The Most Evil Secret Societies in History (9 page)

An interesting footnote to the Thule Society's history is the present-day plethora of web sites dedicated not only to the preservation of the Society's memory, but also (and more disturbingly) to the promulgation of its vile theories. Tap in the words ‘Thule Society' to any search engine and it brings up a multitude of results, although some of the listed sites present ‘facts' verging on the ludicrous. The Thule, says one site, were Satanists who practiced Black Magic. Thule Society members also enjoyed a bizarre form of Sexual Magic which ‘awakened penetrating visions into the workings of Evil Intelligences and bestowed phenomenal magical powers'. The Thule Society held occult séances. One site spells Sebottendorff's name incorrectly not just once but three times; Sebetondof, Sebettenduff and Sebetendorf while another can't decide when precisely the Thule Society first opened its books, stating that it did so in 1908, and then again in 1910, and then again in 1919. Perhaps realizing that their research isn't quite up to scratch, further sites fantasize that Hitler, far from dying in his Berlin bunker, is still alive, having escaped Allied forces and flown to Thule, which they generally believe lies in a northerly direction. Indeed, if you believe these sites, Hitler has been living happily on an ice floe for the past sixty years.

But perhaps the most curious of all the claims now available comes from a web site called Unexplained Mysteries which claims that Thule Society members believed the Aryan race originated on another planet or star system called Alderbaran whose inhabitants were blond and blue eyed. Their leader was a woman or ‘queen' called Isais whilst other eminent Alderbarans included someone called Malok who was ‘the commander of their military presence on earth'.
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Whatever some may believe, the fact is that the original Thule Society was a secretive, far-right organization whose highly suspect beliefs flavored what was to come in Germany for the next decade and a half.

The victim may be a blood relative or one of their own children, but is never a stranger and definitely never an enemy. The child is not killed because they are angry with it. They are thankful to the child. The child is actually being sacrificed so that these people can have something of an advancement. It is to attain a goal that is unattainable by normal sacrifice [the sacrifice of an animal], whether that goal is prosperity or high political office. To our western minds, the concept of ritual murder is gruesome. But 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ was sacrificed for the good of the community – and the theory is that this is good for the community.

P
ROFESSOR
H
ENDRIK
S
CHOLTZ
, review of
Goal of Human Sacrifice
by Jeevan Vasagar, the
Guardian
, April 20, 2002

D
uring an average year in London, the Metropolitan Police and the Coroner's Court deal with between forty and forty-five bodies recovered from the River Thames, but on September 21, 2001, officers were shocked to find the badly mutilated corpse of a child floating in the water near Tower Bridge. The body appeared to be that of an Afro-Caribbean boy, aged about five. For want of a real name, the police decided to call him ‘Adam.' An autopsy revealed that Adam's legs had been severed above the knees, his arms had been cut off at the shoulders and his head removed. It was concluded that the boy had died from a violent trauma to the neck after which his limbs had been ‘skillfully' removed by an experienced butcher.

If this wasn't horrific enough, speculation then grew as to whether Adam had in fact been the victim of a muti-style killing. It was also speculated that this murder might not have been the first of its type in Britain, but was perhaps the latest in a long line of killings by a murderous cult which had established itself within London's African community.

Professor Hendrik Scholtz, an expert in muti murders, was swiftly flown in from South Africa. After examining the body, he concluded that the boy's throat had probably been slit before the head was removed in order to drain blood from the body for use in a ritual. More significant still, it was discovered that Adam's first vertebra (the one located between the neck and the spine) had been removed. In Africa this is known as the Atlas bone, the bone on which Atlas was said to have carried the world. In muti medicine the Atlas bone is a highly prized piece of the skeleton, for it is said to contain magical powers and give all those who ingest it the property of great strength. Professor Scholtz, together with a London-based forensic team, were also able to establish that the boy had been well-looked after prior to death. He was neither underweight nor malnourished and his stomach contents showed signs of containing Pholcodine, a cough medicine, suggesting Adam was well cared for before he died. In fact, everything pointed to a classic muti killing – the young boy had probably been ‘donated' for sacrifice by his own family.

Muti, which in Zulu stands for ‘medicine,' is a form of witchcraft prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. A muti murder is a particular manifestation, therefore, of a traditional type of African healing, but one with an especially black heart, calling as it does for human sacrifices. Some muti witchdoctors (known as Sangoma) make medicine from grinding down the body parts of the dead, and often call for children to be sacrificed because their flesh is said to be ‘purer' than that of adults. Less than a decade ago in Africa, almost 300 murders a year were blamed on muti and even as recently as 2003 cases were being reported of muti killings. Six people were arrested by police near to a squatters' camp in Bloemfontein, South Africa, after they had been seen trying to sell the body parts (head, hands, heart, feet, genitals and liver) of a twenty-year-old man. But although this case was gruesome in the extreme, it was only one among numerous other such cases in South Africa during 2002 and 2003.

In 2004 in Cape Town, two men and one woman were charged with killing a baby and afterwards frying her intestines in order to eat them. According to the accused, the intestines were supposed to help all three find a job. In South Africa, the incidents of muti killings have grown to such proportions that theirs is the only police force in the world to have established a special muti task force. The head of the task force, Gerard Labuschagne, admits that, although several hundred muti murders are investigated every year, most killings go unreported.

