Lim Ban Lim

Lim Ban Lim (; 194024 November 1972) was a Singaporean gangster and outlaw who killed a police officer and stole at least $2.5 million before he was shot and killed at the age of 32. Lim became one of the country's most wanted fugitives after shooting and wounding a police officer during an altercation in May 1965. After shooting dead another police officer in July 1968, Lim fled the country, with local authorities offering a $17,000 bounty in their search for him. He evaded capture until 1972, when he returned to Singapore and was killed by the Singapore Police Force.

Early life Lim was born and raised in Lorong Tai Seng in Paya Lebar, Singapore. The third of twelve children, he was a son of a fisherman. He attended Fengshan Primary School but did not complete his primary education. Before embarking on a criminal career, Lim was at different times a hawker, construction worker, and handyman.

Criminal career

Lim was a member of the Gi Ho secret society who was involved in several misdemeanors from as early as 1958. He was reportedly trained as a shooter in the Riau Islands. He first attained notoriety in 1963, when he and three other gunmen ambushed the printing division of The Straits Times at Anson Road and stole $30,000 in an armed robbery.

On 23 June 1968, Lim shot and killed 27-year-old Corporal Koh Chong Thye with a semi-automatic pistol; Koh and two other police officers had been in pursuit of Lim after he was spotted in Serangoon. Koh, who was married with two children when he died, suffered gunshots to the chest and face and a fatal one through the forehead. Tau Hong Lim, and Botak. He married his childhood sweetheart, a "Madam Yeo", In December 1977, Lim's brother Ah Tee (born 1952) sustained serious injuries after being stabbed in the thigh and head by a mob of ten youths. Four of his friends were injured too. Another of Lim's siblings, Ah Lek, speculated that Ah Tee was attacked for his affiliation with Lim.

On 30 August 1996, Lim's cousin Teo Kim Hong was hanged for murder. In May 2007, Teo's brother Teo Cheow Kim was sentenced to death for trafficking 30.37g of heroin. Lim Ah Tee had also been charged with drug trafficking in the same case as Teo but avoided the death penalty after the prosecution granted him a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.

Death Lim had previously boasted to the police over the telephone: "You will never catch me. When you are about to arrest me, I will surely engage you in a gunfight. I will use the last bullet to end my life, so you can only collect my body." At the time, he was the most wanted fugitive in Singapore. On 24 November, Lim and Chua visited the pasar malam at Margaret Drive in Queenstown. Lim attempted to escape by separating from Chua but was shot and killed by the police. Lim suffered three gunshots to the body and reportedly staggered for some before dying with his revolver on his left hand. He was aged 32. Detective Chow Kim Loo was later publicly identified as the officer who fired the fatal shot that hit Lim in the neck. They had reportedly escaped to attend Lim's funeral, Lim was reportedly the first criminal in Singapore to have evaded justice by undergoing plastic surgery; a second case was reported in November 1981.

Singaporean serial killer Sek Kim Wah, who was charged with killing three victims during an armed robbery at Andrew Road and two more at Seletar Road in 1983, had once mentioned to a witness in his trial that he wanted to be better than Lim Ban Lim. Sek was indicted for all five murders but was only convicted of the triple killings at Andrew Road and given the death sentence in August 1985. After losing his appeal against his sentence in March 1987, Sek was hanged at dawn in Changi Prison on 9 December 1988.