Rotten Mango - #251: Chinese Man Murdered His Mom’s Killers 22 Years Later - Hero or Villain? (Case of Zhang KouKou)

Episode Date: April 9, 2023

He killed 3 people on Chinese New Year. He admitted to it, he turned himself in, and he said in court that he didn’t regret a single moment of it.  He had waited 20 long years to finally do it and now he felt free.  He confessed to a triple homicide so why was a whole country rooting for him? Because he had gotten revenge on his mom’s killers. He had waited 20 years to take what he felt was his—an eye for an eye.  Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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in all states or situations. Price is very based on how you buy. Better being better boo. Chinese New Year is crazy. It's a day for families to be reunited. For people to be like thankful for what they have and pray for the next year's blessings. It's a serious holiday. I believe everything shuts down in China for like an entire week during Chinese New Year.

Yeah, sometimes it's like it's a month of celebration. It's insane. If you've ever done business with anyone in China for like a week and a half radio silence, they will not respond to an email, they will not text you back, they will not WhatsApp you. It is a very serious holiday. And just like Christmas people are typically in good spirits. They're all going to go home, visit their parents and eat their

favorite little dishes. But Jiang Coco, we're going to call him Coco. Jiang Coco. He had other plans. Chinese New Year, he went home to spend time with his family. He watched all the little neighborhood kids set off their little fireworks and he walked around his hometown taking in the views, the memories of like what he grew up with and all the things he used to see as a teenager. And then he packed his knife and murdered three people. He didn't even do it quickly. It was painful, brutal, he admitted to every single part

of it and yet, and yet, in court, he stood in front of the judge and he basically said, I don't regret a single thing I did. He admitted to killing all three people and the entire nation supported him. They were rooting for him. They protested the government for even arresting him. They were upset at the fact that this killer, this admitted killer, was being arrested. Literally?

Why? Like how? Have we all just like collectively lost our minds on this one? It's because I think there's one thing that humans seem to gravitate towards. Revenge. And I'm not talking some unhinged man that gets rejected so he takes revenge by killing a woman. The type of revenge people can get behind.

It's like those eye for an eye cases. 22 years ago, Coco type of revenge people can get behind. It's like those eye for an eye cases. 22 years ago, Coco was a 13 year old little boy. He witnessed his mom get beaten to death by a group of men. For 22 years, that was all he thought about. He watched the killers move on with their lives. Some of the killers became figures in local governments, successful business owners, they started their own families. Coco waited until 2018, Chinese New Year's Eve, where everyone comes home to their families, to their hometowns, to celebrate,

to feel unity and peace. Coco came back to kill three people. And he smiled and cord and said, I don't regret what I did. I wanted revenge. As always, full show note to reveal by rottenminglepodcast.com. And with that being said, let's talk about Jiang Kokou.

This is a case that fascinated Tiffany. That's his little sister. Okay, first of all, that makes it sound like Tiffany is plotting some sort of intricate revenge. She's not, which is really emotionally moved by this case. And I think my family sat there and debated this case for like four hours during dinner

one night. So I would love to know your thoughts on just how far you would go for revenge. Or maybe not even just you, but like how far do you think it's acceptable for anyone to go for revenge? Like if you saw this play out in court in real time, how would you feel? What would you be rooting for? And like do you think if the law doesn't get justice that humans should be able able to get justice in their own ways? Coco says that he has three core memories. Like, you know, those moments that change your brain chemistry, like those types of memories,

these are his three. I mean, sure, maybe there's like a couple other moments in his life that seem memorable, but he says his entire life, 30 something years of living can be summed up by three events. One, watching his mom get beaten to death in front of him when he's 13. Two, holding his dead mom in his arms while he cried. And three, he remembered watching his mom, her body get autopsy'd in front of the whole hometown. The medical examiner didn't take her to a hospital

or a morgue or anywhere to do this. He cracked her skull open in front of 13-year-old Coco in front of the entire town and performed a nautopsy right then and there. He was 13 when all three events took place. He was literally a kid, just a kid living in a village. So the killer of Coco's mom are actually his neighbors. I have to break down this neighborhood and it's dynamic for you real quick and we're going to take it really all the way back, all the way back before his mom was murdered.

The story takes place in Huangping Village in China and Coco's family, they're the Zang family. It's Coco Zang and it consisted of mom and dad, Coco's older sister and Coco the youngest. Their next door neighbors were the Wang family which consisted of Mr and Mrs. Wang and they had three sons. So the two families initially, they actually got along really well. Okay, they were like really good neighbors, they were tight. Both families relied on farming and crops. So these are really intensive labor-intensive jobs,

and for them at least it was unstable. Like when you're they're doing okay, they can put food on the table. The next year they have no crops, they're barely getting by. So on seasons when one family wasn't harvesting as much, the other family would step in, share some grains with them, or maybe during a season when one family was so swamped,

or somebody got injured, the other family would come in and they would help. So it seems like a pretty wholesome relationship. So for years, this is how they're getting along. Really well, the Zang family, the Wang family, they're on good terms. And then a huge government project comes into town. So back in the 90s, this is still a thing that happens, but in the US as well.

