Black Widow: ‘I wanted to kill him out of deep hatred’

JAPAN’S “Black Widow” has been accused of killing six of her lovers. Also known as “the Poison Lady”, she has now confessed to one of the murders.

Chisako Kakehi, 70, has been charged with murder, weeks after police arrested her on suspicion of poisoning her last husband, one of six men who had died while in relationship with her over the past 20 years. Picture: AP /Kyodo News.

THE Japanese “Black Widow” suspected of killing six of her lovers has confessed to poisoning one of them in a multiple murder case that has gripped Japan.

One-time millionairess Chisako Kakehi, 70, is on trial for the murders of three men — including a husband — and the attempted murder of another.

The victims are among six men who died while in a relationship with Kakehi over the past 20 years. All of them were between 70 and 80 years old and met Kakehi between 2007 and 2013.

Kakehi has subsequently drawn comparisons to a spider that kills its mates after copulation.

The woman’s three other husbands, whom she married in the same period, have also all died, but she has not been charged in their deaths.

Her trial began in late June, but this week she stunned the court by telling judges she had murdered the last of her four husbands, Isao Kakehi, in 2013.

She was arrested in 2014, after the 75-year-old retired salaryman, was found dead at his home in Muko, a city near Kyoto.

“I killed my husband,” Kakehi said from the witness stand on Monday.

“I have no intention of hiding the guilt. I will laugh it off and die if I am sentenced to death tomorrow..

“I was waiting for the right timing as I wanted to kill him out of deep hatred.”

Prosecutors allege she used cyanide to rid herself of her lovers, amassing a reported one billion yen ($8.8 million) in insurance payouts over 10 years.

On Wednesday, Kakehi addressed allegations she killed her partners to cash in on their insurance policies.

“I wasn’t given any money after I married him,” she said, according to news reports.

“I felt like Isao was discriminating against me in comparison to the last woman he was in a relationship with, and I got angry.”

Kakehi’s lawyers have argued she is not guilty of murdering Isao Kakehi on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Kyoto District Court said last year that medical examinations found that Kakehi had early-stage dementia but was fit to stand trial.

If convicted or murder she could face the death penalty.

Kakehi shrugged off the prospect on Monday, saying “I’d be happy to die if you give me a drug now,” according to the Asahi.

Japanese woman Chisako Kakehi, known as "Black Widow", who is accused of poisoning several of her lovers. Picture: AFP.

WEALTHY AND CHILDLESS

Kakehi had relationships with many men, mostly elderly or ill, meeting some through dating agencies, where she reportedly stipulated that prospective partners should be wealthy and childless.

Prosecutors say the men perished at her hands after making her the beneficiary of life assurance policies that ran into millions of dollars.

Reports say she subsequently lost much of the fortune through financial trading. Japan’s criminal justice system has come under scrutiny in the wake of Kakehi’s arrest, with questions being asked as to why a number of her lovers’ deaths were not investigated as suspicious.

In several cases, autopsies were not carried out on their bodies — something that could have found traces of the cyanide detectives now believe she used to kill them.

Kakehi, who is also known as “The Poison Lady”, is said to have stashed some of the substance in a plant pot that she later threw out.

Cyanide was found in the body of at least one of the men she was involved with before her recent marriage.

Police who earlier raided her home in Kyoto found traces of cyanide in the rubbish, media said.

They also found paraphernalia for administering drugs and medical books at an apartment she kept south of Kyoto.

The final hearing in the murder case is to be held in October with the verdict expected to be handed down in November.

— With AFP

Originally published as Black Widow: ‘I wanted to kill him out of deep hatred’