January 7, 2012
I just watched the film The Case of Itaewon Murder, which was done in 2009 and was based on the 1997 tragic murder incident in Itaewon Burger King. Actually, there is no more Burger King there now. The murder site is now occupied by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. It has a prominent location. I would always see it upon getting off from Itaewon station. No one knows if Burger King Itaewon got bankrupt months or years following the incident or the owner just decided to be completely detached from the brutal murder incident. I don't think the former would be the reason though as the current location of the Coffee Bean and Tea Life is a really perfect place for a fast food restaurant business. It is actually right there conveniently located in between 2 exits of Itaewon Subway station. It's pretty crowded there at night.
Anyhow, it's quite interesting as the case remains unsolved 14 years later. Moreover, it also touched on a very controversial relationship between the United States and Korea. The prime suspects,though having Korean blood, are US citizens (they were 18 when the crime happened, I was 9? ㅋㅋ). Read on the news I attached below for details on the case. And check Youtube as well (10 parts, English subbed) for the movie.
Quite interesting. I feel sad for Jong-pil (he was 23 years old then, a university student and only son of his parents) and his family though. He was murdered for fun! Damn it! The case was re-opened in 2009. I hope the real guilty be punished soon, or I don't know what is the status now! God, how could he comfortably live for 14 years without admitting to the crime he committed! Patterson should be turned over to Korean authorities as soon as possible, before the expiration of the case next year and he should be retried!
Here is the latest news from the Korea Times and from the Time Magazine!
South Korea Reopens the Burger King Murder File - Time
It is one of South Korea's most famous cold-case files, a sensational murder that drummed up sentiment against U.S. military bases in the country for nearly a decade. On April 3, 1997, a South Korean university student, Cho Chong Pil, 22, was found dead on the bathroom floor of a Burger King restaurant in Itaewon, a nightlife district popular among foreigners in central Seoul. He had been stabbed several times in the neck in what prosecutors later called a random "American gang-style" killing. After several days, they named two suspects who had dined together at the fast-food restaurant that evening: Arthur Patterson, the 17-year-old son of a U.S. Army contractor, and 18-year-old Korean American Edward Lee. Both admitted to witnessing the murder, and both accused each other of doing it.
It's been over 10 years since the crime went to trial, and both suspects, after serving some prison time, are free. Now, the Burger King murder is back. Last month, prosecutors reopened the case after the unresolved crime got a wave of attention from a South Korean film and several television series this fall. Critics have long said the trial was bungled, claiming that a 1966 bilateral treaty (SOFA), which outlines the legal rights and responsibilities of U.S. soldiers in South Korea, hinders investigations into crimes committed by American servicemen and their families in South Korea. In 1998, the court dropped charges against Patterson, handing him an 18-month prison sentence for possessing an illegal weapon and destroying evidence, from which he was released early in 1999 as part of a widespread amnesty the government granted to 2000 convicts. The court found Lee guilty of murder, sentencing him to life in prison but later reduced the sentence to 20 years. In 1999, he was fully acquitted by the Supreme Court on a lack of evidence.
The murder of Cho remains a mystery, a fact that has infuriated South Korean activists who made the crime a cause célèbre in their fight against the U.S. military presence in their country. After authorities promised to pursue Patterson's case further in 1998, a prosecutor mistakenly failed to renew a travel ban on him. Patterson returned to California in 1999, where he remains today. (Lee, after being acquitted, also returned to the U.S.) In 2006, a Seoul court ordered the government to award $34,000 to the victim's family. The case remained officially closed until December, and on Jan. 5 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it had sent documents requesting the extradition of Patterson from his home in Sunnyvale, Calif. If the U.S. government cooperates, they say, Patterson will be returned to Seoul to face a new trial — and possibly more severe charges.
The government's move follows a flurry of renewed interest in the crime in popular culture. In September, a blockbuster film that dramatized the murder, The Case of the Itaewon Homicide, swept South Korea. That same month, a South Korean television crew discovered Patterson was living in Sunnyvale after the U.S. government failed to locate him following a 2005 request for judicial assistance from Seoul. "After we concluded that [the television crew's] finding was true, we decided to reopen the case," says Oh Se In, a Seoul city prosecutor acting as a spokesman for the case. Lee, the other defendant in the trial who has always maintained his innocence, says he welcomes the decision. "If the U.S. government hands Patterson over and the prosecution reinvestigates, I will actively cooperate," he told Dong-A Ilbo, a Korean-language newspaper in Seoul, last month.
