The Itaewon Burger King murder trial has started with former convict for the murder Edward Lee pointing the finger at Arthur John Patterson as the murderer of Korean student Cho Choong-pil:
John Arthur Patterson
During the questioning, Lee found it difficult to recall the situation in which the murder took place in April 1997, but the Korean-American said in the courtroom that he saw Patterson suddenly turning to the victim and stabbing him.
“When the murder took place, I went to the bathroom to wash my hands,” he said. “Patterson suddenly started to stab him. I turned around and I was shocked.
“Cho was trying to hit the accused with his right hand, but Patterson stabbed him and kept stabbing him.”
He admitted that there were only three people including Patterson, Cho and himself at the crime scene. But he continued to accuse Patterson of murdering Cho.
He also took issue with the credibility of the past investigation records and how he was treated during the questioning by the police and prosecutors.
“I have consistently asked for an interpreter, but they didn’t provide me with one,” he said. “I was interrogated without an interpreter, coerced and threated during the first investigation for 17 hours. They didn’t let me go to sleep.” [Korea Herald]
You can read the rest at the link, but Patterson continues to claim that Lee is the actual murderer. I feel so bad for the victim’s mother who also testified and had to listen to the details about how her son was killed for no reason and then see these two each deny responsibility. Even if Lee did not commit the murder he is still culpable for not saying anything after it happened. If he saw Patterson stabbing someone to death he should of at least immediately alerted people in the restaurant to call the police and paramedics.
Does everyone remember the Itaewon Burger King murder case? Well it is back for round two of two decade long effort to convict the then dependent of USFK contractor of murdering a Hongik University student back in 1997:
The two original suspects in a high-profile 1997 Itaewon murder case could potentially be brought back together today in a preparatory session before the start of legal proceedings in the trial against 36-year-old American Arthur Patterson.
Patterson and his friend, Edward Lee, were accused of killing Hongik University student Cho Jung-pil at a fast food restaurant on April 3, 1997, in Itaewon, a popular foreigner-friendly district in central Seoul.
Cho was found dead in the bathroom of a Burger King, stabbed nine times in his neck and chest. The two men, then 18, were both in the restaurant at the time of the murder and both pinpointed the other in the killing.
Lee, a Korean-American, was later convicted for the murder but was acquitted of those charges in 1998 by the Supreme Court, which ruled that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the murder had been carried out by one man.
He will attend as a witness in the trial against Patterson, who was originally charged and convicted for weapons possession and destruction of evidence before fleeing to the United States in 1999.
“We have confirmed that Lee … is currently staying in Korea,” a prosecutor from the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office said on Wednesday, adding that it was planning to request Lee as a witness in the preparatory session to be held at the Seoul Central District Court.
The same day, Lee’s father appeared on a radio program to reiterate that his son would testify in the case.
“My son came to Korea about a month ago and he will attend [the preparatory session] as a witness,” he said. “We want the case closed this time so that we can finally be free from it.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link and you can read more about this case at this prior posting. Basically this whole case comes down to incompetence in the Korean judicial system to let these two go free in the first place. This was a brutal murder that the family deserves justice for.
Another month and more dead Koreans found in the Philippines:
Another Korean couple was shot to death in the Philippines, confirmed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul on Friday, again in the coastal province of Cavite, 21 kilometers (13 miles) south of Manila. A middle-aged man was shot by an unidentified assailant on the road right outside the couple’s residence early Friday morning, according to the Korean Foreign Ministry. His wife was shot inside the house, where she was discovered dead.
The man, reported to be a 54-year-old surnamed Lee, held Korean nationality. However, his wife, a 47-year-old surnamed Park, was an ethnic Korean with Chinese nationality.
Park called the local police at around 1:30 a.m., which is likely around the time the shooting began. Philippine police are still investigating the fatal shootings to confirm details. Cavite is the same province in which a 64-year-old Korean man surnamed Na and his 60-year-old wife Kim were shot to death in their retirement home by an unidentified gunman on Aug. 19.
