Liu Mingwu

In this Chinese name, the family name is Liu.
Liu Mingwu
刘明武
BornJanuary 1960
Wulou, Songtao Miao Autonomous County, Guizhou, China
Died6 November 2002(2002-11-06) (aged 42)
Lu'an, Anhui, China
Cause of deathExecution by shooting
Other names"The Beggar Killer"
Tan Renhong
Conviction(s)Murder x22
Criminal penaltyDeath
Details
Victims23+
Span of crimes
1992; 2001 – 2002
CountryChina
State(s)Guizhou, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shanghai
Date apprehended
23 March 2002

Liu Mingwu (Chinese: 刘明武; January 1960 – 6 November 2002), known as The Beggar Killer (Chinese: 乞丐杀手), was a Chinese beggar and serial killer who, from February 2001 to March 2002, attacked and killed at least 23 people, predominantly other beggars, across various cities in China. After his arrest, he claimed that he had done it out of hatred for the homeless, whom he considered "dirty and smelly." He was later convicted, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed in 2002.[1]

Early life and murders

Little is known of Liu Mingwu's background. Born in January 1960 in the small village of Wulou, in Guizhou's Songtao Miao Autonomous County, he was the child of a poor peasant family who eventually took over the farm as he grew up. He was considered a normal, upstanding citizen until sometime in 1992, when he got into a fight with the village cadres over land disputes.[2] During this fight, he killed one of the cadres' sons and then fled to avoid arrest, wandering around the country and living as a beggar on the streets.[3]

Despite his situation, Liu developed an inexplicable hatred of other beggars he encountered, whom he considered "dirty and smelly."[2] Eventually, he resorted to killing them, reasoning that since they lived on the street, nobody would take interest in their deaths. The first known killings were recorded between February and October 2001, when approximately 15 beggars were either stabbed with a knife or bludgeoned with a brick before their bodies were set on fire. The killings occurred in the cities of Xuzhou and Suqian in Jiangsu and in Si County in Anhui.[4]

From November 2001 to 21 March 2002, similar killings were recorded within Anhui. On 26 February, the burned body of a beggar was found under the Tongji Bridge in Feidong County, and ten days later, a fire broke out in a vacant house in Hefei. After putting the fire out, a human head was found among the ashes.[5] By the time police had connected the two crimes, the burned body of an unknown man was found on 17 March in Lu'an, followed by that of another only four days later. Suspecting that the killings were the work of a single perpetrator, local authorities initiated a large-scale operation to track down the killer, frequently frisking and questioning any beggars they met on the streets.[2]

Arrest, trial and execution

On 23 March, the police noticed that a lone beggar, dressed in a fur coat and with disheveled hair, was squatting on the platform of a bus stop in Lu'an. When they approached him, they noticed a bloodstained knife wrapped up in newspaper in his hands and immediately brought him in for questioning at the police station.[3] During the interrogation, the man claimed to be a 40-year-old from Hunan named Tan Renhong, and to the investigators' shock, he freely admitted that over the last two years, he had been traveling around the country and brutally killing beggars whenever he could, to the extent that he had lost count of how many had died at his hands.[2]

Initially skeptical of his claims, the investigators conducted a background check on the man and learned that he was actually Liu Mingwu, a fugitive wanted for murder in Guizhou. After delving further into his purported murder spree, investigators were able to connect him to a further 22 murders committed between 2001 and 2002, considered an unprecedented amount of murders at the time.[5] When pressed for a motive, Liu reiterated that his sole reason for killing the victims was because they were dirty beggars, leading authorities to believe that he was mentally ill and ordering a mental evaluation at the Provincial Psychiatric Hospital in Lu'an. The results concluded that he was sane and fully aware of the gravity of his actions.[3]

On 28 August, Liu was tried before the Intermediate People's Court of Lu'an for the 23 murders that the authorities were able to link him to.[4] During the proceedings, he expressed no remorse for his crimes, which was presented as an additional aggravating factor by the prosecution. As a result, Liu was sentenced to death and deprived of political rights.[6] He was summarily executed by shooting on 6 November 2002.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "杀人狂魔从江苏到安徽连杀22名乞丐 被执行枪决" [Murderer who killed 22 beggars in a row from Jiangsu to Anhui is executed] (in Chinese). Sohu. 8 November 2002. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d "安徽"乞丐杀手"刘明武，杀人后逃亡成乞丐，嫌乞丐脏杀害29人" [Anhui "beggar killer" Liu Mingwu, who became a beggar to flee an arrest for murder, killed 29 people for being dirty] (in Chinese). new.qq.com. 2021. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "跨省疯狂作案残杀29人 "乞丐杀手"在安徽落网" [Cross-province 'beggar killer' who killed 22 in Anhui arrested] (in Chinese). China News Service. 16 April 2002. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b "安徽六安抓获一"乞丐杀手" 嫌犯酿下血案22宗" [Lu'an arrested a 'beggar killer' suspected who committed 22 bloody murders] (in Chinese). Sohu. 30 August 2002. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b ""乞丐杀手"刘明武：犯案潜逃沦落为乞丐，逃亡路上又连杀22人" ['Beggar Killer' Liu Mingwu: He absconded and became a beggar, and killed 22 people on the way] (in Chinese). Sohu. 24 August 2021. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022.
  6. ^ "凶残乞丐手段恶劣杀死21人 石头砸刀子捅放火烧" [Brutal beggar kills 21 people, stabs, stab, stabs and sets them on fire] (in Chinese). News Sina. 1 September 2002. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022.