ANDREW & CATHERINE SUH
Honor is a value that is precious in the eyes of any person, but can it push you to the craziest of actions?
ANDREW SUH is a boy without troubles, but a complicated past. Born in a Korean family, he left the peninsula in 1976 at just 2 years old to live in the United States with his father RONALD, his mother ELIZABETH and his sister CATHERINE who was 7 years old. A new life begins for the SUH, a life that will soon be synonymous with chaos and decay, depriving a child of an ordinary life.
« It is the story of an immigrant family who had everything before them, but it ended in tragedy. » —ALICA HAWLEY, attorney.
Filial piety, and respect for elders, and above all parents, is the key to teaching Korean families. The hopes of a father are quickly transferred to a son, and ANDREW is then placed at the heart of the family who expect much from this little boy. Excellent quickly at school, it is quite natural that he gets a scholarship growing up to go to a private institution, and even had the privilege of being elected to work in the student office of his school. Also playing on the school football team, life was smiling at him, and his future looked bright, if one person had not shadowed him all his life: his sister.
CATHERINE grew up in a climate of violence. From an early age, she confronts her father who reproaches her for being less good than her little brother in everything, and especially for being a girl. In a family as traditional as the SUH, the eldest son is the most important child of a family, as he will become the head of the family upon the death of his father and bring a salary into the household. CATHERINE, often in rebellion, begins to quarrel with her father, getting further away every day from the perfect image he expected of his daughter.
One day, everything degenerates. Following a new conflict, RONALD slaps CATHERINE. The latter fights, clawing her torso to blood. Furious, the man takes a jar of gasoline and sprinkles the child, threatening to set her on fire before being stopped in time by the mother. ANDREW attending the scene will remain deeply shocked. Then, in 1985, just nine years after they moved abroad, the father died of widespread cancer. ANDREW will remain at his bedside in the hospital until his last breath, even making the front pages of magazines in Korea as a perfect example of filial piety. ANDREW is “a good son”.
CATHERINE, however, held her father in esteem. Former general in the military while living in Korea, respected by his family and friends, immigrated to the US to attempt the “American Dream” in Chicago. Not speaking good English, unlike the children who were in school, he regularly asked them to help him in the shop he ran to translate for customers. With their daughter’s repeated crises, RONALD had even hinted at how eager he was to get rid of her by marrying her to the first man if he had to at her majority, so that ANDREW quickly became the only one coming to help translate.
ELIZABETH quickly developed the habit of watching the video of her husband’s funeral, and working for two to make up for his loss so that her children do not miss anything. However, CATHERINE began to take advantage of it, asking for money frequently despite her poor academic results, and continuing to rebel, making life difficult for her mother. Then appeared in the life of CATHERINE ROBERT O’DUBAINE, a young American seven years older than her, who soon became her boyfriend. Still a minor, she had no choice but to stay with her mother rather than with her boyfriend, not hesitating to «run away» to his place from time to time to defy parental authority.
« CATHERINE took advantage of my mother for so long…» – ANDREW
On October 6, 1987, the world of the two teenagers changes. ANDREW is 13 when his mother is murdered. 37 stab wounds, and throat slit, found in a pool of blood in her store, open crate and empty wallet. CATHERINE then becomes the guardian of ANDREW, and against all odds, the two teenagers will get closer and become very united in this ordeal. Both orphans, it is actually a third death that they suffer, at least CATHERINE. Indeed, the very first child of the SUH family is a son named BYUNGCHUL. While CATHERINE is still a very young girl, BYUNGCHUL makes a serious fall and lands on his head, plunging him into a vegetative state. Put on artificial respiration, his parents eventually unplug him and let him go. RONALD then imposes an ultimatum to ELIZABETH: give me a son, or I divorce. And ANDREW was born, with a birthmark on the side, in the same place as his brother he never knew… Immediately, the two boys are compared.
ANDREW grew up living with his sister, and ROBERT moved in with them. In high school he became popular, being nicknamed “Suh Man” by his friends. CATHERINE was associated with JACKIE COLLINS, British-American actress and novelist. Always on the go, and well dressed, she finally opened a nightclub with ROBERT, and their business quickly grew. But little by little, their relationship became more of a business relationship than a love one. However, the two get engaged, but live a free relationship allowing themselves to have extra-marital relations. Despite this implicit agreement, ROBERT ends up blaming CATHERINE for her multiple cheating.
Now grown up, CATHERINE is an authoritarian woman who knows what she wants. She tells her companion which university to attend, what job to do, what man to become, etc. She has created in him the perfect man for her to climb the strata of society to achieve a specific goal: to be rich. ROBERT, who had become like a big brother to ANDREW, became violent. He started breaking down doors and windows, and acquired a gun that he kept with him regularly at home. When he raised his hand on CATHERINE, it was the drop of water that made the vase overflow.
ANDREW killed ROBERT.
66 calls received in two weeks. Before murdering ROBERT, this is the number of times that CATHERINE called her brother to beg him to kill her boyfriend, who had become too violent. It is now September 1993, and ANDREW is 19 years old. How could a young boy, mistreated by life, pretend to kill someone? But if his sister, the only family he had left, was in danger, he had to step in. So he flew to Chicago on 25 September, living then in Rode Island for his studies. CATHERINE called CATHERINE , asked him to go to the garage to check on a problem with his car, and when he got in, ANDREW shot him two times, one in the neck, one in the face.
