Joe Son

UFC vet who competed in MMA from 1994 to 2002. Joseph Hyungmin Son was born in Korea in 1970 and raised in California. By his early 20s, he was part of an extremist Christian group, working in the Huntington Beach area. He had little, if any, martial arts background, but through a mixture of lies and what must have been a hell of a sales pitch, he and Kimo Leopoldo were able to convince Art Davies to let them fight in the UFC. They advertised Leopoldo with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Joe Son would not get such a generous title, billed instead as a Josondo expert. While such a curious circus sideshow type background would be enough to make Joe Son a memorable figure, that would not be the end of his public life. After MMA, he would have a limited pro wrestling career and would be fortuitously cast in the role of "Random Task" in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. All of this is rather beside the point, however. In 1990, he, and another associate (Santiago Gaitan) kidnapped, held at gunpoint, beat, and raped a woman on Christmas eve. It was a crime that would go unsolved for nearly two decades, until a 2008 felony vandalism charge saw Joe Son placed on probation. As a condition of his probationary status he was required to give a DNA sample. It would be this evidence that connected him to his past crimes. He is now serving a life sentence at Wasco State Prison, where he has compounded his crimes with the murder of his cellmate in October of 2011.