Image copyright Reuters Image caption Gao's first killing took place in 1988, he was only caught years later in 2016

A Chinese serial killer convicted of murdering 11 girls and women between 1988 and 2002 has been executed.

Gao Chengyong, dubbed "Jack the Ripper" by Chinese media, followed his victims home before robbing, raping and murdering them. He cut their throats and mutilated their bodies.

Gao, a married father of two, was arrested in 2016 at the grocery store he ran in Baiyin, Gansu province.

Police managed to trace the 53-year-old through a series of DNA tests.

A DNA breakthrough

Gao's first murder was in May 1988, the year his son was born.

A 23-year-old woman was found in Baiyin with 26 stab wounds to her body.

Subsequent murders followed a similar pattern, with the killer often targeting young women who lived alone.

Gao also cut off parts of his victim's reproductive organs, according to the Beijing Youth Daily. His youngest victim was eight years old.

Women in Baiyin would not walk alone in the streets without being accompanied by male relatives or friends after the spate of attacks.

The killings stopped in 2002 but it was only years later that a breakthrough came, when Gao's uncle was arrested for a minor crime.

He gave a DNA sample which police then linked to the crimes, determining they must have been committed by a relative - which was later confirmed to be Gao.

He was sentenced to death last year. The court in Baiyin called his actions "despicable".

His execution on Thursday was announced on the court's Weibo account.

It is not clear how the execution was carried out, though death sentences in China are mostly carried out by lethal injection or a firing squad.</s>Beijing : A serial killer dubbed China´s "Jack the Ripper" for the way he mutilated several of his 11 female victims was executed Thursday morning, three decades after the first murder, the court which sentenced him said.



The court in the northwest city of Baiyin, Gansu province, which handed him the death sentence in March last year announced on the Twitter-like Weibo that it had been carried out.

China´s supreme court had approved the execution, it said.

Gao Chengyong, 54, robbed, raped and murdered 11 women and girls between 1988 and 2002 in Gansu and the neighbouring Inner Mongolia region.

In March 2018 he was found guilty by the Baiyin City Intermediate People´s Court and handed death sentences for both robbery and intentional homicide, and lesser sentences for rape and dishonouring corpses.

Gao targeted young women wearing red and followed them home, often cutting their throats and mutilating their bodies, according to state media reports. The youngest victim was eight years old.

Some victims had their reproductive organs removed, the Beijing Youth Daily said when Gao was arrested in 2016.

"To satisfy his perverted desire to dishonour and sully corpses, many of his female victims´ corpses were damaged and violated," the court said on Weibo when he was convicted.

"The motives of the defendant´s crimes were despicable, his methods extremely cruel, the nature of the acts vile and the details of the crimes serious."

Police had been hunting Gao for years.

"The suspect has a sexual perversion and hates women," police said in 2004 when they linked the crimes for the first time and offered a reward of 200,000 yuan ($30,000) for information leading to an arrest.

"He´s reclusive and unsociable, but patient," according to the police profiling at the time.

A lead in the case came when police collected and tested the DNA of one of Gao´s relatives over a separate minor crime, the China Daily had reported.

Police concluded the killer they had been hunting for 28 years was a relation, and Gao´s DNA matched the murderer´s.

The original Jack the Ripper was a serial killer active in east London in the late Victorian era, who is widely believed to have murdered five women, mutilating several of them. Those killings have never been solved.</s>China has executed a serial killer considered to be the nation’s “Jack the Ripper,” after convicting him for the rape, mutilation and murder of 11 women between 1988 and 2002.</s>A serial killer dubbed China’s “Jack the Ripper” has been executed three decades after the first in a string of gruesome murders targeting women and girls.

Agence France-Presse reports that Gao Chengyong, 54, was sentenced to death after he was found guilty of raping, mutilating and murdering 11 female victims between 1988 and 2002.

The court that sentenced him in March 2018 announced his execution Thursday on China’s Twitter-like social media platform, Weibo, according to AFP.

