Lee Byung-ju, is he really an unfair victim?
On the 14th, SBS 'I want to know' (hereafter 'Gal'), lit up the attempted murder of an infant with the subtitle 'The mystery thrown by the serial killer - The truth game on a rainy Thursday'.
In 2004, murders took place all over Seoul.
In particular, many of these incidents took place on a rainy Thursday night, which led people to call the culprit 'Thursday's Killer'.
The police launched an extensive investigation into a series of murders and arrested Nam-gyu Jeong in 2006.
Although he confessed to a whopping 24 murders, he insisted that the two attempted murders in the children were not his own.
At that time, the detective in charge and profiler Kwon Il-yong were convinced that the case had nothing to do with the case of Nam-gyu Jeong.
Kwon Il-yong said, "As for Nam-gyu Jung, it is a pleasant scene for him that the victim suffers when I attack. However, in the case of a missing child, there is a lot more expression of anger," he said.
In particular, he noted that the second offense attempted only 10 minutes after the first offense was a peculiar tendency among serial murders.
However, in September 2012, eight years after the incident, the criminal was arrested.
Lee Byung-joo was the culprit in the rainy Thursday incident, in which the police who obtained the intelligence obtained a confession after persuasion for a whopping 1 year and 6 months.
He was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a pawnshop in Seokchon-dong in 2004, and was sentenced to life imprisonment again for the murder of a villa in Bangi-dong in the same year.
He confessed that he committed not only the murder of an infant child, but also the murder of a housewife in Myeongil-dong, which occurred at the same time.
Lee Byung-ju revealed himself that in 2004, in four murders and attempted murders in Seoul, he killed six people and gave birth to two.
In addition, Lee Byung-joo was similar to the montage of the culprit in the case of an infant with a small height of 160 cm, a stout body, protruding cheekbones and a sharp jaw.
In particular, his impression of clothing coincided with the testimony of witnesses that his short hair style had no hair on the top of the head.
However, in January of this year, unexpected news came.
Lee Byung-joo was tried 10 years after he confessed, and he was acquitted in the first trial.
In 2019, Lee Byung-joo said he committed the crime and confessed to the crime because of guilt.
And he confessed to his paranoia, saying that it seemed like he was laughing at him and swearing at him for the reason he tried to kill the women.
He also made specific statements about the scene of the incident and surrounding places.
However, it turned out that he confessed to the Myeongil-dong incident and the missing child incident in 2012 and then reversed it, and confessed to the same incident again in 2019 and then reversed it.
And during the interview, the production team obtained 525 handwritten letters that Lee Byung-joo wrote to an acquaintance for 3 years.
As for the reason Lee Byung-joo repeatedly confessed and overturned in the letter, it was that he had never killed a single person.
According to his claim, the cases in which he became a prisoner of arms were unfairly framed by the manipulation of the police, and he made false confessions twice about other cases that he did not do in order to reveal this in court.
It was revealed that Lee Byung-ju was punished for habitual drug use since 1999 or received treatment for mental illness as a result.
The reason that the drug investigation team took charge of the Bangi-dong incident was because Lee Byung-joo and his accomplice Kim Dong-shik were habitual drug users.
At that time, the detective in charge said about Lee Byung-joo, "Kim Dong-shik talked most of the time. He felt like Lee Byung-joo's godfather."
And he was surprised that Lee Byung-joo was denying the crime, and he said, "I think I've learned a lot."
In particular, he said that Lee Byung-joo's current appearance resembles that of Kim Dong-sik, an accomplice who repeatedly confessed and overturned 10 years ago and played psychological games with detectives.
Also, the detective said, "The only variable is the death of Kim Dong-sik. I heard that Kim Dong-sik died and Lee Byung-joo was mentally damaged. And since then, I have heard that he showed a lot of different sides in the course of the investigation."
Lee Byung-joo claimed that after the case was sent to the prosecution, the police were blinded by special efforts and fabricated the unsolved case into his own crime.
At that time, the prosecutor said, "There was no way to prove the missing child. So, the most likely case was the Myeongil-dong incident, but nothing matching his DNA was found at the scene."
In the end, the Myeongil-dong case was closed due to insufficient evidence.
The police indicted the missing child case five days before the statute of limitations on the murder case, but was acquitted in the first trial.
A reporter who covered the trial said, "Lee Byung-joo was very confident. He was proud of himself to the extent that the lawyer couldn't speak." His attitude did not appear to have been unfair.
In addition, the reporter testified, "He was found guilty of two crimes and received life imprisonment, but for the rest of the crimes, neither the police nor the prosecution could find any evidence, so from now on, he felt that he had the initiative." .
Then, why did the court acquit Lee Byung-ju?
The court cited the reason that "it is difficult to conclude that there is no possibility of false intervention in the confession statement just because the statement of the accused is specific and partially coincides with the statements of eyewitnesses."
And while Lee Byung-joo met with the production crew, he did not remember the murder of the video store in Seokchon-dong, but he clearly insisted that the rest of the incidents were not his own.
He also insisted on the manipulation of the police, saying, "Kim Dong-sik's confession of conscience just before his death is false."
However, when asked if there is any possibility that he will not be able to remember the crime due to the mental illness caused by drug addiction in 2004, he said confidently, "I don't know. It was really bad in the past, but now it's a lot better. .
The production team asked several experts to verify the authenticity of Lee Byung-joo's past confession statements.
Experts agreed, saying, "It is highly likely that you have experienced it yourself."
The reason was the interaction with the victim.
In addition, considering the location and shape of the cuts of the murder victims, it was judged that it was highly likely that the same offender was committed.
In addition, it was analyzed that the signatures left in the four cases were the same and that it was the work of a serial criminal.
One informant met with the production crew saying that he seems to know why Lee Byung-joo repeatedly confesses and overturns.
Lee Byung-ju, a fellow prisoner, said he started his day by studying the case every day and writing letters to police stations and media outlets across the country.
And he insisted that the reason he couldn't let go of the case was not because of resentment, but because of money.
Lee Byung-ju found a broker who would do a so-called public transaction to get a deposit.
Public transaction refers to the act of buying and selling between inmates a crime to be reported to the police by exploiting this to lower the sentence for reporting other crimes in the case of drug offenders.
And in fact, Lee Byung-joo was in contact with several police stations as if he were the mastermind behind the manipulation of the case.
When the production team met Lee Byung-joo, they asked if the reason for overturning the case was money.
Then Lee Byung-joo said, "It's for the purpose of custody, but he just wanted to stand in the courtroom."
And when he asked why he unilaterally insisted on retrial in the case of Bangi-dong, where he was sentenced to arms, he said, "If I die, I will not be able to find the real culprit in Bangi-dong, so that would be too much to do to the victim. That remains in my heart."
However, the actual victim was still suffering day by day due to his repeated confessions and overturns, which caused regret.
Lastly, the broadcast prayed that the soon-to-be-started second trial would reveal the truth of the day and put an end to the 18-year-old truth game.
In addition, the double jockey Lee Byung-ju told him to stop playing riddles and to reflect on the crime he had committed.
(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jung)