On this date in 2006, the People’s Republic of China executed a gentleman by the name of Qiu Xinghua.

Qiu’s offense, at bottom, was one of anger management: believing the abbot at a mountain temple in the interior province of Shaanxi was making time with his wife, Qiu went on a homicidal rampage at said temple where he

cut out the abbot’s eyes, heart and lungs and fried them in a wok. He had used the victims’ blood to write “Deserved to die” on the temple wall.

“The victims” comprised nine other people besides the abbot, plus another one killed while on the run from the law for five weeks after his temple frenzy. (He also torched the temple.)

The enormity of the crime, and the attempts by Qiu’s team to raise doubts about his sanity, attracted wide public attention in China.

On this day..

• 1866: John Roberson
• 1763: John Brannon, Joseph Jervis, Charles Riley, and Mary Robinson
• 1888: Leong Sing
• 1905: A.I. Volioshnikov, police spy
• 1022: Medieval Europe's first heresy executions
• 1868: Priscilla Biggadike, exonerated Stickney murderess
• 2010: Two Iranian political prisoners
• 1888: Prado, before Gauguin
• c. 560 B.C.E.: Aesop, fabulist
• 1894: Chief Two Sticks, Ghost Dancer
• 1827: Levi Kelley