MURDER TIP-OFF LEADS TO DUMP
In one of the Coast’s most infamous and grisly crimes, a Japanese crime lord was butchered by his wife and his body parts thrown in a tip
ACRIME lord surviving 30 years in one of Japan’s most violent Yakuza clans arrived on the Gold Coast to retire, only to be killed by his wife, dismembered and his remains put out with the garbage.
That was the fate of retired millionaire Hamago Kitayama, who was murdered in April 1999 in one of the Gold Coast’s most gruesome and lurid crimes.
Flashback to April 1999 – the Kosovo war was raging, PM John Howard wanted mateship added to the Constitution and the Japanese retiree was last seen.
In a previous life, the 62-year-old was a Yakuza crime boss who specialised in selling protection to shopkeepers, before retiring and moving to the Gold Coast on retiree visas in the 1980s.
The couple was originally from Yokohama, where Hamago was a Yakuza with interests in a showground and was involved in protection rackets.
At first they lived a quiet life, with wife Akiko socialising and shopping while Hamago played golf.
However, in 1996 Hamago suffered a stroke and his condition would eventually have killed him.
He had not been seen in public since April 14, 1999, and it was alleged he had been killed between then and April 25.
During her trial it was alleged Akiko Kitayama strangled her husband, cut him up with an electric saw, placed the dismembered body in plastic bags and then put them into a large bag that was left for garbage collection under their Surfers Paradise home unit.
His body was never found and police scoured the Suntown tip at Labrador searching for the remains.
The court was told that in 1998, Akiko offered a friend $84,000 to kill Hamago and that she had admitted to police having unsuccessfully attempted to strangle her husband on three occasions.
The Crown alleged Akiko lied about the whereabouts of her husband in April 1999, claiming he was visiting his sick sister in Japan.
But evidence was given that the sister was not ill at the time and Hamago had not visited her.
There was no record of Hamago leaving Australia by air or sea, and his passport had been found at the unit.
It was alleged Akiko went on a spending spree, outlaying $80,000 in a week at restaurants and bars and on a R Rolexl watch and a car for a Japanese male friend.
Defence counsel Chris Callaghan argued in court that Akiko was under the influence of alcohol or the drug Rohypnol when she was interviewed by police and also when she made the offer to a hitman to kill Hamago.
In January 2001, the jury took about 10 hours to find the 54-yearold guilty of murder and she was sentenced by Justice John Muir to life behind bars. The Court of Appeals and High Court both shot down appeal attempts in 2001 and 2002 and she remains incarcerated.