I’ve always been fascinated by serial killers. There’s something both creepy and scary about them. To me, they are symbols of the worst humans can do but proof that most of us aren’t THAT bad. And because this is 8Asians, I thought I’d do some research on Asian/Asian American serial killers.
But first, let’s define what a serial killer is. According to Wikipedia:
A serial killer is typically defined as a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a ‘cooling off” period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification.
To be clear, people like Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech massacre) are not serial killers. Instead, they should be considered mass murderers or a person who kills four or more people at one time.
When most people think of serial killers, they imagine single white men. However, there have been serial killers of every race, gender, sexual orientation, and social economic status. Some have been smart and personable, others awkward and not very bright. Some have been single and others have been married. Some have even murdered with their spouses right there helping them!
With that being said, I found only two Asian American serial killers, Charles Ng and Andrew Cunanan. A detail of both Ng, Cunanan, and a bunch of killers from Asia, after the jump!
On the left, Chinese American Charles Ng is suspected of killing anywhere from 11 to 25 women in Northern California during the 1980s. He was unusual in that he worked with a partner (Leonard Lake). He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
On the right, hapa/Filipino American Andrew Cunanan is most well-known for murdering fashion designer Gianni Versace. What is less well-known is that he killed four other people in less than a year. Andrew shot himself before he could be caught and tried for any of the murders.
I’m not too surprised that there are only two Asian American serial killers but I’m curious to see if there will be more as the API populations increases over the next few decades.
What about outside of America; are there Asian serial killers? Of course there are! There are serial killers on every continent and in every country! The only reason there seems to be so many American serial killers is because we’ve spent a lot of time studying them and finding ways to catch them.
The most recent case of an Asian serial killer was in the Philippines. According to the Huffington Post, Mark Dizon “is accused of killing nine people – six Filipinos, an American, a Canadian and a Briton – in three different robberies at hotels and homes this month (January 2011) in Angeles city.”
Here’s a picture I found of Mark on AP:
Here is a list I cut and paste from Wikipedia of other serial killers from Asian countries:
People’s Republic of China
- Gong Runbo: found guilty of the murders of six children and teenagers aged between nine and 16 from 2005 to 2006
- Huang Yong: between September 2001 and 2003 killed at least 17 teenage boys; executed in 2003
- Shen Changyin and Shen Changping: found guilty of the murders of 11 prostitutes
- Yang Xinhai: confessed to killing 65 people between 2000 and 2003; executed in 2004
Hong Kong
- Lam Kor-wan: sexual sadist who murdered and dismembered four women in the 1980s; sentenced to life imprisonment
- Lam Kwok-wai: murdered three women
- Charles Sobhraj: killed at least 12 Western tourists in Southeast Asia during the 1970s
India
- Thug Behram: alleged to have killed over 900 people; executed in 1840
- Surender Koli: convicted of raping and murdering four children in Delhi in 2005 and 2006 with another 12 cases pending
- Raman Raghav: killed homeless people and others in their sleep
- Auto Shankar: murdered nine teenage girls in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai during a six-month period in 1988; executed in 1995
- Joshi-Abhyankar Serial Murders: Quartet committed around 10 murders.
Indonesia
- Ahmad Suradji: admitted to killing 42 women; sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on July 10, 2008
- Verry Idham Henyansyah: convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of 11 people
Japan
- Sataro Fukiage: raped and killed at least seven girls in the early 20th century
- Hiroaki Hidaka: killed four prostitutes in 1996; executed on December 25, 2006
- Miyuki Ishikawa: murdered an estimated 103, but could have been up to 169 infants in the 1940s
- Kiyotaka Katsuta: firefighter who shot and strangled at least eight people, some during robberies, between 1972 and 1982
- Yoshio Kodaira: rapist thought to have killed 11 people in Japan and Chinese people as a soldier
- Genzo Kurita: killed six women and two children and engaged in rape and necrophilia
- Hiroshi Maeue: AKA “Suicide Website Murderer”; lured people from suicide clubs promising to kill himself with his victims
- Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko Ogata: AKA “House of Horror”; tortured and killed at least seven people between 1996 and 1998, including Ogata’s family
- Tsutomu Miyazaki: AKA “The Otaku Murderer”, “The Little Girl Murderer” and “Dracula”; killed four preschool-age girls and ate the hand of a victim; executed in 2008
- Seisaku Nakamura: AKA “Hamamatsu Deaf Killer”, murdered at least nine people
- Akira Nishiguchi: killed five people and engaged in fraud
- Kiyoshi Ōkubo: raped and murdered eight young women during 41 days in 1971
Pakistan
- Javed Iqbal: believed to have killed 100 boys
South Korea
- Yoo Young-chul: cannibal; killed 21 people from September 2003 to July 2004, mainly young women and rich men
Unidentified serial killers
This is a list of unidentified serial killers. It includes circumstances where a suspect has been arrested, but not convicted.
India
- Beer Man: murdered seven people in south Mumbai between October 2006 and January 2007
- Stoneman: responsible for 13 murders in Kolkata in 1989
South Korea
- Hwaseong serial murders: series of murders between 1986 and 1991 in Hwaseong; ten women were found raped, bound, and murdered
If you know of any Asian/Asian American serial killers I forgot to mention, please let me know. Include a link if you can.
