Chinese 'Jack the Ripper' Executed 27 Years After First Murder

By Tristin Zhang

Serial killer Gao Chengyong was executed on January 3 after being convicted in March 2018 of multiple criminal offenses, including robbery, rape, homicide and corpse abuse.

Dubbed by Chinese media as ‘the murdering monster of Baiyin,’ Gao is infamous for a spate of rapes and murders of women and girls in Baiyin, Gansu province and Baotao, Inner Mongolia from 1988 to 2002.

The youngest of his 11 victims was an 8-year-old girl.

Gao’s killing spree started in 1988 when he was 24 years old. His first killing took place in Baiyin, a city near his hometown of Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu. The 23-year-old female victim was found brutally murdered, with her body riddled with a startling 26 stab wounds. Gao’s subsequent murders followed a similar pattern, preying on young women who lived alone.

Sketches of Gao. Image via Sohu

Gao is also referred to as China’s ‘Jack the Ripper’ because most victims were also found mutilated. Similar to his 19th century counterpart in London, Gao was known to have removed the organs of some of his victims.

Police were only able to identify Gao 27 years after his first murder. A DNA sample of Gao’s uncle was taken by police after he commited a minor crime, which helped authorities link Gao to his past killing spree.

Image via The Paper

In August 2016, Gao, who was married with two kids, was arrested at a grocery store he operated in Baiyin.

During his time on death row, Gao told the Baiyin police that he committed the crimes because his “financial situation was bad.”

[Cover image via @山东高法/Weibo]

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