The Jars Murderer in Hong Kong

Do you know that Lam Kor Wan is one of the two known serial killers in Hong Kong?

Lam is an infamous serial murderer from 1980s, nicknamed “Jars Killer”, or more commonly known as “Rainy Night Butcher” to Hongkongers. He was a nightshift taxi driver. Lam took advantage of his occupation by picking up female passengers and strangulated them with electrical wires. Many of his killings took place during rainy nights, thus earning him the alias mentioned above.

That’s nothing special? You have seen something crazier?

I am not finished yet.

After he killed the victims, he took their bodies home, took off all their clothes, took pictures of their nude bodies and dismembered them. What’s daring about that is he lived with his family members, and his family had no idea that the victims’ bodies were stored under their sofa overnight until they were chopped into pieces the next day.

Then he would cut off the victims’ sexual organs and store them in jars (remember his nickname?) for his…um, personal collection. He even videotaped the whole process of dismemberment and gave the video tapes names like “A Serious Secret” or “Rainy Night Action”…That’s sick? But I still haven’t tell you that he tried eating the third victim’s intestine (“tried”, he failed to do so at last because even he thought that was too disgusting) and had sex with the fourth victim’s body…Opps, I should have warned you first, shouldn’t I?

When he tried to develop the photographs of him dismembering the victims in a film shop, the shop manager found the content too suspicious (even though Lam claimed that he worked at mortuary) and informed the police. The police found out his “collection” at his home and eventually arrested Lam. He was first sentenced to death, but was later changed to life imprisonment since death penalty in Hong Kong was abolished.

Lam is very calm and seldom talks while in jail. This creepy personality, together with his crimes, scared even the prison officers. Lots of people are afraid of him not only for what he has done, but also because of “the aura” surrounding him. One of the officers even said that he once saw four semi-transparent figures circling Lam…

Whether it is real or not though, I will let you decide…

Avian Flu in Hong Kong

Do you know that the Influenza type H5N1, which had its outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997, is the first known avian flu that can infect human?

This kind of virus was actually first found in mainland China in 1996. The virus killed some geese but didn’t catch much attention because it was merely deemed as normal avian flu which could affect birds and poultries only.

…Until a 3-year-old boy in Hong Kong died from it. The boy suffered from multiple organ failure and his blood even clotted! The specialists in Hong Kong could not determine what was happening and had to forward the virus sample to over sea labs and CDC.

The result they had, unexpectedly, shocked the whole medical field. That is because doctors and scientists thought that only virus type H1, H2 and H3 could cause flu in humans. But this time, the boy was killed by a flu caused by virus type H5, which was thought to only affect birds.

The case led to deep concern of health organisations all over the world. A total of 18 Hongkoners were infected and 6 of them died. Fearing the spread of the disease, the Hong Kong government had no choice but to killed over 1 million chickens and had to pause importing live chickens from the mainland.

Two years later, a new virus strain H9N2 was found in Hong Kong. The virus keeps on mutating from then on and the nightmare of humanity continues…

The Devil Cop in Hong Kong

Do you know that one of the most infamous criminals in Hong Kong was a cop?

I hate the police and make this up to defame them? No, I didn’t.

Have you heard of Tsui Po Ko (徐步高)?

Tsui Po Ko was born in Fujian and grew up in Hong Kong. After graduation, Tsui tried several jobs, but eventually became a police constable in 1993 because he thought the job was well paid and had good benefits. He was an excellent shooter (once scored full mark in training) and had an outstanding performance while in police college, which earned him a “silver whistle”. He was also calm and independent, where his superior thought highly of him.

Wait a minute… Tsui sounds like a fine and full-of-potential young man. That statement about him being a criminal…is that a mistake?

It’s not.

In March 2001, he killed another cop Leung Shing Yan and stole his revolver.

In December of the same year, he committed a bank robbery, stole about HK$500,000 and killed a Pakistani security guard.

And five years later, in 2006, he ambushed two police, Sin Ka Keung and Tsang Kwok Hang in Tsim Sha Tsui. After a ferocious gun fight, Tsui was shot to death. However, Tsang also lost his life while attempting to arrest Tsui, leaving Sin the only survivor.

No one can say for sure why Tsui would fell from the grace, but psychological experts theorize that it was the frustration from never being promoted drove him off the path. While his performance was good, he was too stubborn and self-centered when it came to communication. After failing the promotion tests a few times, he started to act weird, like suddenly singing national anthem in the canteen and stalking Hong Kong political figures.

It was even found out that Tsui had all those philosophical writings stuck on his bed, like “What is the meaning of life?”, “Clashes, conflicts and wars lead to rebirth” and “Ruling class could not tolerate suspicion towards the god because that lowers the god’s legality”, revealing how he was dissatisfied with the ruling class and believe he could change the world. Experts therefore considered him suffering from schizotypal personality disorder.

The story of Tusi ends. His doing shocked the society and earned him the title of “Devil Cop”.

Case closed…or is it?

The devil tempted a once capable and strong-willed young man and turned him into a notorious criminal. How many people could resist the temptation at the end?

The gun is in your hand. Will you pull the trigger?

Hello Kitty Murder in Hong Kong

Do you know that while Hello Kitty is a cute cartoon character, it reminds Hongkongers of one of the most shocking and gruesome murder cases in the city?

Yup, I am talking about the Hello Kitty Murder.

If you intend to read on, I hope you have some strong stomachs.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The murder took place in 1999. The victim, Fan Man Yee, was a 23-year-old night club hostess. What led her to her miserable end was her monetary dispute over HK$20,000 (~US$2,500) with loan shark Chan Man Lok.

After Fan paying the money, Chan was not satisfied and demanded more. So Chan ordered his two accomplices, Leung Shing Cho and Leung Wai Lun to kidnap Fan and held her in his apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui. Chan was not only a loan shark, but also a pimp. So Chan’s original plan was to make Fan work as a prostitute and pay back the money she no longer owed him.

But things went wrong. Chan and his co were drug addicts. When they were high on drugs, they would torture Fan for fun. They bet her with metal bars, burnt her with cigarettes, forced her to eat feces and drink piss…All of these inhumane things were nothing more than entertaining games to them.

After nearly a month of torture, poor Fan finally died from the abuse. In order to rid of Fan’s body, Chan and his co dismembered Fan, boiled her body parts, put her organs into bags and hide her skull inside a huge Hello Kitty doll! Yuck…The rest of Fan’s body could not be found, and the case might have never been revealed if Leung Wai Lun’s girlfriend didn’t turn herself in out of guilt.

The judge was horrified with the case and commented “even an animal would not have been maltreated in the same way as that received by the deceased”. Since most of Fan’s remains could not be found, police could not identify exactly how she died and it was suggested the trio did not kill her with intent (under the effect of drugs), the three men were only convicted of manslaughter. They were still sentenced to life imprisonment, though.

Hello Kitty doesn’t look so adorable anymore, does it?
I hope Sanrio won’t sue me for saying this.