The government, we're rolling out these grain contracts. So they're like, we're going to come into these little towns, these little villages, we're going to partner with local farmers and produce a ton of grain and a ton of this and that. And we're going to not only guarantee that local farmer work, but typically the government contracts would give you a lot more money than what these farmers would normally get during harvest season. It's very lucrative.

It's an amazing opportunity. And there's tough competition to get these contracts. It's not like every single farmer in the area, like you get a contract, you get a contract. People have to really fight for it. So the Zang family and the Wang family, they're both dying these contracts. And like a lot of stories where there's competition and money on the line, the neighbors just become not so friendly anymore.

They start getting into these heated public arguments. Okay, so at first it starts with bickering. Like you don't really need the contract. Like we need the contract. Then it slowly escalates into full blown arguments of like, well, we helped you that last season, so you need to give up this contract bid so that we can win. And their relationship as neighbors was just completely ruined.

The whole, the Zangs, the Wangs, they hate each other now. Over this fight for these government deals. The Zang family just, I mean, they were so upset. But I think they're the type to go home and kind of feel bad. They're heated. I'm not going to act like they're angels and they didn't share a couple bad words and like, you know, say a bunch of things, but they go home and they're like, eh, maybe I took it too far. Like maybe that was too much. I mean, we have been neighbors for years now. So their thinking is, okay, there's got to be a way that we can all win.

It's got to be a win-win situation. Maybe they need it more. Maybe the wings because they have three sons, we only have two. Maybe they need more money for that extra mouth. Okay, what about this? So the Zang family comes up with this proposal. They're like, listen, wings. This is going to be a win-win situation. Why don't we do this? You guys sign a two-year government contract deal. We will give up our bid for it. And the minute your two-year contract ends, you let us take over the next two years. We go back in fourth, two years, two years, two years until basically the government is like, sorry, we're done with these contracts. So at this point, both families need these contracts. They're in dire financial situations. The

Wang family agreed, and they shook on the situation. Things never really went back to normal, but at least they're like cordial again. So for two years, the wings are working hard, making their money, making a lot of money, and they're like, it's been two years, but I like it. You know, it's hard for them to think about even going back to the times where they didn't have this guaranteed money or this influx of cash. They just like couldn't bear the idea of that. So behind the Zang family back, they renewed their government contract for another two years. They're basically screwing the Zangs over. This meant the Zang family would not be getting their turn. And the Zangs, when they find out they're rightfully

pissed, to make matters worse instead of having some shame, instead of tucking their tail between their legs and hanging their head and saying, you know what, I just really need the money, you know, Coming up with some lame excuse, the wings are like, yeah, so what are you gonna do about it? Yeah, we resigned, what are you gonna do about it? We never said we would give you the contract. Do you have it in writing? Do you have it proof?

I didn't think so. And this is like the village in China. So a lot of people just run off their word. This is not like New York City where everyone's like, oh, put it in writing, sign this end, you know what I mean? The Zangs are furious, but Mrs. Zang has always been kind of the mother outspoken one. She's the matriarch of the family.

She also has a really strong moral compass, so this is going against everything that she was taught as a kid. If you say you're gonna do something, you have to do it what's wrong with the wings. So she would storm over to the weighing family house and she would scream at them, how dare you do this, like how could you do this?

We had an agreement, how could you do this? We had an agreement. How could you do this to our family? Mr. Zang would run after his wife. He would hear her literally screaming because they're neighbors. And it would just echo through the entire neighborhood. He would try to calm his wife down. Come up it. Let's just go home.

They're not even worth it. But the wings were not helping. Every time she would go into their front door in a fit of anger, they would just agar on. They would scream out the window, what are you barking about? We haven't even made money yet. We'll pass it on when we make enough money.

Mrs. Zang would lose her mind. She would scream back at them like, what the hell did you just say? Villagers would start gathering around to see what the commotion was. And most of the time, Mr. Zang was successful at convincing his wife to come back home. Mr. Zang felt like there's got to be a better way

to handle this. We can't just go and screen through people's windows anymore. We're embarrassing our family. So he goes to the Village Committee in hopes of having his deal honored. He basically goes to the mayor and the officials of the village, and they're like, he's like, come on. This was the deal I made with the wings.

Can you force them to honor this deal? And the committee listens. He's emotional about how his family really needs this. They don't have food, they don't have money, they're barely scraping by. And they listen to him and they say, when we think you should drop it, honestly. Like I think you shouldn't push this issue any further.

Just move on with your life. This has never happened before. Okay, it sounds like it might happen in like a big mayor's office, a big city. This is a village. Everybody knows each other. The village committee is known for resolving these types of disputes. Turns out the reason why the Wang family was so confident and cocky that they could get

away with going back on their word was their eldest son had become the president of the government management office. Basically, he had a lot of sway with the village committee. And with that, he forced them to ignore the Zangs, and that's what they did. So the Zang family, they hate the wings even more now. Not only are they disgusting for going back on their deal, but they're greedy, manipulative liars, and on top of that, they're corrupt and using their power to get rich and screwing people over. Coco's mom went around yelling about how the

wings were evil, like literally every neighborhood stopped. She's going yelling about how they're evil. So fast forward to August 27th of 1996. Coco's mom took her two kids down to the river to wash their clothes. On their way back, they have to pass the Wang Family House. And Coco's mom didn't. I don't think she necessarily had the intention of starting a fight. And this is just one version of the story. We're gonna get into another version later. But the second son of the wings happened to be squatting by the Wayne Family Front door.

