The Thief of a Thousand Faces - Lin Wanlin
Hello everyone, this is the Strange News Observation Room, I am Changfeng
From the 60s to the 70s of the last century, there was such a vicious gangster, and his life experience was a martial arts novel, and his legends were all on the rivers and lakes.
But few people have actually seen him, his behavior is erratic, he is easy to understand, and he is good at women's clothing, yes! Ladies! Armed with a double gun, the Jianghu people called: "Double Gun Thief" and "Thousand Faced Thief"
"Two-Gun Thief" and "Thief with a Thousand Faces"
After committing a crime, he can always retreat from the whole body, and he has been tough with the police many times, and among the most wanted criminals in the police, he is listed as the "number one public enemy", he is the thousand-faced thief - Lin Wanlin, who has been wanted by the police in Singapore and Malaysia for 7 years
Singapore, 1940
Singapore's small size in Southeast Asia has increased its land area by 23% over the years through reclamation activities.
In its early days, it relied on international trade and human capital to become one of the four Asian tigers, and now it is one of the most important financial, service and shipping centers in Asia, and has been voted the safest country in the world.
And the story we're going to tell today happens here.
The protagonist, Lim Man Lam, was born in 1940 in Paya Lebar, Bayeleba, Singapore, his parents are authentic fishermen, they raised a total of 12 children, Lin Wanlin is the third oldest.
Lin Wanlin
There are so many children to raise, parents can only desperately fish, do not dare to stop for a moment, there is no time to take care of children, so Lin Wanlin and his siblings basically grew up in a free-range state.
When it came to the grade, Lin Wanlin attended the local Fengshan Primary School, but because his family was so poor that he had not yet graduated from primary school, he began to mix with society.
In order to survive, Lin Wanlin did suffer a lot when he was a child, doing any work, when his parents fished, he became a fish seller, and later went to the feed factory as a helper, to the construction site as a coolie, in short, what hard work and tired work have been done.
Hard work is done
It may also be this experience of poverty that gave him a strong desire for money and laid the groundwork for the crimes that followed.
Of course, poverty, many people will encounter, it depends on how you deal with it, if he has been so down-to-earth, there should be a day of the beginning, there will be no legend of his on the rivers and lakes.
But he was not satisfied with the status quo and always wanted to get rich overnight.
His moody personality, and long-term mixed with some street mixes, slowly the road will go crooked.
In 1956, Lin Wanlin, who was only 16 years old, married Ms. Yang of Qingmei Bamboo Horse.
Lin Wanlin married Ms. Yang of Qingmei Bamboo Horse
After marriage, Lin Wanlin did not restrain at all, continued to fool around with fox friends, and was addicted to gambling, with some money in his hand, he went to gamble, he would not come back without losing, for a long time, his wife did not bother to take care of him, to be exact, it was not lazy to manage, it could not be managed, it could only be managed by him.
Fast forward to 1958, 18-year-old Lin Wanlin looks very Sven and somewhat handsome, he has been fooling around in the streets for all these years, and later joined a local secret society called Xiao Yihe with a few and began the road of crime.
Addicted to gambling
At first, it was just a small fight, engaged in some small things of stealing chickens and dogs, often summoned by the police, and was a regular visitor to the police station, and later became more and more bold.
Once Lin Wanlin and his accomplices directly robbed cigarettes worth thousands of yuan, this time he floated, the money came so fast, too exciting, he wanted to do a bigger "business", full of thoughts of getting rich overnight.
But before the big "business" began, he was arrested by the police and sent to the reform center for 2 years of probation.
But this was of no use at all, and after coming out, Lin Wanlin became more fierce and hated society.
Debut
Lin Wanlin, who had just entered the jianghu, was very fierce, every time he fought, he rushed to the front, slowly played a little fame, and became a small leader in the gang, deeply respected by some little brothers.
But in the fight, Lin Wanlin also often suffers losses, many times not because the other party is more fierce or has been trained, but Lin Wanlin's height is only 1.65 meters, so others also gave him a nickname "Ah Oei", which I will not read, in The Hokkien language is the meaning of "short".
"Ah Oops"
This matter has also been bothering Lin Wanlin, he often turned over in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep, and then he wondered, since I am not good at close attack, then be a remote. At that time, Singapore did not have a ban on guns, and with the help of the gang, he successfully got the gun.
