A Japanese inmate on death row, dubbed the “Black Widow” after her used cyanide to kill her elderly lovershas died in a detention center at the age of 78, officials said Friday.
Chisako Kakehi was sentenced to death for the murder of three men. including her husbandand the attempted murder of another man about a decade ago in a case that affected Japan.
“Her death was confirmed at a hospital on Thursday” after she was found lying in her cell at the Osaka detention center, a justice ministry official told AFP.
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The cause of death has yet to be determined, he said. Japanese media said it could be from an undisclosed illness.
Kakehi’s death sentence was upheld in 2021, with Supreme Court Justice Yuko Miyazaki saying she had “used cyanide on men after making them trust her as a life partner”.
“It is a calculated and cruel crime based on a strong intent to kill,” Miyazaki said.
Kakehi reportedly amassed 1 billion yen ($9 million at the time) in insurance and inheritance payments over 10 years, but later lost most of the money due to a failed financial deal .
She had relationships mostly with elderly or ill men and met some of them through dating agencies, where she reportedly stipulated that potential partners should be wealthy and childless.
The 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 the garbage at her Kyoto home.
The deaths of their partners were not immediately investigated because police initially determined they died of illnesses, with no autopsies performed on most.
Her arrest only came after police discovered that her most recent husband, 75-year-old Isao Kakehi, died of cyanide poisoning. The police then began to investigate the previous cases and found a pattern.