Lam Kor-wan
 |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page Lam Kor-wan contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
|
Lam Kor-wan (林過雲; May 22nd, 1955 -) , originally knwon as Lam Kwok-yu (林國裕), is one of Hong Kong's two infamous serial killers, alongside Lam Kwok-wai.
Biography edit
Lam was born in May 22nd, 1955 in Hong Kong. After graduating, he worked as a air-con technician at a motorcycle repair shop.
In 1973, Lam was arrested after threatening a woman with a knife. His doctor pointed out that he had mental problems and was not suitable for trial or sentenced to prison. He was then sentenced to a Psychiatric Hospital for treatment and was discharged after 102 days of treatment.
In 1978, Lam acquired his Taxi driver license and became a full time night shift driver in 1980. During this time he also grew an interest in photography, and has been a member of many photography clubs.
Durinng February to July 1982, Lam had murdered 4 women in different occasions. After each murder, they would dismember the corpse, photograph the residual limbs, make specimens, and scan the photos. In August of the same year, he was arrested.
Serial Murder edit
Lam was a Taxi driver during his time of murder, and all four victims were female. All of his crimes were commited on rainy nights, thus earning him the name The Rainy Night Butcher (雨夜屠夫). He would drive the victims to a secluded place on his taxi, and strangle them to death. Then he would record himself discecting the corpse's sexual organs as specimens and would preserved them in his apartment.
First Victim edit
Chan Fung-lan (陳鳳蘭), 22 year-old nightclub dancer and mother of two. On February 3, 1982, Chan got on Lam's Taxi drunk. Lam then drove her to his apartment, strangled the unconsious victim to death, and hid the body under the living room sofa.
After his family left the next moring, Lam bought a chainsaw with the victim's money and dismembered the body into seven parts. The sexual organs were preserved in a jar with rice wine, and the body was wrapped in newspaper and disposed in Fo Tan.
Second Victim edit
Chan Wan-kit (陳雲潔), 31 year-old Saint Augustine Bank trade cashier. On May 29, 1982, Lam threatened Chan with a knife when she was on his Taxi, then strangled her with an electrical cable. This time he bought a surgeon knife for the dismembering. The sexual organs were preserved and the body was disposed in a rice bag in Tai Hang Road, Causeway Bay.
He later named the recording of the first two victims The Serious secret (嚴肅的秘密).
Third Victim edit
Leung Sau-wan (梁秀雲), 29-year old Burger King worker and street cleaner. The victim got on Lam's Taxi on June 17, 1982 and was strangled shortly after she got on the ride. In order for Lam to have an easier time recording and dismembering at the same time, he bought a tripod, which allowed the dismembering process to be more precise than the two previous victims. He even cut a piece of the victim's intestine and eat it, but threw up after trying it.
Similar to the previous victim, the body was disposed in a rice bag in Tai Hing Road, and the video was named The Rainy Action (雨夜行動).
Fourth Victim edit
Leung Wai-sum (梁惠心), 17 year-old Saint Andrews School student and plastic factory worker. After attending her teacher-appreciation banquet in July 2, 1982, Leung got on Lam's Taxi. Lam said that Leung was the victim he spent the most time with. Before killing her, he handcuffed Leung and spent a long time talking with her, ranging from school, future, family to religion. But later Lam decided to strangle her with an electrical cable, and took her back to his apartment to perform an act of necrophilia before dismembering her.
The body was disposed in a rice bag in Tai Hing Road, and the video was named The Fourth Action (第四次行動).
Exposure edit
Lam had a habbit of photographing himself dismembering the victims, and would print out the photos at a shop in Tsim Sha Tsui. Since Lam was an active member in photography clubs, he met a clerk that worked in that shop and would help him print out his photos. Lam lied that he was a part-time photographer in a mortuary and took pictures of anatomical corpses. The clerk thought that his explanation was reasonable, and he was worried that the photographs may disturb other colleagues, so he would personally scan out the photos for Lam.
On August 8, 1982, Lam wanted to enlarge his photographs of his fouth victim's corpse. Coincidentally, the shop that Lam normally goes to had a major techinical failure, so all the photographs were sent to a different shop in Mong Kok. Due to the fact that enlarged photos have to be done by human hands and not machinary, the staff at the Mong Kok shop find the photos of Lam's seemed to be related to dismemberment of the human body. The owner of the shop made the decision to call the police.
On August 18, 1982, when Lam went to collect his photos, he was arrested by the police. When confronted Lam claimed that the photographs belonged to a friend of his who worked in a magazine company. After investigation by the police, the person that Lam claimed did not exist.
The police later searched Lam's apartment and found an ammunition box in his bedroom which contained his photograph collection of the corpses and a jar containing the preserved organs.
Trial edit
On April 8, 1983, Lam was found guilty of four counts of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. On August 29, 1984, Lam's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, as was the tradition before the abolition of the death penalty in Hong Kong in 1993.
In Popular Culture edit
- Lam has been featured in Crime Investigation Asia's docummentary: Jars Murderer.