A Devil's Mind

by Gangxueyin

  A year or so later on the night of May 31, 2011, the seventh victim was murdered, this time a nineteen-year-old-girl who was stabbed seven times in the chest, abdomen, and back. That same year on the evening of November 15, a thirty-seven-year-old female was stabbed numerous times in the chest and abdomen as she opened her apartment door upon returning from work. She died on the spot.

  The ninth, tenth, and eleventh cases all occurred in 2012, on February 8, 12, and 24, respectively. One of the victims was an unemployed twenty-five-year-old female who was stabbed a number of times in the chest and abdomen and died on-site. The other two victims were also female, twenty-one and nineteen years of age. They were found quickly and fortunately survived.

  In the eleven cases, the killer’s targets looked young and were loudly dressed females. His killing technique was smooth and clean, and he was always able to quickly escape. Thus, no evidence was left. The only assumption was that the killer lived near the crimes because all eleven cases occurred within a half mile of each other.

  Taiping Town was a heavy coal producer in H Province. The province’s biggest state-owned coal plant had been built near the district where the crimes had been committed. In the total population of approximately three thousand people, about one thousand eight hundred were male. Because of the large size of the population, it was impossible to investigate everyone, so the task force conducted a highly focused screening.

  At the end of 2004, the T City police department established a task force aimed at dealing with the murders. Since the killer’s targets were all females who were wounded or killed and not robbed or raped, the task force figured his motive was hatred of women or acts of abnormal sexual release caused by inadequate sexual function. Further analysis indicated that the killer may have been abused in his youth or felt betrayed by his mother or possibly experienced numerous failures in love. The analysis found that the killer was single, lived alone, had no career, and was antisocial.

  Some of the information also mentioned that the killer had mailed three letters to the police. The first was in early 2006, not long after committing his fifth crime. Because the public believed the rumor that he hated women, he clarified this in his letter:

  I don’t hate women. I’ve always respected them, even prostitutes. Perhaps those girls are running into me, as if it were written in the stars. Even I don’t know why I hurt them.

  The second letter came just after he resumed his crimes in 2010:

  After that first thrust of the knife several years ago, the chickens and ducks became wild beasts. I’ve deeply experienced how easy it is for chickens and ducks to become wild beasts and how difficult it is for wild beasts to become chickens and ducks!

  The third letter came after the most recent crime:

  If I’m the student and the police are the teachers, then I want to see how good those teachers really are!

  After he scrutinized the details of the cases, a number of images kept recurring in Han Yin’s mind, but he was in no hurry to draw conclusions. He wanted to survey the crime sites first.

  Night was approaching. Han Yin thought that visiting where the crimes had taken place would give him insights into the killer’s mind. He didn’t want to disturb the task force, so he went to the police station to find someone to take him there. The station was tense and busy. A middle-aged woman had gone missing around noon, and everyone was on high alert, but there was no sign of her. Han Yin conveyed his request to the station chief, who assigned an officer to assist him.

  The corpses were discovered in a part of Taiping Town called the Wu Family Hillside. The town’s low-income residents were concentrated there. The area housed several hundred small dwellings, all closely packed together and separated by narrow lanes. They were about six feet wide and zigzagged, most without lighting. On a very dark night, it would be extremely easy for a killer to hide out. Clearly, this complicated layout was one of the reasons the killer had succeeded and evaded capture. He had to be extremely familiar with the lay of the land.

  Han Yin walked along the rough slate-paved lane. Huge piles of garbage were everywhere. Waves of disgusting smells emanated from the houses. Guided by the policeman, Han Yin went by each crime site and went over the details of the three most recent attacks. He was well prepared, with his white gloves and evidence bag. He used his flashlight to probe every corner of the various sites and even went through the garbage. This puzzled the policeman, and he kept asking Han Yin what he was looking for. Han Yin only smiled.

  Finally, at the ninth site, Han Yin found something at the mouth of an alleyway across from a big willow tree. It was a wad of toilet paper in a pile of garbage behind the tree. The toilet paper seemed to have something slimy sticking to it.

  Han Yin picked up the toilet paper and put it into the evidence bag.

  The policeman came over and teased him. “What are you going to do with that?”

  Han Yin sealed the bag and smiled. “Nothing at the moment. But later there may be a comparable DNA sample, and then it’d be useful. Maybe saliva, maybe sperm. You never know.”

  The policeman looked at the bag a few times. “Your way of investigating is pretty unique. No one ever looks for this kind of stuff.”

  Han Yin gave the toilet paper sample to the task force. Since this town was incapable of DNA testing, the task force arranged for someone to take it to the municipal PSB’s forensic pathology department for testing. Although there was nothing to compare it to, if it could be established that the material stuck on the toilet paper was sperm, this might explain that the killer returned to the crime scene to masturbate. And that would mean his motivation had to do with sexual repression.

  The next day, the task force arranged for Han Yin to see the most recent victim. She was physically all right and was expected to make a full recovery.

