A hapless Taiwan husband survived six attempts by his wife to kill him, before he was finally burned alive by a hired killer, a report said yesterday.
The wife, Liao Je-hung (廖日紅), and killer Liao Shih-chung (廖世忠) were both sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hsinchu District Court on Tuesday.
They were convicted for the murder of Lin Jung-lo (
The hired killer, was reportedly paid NT$1 million (US$30,770), to kill Lin.
According to the report, court testimony revealed the hired killer forced Lin to drink until he was inebriated and then took him to a river and set him alight.
Police investigating the death found Liao had engineered six previous murder attempts to murder Lin, starting in May 1999.
Five other hired hitmen were each paid up to NT$1 million even though they failed in various murder attempts including a bogus car accident, arson, stabbing and poisoning. On each occasion Lin was injured, sometimes seriously, but managed to return to health.
The five were also arrested and sentenced to jail terms up to 18 years.
Reports were conflicting about motives. Some said the woman had been driven to kill her husband by his repeated affairs and his miserliness. Other reports say Liao was discovered by her husband to have sold off land that he owned and that she was the one who had been having an affair.
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