Most read of 2023: Hello Kitty murder, the death of Jet Li’s manager – 7 stories from the Post archives

Several of our most popular stories from the Post’s archive this year had a crime element to them, including the murder of a woman tortured for weeks in 1999

Also among them: the underworld assassination of martial arts actor Jet Li’s manager in 1992, and when pirates attacked a cargo ship off Hong Kong in 1999

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The murder and dismemberment in Hong Kong of a woman kidnapped and tortured for weeks, and whose head was found stuffed in a Hello Kitty soft toy (above), was among the most read stories from the Post’s archives that we presented in 2023. Photo: SCMP

Published: 4:15pm, 25 Dec 2023

Dave Besseling’s weekly dive into the Post’s archives for Post Magazine opens a door to the past, giving readers a look at stories that made headlines in Hong Kong over the decades. In 2023, several of the most popular with readers had a crime element.

2004: Bank junks deposit boxes in blunder

We looked back at an incident in 2004 when a Hong Kong bank suffered a crushing humiliation after scrapping 83 safe deposit boxes full of cash, jewels and personal items.

DBS Bank was renovating one of its branches and sent safe deposit boxes to an industrial crusher; 83 of the boxes still contained property.

Customers of a Hong Kong branch of DBS bank visit the bank to check their safety deposit boxes after the bank sent 83 boxes still containing customers’ items to an industrial crusher. Photo: SCMP

1995: Hong Kong civil servant arrested

One story that grabbed headlines was from October 1995, when Hong Kong civil servant Clive Holgate was accused of maintaining a standard of living beyond his salary after his wife vanished, leaving behind a mass of money.

Clive Holgate was sentenced to two years in jail for maintaining a living beyond his legitimate means. Photo: SCMP

The wife, a former Wan Chai bar girl with a secret lover, was a heavy gambler, a court heard, and Holgate said some of his unexplained money was from her stash.

1999: Pirates partied after killings

Pirates attacked a cargo ship off Hong Kong in 1999, murdering 23 sailors, then held a party on board to celebrate. Caught after police found a photo of the party, 13 pirates were sentenced to death, and went to their executions drunk and singing a Ricky Martin song.