August 20, 2004 - 1:30 PM

South African "Bonnie & Clyde" killer free

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A woman whose 1983 murder and armed robbery spree with her boyfriend
saw them dubbed South Africa's "Bonnie and Clyde" has been released from prison and has asked for
forgiveness.

Charmaine Phillips, now 40, was granted parole after serving almost 20 years of four life sentences for taking
part in a wild crime spree at the age of 19, the South African Press Association reported on Friday.

Warders at Kroonstad Prison in the Free State province said Phillips was different from the young woman
who narrowly avoided the death sentence passed against her lover, 37-year-old boyfriend Pieter Grundlingh.

Grundlingh was hanged in 1985 after first confessing and then denying the murders.

Known as South Africa's "Bonnie and Clyde" after the infamous U.S. gangsters, the two were the subject of a
massive manhunt when four men were murdered in quick succession after Grundlingh appeared in court on an
arms charge.

Following about two weeks on the run, the pair were captured and tried for crimes the judge in the case called
"staggeringly wicked."

Phillips, who had been a prostitute before meeting Grundlingh, told the court she had helped to kill the victims
because they "got fresh with her" or simply had money and fought with her boyfriend.

In prison she became an artist and hairstylist, cutting warders' and other prisoners' hair.

Phillips had requested her release be conducted in a "quiet manner", but she did release a statement in
which she asked the families of her victims for forgiveness.