Killer Minds: Inside the Minds of Serial Killers & Murderers
MURDEROUS MINDS: Oscar Pistorius Pt. 1
Mon, 31 Mar 2025
In 2012, Oscar Pistorius became a household name after becoming the first double-amputee Olympic runner. But just a few months later, the man known as the "Blade Runner" made headlines for another reason. Because on Valentine's Day, 2013, Oscar's girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was found dead... and Oscar had shot her. Killer Minds is a Crime House Original. Follow us on social media, @crimehouse for more true crime content. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Oscar Pistorius and why is he significant?
When the first Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE, they were intended for the most vigorous athletes in Greece. Participants were hailed as heroes, living gods. But in 2012, one man changed the definition of what it meant to be an Olympic athlete. His name was Oscar Pistorius.
While Oscar didn't walk away with a medal, he was seen as a modern icon for being the first double-leg amputee runner to compete in the Olympics. He gave hope to those who never dared to dream. But behind his unwavering ambition and athletic prowess, Oscar Pistorius harbored a lot of darkness.
And when a tragic accident took his girlfriend's life, many of those secrets rose to the surface, leaving people to wonder if it was really an accident or murder. The human mind is fascinating. It controls how we think, how we feel, how we love, and how we hate. And sometimes the mind drives us to do something truly unspeakable.
This is Killer Minds, formerly known as Mind of a Serial Killer, a Crime House original. Every Monday and Thursday, we'll be taking deep dives into the minds of history's most notorious serial killers and murderers. The show is still the same, the name just changed. And if you're interested in more true crime stories from This Week in History, check out CrimeHouse The Show.
Every episode covers multiple cases, unified by the same theme, so every week you get something a little different. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Killer Minds wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly matters.
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And I'm Dr. Tristan Engels. As Vanessa takes you through our subject stories, I'll be helping her analyze what drove them to commit their crimes, as we try to understand how someone can do such horrible things.
This is the first of two episodes about former track star Oscar Pistorius. In 2012, Oscar became the first double-leg amputee runner to compete in the Olympics. With the help of his charming good looks, Oscar quickly rose to fame. only to swiftly fall from grace when his girlfriend, Riva Steenkamp, was shot dead in his own home, and Oscar had fired the gun.
In today's episode, we'll explore the challenges Oscar overcame in his early years to land a spot in the 2012 Olympic Games. Then we'll follow his rise to fame and the murder that changed Oscar's legacy forever.
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Chapter 2: What were the early challenges faced by Oscar Pistorius?
He was born with a congenital defect, one that left him without his fibula bones in the bottom half of his legs. So, at 11 months old, Oscar's parents, Hank and Sheila, had to make a heart-wrenching decision about their son's future, and they believed it would be best for Oscar if they had both of his legs amputated from the calf down.
As difficult as that process must have been, Hank and Sheila knew this was the best way for Oscar to live a normal life. And they were right. By his second birthday, Oscar was learning how to walk with prosthetic legs.
Let's talk about the effects this might have had on Oscar as a child. A lot of people have heard of the term inferiority complex, but few know about its origin. So just to let everyone know, an inferiority complex is essentially a persistent sense of inadequacy or inferiority stemming from childhood experiences.
And this will motivate a child to strive for superiority and compensate for their own perceived shortcomings. This term was identified by Austrian psychotherapist and physician Alfred Adler. Adler was the founder of individual psychology, and he is known for the birth order theory, which we've talked about in Mind of a Serial Killer, actually, as well as Adlerian play therapy.
Adler suffered from his own childhood disability, something called rickets, which is a disease that causes bone deficiency and one that significantly impaired his own ability to walk during his early years, much like Oscar. And his own childhood disability inspired not only his career, but also the concept of the inferiority complex.
So Adler, from personal experience and through his own research, recognized that everyone on some level will experience an inferiority complex. However, when you add in a physical disability like his or like Oscar's, those children tend to feel it more intensely as they are often seen as or feel physically different or less capable than others.
And unfortunately, the people around them tend to treat them differently whether they realize it or not. which magnifies those feelings of inadequacy. And this is why inclusivity is prioritized in schools for children with physical or emotional or learning disabilities, because differential treatment can really impact their self-esteem and their confidence.
Would kids at that age notice their differences from other kids? Are there any long-lasting psychological repercussions to something like that?
Oscar is too young right now to not only recognize his physical differences, but also he doesn't have the cognitive ability to understand any sense of inadequacy. But when he does get to be around the age of four, he will start to have those realizations. It is expected, based on Adler's theory, that Oscar will likely overcompensate for his perceived inadequacies.
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Chapter 3: How did Oscar Pistorius rise to athletic fame?
Well, regardless of whether Oscar noticed his differences that young, he never let them stand in his way. And that mostly came at the encouragement of his mother, Sheila. She made sure Oscar was treated exactly like his two other siblings, insisting there was no such thing as disability in their house.
As she told the kids each morning, quote, "'Carl, you put on your shoes, and Oscar, you go put on your legs.'" It was that sort of thing that made Oscar push himself beyond his limits, and soon he wasn't just exceeding expectations around the home, he was changing the minds of his peers, too.
By his teens, Oscar had transitioned to a pair of lighter prosthetics, and for the first time in his life, sports became a possibility. Always eager to outperform, Oscar joined the water polo team and the rugby team, and he gained a newfound confidence because of it. But this new high Oscar was riding? Well, it was about to be usurped by a series of unexpected events.
By 2002, when Oscar was 15, things had already been challenging for the Pistorius family. Sheila and Hank had divorced a few years prior, forcing the three kids and Sheila into a smaller house. In his father's absence, Oscar distracted himself with sports, but things at home took a turn for the worse when Sheila was diagnosed with hepatitis.
