This case is almost completely unknown outside Korea and it's one of the most disturbing I've come across. In May 2015, 48-year-old Kim Il-gon got into a traffic dispute on a Seoul street. Both men were fined in a summary court order. Kim's fine was 50,000 won - about 35 US Dollars.
He decided that was unacceptable.Over the next four months he:
- Purchased two kitchen knives and a hand axe
- Visited the other man's home and workplace
multiple times with the weapons
- Compiled a death list of 28 people he intended
to kill - including the other man, the witnesses,
the judge, the prosecutor, doctors who had treated
him, a restaurant owner who owed him money
Here's the part that makes this case particularly disturbing: the list included home addresses, phone numbers, and national ID numbers for some entries. He obtained this personal information by requesting access to his own court case files - exploiting a gap in Korean law where privacy protections for ongoing cases were less strict than for concluded ones. He used a legal process to build a targeting document.
When he couldn't get direct access to the man from the dispute, he revised his plan. He would kidnap a woman, use her as leverage to lure his target. On September 9th, 2015, he followed a 35-year-old woman named Joo into her car in a supermarket parking lot in Asan. He showed her a knife. He drove out of the lot.
She tried to escape at a rest stop 40 minutes later. He caught her. He strangled her by the roadside. He then drove her body across South Korea for two days - to Pyeongtaek, Hwaseong, Seoul, Sokcho, Busan, Ulsan - before driving to a villa parking lot in Seoul and setting the car on fire. CCTV caught him standing watching the car burn.
He was smiling. Police issued a public wanted notice 5 days later with a 10 million won reward. The police commissioner announced that any officer below inspector rank who caught him would receive an immediate promotion.
Eight days after the murder, Kim Il-gon walked into a veterinary clinic in Seoul and asked for animal euthanasia drugs. When staff refused, he pulled a knife. Staff called police. He was apprehended 600 meters away.
In his pocket: the death list. Still there. After his arrest he said: "I did nothing wrong. I need to keep living." In court he spoke for 90 minutes - not in apology, but listing his grievances. He described how the system had failed him, how everyone on the list had wronged him.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Currently serving that sentence.
The man from the original traffic dispute has said in interviews that he still has nightmares about Kim Il-gon years later.
He didn't do anything wrong either. He got into a traffic argument. He was fined. He ended up on a list.
Anyone else familiar with this case?
Sources:
Wikipedia - Kim Il-gon (criminal):
https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B9%80%EC%9D%BC%EA%B3%A4
Korea JoongAng Daily: