Cop Killer Woo Beom-gon: How South Korea's Bloodiest Massacre Happened
People tend to trust law enforcement officers, expecting support from them as representatives of the authorities. At the same time, many overlook an important fact: police officers are the same people, and they can also commit crimes. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers also break the law, including serious crimes like murder. This is not always due to abuse of power - there are even maniacs among the police. A striking example is the story of South Korean police officer Woo Beomgon, who went down in history as the bloodiest mass murderer in the country. He killed 56 people and injured 35, and this was all in just one night!
Wu Beom-gon was born on February 24, 1955, in Gyeongsangnam-do Province in the southeast of the country. Nothing is known about his family or childhood. After school, Beom-gon joined the army, the marines, from where he was discharged in 1978. After leaving the army, he moved to his home province and joined the police in December 1980.
It would seem that working in law enforcement is stability and respect. But everything went wrong for Bomgon. His colleagues noted the difficult character and irascibility of the former marine. There was no peace at home either: constant quarrels with his common-law wife only worsened his condition. In December 1981, he transferred to the police station in the village of Kunnyu, hoping for a new start. But the problems followed him.
April 26, 1982, started out as a normal day. But for U Bom-gon, things went wrong from the very morning. Another conflict with his wife got him angry. In a bad mood, he showed up at the police station, where instead of working, he started drinking. Alcohol only increased his aggression.
By midday, the chief of the station, seeing the state of his subordinate, sent him home. It seemed that this could prevent trouble. But at home, Bomgon continued to rage: he began to smash furniture, and then beat up his common-law wife, who tried to reason with him. After that, Wu Bomgon fueled up with alcohol and went back to work. Around 7:30 p.m., he returned to the station - that's when the real nightmare began.
That evening, the officer on duty made a fatal mistake. Despite Beomgon's obvious intoxication, he let him into the armory. He took everything he could carry: two M1 carbines, 200 rounds of ammunition, and seven hand grenades. Armed to the teeth, the drunken policeman walked out of the station, and the villages of Gyeongsangnam-do became his bloody field.
The first victims were his colleagues. At the exit from the station, Bomgon threw a grenade at a group of police officers, killing one and wounding three. After that, he opened fire on two law enforcement officers who were near a patrol car, seriously wounding them. The rest of his colleagues, shocked by what had happened, were unable to immediately organize a chase. Meanwhile, the killer continued his bloody route.
After leaving the police station, the gunman headed to the market in Toron village. At about 9:30 p.m., he started shooting at people who were collecting goods at the end of the trading day. Several people were injured. When the market was empty, Bomgon returned to Kunnyu village. The first thing he did was break into the post office, shoot three telephone operators, and cut the wires so that no one could call for help.
Then the real horror began. Having got out into the street, Beomgon started shooting at everyone who caught his eye. In addition, he threw two grenades into the windows of houses. From Kunnyu, the killer went to the neighboring villages of Ungye and Pyeongchon. There, he also randomly shot at passersby and at windows. In these settlements, 42 people became victims of the criminal.
What helped him kill was that he was wearing a police uniform. When the streets were empty, Beomgon started knocking on the doors of houses. Residents, seeing the uniform, opened the doors, and the maniac shot them point-blank. At one point, he forced a 16-year-old teenager to go into a store and get him a drink. After that, he shot the boy. The owner of the store, Shin Wee Do, told how it happened:
One of the witnesses, farmer Chun Yong Sup, described the events as follows:
The bloody orgy lasted eight hours. At five in the morning on April 27, Beomgon ran out of ammunition, and all he had left was two grenades. By this time, the military and police were actively searching for him. The criminal broke into the house of 68-year-old pensioner Seo Insoo, where he hid, taking the man's family hostage. But the police quickly found his hideout and surrounded it.
Seeing that there was no chance of escape, Beom-gon shouted "Mansae!" ("Hurray!") and blew himself up with two grenades. The powerful explosion left the owner of the house seriously injured and three members of his family dead. In total, U Beom-gon killed 56 people and injured about 35 that night. It was the largest mass murder in South Korean history and one of the largest in the world at the time.
The police began investigating the crime. They needed to understand why Beomgon, who had been drinking heavily before, had become aggressive and decided to kill. The policeman's common-law wife, Chun Mal Soon, gave her version of what happened. According to her, Beomgon had gone mad because of her.
The woman woke up Wu Bomgon by swatting a fly that landed on his chest. This was the beginning of the scandal with the smashing of furniture and beatings, which turned into mass murder. But police experts doubted that such a trifle could push the policeman to terrible bloodshed. The working version was that Bomgon was insane due to alcohol abuse.
The massacre in Gyeongsangnam-do Province shocked the entire country. High-ranking police officials from Seoul arrived at the scene of the tragedy, as well as the country's best experts. Even the Minister of Internal Affairs Su Chung-hwa immediately flew to the scene on a police plane. Remarkably, on April 29, 1982, the official resigned, feeling his share of responsibility for what happened.
A group of 19 members of the country's parliament was formed to investigate. It was headed by the chairman of the South Korean Committee on Internal Affairs, Kim Jong-hoh. Following the investigation, the authorities admitted that the tragedy was their fault. The police ignored Beomgon's drunkenness, allowed him to get hold of a weapon, and failed to organize his timely detention.
Following the trial, three negligent police officers were sentenced to prison. The South Korean cabinet decided to pay monetary compensation to the surviving victims and the families of the deceased. Officially, Woo Beom-gon's actions were attributed to a nervous breakdown caused by an inferiority complex, family conflicts, and alcohol intoxication. It is likely that his years of service in the Marine Corps, difficult character, and lack of psychological help also played a role.
The tragedy forced South Korea to rethink its approach to selecting and monitoring police officers. Rules for access to weapons were tightened, and the mental health of law enforcement officers became a hot topic. But for the families of the victims, it was small consolation. Entire families were among the dead. Villages that had been peaceful for centuries were transformed overnight into places of grief and horror. The tragedy touched almost every home in the area.
U Bom-gon's story is a grim reminder of the tragedies that can result from a combination of personal problems, impunity, and access to weapons. Despite the obvious warning signs, the system failed, and one man became a national disaster overnight. Who do you think is most responsible for such tragedies: the criminal himself, the leadership that allowed negligence, or the society that turns a blind eye to problems "within the system"?