It is said that in order to improve his shooting skills, he also went to the Riau Islands for training.
Not to mention, for shooting, Lin Wanlin is very talented, many people can only shoot with a gun with one hand, but Lin Wanlin can shoot with both hands, and the accuracy is very high, and his name of "double gun thief" came from this.
"Two Gun Thief"
After successfully turning from a warrior to a shooter, Lin Wanlin became extremely fierce and gradually showed his sharp edge on the underworld.
In 1963, for Lin Wanlin, it was a year of opening and hanging, he carried out 8 vicious robberies with the blessing of two guns, robbing a total of 150,000 yuan, which was a huge amount of money in that year.
Two of the more sensational cases were the ones
In the first case, Lin Wanlin took 3 accomplices, all equipped with pistols, planned to rob the printing department of the Straits Times on Anshun Road, and with Lin Wanlin's order, 4 people rushed into the house and successfully stole 30,000 yuan of wages.
In the second case, Lin Wanlin also led 3 gangs, in broad daylight, openly armed with firearms to intercept the bank cash truck on Meizhilan Road, and stole 80,000 yuan in cash.
robbery
The Singapore police attach great importance to these two cases of a heinous nature, and there are such bold gangsters who openly rob with guns in broad daylight.
But the Singapore police have been busy for a long time, and they can't find out who the murderer is.
Because Lin Wanlin is too good at disguise, don't look at his primary school has not finished, but the brain melon is very bright, careful and cautious, like to go alone, out of the blue, since his wife did not care about him, he is also a place of residence, no one knows where he lives.
After each crime, he would disappear into the vast sea of people, and even his accomplices would not find him, let alone the police.
Disappear into the vast sea of people
In the following year, he committed several robberies, although he said that he had robbed a lot of money, but Lin Wanlin also spent more money.
The first is that he likes to gamble money and loses a lot.
Then there is the fact that he is very generous to his little brother and friends, and if anyone needs money, he is always generous.
Another point is that he often helps some poor people, which may be related to the fact that he was too poor when he was a child, and he was also very willing to give money to the poor, so Lin Wanlin's reputation in the jianghu is not bad, and some people even call him a rogue.
Relief for the poor
Fast forward to 1965, a major event occurred in this year, which made Lin Wanlin's fate begin to change.
Exposure
At 5 p.m. on May 17, 1965, plainclothes police officer Peter Lin Peter Lim and two colleagues were on patrol outside.
Stumbling upon the three suspects, Peter quietly follows.
But before following for a while, it was discovered by the other side, the police saw that it had been exposed, immediately acted, and successfully arrested one of them, the other two gangsters saw that the situation was not good, directly drew their guns and fought with the police, and the two sides began to shoot.
Fight with the police
One of the gangsters was Lin Wanlin, who was armed with two guns, and only Detective Peter had a gun on the police side, and soon fell into the downwind, Peter's right finger and right leg were grazed by bullets, and more importantly, his gun was also taken by Lin Wanlin.
You know, the police gun symbolizes authority, the police gun is taken away, it is very humiliating, must not promote the arrogance of the outlaws!
The Singapore Police set up an investigation team to prepare to recover the police gun
This time there were witnesses, and Detective Peter also saw the other person's appearance, so he quickly determined the identity of the gangster -
Name: Lin Wanlin, 1 meter 65 tall, medium stature, the police immediately issued a wanted warrant
Just when the police were searching for Lin Wanlin with all their might, he actually took the initiative to find the door.
Related stories
Lin Wanlin called the police station directly and said:
The gun you are looking for, I have discarded it outside a western-style building on Katong Road, you go and pick it up!
I don't need your guns, I have a lot of weapons on hand!"
Do you want to arrest me, but unfortunately you will never be able to catch me.
Besides, when you arrest me, I will definitely fight with you.
I'll leave the last bullet to end my life, so you can only get my cold body."
After saying that, Lin Wanlin laughed wildly and then hung up the phone.
The police's angry faces were all green, and this Lin Wanlin was also too arrogant.
revolver
In fact, Lin Wanlin really did not pay attention to the police, and his exchange of fire with the police this time was only to open the prelude to the next bloody storm.
