Japanese ‘black widow’ death-row inmate dies

Tokyo (Jiji Press)–Chisako Kakehi, a 78-year-old death-row inmate known as a “black widow” who was convicted in serial murders using hydrocyanic acid in western Japan, died at the Osaka Detention House on Thursday, the Justice Ministry said.

Kakehi was convicted of killing three men in 2012 and 2013, including her husband, then 75, and a common-law man, by giving them hydrocyanic acid to acquire their assets and of attempting to murder another man in 2007 to avoid paying debts.

Her death sentence was finalized in 2021 when the Supreme Court rejected her appeal. In 2022, she filed a request for a retrial for the murder of one of the three victims, but it was dismissed.

Kakehi was found lying on her back at her cell on Thursday morning and was later confirmed dead at a hospital. The cause of her death was not immediately known, the ministry said.