The No 2 Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing on Monday convicted six men of murdering and dismembering six people in the city's Wanzhou area.

　　The slaying spree began in 1992 and ended last year.

　　Cui Bingcheng and Hu Yunshuang were sentenced to death, and Lu Dingsheng and Zheng Jiangjun were jailed for life. Zhou Guangyong was sentenced to 11 years and He Xingsheng five.

　　On the night of March 29, 1992, Cui repeatedly hit Wen Qiqing on the head with a hammer. Wen, a gatekeeper at a cigarette sales company, was on his way to work. Then Cui, Zheng and Lu left Wen at the roadside and fled as passers-by approached. Wen died the next morning.

　　The trio attempted to take the key to the firm's ware-house and steal cigarettes.

　　In June 2001 after breaking up with his girlfriend, Hu asked his friend, Tan Xiaolin, to persuade her not to abandon him. However, Hu thought Tan said bad words about him and two months later, Hu and Cui kidnapped Tan, forcing him to give up the code number of his bank book. After Cui withdrew 6,500 yuan (US), they strangled Tan and dismembered his body.

　　On October 16, 2001, Cui, his friend Xia Yonggui, and Hu kidnapped Yang Daocui, who was playing cards with them, forcing her to give them her credit-card number. The next day, they withdrew 9,600 yuan from Yang's bank account, strangled her and dis-membered the body.

　　On March 1 last year Xia invited another woman to play cards with him but killed her and dismembered her body.

　　Soon after, Xia, Hu and Cui also robbed a businessman, an acquaintance of Xia, before killing and dismembering him.

　　Late in March 2002, Hu and Cui killed Xia in fear Xia would expose the crime.