Prosecution witness –
Wing Commander Eric Basil Grace
Wing Commander Grace had been the Officer Commanding RAF Kumalo at the time of Adamson’s and Edwards’ disappearance, but by the time the trial had started, he had been posted to the Middle East. The court allowed, with the permission of the defence, his short written testimony at the pre-trial hearing in Francistown to be submitted in full:
On the 5th of November 1943 I received instructions to recover a missing Airspeed Oxford. I left later the same day and landed next to HN607. There was nobody with the aircraft although the compass, the Very pistol, the axe, the water container, the observers parachute pack and the parachute canopy were all missing. I flew the aircraft back to Kumalo the following day where Leading Aircraftsman Walton was responsible for its overhaul. I do not know what happened to the missing pilots.
Prosecution Witness –
LAC William Walton
Leading Aircraftsman Walton had also been posted since the Francistown hearing and his evidence was also submitted in writing. The constant posting of airmen to and from Rhodesia meant that there were no eyewitnesses available in the court to describe Adamson’s and Edwards’ final day:
I had refuelled Oxford HN607 on the 4th of October 1943 at Kumalo before watching Edwards and Adamson take-off at 10:45 that morning. Everything was in order and seemed normal. However, the plane did not return. I next saw the plane when I witnessed Wing Commander Grace landing it back at Kumalo on the 6th of November. I entered the aircraft and noticed that the parachute pack, the axe, the Very pistol, the compass, and the water container were all missing. These were all present when I had prepared the aircraft on the 4th of October. I never saw Edwards or Adamson again.
Prosecution Witness –
Sergeant Robert Preston-Whyte
Preston-Whyte was a policeman serving with the Bechuanaland Protectorate force and was based in Francistown. Francistown was at that time little more than two main streets running parallel to and alongside the railway line to Bulawayo. However, it did sport two hotels of equally dubious nature catering for the hard-drinking types that came into town from cattle ranches or the mines that operated within the Tati concession area. Francistown had been the scene of Africa’s first real gold-rush in the 1890s and, although significant deposits were never found, the town had never really shaken off its wild-west feel. Francistown was the last major railway stop on the Bechuanaland side of the Rhodesian border and is only about 130 miles from Bulawayo. The dirt road to Nata was of a similar distance, but would have taken a half a day’s travelling in the 1940s. The railway provided a link for native workers from as far afield as the southern Congo to the gold mines in Johannesburg. Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA) was the leading supplier of employees to the South African gold mines and they had a transit camp at Nata that acted both as a recruitment centre and also a rest camp for those workers coming down from further north:
On the 3rd of November 1943 I left Francistown to go to the WNLA camp at Nata and, having travelled the 120 miles, I arrived in Nata at five thirty in the morning. I then proceeded to search for Twai Twai Molele who lived about seven miles out of town. I took an interpreter with me and I questioned him through my interpreter. Twai Twai said that he had seen a twin-engined aeroplane when he had been out hunting with another man at a place known as Kuaxaxa. He said he had seen the spoor of two men, but that he could not follow them due to the nature of the country. Twai Twai said he had not seen any people connected with the aeroplane.
Twai Twai then directed our lorry to a point about 25 miles north-west of Nata, about three miles south of the wet weather road to Maun. Here, on a large salt pan, we found HN607. We searched for footprints but could not find any. I examined the aircraft and found its logbook, the last entry being, ‘We have gone east. Little water. No first aid. Aircraft requires petrol and oil only. Date 5.10.43. Time Zero 08:30 zero hour’ signed by Gordon Edwards and Walter Adamson, 21 SFTS. I am not familiar with aeroplanes but I cannot recall seeing an axe or a water container. We returned to Nata the same day and, while not discussing any details, I asked Twai Twai to form a search party. Twai Twai said he would try. Investigations then continued.
