Behind-the-scenes footage of the Xi’an manhunt

But Wei Zhenhai's influence is far from over. Later, director Tang Jingrui filmed ten episodes of the TV series "Xi'an Hunt" based on the incident. After the film was broadcast, it had a great response in Shaanxi.

< p>A few years later, a TV commercial promoting drugs caused a stir in the ancient city of Xi'an. The reason is that the protagonist of this commercial is the actor who plays the criminal Wei Zhenhai, the "murderous demon" in the TV series "Xi'an Manhunt".

An advertising company actually pursued the so-called "celebrity effect", and the advertising image of "Wei Zhenhai" played by an actor appeared in front of the audience in the ancient city. For a time, it aroused strong indignation among the people. Some of the victims' families were even more angry.

Three police officers from the Xi'an Municipal Public Security Bureau involved in the case published articles in newspapers condemning this practice.

After hearing the calls of the masses, the Propaganda Department of the Xi'an Municipal Party Committee immediately ordered the TV station to stop broadcasting the advertisement and criticized the party responsible for the advertisement.

The "Murderous Devil" advertisement was finally stopped due to the intervention of the Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department and the Industrial and Commercial Department, but the thoughts it left people with are far from over.

True History

Prison Escape

Wei Zhenhai was imprisoned in Cell No. 5 of a prison in Xi'an City, handcuffed and shackled, and was lying on a specially made death sentence On the bed frame. There were two light-duty prisoners sent by the correctional cadres in the cell to give him water and food, and to prevent him from committing suicide or committing other unethical acts.

According to regulations, prisoners admitted to prison must take off their trousers and shoelaces, and remove metal accessories from their clothes, in order to prevent prisoners from committing suicide. One day, armed police soldiers opened their chants and conducted a routine inspection of the prison building. Unfortunately, as soon as Wei Zhenhai's cell was found, a fierce fight broke out among the prisoners next door. The soldiers heard the sound and went to stop it. A new soldier who had recently joined the army actually dropped the pliers he brought in on the ground in his hurry. Wei Zhenhai grabbed the pliers in his hand, tied them to a cloth strip, and hung them under the wooden board of the latrine. Later, the soldiers discovered that the pliers were missing. Although many soldiers dug inside and outside to look for them many times, they could not find them.

One night, Wei Zhenhai lied to the two prisoners that he had a huge sum of 1 million and left it at a friend's house at No. 3, Yuexiu Road, Baiyun District, Guangzhou. He couldn't enjoy it in this life, so I'll give it to you. . After you were released from prison, you immediately went to Guangdong to find my friend and divide the huge sum of money. The two prisoners asked him to write a note. Wei Zhenhai said that he could only write it after opening the handcuffs. Then, every night in the dead of night, Wei Zhenhai started his work. He first used pliers to remove two large iron nails from the paving board, and then used the iron nails and pliers to pry off the shackles. After breaking them open, he wrapped them with cloth strips and covered them with mud. Under his coercion and inducement, the two prisoners used human ladders to saw the iron bars on the windows every night. All the fellow prisoners knew that Wei Zhenhai was a murderous evil spirit, and no one dared to report it to the guards. Their escape preparations were carried out in an orderly manner in full view of the public.

At about 3 o'clock in the morning on March 28, 1988, everything was ready and the time was ripe. Wei Zhenhai held iron pliers in his hand and directed two prisoners to tie up prisoners with the same name one by one with strips of cloth torn from quilts and gag their mouths. They pulled the iron bars on the window with all their strength and pushed them out one by one. Just outside the iron window was a row of bungalows, just out of sight of the sentry. They bent down and walked along the roof of the bungalow to the end and jumped into a pigsty. Later, he found a bamboo ladder used for construction and leaned it against the high wall.

Wei Zhenhai hid in the darkness, looking for a way out of prison. Surrounded by a 5-meter-high wall with high-voltage wires above, there was no hope of escaping over the wall with nothing. The large iron door of the prison was locked, but there was a side door that allowed entry and exit. It was impossible that there were no soldiers on duty at the door, and there was little hope of slipping out. But it is difficult to recover from the flood, so I can only fight for the life that no longer belongs to me in order to succeed. I walked to the door bravely, but there was no one there.

Xiao Wu, the new soldier on duty that night, was a little nervous because he was on duty independently for the first time. In the dead of night, he did not dare to take it lightly. Suddenly, he found that the searchlight at the northwest corner of the prison wall had been extinguished at some point, forming a large shadow. He walked straight over, turned his head, and saw three figures walking out of the door.

Xiao Wu hurried to the sentry tower and called the correctional officer on duty that night to make a report.

The correctional officers were very nervous after receiving the report. They hurried to the prison area and first checked Cell No. 5 because it contained death row inmates who were about to be executed.

When he turned on the flashlight, he found that the condemned criminal was still lying quietly on the bed - he made a mistake in the process. He didn't realize that the other two criminals with light sentences had disappeared, and he didn't go in to identify them. Little did he know that the cunning criminal had done something on the bed before escaping. "Disguise" and play an "empty city strategy".