For some South Koreans, it's one step toward a victory against a series of alleged crimes by American servicemen and their relatives over the past 40 years — and the law that they say goes easy on them. "We've seen in this case that SOFA's protection range is too broad," says Park Kyung Soo, an activist at the National Campaign for the Eradication of Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea, a nonprofit organization in Seoul. "It restricts the right to continuous detention before prosecution, and whenever people protected by SOFA go to court, an American representative has to accompany them." In the Burger King homicide case, activists also complained the treaty hindered the South Korean court's ability to subpoena the children of U.S. servicemen to give crucial testimony that could help in proving the guilt or innocence of the suspects.
For others, resolving the case is a matter of national pride, one that arises in part from a stereotype among some South Koreans that foreign soldiers commit a disproportionate share of the nation's crimes. "We don't trust them. They come to our country and treat Koreans as below them," says Yoon Jong Hyun, 46, a truck driver in the city of Yangju, north of Seoul. "They commit a lot of crimes because they know they can hide behind the treaty."
Despite the government's good relations with Washington, a large sector of South Korean society has had a long and rocky relationship with American influence, with skepticism many scholars attribute to decades of occupation by foreign powers last century. In 2002, protests erupted across the country after two American soldiers were acquitted by a U.S. military court for running over and killing two teenage girls north of Seoul in their armored vehicle; again, critics derided stipulations in the SOFA treaty that kept the soldiers from being tried in South Korean courts. In 2008, more heated demonstrations broke out in Seoul after the government allowed South Korea to receive certain U.S. beef imports that many were concerned might contain mad-cow disease. Protesters alleged the administration of President Lee Myung Bak was protecting its alliance with the U.S. at the expense of its own citizens' health.
Still, others contend the SOFA treaty does not hinder investigations to the extent antimilitary activists and the South Korean media claim. "We've always had jurisdiction over these kinds of crimes when the victim is Korean," says Oh, the prosecution's spokesman. "We've only had a few restrictions on procedural matters, which is not a big deal." Indeed, supporters point out that the terms of the treaty are far more favorable to South Korea than, for example, the terms of a similar treaty Japan signed with the U.S. in 1960. In that country, the U.S. military can hold suspected servicemen until a Japanese court indicts them, a stipulation that critics allege has handicapped investigations there.
Many think the government made a wise move in reopening the case, and that resolving the Itaewon Burger King murder will help heal old scars between American military bases and the South Korean residents living around them. But Park, the activist, asserts that a new trial will only be the first step in a struggle to revise the treaty that could take decades. "It'll certainly loosen tensions, but only a little bit," Park says. And without a conviction, many South Koreans will continue to harbor anger over what they believe was the great solvable murder that went unsolved.
It's been over 10 years since the crime went to trial, and both suspects, after serving some prison time, are free. Now, the Burger King murder is back. Last month, prosecutors reopened the case after the unresolved crime got a wave of attention from a South Korean film and several television series this fall. Critics have long said the trial was bungled, claiming that a 1966 bilateral treaty (SOFA), which outlines the legal rights and responsibilities of U.S. soldiers in South Korea, hinders investigations into crimes committed by American servicemen and their families in South Korea. In 1998, the court dropped charges against Patterson, handing him an 18-month prison sentence for possessing an illegal weapon and destroying evidence, from which he was released early in 1999 as part of a widespread amnesty the government granted to 2000 convicts. The court found Lee guilty of murder, sentencing him to life in prison but later reduced the sentence to 20 years. In 1999, he was fully acquitted by the Supreme Court on a lack of evidence.
The murder of Cho remains a mystery, a fact that has infuriated South Korean activists who made the crime a cause célèbre in their fight against the U.S. military presence in their country. After authorities promised to pursue Patterson's case further in 1998, a prosecutor mistakenly failed to renew a travel ban on him. Patterson returned to California in 1999, where he remains today. (Lee, after being acquitted, also returned to the U.S.) In 2006, a Seoul court ordered the government to award $34,000 to the victim's family. The case remained officially closed until December, and on Jan. 5 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it had sent documents requesting the extradition of Patterson from his home in Sunnyvale, Calif. If the U.S. government cooperates, they say, Patterson will be returned to Seoul to face a new trial — and possibly more severe charges.
The government's move follows a flurry of renewed interest in the crime in popular culture. In September, a blockbuster film that dramatized the murder, The Case of the Itaewon Homicide, swept South Korea. That same month, a South Korean television crew discovered Patterson was living in Sunnyvale after the U.S. government failed to locate him following a 2005 request for judicial assistance from Seoul. "After we concluded that [the television crew's] finding was true, we decided to reopen the case," says Oh Se In, a Seoul city prosecutor acting as a spokesman for the case. Lee, the other defendant in the trial who has always maintained his innocence, says he welcomes the decision. "If the U.S. government hands Patterson over and the prosecution reinvestigates, I will actively cooperate," he told Dong-A Ilbo, a Korean-language newspaper in Seoul, last month.
