Training ensures that crime does not pay

On Feb 12, 1983, they committed a simple theft, taking about 1,000 yuan in cash and 30 bags of glutamate from a small hospital shop in Shenyang, Liaoning province. It was a crime that would have landed someone in prison for years but did not warrant the death penalty.

However, unlike an ordinary thief, the brother with the military background had a loaded gun in his pocket. He had stolen the gun from a prison in Shenyang about seven years earlier. When the two were caught stealing at the hospital, Wang Zongwei took out the gun, killed four people and injured three. The brothers then fled.

Police tracked them down five times, but each time the brothers escaped - at least twice on bicycles.

No one knows exactly where they hid over the seven months. Sightings were confirmed in Beijing as well as Hubei, Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces, from North China to central and southern areas. Several more lives were taken along the way.

In May, the Ministry of Public Security put out a second wanted poster for the Wang brothers. Unlike the first, this one offered a reward of up to 2,000 yuan.

At the time, the monthly salary of a person with a bachelor's degree was about 50 yuan.

On Sept 13 that year, the two brothers were seen running into a mountainous area in Guangchang county, Jiangxi, with firearms and money, but no food.

Almost 30,000 police officers and militias launched a blanket search of the region.

On the sixth day, the Wang brothers were shot dead.

Topping 'cruel criminal' lists

He tops various "most cruel criminals" rankings posted by Internet users on forums and his story was made into a 26-episode TV series, Chinese Criminal Investigation Case No 1.

His name was Bai Baoshan, and he killed at least 15 people, including police officers and soldiers, and stole 1.4 million yuan over a period of 18 months.

Bai Baoshan during his court hearing. [China Daily]