He was maybe around 20 years old at the time, keep in mind Coco's like 13. So Coco's mom is walking past the Wayne Family House and she's like, you know what? Why the hell not? So she spits at the second son. She doesn't really spit on him, just at him. The spit lands in front of him on the ground.

And he gets up and he screams at her, what a fucking crazy lady! At this point, Coco's mom had already walked past the weighing house. But when he's screaming at her, what a crazy freaking lady! She stops in her tracks, makes you turn and it's like, what did she say? She starts marching towards his face and she gets in his face and she spits on him. This time it lands on his jacket. The 20 year old responds by slapping her across the face. So Coco's mom she freaks out, and a full-blown fight ensues.

Coco's mom and the 20-year-old are in a physical altercation at this point. Coco's older sister runs home to grab their dad, Mr. Zang, and the weighing family, they hear what's going on. It's like right at their front doorstep, they rush out of the house. Now, Mr. Zang and the whole Wang family members are trying to break up this fight. Or at least that's what they're trying to do initially. Because as they're trying to pull Coco's mom away and as they're trying to pull the 20 year old away, they start having words with each other. They're like, well, if you're a wife, they don't do this. They're like, well, if you

didn't do this. And instead of breaking up the fight, we get all these like mini fights breaking out. It's just pure chaos. It's like a full blown brawl between the two families now. Coco's mom was getting the biggest of the beatings though, because compared to the 20 year old that she's quote fighting, I mean, she doesn't stand a chance. So when she sees the youngest, the youngest wing son coming straight at her, she's like, I'm about to get jumped by these two kids in their physical prime.

So in the heat of the moment, she's probably scared. She grabs the iron bar that her husband had brought. And she starts waving it. She's like, stand back, stand back. And she's frantically waving it, and it hits the youngest Wang Sun twice on the head. Coco remembers Mr. Wang screaming at Coco's mom, kill her, kill her! And in the chaos, it's not really clear, it's gonna be debated later. But one of the Wang family

members pulled out of wooden bat, starts waving it around. And you just hear these like crack noises. Coco's mom was hit on the head with the bat. She fell over to the ground and she had blood streaming down her nose and her mouth. She was motionless. It was just all of a sudden chaos, chaos, chaos, chaos, and then silence. The Zang family immediately tried to help her back up, but she's not responsive. The Wang family, I guess they sense that something is very, very wrong because they just stood there frozen in silence. They don't even try to help. Now, a little bit of context for what's about to happen. They live in a village, they don't have cars, they can't really call an ambulance because that would cost a lot of money. Like imagine how much it costs here, it's going to be a million times worse. The closest hospital is like a few towns

over and it's not even a big hospital. The Zangs are yelling at the Wang family to call a car for them to take her to the hospital. The Wang family, they're standing there and they're like, no, that's not our responsibility. So Mr. Zang ends up leaving his wife and kids, laying there in the weighing driveway, and he starts running towards the head of the village. So kind of like a mayor, and he can't even catch his breath. He's explaining the situation like, we were over there and they're fighting us and then they hit my wife on the head and now she's down and we need to go to the hospital. And the head of the village is like, oh, did it.

What? What? Okay, let me go over and see what I can do. He goes over and the weighing family are like, what? Why do we need to call her a car? Our son was hurt too. So technically, if you wanna do that,

the Zang family needs to call us a car to take our son to the hospital. Is that what they wanna do? But the mayor is like, yeah, well, the key difference is that your son is standing and coherent. Coco's mom is bleeding from her mouth and knows and is laying motionless on the ground. What you watch depends on what kind of major in. Sometimes you're craving comedies like friends or South Park and sometimes you're more into

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She was pronounced dead at 10pm that night. The hospital that they went to is a couple of towns over, but it's just another small village, it's not a city, so it's this tiny little hospital and once they pronounce her dead, they didn't even have a space to keep her body, so they released the body to the Zang family that night. It's not really standard for them to do autopsy even when someone's death was clearly a beating. So they release her body and the Zangs are broken. They don't really know what to do. Mrs. Zang was kind of the matriarch of the family. She was the glue that kept everyone together and now she's gone.

So under all of this emotional distress and grief, they bring Mrs. Zang's body to the front of the Wayne family house and they demand justice so Imagine Coco and his whole family Coco sitting there in front of the wing driveway holding his mom's dead body While his dad is crying and screaming like do something Villagers were gathering around the Zang family reported the case to the police and because of this and this part is so wild But the police hired a forensic expert to go to the Wayne house to check up on Mrs. Zang family reported the case to the police, and because of this, and this part is so wild, but the police hired a forensic expert to go to the Wayne House to check up on Mrs. Zang's corpse. And because they're in the village, they can't transport everybody back to the hospital.

