Chinese Killer Supplied Corpse Brides

Chinese authorities have arrested a man said to have killed six women in order to sell their bodies to families seeking "ghost brides"  to marry their deceased sons. He and three other corpse traders are reputed to be members of an underground supply network prompted by  a growing demand for  afterlife spouses in rural areas, the Guardian reports.

The gruesome tradition of arranged marriages for the dead died out  after the communists took power in 1949, but it's said to be making a comeback. The killer said he origninally tried grave-robbing, but found murder to be easier. Several of the women had been hired as housekeepers. "Killing people and selling their bodies was easier than stealing bodies from graves," he said. (More China stories.)