Yoo+Young+Chul


 * Yoo Young-Chul (유영철 / 柳永哲) **

"I may have the devil inside me."

Biography Yoo was born in 1970 as the fourth child of his family (three brothers and one sister). His parents were both construction workers with low income. He later confessed that both of his parents had a very bad temper; they would struck him constantly. When he was 14, is father died from a major epilepsy. His family had a hard time due to financial difficulties. His mother had to work more hours in order to sustain the entire family. During his high school years, Yoo was accused for theft and had to serve in a juvenile training school. From 1988 (since he became 18), he was sentenced to jail for various reasons: theft, forgery, identity theft, selling pornography etc. In the 1990s, he was sentenced to jail more than four times. During the period, his wife (with their son) divorced with Yoo, which gave him a shock and trauma. After he finished his term, he was released on September 11, 2003. During his days in prison, he learned various killing techniques from fellow cellmates and by studying famous serial killers such as Jung Du-Young. He also formulated the idea that the wealthy were the main source that caused all the problems in Korean society. Also after one of his brothers died of the same symptoms of his father, Yoo began to greatly fear epilepsy (this is also the reason why he consumed livers of his victims) and thus, later on began to show his anger and fear through killing. After his release from jail, he practiced his killing methods on dogs (mainly by clubbing them to death) and prepared his scheme. In his original plan, he planned to kill more than 100 people. Later investigations proved that Yoo planned his killings in an extremely detailed way; the police later revealed that his pre-planned strategies and attention to the specifics in his diaries were extraordinary.

Victim Profiles Most of Yoo Young-Chul's victims were wealthy old men or prostitutes; he mutilated most of his victims and also has confessed that he ate body parts of his victims (liver and brain). Due to his unhappy childhood that was characterized with poverty and violence of his parents, later police investigations revealed that Yoo Young-Chul longed for a happy family. These traits were shown by Yoo's attitude: exceptionally caring for his family and family events. However, from his divorce, he set into a deep trauma, and tried to show his anger through his killings. Most of his victims (especially the elderly victims) were associated with the image of a "harmonious family" by Yoo. The jealousy and anger triggered him to act in such way. Through his divorce with his wife, Yoo also called in many prostitutes to his house, in an attempt to find another partner. However, as Yoo realized that the prostitutes were only tied with him through a "business" relationship, he began to kill numerous prostitutes using the same methods.

Modus Operandi (Method of Operation) When undertaking his murders outside of his home, Yoo Young-Chul chose a house that was easy to break into. The two story houses with a open courtyard was an easy target for Yoo. He mostly aimed for the wealthy and elderly families because of the jealously on the notion of a harmonious family. As these houses typically have fences only up to a person's shoulders and a courtyard with no security systems, Yoo mostly climbed up the back walls and entered through the courtyard doors and into the house. But every time before making a move, he would closely observe the movements within the house for more than ten minutes. After he has decided that it is safe to act (easy targets, no one watching), he would always arm himself with a 6-inch blade and a handmade hammer that he made for killing purposes. After he enters the house, he would knock out the victim with his massive hammer and stab the victim(s) to death. He would carefully erase all traces that would be left behind (and would use to use specialized gloves and shoes in order to prevent any markings on the floor). With the dead bodies, he would mutilate the body parts and sometimes consume them. Due to his fear for epilepsy, he would eat the livers and brains of the victims.

Yoo Young-Chul would also call many prostitutes to his house in order to undertake his killings. After smashing their heads with his hammer, he would drag the body into the bathroom and mutilate them. With the mutilated body parts, he would sometimes keep them in his possession or consume the liver and brain. With the remaining body parts, Yoo would trash them away into a construction site or subway near his house.



Yoo Young-Chul's victims and their families interview video link: http://netv.sbs.co.kr/sbox/sbox_index.jsp?uccid=10000304778&st=0&cooper=NAVER