Lam Kor-wan, born on 22 May 1955 and originally named Lam Kwok-yue, was a Hong Kong night-shift taxi driver known as the 'Rainy Night Butcher' and one of the city's few known serial killers. He attended secondary school in Sham Shui Po and began driving the night shift in 1979. Between February and July 1982 he killed four women in succession: Chan Fung-lan (21), Chan Wan-kit (31), Leung Sau-wan (29) and Leung Wai-sum (17), mostly strangling them with electrical wire. He then dismembered the bodies, cut away some organs as specimens, and photographed and filmed the remains, acts that shocked the public. In August that year police acted on a report from staff at a Mong Kok photo-developing shop who had been handed close-up photographs of human body parts; Lam was arrested when he came to collect the prints, aged twenty-seven. A search of his home turned up a large haul of exhibits, including organ specimens, body parts, surgical instruments and many photographs. On 8 April 1983 a jury of seven men unanimously convicted him of four counts of murder and sentenced him to death. Because Hong Kong had carried out no executions since 1966, the Governor in Council commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in August 1984, and he remains in custody. The case caused a sensation across the city, was later adapted into films such as Dr. Lamb, focused attention on the safety of passengers and drivers on night-shift taxis, and fuelled debate over capital punishment and the inadequacy of psychiatric services.
The case raised public discussion of mental illness and its treatment in relation to violent crime. 'Rainy Night Butcher' also became a recurring subject in Hong Kong popular culture, filmed as Dr. Lamb and several later works.
Achievements
- 1982 · Killed four women in succession, Chan Fung-lan, Chan Wan-kit, Leung Sau-wan and Leung Wai-sum, between February and July.
- 1983 · Was unanimously convicted of four counts of murder by a seven-man jury on 8 April and sentenced to death.
- 1984 · Had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment by the Governor in Council in August, and remains in custody.