Doctors tried to treat her condition, but she reacted adversely to the medication, and doctors later found they had misdiagnosed her hepatitis altogether. By that point, though, it was too late. The wrong medication had done too much damage. Only weeks after first falling ill, Sheila passed away on March 6th, 2002. Oscar seemed to take it the hardest.
To drown out the pain, Oscar buried himself deeper in sports, but he pushed himself a little too far. The following year, in 2003, Oscar injured his knee while playing rugby, which meant Oscar's one escape had been taken from him. And suddenly, he felt as though he was left with nothing.
So let's discuss the effects of these series of rather traumatic events. Divorce can be traumatic for children. And while Oscar is trying to adjust to the changes that divorce brought to him and his family, he loses his mother quickly and unexpectedly. And in what you shared about his mother, she seemed very loving, nurturing, and supportive.
And it sounds like she was an advocate for Oscar and wanted to ensure there was no preferential or differential treatment in the home, which is critical in helping Oscar to build and maintain confidence and hope and empowerment. At least that's certainly how it seems. This might have been to his detriment, and I'll touch on that as we progress through the story.
His involvement in sports seems to have been a big part of his identity and perhaps was even a healthy coping mechanism or outlet for him. An outlet he definitely needed in the aftermath of such a loss and of the divorce. It is almost as if he lost two core parts of who he is and who he was becoming in a very short time frame.
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Chapter 4: What controversies surrounded Oscar Pistorius' athletic career?
He also won gold in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. And after this series of wins, Oscar felt unstoppable. He wanted to be challenged even further. The words of his late mother, Sheila, rang through his head, quote, "'The real loser is never the person who crosses the finish line last. The real loser is the person who sits on the side, the person who doesn't even try to compete.'"
Which is why Oscar decided it was time to start training for the regular Olympics. And in 2012, he finally earned a spot on the South African team. That summer, he'd be heading to the London Games as the first ever double amputee runner to compete. But that wasn't the only monumental thing coming Oscar's way.
That year, he'd also meet someone very important, someone most people thought he'd spend forever with. But in this case, forever would only last a couple of months before Oscar's entire world came to a screeching halt. On August 4th, 2012, Oscar Pistorius took to the starting blocks of the London Olympic Games.
His first event was a preliminary heat in the 400-meter race against five other athletes. As the pistol was fired, the Blade Runner took off with the rigor and stamina he was known for. The crowds in London cheered Oscar's name so loud you would have thought he was competing for the home team. And he made many of those onlookers, including his nation of South Africa, proud.
That day, he finished second, advancing to the semifinals. But the following afternoon, Oscar wasn't on top of his game. He came in last, missing out on a spot in the finals. Even though Oscar didn't win a medal, he arguably won something more valuable at those London games — the admiration of millions of people. Overnight, Oscar became a global icon.
He was flooded with requests for interviews and television appearances. Brands like Nike and Oakley signed him to be the face of their new campaigns. Now, Oscar Pistorius was enjoying a $2 million a year payday. That, partnered with Oscar's good looks and sculpted physique, suddenly made him one of the most desirable bachelors on the planet. And Oscar knew it.
On the surface, this sounds like his rise to fame is all positive. He's getting brand recognition and the admiration of millions of people. He's inspiring others, and he's also being recognized as a desirable bachelor. Ordinarily, this isn't something to automatically pathologize, but this is Murderous Minds, and we know where this leads. So
Circling back to his childhood, we know that Oscar's mother was making every effort she could to ensure that Oscar did not feel different in or outside the home. And remember how I said that her intentions, no matter how good they were, might have been a detriment? The quote he referenced about the real loser really showcases that could be possible.
In dissecting that quote, it indicates a dichotomous or binary view. The message is that you're either a real loser or you're not. And apparently that was the lens he was viewing the world in.
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Chapter 5: How did Oscar Pistorius' fame transform his life?
Oh, yes, I'd agree that it certainly did play a big part in what connected them. I mean, we all seek common interests and common ground with every relationship we have, whether it's friendships or romantic relationships.
But for someone like Oscar, who is surrounded primarily by able-bodied people, finding someone who has experience navigating a world that challenges ableism was definitely an attractive and invaluable connection for him. It's validating, and I can only imagine that it allows for him to feel fully seen and understood, maybe even accepted. Could this be an example of trauma bonding?
So trauma bonding is something that happens in a relationship where there is a cycle of abuse. It's an intense emotional attachment that develops between an abuser and their victim. And at this point in the story, there isn't any known abuse or pattern of abuse that has come up. So without that, it can't yet be considered trauma bonding.
That being said, if there was psychological abuse occurring, it's possible that the very thing that connected them could be weaponized. in the relationship in manipulative ways.
For example, if he were to say, I thought you of all people really understood me, or I thought you really got how this makes me feel, as an attempt to control or gain compliance in the relationship, that could be a way in which one would be manipulating their partner's empathy for personal gain.
So in relationships where there's an intimate partner violence or abusive pattern, this is something that you would likely see happening, and then we could likely see a trauma bond occur.
Even before meeting Oscar, Reva knew her good looks wouldn't carry her over the finish line. She needed something to fall back on, something that wasn't reality TV appearances and KFC commercials, but instead skills she could enact later in life.
So by the time she and Oscar were introduced in November 2012, she was reportedly planning to take the bar, get back into law, and use the platform she'd built as a way to get back into advocacy. And seemingly, Oscar was supportive of that. In fact, going into January of 2013, the couple appeared pretty happy together.
They'd only been dating a few months, but it looked like they were planning for a future with one another. On January 26th, they were spotted out together at a party, both dressed in white, dancing the night away. Friends who were there with them said they looked madly in love. Many of them thought they were headed towards marriage.
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