Gao reportedly targeted young women who wore red, following them home and sometimes disemboweling them. In some cases, their reproductive organs were removed, according to local media reports.

The murders took place in China’s Gansu region and neighboring Inner Mongolia. Gao’s youngest victim was eight years old.

Upon his conviction, the court said on Weibo that “many of his female victims’ corpses were damaged and violated,” according to AFP.

“The motives of the defendant’s crimes were despicable, his methods extremely cruel, the nature of the acts vile and the details of the crimes serious,” the court’s statement continued.

Police had been searching for the killer for years before his arrest in 2016.</s>Gao Chengyong was dubbed China’s Jack the Ripper for the way he mutilated several of his victims Getty Images

A serial killer who became known as China’s Jack the Ripper after raping, murdering and mutilating women and girls was executed yesterday, 30 years after his first killing.

The series of murders by Gao Chengyong, 54, over 14 years haunted the city of Baiyin. Before his arrest, residents had lived under a cloud of fear, with women afraid to go out alone.

For more than a decade Gao targeted young women wearing red. He followed them home and often cut their throats and mutilated their bodies. His youngest victim was eight.

The first victim, a woman aged 23, was found with 26 stab wounds to her body in 1998. In other killings Gao cut off and took away body parts, including hands, breasts, a scalp…</s>A serial killer known as China’s ‘Jack the Ripper’, who killed 11 people – the youngest being only eight years old – has been executed, a Chinese court has announced.

Gao Chengyong, a married father of two who ran a grocery store in Baiyin, China, killed his victims (women and girls) between 1988 and 2002. He received the gruesome nickname for the way he mutilated the bodies of his victims.

The killer targeted young women wearing red and followed them home, where he would rob, rape, and murder them. In several cases, Gao also cut off parts of his victim’s reproductive organs. His youngest victim was eight years old.

Dating back 30 years, the string of murders was left unsolved until police were literally handed the evidence they needed to crack the case.

Gao was unmasked after his uncle provided a DNA sample to police while being processed for a minor crime. The sample revealed that he was related to the elusive killer, and a subsequent investigation led to Gao’s arrest.

In March 2018, the Baiyin City Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Gao to death after he was found guilty of homicide, robbery, rape, and dishonoring corpses.

In a statement released after his sentencing, the court denounced Gao’s “perverted desire to dishonour and sully corpses” and described his actions as “despicable.” It’s not clear how the execution was performed, although China typically uses lethal injection or a firing squad to carry out death sentences.

The original Jack the Ripper is believed to have murdered and mutilated at least five women in east London in 1888. The string of heinous killings was never solved.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!</s>A serial killer dubbed China’s answer to the U.K.’s Jack the Ripper has been put to death.

Gao Chengyong, a married father of two, earned the nickname because of how he mutilated a number of his 11 female victims, all killed between 1988 and 2002.

The grocery store owner was known to cut off his victims’ reproductive organs, as well as hands and ears. One victim was aged just eight. One woman was found with 26 stab wounds.

At trial Gao pleaded guilty to the horrific crimes committed in Baiyin and Baotou in Inner Mongolia, the South China Morning Post reports. He was ordered to be executed, but how he met his death remains unclear.

Gao, 54, killed his victims after first trailing them to their homes. He raped them, cut their throats and mutilated them after first robbing them. He targeted those who lived alone.

He was first arrested in 2016 at his store but actually began killing in May of 1988 and continued his spree until 2002.

Baiyin police offered a 200,000 yuan reward for information on the case as early as 2004, the Post reports, but Gao wasn’t caught until over a decade later. Women in the areas where the crimes were occurring were terrorized as he remained at large.

The case wasn’t cracked until the killer’s uncle was caught for a bribery offence and gave DNA, which was later traced back to Gao.</s>A Chinese serial killer who mutilated several of his 11 victims – the youngest of whom was eight – was executed on Thursday.

Gao Chengyong, 54, nicknamed the “Jack the Ripper of China”, was sentenced to death in March by Baiyin Intermediate People’s Court in northwestern Gansu province for robbery, rape, murder and defiling the dead.