  Even though she was extremely cooperative in responding to Han Yin’s questions, all the information she gave had already been obtained by the task force. This came as no surprise to Han Yin. He hoped to have a “cognitive conversation” with her, and, in a completely relaxed environment, use psychological suggestions to lead her back to the moments of the crime. By leading and describing, he could help the victim recall scenes from some of the memories that the mind had repressed out of self-preservation. Han Yin had successfully applied this technique in the past. When using this method, the victim recalled that the attacker “reeked of alcohol.”

  When he returned from the victim’s home to the guesthouse, Han Yin received a notification. The forensic pathology report confirmed that it was sperm on the toilet paper, and the fingerprints were unreadable. Whether the task force’s cautious attitude would connect the sperm with the killer remained to be seen. But Han Yin didn’t see it that way. At the time of the attack, the assailant “reeked” of alcohol. It was very possible he had returned there to masturbate. The image of the killer was gradually coming into focus.

  14

  MOTIVE TO DESTROY

  The killer tails his targets and ambushes them or, after passing from the opposite direction, turns and stabs them from behind. The killer uses sharp tools, and his killing method is simple and highly efficient. Therefore, the killer may be involved in simple machinery labor or physically demanding work. The killer mostly selects his victims at random. All he needs is a dark night and a solitary female—either an attractive young woman or one wearing loud clothing.

  However, the sixth crime was an exception and was perpetrated after a five-year hiatus. In this case, the killer reversed his previous MO. Had it not been for the stab wounds, it would have been difficult to line this up with the previous cases. This time, the killer tricked his victim into a boiler room (there were no signs of her being dragged or dropped). And after the murder, he mutilated the body. If the killer truly had laid low for five years, he’d gotten more creative, and his libido had gotten more intense.

  A cause must have an effect and vice versa. Why did the killer want to destroy his last victim’s appea
rance? Why did he want to humiliate and degrade her? Why did he want to deprive her of her breast, the very embodiment of her womanhood? It must have originated in the victim’s identity or experiences. Clearly, the killer knew something about her. Thus, the two of them may well have been acquainted in some way.

  The victim was Liu Xin, thirty-one years old and married to a man named Fu Xiaoning. He had a tight alibi. They resided in the middle of Wu Family Hillside. Liu Xin had worked in a coal plant. This was all the information the case file had on her. Han Yin went to the coal plant to find out more.

  According to her coworkers, she was pretty, glamorous, sensuous, flirtatious, loose, and indiscreet, and she had some kind of relations with the plant managers and other shady people. One of her coworkers suggested Han Yin talk to Liu Xin’s best friend, Zhang Nan.

  Zhang Nan was about thirty years old and average in appearance. He was responsible for the observation meters in the plant’s instrument room. He said, “Liu Xin wasn’t as bad as the rumors say. She was just lively, loved to get dolled up, liked making friends, and liked singing and dancing.”

  “She didn’t have a lover?”

  “I can’t say for sure. We went out together several times. Drinking, singing, and dancing—nothing special.”

  “Her husband didn’t care?”

  “He did, but Liu Xin didn’t care. Their relationship had never been good. She thought he was worthless and had no money. He thought she didn’t care about the family and was crazy. Also, she once told me she was ready to get a divorce. They’d already been living separately for a long time.”

  “What does Fu Xiaoning do for a living?”

  “He runs a little convenience store.”

  Han Yin went to the Wu Family Hillside residential area to visit Fu Xiaoning’s store. It was close to several of the crime sites, which made Han Yin even more interested.

  Just based on motive, Fu Xiaoning seemed like a worthy candidate for a suspect. But the task force had investigated him and removed him from the list. Han Yin wondered if Liu Xin really had a lover or not. Specifically, were the men who lived nearby involved with her in any disreputable way?

  When Han Yin asked the question, Fu Xiaoning appeared to be humiliated but said that even though his marriage to Liu Xin had lots of problems, he was certain she didn’t have a lover. If the emotionality of his response could be trusted, he was telling the truth. Perhaps Liu Xin had no lover, or perhaps Fu Xiaoning had been in the dark all along. Either way, this man provided nothing of value to the case. Han Yin ended the visit and said good-bye.

  As he was walking out, Han Yin saw a small glass counter by the doorway. Several sex aids were in the display case. He turned to Fu Xiaoning and said, “How do these things sell?”

  “Pretty decent, but they get stolen a lot, too.”

  “Do you report it?”

  “None of it’s expensive. Not worth the trip for you guys. And even if I did call, the cops here are too lazy to send anyone.”

  “What gets stolen?”

  “Just some things for prolonging intercourse, avoiding premature ejaculation. People don’t take much, just a few yuan worth. They probably don’t have the money for it.”

  Or he’s afraid of being ridiculed for having a weak sex drive. Wouldn’t such efforts at concealment and a high sense of self-esteem be consistent with the attitude of the killer? Han Yin had a faint feeling that the thefts might be connected with the killer.

  Han Yin called the task force to send someone over to check the case for fingerprints.

  The tech found ten fingerprints on the glass counter. Fu Xiaoning’s prints were eliminated, and there was no match with the fingerprints on file for suspects the task force previously investigated. So, four were left over. Han Yin had the tech people hold these fingerprints in a separate file.

