THE REAPER THE MAKING OF A SERIAL KILLER
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THE REAPER
A MASTER AT SELF-DECEPTION
In what would become the most significant showdown between the NCI team and The Reaper, Kim Hyun Joon and Team Leader Kang would have to battle a new generation of deadly copycat killers guided by the hand of The Reaper through the hidden web. The conflict would culminate in NCI’s final showdown with The Reaper in Episode 20.
Kim Yong Chul was quite the local dignitary; his public outing to a restaurant not only brought out the two top NCI profilers but also the snipers who were all out to capture him.
If there was a slew of warrants for his arrest, it would have been utterly useless.
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The café that was the site of the meeting of the two profilers, Kim Hyun Joon and Team Leader Kang with Kim Yong Chul AKA The Reaper seemed isolated, with few customers.
The Reaper, ensconced comfortably in his chair, was nonchalantly waiting for them. He seemed like a very modern and fashionable middle-aged guy with his black leather jacket and permed hairdo.
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His insolence was obvious. ‘Why do you come so late?’ He claimed to have drunk 2 cups of coffee.
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When asked about NCI Director Baek San whom he had kidnapped, Kim Yong Chul ignored the issue and invited them to take a seat. He wanted an audience for his intended outpouring of grudges and grievances.
The viewers are probably gripped by tension. What makes a serial killer?
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Kim Hyun Joon was furious. ‘Don’t think about doing anything stupid!’
‘Kang Ki Hyeon, your pet is rather noisy,’ The Reaper sneered. Kim Hyun Joon bore the brunt of his insults and taunts.
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‘You won’t be able to step out of this room,’ Kim Hyun Joon threatened him.
‘Do you want to make a bet?’ the evil man taunted as he peered over his sunglasses at the younger profiler.
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Then, he arrogantly challenged, ‘Let’s see if I can walk out of this room in 10 minutes!’
Kim Hyun Joon stepped forward to confront him but was reined in by Kang Ki Hyeon. Having understood The Reaper’s power play and attention-seeking behaviour, Team Leader Kang sat down.
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After slurping his coffee, The Reaper then turned to the senior profiler and asked, ‘Do you know Rimbaud, the poet? He was a crazy man who died because he liked coffee so much.’
The Reaper might want to spill the beans on the cause of Rimbaud’s death but what he had doled out was utterly atrocious. No doubt Arthur Rimbaud was a coffee trader at one point in his life but he did not die of coffee indulgence, but of cancer.
Wasn’t it Honore de Balzac the one who had died from drinking one cup too many? Balzac was rumoured to have drunk 50 cups of coffee or more a day.
How could the profilers swallow Kim Yong Chul's outlandish tale?
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THE REAPER THE MAKING OF A SERIAL KILLER
‘Kang Ki Hyeon, do you think I’m crazy?’ The Reaper asked the senior profiler. One has to understand the criminal psyche of The Reaper. He was vain and he wanted an audience.
‘Don’t try to fool around with me!’ Kang Ki Hyeon was impatient with the maniac.
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‘I’ll be nice if you could admit that in the end, you’re just like me.’
Team Leader Kang objected strongly to it and he did not mince his words.
‘You’re just a killing machine!’
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‘Why do you think I’m like this?’ The Reaper asked, trying unashamedly to gain some sympathy. The profilers were about to be told by the criminal in person what the criminal psyche was like.
‘Don’t even dream of making a deal with me,’ Team Leader Kang stated firmly, knowing that the manipulative self-serving Reaper was demanding his attention and support.
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‘Why am I like this?’ Kim Yong Chul asked again; he seemed to have a dramatic flair for acting. It transpired that he just wanted them to listen to his story and his polished excuses. He wanted a sensitive audience who would empathize with him over the events that transformed him into an evil criminal.
In fact, his ridiculous Arthur Rimbaud anecdote reflected his criminal psyche. It was ironic that the Reaper’s tale of abuse which was used to mitigate his guilt, in fact, showed that he was a master at self-deception. He was desperate for Kang Ki Hyeon’s sympathy and approval.
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But Kang Ki Hyeon already had a rare insight into the mind of the crazy but shrewd killer. He knew the man’s inexhaustible capacity for evil and brutality. He was not going to be drawn into a debate about The Reaper’s state of mind. However, Kang Ki Hyeon wanted him to know that he already probed into his background in detail.
To convince him of his indepth knowledge, Team Leader Kang narrated a tale.
‘Once upon a time, there was a boy whose father used to beat him daily. His mother had to lie low like a corpse. To him, living was no better than being dead. Nobody paid him any attention. He nearly lost his life in a fire that he started and he barely escaped.’
