[Limelight] Serial Killer Justifying Murder with a Letter of Reflection

Netflix 'Sarinja Onangam' Lee Hee-jun
Former Police Officer Role Receiving Apology Letter Before Murder
Self-Appointed Judge of Justice but Ultimately a Villain
A Desperate Struggle to Cover Up Guilt

In the Netflix series 'Sarinjaonnamgam' (The Killer's Dilemma), Songchon (Lee Hee-joon) hunts down and kills villains. Before committing the crime, he always obtains a written confession of remorse. 'I, Ha Sang-min, killed Choi In-seon on November 18, 2023. I deeply repent through this death.' With just these two sentences, Songchon clicks his tongue and mutters to himself, "Huh? He didn’t write how he did it. Ah, I can’t bring this back either. Really, the basics aren’t there, the basics, huh? This confession of remorse should say when, how, why, huh? Young people these days..."

Songchon claims to be a judge but is evil. The foundation of evil is not the result of pathological thinking or severe emotional influence. It arises from a normal mind and free thought. This is far from the common belief that the motive for crime stems from schizophrenic delusions or abnormal personality traits. Many psychiatrists have confessed that they could not find any illness or personality problems in the minds of serial killers they examined. They collectively said, "We don’t know if that is a very frightening thing or a very good thing."

If the former means that one can think, plan, and execute evil crimes with normal reason, the latter suggests that evil is unfairly attributed to people with mental illnesses, mistreated, their suffering criminalized, and stigma continuously imposed on them.

How did Songchon, once a diligent police officer, come to lean toward the former? Lee Hee-joon said, "The decisive trigger was the arrogant and harsh words of the police senior who committed the crime, Jang Gap-su (Lee Joo-won). He was a brother whom Songchon trusted and followed more than his murderer father. Even if others badmouthed him, it would have broken his heart, but he was mocked to his face. 'Does it make sense that the son of a murderer is in the violent crimes unit?' At that moment, Songchon must have felt the pain of everything collapsing. To the point that the direction of his life was bent..."

Every human harbors evil thoughts and ideas. When thinking negatively, one is seized by aggressive impulses and desires within. Songchon tries to unleash this in front of villains. He calls himself a 'human garbage cleaner.' He is possessed by the conviction that his series of acts are justified. He wages a kind of struggle to maintain fixed thoughts.

Just because the target is a villain does not justify murder. On the contrary, Songchon’s murders are more brutal than most. American psychiatrist Michael Stone evaluated 279 cases involving couples, parents, and children who killed family members and created a grading system called the 'Graduation of Evil.' On a scale of twenty-two levels, at the very bottom were those who killed in self-defense, meaning completely impulsive murderers. At the very top were murderers with strong premeditated intent and extremely vicious attacks.

Songchon falls into the latter category. However, he differs somewhat from the majority of psychopathic murderers. Like ordinary people, he wonders how good and evil, normal and abnormal can coexist within one person in such direct forms side by side.

According to psychiatry, good and evil exist inside everyone. Depending on temperament, education, life experiences, and external environment, these can take various forms. Humans have the capacity to possess very good and very evil, normal and abnormal traits simultaneously. They can live alongside others with such traits. Therefore, questions about a clear distinction between good and evil people are quite pointless.

In such a structure, selecting villains is no easy task. If a good person is mistakenly killed, confusion in values is inevitable. Songchon minimizes this risk by obtaining a confession of remorse before killing. Lee Hee-joon explained, "I interpreted and acted it as a process absolutely necessary for Songchon."

"Since there is no clear standard to judge good and evil from the start, confession is the only way to verify. The coercion to write (the confession) honestly is in the same context. He seemed like someone who carries that around to justify his actions and believes he is having a good influence on the world. Conversely, I saw that he wanted to meet Itang (Choi Woo-shik) so much because he lacked that level of self-confidence. The people Itang killed impulsively were all, in fact, brutal criminals. He must have been jealous of that amazing ability to discern villains. He probably wanted to meet him as soon as possible to learn the know-how. To become a true 'human garbage cleaner.'"

This can also be read as a desperate attempt to relieve guilt. American sociologist Troy Duster investigated Vietnam war criminals and identified prerequisites for guiltless killing. The most common condition was depriving victims of their human status. Victims were called inferior races, larvae, useless parasites, harmful parasites to the nation, beings unworthy of life, and so on. During the dehumanization process, expressions like national disgrace, ethnic cleansing, and cleaning were used.

Songchon also rapidly adapts to evil by calling those he kills trash or weeds. He is a serial criminal solely interested in carrying out the mission he assigned himself. Polish writer and Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivor Andrzej Szczypiorski once expressed these aspects in a highly condensed form. It was a warning that evil lives among us.

"I came to know some people. They diligently and devotedly killed others, responsibly and precisely reported on their neighbors without selfishness, and tortured them faithfully and diligently. At that time, they showed exemplary integrity and prudence."