The Village Committee can't afford it, the Zang family can't afford it, it's impossible. The forensic expert just performs an autopsy right then and there. They don't even force the other villagers to leave, so the whole village is just watching an autopsy in real time I don't know why they did that. Coco is just there watching the forensic shaved off all Mrs. Zang's hair Used a towel and hot water to clean her scalp cut open her scalp and Looked inside Nobody tried to give this woman any privacy. Not a single person was like everybody leave

Nobody tried to give this woman any privacy. Not a single person was like everybody leave. Nobody, not even the kids were told to go to another room. 13-year-old Coco literally watched his mom get autopsy. They just proceeded to saw her skull right open and close it back up after. During all of this, the villagers were crowding around, and the forensic expert stated publicly, the results confirmed that Mrs. Zang's death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head, most likely from a wooden bat. So that night, three members of the Wang family were promptly arrested. Mr. Wang, the father, the second son, and the youngest son were arrested.

They were all taken into police custody. But after their interrogations and after the police investigations, the police said that the youngest son was responsible for killing Mrs. Zeng. This is where it gets weird. Okay, so the Zeng family remember, yes, it was chaotic, but we distinctly remember that it was the second son that was waving the bat around towards our mom. And we remember this, it wasn't the youngest son, but the police are shutting down the Zeng family, like just let it go already. The youngest son already confessed to being the one that hit her on the head. What more do you want? The belief that the Zang family held was that the second son was the one responsible, but because he was 20,

he would be charged as an adult for murder. The youngest son was still a minor. The weighing family made it so that the youngest son would go down for it, and he would still have to go to jail, but the sentencing was so infuriatingly light and lenient. He wasn't even charged with murder, because he was a minor he was charged with intentional violence, basically assault, and the judge said because Mrs. Zhang started the fight by spitting on the family member, the youngest son's actions were not as heinous and premeditated. He was only sentenced to seven years in prison. The Zang family immediately tried to appeal the sentence. They demanded funeral fees, emotional damages, child support, death compensation from the Wings. All in all,

they asked for about $40,000. They took the Wings family to court and the court decided the Wings family should only have to pay. Nearly $1,500 US dollars. That barely covered the funeral. They lost their mother and all they got was $1,500. But I don't think that they just lost their mom that night. Kogo was 13. He witnessed all of this. Even the messy aftermath and how the justice system wasn't on their side, disregarded his mom's death and said, okay, her life was worth $1,500. I mean, he witnessed the autopsy for God's sake, like clearly, this kid's mental health is gonna be affected.

People said immediately they started seeing the effects. He became really withdrawn, incredibly introverted. He hated the idea of interacting with just anyone. Once he was done with middle school, he drops out and he just tries to find work. His dad wasn't able to support the family alone, so he's like, I got to, I got to man up. Coco's dad was really worried about him. He's like, Coco, you can't keep doing this. You can't just get these odd jobs here and there. This is no future for you. Please, why don't you enlist in the

army? They can teach you skills. People in the army are respected, and then afterwards, maybe it's easier for you to find a job. So Coco was in the army from respected, and then afterwards, maybe it's easier for you to find a job. So Coco was in the army from 18 to 20 years old, and he was a remarkably great soldier. Like all of his comrades and his commanders said just really good things about him. He was so good to the point where in the beginning, his commander sat him down and was like, what made you join the army? Coco was very transparent. He said, sir, I want to train myself so that I can get revenge for my mother.

The commander is like, what? So they sit down and he tells him everything and his leader was very sympathetic But he warned Coco, you know like these thoughts of revenge They never end well. This is so extreme. I know you're young, but I think you should try to change the way you think. So for the next two years, the commander kept in close touch with Coco, trying to slowly get him to change his thinking about wanting revenge and maybe even think about his own future. And what do you want after you leave the army? And for a moment, Coco's second guest is planned. He thought, you know what, maybe my leader is right. Maybe

the best revenge is success. He dreams about you know what, maybe my leader is right, maybe the best revenge is success. He dreams about going back to the village, working with his dad to renovate the house, build a second story for their old family home. Maybe Coco could get a job, work his way up, he would be successful. But because he dropped out of school, after middle school, nobody wanted to hire him anymore.

He was just jumping around taking odd jobs, and as the days went by, Coco's like, are you kidding? I'm already 30 years old He's looking around and everyone around him. They're getting married having children. They have careers and Coco has Nothing. He tried to find out how the weighing brothers were doing They had all moved out of the village. They were doing well The weighing family and themselves were making good money The parents were retiring not in luxury, but they had the luxury to retire,

which is a lot. The eldest son was a successful government worker. All three of the sons moved to the city, bought nice fancy cars, just living the dream. Even the youngest son, after he got out of prison, with a criminal record, his older brother helped him get a job. Coco wasn't even able to get a job. And he just kept asking himself, if my mom were still alive, would my life be different? Would I have dropped out of middle school? Would I spend so much time with all this hate and anger? Would I have been okay? Would I have found a girlfriend?

Would I have made friends? Would our family be different? Coco just tried anything. He, at one point, moved to Argentina. That didn't end well. He just came back feeling even more discouraged and upset. He bounced around from town to town, and this is so sad, but while he was gone, his dad was completely alone

in the village, living next to the wings. I mean, he could see out the window and see the very spot that his wife had died. Coco's older sister had moved away and gotten married. Coco was out feeling lost in his life, and Mr. Zang worked every single day in building a second floor to his house. He's but every penny, every waking moment, building this by his hands in China in order

to get married, especially in places like the village, men need to have a house. Otherwise as a man, you'll be hard pressed to find a wife. And the nicer the house, the more likely you'll find a bride. And Mr. Zhang just wanted his son to get married. So he poured his life into this house. He's like, you know what? My son has been there so much. He saw his mom die at 13.

