Food came from US military inmates who were allowed to cook
Arthur John Patterson, who was convicted of the “Itaewon Burger King murder,” has been punished for secretly exchanging food and other items with United States Forces Korea inmates, according to a local media report.
Patterson, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence at Cheonan Correctional Institution in South Chungcheong Province, was caught in August exchanging food by tying a cord to a bag and lowering it out the window, according to a report published Thursday by legal news outlet The Sisa Law.
The bag was used to pass items to and from USFK inmates housed on the floor below, out of the sight of prison officers, the report said.
Cheonan Correctional Institution is a correctional facility specializing in housing foreign male inmates, including those convicted in cases covered by the Status of Forces Agreement.
Under the bilateral agreement, inmates serving finalized sentences in SOFA cases are held in South Korean correctional facilities, but receive different treatment from other prisoners. They may cook their own food in a separate kitchen within the facility, according to the report.
The details of Patterson’s subsequent punishment were not disclosed for privacy reasons, according to correctional authorities cited by the outlet.
The report also included fellow inmates’ claims about his life in prison. One informant, who claimed to have lived alongside Patterson for about two years, alleged that he told other inmates the Supreme Court’s final ruling was unfair and Korea’s judiciary was corrupt.
The informant also said Patterson requested to be sent back to the US, having served half his sentence.
Patterson was convicted of stabbing college student Jo Jung-pil to death in a Burger King bathroom in Itaewon, central Seoul, on April 3, 1997. He left for the US in 1999, but was extradited to Korea in 2015. The Supreme Court finalized his 20-year prison sentence in January 2017.
shwang9@heraldcorp.com