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At that point, The Reaper continued with his own version of the narrative.
‘That boy was imprisoned in a mental hospital when he was just 14 years old. He had a hard time after he killed his parents. They injected him with unknown substances. He was abused continuously and experienced auditory hallucinations. No one knew that he was racked by the guilt of having killed his parents. One day, he set the hospital on fire and escaped.’
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At the end of his tale, The Reaper took off his glasses and snarled, ‘And then, he became a real devil! Once people make mistakes, it’s hard to escape from the vicious cycle. Humans act weak towards the strong, and strong towards the weak.’
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Casting a cold eye at the profiler, he posed a question, ‘Kang Ki Hyeon, do you know what people call this kind of society?’
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‘Kim Yong Chul, I understand your pain. But you do not know what pain is like because you can’t feel anything. You even killed people whom society doesn’t care about, and those who are without rights and forgotten by the population at large,’ Team Leader Kang admonished him.
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Both NCI profilers did not have to figure out what Kim Yong Chul really was. They were able to see through him. He was a master of manipulation and control. The Reaper might have been a product of physical and emotional abuse but he had a warped sense of being a helpless, pathetic victim. His suffering did not absolve him of all the evil crimes that he had committed. His atrocious acts were premeditated. He tried to rationalize his acts of cruelty and admitted to no wrong on his part. He had no conscience, no remorse, no guilt, and was blind to the suffering of his victims.
It was unquestionable that his current position was due, in large measure, to his attempt to blame society for his evil behaviour. He omitted personal responsibility for the heinous crimes that he had committed. A sin of omission.
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There was no reason for Kang Ki Hyeon to believe Kim Yong Chul was anything other than a vicious monster.
Failing to gain the sympathy of the senior profiler, Kim Yong Chul was not in the least interested in what he had to say.
He claimed, ‘NCI Director Baek San understood me but he’s the type who pushes his luck.’
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The snipers were positioned to shoot The Reaper but the criminal had an ace up his sleeve.
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The murderous criminal lifted up his bag and shoved it onto the table. The Reaper was calling the shots. ‘I’ll get to walk out of here on my own accord. But, don’t you want to know what’s inside the bag that belongs to a psychopath?
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Kim Hyun Joon’s blood must have been pulsing as he opened the bag. Did he do a double-take? Probably, there was nothing in there.
But, it was an implied threat or warning that the head of the NCI Chief Director might be there if they did not let him go free.
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THE NCI LECTURE
THE SAMJOKGU VERSUS THE KUMIHO
There was a flashback of a conversation between the NCI Director and Kang Ki Hyeon before the director’s disappearance. Director Baek San was worried about the circulation of rumours concerning Ha Sun Woo’s shooting of her would-be rapist. Although her action was considered as self-defence, she was suspended from her job for three months.
The reputation of the NCI had taken a dive because of the incident, so in order to reclaim their prestige, an NCI lecture had been organised to remove negative public sentiments.
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At the lecture, Lee Han compared the job of the profiler to Samjokgu, an imaginary animal from one of Jeju island’s folktales.
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He charmingly explained that a samjokgu is an imaginary three-legged animal which is able to recognise and catch the Kumiho, a legendary fox with nine tails. The Samjokgu is helpful to humans but since it had only three legs, it’s an incomplete being in the real world.
Team Leader Kang added that its incompleteness is the perfect weapon that allows it to hunt the legendary fox. It stays near humans but it cannot be one of them. But, when danger is imminent, it does its job.
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What made the collaborative story-telling even more interesting was the charisma of the handsome Kim Hyun Joon. ‘The good and the bad represented by Samjokgu and the legendary fox respectively is like the relationship of a profiler and a psychopath. If crimes ceased,’ he smiled impishly, ‘there would not be any need for profilers like the NCI team.’ His sense of humour shone through.
The collaborative storytelling was a creative idea; the trio did a great job, taking turns to liven up the traditional folktale. They obviously had fun making the session less dry and more fascinating for their audience. Who needs boring, dry, stuffy and rambling lectures?
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When it was time for the question and answer session, a female college student, Ko Joon Hee posed the first question. ‘By saying one can catch criminals by thinking like them, are you saying that criminals and profilers are like two different sides of the same coin?’
Team Leader Kang explained that though criminals and profilers are like two different sides of the same coin, the profilers don’t cross the line between the good and the evil, and they protect the law and justice. But, the issue has posed a constant dilemma for the profilers.
Fortunately for Team Leader Kang, nobody raised the issue of the moral dilemma of the profilers or he would have had a hard time giving a lecture on the difference between law and justice in relation to the work of the profilers. And, of course, the issue of compromising one’s values was not discussed. Sometimes, it is quite tough to figure out what relevant questions should be asked in such lectures.
