Japanese 'black widow' suspect held over latest husband's death

A 67-year-old millionairess was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of poisoning her husband with cyanide in Japan's latest apparent "black widow" case.

The arrest came as it emerged that six of Chisako Kakehi's former partners had also died.

Kakehi received a combined 800 million yen ($6.8 million) over the past two decades in insurance payouts and other assets she received after the seven men's deaths, Jiji Press reported.

Husband number four, Isao Kakehi, fell sick suddenly at home and was confirmed dead at a hospital in December last year, less than two months after the couple married. An autopsy found highly toxic cyanide compounds in his blood.

That came after the September death of a 75-year-old boyfriend, who fell suddenly ill after the couple ate together at a restaurant, Jiji said.

The series of deaths began in 1994 when Kakehi's first husband died at the age of 54.

In 2006, her second husband, whom she met through a dating agency, died of a stroke aged 69, while the third marriage ended in 2008 with the death of her 75-year-old partner, Jiji said.

A boyfriend, believed to have been suffering from some form of cancer, died a year later, and in 2012 her then-fiance met his fate after collapsing while riding a motorbike. Traces of cyanide were detected in his body, media reports said.

Kakehi was arrested on Wednesday by police in Kyoto on suspicion of murdering her latest husband. She has denied any involvement in his death.

"We suspect she did it for money," a police investigator looking into the latest death said, without giving details of the amount involved.

'Doomed by fate'

Police are now working on the theory that she could have been behind the deaths of at least some of the other six.

"We can't say how many now. Given their advanced age, we have to proceed carefully to judge whether their deaths were actually the result of foul play or not," the investigator added.

Former bank worker Kakehi protested her innocence when questioned by reporters in March.

"If people suspect murder, I'd find it easier to bite my tongue off and die," she said.

Jiji Press quoted her as saying in an earlier interview that she was "doomed by fate" to suffer a series of deaths among those close to her, and protesting that she had no access to poison.

If she is found to have been involved in the deaths of numerous partners, Kakehi will become the latest example in Japan of a "black widow", named for the female spider that devours its mate after coupling.

In 2012, Kanae Kijima was sentenced to hang for the murders of three men, aged 41, 53 and 80, whom she met through Internet dating sites.

Kijima, who was at one time a paid-for mistress, poisoned her victims with carbon monoxide by burning charcoal briquettes after drugging them with sleeping tablets.

(China Daily 11/20/2014 page10)