For some South Koreans, it's one step toward a victory against a series of alleged crimes by American servicemen and their relatives over the past 40 years — and the law that they say goes easy on them. "We've seen in this case that SOFA's protection range is too broad," says Park Kyung Soo, an activist at the National Campaign for the Eradication of Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea, a nonprofit organization in Seoul. "It restricts the right to continuous detention before prosecution, and whenever people protected by SOFA go to court, an American representative has to accompany them." In the Burger King homicide case, activists also complained the treaty hindered the South Korean court's ability to subpoena the children of U.S. servicemen to give crucial testimony that could help in proving the guilt or innocence of the suspects.
For others, resolving the case is a matter of national pride, one that arises in part from a stereotype among some South Koreans that foreign soldiers commit a disproportionate share of the nation's crimes. "We don't trust them. They come to our country and treat Koreans as below them," says Yoon Jong Hyun, 46, a truck driver in the city of Yangju, north of Seoul. "They commit a lot of crimes because they know they can hide behind the treaty."
Despite the government's good relations with Washington, a large sector of South Korean society has had a long and rocky relationship with American influence, with skepticism many scholars attribute to decades of occupation by foreign powers last century. In 2002, protests erupted across the country after two American soldiers were acquitted by a U.S. military court for running over and killing two teenage girls north of Seoul in their armored vehicle; again, critics derided stipulations in the SOFA treaty that kept the soldiers from being tried in South Korean courts. In 2008, more heated demonstrations broke out in Seoul after the government allowed South Korea to receive certain U.S. beef imports that many were concerned might contain mad-cow disease. Protesters alleged the administration of President Lee Myung Bak was protecting its alliance with the U.S. at the expense of its own citizens' health.
Still, others contend the SOFA treaty does not hinder investigations to the extent antimilitary activists and the South Korean media claim. "We've always had jurisdiction over these kinds of crimes when the victim is Korean," says Oh, the prosecution's spokesman. "We've only had a few restrictions on procedural matters, which is not a big deal." Indeed, supporters point out that the terms of the treaty are far more favorable to South Korea than, for example, the terms of a similar treaty Japan signed with the U.S. in 1960. In that country, the U.S. military can hold suspected servicemen until a Japanese court indicts them, a stipulation that critics allege has handicapped investigations there.
Many think the government made a wise move in reopening the case, and that resolving the Itaewon Burger King murder will help heal old scars between American military bases and the South Korean residents living around them. But Park, the activist, asserts that a new trial will only be the first step in a struggle to revise the treaty that could take decades. "It'll certainly loosen tensions, but only a little bit," Park says. And without a conviction, many South Koreans will continue to harbor anger over what they believe was the great solvable murder that went unsolved.
Prosecutors Trying to Extradite Prime Suspect Arthur Patterson
By Park Si-soo
Korea Times
It's been classified as a cold case for a decade, but now, the so-called "Itaewon murder" is up for reinvestigation. Prosecutors' efforts to extradite the prime suspect in the 12-year-old case, Arthur Patterson, from the United States, will hinge on the cooperation of the U.S. State Department.
The prosecution has decided to reinvestigate the homicide in Itaewon, Seoul, involving two teenagers as suspects - a Korean-American and the child of an American soldier - back in 1997.
The former, Edward Lee, was acquitted by the Supreme Court, while the other suspect, Patterson, fled to the U.S.
The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office recently asked it to coordinate with U.S. authorities to extradite Patterson.
Kim Hae-woong, spokesman for the ministry, confirmed the prosecution's request, but refused to elaborate. "It will take some time before making an official request to the U.S. government for extradition," the spokesman told The Korea Times.
Lee Heung-rak, a justice ministry official familiar with the matter, said: "Our role will be just translating the concerned documents into English and delivering them to our counterpart via the foreign ministry. Whether or not to return the suspect to Seoul will be determined by the U.S. government."
The official did not rule out the possibility that the American government will reject the request, citing "double jeopardy."
Patterson was found guilty in 1998 on charges of possessing an illegal weapon that was apparently used in the crime and destruction of evidence. Imprisoned for about eight months, he was released on Aug. 15, 1998 on a special pardon.
At the time of being released, Patterson was accused by the prosecution of killing Cho Joong-pil, aged 22.