Police have yet to find a lead on that case, which was suspected to be an armed robbery. This brings the number of Koreans killed in the Philippines this year to 10, including Korean-Chinese Park, raising questions about how to bolster security for Koreans residing in or traveling to the Southeast Asian country. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Some people are just nuts and need to be locked away for good like this woman:
A woman who allegedly killed her five-year-old son in Gyeonngi Province was arrested Monday.
The woman, 38, identified only as “A,” allegedly drowned her son in a bathtub at her house on Sept. 10. Police said the boy was gagged and his hands tied.
The mother changed her son’s clothes after killing him and laid him in her room to cover up the crime.
“B”‘s older sister found the body and called police. Police said the mother first told them the boy had died suddenly in his sleep, but then claimed he had drowned while playing in the tub by himself.
After checking CCTV footage near her house, police found that the mother had forced her son into house. They also found duct tape, allegedly used in the killing, in the house.
Police said the mother told them she killed her son because he was fond of her husband, who did not get along with her. [Korea Times]
The murder of Koreans in the Philippines continues:
A South Korean couple living in the Philippines were found dead in their home apparently by gun-inflicted wounds, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.
The bodies of the husband and wife, both in their 60s, were found at around 7 a.m. local time by a neighbor inside their homes located in a village south of Manila, the ministry said.
The two, only identified by their surname Na and Kim, reportedly had gun-inflicted wounds in their necks and chests with their bodies lying in the living room.
Local police suspect armed robbery as the motive but are still considering the possibility of murder driven by personal grudge.
The couple reportedly settled down in the Philippines seven years ago after retirement. [Yonhap]
1967 is when the first US-South Korea Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was signed which handed over legal jurisdiction of crimes committed by US troops while off duty to the Korean authorities. The most serious case that was first tried in a Korean court involving a US servicemember was the 1967 murder of Chun-ja Kim by Private Eugene D. Taylor. Taylor was a cook assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry DIvision. Taylor was just days away from completing his tour of duty in Korea when he arrested for the murder of his Korean girlfriend on November 5, 1967.
From the November 27, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
Before redeploying to the US, Pvt. Taylor decided to go on a drunken bender at his girlfriend’s residence. For some reason during his drunken bender he decided to strangle and kill his Korean girlfriend, Chun-ja Kim that he supposedly had plans to return to Korea to marry. He committed this murder two days before redeploying to the US. This just shows that even back in the 1960’s soldiers at high risk of getting in trouble are those within 30 days of going home. It also shows that the old Korean complaint of GIs committing crimes in Korea and then getting away with them by flying back to the US was also not true back then.
From the February 8, 1968 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
The landlord of the home that Ms. Kim lived at discovered the body in the morning along with Taylor bleeding with a neck wound. He claims that when he woke up and discovered Kim’s dead body that he tried to commit suicide by slashing his neck with a piece of broken glass. It appears he was drunk enough to kill someone else, but not drunk enough to kill himself.
From the March 7, 1968 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
Ultimately Pvt Taylor was convicted of the murder of Ms. Kim and sentenced to 8 years in a Korean prison. It seems like a pretty lenient sentence, but the Korean court took into consideration the mitigating circumstances of him being a soldier deployed to defend Korea and the fact he was drunk. So being drunk back in the 60’s was considered a mitigating circumstance just like it is today in Korean courts.
From the April 11, 1968 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
Taylor’s crime is now long forgotten in the dustbins of USFK history, but he does have the dubious distinction of being the first American servicemember convicted and sentenced for murder in a South Korean court. This case shows that US servicemembers were held accountable for the crimes in Korean courts back then and continue to be held accountable today.
Note:You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link:
There has been many murder cases involving USFK servicemembers over the years, however there probably not one that was more gruesome than the murder committed by West Virginia native Private Kenneth L. Markle. Markle was a 20 year old medic assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division when he was arrested for murdering a Korean prostitute named Kum-i Yun in the Dongducheon ville outside of Camp Casey on October 28, 1992. Ms. Yun’s dead body was discovered beaten with an umbrella in her anus, a coke bottle in her vagina, and laundry detergent spread all over her.
The Poory Chop Store building was where the gruesome crime scene was located.