Soon, the bound prisoner broke free and shouted. The guards immediately fired their shots, and all the armed police and officers took action immediately. On the one hand, they reported to their superiors, and on the other hand, they quickly searched in all directions with the detention center as the center, led by the police dogs. Director Liu Ping received the report at home and immediately ordered the criminal police, special police and armed police commanders, as well as all public security officers of the municipal bureau to take immediate action to completely block all traffic arteries and strengthen control of airports, railway stations and bus stations. Wei Zhenhai was intercepted in Xi'an City.

At dawn, all police forces have been deployed on time and on the ground. The entire city of Xi'an is like an airtight iron barrel, not even a fly can fly out. The two prisoners were quickly arrested, but Wei Zhenhai disappeared without a trace with the help of many fellow Taoists.

The case has not been solved for more than a year, and there are no clues at all. As a result, the wrong person is often arrested. The people of Xi'an Tan Xiaohei (Wei Zhenhai's nickname Xiaohei) have changed their minds, and the police handling the case have become even more so. Under heavy pressure, Wang Aijun, who was in charge of the case, was almost crazy because Xiao Hei had said that he would kill his whole family.

After disappearing for 20 months, Wei Zhenhai suddenly revealed clues in a massive murder, robbery and bombing that shocked the city.

On November 25, 1989, four criminals broke into the home of self-employed Yue Delin, killed Yue Delin, and injured his wife. When the police officers went to arrest him, they were injured again by grenades thrown by criminals. After the murder and explosion, the four criminals stole 138,000 yuan in cash. The Xi'an Municipal Criminal Investigation Department determined that the case was committed by Wei Zhenhai and his associates Wang Yu'an, Guo Gongdao, and Xie Feng.

The arrest

The arrest of Wei Zhenhai in the end was also quite bizarre. One time, a woman under Wei Zhenhai celebrated her birthday. Wei Zhenhai didn't go, so a few people tried their guns randomly again. The fire broke the glass of their house. The bullets passed through the open space in the winter building and shot towards the wall of a teacher's house opposite. You can imagine the teacher's Panicked, the police station came, and those people threw their guns into the snow downstairs. This incident alarmed Wei Zhenhai and the police handling the case.

On January 30, 1990, the police were at several locations where Wei Zhenhai might appear. An ambush was set up, and all the elite soldiers and generals were deployed elsewhere. They did not pay attention to the family of one of Wei Zhenhai's men who had already been arrested, and sent a very honest police officer Zhu Ruihua and an armed policeman to squat in the trap.

Only waiting in the middle was a man who caught his wife and raped him. There was no movement all day until about seven o'clock in the evening. Someone knocked on the door, and Zhu Ruihua opened the door. Zhu Ruihua didn't see clearly at the time, so he let him in. As soon as the man entered the door, he put a gun to Zhu Ruihua's temple. Only then did Zhu recognize that this was Wei Zhenhai.

Wei Zhenhai always had a big beard, and he had a bad premonition that day, so he shaved off his beard. It was dark, so Zhu Ruihua didn't recognize him. The gun was pressed against his head. Zhu Ruihua's head exploded. He threw himself at Wei Zhenhai. Wei Zhenhai grabbed the trigger, but the gun jammed and didn't go off. Zhu Ruihua went crazy, stuck Wei Zhenhai's neck, and finally recognized Wei Zhenhai. The two fought desperately, shouting that it was Wei Zhenhai, it was Wei Zhenhai.

The armed policemen held long guns and did not dare to shoot, because at this time Wei Zhenhai and Zhu Ruihua hugged each other and rolled from upstairs to downstairs. Zhu Ruihua hugged Wei Zhenhai tightly and finally captured Wei Zhenhai. At this time, Director Liu Ping rushed over after hearing the news, grabbed Wei Zhenhai's hair, clicked a photo, and won the News Photo Award that year.

That gun is also amazing. It was an old-fashioned Browning pistol with only four bullets. The night before yesterday, Wei Zhenhai took out the gun from the hiding place and wiped it again and again. He also wiped and wiped the four bullets. Still uneasy, he took out two six bullets. Four bullets are placed on top. Because the Browning bullet is old and the June 4th bullet is new. The two types of bullets are generally interchangeable.

After the investigation, it was found that the pistol held by Wei Zhenhai did not have the correct ammunition. It should have been loaded with 7.65 mm diameter bullets, but the first round was 7.62 mm in diameter. It was thanks to this "stinky bomb" that Wei Zhenhai was arrested and Zhu Ruihua had a narrow escape. He was later awarded first-class merit by the Xi'an Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government.

What is even more bizarre is that after catching Wei Zhenhai, an old policeman in charge of the pre-trial went outside the building to check the gun. He pulled the trigger and the bullet fired smoothly.

On March 8, 1990, the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court sentenced Wei Zhenhai and his accomplices Xie Feng and Wang Yu'an for intentional homicide, robbery, theft, intentional injury, drug trafficking, illegal trading of firearms and ammunition, and escape. , Guo Gongdao was sentenced to death and deprived of political rights for life.