OSAKA (TR) – Law enforcement officials in the Kansai area on Wednesday applied fresh charges to a Kyoto woman already in custody for the deaths of multiple men with whom she had a relationship, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (Sep. 9).
Police charged Chisako Kakehi, 68, with murder stemming from the poisoning of a 75-year-old man at an izakaya restaurant in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture on September 20, 2013.
Kakehi admits to the allegations. “I killed him with cyanide,” the suspect is quoted by police.
This is Kakehi’s fourth arrest. Since November of last year, she has been charged with murder for poisoning a former husband in Kyoto and boyfriend in Osaka. She also faces an attempted murder charge in the poisoning of man in Kobe.
Much like her other victims, the man in Itami consumed a beverage which had been laced with hydrocyanic acid by the suspect. He later collapsed while inside a vehicle parked in the restaurant parking lot.
Described as a “black widow,” Kakehi has been married four times. Police believe Kakehi has been romantically linked to more than 10 men and played a role in the deaths of eight of them.
Police suspect that money was the motive for the crimes. News outlets have reported that Kakehi has received up to one billion yen in inheritance following the deaths of the various men.