Hazel Crane (1951 – 10 November 2003) was a prominent socialite, businesswoman and posthumous memoirist in South Africa. She was assassinated on 10 November 2003 near her mansion home in the plush northern

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

suburb of Abbotsford – the same suburb in which controversial mining magnate

Brett Kebble Roger Brett Kebble (19 February 1964 – 27 September 2005) was a South African mining magnate with close links to factions in the ruling political party, the African National Congress. Known to be personally eccentric, he became a major player ...

was murdered in 2005. Crane was killed as she left home to testify against an alleged

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

boss in a murder trial.

Early life

Born as Hazel Elizabeth Magee in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, she emigrated to then

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

as a child and later to South Africa in adult life. In South Africa she was involved in several philanthropic committees and projects, such as the educational sponsorship of poor students.

Later life

Crane was previously married to Anthony Crane, who was killed at age 25 in combat in the

Rhodesian Bush War The Rhodesian Bush War, also called the Second as well as the Zimbabwe War of Liberation, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe-Rhodesia). The conflict pitted three for ...

. The couple already had one child, and at the time of her husband's death, Crane was pregnant with their second child. She later had a tumultuous marriage with alleged

Israeli mafia The Israeli mafia ( he, מאפיה ישראלית, Mafiyah Yisrelit, or , , "organized crime in Israel") are the organized crime groups operating in Israel or consisting of Israeli members. There are 16 crime families operating in Israel, five ma ...

boss Shai Avissar. At the time of his murder in 1999, the couple were estranged. She was a close friend of

Winnie Mandela Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (born Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela; 26 September 1936 – 2 April 2018), also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She serv ...

, who attended her funeral and was the chief witness in her wedding to Avissar. Crane accompanied Mandela during her hearings before the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

Death and legacy

Crane was shot dead in her car in November 2003, while travelling to the Johannesburg High Court to attend the trial of alleged

boss Lior Saat, accused of murdering Crane's estranged husband near

Sunninghill, Gauteng Sunninghill is a commercial and residential suburb of Johannesburg in Sandton South Africa. It is located in Region A of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. The N1 (South Africa), N1 freeway, which at this area is eight lanes acros ...

in late 1999. Crane had been travelling with a female companion, who was shot in the hand, but police determined that the incident was a "direct attack" on Crane's life, who was shot in the head, leg, chest and arm It later emerged that Crane had been expected to testify in the murder case against Saat, and a source close to Crane said that she knew too much, being able to identify and implicate a number of figures in the Saat murder case. She was the third state witness in the Saat murder trial alleged to be murdered by one of Saat's contacts, John van Loggerenberg, also known as "Johnna". Van Loggerenberg is alleged be an associate of the Sicilian Mafia, an allegation he has neither denied or acknowledged. Police alleged he was behind the murders of Giulio Bascelli and Carlo Binne; Giulio Bascelli was shot in the head in a deserted garage soon after Avassi's death in 2000, while Carlo Binne was shot dead at the Gecko Lounge, a Johannesburg nightclub, in April 2008.Due to the lack of evidence, the high court dismissed the claims against van Loggerenberg. It is believed that van Logerenberg orchestrated the murder of dozens of high profile people. The list of deceased includes attorneys, debt collectors and drug traffickers from various European and African countries, according to research conducted by forensic investigator and fraud examiner Paul O’Sullivan. Andrew Meldrum,
"Israeli gangsters blamed for murder of Winnie's friend"
''The Guardian'', 16 November 2003. The Sicillian Mafia was behind number of high value targets involving attorneys, witnesses and judges. van Loggerenberg was never convicted of any of the murders as there was lack of evidence connecting him to these crimes. Prior to her death, Crane was working with British journalist David Kray on her memoirs. The biography, ''Hazel Crane: Testimony from Beyond the Grave'' received a

posthumous Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ...

release in 2004 and contained several shocking details about the socialite's colorful past. The book details Crane's own secret life of crime. She made her fortune by smuggling

diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

and

emeralds Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr. and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991) ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York, p. ...

, making black-market currency deals, owning a striptease joint and selling hard-core pornography. She also tells of how she entered the underground ring in South Africa and her meeting underground crime boss "Johnna" to discuss security for her and her shipping routes. Prior to her criminal career, she trained as a State Registered Nurse in Rhodesia.

Early life

Later life

Death and legacy

See also

References

Further reading