Woo Bum-kon
Background information
Birth name	Woo Bum-kon
Born	February 24, 1955 Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea
Died	April 27, 1982 (aged 27)
Cause of Death	Suicide
Penalty	died before being given penalty
Killings
Date	April 26/27, 1982
Location(s)	Uiryeong, South Korea
Killed	57
Injured	35
Weapon(s)	Two M2 carbines hand grenades

Woo Bum-kon
Hangul	우범곤
Hanja	禹範坤
Revised Romanization	U Beom-gon
McCune–Reischauer	U Pǒmgon

This is a Korean name; the family name is Woo.

Woo Bum-kon (or Wou Bom-kon) (February 24, 1955 – April 27, 1982) was a Korean police officer who carried out the largest known incident of spree killing in modern history. After the rampage concluded, 58 people (including himself) were dead and 35 were wounded in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.^[1]

Contents 1 Uiryeong massacre 2 Resignation of the Interior Minister 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Uiryeong massacre

Woo had an argument with his live-in girlfriend, Chun Mal-soon, on the afternoon of April 26, 1982. Enraged, he left the house and went to the police armory while other officers were at a meeting, where he began drinking heavily. After becoming intoxicated, he gathered an arsenal including a rifle and some grenades. He left the armory around dinner time armed and drunk. Initially, he killed three operators at the local telephone exchange to prevent others from calling emergency services. He then walked from house to house and used his position as a police officer to make people feel safe and gain entry into their homes. He shot most of his victims, but in one case he killed an entire family with a grenade. He continued this pattern for a full eight hours.

After Woo had shot a number of people in one village, he would resume the spree killing in a nearby village. In the early hours of April 27, after rampaging through five villages in Uiryeong county, Woo took his final two grenades and strapped them to his body. He then held three people captive and then set the grenades' fuses, killing both himself and his final victims. Altogether, with a toll of 58 dead and 35 injured, the rampage of Woo Bum-Kon is the highest record killing spree in modern times. Chun Mal-soon later said that her boyfriend "suffered from an inferiority complex and had been bothered by villagers' comments on their living together unmarried." Later on, the provincial chief of police was suspended, and four other officers were arrested for negligence of duty.

[edit] Resignation of the Interior Minister

The Interior Minister of South Korea Suh Chung-hwa resigned his post following the killings as a form of atonement for Woo's rampage.^[1] Roh Tae-woo was appointed Interior Minister, and later became President of South Korea.

[edit] See also

• Mass murder
• Seung-Hui Cho

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Woo Bum-Kon at FindAGrave.com
• Korean policeman goes berserk, kills 58 people, The Deseret News (April 27, 1982) (p.1)
• Korean cop's rampage leaves 58 dead, Ocala Star-Banner (April 27, 1982)
• Korean policeman's rampage kills 58, Boca Raton News (April 27, 1982)
• Berserk Korean policeman kills 62, Gainesville Sun (April 27, 1982)
• Drunken South Korean policeman kills 62, The Ledger (April 27, 1982)
• Berserk cop kills 53, Ellensburg Daily Record (April 27, 1982)
• Korean cop massacres 58, Eugene Register-Guard (April 27, 1982)
• Funerals begin for 57 victims of massacre by Korean cop, Ocala Star-Banner (April 28, 1982)
• Korean massacre area flooded with donations, Eugene Register-Guard (April 28, 1982)
• Korean's shooting rampage triggered by swat of a fly, St. Petersburg Times (April 28, 1982)
• Death toll in rampage put at 62, The Age (April 28, 1982)
• Drunken Korean kills 58, The Free-Lance Star (April 27, 1982)