Chisako Kakehi was convicted of murdering three men. She may have killed many more and been sentenced to death. But this Japanese serial killer finally died of natural causes, in prison, at the age of 78.
This woman from Kyoto was nicknamed the “black widow” for her crimes and her propensity to eliminate her spouses or lovers. In a case that caused a stir in Japan, CBS recalls, she was sentenced to the death penalty in 2017. She was then found guilty of killing her husband and two other men. As well as an attempted murder. All with cyanide. She was even suspected of seven other murders, but nothing was proven for these.
Chisako Kakehi’s crimes were heinous. She managed to become the heir of her spouses and then killed them. It is estimated that she had amassed some 8 million francs in around ten years, before losing most of this jackpot in investments described as hazardous. She was arrested in 2014.
Faced with justice, she had remained silent for a long time before confessing to the three murders. “By my death I ask forgiveness. Hang me,” she said in an interview from her prison in Osaka, AFP reported in 2019, during her trial an appeal. Then, she told the judges: “Even if I were executed tomorrow, I would die with a smile.” His crimes had been described as “calculated and cruel”.
The black widow Chisako Kakehi was ultimately not executed. She was found lying in her cell last week, then died at a hospital. Obviously an illness, according to Japanese media, even if its nature has not been specified.