Private Markle was arrested two days after the crime when an employee that worked at the Crown Club that Markle left Ms. Yun with, recognized him.
Article from the November 23, 1992 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
The Trial
After Markle was arrested for the crime he claimed that he hit Ms. Yun four times over the head with a bottle after she attacked him. During the trial he said that she was alive when he left the room because he heard her groaning. However, Markle was proven to have lied about whether she was alive or not when Special Agent Willie Evans who was the chief polygraph examiner for the Army Criminal Investigation Division testified that Markle told him during a pre-polygraph questioning period that Ms. Yun was dead when he left the room.
Picture of the victim, Kum-i Yun.
Evans further testified that Markle told him that he was sure she was dead because he was a trained medic and checked her pulse. Evans further testified that Markle felt sorry about what happened, but that she attacked him first and that she “had an ass-whipping coming”. Evans said that after Markle realized that he killed her that he sat in a corner and cried. Evans then concluded his testimony by saying Markle also failed his polygraph test. The parts he failed were in regards to whether he had sex with her, put the Coke bottle in her vagina, the umbrella in her anus, and spread the detergent on her.
Article from the March 26, 1993 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
Instead of simply denying he killed Ms. Yun, Markle during the trial tried to pin the blame on another soldier Specialist Jason Lambert.
Lambert was 22 years old and also assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division. Markle claimed that he got into a fight that night with Lambert when he was trying to be a good Samaritan and help a drunken Ms. Yun he saw on the street back to her room. Markle claims that Lambert confronted him because Yun was his girlfriend and wanted to take her back to the room. Markle says he told Lambert that he would take her back and not Lambert. When Markle got Ms Yun into her room that is when she supposedly attacked him leading to him defending himself. Markle then claimed that when he came out he saw Lambert and he told him that he was going to go inside to have sex with Ms. Yun. Markle concluded his testimony by claiming Lambert then went inside the room. Markle also claimed that Lambert made a statement to investigators that he admitted going into the room 10 minutes after Markle left. Markle also claimed that Lambert was bragging to friends about the murder scene. Finally Markle has claimed that semen found inside of Ms. Yun was from a different blood type, not his. I have seen no evidence to support any of Markle’s claims about Lambert.
What Markle’s defense comes down to is that he bashed Ms. Yun with the bottle as an act of self defense and left her unconscious while Lambert went in and killed her to get back at Markle for a confrontation that supposedly happened earlier that night. This whole scenario is contradicted by the CID special agent’s testimony. Also Lambert denied Markle’s claims about what happened. Lambert testified that he went to Ms. Yun’s room three times while Markle was inside and heard sounds that indicated they were having sex. He said he left before Markle came out.
Also of note is that during the trial the Korean Hankyoreh reported that Markle was a barracks thief and troublemaker in days before the incident happened:
First Leutenant John Glin who used the same room with Markle testified Markle’s habit of theft in court. Markle’s nickname was ‘barrack shoes’; he got this nickname when his colleagues’ things were found in his locker. Markle was disciplined for fighting his ranking officers; he was to mow the lawn in a rainy day. Markle, with a knife in his hand, said he would commit a suicide. In the next day of the crime, Markle told first leutenant Glin “If someone knows what I did on Tuesday, he will not be able to see me forever.”
On April 14, 1993 Private Markle was ultimately convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison, but his sentence would later be reduced by the Korean court to 15 years.
Article from the April 15, 1993 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
Of interest though was that during the conviction the Seoul District Court Judge Byon Dong-gul stated the testimony by Specialist Lambert was inconsistent and that he may have lied.
Article from the April 16, 1993 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
I have found nothing in the media discussing what Lambert may have lied about. However, unconfirmed speculation that I have heard is that Lambert made claims about not being in an altercation with Ms. Yun the night prior though witnesses confirm that he did have an altercation with her. Once again this is unconfirmed speculation, but it would be interesting to know what the Korean court thought Lambert lied about during the trial. After the trial Specialist Jason Lambert returned to the United States and was discharged from the Army.
