Gerontology Guide

According to some media reports at the time of his arrest, Yang’s motive for the killings was revenge against society as a result of a break up.[2][9] Allegedly his girlfriend had left him because of his previous sentences for theft and rape.[2][9] Later media reports claimed that his enjoyment of robbery, rape and murder was the motive.[3][14]

While Yang never formally provided a motive, he was quoted as saying:

“When I killed people I had a desire (to kill more). This inspired me to kill more. I don’t care whether they deserve to live or not. It is none of my concern…I have no desire to be part of society. Society is not my concern.”[14][17]

Yang was detained on November 3, 2003 after acting suspiciously during a routine police inspection of entertainment venues in Cangzhou, Hebei. Police took him in for questioning and discovered that he was wanted for murder in four provinces. As news of his arrest and crimes spread, the media dubbed him the “Monster Killer”.[1][2][3][9][12][13]

Shortly after he was arrested, Yang confessed to 65 murders, 23 rapes and five attacks causing serious injury: 49 murders, 17 rapes and five attacks in Henan; eight murders and three rapes in Hebei; six murders and two rapes in Anhui; and two murders and one rape in Shandong. Police also matched his DNA with that found at several crime scenes.[3][14]

On February 1, 2004, Yang was found guilty of 67 murders and 23 rapes, and sentenced to death in Luohe City Intermediate People’s Court, Henan. At the time of his sentencing, official Chinese media believed he had carried out China’s longest and grisliest killing spree.[4][8][14][15]

Yang was executed on February 14, 2004, by a gunshot to the back of the head.[16]

[edit]
Motive

In 1988 and 1991, Yang was sentenced to labor camps for theft in Xi’an, Shaanxi and Shijiazhuang, Hebei.[4]

In 1996, he was sentenced to five years in prison for attempted rape in Zhumadian, Henan and released in 1999.[4][8]

Yang’s killings took place between 1999 and 2003 in the provinces of Anhui, Hebei, Henan and Shandong. At night, he would enter his victims’ homes, and kill all of the occupants—mainly farmers—with axes, hammers and shovels, sometimes killing entire families. Each time he wore new clothes and large shoes.[8][9][10][11]

In October 2002, Yang killed a father and a six-year-old girl with a shovel and raped a pregnant woman, who survived the attack with serious head injuries.[3]

Yang was born in July 1968 in Zhumadian, Zhengyang County, Henan Province, China. His family was one of the poorest in their village. The youngest of four children, Yang was clever but introverted. He dropped out of school in 1985, at age 17, and refused to return home, instead traveling around China and working as a hired laborer.[1][4][5][6][7]

Yang Xinhai (simplified Chinese: 杨新海) (July 1968 – February 14, 2004), also known as Wang Ganggang, Yang Zhiya, and Yang Liu,[1][2][3] was a Chinese serial killer who confessed to committing 65 murders between 1999 and 2003, and was sentenced to death and executed for 67. He was dubbed the “Monster Killer” by the media.

Huang Yong (Chinese: 黄勇; pinyin: Huáng Yǒng; 1974 - December 26, 2003) was a Chinese serial killer accused of luring and murdering 17 teenagers boys although he is suspected of 25 murders between September 2001 and 2003.[1]

In September, 2001 Huang started to lure young people, from video halls, Internet cafes and video game rooms to his house by offering to recommend them for well-paid jobs or to fund their schooling or sightseeing tours. In his house, Yong drugged the youths and raped them after strangling them with a rope.

In November 2003, a 16 year-old boy Zhang Liang went to the police. The investigators at first were not convinced of Liang’s story but the boy claimed that Yong had invited him to his apartment by offering him a job. But once he got there, Yong tried to strangle him and that he was into unconsciousness three times. After, when the young boy awoke, Yong said to him “I killed at least 25 people. You’re number 26″ but Liang escaped and reported him to the police.[2]

Finally, the police believed Liang’s story and arrested Yong who was sentenced to death on December 9, 2003 and executed by a gunshot to the head on December 26, 2003.

The motive of the Yong’s crimes is on this phrase “I’ve always wanted to be an assassin since I was a kid, but I never had the chance,” said Huang. [3]

Gong Runbo was a Chinese serial killer who, between March 2005 and February 2006, murdered six children between the ages of 9 and 16.

Gong was imprisoned in October 1996 for raping a young girl. He was released in 2004 after serving an eight-year sentence. He sexually assaulted and murdered six children in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. He also lured and molested five others aged 12 and 13.

Gong was arrested on February 28, 2006 when a boy escaped from his apartment and called the police. The police captured Gong in a nearby Internet cafe and found four decomposing bodies and children’s clothes in his apartment. He was executed in January 2007.

Gong Runbo was a Chinese serial killer who, between March 2005 and February 2006, murdered six children between the ages of 9 and 16.

Gong was imprisoned in October 1996 for raping a young girl. He was released in 2004 after serving an eight-year sentence. He sexually assaulted and murdered six children in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. He also lured and molested five others aged 12 and 13.

Gong was arrested on February 28, 2006 when a boy escaped from his apartment and called the police. The police captured Gong in a nearby Internet cafe and found four decomposing bodies and children’s clothes in his apartment. He was executed in January 2007.

Wayne Mallette – seven-year-old boy lured into the deserted Toronto Exhibition grounds on September 15, 1956. Originally another teen, identified only as “Ronald Mowatt”, was charged with the child’s murder.
Gary Morris – nine-year-old boy lured to Cherry Beach on October 6, 1956.
Carole Voyce – four-year-old girl murdered by Woodcock on January 19, 1957 in a ravine under the Prince Edward Viaduct.
Dennis Kerr – psychiatric inmate murdered on July 13, 1991 with a knife and hatchet by Peter Woodcock with the help of a former inmate, Bruce Hamill.

Peter Woodcock (born March 5, 1939) is a Canadian serial killer and child rapist who murdered three young children in Toronto, Canada in 1956 and 1957 when he was still a teenager.

Woodcock was apprehended in 1957, declared legally insane and placed in Oak Ridge, an Ontario psychiatric facility located in Penetanguishene. In 1982, he legally changed his name to David Michael Krueger. Woodcock also murdered a fellow psychiatric patient in 1991, at the medium-security hospital in Brockville, Ontario, during the first hour of his very first weekend pass. Woodcock was being supervised on the pass by Bruce Hamill, a former patient who killed an elderly Ottawa woman in 1984. Hamill was an accomplice in the Brockville murder, and both men were subsequently returned to Oak Ridge.