He referred to as himself the “hangman” on Twitter and supplied to assist folks in ache. However behind that twisted masks of sympathy was certainly one of Japan’s most cold-blooded serial killers. On Friday, Takahiro Shiraishi, infamously dubbed the “Twitter killer”, was hanged for the homicide of 9 younger folks he met by means of social media, in a case that shocked the nation and reignited debate over the nation’s secretive demise penalty system.Shiraishi, 34, was hanged on the Tokyo detention home, with the execution carried out in secrecy and introduced solely after it was accomplished. The victims, eight girls and one man, aged between 15 and 26, had all expressed suicidal ideas on-line. Shiraishi typically responded to such posts with messages like “Let’s die collectively” and used a deal with that loosely translated to “hangman.” His profile learn: “I wish to assist people who find themselves actually in ache. Please DM [direct message] me anytime.” the Jiji information company reported.
Home of horrors
The case got here to gentle in October 2017, when police investigating a lacking lady found human stays in Shiraishi’s Zama condo. Physique components had been saved in coolers and toolboxes, sprinkled with cat litter in an try to masks decomposition. Native media described the flat as a “home of horrors.”He used to lure them to his condo close to Tokyo, the place he raped and killed the feminine victims, additionally murdering one lady’s boyfriend to silence him. Justice minister Keisuke Suzuki mentioned the murders had been pushed by Shiraishi’s “sexual and monetary wishes,” and concerned “theft, rape, homicide, destruction of a corpse and abandonment of corpse.” He added that the crimes brought on “nice shock and anxiousness to society.”
Defence brutally rejected
Shiraishi’s authorized staff had argued that the victims had consented to die as a result of their suicidal ideas and therefore demanded lowered sentence on the idea of “homicide with consent”. In addition they raised considerations over his psychological state. Nonetheless, the courtroom dismissed each claims. He pleaded responsible in courtroom, stating he had killed the victims to fulfill his personal sexual wishes, in line with NHK and TV Asahi.The decide referred to as the acts “crafty and merciless,” stating that Shirashi preyed on “mentally fragile” people and violated their dignity.
Public response
The execution has brought on the resumption of public debate on Japan’s use of the demise penalty. Executions in Japan are all the time carried out by hanging, and presently round 100 inmates stay on demise row. Japan and america are the one G7 nations that also implement the demise penalty.Shiraishi’s hanging follows different high-profile executions in recent times. In 2022, Tomohiro Kato was executed for a 2008 rampage in Tokyo’s Akihabara district that left seven useless. In 2018, Japan executed cult chief Shoko Asahara and 12 members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect, accountable for the 1995 sarin fuel assault on Tokyo’s subway system that killed 14 folks and injured 1000’s.
