SPEAKER_00 0:44

Welcome to the Femme Fatal, a true crime podcast with an astrology twist. I'm your host, Stacy Dotson. Each week I'll be joined by a guest host because this femme fatal prefers not to work alone. Hey, welcome back to the femme fatal. And today I'm joined by Karen, and you remember Karen from a couple episodes before. How are you today, Karen? I'm good. How are you, Stacey? I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited because I decided I wanted to do a Chinese astrology episode. And that's how I stumbled onto this person. Her name is Lao Rangzia. And her story, she's famous for evading the authorities for two decades. And in China, she's kind of referred to Bonnie because she committed the crimes with her partner.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yeah, so Bonnie and Clyde.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah, of China. Okay, so one disclaimer before we start. This episode is full of Chinese names and places, and obviously I do not speak Mandarin. I have listened to pronunciations, but it was like I was cramming for a final. So I will get things wrong and I apologize in advance to over a billion people. Okay, you ready to get into it? I am. So Lao Rangzheng was born December 1974 in Zhuzheng, a city in China's Jiangxi province. She was the youngest of five kids, two older brothers, two older sisters. Her dad worked for the local petroleum operation, reportedly in security at an oil depot. Not a wealthy family, but Lao was a good student. She apparently wanted to finish high school and go on to university. One of her older brothers talked her into teacher school instead. And on paper, it was a smart move. It was a shorter program. And at the time, graduating basically came with a government-assigned job stapled to your diploma. So Lao took his advice. She graduated in 1992, 17 going on, 18, and got assigned to teach Chinese at an elementary school for employees of the Zhuzheng Petroleum Company. Now, one problem, the school was dying. The middle and high school divisions had already shut down. Only the elementary school was left, and the rumor was that it was next. The remaining staff might get reassigned somewhere else in the petroleum company, including potentially to gas stations. So the one career this woman had specifically trained for was quietly evaporating underneath her. She eventually took what was called Xingxin Lai Yong, basically an unpaid leave where you keep your employment connection to that company, but stop showing up and stop getting paid. A very, it's not you, it's the economy type of arrangement. So around that same time is when she met Fa Jing. They met at a wedding, connected to someone at Lao's school. Fa was about 10 years older than her. He was also married with the daughter and a criminal record. As a teenager, he'd been sentenced to 10 years for robbery and assault. So married ex con decade older. The resume for disaster was right there. After the wedding, Fa gave Lao a ride home on his motorcycle and the two started seeing each other. And Fa later claimed she was into his tough guy persona and their relationship got serious fast. Her family did not approve, right? Shocking. Eventually, Lao left Zhu Zheng with Fa. They reportedly had about 6,000 yuan between them and a plan to go into business together. It seemed like that was a legitimate plan, like not running off to a life of crime. I mean, she took her teaching diploma and it suggests that they were going to try for a legitimate life, right? So they went to Shenzhen and looked for opportunities. They tried to start a business, it went nowhere, and the money was reportedly gone in about a month. Lao later said she wanted to find a regular job and that Fa was pushing her toward working in nighttime venues instead. And the couple eventually circled back to Zhejiang. Then in early 1996, Fa got into a violent incident, reportedly injuring someone with a fishing spear.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

I know, I know. And they had to leave again. This time they went to Nan Chung. And that's where this stops being a story about bad choices and becomes a story about crimes. Right. So in 1996, Lao and Fa arrived in Nancheng, the capital of Jiangxi, new city, new identities. Lao was reportedly working under a stolen ID, and they presented themselves as a married couple. Lao started working in a nightclub, and the two of them developed a system. Her job gave her access to men with money. She would chat them up, find out what they did for a living, and figure out who was actually wealthy versus who was just buying rounds to look wealthy. And the pair also reportedly ran variations of a classic honey trap scheme. Lao poses as an escort or gets a married man into a compromising position. Fa appears, and suddenly this man is paying to keep his wife from finding out. And it apparently worked. They were hustlers and, you know, were there for quite a while. So one day, Lao noticed a businessman named Sheng. She met him through her work and believed he had money. On July 28, 1996, Lao invited Sheng to the apartment she shared with Fa. Fa was waiting inside. Zheng was restrained. Court records say the two of them bound his hands and feet together. They took his gold necklace, his watch, and the key to his home, and they forced him to tell them where he lived. Then Fa killed him. His body was dismembered and placed into several bags.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