« I did not think about the ramifications that my actions would have created.» – ANDREW
ANDREW stole the wallet of the man he had just shot to make it look like a burglary that went wrong. ROBERT was buried in the same cemetery as the parents SUH, and CATHERINE quickly adopted a hysterical behavior, clinging to his in-laws and especially to ROBERT’s brother by saying that she was living an umpteenth terrible mourning. Although the two brothers and sisters were removed from the suspect list at first, ANDREW was arrested on suspicion of drug possession, and when ROBERT’s wallet was found in his business he confessed.
In his statement made on 11 November, he recounted the facts, the calls for help of his sister, while doing his best to preserve her and make her look like a victim, which he thought was true. Catherine went to the parlor, reassuring her brother and promising that she would do everything to get him out of prison where he was awaiting trial, but when a testimony emerged, accusing him, she disappeared without leaving any trace in Chicago. ROBERT was on the phone with his mistress at the time of the murder, and she heard everything that had happened, including the conversation between CATHERINE and ANDREW after the act.
As CATHERINE did not appear at trial, the show “America’s Most Wanted” began posting her portrait as a wanted suspect in a murder case. Several identities were discovered: CATHERINE SUH, KASHA KANE and especially TIFFANI ESCADA, which is the identity she used when she was found six months later in Hawaii. At the trial, although CATHERINE’s influence and manipulation of ANDREW was recognized (including the many phone calls to incite him to murder), ANDREW’s consent was also recognized, as he had several opportunities to say no, and above all not to board a plane for the sole purpose of shooting down the man. In Korea, too, this case made a lot of noise, because it was presented as the story of a sister who pushed her little brother to murder.
The motive that emerged was money. ROBERT had a life insurance policy of $250,000, and was known to use the money from his business with CATHERINE excessively. It was then that another theory emerged, that the murder of ELIZABETH had been commissioned by ROBERT and CATHERINE in order to touch her fortune which amounted to $800,000. In the will left by the father, the family fortune was to be returned in full to the eldest living son of the family, ANDREW. Although CATHERINE could not touch this money, as the guardian of her minor brother she had a right to look at his accounts, and especially the opportunity over the years to manipulate him so that he returned this money.
CATHERINE ends up telling her brother, before the murder of ROBERT, that he had killed their mother for money, and that he also had to die for the violence she suffered and wash away the family honor. After all, you wouldn’t stab someone 37 times for a simple robbery in a small neighborhood shop. Since his mother’s death, ANDREW has felt a lot of guilt for not being able to protect her when he had promised his father that he would do so on his deathbed in the hospital. So he said he was “obliged” to kill ROBERT, in memory of his parents and his sister:
«I wanted to leave, but my sister’s voice held me back. My vision of my mother lying in a puddle of her own blood kept me there. My responsibility as a son to my father kept me there too.» – ANDREW
ROBERT was 31 at the time of his death. In his statement, ANDREW said that killing him would make his sister happy because she would be rid of a violent man and a murderer. The murder of ELIZABETH SUH was never solved, and is now a cold case. In continuation of the theory that CATHERINE and ROBERT had ordered her murder, both could have blackmail each other so that they do not leave, leading to their engagement to save appearances. On 14 December 1995, two years after the murder, the siblings were tried.
As the mastermind behind ROBERT’s murder, for inciting to murder, and for being an accomplice, CATHERINE was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. ANDREW, who was a minor at the time of the incident and had no criminal record, received a 100-year sentence, reduced on appeal to 80 years with possibility of release from 2034. The family of ROBERT was satisfied with the sentence, the brother stating to agree with the idea that CATHERINE incited his brother to murder. He also acknowledged ANDREW’s difficult past, and that he was a young boy without troubles, always kind and helpful. He would not have deserved a death sentence for this act.
In 2010, ANDREW was interviewed for the series “The House of Suh” which recounts this criminal case. He claimed to be convinced of ROBERT’s guilt in the murder of his mother. He tried to get in touch with his sister who simply replied, “Don’t ever contact me again. I don’t know who you are, I have no brother, so leave me alone.” September 25, 1993 was the last time he could see and talk to his sister. ANDREW saw his world crumble when an amendment was passed in the state of Illinois, where he was incarcerated: a person imprisoned when under 21 must be eligible for parole once they served 20 years or more of their sentence [Public Act 100-1182, 2019]. ANDREW had just spent 26 years behind bars, so he tried everything.
January 27, 2024, after 29 years in prison, ANDREW comes out as a free man. When this new law was enacted, he asked for his release three times, the first two being refused. With the support of a petition that collected thousands of signatures, both from Americans affected by his story and from Koreans living in the United States. On February 23, 2024, he spoke on Facebook, announcing this new freedom and sharing all his life moments as he learns to know the modern world, between Chicago and Seoul.
«I am sorry for what I did, and I am a rehabilitated man. Society will not be better served if I continue to be incarcerated. Inmate B72067 is not me. I am not a bad person. I am a good person who made a terrible mistake. » – ANDREW
He now works periodically as a translator, including the translation of ONF concert on August 22, 2024 in Chicago.
Do you think a second chance is possible? Are there any “good” reasons for a child to kill when he believes that he is helping the only family left? Feel free to share your opinion on this story, and the other KSIS!
Journalist: Pillet Anaïs
Translator: Shawn
Photos: Fawesome TV, The House of Suh
Sources: KSTATION TV
