Black Widow hints at more kills
TOKYO: A four-time widow accused of murdering her husband and another partner by cyanide has hinted at her involvement in the deaths of several other men, investigative sources said yesterday.
Prosecutors yesterday indicted 68-yearold Chisako Kakehi, dubbed by some media as the Black Widow, for murdering her 71-year-old partner, Masanori Honda, in March 2012 by having him ingest cyanide at a coffee shop immediately before his death.
Investigative sources said Ms Kakehi has admitted during interrogation to killing Honda, saying: “I had him drink cyanide [contained] in a capsule.” The widow said she obtained cyanide when she was operating a dyeing factory and had kept the toxic substance in a bottle since then.
According to the indictment, Ms Kakehi caused the death of Honda while he was riding a minibike on a street in Izumisano, Osaka, on March 9, 2012, by poisoning him with a lethal dose of cyanide at the coffee shop in the city of Kaizuka. She was in a common-law marriage with Honda at the time.
As for several other deaths in which Ms Kakehi confessed to being involved, it remains unclear whether her confessions are credible because they lack specifics, the sources said.
Ms Kakehi says she was involved in the death of an elderly man in Hyogo prefecture as well as several other male acquaintances in addition to husband Isao Kakehi, 75, and Honda, according to the sources.
Investigators are likely to find it difficult to re-investigate the other men’s deaths because foul play was not suspected in most of them when the cases were originally probed.
To date, about 10 men romantically involved with or associated with Ms Kakehi are known to have died, enabling her to inherit some 1 billion yen (273.1 million baht) in total.
After investing in risky financial products and real estate, she is said to have been more than 10 million yen in debt at the time of her arrest in November.
Ms Kakehi was indicted in December on a charge of causing the death of Isao, who died at the couple’s home in Kyoto prefecture on Dec 28, 2013. They had married the previous month.
Cyanide compounds were detected in the bodies of Isao and Honda.