Crime In Beijing: Serial Killer Caught

Crime in Beijing has been a hot topic of late with bar fights and muggings in Sanlitun grabbing attention, but nothing has been as notorious as the recent case of Song Jinhua. A word of warning to the squeamish to look away now.

Song Jinhua murdered nine innocent young women in Beijing from 2005 to 2007. The victims – aged between 16 and 28 – were picked because of their likenesses to Song’s brother’s ex-girlfriend. In 1996, Song and his elder brother, both originally from Inner Mongolia, committed a robbery and murder of a driver in Gongti who refused to pay the pair protection money.

The brother’s girlfriend disappeared immediately after the murder and the brothers were apprehended the next day. She reappeared at their trial as a witness for the prosecution, leading Song to believe that she had been the one to betray them to the police. Then a 17-year-old juvenile, Song was sentenced to eight years imprisonment while his 18-year-old brother received the death penalty.

Upon his release in 2002, Song tried to exact revenge on his brother’s former partner but could not trace her. He came to hate all women but especially those who looked like the ex-girlfriend. He decided to punish women who were guilty of nothing more than resembling her.

After murdering eight women, Song killed his neighbor because he feared that she would betray him to authorities. It was this final murder that led to the apprehension of Song and his conspirator Yan Jinguang; Song deliberately left a cigarette at the scene of the crime. He would later admit that he found killing stimulating and knew his capture was inevitable. Song was executed on May 27th of this year.

We’re not trying to scare anyone into thinking that Beijing is anything other than one of the safest big cities in the world. Crimes this heinous are few and far between in China. But we’d all do well to remind ourselves to guard against complacency, stay safe and tell people where we are going.

There are more grisly details in the original story. Click through at your own discretion.

Photo: Police Magazine.