  After half a morning’s investigation, Liu Xin’s love life was still not clear, though one thing was certain: many people believed she had not been a respectable woman. Han Yin figured there were two reasons for the killer mutilating the corpse. One was that the paths of Liu Xin and her murderer actually did cross at some point in their lives, and the mutilation of the body arose from some kind of grudge. Another was that he both despised the pretty and flirtatious woman and was also aroused by her. But he knew he could never get her. Therefore, he wanted to destroy her and humiliate her.

  Maybe everything the killer did was motivated by destruction.

  15

  A TOMB AND A MUTILATED CORPSE

  4:00 p.m.

  A sudden thunderstorm came. Lightning flashed and thunder shook the heavens. A bolt streaked out of the black sky and struck a huge tree on the slope near Wu Family Hillside. Sparks flew everywhere, and the tree turned into a flaming torch. Luckily, the rain fell harder and harder, so the fire was gradually extinguished.

  The great rain came fiercely and left quickly. Afterward, the residents struggled up the hill to see the marvelous sight and the big tomb under that tree that had been abandoned for decades.

  According to local lore, a tycoon who wanted to build a family tomb on the hillside bought the hill. But the work was only half finished when war threatened, and the tycoon fled with his family to Southeast Asia, abandoning the site. Nothing was ever buried there, but myths starting popping up, mostly about buried treasure.

  Residents of Wu Family Hillside interpreted the lightning strike as a bad omen and feared the worst, and when they approached the mouth of the tomb, they found a limbless torso on the ground.

  Han Yin raced through the deepening night with the task force. The glare of countless flashlights fell on the corpse at the tomb entrance. The whiteness of her skin was radiant. The redness of her blood was dazzling. Even these hardened, elite policemen were deeply shocked by the horrific scene.

  She was naked. A flesh-colored silk stocking was coiled around her neck. Her limbs had been cleanly cut off and were nowhere in sight. The skin on her face had been ripped off, as if someone had removed a mask. Snow-white teeth. Crimson musculature. The alternating black and white of the eyeballs. The chest had been cut open right down to the groin, with the viscera and intestines showing. The vagina had been split in several places and was mutilated into a bloody pulp.

  The big rainstorm had washed away any evidence. Only the scoring on the corpse’s skin showed it had been moved. Considering the vicinity and traces of blood left on the relatively low rocks, the forensic specialist figured this was where the victim was chopped up, not murdered. A purple satchel was next to the victim’s head with her clothing and ID stuffed inside. It was Mi Lan, the woman who’d been missing since noon yesterday.

  Mi Lan, forty years old, lived with her husband, daughter, and her husband’s mother in the east section of Wu Family Hillside. She worked at a dry cleaner nearby. Every day she got off at noon and would hurry home to make lunch for her elderly mother-in-law. She was described by her family and friends as gentle and virtuous, very accommodating, showing respect to her elders, and incredibly gorgeous. She had a beautiful figure and always dressed with style and refinement.

  After comparing the knife wounds, the forensic specialist confirmed that Mi Lan had died from the same single-bladed knife as the previous Wu Family Hillside girl. This was just as Han Yin had expected when he first saw Mi Lan’s corpse. The killer’s fanatical style made Han Yin all the more certain that the killer did this to extinguish the things he could never possess.

  This beautiful woman passing before the killer’s eyes almost daily must have been a torment for him. That beautiful image and seductive charm always lingered in his mind. Finally, perhaps due to shock or alcohol, when Mi Lan again appeared before him, he impulsively abducted her in broad daylight and took her to his home, breaking his typical nighttime MO.

  He bound her, beat her, humiliated her, and strangled her with her own stockings. He devastated her beautiful face, disemboweled her porcelain-white body, and severed her limbs. He knew there was no way she’d be with a guy
like him, and he made it so nobody else could ever have her, either.

  Since the killer probably saw Mi Lan regularly, he must live somewhere between the dry cleaner and her home. Han Yin also believed that the killer was among the crowd of gawkers and vowed to catch him next time.

  Two hours later, Han Yin handed in a detailed criminal profiling report to the task force.

  Attractive, fashionable young women represented the beautiful side of life and embodied vibrant, hopeful spirits—things the killer could never obtain. He’s someone without merit. His thoughts and capabilities are gravely imbalanced. The life he longs for is a far cry from the predicament he finds himself in, so this deepest side of him is filled with profound frustration. Whenever he can no longer bear his shortcomings and setbacks, he instinctively projects his resentment onto society and specific people. Also, the catharsis of the killer’s libido plays a part in these crimes.

  The killer masturbated when he returned to the crime scene, showing that violence against women thrills him. Thus, a normal sexual lifestyle would never satisfy him.

  Han Yin discovered that the killer might have stolen pills for prolonging intercourse and preventing premature ejaculation, which shows that either the killer’s sex drive is dysfunctional or he may have had low sexual potency. So, what caused the killer’s perverted sex drive? To answer this, one must consider two renowned serial killers in crimes of perversion.