“Old Mother” Djao, Chinese Serial Killer Bandit - 1924

Note: Although this source mentions only the final moments of this bandit’s career involving a large-scale massacre, it is presumed that her “bloodthirsty” banditry involved multiple earlier murders.

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FULL TEXT: Shanghai, July 27 – “Old Mother” Djao, said to be the most notorious and blood-thirsty bandit the province of Shantung ever produced, has been executed at Irhowfu, in Shantung, according to reports received in Shanghai by mission organizations. These advices add that the dreaded feminine bandit underwent that most fearsome of Chinese death penalties, the ling-che, or, in English, the slicing process. [also known as “death by a thousand cuts”].

Forty-seven years old and an expert horsewoman, “Old Mother’’ Djao led a band of several hundred out-laws who terrorized a broad area. It is related of her that last summer she planned an attack against Ichowfu after calling to her aid two added groups of bandits. They had assembled at a place near the village of Balihsiang when a homeguard of villagers, known as the “Big Knife Society.” Apprised of their purpose, attacked them and suffered utter defeat.

~ Not a Person or Animal Spared. ~

The villagers were driven back into Balihsiang and the bandits followed them. Then the gates of the village were closed and every man was shot down. Sixty women and children then were lined up, and “Old Mother” Djao was asked what to do with them. Her orders to kill them all were carried out with the result that every man, woman and child who was within the walls after the gates had been closed was slain. Even the cattle and dogs of the village suffered the same fate.

Ling-che is simply vivisection done by experts in such a manner that the victim survives in a conscious state through hours of a terrible ordeal.

[“’Old Mother’ Djao Punished by Being Cut to Pieces While Still Alive.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York, N.,Y.), Sep. 2, 1924, p. 7]

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FULL TEXT (translated from German): Djao, the "Old Mother," has been the bloodthirsty robber chief of China. Been, because recently this Amazon was seized and executed in Chorofu. Her death was as cruel and bloody as her actions, which had terrified the province of Shantung for many years, had been. The forty-seven-year-old woman was the leader of an army of more than a hundred robbers and bandits. Her last exploit came last summer when she seized the city of Chorofu despite its being defended by the military. `

All the inhabitants were killed and not only the men, but also sixty women and children it is believed. Now Djao, the "Old Mother," followed them. The mode of death chosen for her, the “ling che," is a kind of vivisection and is practiced so that the victim, in spite of the terrible pain and the great loss of blood, during the torture remains in full consciousness for at least two hours.

[Der Tag (Vienna, Austria), 21. September 1924, p. 8]

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FULL TEXT: Djao, die “Alte Mutter”, ist dieblutrünstige Räuberhauptmännin Chinas gewesen. Gewesen, denn kürzlich wurde diese Amazone er griffen und in Tschorofu hingerichtet. Ihr Tod war so grausam und blutig, wie esihre Taten, die seit vielen Jahren die Provinz Schantung in Schrecken versetzten, gewesen sind. Die siebenundvierzigjährige Frau war die Anführerineines Heeres von mehreren Hunderi Räubern und Banditen. Ihre letzte Großtat verübte sie im vergangenen Sommer, als sie sich der Stadt Tschorofu bemächtigte, trotzdem diese von Militär verteidigt wurde.

Alle Ein wohner wurden umgebracht und nicht nur die Männer, sondern auch sechzig Frauen und Kinder mußten daran glauben. Jetzt ist Djao, die "Alte Mutter", ihnen nachgefolgt. Die Todesart, die für sie gewählt wurde, das “ling che", ist eine Art von Vivisektion und wird so ausgeübt, daß das Opfer, trotz der furchtbaren Schmerzen und des großen Blutverlustes, während der Folterung mindestens zwei Stunden hindurch bei vollem Bewußtsein bleibt.

[Der Tag (Vienna, Austria), 21. September 1924, p. 8]

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For similar cases, see: Female Serial Killer Bandits

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More cases: Female Serial Killers Executed

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[881-6/25/19]
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