Huang Yong was a farmer in Pingyu County, in the Zhumadian area of Henan Province in central China. Between September 2001 and November 2003 he killed 17 young people, most of them students, and seriously injured one more. A court sitting in Pingyu convicted him of intentional homicide on December 9, 2003, and sentenced him to death. He did not appeal. After the Henan Higher People's Court reviewed the sentence, he was shot on December 26, 2003.
The case was uncovered only when one more youth escaped and went to police. The question of how many people died was raised again after the execution, in the spring of 2004.
Pingyu County lies in the southeast of Henan, under the city of Zhumadian. Huang came from the county; People's Daily Online described the court that tried him as sitting in his hometown. In December 2003 he was 29 years old and was described as a farmer. Little else is known of his family or his life before the killings, and his date of birth has not been published.
According to the findings reported after the trial, the killings began in September 2001 and continued until November 2003. Over that period 18 young people were attacked. Seventeen of them died, and one was seriously injured. People's Daily Online, reporting on the day of the verdict, described the dead as high school students; a later People's Daily Online review of the case said most of the victims were students.
The court's findings, as summarized by People's Daily Online, were that Huang had been influenced by violent films since childhood and wanted to become a professional killer. The court described the crimes as extremely vicious and cruel and said they had a very bad effect on society. The reports gave strangulation as the cause of death.
Only two of the dead have been named: Han Peng and Zhai Pengchao, whose names became public in April 2004. The other victims' names have not been made public.
The killings went undetected until November 2003. That month an 18th youth escaped, seriously hurt, and reported what had happened to police. People's Daily Online reported that Huang was arrested on November 21, 2003.
A police scene record from Pingyu, drawn up in November 2003 and quoted by the Beijing Youth Daily the following spring, records Huang telling the youth who escaped that he was a killer and had already killed more than 20 people.
The official figure was 17 dead and one injured. The Beijing Youth Daily traced that number to a Henan newspaper report of November 17, 2003. A day earlier, on November 16, relatives of victims had told reporters that county police had given them a figure of 23 dead, 18 of them students. Huang's own statement in the police record, that he had killed more than 20, was also higher than the official count. The charge and the conviction covered the 17 deaths and the one injury.
Huang was tried at first instance on December 9, 2003, and the verdict was announced that morning. The court found him guilty of intentional homicide, sentenced him to death, and deprived him of his political rights for life. People's Daily Online reported on the day that he did not appeal.
On December 25, 2003, China News Service carried a report that Huang had not appealed and that the Henan Higher People's Court was conducting the death penalty review. The next day, December 26, 2003, it reported that Huang had been taken that morning to the execution ground and shot.
In his last days Huang spoke with reporters. China News Service headlines of December 26 and 27, 2003, reported that he talked with journalists about how he had picked the young people he killed, and that in an interview shortly before his execution he said he wanted to see his parents.
The case did not end with the execution. In March and April 2004 relatives of victims raised the question of whether there had been more victims than the official 17, and further evidence connected to the case was recovered in Pingyu. DNA tests by the Ministry of Public Security linked it to two of the young people already on the list, Han Peng and Zhai Pengchao, rather than to anyone new. Police acknowledged failings in the earlier investigation, and the head of the police technical unit responsible was removed from his post, the Beijing Youth Daily reported on April 23, 2004.
The number of dead. The court convicted Huang of 17 killings. Relatives of victims said in November 2003 that county police had given them a figure of 23 dead, and Huang told the surviving youth he had killed more than 20. The DNA tests of April 2004 linked the new evidence to two of the 17 listed victims. No killing beyond the 17 was charged, and any further deaths remain unproven.
The date of arrest. People's Daily Online gave November 21, 2003, as the date of his arrest. No published record separates the date he was first detained from the date of formal arrest.
The motive. The court's account, as reported, was that violent films had shaped him and that he wanted to be a professional killer. Huang gave his own reasons for choosing his victims in conversations with reporters before his execution; those reasons were reported in headlines and did not change the court's findings.
September 2001: The first of the killings, according to the court's findings.
September 2001 to November 2003: Huang kills 17 young people in Pingyu County, most of them students, and seriously injures one more.
November 2003: A youth escapes, seriously injured, and reports to police.
November 16, 2003: Relatives of victims say county police have given them a figure of 23 dead, 18 of them students.
November 17, 2003: A Henan newspaper reports the official figure of 17 dead and one injured.
November 21, 2003: Huang is arrested, according to People's Daily Online.
December 9, 2003: A court sitting in Pingyu convicts Huang of intentional homicide and sentences him to death, with lifelong deprivation of political rights. He does not appeal.
December 25, 2003: The Henan Higher People's Court is reported to be reviewing the death sentence.
December 26, 2003: Huang is executed by shooting.
March and April 2004: Relatives of victims question the official count; DNA tests by the Ministry of Public Security link new evidence to two of the 17 victims, Han Peng and Zhai Pengchao.
April 23, 2004: The Beijing Youth Daily reports that the head of the police technical unit has been removed.
July 30, 2012: People's Daily Online includes the Pingyu case in a review of China's serial murder cases.