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Historic Sickos that Could Have their Own Terrifying Netflix Series

Khalid Elhassan September 30, 2022 37 min

When a Ruler Turns Deadly Stalker

Stalker - Prince Liu Pengli liked to hunt his subjects for fun — Prince Liu Pengli liked to hunt his subjects for fun. Vocal

Ancient China’s Prince Liu Pengli was a member of the ruling Han Dynasty. He was also the first notorious murderous stalker and serial killer in recorded history. In 144 BC, Emperor Jing, Liu Pengli’s cousin, appointed him king of the city of Jidong and its environs. That was bad news for the good people of Jidong, who would be ruled by Pengli for the next 23 years. Pengli preyed upon his subjects, and killed them for kicks and giggles and the sheer fun of it.

Pengli probably would have liked the Ramsey Bolton character from Game of Thrones. Like that fictitious character, Pengli liked to stalk and literally hunt human beings for sport. He stalked, hunted, and murdered at least 100 people for his amusement, and the true number of his victims was probably higher. His reign of psychotic terror lasted for over two decades. In that stretch, his subjects were too scared to come out of their homes at night. It only came to an end after one of Pengli’s victims finally screwed up the courage to travel to the imperial capital, where he complained to the emperor.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.