Kim Dae-doo

Kim Dae-doo
Undated photograph of Kim, taken sometime after his arrest
Born	(1949-10-11)October 11, 1949 Yeongam County, South Korea
Died	December 28, 1976(1976-12-28) (aged 27) Seodaemun Prison, Seoul, South Korea
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Conviction(s)	Murder x17 Rape x3 Robbery Attempted robbery
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	17
Span of crimes	August–October 1975
Country	South Korea
State(s)	South Jeolla, Seoul, Gyeonggi
Date apprehended	October 5, 1975

Kim Dae-doo (October 11, 1949 – December 28, 1976) was a South Korean serial killer who went on a 55-day killing spree in 1975, murdering 17 people in the process.^[1] Marked as one of the worst and most prolific criminals in the country's history, he was executed for his crimes in 1976.^[2]

Early life[]

Kim Dae-doo was born on October 11, 1949, in rural Yeongam County, the eldest of three sons and four daughters from a poor family.^[3] Despite his parents' high aspirations for Kim, wanting to send him to a top-class middle school in a big city and eventually study abroad, he flopped his exams and had no special skills that would allow him to get a high-paying job. As a result, he developed an inferiority complex and turned towards small crime, and was eventually imprisoned for assault and evidence tampering.^[3]

After his release, Kim attempted to make an honest living as a factory worker, but his reputation as a released inmate followed him everywhere, making him resentful towards a society he felt had wronged him.^[3]

Murders[]

On August 13, 1975, Kim broke into the home of an elderly couple living in Gwangju while trying to rob the place.^[1] In the process, he killed the man and seriously injured the woman, before escaping into the night. While riding on a train towards Suncheon, Dae-doo met a fellow ex-convict, 27-year-old Kim Hoe-woon, whom agreed to help him in his next attack.

Six days later, the pair barged into a shop in Mongtan, Muan County, killing the elderly couple running it and their 7-year-old grandson.^[1] After the murders, Dae-doo and Hoe-woon boarded a train headed to Seoul, where they had planned to rob a house filled with cash. When they reached it, however, the pair parted ways, and Dae-doo resumed killing by himself.

On September 7, Dae-doo entered a home in Seoul's Jungnang District, killing the 60-year-old man who lived there. On September 25, he travelled to the remote countryside near Pyeongtaek, breaking inside the house where an elderly woman and her three grandchildren were living. Kim is said to have attacked the woman and two of the male children (5 and 7, respectively) with a meat cleaver, smashing it into their faces so hard that the faces were mutilated beyond recognition and the cleaver's handle eventually breaking. He then dragged the 11-year-old granddaughter outside the house and attempted to rape her, but after failing to do so, he tied up her face with a furoshiki to a nearby tree, where the child suffocated to death.

On September 27, he attacked another family in Guri, killing a young couple and their 3-year-old child, as well as wounding two others. Three days later, he broke into a home in Gunpo, raping and killing the mother before beating her 3-month-old baby to death.

The following month, on October 2, Dae-doo attacked a young couple in Suwon, killing them both. The following day, he attempted to kill a caddy at a golf course in Suwon, but the victim survived the assault. Following this failed attempt, Dae-doo fled back to Seoul, where he attempted to enlist another ex-con he had met in the Dobong District as his accomplice. The young man instead stole his belongings and tried to run away, but Dae-doo caught up with him and killed him, stealing his would-be helper's jeans.

Arrest and investigation[]

Despite the fact that the jeans he had stolen were still covered in blood, Dae-doo went to a laundromat near Cheongnyangni Station to have them cleaned.^[2] When asked by the proprietor, 26-year-old Ha Geun-bae, about why they had so much blood on them, Dae-doo claimed that he had been in a fight with a friend and the spots were from a nosebleed.^[1]

Ha did not believe his explanation, as the blood seemed way too much, and he contacted the police about the suspicious client. Not long after, Dae-doo was arrested and taken the police station.^[1] There, he first repeated his initial claim that the bloodstains were a result of a fight, but later on changed his testimony that he had been beaten up by local thugs. In an attempt to verify his account, the detectives interrogated several local gangsters, all of whom denied even meeting Dae-doo. After this, detectives deduced that their detainee was likely a murderer, and began pressuring him for the real cause of the bloodstains. Eventually, Dae-doo buckled and confessed to his crimes, implicating his accomplice, who was also arrested shortly afterwards.^[2]

Two days after his arrest, Dae-doo was ordered to go on site inspections to showcase how exactly he had committed the murders. It has been rumored that he acted arrogantly during the procedures, chewing gum and laughing loudly, but this has not been verified with certainty.^[3] At the investigations, it was noted that he often targeted isolated, impoverished homes from which little money was stolen, which appeared to be deliberate, as the police focused on robberies committed against the middle and upper classes more frequently. In total, his total loot stolen from the crime scenes amounted to 26,800 won.^[3]

Trial, imprisonment and execution[]

At their initial trial, both Dae-doo and Hae-woon were convicted on charges of murder, rape, robbery and attempted robbery and sentenced to death.^[4] At a follow-up trial, the latter's sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, as the judge recognized that he had only acted in one case and had been coerced by his partner. While awaiting execution, Dae-doo converted to Christianity and is said to have openly repented for his actions after attending church services.^[5]

On December 28, 1976, Kim Dae-doo was hanged at the Seodaemun Prison, despite protests from his lawyer Lee Sang-hyeok, who had requested that his sentence be commuted and his case thoroughly examined to prevent similar incidents in the future.^[1] Just before his execution, Dae-doo is said to have left behind a will, requesting that the justice system segregate small-time offenders and dangerous recidivists from one another, so that first-time offenders would not learn how to commit further crimes.^[5]

In the media[]

In 2017, a movie based on the case, titled Ordinary Person, was released. After the film's release, the director Kim Bong-han gave an interview to The Hankyoreh, in which he suggested the possibility that the case had a lot of inconsistencies and that Dae-doo could have been innocent.^[2]

In 2019, a podcast examining murder cases in South Korea covered the case on their 40th episode.

See also[]

• List of serial killers by country

References[]