William Unek

Who is William Unek?

William Unek was an African police constable and mass murderer who killed a total of 57 people in two separate spree killings three years apart.

His first murder spree occurred near Mahagi, Belgian Congo in 1954, where he killed 21 people with an axe, before escaping and finally ending up in British occupied Tanganyika Territory.

Apparently because of social misunderstandings with his boss, Unek went on a second rampage which began in the early hours of February 11, 1957. Armed with a stolen police rifle, 50 rounds of ammunition and an axe, he started killing people in the area of Malampaka, a village about 40 miles southeast of Mwanza.

Within twelve hours Unek shot dead ten men, eight women and eight children, murdered five more men with the axe, stabbed another one, burned two women and a child and strangled a 15-year-old girl, thus killing a total of 36 people. He then changed out of his police uniform into clothes stolen from one of his victims and fled. Among the dead was reportedly his own wife, whom he killed in their hut, before setting it on fire, as well as the wife of a police sergeant.

For nine days Unek was sought by Wasukuma tribesmen, police, and eventually a company of the King's African Rifles in Tanganyika's greatest manhunt up to that time.