In 1966, Lim Orchestran orchestrated their largest robbery in Singapore, and he and his accomplices stormed the First National City Bank of Collyer Quay in broad daylight and stole 156,000 yuan.
On September 7, 1966, Lin Wanlin confronted the police for the second time, on the street of Beiqiao Road, the patrol police met Lin Wanlin again, and as soon as he saw the police, Lin Wanlin did not hesitate, directly drew his gun and shot, injuring the leg of officer Alan Lee. The police also arrested one of his accomplices in the cinema hall, but Lin Wanlin escaped.
Later, when the Singapore police raided an underground casino, they again encountered Lin Wanlin, who was gambling money, Lin Wanlin was very vigilant, saw a police approaching, immediately pulled out a pistol, and preemptively attacked.
He then quickly escaped by a spiral iron ladder, and although the police followed closely behind, they quickly lost track of Lin Wanlin.
Underground casino
Three consecutive firefights, two police officers hung up the lottery, Lin Wanlin was full of retreat, in order to regain face, the police offered a reward of 2,000 yuan, hoping that the public would enthusiastically provide clues.
But this reward order has little effect, not that the people are suspicious of money, but that Lin Wanlin is too cunning, he has learned to disguise, and sometimes even dressed himself up as a girl, escaping the police search again and again.
Wanted
At 1:20 p.m. on June 23, 1968, Lin Wanlin walked out of a shop on Yangon Road and was discovered by Detective Koh Chong Thye and two other police officers, who quietly followed Lin to an open space on Owen Road.
Detective Koh Chong Thye
At this moment, Lin Wanlin suddenly turned around, pointed a double gun at the police officer and shouted: Hand over the weapon
The police refused to compromise, and then there was a gunfight, although Detective Xu immediately dodged behind the car on the side, but Lin Wanlin's marksmanship was too fast, or hit him in the chest.
The injured Detective Xu returned fire, and after a missed shot, Lin Wanlin walked closer and pulled the trigger on Detective Xu's forehead.
The 27-year-old young detective died, leaving behind his wife and two young children.
Diagram
After Detective Xu fell, the gun battle continued, Lin Wanlin fought and retreated, and finally took a few detours, got into a taxi and disappeared.
After this incident, the police were furious and began a nationwide search for Lin Wanlin, with newspapers publishing a wanted notice with his photo, and a rolling portrait of him on television, while raising the reward to 5,000 yuan. In less than a year, the police raised the amount of the reward to 10,000 yuan.
Reward
At this time, looking at the major police stations in Singapore, there was such a scene, the police stations were posted with enlarged photos of Lin Wanlin, and each police officer had his "head photo" and memorized his appearance and characteristics.
Interpol also included him on the wanted list
All officers were ordered to:
When facing Lin Wanlin, we must not act rashly and take risks alone. Be sure to call for rescue.
All members of the public have also received notices from the police:
Do not harbor this thief, as soon as you find his whereabouts, immediately dial 999, do not take action without permission.
For a time, the city was full of wind and rain, and the name of Lin Wanlin, a thousand-faced thief, was unknown to everyone.
The police engaged in such a big position, still did not find any clues to Lin Wanlin, he seemed to disappear out of thin air.
In fact, Lin Wanlin is no longer in Singapore, and he often flees to Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, China and other countries to hide after committing crimes, so it is difficult for the Singapore police to find him.
In the face of Singapore's strike hard, Lin Wanlin was not panicked at all, repeatedly successfully escaped, let him have confidence in himself, he hid his name while not forgetting to recruit soldiers, the crime site is no longer limited to Singapore, Malaysia has become another battlefield for him.
In August 1968, Lin Wanlin led five gunmen to Johor, Malaysia, and directly robbed the state's financial department for a total of 452,000 yuan, this time, Lin Wanlin killed a guard.
In the process of escaping, Lin Wanlin also cleverly set up suspicious soldiers, parked at the speedboat with a stolen taxi, and pretended that they would escape in the speedboat.
speedboat
The police were fooled and set up an ambush at the speedboat position, but in fact, Lin Wanlin had already escaped from other routes.
Malaysia was humiliated by the case, and the robbers directly robbed the government department, which is so arrogant.
