With its lurid revelations of sex, violence and greed within what had seemed a model Hong Kong expatriate family, the murder trial of American Nancy Kissel had all the ingredients of a paperback thriller.
The 41-year old mother-of-three was jailed for life Thursday when a jury found her guilty of murdering her banker husband Robert Kissel by bludgeoning him to death after drugging him with a laced milkshake.
Although murder trials are not uncommon in Hong Kong, they are rare within the foreign community, which is often seen as above the law.
PHOTO: AFP
"Not since the murder of two students in the mid-1980s has there been an expat murder case that has so caught the public's attention," said Kate Whitehead, journalist and author of Hong Kong Murders, a history of the city's gruesome killings.
"Hong Kong's expat community is close-knit, and the world of a high-flying banker is even more guarded," Whitehead added.
By all reports, the Kissels lived a fairy-tale life. They and their three children, Reis, June and Elaine lived in one of the city's most exclusive apartment blocks, and he held down a high-flying job with investment bank Merrill Lynch.
A succession of friends testified to the couple's high regard within their community; him for the work he did and her because of voluntary work for their children's private school and her charity work within local Jewish organizations.
According to the deceased's father William Kissel, his son was a typical all-American male.
"He was an athlete, he was competitive, he loved his children," said the 77-year old outside the court.
It was because a family with such privilege could fall so low that made the case so riveting, said Sammy Chiu, head of the social work department at Hong Kong Baptist University.
"The gap between the rich and poor is so wide in Hong Kong. And although the rich are admired by the poor, they want to see them fall because they make them feel life is unequal," he said.
"Rich people give the general public a sense of mystery. The poor often feel they are unreachable. They are intrigued especially with their private life, so this type of voyeurism gives them satisfaction," he said.
Prosecutors had painted Kissel as a vengeful woman who stood to gain US$18 million in insurance payouts after her husband's death.
The defense said Kissel had been goaded by five years of abuse at the hands of an often violent and sexually deviant husband, who forced her into unnatural sex acts while under the influence of cocaine or drink.
She was frequently forced to endure violent anal sex, which had left her injured and in pain, the defense said.
Robert Kissel's murder made headlines as soon as police were called in to investigate after his body was found rolled into old carpets.
Adding to the sense of deadly decadence, early reports said he had been beaten with his golf clubs: golf is a sport that only the very rich can afford to play in Hong Kong.
When the case came to trial, however, newspapers lapped up the gory details of the banker's death: the bedroom where he was killed was splashed with blood and his head had been caved in with blows from a lead ornament.
So forceful were the blows that they shattered his skull and caused brain fluid to spill on the bed clothes.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
RSS