Article from the November 27, 1993 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
There had been other GI murderers before Markle, but nothing as gruesome as this had ever happened before. Besides the gruesome nature of the crime the anti-US movement in South Korea was gaining momentum as South Korea was exiting its military ruler years and entering into an era of democracy. This era of democracy allowed long suppressed voices within the nation to express their anti-US point of view. The anti-US activist who would not normally care about a prostitute like Ms. Yun were more than happy to exploit her death to advance their cause. If a prostitute like Ms. Yun was killed the way she was by a Korean hardly anyone would care, the fact a US soldier did it is what made this news.
During the trial Private Markle was kept in custody at the Camp Humphreys Confinement Facility. This was something else that the anti-US groups at the time were able to demagogue to drive anti-US sentiment. They wanted Markle held in a Korean jail, but it was agreed upon in the US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that all US military prisoners would be held in US custody until the soldier was convicted. This was to ensure that the servicemember was treated properly, had access to an interpreter, and not put under duress to sign false confessions. This SOFA sticking point would remain a major anti-US issue for many years until the SOFA was changed in the 2000’s where ROK authorities could hold prisoners prior to trial for major crimes like murder.
Though not as prevalent today in South Korea the Markle murder case after the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident was used prominently by activists back then to push their anti-US agenda. I can remember my unit was responding to a protest in front of Camp Red Cloud back in 2004 and activists had signs with the pictures of crushed bodies of the two little girls from the accident, but also pictures of Ms. Yun’s defaced body. These activists obviously had no shame and were willing to exploit anything to advance their cause.
Discussion
Here are some thoughts I have on this case. First of all Markle admits to hitting Ms. Yun to the point that she was unconscious and he had to check her pulse. He claims that she was alive after checking the pulse and was groaning. The CID special agent Willie Evan’s testimony directly refutes this claim. Why would the CID agent lie about what Markle told him during the pre-polygraph questioning? Unlike the testimony from Lambert, Special Agent Evans has no motive to lie. How does Markle explain away this testimony? Further more he failed the polygraph in regards to the questions of whether he had sex with Ms. Yun and defaced the body. I don’t put as much stock in the polygraph results, but Special Agent Evan’s testimony is what sealed the deal for me on this case that Markle killed Ms. Yun. The only thing I am not as convinced of is whether he defaced the body since he did not admit to that to Evans; just the polygraph points to him which is not as reliable as the direct witness testimony from Special Agent Evans. Of interest though is that Markle’s former defense attorney Lieutenant Colonel Kevin M. Boyle, said in a 2007 interview that Markle had covered Ms. Yun’s body with washing detergent to destroy evidence:
Both before and since the Kwangju Uprising, an incident seems to occur every decade that further destabilizes the already frail U.S.-ROK alliance. The 7th Infantry Division withdrew in the 1970s, one of two American Army divisions that had been in Korea since the end of the Korean War. The 1980s saw the Kwangju Uprising, and the 1990s brought the murder of Kum E. Yoon, a Korean prostitute, by a 2d Infantry Division (2ID) Soldier. In the first decade of the twenty-first century there was the uproar over the decision to resume the importation of American beef. It is difficult to overstate the deleterious impact on the alliance brought about by the rape and murder of Kum E. Yoon by Private Kenneth Markle. At the time of the crime, Markle was assigned to 2ID and stationed at Camp Casey in Dongducheon. Yoon worked as a “juicy girl” in one of the camptown clubs. On 28 October 1993, Markle raped Yoon and bludgeoned her to death with a soda bottle. Yoon’s landlord discovered her naked, blood-caked body. Her legs had been spread apart, a bottle inserted into her vagina, and an umbrella inserted eleven inches into her rectum. Markle had also covered the body and the entire crime scene with laundry detergent—apparently believing it would act as lye and destroy the evidence. Markle was sentenced to fifteen years in prison by a Korean court. [Military Law Review]
Could have Lambert stumbled on to the scene later that night and saw the dead body and then defaced it? Maybe, but what would have been his motive for doing so? He might have been pissed that Yun was having sex with Markle if he did in fact think of her as his girlfriend, but defacing the body seems like something he would not do because it could implicate him in the murder. This is why I agree with the Korean court’s finding that he probably did deface the body.
Also how narcissistic is Markle that even if he savagely beat a woman unconscious like he claims, that two nights later he would go right back to the same club. It seems to me a normal person would feel remorse and be extremely stressed out over the situation; not go to the same club the girl worked at to go party two days later.
Criticisms of the Trial
During and after the trial, Markle’s parents began a long advocacy campaign to condemn the US military and the US government for its handling of the Markle case. They would make multiple trips to Korea for the trial and the appeals process:
Article from the July 9, 1994 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
The Markle family even tried to stop the military from handing over their son to the Korean authorities after his conviction by appealing to the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied their case and Markle was handed over to the Korean authorities to serve his time at the Cheonan Correctional Facility where all USFK prisoners convicted of crimes in Korean courts are held. Despite the criticisms from the family USFK in a highly unusual incidence flew and housed the Markle family in Korea during the trial and paid for his defense attorney.
Article from the February 23, 1993 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
One of the points of contention they had was that Markle signed a confession that was all in Korean without an interpreter. If so this should not have been used as evidence if is was in fact used during the trial. Also the fact that anti-US protesters were allowed in the courtroom to continuously disrupt proceedings should have also not have been allowed. Such protests within the courtroom could have influenced the judges to give into public opinion.
Markle did not do much to help his cause in prison when he was punished for a minor incident he helped to instigate due to an issue with the prison mail that caused him and another prisoner to go into solitary confinement for 57 days.
Article from the December 17, 1995 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
Markle’s Release from Prison
Markle would go on to be quietly released from jail in August 2006 and returned to the US just over a year before his 15 year sentence would have been completed:
SEOUL — A former U.S. soldier imprisoned in South Korea on a murder conviction was released this summer, both South Korean and U.S. authorities confirmed Friday.
Former Pvt. Kenneth L. Markle was supposed to be released in early 2008 but was freed on Aug. 14 with two years and nine months of time left on his sentence, the South Korea Ministry of Justice confirmed Friday.
Markle’s release drew attention last week when a member of Korea’s National Assembly criticized the move, saying Markle had not shown model behavior as a prisoner. On Aug. 15, Markle boarded a plane for the States and was separated from the military, a U.S. Forces Korea spokesman said.
Markle’s case sparked debate and protests in the early 1990s after he was accused of brutally attacking a South Korean woman. [Stars & Stripes]
The quiet release was likely done to preempt any of the anti-US groups from making a scene when Markle was set to be released. If that was plan it work quite well because little was made of Markle’s release at the time in the media. Amazingly after his release Markle resurfaced here on the ROK Drop. The below link to a November 2006 posting has a long drawn out discussion with Markle and a number of his past girlfriends and acquaintances who either defend or condemn him as the murderer:
The comments section in this old posting is probably the most incredible discussion in this site’s history that I recommend everyone read. Markle continued to proclaim his innocence using many of the same claims he used before. However, when I confronted him to post the trial’s transcript for everyone to read he refused to. Being able to read the transcripts would clear up a lot of the speculation and unknown facts discussed previously in this posting. The fact that he does not want to post the transcripts for people like myself to scrutinize further shows in my opinion he has something to hide.
As if the saga of Kenneth Markle could not get any stranger it does. It turns out that someone with the same name and age of Markle was arrested and sentenced to 7 years in jail for abusing his wife back in 2014:
A Lackawanna man who attacked his estranged wife when she arrived at his apartment last Halloween, then held off police for five hours before he agreed to surrender, got the maximum prison sentence this week.
State Supreme Court Justice Deborah A. Haendiges imposed the seven-year term on Kenneth Markle, 42, who had pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, according to Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III.
Before sentencing, Markle promised to become a productive member of society and asked the judge to give him the minimum prison sentence followed by probation.
But the judge told him that the only way she could ensure his wife’s safety was to sentence him to the maximum.
Prosecutors said Markle turned off all the lights in his apartment on Magnolia Street that evening and waited for his wife, then hit her in the head with a baseball bat and choked her. She fought him off and escaped with their child to a neighbor’s houses.