I'm going to make the most beautiful house so that he can marry the love of his life and create his own family. We're going to make better memories in this house. So he's doing this for years and years and years and he doesn't even see Coco for years. And finally in 2017, December of 2017, he gets word from Coco that Coco's gonna be visiting this year for Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year is huge. Typically, every kid that makes it out of the village and goes to live in the city, they make it back, they make that long journey all the way back home for Chinese New Year. There's even movies that we watched of these journeys of like these kids that were from the village and now they're like,

city career people and it's like an absolute must. So it's 2017, almost 2018 and it's now been 22 years since his mother's death. Coco remembers stepping foot back in the village and seeing some kids playing with fireworks. And he won the Be Careful Kids, you might get burned. They're like, wait, are you Uncle Coco? Do you remember us?

I was like a little kid when you saw me, but I'm like nine now. And I'm nine, so my parents said it's okay to play with fireworks. So Coco smiled, he walked home, his dad greeted him at the door, and he told him good, good, Coco, you're back, good. And that night Coco unpacked and he handed him an envelope. And his dad is like, what is this? Take this money and use it for your retirement dad.

I made a lot of money. And when sister comes home, we can all talk about helping you renovate your house. And his dad looks like he doesn't want to take the money and he just says, okay, okay, it's okay. I don't blame you for not coming home for so many years. Just don't leave this year. Let's just all stay together as a family. Coco wanted to cry. When he heard his dad say family,

he wanted to cry because he knew that he would no longer have the luxury of being with this family. He would soon be in jail. When Coco's older sister came home, she held Coco's hands and she cried. They hadn't seen each other in years. And I think as an older sister, she just always felt bad for her little brother that had to watch his mom die. She was just so emotional. So February 15th of 2018, Chinese New Year's Day.

If you're confused about the years, he came home December 2017. Chinese New Year is like February of 2018. So you stayed a few months? Yeah, you'd waited 22 years for this day. That morning, Coco's dad left to go to their ancestors graveyard. It was in the mountains. It's a tradition to go visit your family members and ancestors where they're buried on Chinese New Year.

You have to go clean their graves site, give them offerings, typically you bring food, fruit, and you burn ghost money, which is like fake money that your ancestors can spend in the afterlife. Coco said that he would join him later, but he was busy doing his laundry. His dad did not think anything of it. He was an acting weird or strange, but Coco knew that he would not be joining his dad. Once his dad left, he was waiting, looking through the window, waiting for the three Wang brothers to come home for Chinese New Year.

This is the only time that they came home to the village, was for Chinese New Year. Coco saw the eldest drive up in his fancy car, then he saw the youngest son come home, the second son was nowhere to be found. Coco hears the two brothers, the oldest and the youngest talking about how they're going to go visit their family's graves, and he follows them from afar. He checks the little bag that he was wearing around his crossbody. The knife was still in there. It's good. He waits in the bushes near the bottom of the mountains, and when nobody else is around, he would attack. That's what he

told himself. Around 12 p.m., the two brothers were done, and they start heading down the mountain. Coco pounced on them. He covered the two brothers were done and they start heading down the mountain. Coco pounced on them. He covered his face with a mask and a cap. And before the youngest could even register what's going on, Coco slit his throat. Coco starts stabbing him in the chest and the stomach and he falls to the ground and the eldest brother is frozen in fear. He looks at Coco, registers who this guy is and he whispers, down Coco. And he starts booking it. He looks at Coco, registers who this guy is, and he whispers, down Coco. And he starts booking it. He starts running. Coco's chasing him tackles him to the ground, and he stabs him multiple times on the chest and the

abdomen. Both weighing brothers were now dead and left on the mountain. Coco runs covered in blood all the way to the weighing house, knocks down the front door and walks right up to Mr. Wang who was busy preparing this intense Chinese New Year dinner and he walks straight up to him and stabs him in the stomach. Mr. Wang drops to the ground and Coco slid his throat multiple times. Mrs. Wang was in the house. She's an elderly woman at this point with deteriorating eyesight and hearing. She didn't even know that her husband was dead.

She just heard this commotion and screaming, and she just kept screaming like, what's going on, what's going on? Coco walks straight up to her, and she's like, oh my god, what are you doing? What did happened to my husband? What did you do? And he told her, you're a woman.

I won't kill you today. And on his way out, he stood in the wing driveway. The same spot that his mom was murdered 22 years ago. And he lit the oldest weighing brothers beloved car on fire. He had just taken the lives of three of the weighing family members. And now he stood there watching it burn. According to villagers that saw him that day, they said, Coco kept muttering. I finally did it.

Finally got my revenge. It's pity I couldn't get the second son. The villagers discovered the wing, brothers, bodies fairly quickly, and there's a lot of foot traffic up and down the mountain because that's where a lot of the graveyards are. And through witness statements, the police knew that they were looking for it down Coco.

I think most people assumed that he was on the run, that he was long gone from the village at this point. Even Coco's dad thought that. He ran all the way back to the village back home because he heard Coco was in trouble. He thought Coco had been in some sort of fight. He had no idea that Coco had just committed triple homicide. For two days, nobody could find Coco. Then he would just walk into the police station and turn himself in.

