June 13, 1986 - Thabo Bester
His notoriety rests less on the crimes that imprisoned him than on the elaborate deception that followed — staging his own death in a prison cell fire to engineer an escape that lasted nearly a year across international borders. The operation required coordination, resources, and the cooperation of others, raising serious questions about the integrity of the private facility holding him. His eventual capture in Tanzania closed a case that had exposed significant vulnerabilities in South Africa's corrections system.
From Wikipedia
Thabo Bester (born 13 June 1986) is a South African convicted rapist and murderer who escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in South Africa after faking his death in a fire in his prison cell in May 2022. He was on the run for almost a year before being caught in Arusha, Tanzania on 8 April 2023. He was arrested along with his partner and alleged accomplice, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana. Bester had become known as the "Facebook rapist" because he used the platform to lure models with fake job opportunities. He pleaded guilty to two rapes and one murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
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