The "Six States Installation of Minister" murder case (Chinese: 六國大封相兇殺案) was a dramatic murder case that occurred in Hong Kong during the 1950s. The case was sensationalised by the media at the time, and was considered to be one of the most serious murder cases at the time.
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Etymology
The name of this murder case was derived from a Cantonese opera "Six States Installation of Minister" (六國大封相), which is known for its grandeur and exquisiteness, and involves everyone in the acting trope. Just before the murder, the murderer told his sister-in-law that he is about to do a rendition of the opera.
Despite the murder itself had been forgotten, the phrase "Six States Installation of Minister" (六國大封相) entered popular vocabulary in Hong Kong to describe anything chaotic and large in scale, be it a chaotic riot, mass physical altercations, heated arguments involving lots of people, mass layoff/restructuring. The English term most similar to the Cantonese term is trainwreck.
Exile to Hong Kong
When the People's Republic of China was formed in 1949, Nationalist military officer Zhu Sheng Cai escaped the Chinese Mainland to Hong Kong to rendezvous with his brother, Zhu Xing Cai (朱醒材). Zhu Xing Cai was a merchant, and was in the United States at the time. As a result, Zhu Sheng Cai stayed at his brother's residence with his sister-in-law at 4th floor, 359 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai.
During those times, it is common for flatowners in Hong Kong to sublet individual rooms to other people. So, Zhu Sheng Cai was, in fact, living with numerous other families:
- Zhu Xing Cai, his wife Guan Yue-E (關月娥) and their son.
- The sister of Guan Yue-E, Guan Yue Mei (關月美), her husband Wang Zi Xiang (黃子驤), and their three children.
- The brother of Guan Yue-E, Guan Hong Sheng (關鴻生), his wife Chen Xiao (陳肖).
- Maid Wang Mei (黃美)
- Widow Wi San Gu (吳三姑)
- The sister of Wang Zi Xiang, Wang Qi Wen (黃綺文)
Tension
When Zhu Sheng Cai came to Hong Kong, he brought with him a small fortune that is sufficient for him to start a small business. However, Zhu Sheng Cai blew through his savings within a year, and began to borrow money from his sister-in-law. It was at this time that Zhu Sheng Cai's sister-in-law began to insult and belittle him. In addition, Zhu Sheng Cai's relation with the widow Wi San Gu, which was seen by Zhu's sister-in-law as endearing, also drew fierce criticism, and this also caused Wu San Gu to leave the residence.
In actuality, Zhu Sheng Cai liked Wang Qi Wen, and he moved with her to Shek Kip Mei to escape from his sister-in-law's insult.
Preparations for murder
During one fierce argument, Zhu Sheng Cai threatened to eventually deliver a rendition of "Six States Installation of Minister", but this did not deter Guan Yue-E, and even drove her children and the maid to go against Zhu Ssheng Cai. In the meantime, Zhu Sheng Cai bought a butcher's knife and some gasoline in preparations for murder.
Murder
On 5 November 1951, Zhu Sheng Cai went back to his former residence at Lockhart Road to collect his properties. At this time, three women denounced him for taking up valuable space in the house, and an argument ensued. Zhu Sheng Cai then immediately went into the kitchen, took out the butcher's knife, and locked the main doors to the house.
Before he assaulted his sister-in-law, Zhu Sheng Cai said "You wanted see my rendition of "Six States Installation of Minister", did you? I have been prepared a long time ago, and I already bought this knife for a month now. I will kill all today!" (Chinese: 你們不是渴望看我的《六國大封相》嗎？我早已準備好，這把刀也給你們買下個多月了，今天我就要大開殺戒！)
After that speech, Zhu Sheng Cai struck his sister-in-law with the butcher's knife. She was struck in the head and both arms. As Guan Yue-E rushed out of the house for help, Zhu Sheng Cai rushed into Guan Yue-E's room, and killed Wang Xiao-lunm, Yue-E's 3-year-old daughter. Chen Xiao also tried to escape, but failed, and was murdered as well. As for the maid, Wang Mei, she was seriously injured.
After the murder, Zhu Sheng Cai took out the can of gasoline he bought earlier, and poured it around the apartment and set it on fire. While escaping, Zhu Sheng-Cai encounted Wang Zi-Xiang's son of age 4. Zhu grabbed the young Wang and threw him out from the 4th floor apartment, resulting in heavy injury for the boy. Despite the fact that a crowd had gathered, Wang wasn't stopped by the crowd due to believing he was merely escaping the fire.
Casualties
The other renters were not in flats at the time.
Arrest and Trial
Due to the damages and casualties, the murder attract much sensations among Hong Kong news media, while the police had set up blockades to prevent him leaving Hong Kong.
On 8th November, 1951, 06:50am, Zhu Sheng Cai surrendered himself to the police at Central Police Station. During body search, it was discovered that Sheng Cai only have one Hong Kong dime, three handkerchief, and a letter addressed to Police and News Media.
In the letter, Sheng-Cai laid out the motive and incident of the murder, as well as expressing his displeasure of the motive guessed by the news media, which wrongly reported his motive was during to failure to borrow money. In it, he stated that due to cynicism and scoldings from the women in the flat, he had planned to burn down the house and do nothing else; the murder was incidental caused by the women in their attempt to prevent the arson. He also stated that he greatly hate Guan Yue Mei, who had chased Wang Qi Wen away from him. He further confessed that he had planned to kill himself by jumping out of the flat's window, but due to the gathering crowd on the street he chose escape instead. He had attempt to hide with his girlfriend and friends, but due to the heavy reporting, none of them was willing to hide him, and thus he choose to surrender to the police.
The court decided to try Zhu Sheng Cai only on one count, of the murder of Chen Xiao; it was common for the then-Hong Kong Judicial branch to focus on trying the most hindeous crime in order to minimize usage of Judicial resources, since if he was guilty on the charge of premeditated murder, he would be given death penalty. During the Trial, the defense attempted to use insanity caused by provocation, but prosecutor pointed out that the psychiatric reports showed the accused does not have any mental issues; furthermore, prior to the murder, the accused had prepared the instruments of murder, and had purposely locked the door, which showed that it was a deliberate, planned crime, and that the accused was not insane nor diminish during the moment of murder. Due to this, the jury delivered a guilty verdict to Zhu Sheng Cai on one count of murder, and was sentenced to be hanged on 23rd May, 1952.