Five Hitmen Land Each Other In Jail After Trying To Pass On Assassination Job To One Another

A lousy day here and there at one’s job might not affect most people that seriously, but what happens when you’re an assassin?

In China, five reluctant hitmen landed themselves in jail while, get this, trying to subcontract a killing! The incident unfolded when a businessman named Tan Youhui hired a hitman to murder a competitor, Mr. Wei, in exchange for a price of CNY 2 million Yuan (USD 411,883 Dollars).

The hitman, however, was reluctant to finish the job himself. So, he contracted another hitman to do it for him, but at a price of about half his original commission. This second assassin then hired a third one, who then hired a fourth one. The contract was finally passed on to a fifth hitman, who was ordered to do the job at a reduced price of just CNY 100,00 Yuan (USD 20,600 Dollars).

Though the fifth one took the job, the low pay reportedly irked him so much that he decided to get in touch with his target, Mr. Wei, to ask him to fake his own death. But this move eventually led to the entire plot unraveling. Mr. Wei, upon being approached by the fifth killer, agreed to get photographed while gagged and bound to convince his rival of his death. After taking the photos back to the fourth hitman, the fifth one personally went to report the case to the police.

Eventually, all five hitmen and Mr. Tan faced legal consequences. According to the Nanning Intermediate People’s Court, Tan hatched the plot after Mr. Wei filed two civil lawsuits against him in 2013 regarding a shared property development. Scared that the cases might negatively affect his investment in the project, Tan decided to eliminate Mr. Wei altogether.

The initial hearing in 2016 acquitted all six of the men, citing lack of evidence. But the decision was appealed successfully, and the case reopened, with proceedings dragging over for the next three years. In 2019, the court convicted all of them on charges of attempted murder, stating that their actions constituted intentional homicide. Consequently, each of the hitmen and the mastermind were sentenced to jail terms of varying lengths.

When the case went public, Chinese netizens were left bewildered. Some found it too crazy to be true, while others called for this case to be turned into a movie. Some even mocked this farcical murder attempt as “typical Chinese business,” referring to the multi-level, messy subcontracting.

In the end, Tan was sentenced to five years in prison, while the first hitman, Xi Guangan, was given three years and six months. The second hitman, Mo Tianxiang, was ordered to serve three years, while hitmen three and four, Yang Kangsheng and Yang Guansheng, were given three years and three months of jail time each. The fifth hitman, Ling Xiansi, was given the shortest sentence at two years and seven months.