Coco never had any intention of fleeing, escaping, or getting away with this. He said he waited two days to turn himself in. Coco never had any intention of fleeing, escaping, or getting away with this. He said he waited two days to turn himself in because he was Chinese New Year, and there's a lot of fireworks. And he just wanted to see fireworks one last time. Later he was asked what he did the last few days and he said, I wanted to turn myself in immediately, but I wanted to watch the fireworks

and just take a few walks. I walked to the lake, I threw my knife in there and I slept on the grass the entire night. I tried to sleep. It felt really peaceful, but I didn't really fall asleep. The next morning I walked along the river and told about maybe 1 p.m. I walked so long that my feet hurt. I wanted to go back and visit my dad one more time, but when I walked home I heard a lot of people talking, so I ran off. After that, I went to go visit my mom.

This is cold that night, so I slept by an ATM machine, and then I turned myself in. The police asked, what happened when you went to visit your mom? He said, I kneeled at her grave and I told her, mom, I did it. I got my revenge for you. And he said, in that moment, on his mom's grave, on his knees, he felt like all that pain and anger and hatred and resentment that had been slowly poisoning him and killing him from the inside. It was just gone. He turned himself in.

He said, you know, in the past 22 years, maybe if Mr. Wang or any member of the Wang family had come to apologize, or maybe I could have lived a life worth living, maybe. Maybe I could have gotten married and had kids, then maybe this tragedy wouldn't have happened. So he's being very open and honest with the police, but the police would later be a bit shady. We'll get to it. Coco's older sister almost fainted when she learned of what he did.

After his arrest, the surviving wing brother, the second son, came out to say that this killing is not a revenge killing. He said, he didn't kill my family because he wanted to avenge his mother's death. Besides, my little brother was the one that hit his mom on the head. So again, he's just like bringing it back to his little brother, being the culprit. He's like, oh, now that everyone knows about what happened 22 years ago,

just so you know, it wasn't me that hit his mom. Even if he says it was, Mr. Zang was interviewed and he said, it was the second kid, it was the second wing brother. The second son was holding a bat and from the back he hit her head. The interview asked, where did it happen? Mr. Zing pointed on the ground in the area where his wife was killed.

And you saw the second son was the one that hit your wife? Yes, the second son, the second son hit her. What happened after he hit her? He hit her and left. January 8th of 2019, Coco's trial began. It was a really quick trial in the sense that the evidence was there, the killer admitted to it, the judge sentenced him to death almost instantly, which side note about this trial. The prosecutor tried to reject Coco's admission that he did this for revenge.

The prosecutor's argued that Coco did this because he was unsatisfied with his life and society. They basically almost called him an in-sell at one point. They straight up asked him, you know, you're 35. You refuse to get a wife? Why? Does nobody want to date you? And he said, after my mother died, I often have flashbacks in my head.

And I can't get rid of them. At the end of the day, you know, I'm just being realistic. With my current mental state, there's no way I could make another person happy. Besides, I was fine on my own. They tried to argue that he's not a robin, a dud, that he's not fighting injustice and getting revenge. He's just mad that the Wayne brothers

are doing better than him, that they have fancy cars and fancy careers, and that they're happier than him. To back their theory up, they brought up the fact that Coco and his family accused the second son of being the killer. They claimed the little brother went to jail to cover for him and get less time since he's a minor. But the mom and the second son were not killed.

So why wouldn't Coco kill the one that he believed to be the one that killed his mom? So maybe it wasn't a revenge killing? Coco was really upset about this. He told the judge angrily and there's video of this, that he was being vulnerable with the police. He never tried to hide anything. He told them everything. He told them the real reason it was revenge, but they wouldn't listen.

They took what he said about his life, turned it around and twisted it to spin their own little story. He said, they used this to use it against me. They said I was mentally crazy for avenging my mother's death. They said it was because I was unhappy with society. That's why I did it. They said I was unsatisfied with my life, and that's what led me to kill these people. There are so many people out there that are unhappy with the world and with their lives. But do these people go out and kill people? Everyone has a reason to kill. So that I'm mentally insane.

It was for revenge. Some people argue that maybe the best revenge is to make the killer feel what you felt. Losing your loved one, having them viciously murdered, and having to live with the guilt that it was partly your fault. That, to most people, would probably be worse than death. Later, reporters asked Coco if the Wang family ever came to apologize, and he said, In the 22 years, Wang never communicated with us or found anyone to talk with us. They never said a single word of apology nor was there any compensation.

Maybe at first they didn't have the money to do it, but they live a good life now. They bought a house in the city. The eldest is the president of None Who Districts Management Committee. The second son has a secure job. The third has a stable income in Sean. And I feel like they're avoiding us on purpose. It's because of this that made me grow to resent them

even more. On top of that, in the 22 years, the third son almost never came back. And even if he did, he only came back during New Year's. Never to apologize, ever. He's the one that said he did it. Do you regret what you did? There's no regretting it now.

Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No. Who's going to catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them.