On the 6th of December I travelled to Nekate, a small village between Nata and the pan where the aircraft was found. Although none of the women accused live there, Tammai Mashupatsela has a hut there, as does his mother. In his mother’s hut we found an axe that, the natives said, belonged to Tammai. This was taken as evidence and it is in the courthouse today.
Two days later I met Rekisang, a prosecution witness, at the WNLA camp at Nata. She handed me a tobacco pouch containing eight shillings. This was made up of Rhodesian half-crowns and a South African sixpence.
On the 10th I arrested Tammai. He was wearing a pair of blood-stained khaki shorts. The blood stain was on the crotch. These shorts are exhibit L. The same day I returned to Francistown and arrested Twai Twai.
On the 5th of January, Rekisang took me to a hut in the kraal belonging to Twai Twai. She brought out a small bottle (exhibit F) which contained a lumpy, sticky, greasy substance along with a Rhodesian sixpence and what appeared to be human hair. The smell when the bottle was opened was revolting. On searching the hut I found Morobe (another prosecution witness) inside, very ill. I also found another bottle containing a similar sticky substance, but this time with a Rhodesian threepenny bit embedded in it. On the same day Pebane, a police messenger, brought a report of a burnt place by a water hole near where the plane had been found. He also brought an envelope containing some charred bone and cloth. I passed this straight on to Captain Langley.
On the 25th of the same month I visited this water hole on two separate occasions. The first time Rekisang took me to the spot, the second I went with Captain Langley. Rekisang pointed out a burnt patch about the size of the courthouse. It was really made up of three burnt areas, where there clearly had been a large fire as the surrounding trees were charred. The ash that remained was very fine. There was brushwood suitable for burning at the extremities of this clearing.
Preston-Whyte was cross-examined by Fraenkel, the judge, Ellenberger and the Native assessor, during which the following points were added:
When I spoke to Twai Twai at Nata I used an interpreter, although I can understand Setswana. I did not meet any of the other accused at this time. Twai Twai told us that he had first seen the missing aircraft about three weeks earlier. I travelled to the pan with five natives, including one Masarwa, and when we got to the plane the engines were covered and I did not notice if the compass was missing. Twai Twai said the spoor he had seen was of men in shoes, but that now the wind and rain had destroyed these footprints. The plane was south of the village of Kombe.
The village of Nekate consists of two ‘proper’ mud huts and several Masarwa-style shelters. I do not know if the handle of the axe we found there would have soaked up blood and I did not see any blood stains on it. This group of people would have done some trading and, although South African coinage is legal tender, Rhodesian money is in common use. Tammai’s trousers were filthy and clearly had not been washed for a long time – the bloodstain was near the fly and was the size of a sixpence. This was the main stain on the outside of the trousers, but I noticed many various stains on the inside of the garment.
Rekisang’s hut, where the bottles were found, was in the same compound as Twai Twai’s. The place where she showed us the burnt patch was an area of dense scrub with no large Mopani trees, but with plenty of firewood. By the time we visited this place, Rekisang had implicated Twai Twai in the murder of the airmen.
At the end of Preston-Whyte’s evidence, the native assessor for the court, Seitshiro Moshweu, expressed great surprise that Twai Twai could not have followed the airmen’s footprints, given the Bushmen’s legendary tracking abilities and the time of year. Justice de Beer brusquely reminded his officials that they were there only to ask questions, not to share their opinions.
Prosecution Witness –
Captain Morley Robert Langley
Captain Langley was the officer in charge of the police station in Francistown and was an experienced policeman, with much knowledge of native crimes in the protectorate, having worked at almost every possible police post during his career. Unfortunately, he was in Johannesburg when news arrived that the aeroplane had been found. However, as soon as he returned he joined Preston-Whyte in Nata in order to run the investigation:
On the 8th of November 1943 I travelled to Nata and with two of my native troopers we joined a party of RAF airmen and natives from the WNLA in order to search the area around the aircraft. Twai Twai led us to where the aircraft had been and he gave me the impression that it had been there for about ten days or a fortnight. The wheel tracks of two aircraft were visible, but otherwise the search found nothing. We searched for the next few days, splitting the party with myself heading towards the Hunters Road to Kazungula, again with no success. I returned to Francistown on the 11th and on the way organised a large search party of seventy, comprised mainly of Bangwato tribesmen. This search was also unsuccessful.