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A male student, who was later revealed to be Kang Chi Hwan, posed several questions. Since the NCI profilers can read the thoughts of The Reaper, they should know what’s on his mind. 'Why haven’t they arrested him?' 'After escaping from prison, why did The Reaper stop killing?' Although the astute NCI Team Leader refused to answer the questions which touched on sensitive NCI information, he assured the audience that the NCI team would sooner or later arrest The Reaper. He was smart to avoid fielding tricky questions that might jeopardise national security.
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After the lecture, Ko Joon Hee asked Team Leader Kang to autograph his book, Root of Evil, and even requested for his business card. Kim Hyun Joon must have been startled by her extremely forward personality.
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COPYCAT MURDERS
It was learnt later that The Reaper was behind several copycat murders that had occurred and his MO or modus operandi had evolved and become more sophisticated. Past murders were being rehashed.
The Reaper did not commit the murders himself. He was the coach - guiding hand to his apprentices, the young dark killers. He murdered through the copycat criminals. A young generation of serial killers had been born with his guidance. The Reaper was more dangerous than before. He was making clones of himself. What was his motive then? Probably, revenge.
THE FIRST COPYCAT MURDER
The corpse of the first victim, Ko Joon Hee, a criminal psychology major, was discovered by Choi Hyun Jin, a detective who worked in the Female and Youth Division of the Crime Department.
At first, it did not make sense. Was she a victim of opportunity? What had precipitated the murder?
Based on the CCTV records that he had studied, Kim Hyun Joon explained to Team Leader Kang that the place where she was kidnapped was an alley near her home. It was different from the dump site; her body was found in a scenic place with beautiful pink feather reed grass.
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The NCI team pieced together parts of the puzzle. Team Leader Kang remembered her as a participant of their NCI lecture in the not-so-distant past.
What bothered Kim Hyun Joon was that the dead girl’s parents had received a video of her being tortured. The murder was planned. The evidence ruled out the possibility that she was a victim of opportunity. It reminded him of the abduction-cum-murders committed by Song Yoo Kyung. The criminals were making a statement by sending a message that they were copycat murderers.
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After a meeting with Ko Joon Hee’s mother, the NCI profilers realised the connection. The dumpsite, the location of their former house, was Ko Joon Hee's birthplace. The house had since been demolished but mother and daughter used to visit the field as it held a symbolic meaning for them.
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In Ko Joon Hee's bedroom, they found two photographs of the deceased girl with her boyfriend.
In such a case, what should the profilers or detectives look out for? Should they start questioning her boyfriend or perhaps, her close friends or classmates?
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When analysing the case, the NCI team thought that it was possible that the murderer had an accomplice.
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‘Copycat criminals consider themselves the equals of the original killer. Not only do they imitate their crimes, they also think that they are at the same level as that killer,’ Lee Han explained.
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Kim Hyun Joon believed that it was like a fandom, ‘Most copycat criminals put themselves at the same level as the murderers and admire them. They praise the murderers and admire their crimes.’
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Lee Han felt that if it was a planned copycat murder; they copied it as if they were reliving the original. They would have understood the crimes inside out.
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The deeper their analysis, the more the NCI team members realised that the murderers had copied the patterns of Song Yoo Kyung's case. It was as if they had seen it in person and therefore were able to replicate it.
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Kim Hyun Joon was puzzled about the dumpsite. It was a unique place, a meaningful one which only the mother and daughter knew. It was not something that everyone would be aware of.
It was the unrevealed signature of Song Yoo Kyung’s murders. Team Leader Kang’s question was, ‘How did the murderers know about that special place?’
It was impossible to know unless the killer or killers were close to her and knew about the special mother-daughter relationship.
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If the intention of the copycats was to show that they were equal to the original perpetrator, The Reaper, what was their motive, if any, for the murder?
The investigation did not make much progress.
SON SUK JU REPORTER-TURNED-AUTHOR
Son Suk Ju, an author, was supposed to appear at a Meet-and-Greet publishing event for booksellers and the reading public. The profilers, Yoo Min Young and Lee Han, attended the event.
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Yoo Min Young was surprised that the author was making an appearance as he was thought to be in hiding since The Reaper’s escape from prison. Kim Yong Chul now lived under an assumed name of one of his victims and only Son Suk Ju knew his real identity.
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Son Suk Ju was the only person who had kept in contact with Kim Yong Chul, The Reaper and could not have written a book about the criminal without interviewing him.
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The profilers were disappointed when Son Suk Ju’s appearance was cancelled.
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It was learnt later that the author was dead. The question that was left in the minds of the viewers was ‘Who-Dun-It?’
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