All Episodes

May 23, 2023 2 mins

Cecilia Steyn has been called “the Charles Manson of South Africa.” The criminal mastermind helmed a quasi-Christian cult and convinced her followers to kill 11 innocent people, without spilling a drop of blood herself. Join host and filmmaker Kurt Kubicek as he travels to the mining town of Krugersdorp, SA to unravel this twisted history through exclusive interviews with the lead detectives, journalists who covered the case, and even the incarcerated murderers themselves.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
The citizens of Kruger's Dog are being terrorized by a
slew of brutal murders.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Why stab someone sixty five times in the chast This
feels like everybody had arn't yous giving murder. She was
born and bred with the thought that she has the
power to kill.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I'm Kurt Kupachak, filmmaker, storyteller and host of the new
podcast Queen Havoc and her Murder Cult. It follows the
true story of South African ex Satanist and self proclaimed
which Cecilia Stein.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
She conditioned him to be monsters.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
This master manipulator used mind bending lies to deceive a
group of devout Christians. If you want to get out
of this, we will kill you.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
There was a car bombings, of burglary, hijacking, theft. There
was even a church that they said on fire.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Motivated by greed, power and revenge, Queen Havoc's subjects eagerly
obeyed her commands to carry out a four year killing spree.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
She actually copied the American Syraculls, a little bit of
Charles Manson. You can see a bit of Sons of Sam.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
The group evaded law enforcement for years.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
When she said she's going to the police. She ended
up date with fifty two stab wounds in her body.
She was constantly telling them, don't worry, we know the cops.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
The cult murdered eleven people in cold blood until detectives
finally hunted them down. The bating of the head board,
the wall, and the roof was full of blood.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
We are all so horrified by the idea that her
mother would sully her daughter in this way.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
In the world of murderous colts, if Charles Manson is king,
Cecilia Stein is queen, she.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Was telling people the Bible since she was go and killed,
but actually she was taking revenge.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
From eyewitness accounts to ride alongs with lead detectives to
interviews in prison with the killers themselves. We follow this
story on the ground in South Africa. This is way
that committed to killings.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
We can call off the search.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Body could have rive.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Every time you think you understand what's happening, you realize
that you're wrong.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Listen to Queen Havoc and her murder cult on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Burden

The Burden

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.