Vietnam’s First Female Serial Killer

M.O, or in full, modus operandi, is a Latin term terminally defined as: “A method of operation or pattern of criminal behaviour so distinctive that separate crimes or wrongful conduct are recognised as the work of the same person.” Yet as we analyse the M.Os of the most infamous serial killers and their Vietnamese counterparts, the word distinctive doesn't strictly come to mind. Those who wish to end the life of another fellow human being have existed since the dawn of humanity, generation to generation, nation to nation. Vietnam of course, not excluded. We can never truly comprehend a killer’s reason for doing such unspeakable acts, or even truly know why. However, to understand the mind of a murderer, we must analyze the murder itself.

Le Thanh Van, was a Vietnamese con artist and serial killer, born on the 5th of December 1956, in the heart of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). Van came from a poor family, her father working hazardous jobs to support his 8 children. Even as a child, she was never melodramatic, labelled by those around her as abnormal. Arguments with her siblings were frequent; due to her violent tendencies. Van had cruel ways of taking out her anger; if she didn’t get what she wanted. In an anecdote from one of her relatives, Van, in a fit of frustration, had brutally beaten her family’s pets after an argument with her siblings and parents. In short, she had shown all the clear symptoms and red flags for a psychopath; even as a pre-adolescent.

Growing up, Van had a rough education, dropping out of 12th grade months before graduating, before being arrested for an attempted illegal border crossing and sent to a re-education camp. During the years of 1979 to 2000, she was in and out of prison, never actually being incarcarated for murder; but several times for fraud, impersonation and theft. Unlike your classical serial killers, who picked their victims at random or on happenstance, Van, who despised the people around her, picked people she knew well as her targets.

She committed her first murder near the end of 1979. Her victim was the mother of her boss, where she and her husband had a job as a dentist. Her motive was that of an average murderer. During tough financial times, there were rumours that Ly, her boss's mother, was suggesting firing her husband. Whilst her boss was away, she laced a glass of lemonade with a deadly dose of a toxic substance, Cyanide and gave it to Ly. After the elderly woman dropped dead within the hour and was rushed to the hospital, Van stole around 70 million in today’s money of cash and personal possessions.

After her first taste of murder, she then found a new target: Quach Cam Minh, a security guard for a company that owned the lease to her dental facility. She followed her previous method, the same dose of Cyanide however this time with rice wine. The man collapsed within the night. This time, not wasting a second, she scavenged the unconscious body for cash and belongings before fleeing the scene before Quach was rushed to the hospital before dying. Following her initial success, she gained an appetite for murder, and in addition to that, was now reliant on the money it provided her.

She went on to earn the nickname “The Cyanide Witch”, killing her mother and brother-in-law, and at least 7 others during her two-decade-long spree from 1980 to 1998. She was arrested in 1999 for possession of cyanide, however, was released on bail when the toxicology report for the victims did not match with the cyanide in her possession. She went on to remarry during her brief period of freedom, and claimed the lives of at least 2 more victims, officially bringing her kill count to 13, the highest in Vietnam’s history. She and her accomplice were arrested in the early months of 2001, with her being sentenced to capital punishment. After several appeals, she was executed on the 26th of October 2005; by firing squad.