KSIS : Quest for ultimate pleasure

April 26, 2006. It is on this memorable date that a manhunt which lasted twenty-eight months finally ends, during which the South Korean police could not manage to lay hands on one of the most prolific serial killers of the country: JEONG NAMGYU.

JEONG NAMGYU is a man with a mysterious past. Standing 1m70 tall for 63kg, he corresponded to the descriptions of what one could call a commonplace man, and yet. In nearly two and a half years, he assaulted twenty people, and killed thirteen others in cold blood, mainly in the southwest of Seoul. And despite all these victims, he declared during his arrest:

“I hoped not to be caught before having killed at least a hundred people, maybe a thousand” – JEONG NAMGYU

It is in the region of Changsu that JEONG NAMGYU was born on April 17, 1969. Eldest of a sibling group of seven children, he described his childhood as sordid: violent father, regularly despising him and his brothers and sisters, he is only ten years old when he gets sexually assaulted in the woods by one of his neighbors. While growing up, it is not better, since he gets bullied at school, and assaulted again, even by his roommate at the time. It is therefore at fifteen years old that he moves, with his family, to Incheon.

Five years later, he commits his first crime: aggravated theft. Initially getting a sentence of two and a half years in prison, he is instead sent to the army to perform his mandatory service. But the vicious circle continues, between hazing and repeated sexual assaults. In 1995, after having finished his service and reoffended with infractions, he is this time sent to prison where he gets, once again, raped.

In 1996, he then shows himself violent, and tries to assault someone in his turn. He receives a sentence of two years in prison for that, but in 1999, after a theft and a rape, he gets two new years behind bars. He does not stop there, since in 2002 he steals a car and serves ten months for his infraction. Then, after having raped a teenage girl, it is at 34 years old that he comes out of prison before beginning his series of crimes which will make him sadly famous in the peninsula.

JEONG NAMGYU therefore spent the great majority of his life in prison, committing most of his crimes between 1989 and 2003, which had already at the time challenged the one who would become the very first profiler of the country: KWON ILYONG. Studying with attention his repetitive pattern of comings and goings in prison, the policeman was certain of it; JEONG NAMGYU was going to represent in the short term a real danger for the country. This fateful date thus arrived, on January 14, 2004.

“He imposed on his victims his own traumas” – KWON ILYONG

Two children of thirteen and twelve years old are found dead only 3km away from their home, after having been sexually assaulted. The bodies of the children were found with their hands tied by shoe laces, exactly what JEONG NAMGYU had undergone during his first rape at ten years old by his neighbor. The police end up finding their remains on January 30, dead from strangulation. That same day, he breaks into the domicile of a 44-year-old lady in Seoul, whom he attacked with a knife, leaving her alive but seriously injured. The killer then starts a routine where he runs practically every day ten kilometers in order to stay in shape, and to develop his cardio. He had over the months developed an endurance worthy of a marathon runner.

On February 6, the body of a 24-year-old woman is found stabbed several times and having bled to death. February 26, it is the turn of a 17-year-old teenage girl to lose her life by a blade weapon, then on April 22 and May 5, two female students both 20 years old are stabbed. For a few months, JEONG NAMGYU seems to calm his impulses, but he will not delay to start again, this time in the city of Anyang where he assaults a 50-year-old man at his home. He hit him repeatedly on the head with a blunt object, leaving him too alive, but with multiple fractures to the skull. Each assault and murder took place at night, between midnight and four o’clock in the morning, most with the help of pipes, hammer, DIY wrench or knife. To not arouse suspicion, he took the habit of going down several metro stations in advance, and walking to the zone where he intended to commit his crime. Moreover, he hid his weapons in his favorite neighborhoods, in order to not carry them on him in case of problem.

At the same period, from September 2003 to July 2004, another serial killer rages in Seoul: YOO YOUNG CHUL. Most famous serial killer of the country (nicknamed the raincoat killer), he killed in only ten months twenty-one people. This latter as well as JEONG NAMGYU had the same behaviors, accumulating convictions for theft and rape before committing murders. The victims of JEONG NAMGYU were therefore attributed to YOO YOUNG CHUL before his arrest in July, the population becoming aware of the existence of a second murderer when he started to kill again in August. But JEONG NAMGYU was meticulous. He had for example cut the soles of his shoes in order to not leave footprints on the crime scenes.

“I can stop smoking, but I cannot stop killing.” – JEONG NAMGYU

A fact differentiated the two men though. YOO YOUNG CHUL killed mainly rich people, notably around the neighborhood of Gangnam, in Seoul. JEONG NAMGYU, him, preferred calmer and poorer neighborhoods, there where there would not be many surveillance cameras to observe his misdeeds. His favorite hunting ground quickly became one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, Guro, and the surrounding places. To choose his victims, nothing simpler. He targeted young girls who returned home late at night alone, or assaulted people who had forgotten to lock their domicile at night. The assaults were therefore of the most random.

The police discovered later at his domicile numerous newspaper clippings speaking of his crimes, as well as articles on forensic science near his bed and books on the subject. He thus had the habit of falling asleep while reading about himself, but also about those of YOO YOUNG CHUL, whom he considered as a rival. He even declared that this latter was only an amateur next to him and his “crimes parfaits”. JEONG NAMGYU presented however more sociopathic traits than YOO YOUNG CHUL, the first killing for pleasure while the second for control.

