China’s ‘Jack the Ripper’ Faces Death Sentence for Raping, Murdering 11 Women

The man, identified as 58-year-old Gao Chengyong, was found guilty over the rape, murder, and mutilation spree of 11 women, including an 8-year-old girl, from the year 1988 to 2002, according to BBC.

Police report indicates that Gao’s MO (Modus Operandi or Method of Operating) usually consisted of following the victim home before he robbed, raped, and murdered them. Most of his victims have had their throats cut and body mutilated, much like how the Victorian-era killer, Jack the Ripper, killed his victims.

The nearly three-decade hunt for the killer came to a close in 2016, when authorities arrested his uncle for a minor crime. Authorities soon pieced together the long-unsolved puzzle after they took DNA samples from his uncle and linked everything to the crime, thinking that the killings must have been done by one of his relatives.

Residents of Baiyin city in northwestern China’s Gansu province celebrated with fireworks after news of his arrest circulated the local media, Daily Mail reported.

Gao confessed to all the killings. He said that he remembers all the details while speaking to the police, even the precise time and place where each murder took place. This includes the killing of his youngest victim – an 8-year-old girl – that he followed home before raping and strangling her to death. He left her lifeless body inside her bedroom closet where she was later found by her mother.

The 58-year-old father of two first started his killing spree in 1988, where he stabbed a 23-year-old woman 26 times. This went on for years, with Gao followed a similar pattern in choosing his victims – targeting young women who lived alone.

The killings mysteriously stopped in 2002. Then in 2004, police described the killer as someone who had “a sexual perversion and hates women” who was “reclusive and unsociable, but patient.” Authorities placed a reward to whoever could give information that could lead to his arrest for around 188,000 yuan (roughly $30,000 at the time).

Gao was pretty much remorseless when he was arrested by the police and during his interrogation. The only signs of emotion that he showed was when he asked the interrogators: “Will my case affect my children?”

Featured image via The Paper