Yang Xinhai: The bloody trail of the "Anhui beast" (6 photos)

The name Yang Xinhai occupies a special place in the crime annals of modern China.





In just three years, this man transformed from an unknown vagabond into the most bloody serial killer in Chinese history. Dubbed the "Anhui Beast" and the "Shandong Vampire" by the press, he left behind a trail of 67 confirmed murders and 23 rapes. His case became a symbol of chaos and exposed the shortcomings of the law enforcement system in rural areas of the country.

A Childhood in Poverty and the First Signs of Tragedy.



Yang Xinhai was born on July 17, 1968, in Yangtaojiang Village, Henan Province. The fourth of six children, Yang faced extreme poverty from childhood, as his farming family was one of the poorest in the village. The boy was highly intelligent and eager for knowledge, but he was extremely withdrawn and introverted.

The tragic circumstances of his family life left their mark on the future criminal's personality. His parents were unable to pay for his son's education, leading to constant conflicts. Yang was so devoted to his studies that he even fought with his father when he was forced to drop out of school. Unlike other students, who traded grain brought from home for food stamps at the school cafeteria, the extremely poor Yang often foraged for wild herbs and cooked his own meals.

In 1985, at the age of 17, Yang finally dropped out of school and left his parents' home, wandering around China in search of work. The young man worked on construction sites, in factories, and in restaurants. Gradually, he discovered a world of crime, starting with petty thefts of aluminum utensils in cafes. Growing up in extreme poverty and being separated from home early with minimal socialization led to a distortion of his human nature and alienation from others.

His first run-ins with the law were not long in coming. In 1988, 20-year-old Yang was arrested for theft in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and sentenced to two years of re-education in a labor camp. In 1991, he was convicted again for theft in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province.

A turning point came in 1996, when Xinhai was sentenced to five years in prison for attempted rape in Zhumadian, his native Henan Province. Due to exemplary behavior, he was released in 1999, after serving only three years. It was from this moment, according to criminologists, that the transformation from petty thief to serial killer began.

Cruelty Without Limits





Starting in 1999, a series of murders began that shook all of China. Yang Xinhai operated across four provinces – Henan, Shandong, Anhui, and Hebei – primarily in rural areas. His victims were farming families living in isolated village houses.

The criminal developed a clear plan of action. He traveled across the country by bicycle, which allowed him to quickly move between towns and remain undetected. At night, Yang would break into homes and murder everyone inside, sparing neither the elderly, nor women, nor small children. His weapons included hammers, axes, shovels, knives, and meat grinders—any tools he could find or steal before committing the crime.

Xinhai's methods were unique in that he carefully concealed his tracks. After each crime, he would wear new clothes and shoes several sizes too big to confuse police when analyzing fingerprints. He would throw bloody clothes into rivers or burn them, and bury the murder weapons. Despite his small stature—158 cm—Yang possessed remarkable dexterity, rendering his victims completely helpless.

Yang Xinhai was especially cruel to women. In addition to murder, he raped both living and dead victims. According to the perpetrator's own testimony, he committed 49 murders, 17 rapes, and five assaults causing serious bodily harm in Henan Province alone. In other provinces, the statistics were as follows: eight murders and three rapes in Hebei, two murders and one rape in Shandong, and six murders and two rapes in Anhui.

One of the most shocking crimes was the attack in October 2002, when a maniac murdered a father and his six-year-old daughter with a shovel and then raped the pregnant mother, causing severe head injuries. The woman survived, but the shock left her with memory loss.

On December 6 of that year, one of Xinhai's most massive crimes occurred. In the village of Liuzhuang in Henan Province, he wiped out almost the entire Liu family. Using an iron hammer, the maniac murdered Liu Zhanwei (a man in his 30s), his mother, wife, son, and daughter. Only the 68-year-old father, Liu Zhongyuan, who was sleeping in his new home that night, survived. The family had planned to move in three days later, but tragedy struck early. Liu Zhongyuan later recalled: his granddaughter lay on the ground with a hole in her head, the room was full of blood, and his wife could only blink but could no longer speak. She died 10 days after being hospitalized.

