The Vietnamese Gore Butcher | #471

Hannah Maguire (0:08)

We have all seen something on the internet that has scarred us for life. We've all stumbled down some creepy digital alley where your innocent eyes fell upon a clip so violent and gory, it seared itself into your brain for all time, even to this very day. We're willing to bet whatever your particular personal hell may have been, whatever you're picturing right now, that marred your innocence, isn't nearly as graphic or as disturbing as the Vietnamese Gore Butcher. Because in 2025, a series of videos showing the brutal execution and dismemberment of a young man mysteriously surfaced in group chats and forums across Vietnam, leaving all those who saw them with blood-spattered nightmares. At first, it seemed too sinister to be real. Some skeptics dismissed it as the latest creepypasta style hoax, while others declared it to be a legitimate snuff film. But to a group of dedicated cyber sleuths, it was a horrific murder that only an open-source investigation could solve. Their hunt for the culprit would take them on a journey from body-horror fetish forums to recipes for human organ stew to ads for hacked-off penises.

Only for them to realize that the killer had been right under their noses the whole time. Just how far down the dark web rabbit hole would you be willing to go in the name of justice?

I'm Hannah.

Suruthi Bala (1:48)

I'm Saruti.

Hannah Maguire (1:49)

This is RedHanded.

Suruthi Bala (1:51)

This is such a disgusting case.

Hannah Maguire (1:55)

I'm so glad I just scoffed down some food. Maybe it will make a reappearance.

Suruthi Bala (2:00)

Yeah, I have got, off camera, a little salmon bagel that I picked up on the way in. It's really not looking very appealing, given the fact that I know what is about to come. So, prepare yourselves. Don't eat anything. Or if you do, then don't tell us about it. I don't, you're not, you're not impressing anybody.

In the early hours of the 26th of July, 2025, a 24-second clip started circulating around the darker corners of the internet. Filmed from above, it showed a young Asian man, naked and masturbating on a tar pooling sheet, in what looked like a small bathroom. His head was resting on a wooden block. He scarcely uttered the words, I'm about to ejaculate, before another man, naked, save for a Guy Fawkes mask, stepped into the frame with a meat cleaver. He decapitated the naked man in a few expert strokes. Blood spattered across the room with each metallic swish of the axe, separating the victim's head from his body.

A few hours later, another clip emerged. This one was 73 seconds long, and it showed the same scene from a different angle, as well as its gory aftermath. The executioner immediately got to work, pulling the victim's head off his body, and slicing him to pieces with extreme incredible precision.

He can be seen severing the cartilage from the victim's rib cage, and cutting it straight down to the pubic bone, cleanly removing the man's penis and testicles. Several phone cameras can be seen mounted on tripods around the room, capturing the brutal scene from every possible angle.

Hannah Maguire (3:47)

Then another clip emerged, this time showing the executioner in a blue and white tiled kitchen with the dissected parts of the victim's body. The camera pans over the limbs arranged in a pot, internal organs soaking in a sink, and the head, penis and testicles arranged neatly on dishes. The killer even films himself, perversely stuffing the victim's penis into the mouth of his own decapitated head.

Photos accompanying the video showed the victim's heart, kidneys, penis and other organs cooked up in a stew, seasoned with traditional Vietnamese herbs like goji berries and red dates. One of the photos in the bunch was a selfie of the killer himself, standing shirtless in front of a bathroom mirror, wearing just a blue surgical mask over his face, and holding the victim's freshly decapitated head against his chest with blood dripping down his arms and stomach.

But the horrific gore wasn't the only noticeable thing in that photo. The killer had some distinctive features that weren't visible in the execution video. He had a stocky muscular build, a balding head, and a scar above his left eyebrow, and a purplish birthmark pattern on his armpit area. And most distinctive of all, a tattoo on his bicep that read, Nigh Eye 13.9. That means, that day, 13.9. Which won't make sense now, but be patient. Put it in your brain.

Suruthi Bala (5:19)

A little while later, an even longer version of the original video began circulating online. And this time, it had a sneak peek of what came before the brutal execution. In what looked like a bizarre rehearsal for the beheading between the victim and the killer.