The Malaysian side also began to want Lin Wanlin, and just when the Malaysian police were angrily looking for Lin Wanlin, he ran back to Singapore unconsciously.
On October 4, 1972, Lin Wanlin began to commit high-profile crimes again, and he and his accomplices robbed Atlas Electronics, a total of 62,000 yuan.
From 1963 to 1972, from lin wanlin's formal crime to 1972, in the 9 years, he committed crazy crimes in Singapore and Malaysia, robbing at least 2.5 million yuan of huge sums of money.
9 years
Although there have been many head-on clashes with the police, but each time he can retreat, since 1965, Lin Wanlin has become a key police wanted criminal, the bounty is rising again and again, but he can not be found.
For a time, Lin Wanlin became Singapore's "number one public enemy", described by the police in Singapore and Malaysia as the most dangerous, headache and trickiest fugitive.
"Number One Public Enemy"
The reason why Lin Wanlin is so difficult is, on the one hand, that he wanders in many countries
The other side owes it to his superb camouflage skills.
Lin Wanlin himself is even if he is beautiful, his height is not high, he often dresses himself as a woman, has escaped the police many times, and he also has many fake identities.
Dress up as a woman
There are six known pseudonyms, Tau Hong Lim, Seow Lim, Ah Seow, Suay Kia, Oei Kia and Ah Oei. In the later stage, Lin Wanlin also underwent plastic surgery, which made it more difficult for the police to catch him.
The end
The Singapore police have laid out a lot of eyeliner and are looking for Lin Wanlin. His bounty rose from the initial $2,000 to $17,000.
On November 24, 1972, Lin Wanlin hid in Macau for several months, and not long after returning to Singapore, he and his most trusted subordinate, "Piglets", wandered around the night market on Margaret Drive in Queen's Town, which was an ideal place for robbery.
This piglet daimyo Cai Yajiu, who is also one of the top ten wanted criminals in Singapore and Malaysia, has followed Lin Wanlin in a number of robberies of a bad nature, and is Lin Wanlin's right-hand man, who is said to believe no one but him.
Cai Yajiu
Lin Wanlin and Pig boy, who were wandering around the night market, were recognized by the informant and secretly informed the police.
After receiving the tip, the Singapore police attached great importance to it and began to formulate an arrest plan, in order not to leak the wind, this operation was only known to a small number of police officers, and finally led by the chief of police.
Considering the crowds at the night market, the police chief only selected 6 capable generals and disguised themselves as café customers.
At 7:30 p.m., six police officers laid an ambush near the Golden City Theater, armed with weapons, staring closely ahead, looking excited and nervous.
After waiting for 45 minutes, Lin Wanlin and Piglet did appear, but instead of walking toward the trap laid by the police, they entered a store.
store
There were many people in the store, and Lin Wanlin had weapons, and the police did not act rashly, but continued to wait.
About 10 minutes later, Lin Wanlin and his men walked out of the store and walked in the direction of the police, but before they could take a few steps, the two suddenly fled in opposite directions and turned around and shot at the police.
The police also did not show weakness, 7 people divided into two groups began to fight back, the process of the big battle is of course very thrilling and exciting, this time Lin Wanlin is not so lucky, after the police fired 3 shots in a row, Lin Wanlin staggered about 10 meters, and then fell to the ground and did not move.
One end was planted on the ground
Solving Lin Wanlin, the police continued to pursue the piglet, who was also a cruel man, and while shooting at the police, he quickly escaped into the crowd and disappeared.
The police were afraid of hurting the innocent and had to give up.
Lin Wanlin, who was shot three times in the body, had already lost his breath.
In addition to a revolver, Lin Wanlin also had thirteen bullets and 1.40 yuan in cash.
relic
And an ID card named Lin Jianhua, at first, the police were not sure that this person was Lin Wanlin, because his hairstyle and weight were not the same as on the arrest warrant.
The photos on the wanted warrant were taken when I was 23 years old, and now Lin Wanlin is 32 years old, and the changes in 9 years, coupled with the fact that Lin Wanlin has had a facelift, are indeed difficult to identify.
Finally, through fingerprints and tattoos on his body, it was determined that this person was Lin Wanlin.
Difficult to recognize
It is hard to imagine that he snatched at least 2.5 million yuan before he died, and when he died, he only had 1.4 yuan on him.
