In 1987, during the South African Transport Services (SATS) strike, eight strikers participated in the murder of four non-strikers. The aim of this study is to explore the social psychological factors involved in these murders. In order to understand this pathway to murder, a nine phase social psychological model of violence has been developed. This model is primarily founded on a revision and reformulation of some of the concepts formulated by Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, and Sears (1939), in their frustration-aggression thesis, but it is also based on a number of concepts originating in the literature on violence. Unlike Dollard et al. (1939)' and other literature, the model distinguishes between anger, aggression and violence, and it proposes that frustration does not necessarily result in aggression or violence. Furthermore, the model stresses that frustration may occur despite the manifestation of violence, thus leading to more extreme violence. The model contends that violence is not caused by anyone factor. In contrast to many other analyses of violence, it attempts to provide an integrated understanding of the behaviour and it highlights the importance of contingent factors in determining whether or not violence will occur. The model focuses on the ways in which numerous factors in the various domains of life - the political, the occupational, the familial and so on - may coalesce and influence individuals and groups so as to encourage violence. In so doing, the model emphasises the importance of understanding the violence of the eight strikers in terms of factors that pertain to the individual, to the group or groups to which these individuals belong, and to their social context. The model reflects the experiences and behaviours of eight strikers, and it begins with an exploration of the hardship that these individuals endured in the different realms of their lives. These hardships are referred to as inherent conditions, as they underpin the strikers' violence. After these privations have been described, the study goes on to delineate and analyse, within the framework of the phases of the model, the eight strikers': discontent; anger and circumspect non-violent protest; frustration; militant aggression; frustration despite the use of militant aggression; violence; frustration despite the use of violence; and finally, their use of more extreme violence in the form of murders that involved repeated stabbings and mutilation.