However, he fled to the U.S. in 1999 after prosecutors failed to renew a travel ban imposed on him.
"To avoid double jeopardy and getting the extradition agreed to, the U.S. government will have to recognize the prior conviction as independent of the murder charge," a judge at the Seoul Central District Court said. "But if they regard the possession as an act in line with the murder and thus conclude the two constitute a single crime, the request could be rejected."
Though the case has, since Patterson's departure, remained pending with the prosecution, the crime has virtually vanished from people's memory.
A recent movie based on the tragic story brought public attention back to the unresolved crime, encouraging the prosecution to reopen the case.
On April 3, 1997, one of the two teenagers stabbed Cho, a college student, in a franchise restaurant in Itaewon.
Initially, Patterson was indicted for possessing the weapon and Lee for stabbing the Korean to death.
Upholding a lower court decision, an appellate court sentenced Lee to 20 years in prison in January 1998, but the Supreme Court ordered the appellate court to review the case, citing a lack of evidence. In respect to the ruling, the appellate court later acquitted Lee.
Ahead of that ruling, the prosecution indicted Patterson on the charge of homicide, but its carelessness in extending a travel ban imposed on him made it possible for him to flee to his home country.
The movie, which drew more than 300,000 viewers, also fueled a stereotype harbored by some Koreans that Americans related to U.S. troops in South Korea are not duly punished for crimes they commit on Korean territory.
This antagonism first erupted following the accidental deaths of two Korean girls - Shim Mi-sun and Shin Hyo-soon - in 2002 after they were struck by a U.S. armored vehicle.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
By Park Si-soo
Korea Times
It's been classified as a cold case for a decade, but now, the so-called "Itaewon murder" is up for reinvestigation. Prosecutors' efforts to extradite the prime suspect in the 12-year-old case, Arthur Patterson, from the United States, will hinge on the cooperation of the U.S. State Department.
The prosecution has decided to reinvestigate the homicide in Itaewon, Seoul, involving two teenagers as suspects - a Korean-American and the child of an American soldier - back in 1997.
The former, Edward Lee, was acquitted by the Supreme Court, while the other suspect, Patterson, fled to the U.S.
The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office recently asked it to coordinate with U.S. authorities to extradite Patterson.
Kim Hae-woong, spokesman for the ministry, confirmed the prosecution's request, but refused to elaborate. "It will take some time before making an official request to the U.S. government for extradition," the spokesman told The Korea Times.
Lee Heung-rak, a justice ministry official familiar with the matter, said: "Our role will be just translating the concerned documents into English and delivering them to our counterpart via the foreign ministry. Whether or not to return the suspect to Seoul will be determined by the U.S. government."
The official did not rule out the possibility that the American government will reject the request, citing "double jeopardy."
Patterson was found guilty in 1998 on charges of possessing an illegal weapon that was apparently used in the crime and destruction of evidence. Imprisoned for about eight months, he was released on Aug. 15, 1998 on a special pardon.
At the time of being released, Patterson was accused by the prosecution of killing Cho Joong-pil, aged 22.
However, he fled to the U.S. in 1999 after prosecutors failed to renew a travel ban imposed on him.
"To avoid double jeopardy and getting the extradition agreed to, the U.S. government will have to recognize the prior conviction as independent of the murder charge," a judge at the Seoul Central District Court said. "But if they regard the possession as an act in line with the murder and thus conclude the two constitute a single crime, the request could be rejected."
Though the case has, since Patterson's departure, remained pending with the prosecution, the crime has virtually vanished from people's memory.
A recent movie based on the tragic story brought public attention back to the unresolved crime, encouraging the prosecution to reopen the case.
On April 3, 1997, one of the two teenagers stabbed Cho, a college student, in a franchise restaurant in Itaewon.
Initially, Patterson was indicted for possessing the weapon and Lee for stabbing the Korean to death.
Upholding a lower court decision, an appellate court sentenced Lee to 20 years in prison in January 1998, but the Supreme Court ordered the appellate court to review the case, citing a lack of evidence. In respect to the ruling, the appellate court later acquitted Lee.
Ahead of that ruling, the prosecution indicted Patterson on the charge of homicide, but its carelessness in extending a travel ban imposed on him made it possible for him to flee to his home country.
The movie, which drew more than 300,000 viewers, also fueled a stereotype harbored by some Koreans that Americans related to U.S. troops in South Korea are not duly punished for crimes they commit on Korean territory.
This antagonism first erupted following the accidental deaths of two Korean girls - Shim Mi-sun and Shin Hyo-soon - in 2002 after they were struck by a U.S. armored vehicle.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