I don't know if he lost all the money, hid it, or scattered it to other poor people.
Continued
After learning of Lin Wanlin's law, the police in Singapore and Malaysia all clapped their hands and applauded, over the years, Lin Wanlin's 3 words are simply the nightmare of every police officer, everyone is very conflicted, on the one hand, they want to catch him in their dreams, on the other hand, they are afraid of encountering him alone and being injured by his double guns.
Although the ambush of Lin Wanlin was successful, a policeman who did not want to be named was killed in the battle.
Another police officer involved, Tan Lee Keng, was lucky enough to have both shots graze him in the chest, but only a little bruise was left.
Officer Tan Lee Keng
According to the conclusions of firearms experts:
Officer Tan was able to survive completely coincidentally, Lin Wanlin fired two shots before his death, although a bullet hit Officer Tan's chest, but I don't know whether it was ballistic failure or because the bullet was placed for too long to fail, in short, there was no strength, like a false hair.
When Lin Wanlin opened fire again, his bullet jammed, so Officer Tan survived.
Maybe Lin Wanlin's qi was exhausted, and it was God who wanted to take him.
Three weeks later, the police once again surrounded Lin Wanlin's confidant Piglet on Tank Road, who knew that there was no hope of escape and chose to cut himself off.
Maybe he believed very much in what Lin Wanlin said and would never let the police catch him, so at the last moment, he left only his cold body for the police.
Interestingly, after the news of Lin Wanlin's death came out, there was such a strange scene in Singapore, and the official personnel, of course, all clapped their hands and said that they were happy, but many poor people showed great sadness about Lin Wanlin's death, because Lin Wanlin did scatter a lot of money to the poor.
There are also some people in the gang who also feel that Lin Wanlin is a very moralistic person, so after his death, many mixed-society people also expressed great regret.
Lin Wanlin died at the scene
On November 25, 1972, 33 prisoners in Singapore escaped en masse, and their purpose of escaping from prison was to attend Lin Wanlin's funeral, although after being arrested, they repeatedly denied it, saying that it was only because the prison food was not good, so they wanted to escape.
Of course, this is all an excuse, which shows that Lin Wanlin's status in the jianghu is quite unusual.
In fact, Lin Wanlin's cousin Zhang Chaojin, cousin Zhang Jinfeng, cousin Zhang Yongxing, etc. are all extremely vicious gangsters.
Lin Wanlin's cousin Zhang Chaojin (second from left), cousin Zhang Jinfeng (third from left), and cousin Zhang Yongxing (first from left)
After the case of Lin Wanlin, the Singapore government suddenly realized that guns were a great threat, and Singapore was indeed chaotic at that time, with frequent shootings and police officers being shot.
As a result, in November 1973, Singapore passed the Weapons Offences Act. The crime of possessing, using, or even attempting to use firearms is prohibited. The penalties for possessing or carrying a firearm are imprisonment and flogging. The use of firearms is punishable by death.
Arms Offences Act
After the ban on guns, Singapore's security slowly improved, and it was later rated as one of the best in the world.
Well, the above is the story of Lin Wanlin, the Great Thief with a Thousand Faces, I am Changfeng, then we will see you next time.
Resources:
Books: "Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965", "The Surprise of shooting", "Lion City Serious Crimes - Police Gangster Blood"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lim_Ban_Lim
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/guilty-as-charged-lim-ban-lim-was-most-wanted-gunman-in-singapore-and
https://wiki.sg/p/Lim_Ban_Lim:_Criminal_cases_(1963_-_1972)
https://mothership.sg/2017/12/spores-most-wanted-criminal-killed-a-cop-robbed-s2-5-million-in-1972-he-was-165cm/
https://www.wiki.en-us.nina.az/Lim_Ban_Lim.html
https://www.wanbao.com.sg/package/pai-an-liang-qi?page=27
http://johor.chinapress.com.my/20190626/ a case of injury family 5 criminals - Tianzi No. 1 thief /
http://sg.mofcom.gov.cn/article/gqjs/202003/20200302945236.shtml
Author: Strange Observation Room
The views expressed in the article are solely those of individuals
The text is copyrighted by The Strange Observatory
Please contact us for reprints/references