Weekend flashback: The shocking Gold Coast murder of retired Yakuza boss Hamago Kitayama

IMAGINE being a crime lord one of Japan’s most violent Yakuza clans for more than 30 years only to be killed by your wife, dismembered and remains put out with the garbage.

May 24, 1999: Police search through rubbish at Labrador tip for the body of Japanese millionaire Hamago Kitayama who was reported missing by wife on May 17, 1999 from their Gold Coast apartment. Pic Troy Purdue.

IMAGINE being a crime lord one of Japan’s most violent Yakuza clans for more than 30 years only to be killed by your wife, dismembered and remains put out with the garbage.

That was the fate for retired millionaire Hamago Kitayama who was murdered in April 1999 in one of the Gold Coast’s most infamous and lurid crimes.

Flashback to April 1999 — The Kosovo war was raging, John Howard wanted mateship added to the Constitution and the Japanese retiree was last seen.

Hamago Kitayama was reported missing by wife from their Gold Coast apartment.

In a previous life the then-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.

They were 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 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.

May 24, 1999: Police search through rubbish at Labrador tip for the body of Japanese millionaire Hamago Kitayama who was reported missing by wife on May 17, 1999 from their Gold Coast apartment. Pic Troy Purdue

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 which 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 cash to kill Hamago and that she had admitted to police having unsuccessfully attempted to strangle her husband on three occasions.

May 29 1999 — Wife of missing Japanese businessman, Hamago Kitayama, Akiko Kitayama, charged with his murder at Southport watch-house: pic Geoff McLachlan.

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 Rolex 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-year-old 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 in2001 and 2002 and she remains behind bars today.