That's a big escalation. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

And so remember he had the house key. So that evening they went to his home. Inside were Zhang's wife and their daughter, who was a toddler. Oh no. Oh no. Fa demanded money and valuables from her. Lao helped search the apartment and collect property. By her own courtroom accounts decades later, she actually went to that house twice. Once to find it beforehand, and then once the night they robbed it. And so unfortunately, Fa killed Zhang's wife and their young daughter, and the bodies were discovered shortly afterwards. After they were investigating, one of the people they worked with mentioned that she had seen Lao talking to him. So they were being investigated, and then the court issued a warrant notice for Lao and Fa, but they had already moved on. By the fall of 1997, Lao and Fa had landed in Huanzhou, a coastal city in Zhuziang. Lao was working in a KTV, and that's a karaoke entertainment venue, very common in China, part karaoke bar, part hostess club. And this time the person who caught their attention wasn't a customer, it was another woman working the same scene. Her surname was Laiang. While talking with Lyang about possibly taking over her apartment lease, Lao got the impression that Laiang had money. She told Fa. And on October 10th, 1997, the two of them showed up at Laiang's place under the pretense of discussing the rental. Fa pulled a knife. Lao bound Lyang's hand and feet. They took a watch, a phone, and other belongings, but it wasn't enough for them. So they forced Lyang to make a phone call to a woman named Leo, a supervisor at the KTV where Lao worked. They believed she had more money. Lyang under duress asked Leo to come over. When Li arrived, she was restrained too. They took her phone and forced her to hand over her bank book and pen. Then Lao went to the bank alone and withdrew the money, 25,750 yuan per the court records. She called Fa to tell him it was done, packed up their things at the hotel and left. Fa strangled both women. And one more detail that came out from reporting was it was in press coverage, but not in the court records. So after Leo's death, her phone rang and Lao answered it. The caller was Leo's boyfriend, and Lao told him that Leo had run off with her boyfriend. So yeah, you see the problem. He was the boyfriend, right? And so he started calling Leo's workplace, trying to figure out what was going on. And eventually the bodies were discovered, but again, by that time, Lao and Fa had already gone. Their next known crime was in Zhengziao in a Zhengzhu province in the summer of 1998. And this time, the only time the victim survived. Same playbook, Lao met a man through nightclub work and lured him to their rented place. Fa was waiting with the knife. The man was cut, restrained. According to evidence later presented in court, Lao personally wired him to a chair and guarded him. They took his cash he had on him and then forced him to call his wife and arrange for money. In the end, they took about 70,000 UN from his wife on top of what they'd already grabbed. Accounts differ a little on the exact mechanics of the handoff, but the numbers consistent with the reporting. And then they left him alive. And according to what prosecutors later said in court, Fa spared him because the man's wife begged for his life. This detail matters because, besides just the obvious that he survived, but it's great. But it wasn't part of Fa's prosecution. It only came as a formal charge two decades later when Lao was finally caught. And her own statements lined up with a confession Fa had made back in 1999 with the survivor. His testimony would matter. So after Sheng Zhao, Lao and Fa moved again. Their next stop was Hei, and this would be their final crime together. In the summer of 1999, Lao was working in a nightclub in Hefei, an Onwei province, under yet another alias. There she noticed a man named Yin. Yin ran an electronics-related business, bought drinks, and was generous with his friends, which in Lao and Fa's world made him a target. So their goal was reportedly 300,000 yuan. They made that decision. That's what they wanted to get from him. In American dollars, it's $44,706.39 today. This time, their preparations included something new. They had a steel cage made. The person who built it was reportedly told it was for a dog. And then they bought a freezer. So on July 22nd, Lao lured Yin back to their rented apartment. He was restrained and put inside the cage. Fa had told him he'd killed people before in Yin, according to accounts of the crime, didn't believe him. He was defiant. He was challenging Fa and, you know, saying, You need to let me out of here. I don't believe you, right? So Fa decided to prove it. And this is what pulled a poor, innocent man into the situation. So Fa called a carpenter named Lu Zhengming. He was 33 years old. He was a migrant day laborer who picked up jobs where he could find him. He had a wife, an elderly mother, and three little kids, seven, five, and three years old. And Fa called with what was a job. He said he showed up at the apartment, believed he had been hired to do carpentry work. And instead, Fa killed him in front of Yin. Liu was stabbed over and over and then decapitated. His head was shown to Yin. His body went into the freezer they had purchased. And so Yin was terrified and was obviously no longer defiant, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Also, it's obviously very premeditated.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Very premeditated. I mean, yeah, they had a cage built and a freezer. So he was forced to write notes instructing his wife to produce the money, and court evidence later established through handwriting analysis that Lao had personally added threatening language to one of those notes in her own handwriting. Yin called his wife. The first attempt at an exchange that night fell apart. Fa and the wife ended up at the meeting spot at different times and missed each other entirely. And then the whole thing got pushed back to the next morning. But then Yin's wife had had time to go get word to the police. So on the morning of July 23rd, Fa went to the family's home to collect. Yin's wife stalled him and said she needed to go get more money. She was short. And while she was out, the police they were outside and they moved in. So Fa was armed with a homemade revolver. There ended up being some gunfire, but Fa was the only one shot. He was shot in the leg, and then the police took him into custody. Now they get back to the apartment. Yin is dead, and Lao is in the wind. And so whoever actually killed Yin, that's uh one of the genuinely contested questions in this case. And it became a central fight at Lao's trial two decades later. Here's what's not contested though. When police searched the apartment, they found the steel cage, they found Lu Zhengming's remains in the freezer, and they found Yin's body. Fa initially refused to help police find Lao. He spun them entire fake identities and fake accomplices to buy her time. And when he went to trial, he repeatedly tried to take responsibility off of her at times, claiming the crimes were his alone. And by one account, he tried to exonerate her seven separate times in court, and the court did not buy it, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Well, at least that's a little admirable. He didn't he tried to do the right thing on her behalf, at least.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

