, he admitted that he likely carried out more than 39 shootings.

'I honestly don't know how many I shot. Some say over a 100, some say 40… Let's say for argument's sake I shot 50 people,' he said.

He added that he is proud of his past, and that he has no sense of guilt or remorse.

'Maybe the public want me to apologise,' he said. 'But I'm not going to make a mockery of my own beliefs, just to please them... I've got no remorse inside. Because I don't feel that I was wrong.'