I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers, and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100%. I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set,

an Autosy Originals documentary podcast series available now in the Aut in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. Coco's family were outraged during the entire trial because it felt like deja vu from when their mother was murdered. The Wang family had people on their side. Coco's older sister said this about the trial. You know, even in the beginning when our mother was killed, many people were coming out and giving fake evidence like fake witness statements.

Do you wanna know why? Because the Wang's son is a government official. In the village, whoever's son works for the government, those are the people that get to say, this is the reality we live in. If my father's son works for the government, those are the people that get to say, this is the reality we live in. If my father's son was the government official, then everyone would be talking for us in support of us. And that's story that my mom spat on the second child of the weighing family.

That's not even true. I remember it. We were walking home from doing our laundry in the river, and the second son started yelling at my mom, unprovoked. He was screaming nasty words at my mom, and of course, what do you expect my mom to do? She started yelling back. Coco's sister believes that if the second sun

did not instigate this fight, they would have walked past the Wayne House. She said, we began yelling back and forth, and the second sun got really agitated. He grabbed my mother by the head and neck and started shaking her. And that's how the fight broke out. She also said, you know, the wings say they found a wooden bat and they picked it up to protect themselves.

But that's not true. Who just has baseball bats laying around in the driveway. They went inside and they grabbed it. Meaning, the wings were a lot more malicious than they claimed. They literally brought out the murder weapon. The judge said he didn't really care. Coco was getting the death penalty because of the fact that the triple homicides were pre-meditated and incredibly brutal. Coco's attorney immediately filed for a retrial stating that Coco had dad was trying to borrow $15,000 US dollars to try and get Coco examined by these experts

in mental health. For some reason, he wasn't really given a mental health screening. Like the family would have to pay out of pocket for it and to the tune of like $15,000. That encompass like the legal help, the medical examines. I mean, the system really does keep feeling

Coco in this one. So, Mr. Zang visits his son in jail and he's trying to encourage him. He promises his son, I'm gonna get you out of here. I heard that with $15,000, we can get you tested and we're gonna fight for you to live. You can get a life sentence or maybe, maybe one day you could even get out.

Coco was mad. He looked at his dad and said, you're being dumb. So, think about it from Coco's perspective. He's not just being this kid that's like, you're dumb dad. He had given his dad his entire life savings because he knew his fate. He accepted it. He knew this was the consequence for what he wanted to do. The last thing he wanted was his dad to spend money or borrow money or put himself in danger for money for him. He told him, don't be stupid, you're a stupid, don't do this. his dad to spend money or borrow money or put himself in danger for money for him. He told him, don't be stupid, you're stupid, don't do this.

And he said, if you're going to keep talking like this, I never want to see you again. And I know $15,000 sounds like a lot. And it is, but just to show you how impossible it was for this family, Coco's dad was interviewed and he said that all of his life's work and basically his net worth was lined up on this wall right now. And you just see these bags of grain. He said, I can sell every single bag of grain on this wall. I'll maybe make $300.

This is my life's work. This is my food. This is all I have. He said, maybe I could go and get some oil from these grains. Press them, get some rapeseed oil, that would get me an extra maybe 200. $500 is a drop in the bucket when you're talking about 15 grand. He asked the interviewer, I'm 70. Even if I work the rest of my life, do you think I can make $15,000? How can I make $15,000?

The second trial took place April 11th of 2019. His lawyer tried to argue that he was mentally unstable from his mother's death, and that the revenge was actually human instinct. So, this is actually a very interesting defense, but he argued about the literary classics. It's very interesting. I don't think I've ever heard this. The defense attorney starts talking about books, like the Count of Monte Cristo, like Hamlet.

And it's the Count of Monte Cristo is the story of a man who was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. There were these jealous colleagues and corrupt prosecutors that made sure that he was supposed to rot in prison. And while he was locked up, he starts plotting his revenge. And it's just this really complicated journey. It's a complicated human journey of seeking revenge. It's the process of you see this man lose his kindness

and lose his positive outlook and his trust and humanity. And he's just so hurt. And you almost see him transform into a villain of sorts. And then he slowly starts realizing, at first, at first he's like, no, I'm doing the right thing. This is human nature, justice and revenge. They're the same thing. He almost felt like he was doing God's work because every bad crime needs to have a consequence. And then slowly you see him realize that he's the villain, and that throughout his whole seeking of revenge, he hurts a lot of innocent people.

And so the lawyer brings this up, and he says, you know, think about these books, these literary classics that everyone around the world has read, the Count of Monte Cristo, Hamlet, Shakespeare, they're all centered around revenge, And that's because the human instinct is to want revenge. And I'm not saying that my client was right, but that's what makes humans human, and I think that we need to take this into consideration when we sentence him. I think this is a very fascinating defense. I don't think it's one that I've really ever seen. So it's just interesting.

What do you think of it? Do you think the lawyer is just doing what he can with what he's working with? Or do you feel like it makes sense? So the lawyer told the judge that these things should be taken into consideration and please give him a chance. At the end of the retrial, Cocoa was still sentenced to death. The second trial was live-streamed. It had two and a half million viewers. And when he was sentenced to death again, the entire country went nuts.

They were upset at the government for such a harsh punishment. They argued there were people out there that killed for fun for no reason at all and they got less time. Netizens went wild for this case. They commented on court livestreams, on posts, on blog posts, on threads. They said, apologize. Why is the judge asking him to apologize? He was forced to do this.

