Gao Chengyong


Gao Chengyong was a Chinese serial killer and rapist. He mutilated the corpses of his victims, leading to his nickname of the "Chinese Jack the Ripper" in Chinese media. He is thought to have killed eleven women between 1988 and 2002.

Murders

Over the course of 14 years, Gao raped, killed and mutilated eleven women: nine in Baiyin, Gansu province, and two in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. All his victims were dressed in red. The youngest victim was eight years old. The first murder is thought to have originated in a grocery store he managed with his wife in Baiyin. He would normally operate in daytime and follow his victims home, where he would strike.
Gao raped his victims sometimes while they were alive and sometimes after having stabbed them to death. He removed the reproductive organs of some women after killing them and cut the hands and breasts off of at least one of his victims.

Arrest and sentencing

Police linked the eleven murders for the first time in 2004 and offered a reward of 200,000 yuan. Gao avoided being arrested until a close relative was taken in for an unrelated, minor offence. During a routine DNA test, a close familial relationship to the serial killer was established. On the basis of this, Gao was arrested at the grocery store where he worked in Baiyin on 26 August 2016. According to the Ministry of Public Security, he confessed to the eleven murders. Gao was sentenced to death and stripped of all his assets on 30 March 2018, and was executed by lethal injection on 3 January 2019.

Personal life

Gao was married and had two children. He was from Qingcheng Town, Yuzhong County, Lanzhou, Gansu.