They happen in South Africa fairly regularly, at least one a month. But for many police officers they are nothing unusual. They are just treated as another murder, so there are a lot of muti-related killings out there that never come to our attention.
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Not all muti medicine or muti practices result in death. The Sangomas' powers are said to be based on their being either directly connected to, or the reincarnation of, an ancestral spirit and more often than not the type of healing they practice is completely harmless. Sangomas are often involved in everyday affairs as mediators to sort out arguments between different parties. They are also called upon to heal souls, mend broken hearts, promote good luck and generally soothe their clients' ruffled feathers. Research has shown that over 80 percent of South Africa's population has, at one time or another, consulted a Sangoma – sometimes up to three times a year.

In this role, the Sangoma can be seen as vital to maintaining order within a community, and most of the 300,000 Sangomas working in Africa openly condemn any type of ‘black magic.' Even when most Sangomas practice medicine, the type of products he or she uses will almost always be vegetable-based – roots, bark, herbs and flowers. Muti medicine can, therefore, be seen as another type of herbal healing and the practice of muti is simply the act of balancing ethereal elements with the physical complaint. For the more adventurous muti practitioner, animal products are implemented. Ingredients such as dried puff adders, crocodile fat or any number of potions made up from different parts of the elephant, lion and hyena may feature in the Sangoma's healing repertoire. Visit any African market and there will be stalls piled high with animal bones, skulls and skins as well as fresh herbs. Women sit hollowing out gourds which are then used as medicine bottles. There might even be small huts erected next to the medicine stalls which act as consulting rooms. Yet for all that mainstream muti is innocuous, but when it is extended to include the use of human body parts to heal or bestow special powers on the patient it can surely only be described as evil.

Investigations in several African countries (other than South Africa) have concluded that it is the Sangoma who orders a killing to be undertaken, normally because he has a client who has made a particular request for help. If someone has suffered a stroke, for instance, the muti medicine required to remedy the condition would be a paste made up from the ashes of a severed hand mixed with water. Below is a short list of some other muti medicines made up from human body parts.

• 
Male and female genitals are often used to confer virility

• 
The eyes of a child would bestow far-sightedness

• 
A victim's blood would help restore vitality

Other body parts can also be used to promote vague concepts, such as good luck.

• 
The breasts of a female victim would bestow good fortune

• 
The Adam's apple would be used to silence someone

• 
The tongue would help smooth the path to a young girl's heart

• 
Body fat would ensure a good harvest

• 
Brains would improve one's mental abilities

Further to the ‘Adam' case in London and the police concerns that his killing was connected to a muti-style cult, officers began investigating allegations that human flesh was now readily on sale in London. Police were already aware that West African gangs were importing large quantities of exotic animal meat such as that from lions, chimpanzees and giraffes, but now they were concerned this illegal trade was hiding darker secrets. Operation Swalcliffe was launched and in one dawn raid by environmental health officers on a shop in north London, two tonnes of unfit meat were confiscated along with the head of a crocodile which was being prepared for use in an upcoming ritualistic ceremony. The
Observer
newspaper, which reported on this raid, also recorded that Clive Lawrence, a meat transport director at Heathrow airport, was convinced that human flesh was finding its way into Britain and that this trade was inextricably linked to gangs who smuggled both illegal immigrants and drugs into the country.

This image was prepared by police investigating the murder of ‘Adam' and shows a computer graphic reconstruction of the boy's body, utilizing the red shorts that provided a vital clue to the mystery of ‘Adam's' identity.

The intelligence we are receiving suggests human flesh is coming into this country. We are dealing with some very nasty people.
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If further illustration were needed of this, a BBC 2 television documentary,
Nobody's Child,
highlighted the problem of muti killings by broadcasting the story of a woman called Helen Madide who came from the Thohoyandou area of South Africa. At eighteen-years-old she was the mother of a small boy, Fulufhuwani, but was separated from the child's father, Naledzani Mabuda, who was a traditional healer or Sangoma. The documentary went on to explain how, while the couple were trying to sort out their marriage, Helen returned to live with her parents while Fulufhuwani frequently went to stay with his father and grandmother. The child's father, as a healer, would most often confine his practice of medicine to traditional herbal remedies; however, as has already been illustrated, a small number of Sangoma prefer more potent medicines with which to practice their craft. Helen explained what ultimately happened to Fulufhuwani:

He [Mabuda] began to tell me stories. His ancestors said that he must kill me and the child so that he can be rich. He showed me the path and forced me to go along that path. He was pushing me and demanding me to go whether I like it or not. He said he was going to kill the baby first while I see the baby, then secondly he will kill me.
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Horrifically, Mabuda carried out his threat, slitting the child's throat while forcing Helen to hold down her son's legs. Once the child was dead, Mabuda began cutting off its hands, legs and sex organs. He then locked Helen away in a room along with her child's remains. Mercifully, Mabuda's family, fearing for their grandson's safety, called the police. Helen was released and her husband arrested. He was sentenced to life in prison but, although justice was seen to be done in this case, there are hundreds of other victims. ‘We have children going missing every week from our townships,' said Dr. Anthony Minnar of the Institute for Human Rights and Criminal Justice in South Africa. ‘The assumption is that those missing children are being put into prostitution and also that they are being used for muti murder.'
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