This man is a hero. Another person wrote, seeing his own mom get killed. I don't think revenge is ever too late. I support him. Watching your mom get killed at a young age, that trauma is something you don't just wipe away. Someone said, in my eyes he's innocent.

Another person called him a hero and someone said, even though the consequences are huge, in a world that's unfair, you can only use unfair means to get justice. Someone said, he was in the army. Nobody had any bad things to say about him. For our country, he raised his guns, guns and for his mother he raised his knife. His youth was given to the country and his life was given to his mom. From what I could find, majority of people were in support of Coco. I mean of course in varying degrees, you know most people were like okay this is very sad. I don't think he should be executed.

No one is saying let him free. Most people are saying he should serve time, but these things should be taken into consideration. Like, do we really need to execute him? But there was a small group of people that believed technically the punishment fit the crime. He took a life and now he must give his. Now what's interesting is that started a whole new conversation of you say that regular humans cannot get justice and take a life for a life. But why is the government allowed to do it? So all these people that were in support of the government's execution, the death sentence, they were saying,

Coco took a life, he must now give his life. And the netizens that support Coco were saying, that's what he thought too. They took his mom's life, so he took a life. So why do you agree with the last half, but not the first half? How can you say the government is doing the right thing and not say that he did the right thing? It's hard because if you really try, you can see so many sides to this and it's just so messy. I personally feel sympathy for him and I imagine if I were ever in that position that he was in, I can't

say that I would be a bigger person. I can't say that I would be a bigger person. I can't say that I'd be like, oh no, the justice system failed me so I should just sit here. But I do think that we can't really live in a society where people just go out and get their own revenge, right? Because I would just become a whole new set of problems, but I just don't agree with him being sentenced to death. It's just very complicated. Despite the anger

from the public, the courts stood their judgement and they executed him. And in China, they move very quick. He was sentenced to death in July 17, 2019. He was executed. So a little after a year, after committing his crime, he had two trials and then executed. His last words were Dad it's okay So yeah, he was comforting his dad to the end After his execution the weighing family surviving son the second son said Even though Coco is dead. I don't feel happy at all. There's no winner here. His death isn't gonna bring back my three family members Meanwhile Coco's dad so Coco was cremated after his execution and his dad refused to take back his ashes. He said, I don't want his ashes, leave it at the government's

place. This case is unjustly accused unfair, and I'm not convinced that this is the right thing to do, so I'm not going to get his ashes. A lot of people speculate that his dad was also not ready to face the truth, that his son was gone now. The government kept calling him to ask him to take back the son's ashes and he kept refusing, so they eventually threatened him.

They said, I'm not throwing his ashes away. Koko's dad said, third away then. Do what you want to do. Throw my son into the river and let him travel around the world. In the end, Koko's friends went and got his ashes and gave them to his father. They went to the mountains and buried him. No ritual, no ceremony, no funeral. Coco's dad said, there was no funeral so,

this way it's as if my son never died. Coco's dad visits him often and he says, I feel really sad when I come up here. My wife and son are here, even just talking about it, I feel very sad. And to make matters worse, his house is like a prison. When he looks out the window, he sees the very spot that his wife was killed.

When he looks up, he sees the second floor of his house that he spent the later part of his life building. Every waking hour, he was building this house so that Coco could find a woman one day and marry her. He worked so hard to make the interior beautiful so that he could get married one day. He paid attention to every little detail because this is where his grandkids would one day grow up. This is where Coco and his wife would start a family and maybe start new memories, happy memories.

And now it just sits empty. He says he doesn't even go upstairs because he doesn't want to get upstairs dirty with his dirty clothes. Coco's sister was equally heartbroken, she said. All three of the wangs, Mr. Wang, the second son, the youngest son, they should all have been punished. 22 years ago, they should have all been punished. Why did just the youngest brother get punished? It wasn't like he was the only one that was fighting that night. And my mom died that night. And we got what? $1,500? That's it. We never got anything else, not even an apology. I know there's nothing good about getting revenge. And I know that maybe if my brother hadn't

chosen this route, he might be alive with a wife and kids, and he might have had this big happy family. But he doesn't. And maybe he would have, if the government had responded accordingly, when his mom was murdered. The family said that they do feel thankful though. As the court live streams and Coco's story spread like wildfire in China, Coco was kept in the news for a while, and people who were passing by the village, or they would go out of their way to stop by the village, complete strangers would visit Coco at his grave. Complete strangers would visit Coco's dad and bring him food and help him because he's

an elderly man. Cocoa's dad said that's the only thing that keeps him going. He's just so grateful. But ultimately, he does regret that his son did this and he does believe his son was wrong for getting revenge. In total, five lives were lost from this case. The three weighing family members, Mrs. Zang, and now Coco Zang. What are your thoughts?

Do you think that he deserved the death penalty? Do you think that he should have gotten life in prison instead? Do you think that he shouldn't have taken three lives in exchange for one? What are your thoughts? Or do you think he's a hero? Do you think he would have done the same? Please let me know.

And please stay safe, and I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye. Or do you think he's a hero? Do you think you would have done the same? Please let me know and please stay safe and I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye