Most read of 2023: Hello Kitty murder, the death of Jet Li’s manager – 7 stories from the Post archives
- Several of our most popular stories from the Post’s archive this year had a crime element to them, including the murder of a woman tortured for weeks in 1999
- Also among them: the underworld assassination of martial arts actor Jet Li’s manager in 1992, and when pirates attacked a cargo ship off Hong Kong in 1999
Dave Besseling’s weekly dive into the Post’s archives for Post Magazine opens a door to the past, giving readers a look at stories that made headlines in Hong Kong over the decades. In 2023, several of the most popular with readers had a crime element.
2004: Bank junks deposit boxes in blunder
We looked back at an incident in 2004 when a Hong Kong bank suffered a crushing humiliation after scrapping 83 safe deposit boxes full of cash, jewels and personal items.
DBS Bank was renovating one of its branches and sent safe deposit boxes to an industrial crusher; 83 of the boxes still contained property.
1995: Hong Kong civil servant arrested
One story that grabbed headlines was from October 1995, when Hong Kong civil servant Clive Holgate was accused of maintaining a standard of living beyond his salary after his wife vanished, leaving behind a mass of money.
The wife, a former Wan Chai bar girl with a secret lover, was a heavy gambler, a court heard, and Holgate said some of his unexplained money was from her stash.
1999: Pirates partied after killings
Pirates attacked a cargo ship off Hong Kong in 1999, murdering 23 sailors, then held a party on board to celebrate. Caught after police found a photo of the party, 13 pirates were sentenced to death, and went to their executions drunk and singing a Ricky Martin song.
Ambushed by pirates when escaping Vietnam: one man’s journey to top chef
1999: Hello Kitty murder case
Nightclub employee Fan Man-yee, 23, was held captive for weeks, tortured and murdered in a flat in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, in 1999, and her body dismembered.
Her body was found in three bags, and her skull in a Hello Kitty doll. Three men were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal crime.
1992: Jet Li’s manager shot dead
When martial arts actor Jet Li’s manager was shot dead outside his office in Hong Kong in 1992, in an underworld assassination, police described it as a “well-planned operation”.
Hong Kong film producer Choi Chi-ming was gunned down by two men as he came out of a lift. Choi was a supposed member of the 14K Hau triad group, and had been convicted of drug trafficking in the 1970s.
1985: Girl accused of tower block killing
In May 1985, it was reported that a nine-year-old girl with psychiatric problems was accused of throwing a two-year-old boy from a tower block in Hong Kong.
The girl was arrested for throwing the toddler from the 26th floor of the block after she had escaped from a nearby children’s home. A jury later reached a verdict of non-culpable homicide, and criticised the management and staff of Kai Chi Children’s Centre.
1981: Stanley Ho’s son killed in car crash
On June 25, 1981 the Post reported on how the son of Macau casinos mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun was killed in a road accident in Portugal.
The deaths of Robert Ho and Suki Potier Ho, daughter-in-law of Stanley Ho, in the car crash in Lisbon left their daughters, aged three and six, orphans.
The bodies of the couple were flown to Hong Kong and a funeral service was held for them, which was attended by more than 800 people.