On the 14th of December I received a pair of blood stained shorts from Preston-Whyte and I forwarded these to the South African Institute of Medical Research in Johannesburg. The following week, on the 22nd, Orai took me to Kuaxaxa and made a statement and she pointed out place C on my sketch map.
On the 3rd of January I received a report from Dr Bershon that the blood on the shorts I had sent to Johannesburg was human.
On the 5th I travelled to the campsite at Kuaxaxa before arresting Tammai and Twai Twai for the murder of the two airmen. A guard was posted at the campsite until the end of the month. The following day I returned to the site of the fire near the campsite. There were still clear signs of a large fire, with nearby trees charred. There was a layer of ash about one inch deep over an area of about twenty-six by seventy-four feet. One area had been dug down to a depth of about nine inches on the orders of Gasebalwe, a headman leading one of the search parties. On this day Preston-Whyte handed over two jars containing a fatty substance and an envelope containing bone fragments and cloth recovered from the burnt area.
Robert Langley (left), the lead investigative officer. At the far right is Denis Reilly who lost his life after the search for the missing RAF rugby team in the 1930s. (John Reilly collection)
On the 7th I travelled to RAF Kumalo where I was shown the possessions of the two airmen which had been taken out of storage. I checked the clothing issue cards and then took hair samples from the tunics of both pilots and also from the swimming trunks of Adamson. I also took hairbrushes belonging to each man. A week later I personally took this evidence to South Africa, with the jars containing hair and fat going to Dr Britten – the chief professional officer at the government chemical laboratory in Johannesburg, the bone fragments to Dr Macintosh – the director of the South African police medical labs, and the hair evidence to Dr Bershon.
On the 21st and 22nd of January I returned to the campsite at Kuaxaxa with Toi Toi, Morobe and Kico where they pointed out the sleeping places of their hunting party. At this point the shelters they had used were still standing, although two wooden frames that had been used for drying meat that had been present on my previous visit had gone. The shelters were rough affairs, typical of the Basarwa, made of twigs and brushwood. At this point I made a sketch of the area, A is the shelter belonging to Twai Twai and is where the airmen slept and were murdered. B was Tammai’s shelter, C Morobe’s, D Rekisang’s, and E belonged to Keree. Temee and Toi Toi also slept in the enclosure of A. All the witnesses agreed with this layout.
I returned to this area on the 30th with Professor Macintosh and his assistant, Dr Friedman, and Detective Sergeant van Schalkwyk of the South African police, along with a party of natives. Morobe pointed out the burnt patch to us, saying that this was where the bodies of the Europeans had been burned. Van Schalkwyk took photos of the area. The following day, I received the report from Dr Bershon identifying the hairs taken from the jar as European and similar to those on the hairbrushes taken from Kumalo. On the 31st, Dr Friedman found a Martini Henry rifle cartridge case in the area that used to be covered by Twai Twai’s shelter, marked A on the map (by this time the shelters had been removed). Further searching discovered a bullet from a Martini Henry rifle about three to six inches below the surface, marked X on the map.
Although not mentioned in his evidence, after the search of the campsite, heavy rains arrived and these made the subsequent journey back to Francistown a very difficult one as the dirt tracks turned to mud and, in some cases, mini rivers. The main party reached the Tati River bridge that led into Francistown just in time, as within an hour it had been completely inundated by the rising flood water. The unfortunate van Schalkwyk was left stranded on the wrong side of the river and had to retrace his rather damp steps the 120 miles back to Nata. An emergency plan was quickly drawn up, with the RAF offering to send a plane from Kumalo to pick him up. Instead of this, van Schalkwyk decided to risk the 130-mile drive across the top edge of the Kalahari to Maun, the centre of district government for Ngamiland, which he did successfully.
