A Japanese death row prisoner, nicknamed the “Black Widow” after her name She used cyanide to kill her elderly loversOfficials said on Friday that a man died in a detention center at the age of 78.
Chisaku Kakehi was sentenced to death for the murder of three men, Including her husbandAnd an attempt to kill another man about a decade ago in a case that shook Japan.
Her death was confirmed in hospital on Thursday after she was found lying in her cell at a detention center in Osaka, a Justice Ministry official told AFP.
He added that the cause of death has not yet been determined. Japanese media said it may be due to an undisclosed illness.
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Kakehi’s death sentence was upheld in 2021, with Supreme Court Justice Yoko Miyazaki saying she “used cyanide on men after getting them to trust her as a life partner.”
“It is a brutal, calculated crime based on a strong intent to kill,” Miyazaki said.
Kakehei reportedly collected 1 billion yen ($9 million at the time) in insurance and inheritance payments over 10 years, but then lost most of the money through unsuccessful financial trades.
She had relationships primarily with elderly or sick men and met some of them through dating agencies, where she reportedly stipulated that potential partners had to be wealthy and childless.
Poison was found in the bodies of at least two of the men she was involved with, and police reportedly found traces of cyanide in trash at her home in Kyoto.
The deaths of her accomplices were not immediately investigated because police initially determined that they died of illness, and autopsies were not performed on most of them.
Her arrest came only after police discovered that her last husband, 75-year-old Isao Kakehi, had died of cyanide poisoning. The police then began investigating previous cases and found a pattern.
