Hua Ruizhuo

Case record

Hua Ruizhuo was executed by shot in the head on January 31, 2002.

Background

Hua Ruizhuo was a cement-truck driver and a construction worker. He was 28 when he was executed and was also described as a 29-year-old man in relation to his execution.

The offence

Hua Ruizhuo killed 14 women in Beijing. The killings were described as a spree that began in July 1998 and ended in June 2001.

His killing spree began after he was enraged to discover that his girlfriend was a prostitute. Hua lured victims to the outskirts of Beijing and beat them to death. He reportedly strangled or bludgeoned victims to death, and disposed of their bodies in wells or rubbish dumps and at building sites.

Hua said all his victims were prostitutes. The newspaper Beijing Morning Post said most of the bodies were too badly decomposed to be identified. Hua also said:

“Prostitutes aren’t good people. If I kill one, that’s one less,”

Beijing Youth Daily quoted Hua with that statement.

Investigation

After being convicted, Hua was reported to have confessed to the killing spree spanning from July 1998 to June 2001, saying he did it after he found out his ex-girlfriend was a prostitute. He was also reported to have disposed of their bodies around the city in rubbish heaps.

Trial

Hua Ruizhuo was sentenced to death. Death sentences in China are automatically appealed to a higher court.

Hua was sentenced by the Second Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing.

A defender of Hua applied for a lighter sentence, saying that all of Hua’s victims were prostitutes whom Hua killed out of hatred. The court maintained the death penalty because Hua’s brutal killing posed a serious danger to society.

On December 08, 2001, it was reported that a former construction worker who killed 14 women over the past three years in Beijing had been sentenced to death.

Appeals

Death sentences in China were reported to be automatically appealed to a higher court, with most upheld.

Outcome

Hua Ruizhuo was executed Thursday according to an order issued by the Beijing Higher People’s Court.

It was also reported that China executed serial killer News.1chinastar.com Feb. 1, 2002 BEIJING - China executed former truck driver Hua Ruizhuo on Thursday for killing 14 Beijing prostitutes over three years, the official Xinhua news agency said. Hua confessed to the killing spree spanning from July 1998 to June 2001 and said he did it after he found out his ex-girlfriend was a prostitute, state media have said.

A report also stated that Hua was one of five people executed “yesterday,” and the second person in a month to be executed for crimes against women.

Other details

A cement-truck driver named Hua Ruizhuo was executed in 2002 for picking up prostitutes near the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing, handcuffing them in his van, raping them and dumping their bodies in rubbish heaps around the city. He killed 14 women.