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From a couple of morons who dismember themselves in a bid to scam insurance companies, to the infamous “Demon of Chiayi” serial killer Chen Jui-chin 陳瑞欽 (plus the story of the only woman on death row in Taiwan), this week Formosa Files brings you an assortment of true crime stories.
WARNING: Don't play this episode aloud where children might hear.
Cover right: The “Demon of Chiayi” serial killer Chen Jui-chin 陳瑞欽 - image via Mirror Media. Left: An ambulance prepares to take the executed "demon" serial killer Chen's body to a storage facility. No one claimed his body so reports say it remains in storage to this day due to an old Taiwan law that requires someone to accept the deceased. Image via ctwant.com.
DUMB True Crime:
1. Man loses hand in insurance scam Quote from person involved, Huang Chun-ming, 35, (黃浚銘) "'I had my left hand crushed by a car on Aug. 16, but it failed to break my hand. Therefore I had it hacked off with a sword at Yu's place this morning, after I swallowed two bottles of rice wine. My mother kept it for me after it had been chopped off.' Police said it had to be hacked more than once."
2. Taipei man freezes off legs with dry ice for NT$41 million insurance payout Quote from article: "The indictment states that on Jan. 26, 2023, Chang and Liao rode scooters to purchase dry ice in New Taipei City's Sanchong District. Late that night, they returned to Liao's residence in Taipei City's Zhongshan District. Liao then used cable ties to restrain Chang to a chair and he immersed his feet into a plastic bucket filled with dry ice. Chang endured the pain from 2 a.m. until 12:20 p.m., while Liao recorded and took photos of the incident."
Watch news coverage in Chinese on the "Demon of Chiayi."
Below: Taiwanese police sometimes have suspects reenact their crimes (as is the case in other countries as well). Below are scenes from "the demon" serial killer Chen performing such reenactments. Via Yahoo.
Below: Chen is shown on the day he was arrested. He was in hospital being treated for a severe beating he received for unpaid gambling debts when the law caught up with him.
Via Wikipedia: "Chen robbed (his final victim) her of her gold Rolex watch, jadeite necklace, rings, NT$1 million in cash, credit and ATM cards, mobile phones and two blank checks. He then hit Yi-ling with a stone and beat her to death, throwing her body off the mountain cliff. After disposing of the corpse he went to Taipei with his other casual girlfriend, Xiao. On the way, he gave her the Rolex. He also held onto the deceased Chen's bank cards, but couldn't take the money because he didn't know the password. The attempted theft was detected by the authorities, and Chen was arrested."
Below: The only woman on death row in Taiwan, Lin Yu-ju (right) is pictured here in an undated photo from 2011 with her husband Liu Yu-hang (whom she murdered).Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Taipei Times
Sentenced to death for committing three murders, human rights activists say that the only woman on death row should have her sentence commuted due to drug addiction, bipolar disorder and an intellectual disability
SEPTEMBER 20, 2024: Taiwan's constitutional court rules the death penalty is constitutional but only for the most serious crimes with the most rigorous legal scrutiny, after considering a petition brought by 37 people who are on death row.
"Director-general of the Constitutional Court, ang Hao-ching (楊皓清) said the death penalty remained constitutional for premeditated murders and premeditated crimes indirectly resulting in death on 'the most serious' scale. Whether or not a crime is deemed 'the most serious' should be determined by the presiding judges, taking into account several combined factors, such as the motive, purposes, means and damage inflicted on victims, Yang said. According to Yang, while the death penalty remains a statutory punishment in Taiwan, its issuance will be much more difficult following Friday's ruling."
From the website, THE DEATH PENALTY PROJECT:
"Notwithstanding the regional and global trends away from the use of capital punishment, with over 75% of the world’s nations having abolished the death penalty in law or practice, Taiwan retains capital punishment, with the last execution having taken place in April of 2020. Although Taiwan abolished the mandatory death penalty in 2006, the country can still impose the sentence for over fifty different crimes, including murder, robbery, and drug trafficking, with no limitation on how much time a person can spend on death row before facing execution."
Taipei Times REPORT: 80%+ want to keep death penalty: poll - SEPT. 19, 2024
"More than 80 percent of Taiwanese who participated in the organizations’ polls and group discussions said they opposed the abolition of capital punishment, the Chinese Association for Human Rights and Taiwan Deliberative Democracy Association told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan Deliberative Democracy Association Chu Yun-peng (朱雲鵬), who was a minister without portfolio under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), said that 81.6 percent of respondents in its survey supported the death penalty, while 17 percent opposed it."
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