Robert Langley’s hand-drawn map of the alleged murder scene.
A typical Basarwa shelter as described on Langley’s map. (Rudi Roels)
The bullet found was then taken to DS Cromhourt of the South African Criminal Bureau in Pretoria on the 7th of February. No evidence was found to confirm a definite link to the rifle we had taken possession of. On the 25th of that month I received from Dr Britten the report on the contents of the jars we had sent.
In June I produced the sketch map showing the location of the campsite. It was twenty miles direct from Nata, but it took thirty-seven miles to drive there according to the instruments in our lorries.
Lunch was then taken, one of the breaks that allowed the Basarwa legal teams an opportunity to translate what was happening in full to the defendants. On returning to the witness stand Captain Langley was first questioned by Fraenkel, who started off by asking background questions before moving onto details about how witnesses had led the police to the campsite. Langley’s responses are outlined below:
I was transferred to the Bechuanaland Protectorate in November 1935 and I know the different types of natives. Twai Twai, Tammai and Keree speak ‘Masarwa’ and the Basarwa are semi-nomadic, spending part of the year at the cattle post and the rest of the time they spend out hunting.
I first saw the fire on the 6th of January and the road to the campsite had been used only once by a lorry, the day before when posting a guard. The local population may have known of the guard. When Morobe took me to the fire she followed the spoor of the lorry before turning off the track to lead me to the fire. Rekisang took exactly the same route.
The witnesses said the airmen slept at the southern end of the shelter marked A on the map. There was a well about 150 yards from the campsite, otherwise the nearest water would have been at Kombe. Kombe is also known as Metsebotlhoko. Bushmen need water, just like any other human being. This whole area is known as a Basarwa hunting area.
The witnesses did not show us where they had first met the white men due to the phenomenal rains.
Kelly then questioned Langley about the nature of power in relationships between men and women in Basarwa society:
Basarwa are primitive nomads and the men hold considerable power over the women and would beat them if they did not obey them. I would agree that women would have no choice but to fetch water if asked and that they would probably cover up hunting by hiding skins. Again, I would agree that the women would have carried the bodies of the airmen if ordered. They are simple people and obey their lord and masters.
At this point there was a brief discussion of marital coercion where it was confirmed that only Kiree and Anchere were actually married. De Beer then asked about Twai Twai and hunting:
Preston-Whyte was the first to interview Twai Twai, as I w
as away from Francistown when the first reports came in. Twai Twai was the head of the hunting party as well as the head of his village, but I do not know how far his power extends. As the head of the party he would have been in charge of where to go and what to shoot, he also would have been in charge of the distribution of the meat. We found only giraffe legs and heads at the campsite, not a whole skeleton. We also found a number of places where giraffe had been shot, but some bones had always been removed – although the heads were usually left.
Prosecution Witness – Dr Britten
The next witness for the prosecution was Dr Britten, who had forensically inspected the jars found that contained hair and fat. He had made the journey from the Government Chemical Laboratories in Johannesburg, where he was the Chief Professional Officer. At that time these labs were under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry:
I received two jars on the 13th January 1944. One jar contained a mixture of fatty material, starchy material and hairs along with a sixpence coin. The fat was mainly animal but was mixed with a mineral fat of some type. The other jar had similar contents except there was also some twigs and the coin was a thre’penny bit. The mixture of fat in the second jar was predominately mineral with some animal fat, the other way round to the first. Due to the mixing of the fats it is very difficult to isolate individual components so I cannot give a firm opinion on whether the animal fat was human. The piece of cloth I received in an envelope was a piece of felt. I cannot say whether this could be linked to the gun or the casing.
The Kalahari Killings Page 10
