Foreign News: A Murder a Day

Liao Chang-shin was an innkeeper in Changshow, a little Yangtze river port some 60 miles from Chungking. Business was brisk and Liao seemed at peace with the world. When, from time to time, somebody disappeared in Changshow without leaving a trace, the innkeeper, like most of Changshow’s citizens, shrugged his shoulders. People are always disappearing these days.

One day the police received an anonymous letter. It sounded incredible, but they investigated. Then the story came out: since April, Liao Chang-shin, with the assistance of one Hsui Chang-shan, had robbed and killed 78 people, most of them guests at his inn. When police caught Liao, he was about to dispose of Victim No. 79, who had given him $90,000 (Chinese) for safekeeping. Last week Liao and Hsui were awaiting death after confessing that they had averaged a little over a murder a day.