After the sentence was confirmed by the Supreme People’s Court, Gao was put to death in Baiyin on Thursday morning, the Ministry of Public Security said.

‘China’s Jack the Ripper’ sentenced to death for 11 murders

At trial in 2017, Gao pleaded guilty to crimes in Baiyin and Baotou in Inner Mongolia between 1988 and 2002. His victims were 11 females, most of them in their 20s.

Gao’s killings created panic as the perpetrator was said to have targeted young women who lived alone.

In 2004, Baiyin police offered 200,000 yuan for clues that led to his capture. Before Gao was arrested 12 years later, the case was regarded by authorities as one of the country’s most notorious series of unsolved crimes.

The court found that Gao followed his victims home before raping and killing them. Many of his victims wore red clothes and he typically struck during daylight.

Many were mutilated, their hands, ears, and “private parts” were cut off.

“To satisfy his perverted desire to dishonour and sully corpses, many of his female victims’ corpses were damaged and violated,” Baiyin court said on Weibo when Gao was convicted in March.

“The motives of the defendant’s crimes were despicable, his methods extremely cruel, the nature of the acts vile and the details of the crimes serious,” the court said.

Police checked 100,000 pieces of fingerprint evidence while hunting for Gao. He was caught in August 2016 in Baiyin after a tip-off.

Death penalty ‘is popular and releasing numbers will fuel calls for more’

Gao was identified as a lead suspect after a distant relative was arrested for bribery and provided a partial match with DNA left at a murder site.

Police said Gao’s DNA and fingerprints matched those left at the scene of his crimes.</s>A man who earned the nickname of China's "Jack the Ripper" for the slayings of 11 victims was executed Thursday, according to reports.

Gao Chengyong, 54, was sentenced to death in March during a court appearance in Baiyin, China, for robbery, rape, murder, and defiling the dead, according to the South China Morning Post.

Gao was charged for the murders of 11 women and girls between 1998 and 2002, reports AFP. Gao targeted young women wearing red and followed them home, sometimes mutilating his victims, said the report.

"The motives of the defendant’s crimes were despicable, his methods extremely cruel, the nature of the acts vile and the details of the crimes serious," said the Baiyin Intermediate People’s Court during his sentencing in March, reports The Morning Post.

Police had been searching for Gao for years until they discovered a break in the case: his uncle was arrested for a minor crime and gave a DNA sample police linked to the crime, concluding a relative likely committed the murders, reports BBC.</s>China's 'Jack the Ripper' Gao Chengyong executed for 11 homicides in Baiyin City

Chinese grocer Gao Chengyong might seem like an unassuming candidate to be China's "Jack the Ripper", but a local court says the 53-year-old was responsible for the brutal murders of 11 women and girls.

A court in Baiyin City, located in the country's north-west, sentenced Gao to death in 2018 and he was executed on Thursday.

Between 1988 and 2002 the city was plagued by gruesome killings targeting young women and girls, often with victims raped prior to their deaths, and their bodies later defiled.

The court found that the grocer was responsible for cutting off the hands, ears and genitals of his victims.

Writing on Weibo, the court said his behaviour was "to satisfy his perverted desire to dishonour and sully corpses".

In 2004, local police offered a reward of more than $40,000 for details regarding the killings, which were then still a mystery.

Gao eluded police until a distant relative was arrested for bribery, allowing investigators to hone in on him as a result of DNA evidence.

The South China Morning Post reported that Gao's modus operandi was to target women alone, with many of his victims wearing red clothes.

Gao admitted to the acts in Baiyin city in Gansu Province and Baotou city in the northern region of Inner Mongolia and was sentenced to death in March 2018.

The court did not announce how the execution was carried out, and China's corporal punishment remains opaque — in 2016 Beijing executed more people than the rest of the world combined.
China executes serial killer Gao Chengyong, who murdered eleven girls and women between 1988 and 2002.