So he ended up getting convicted. He was convicted of kidnapping, intentional homicide, and robbery, and sentenced to death, and he didn't even appeal. On December 28th, 1999, Fa was executed by firing squad. Now, Lao's still in the wind, and she would stay in the wind for another 20 years. Here's what we know Lao moved around China under different names, and one of them was She Li. She supported herself with ordinary jobs. Reporting from her fugitive years describes her work in bars and nightclub venues, waiting tables, odd jobs, and eventually selling watches. So despite being one of China's most wanted fugitives, there are no known violent crimes attributed to Lao during those 20 years. She apparently never even contacted her family. And while, you know, during that period, her father had passed away. So by the late 2010s, Lao was living in Xaman, a coastal city in Fujian. She had built herself another life. By late 2019, she was working at a watch counter in a shopping mall. Accounts differ on exactly how she ended up behind that counter, but coworkers later told reporters that she'd been there for months and that she was nice, warm, nothing like a killer. Which brings us to November 2019 because the surveillance world of 2019 is very different animal than the one that Lao had when she vanished, right, in 1999. So November 27, 2019, in the Xi Ming district of the Sha Sheng Police, we're running what Chinese reporting calls a Rusheng Dushu Ju, roughly facial image big data analysis. It compares faces from surveillance footage against China's wanted person's database, and it flagged a woman in the area of Chaitang Plaza, a shopping center, as a possible match for Lao Rangzheng. One widely reported figure, the system scored her face at a 97.33% similarity to Lao's roughly 20-year-old photo. Isn't that crazy? Photo from 1999 to 2019, and the math still said her. Officers did a manual comparison. They spent the night quietly working the maw, confirming her identity and mapping her routine. And she was going under Shaley at that time. So on November 28, 2019, plainclothes officer walked up to the watch counter and arrested her. No chase, no scene. She just walked out with him. At first, she denied being Lao, but a DNA comparison ended that conversation. So 20-year manhunt over. Lao's arrest also ended 20 years of silence for her family. While in custody, she asked police to show her video of her family in their home. Her siblings sent her clothes, pajamas, and a winter coat. And once Lao started talking about her years with Fa, she presented a very different version of how she got here. Lao said she had been a victim too. She described Fa as physically and sexually abusive. She said he controlled her money. She said he threatened her family. She wanted to leave and was terrified of what he'd do if she tried. She also described becoming pregnant twice during the relationship and having abortions. Her siblings believed that Fa had exercised real control over her. But the court had to answer a different question. Not just did Fa abuse Lao, but did Lao nevertheless willingly participate in these crimes? Prosecutors had a list. She identifies the targets, she lures them, she helps bind them, she guards them, she withdrew money. She was there when ransom changed hands in Chang Zhao. She scouted Zheng's home. She bought the freezer that Lu Zhangming's body was hidden in. She added death threats to ransom notes in her own handwriting. Then there was Hufei and the question of who killed Yin. Fa had claimed in 1999 that before leaving that morning, he told Lao, if I don't come back by 1230, kill Yin and run. Some accounts drawn from the original case file say Fa himself strangled Yin before he ever left the apartment. But by 2019, the physical evidence, the cage, the wire, they no longer existed to test. So when a prosecutor asked Lao point blank who killed Yen, her answer by the investigator's own account of the trial was, well, it was either Fa or me. It's only ever the two of us. Which is quite a thing to say.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