During the police standoff, he boasted through text messages, phone calls and social media that he was the cause of the standoff, which disrupted trick-or-treating on the block, prosecutors said.
Sedita credited Lackawanna police for resolving the standoff peacefully without further harm to anyone. [Buffalo News]
Is it the same Markle I don’t know, but it is highly coincidental that the guy has the same name and is of the same age.
Conclusion
Unlike other major crimes committed in Korea by US servicemembers, the legacy of this particular crime continues to lurk. Every time there is a major GI crime incident in Korea the Markle murder case comes back up for discussion. Due to Markle continuing to proclaim his innocence I hope this posting helps people to make up their own minds in regards to his guilt or innocence. I think it is pretty clear that Private Markle committed the crime he was sentenced and convicted of based on the media reports and second hand information I have received. If Markle would post the transcripts he proclaims would clear him of the crime then maybe I would have a change of opinion. However, he has refused to do so which I take to mean that there is further evidence that Markle does not want the public to read in those transcripts. Overall though this case really should be taken up by one of the true crime shows. It would be interesting to see what the resources from CBS’s 48 Hours or NBC’s Dateline could dig up on this old case. I would not be surprised however if their conclusions would ultimately match what I believe in this case, that Markle was the killer.
Note:You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link:
Via a reader tip comes this story of a gunman in South Korea who killed three people before committing suicide:
A gunman shot and killed three people Friday before he was found dead at a home in a city near the capital Seoul in the second such incident in three days, police officials said.
Shooting incidents are rare in South Korea, which tightly controls gun possession, and the two deadly shootings this week will likely trigger a debate on whether the country should tighten its control on hunting weapons that can be legally owned.
A police official from Hwaseong City, who didn’t want to be named, citing office rules, said the victims included a policeman who was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene. The official said the suspect is believed to be the brother of one of the victims, whose wife was also dead.
The suspect was found dead with a gunshot wound in what the police believed to be a suicide. The daughter-in-law of the dead couple managed to escape by jumping from a second-floor window before alerting the police, and is currently being treated at a hospital for a minor back injury.
Police said the murder weapon was believed to be a hunting gun. The gunman had retrieved the gun from a nearby police station about an hour before the morning shooting, the police official said.
South Koreans can obtain licenses for shotguns and air rifles for the purpose of hunting animals, but they are required to keep the weapons at police stations and use them only during legal hunting periods. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the suspect owned the gun or had a proper license for it. [Fox News]
You can read the rest at the link, but according to Yonhap the shooter was 75 years old and checked out the hunting rifle shortly before the shooting:
Police said Jeon often got drunk and demanded money from his brother, according to his neighbors.
He took out a hunting rifle from a police station an hour before the shooting and told the officers he would return after he finishes hunting the next day.
Police officers said they did not notice anything suspicious about the man despite his old age and frequent visits to the substation to take out guns.
The incident came two days after another gunman killed three people in the central city of Sejong before turning the gun on himself.
Civilians are rarely armed with guns in South Korea. Only those with genuine reasons are allowed to own one, and it must be stored at police substations. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but the Korean police plan to limit the amount of substations now that can hold guns and require re-licensing for hunting weapons every three years now in response to this incident.
I have to think this US Marine is pleading not guilty for murder in the hopes that he will instead be charged with a lesser manslaughter charge:
A Philippine court entered a not guilty plea Monday for a U.S. Marine charged with murdering a transgender Filipino, allegedly after he discovered her gender when they checked into a hotel.
Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton refused to enter a plea in the brief proceeding in a court in Olongapo city northwest of Manila, according to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. Journalists were barred from the courtroom.
Dozens of left-wing protesters waved red flags outside the courthouse, demanding justice and an end to the U.S. military presence in the former American colony. Gay and lesbian groups have also staged protests denouncing the killing of Jennifer Laude, whose former name was Jeffrey, as a hate crime.
Monday’s arraignment paves the way for Pemberton’s trial, which lawyers of the victim’s family said is scheduled to start next month. [Stars & Stripes]