Yang Xinhai's activity peaked in 2003. On August 5, he rode a bicycle to Hebei Province, where he murdered Sun Shengjun's family of three in the village of Lidao. He did everything with terrifying cold-bloodedness: first, he stole an axe from another farmer's house, then killed Sun's family, after which he washed his hands in the yard, discarded the gloves he had worn during the crime, and left the axe by the front door.

Just three days later, Yang appeared in Dongliangxiang Village, Qiaoxi District, Shijiazhuang City, where he murdered the family of five belonging to farmer Wei Xianzeng. Two crimes in three days—unprecedented, even for Xinhai. His final outburst of madness, it turned out, was his end.

Investigation and Ghost Hunting



For a long time, police were unable to track down the elusive killer. The crimes occurred in different provinces, making coordination between regional law enforcement agencies difficult. Yang Xinhai meticulously destroyed evidence and had no permanent address, stable employment, or close relationships. This made him virtually a phantom for investigators.

Chinese law enforcement agencies launched a large-scale manhunt, recognizing the need to stop the terror. According to police sources, after a meeting in 2003, they identified the key characteristics of the serial killer and shared internal materials to organize a comprehensive search for the suspect.

Beginning in May and June 2003, police began conducting investigations in various villages, focusing on individuals with criminal records who had not returned home for extended periods. Yang Xinhai was identified as one of the prime suspects. Investigators repeatedly visited the home of his father, Yang Junguan, taking blood samples and gathering information.

Yang Xinhai's arrest occurred completely by chance on November 3, 2003, in Cangzhou, Hebei Province. During a routine inspection of entertainment venues, police noticed a man behaving strangely. When law enforcement officers attempted to question him, Xinhai began acting suspiciously, which attracted their attention.

A document check revealed that he was on the federal wanted list for murders in four provinces. DNA testing confirmed his involvement in multiple crimes. During interrogation, Yang Xinhai calmly and without resistance gave detailed testimony, confessing to 65 murders and 23 rapes. His testimony precisely matched unsolved cases in various provinces.

The criminal's motives and psychological profile.



For a long time, Yang Xinhai's motives remained a mystery to investigators and psychologists. Some sources claimed that the impetus for the murders was a breakup with his girlfriend, who left him after learning of his criminal record. According to this theory, it was the rejection of his lover, who could not accept his criminal past, that engendered in him a deep hatred of society.

However, the perpetrator himself offered other, more chilling explanations for his actions. Police described him as someone who "committed crimes solely for the sake of harming society."

"When I killed people, I felt the urge to kill more and more. This inspired me to kill even more. I don't care whether they deserved to live or not. That's not my concern. I have no desire to be part of society. Society is not my concern," Xinhai stated during interrogation.

Trial and swift retribution.



The serial killer's trial was held behind closed doors at the Luohe Intermediate People's Court in Henan Province. The hearing lasted only one hour, after which the court sentenced him to death on February 1, 2004. Xinhai was found guilty of premeditated murder, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, robbery, and rape. The hearing was held behind closed doors to protect the identities of the rape victims.

At his trial, the defendant declared he would not appeal and did not seek leniency from the judge. He resigned himself to his fate, stating that he had no intention of being part of society anyway. A medical examination confirmed his sanity and also revealed that he had contracted HIV from one of his victims. The verdict was based on irrefutable evidence, including DNA matches and his own confessions.

On February 14, 2004, exactly two weeks after his sentencing, Yang Xinhai was executed by a gunshot to the back of the head. He was 35 years old at the time of his death. His body was cremated according to Chinese tradition. Authorities reported that Xinhai planned to expand its operations to Tianjin, a city of 10 million people near Beijing, and possibly even to the capital itself.

The Yang Xinhai case remains one of the most high-profile in modern Chinese criminal history. Within three years of his activity, he became the most prolific serial killer since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. His crimes prompted the Chinese government to strengthen its police presence in rural areas and improve its system for investigating serial crimes. The case also exposed serious shortcomings in coordination between law enforcement agencies in various provinces and the need to modernize forensic technology in the country.