The Itaewon Burger King Murder took place on April 3, 1997 when 22-year-old Hongik University student Jo Jung-pil (Hangul: 조중필; born 1974) was stabbed to death at Burger King in Itaewon. Arthur Patterson, 17 at the time of the incident (born to an American father and a South Korean mother), was the main suspect. Patterson and his friend Edward Lee were arrested but they were released by the Supreme Court in 1998 due to lack of evidence and Patterson was banned from travelling to South Korea. In October 2012 it was announced Patterson will face extradition by South Korean police after a DNA test indicated traces of Jo's DNA, when Lee's didn't.
Arthur Patterson
Patterson was born in Los Angeles, California to a Caucasian American father and Korean mother. Patterson's father was a former soldier stationed in South Korea (where he met his wife). Arthur was described as a "Mexican gangster" who disrespected his family frequently and had alleged gang ties. At age 16, Patterson may have had previous legal arrests as a juvenile, may have been arrested and served 16 months in juvenile hall in California. Patterson's father was an American soldier based in Korea at the time of the incident. There, he met Korean American youth Edward Lee who was the son of a wealthy Korean family, living most of his life in the USA.
Murder of Jo Jung-Pil
Edward Lee and Arthur Patterson with 20 other male (mostly Korean-American youths) and female teenagers were hanging out on the 4th floor of a building in Itaewon on April 3, 1997, where they went to the first floor of the same building to order hamburgers from a Burger King outlet. As Patterson used his knife to cut his hamburger, the group started the conversation about knives. After the rest of the group went back to the 4th floor, Patterson and his friend Lee went to the bathroom, where they coincidentally came in contact with Jo Jung-Pil and stabbed him 9 times in the carotid artery using the knife. On April 4, the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) received an anonymous report and arrested Patterson. On April 6, after seeing Edward Lee on TV, Lee's father who returned from a business trip investigated him, as Lee denied his crime they met with a lawyer and confessed to the crime on April 8.
Murder controversy
The case became complicated as South Korean investigators did not investigate the case properly. The case had been investigated by Army CID, who gathered enough evidence to prosecute Patterson. As the South Korean investigators could not speak English, they also had problems interrogating which slowed down their initial investigation. Both Patterson and Lee also claimed that the other person committed the actual murder. Also, people found it very suspicious that the crime scene was cleaned spotless after only two days, which is very unusual. In addition, the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) caused problems in finding witnesses and investigation.
Lee was convicted of murder while Patterson was convicted of possession of weapon. After the first trial for the murder, it was ruled that Lee was guilty of murder. Lee was later acquitted by the Supreme Court of South Korea because of insufficient evidence. Patterson was convicted for possession of weapons and abandoned his appeal but was released from prison after his sentence was stopped. In the midst of this, the Ministry of Justice (Republic of Korea) did not extend the foreign travel ban for Patterson, three days before the foreign travel ban began he decided to depart to the United States making further investigation difficult. The family of Jo Jong-pil claimed damages against the country for being negligent during the first and second trial. The Supreme Court of Korea ruled that "the relationship between the negligence of the prosecutor and the bereaved families of the mentally damage is recognized".
Prosecution of Patterson was requested by Jo Jong-pil's family, after the film The Case of Itaewon Homicide was released, due to high public demand, another judgement had to be made. The prosecutors at the Department of Justice petitioned for extradition on December 15, 2009.