I think you would remember if you killed somebody. I mean, if she really was under duress and being abused and whatever, maybe not. I don't know. Either she was a really good actress or she was really traumatized, you know. It's hard to tell.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Twenty years later, you know, so I would think she would have deprogrammed a little bit. So the courts ultimately rejected the argument that coercion excused her involvement, and they found that Lao and Fa had planned crimes together, divided the work, and functioned as partners, and that she played a principal role in these crimes. So on September 9, 2021, the Nan Chang Intermediate People's Court convicted Lao Rong Zheng of intentional homicide, robbery, and kidnapping, and sentenced her to death. She appealed. In November 2022, the Zhangxi Higher People's Court upheld the conviction and the sentence. The case then went to China's Supreme People's Court for the mandatory review every death sentence gets, and the sentence was approved. On the morning of December 18th, 2023, Lao was allowed a final meeting with close family members. Her brother later said it happened about 9.30 that morning, but before her death, she did express an apology to all the victims' families. And later that same morning, Lao was executed by lethal injection. When she was executed, she was either 49 or a week short from 49, right? So her family didn't witness the execution, neither did the victims' families. So she was executed and Fa Zheijing had been executed by the firing squad almost 24 years earlier. And with that, legal case began with crimes committed in 1996 was finally formally over and closed. So they were. They were like the Bonnie and Clyde and you know she was also a little like Carla Hamolka who also claimed that, you know, she was beaten and abused and she was scared for her life, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:19

That could be legitimate. It's hard to know unless you've been in that situation. Either really good actors or they actually were abused and traumatized and couldn't see

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SPEAKER_01 22:29

a way out.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Obviously on this podcast a lot of people that end up being the subjects come from abuse.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Yeah. You know when I was doing

(Cont.) Wood Tiger: Lao Rongzhi

SPEAKER_00 23:11

research for the podcast, I found a bunch of things, right? She is pop culture sort of there. You know what I mean? She's got folklore and stuff like that. The problem was I couldn't find anything with English subtitles. The big one I found is a Chinese crime series called Red Spider, a late 90s semi-documentary style anthology that dramatized real cases involving female criminals. The first story in it about a character named Milan was based on Lao Rangzheng and the dog cage is in it and everything. And it's wild because the show was airing while Lao was still out there. So fans of the show were literally posting they caught Milan when she was arrested in 2019, right? But again I couldn't find a subtitled version to watch. But then I realized we're not the only ones that are obsessed with true crime. There's tons of Chinese podcasts that are all true crime there. Oh really? Yeah you know we're not the only ones right normally this is where I'd pull the Western birth chart but we're gonna read Lao Rongzheng through Chinese astrology. And it's so much more than like what's your animal like you see on the Chinese restaurant placemats, right? So there are 12 animals, but each one is also paired with one of the five elements wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. And each year is either a yin or a yang and stack all of that together and you get a repeating 60 year cycle so your exact animal element combo only comes around once every six decades. That's the shallow end there's much deeper systems. There's one called Ba Zhe, the four pillars of destiny, which builds a full reading from your year, month, day and hour of birth. It's basically the Chinese equivalent of a full natal chart, right? And uh credibility wise, we don't know her exact birthday so we can only do two of the pillars right we don't have a birth time. But every report lands on December 1974 so that's pretty safe using December 1974. Lao Rangzheng was a Yang wood tiger. And so what does that mean, right? The tiger is traditionally associated with independence, confidence, boldness, competitiveness, risk taking it's considered a strong-willed sign, charismatic, adventurous, decisive, and famously allergic to being controlled. The shadow side is impulsiveness, stubbornness, and leaping before looking. And then we add the wood element. And wood is the element of growth, expansion, adaptability, ambition, and Lao's wood was Yang Wood, the more outward active tree pushing through the sidewalk expression of element. So symbolically the wood tiger is a forceful personality. You could say this sign really earns its stripes. Yeah, that's my dad joke. And here's what's genuinely interesting in Lau's case. Her defense painted a woman who spent years being controlled by FAW, but the evidence also shows someone capable of operating on her own. She worked the club, she approached the target, she handled the money, she moved between cities and swapped identities. And when Fa was captured, the moment her alleged controller was gone, she didn't collapse, she disappeared and survived alone for 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Oh, but she also didn't have any more crimes that we know of.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Yeah, that we know of that she's not charged with any crimes. Anyway, none of this proves or disproves her allegations of abuse. So the tension between being controlled and being fiercely independent is exactly the tension baked into the tiger. And that symbolism is doing what symbolism does. Now I went ahead and did Faws as well. So Fa was born October 1st 1964 and that makes him a Yangwood dragon. So Lao and Faw shared an element wood tiger wood dragon. The dragon is traditionally the power sign of the Chinese zodiac confidence, ambition, charisma, a natural assumption that it should be in charge. Like the tiger, it's considered strong and assertive. So astrologically this is not quite a pairing two of the most forceful animals in the zodiac, both Yang, both carrying wood, the element of expansion of growth of more tiger and dragon aren't one of the classic harmony pairings, but they're not natural enemies either. They're just two very large energies and they lived in one very small apartment. Fa was the older established criminal that Lao had dominated and controlled her. Lao was the wood tiger who followed him out of her old life entirely and then outlasted him alone for two decades. Whether the true balance of power was behind closed doors, we'll never fully know Fa took his version to a firing squad in 1999 and Lao's took her to the execution chamber in 2023. The only two people who knew are gone and the seven people they killed never got to tell their version either.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Wow. There's the story so you wanted me to talk about this year for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Yeah so when I think of you when I think well I was like I want to do Chinese astrology. So I think of you because you and I kind of share this fascination together and always are sending each other things. So yeah let's talk about what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

