Liu Mingwu

Liu Mingwu (; January 1960 – 6 November 2002), known as The Beggar Killer , was a Chinese beggar and serial killer who, from February 2001 to March 2002, attacked and killed at least 23 people, predominantly other beggars, across various cities in China. After his arrest, he claimed that he had done it out of hatred for the homeless, whom he considered "dirty and smelly." He was later convicted, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed in 2002.

Early life and murders Little is known of Liu Mingwu's background. Born in January 1960 in the small village of Wulou, in Guizhou's Songtao Miao Autonomous County, he was the child of a poor peasant family who eventually took over the farm as he grew up. He was considered a normal, upstanding citizen until sometime in 1992, when he got into a fight with the village cadres over land disputes. During this fight, he killed one of the cadres' sons and then fled to avoid arrest, wandering around the country and living as a beggar on the streets.

Despite his situation, Liu developed an inexplicable hatred of other beggars he encountered, whom he considered "dirty and smelly."

From November 2001 to 21 March 2002, similar killings were recorded within Anhui. On 26 February, the burned body of a beggar was found under the Tongji Bridge in Feidong County, and ten days later, a fire broke out in a vacant house in Hefei. After putting the fire out, a human head was found among the ashes. By the time police had connected the two crimes, the burned body of an unknown man was found on 17 March in Lu'an, followed by that of another only four days later. Suspecting that the killings were the work of a single perpetrator, local authorities initiated a large-scale operation to track down the killer, frequently frisking and questioning any beggars they met on the streets. He was summarily executed by shooting on 6 November 2002.