Joe Son
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Joseph Hyungmin Son, better known as Joe Son, (born November 22, 1970) is an Asian-American martial artist, former actor, rapist and murderer best known for his role as the evil henchman Random Task in the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. He is currently serving 34 years to life at Wasco State Prison after being convicted of gang rape and the killing of his cellmate Michael Graham.
Biography edit
Joe Son was born in the South Korean city of Gwangju in 1970, but moved to the USA at a young age. He debuted as a professional martial artist in 1994 at the UFC 4 event, but despite his taekwondo black belt he was defeated by Keith Hackney. Son later fought in the 2002 PRIDE Fighting Championship, Xtreme Pankration 2 and a K1 Kickboxing event but was defeated every time. He also had a professional wrestling career in Japan for a short time.
Son had an acting career that lasted from 1993, when he appeared in an episode of Reasonable Doubts, to 1997 when he appeared in Austin Powers. He is credited with eight acting roles in total, most of which were low-budget action films like Bad Blood and the Shootfighter series.
Unknown to the public, however, was Son's heinous and criminal behaviour before he appeared at UFC. On Christmas Eve 1990, Son and his associate Santiago Gaitan abducted a woman (identified as "Victoria" by 48 Hours) off the street in the city of Huntington Beach. The two men beat Victoria and violently raped her, threatening her with a gun and telling her she was going to die. Eventually, Son and Gaitan decided to spare her life and abandoned her in the street with an item of clothing (reported to be either a jacket or her pants) tied round her head, telling her that sparing her life was their Christmas present to her.
Although Victoria had received medical aid and reported the rape to the police, the crime was not solved until 2008. In April of that year, Son was convicted of vandalism and sentenced to sixty days in jail followed by probation. Four months later he was arrested for failing to register with the Probation Office, and he was forced to provide a DNA sample. This sample was quickly matched with one of the samples taken from Victoria's rape examination and Son was charged with multiple sexual offences, including rape and sodomy. Although prosecutors were forced to drop the charges against Son due to the statute of limitations having expired, they refused to let him walk free and instead accused him of torture and conspiracy to commit murder, which do not have the same limitations as sex crimes in the US. In August 2011 he was convicted of torture and later received a seven-year prison sentence.
Only a few weeks into his sentence, Son attacked and brutally beat fellow prisoner Michael Thomas Graham. Graham died of his injuries twenty-five minutes after the attack. Son was moved to solitary confinement and was charged with murdering Graham two years later. He was acquitted of the murder charge in 2017 but was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 27 years, bringing his total sentence to 34 years.