So this year 2026 is the year of the fire horse. The horse is revered in Chinese culture due to its longstanding roles in agriculture, transport and warfare. However in the Chinese zodiac this galloping animal symbolizes strength, grace, endurance, loyalty, freedom, and success. Its strength represents possibilities for personal growth and success. The horse is admired for its resilience, independence and powerful life force. It is often associated with breakthroughs, dramatic shifts and opportunities that reward those who act with clarity and discipline rather than impulse. You mentioned that it occurs every 60 years so the year of the fire horse is rare. This year of the fire horse ushers in a period of heightened momentum courage rapid transformation and bold action for everyone so that again this is for all zodiacs you know Chinese zodiacs this is the year that pushes us forward urging bold movement rather than hesitation. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

I do too I'm still waiting for my bold movement to happen though.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

True me too but you know we still got time. The horse symbolizes freedom vitality and unstoppable drive when combined with the fire element its energy becomes even more intense fueling ambition, passion and rapid change. Kind of the same theme through here. The year is challenging individuals to act with confidence, trust their instincts and keep pace with fast moving circumstances. The fire horse is like a young thoroughbred. This year we're all given a choice in how to respond to its overwhelming energy we have the capacity to go around in a circle over and over and over again not knowing what we're doing like a horse with blinders on or we can harness this energy in a really mindful way. We need to consider how we can harness energy rather than let it drag us. Yeah. So we do have to be active in you know what it's bringing us. Another element of horses is their need for companionship. There's a sense of seeking out support of your community rather than just relying on yourself. That part I feel has been happening. Yeah I agree. So the Chinese Zodiac impacts people born that year but also the collective can pick up on that energy. Each person depending on what year you're born will have a different compatibility with the horse.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

So then this was another little interesting thing for the fire combination and this also brings in Lau because she was a wood tiger. Yeah says together with the dog and horse tiger makes further fire on some readings there are two scuffling tigers present at the change of the year. What is for sure is that the tiger may well instigate conflict in 2026 best not as the tiger belongs in the northeast on the world stage that's presumably Russia. Oh closer to home it may be you I just did a little thing like if Lau was still alive for those born with the year of the tiger navigating this energetic 2026 year of the fire horse this period brings a powerful three harmony alignment making it one of the most auspicious and high momentum phases in the 12 year cycle. So if she was still alive things might have changed.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

You never know you never know.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

I wonder if she did commit any crimes in that 20 years the type of crimes they did though it seems like you needed two people to do so I don't know if other than like petty thievery and does it say anything about like how big she was like was she like super tiny she wouldn't have been able to overpower like physical attributes of her she was a small girl petite girl five feet four inches.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

So she's not overpowering anybody so so apparently she was attractive too if she was able to honey trap all those men.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Oh well when you first started like talking about her I was like oh she sounds a lot like Kate Bender from my last episode oh yeah the honey trap and the must be very common among women to uh honey trap men in order to steal from them or kill them.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Okay well thank you so much for doing this I wanted to do something different. I'm glad to know China has a whole true crime like movement there.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

It's not just us. It's not just us. Well I think it's women you know it's women because we're the ones that are usually the victims. So I think it's like this sick sense of like how do we protect ourselves from this or I don't know. It is weird that we have the fascination though.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Everything like I looked on YouTube and all the Asian people that I could find you know were all women that talked about her. So yeah. All right well this was a lot of fun thank you take care bye bye the Femme Fatal created and hosted by Stacey Dodson produced by Mark Williams music by Marcia Ying Chad James and Brett Loycano, the Bible