Zhang Jun (; August 5, 1966 – May 20, 2001) was a Chinese

robber Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

and

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

. From June 1993 to September 2000, Zhang and his associates robbed a total of 22 stores in

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

and

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

, killing 28 people and wounding 23. The total amount stolen was alleged to be 5.36 million yuan.

Early life

Zhang Jun was born on August 5, 1966 in Hualin Village,

Changde Changde ( ) is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of Hunan province, People's Republic of China. In addition to the urban districts, Changde also administers the county-level city of Jinshi City, Jinshi and six counties. Changde is adjacent ...

into a poor family. He was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters. Because of his poor family, he dropped out of school in the first year of high school to participate in social activities. He was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to labor reform.

Robberies

On December 22, 1995, Zhang robbed the Chongqing Friendship store, killing one person and stole gold jewelry worth 455,000 yuan. On December 25, 1996, Zhang robbed

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

's first department store, stealing gold jewelry worth more than 630,000 yuan. On November 27, 1997, Zhang robbed

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a population of over 10 million, an ...

Friendship Mall, killing two people and stole gold jewelry worth 1.372 million yuan. On December 20, 1998, Zhang raided a public security checkpoint and the toll station of the Public Security County of Hebei Province, killing two people. On January 4, 1999, Zhang robbed the gold jewelry cabinet of Wuhan Square in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

, killing one person and stealing 30,000 yuan and 2.634 million in gold jewelry. On August 15, 2000, Zhang robbed the president of the Agricultural Bank of

Anxiang County Anxiang County () is a county in Hunan Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Changde. The county is located at one of the inflows of Dongting Lake, on the north in Hunan Province and the southeast in Chang ...

, killing two people and stealing 16,000 yuan. On September 1 of the same year, Zhang robbed a cash truck in

, killing seven people and stealing two small sub-machine guns and 20 bullets.

Previous crimes

In 1993, Zhang Jun and his friend Liu Baogang, who was known to the

Shaoguan Shaoguan (; Hakka: Seukoan) is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province (Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch H ...

Institute, went to

to commit a robbery. The robbery was not successful and Zhang accidentally injured his companion. In order to avoid capture, he killed Liu with a hammer and disposed of his corpse. After that, he could not escape to

and killed a

businessman before the Spring Festival. At the same time, he met a mistress in Guangxi and using money she gave him, purchased a pistol. After that, he lured two

escorts Escort may refer to: Protection *Bodyguard, a security operative who accompanies clients for their personal protection *Police escort, a feature offered by law enforcement agencies to assist in transporting individuals *Safety escort service, a s ...

to a mountain where he killed them both in order to practice killing people quickly.

Arrest

The Chongqing police issued an arrest order to the investigative team for Zhang Jun on September 19, also arresting one of his mistresses, Quan Hongyan, who came out of the hospital with him. According to reports, Zhang had a military hand grenade with him when he was arrested.

Wen Qiang Wen Qiang (, January 29, 1956 – July 7, 2010 in Zengjia town, Shapingba,Wen'birth place according tsina.com (2010-02-01) also se/ref> Chongqing) was a Chinese judicial official who was arrested and executed during the Chongqing gang trials. C ...

, then deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau, personally interrogated Zhang Jun.

Trial

On April 14, 2001, Zhang Jun was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

by the First Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing for intentional homicide and robbery, and deprived of political rights for life. On May 20, 2001, he was executed in Chongqing.

Cultural references

The 2020 film ''

Caught in Time ''Caught in Time'' () is a 2020 Hong Kong/Chinese crime action film based on the robber and serial killer Zhang Jun. It is the second film from director Lau Ho-Leung, after '' Two Thumbs Up''. It stars Wang Qianyuan, Daniel Wu, Jessie Li, a ...

'' (除暴) is based on the story of Zhang Jun.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Jun 1966 births 2001 deaths Chinese mass murderers Executed mass murderers Executed Chinese serial killers Fugitives People executed by China by firearm