Starting from spring 2005, meaning one year after the beginning of the murders, he began to set fire to the apartments he visited, in order to make the proofs of his acts disappear, in addition to wearing gloves to not leave fingerprints. On April 6, he attacks a 71-year-old lady and her 13-year-old granddaughter at their home, before setting fire. By chance, the two victims got out with only burns and injuries. On April 18, a mother and her son are violently attacked at night while they were sleeping, suffering from traumatic injuries to the head. In May, he tries to set fire to a church, but by chance made no victim.

May 30. JEONG NAMGYU targets a 41-year-old lady who was delivering milk bottles in a street and kills her. On October 19, after several months of silence again, he breaks into an apartment and rapes a 26-year-old girl, then strangles her, before targeting her 23-year-old brother by hitting him on the head with the help of wooden chopsticks, he blocked the lock of the entrance door from the outside to avoid that the brother manages to escape after he set fire to the house. Their little sister, who had been spared from the assaults, manages to flee with serious burns.

After having identified his favorite zones, widening to Anyang, Singil, Gwangak, Yeongdeungpo, Gumcheon and Bongcheon, the police noted that most of the murders and assaults took place on rainy Tuesdays, giving birth to legends in the affected zones. Then a new year begins, with new murders. On January 14, 2006, two years day for day after the murder of the two children, he rapes at her home a seven-year-old child, but flees when her father arrives, alerted by the screams. On January 18, JEONG NAMGYU enters the domicile of a family of which no member will come out unharmed. He begins with the 17-year-old girl whom he hit with a blunt object, like every time, before strangling her. He then attacks the other children of the girl, 21 years old and 12 years old, with the same modus operandi, while the father of the family sleeps. This latter will wake up in the fire of his house, suffering from burns on 76% of his body.

The police are on edge in the concerned cities and districts. No trace of the killer, whether by DNA, prints, or cameras. No clue, nothing allowing to emit suppositions on the author of these dreadful crimes. But by chance, he is finally arrested on April 26 when he attacks a 24-year-old man, fighting back and helped by his father. Both managed to bring him to the ground, and held him immobile while waiting for the police. below, the map of Seoul where he committed his crimes :

Upon his arrest, KWON ILYONG was called, who immediately recognized JEONG NAMGYU. The profiler was charged with his interrogation, and he took care to focus particularly on the youth of the murderer. He noted that he did not look him in the eyes during their confrontations, focusing on the ground, proving a lack of confidence in himself and communication difficulties. Against all expectations, JEONG NAMGYU collaborated and confessed his crimes, one after the other, numbering no less than 33 victims. He expressed himself then by adopting the point of view of a third person rather than the murderer, detaching himself from his crimes. But the only thing he said to justify his murders, without the slightest remorse, was:

“I wished to feel more blood, because blood has a wonderful smell like perfume” – JEONG NAMGYU

He continued to confess his murders, clearing some attributed to YOO YOUNG CHUL of which the latter had even had to do reenactments. Thus, reenactments had to be redone with JEONG NAMGYU who, during one of them, received a flower pot that a mother of a victim threw at him. In response, the serial killer laughed, proving again his absence of remorse. It was then necessary to wait until September 21 for the trial to be held which condemned him to death. His lawyers appealed, pretending that he had an alteration of judgment not making him fully guilty of his acts given the abuses he suffered in childhood. He was made to pass psychiatric and psychopathic tests, positive in both cases, attributing him a severe case of antisocial personality.

He acted therefore in full knowledge of his acts. He was given the title of “hedonistic serial killer”, someone killing simply for pleasure. During the trial, he confessed not feeling sorry for the victims because he had felt pleasure at each murder and assault, and even a certain pride. He simply accused society which had never helped him in his childhood, and it is thus that on April 12, 2007, the death penalty was pronounced a second time, without possibility to appeal, representing a certain danger of reoffending. However, Korea has not pronounced a death penalty since 1997, and rather than waiting on death row without reason to live, murders being his only form of pleasure, JEONG NAMGYU hanged himself in his cell on November 21, 2009 with a rope made of plastic bags.

He was taken to the hospital to try to revive him, but he was declared brain dead the next day, his brain having been deprived of oxygen for too long. It is at 40 years old that he dies, twenty years after having committed his first crime. A life which therefore oscillated between shadow and light, leaving behind him numerous victims. In response, the city of Seoul set up numerous surveillance cameras throughout the city, in particular in the poor neighborhoods which had been affected for this precise reason.

The police were criticized for having neglected their investigations, attributing the murders of JEONG NAMGYU to YOO YOUNG CHUL without deeper research. But JEONG NAMGYU did not like that his crimes were attributed to others, his goal having even been to have wished to become the most prolific killer in history. When he was asked why he had not sought instead to take revenge for the assaults suffered in the past, he replied that he had preferred to take it out on weaker than him, demonstrating a will of superiority. Unfortunately, the number of victims he left behind him was in reality larger, some relatives committing suicide after having lost a member of their family in such horrible circumstances.

This case relaunched the question of the death penalty: must it be applied, or must one leave on death row the guilty ones for years? From 1948 to 1997, South Korea executed 920 people, and 82 committed suicide on death row between 2004 and 2009. The death penalty is a question which has often been raised, once again this year during the conviction of former president YOON SUKYEOL for having proclaimed martial law on December 3, 2024. Give us your opinion on the question in the comments!