Japan yesterday executed a man dubbed the “Twitter killer,” who in 2017 murdered and dismembered nine people he met online, in the nation’s first enactment of the death penalty since 2022.
Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was hanged for killing his young victims, all but one of whom were women, after contacting them on Twitter, now called X.
He had targeted users who posted about taking their own life, telling them he could help them in their plans or even die alongside them.
Photo: Kyodo News via AP
Japanese Minister of Justice Keisuke Suzuki said Shiraishi’s crimes included “robbery, rape, murder... destruction of a corpse and abandonment of a corpse.”
“Nine victims were beaten and strangled, killed, robbed, mutilated — with parts of their bodies concealed in boxes — and parts discarded in a garbage dump,” Suzuki said.
Shiraishi acted to satisfy “his own sexual and financial desires” and the murders “caused great shock and anxiety to society,” he said.
Shiraishi was sentenced to death in 2020 for the murders of his nine victims, aged between 15 and 26.
After luring them to his small home near the capital, he stashed parts of their bodies around the apartment in coolers and toolboxes sprinkled with cat litter in a bid to hide the evidence.
His lawyers had said Shiraishi should receive a prison sentence rather than be executed, because his victims had expressed suicidal thoughts and so had consented to die.
A judge dismissed that argument, calling Shiraishi’s crimes “cunning and cruel,” reports said at the time.
“The dignity of the victims was trampled upon,” the judge had said, adding that Shiraishi had preyed upon people who were “mentally fragile.”
The grisly murders were discovered in autumn 2017 by police investigating the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman who had written online about wanting to kill herself.
Her brother gained access to her X account and eventually led police to Shiraishi’s residence, where investigators found dismembered body parts.
Executions are always done by hanging in Japan, where about 100 death row prisoners are waiting for their sentences to be carried out.
Nearly half are seeking a retrial, Suzuki said yesterday.
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