Liu Pengli — The Han Dynasty Ripper

The story of one of the earliest known serial killers

When we think of serial killers, we usually think of Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer, and the earliest one we think of is, of course, Jack the Ripper.

But serial killers have been around for a long, long time. And not always in the form we think of them in.

Liu Pengli is among the earliest recorded serial killers. Some sources falsely claim he was “the first,” but there’s no way to substantiate that. In any case, he probably has the most detailed record of early serial killers.

Unlike Elizabeth Bathory, I’m led to believe the allegations are true about Liu Pengli. They aren’t as ridiculous or unrealistic and there are reliable witnesses.

However, it is important to remember this was over two thousand years ago and the further we get away from the time it happened, the more likely things were exaggerated or changed to fit different narratives. Most of what we have have comes from one contemporary source: Records of the Grand Historian by father and son Sima Quian and Sima Tan. While the source is considered reliable, it’s still only one source. Nonetheless, Liu Pengli is an early example of the mind of a serial killer long before there was a concept of one.

Context

If you’ve read anything by me, you know I love me some context. I think it is the best way to put things into perspective because it’s really not possible to view Pengli through our own 2021 lens. Also, I could just give you the facts about Pengli alone, but there’s already a million articles just giving the basic story. I want to set the scene too.

A Han Dynasty phoenix who looks like he wants to play fetch with a pebble. He’s cute, so he’s here now. Source

Liu Pengli was born in the Western Han Dynasty around 144 BC. I wasn’t able to find a specific date, which is to be expected.

The Han Dynasty started in roughly 202 BC. The Western Han Dynasty wasn’t really a location, but a time period in the Han Dynasty. That lasted from the beginning of the dynasty to about 25 CE. The period after is the Eastern Dynasty, which would take over until the end of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE. The only difference between the two is the capital changed locations.