He known as himself the “hangman” on Twitter and supplied to assist individuals 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 individuals he met by 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 need 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 mild in October 2017, when police investigating a lacking girl found human stays in Shiraishi’s Zama residence. 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 residence close to Tokyo, the place he raped and killed the feminine victims, additionally murdering one girl’s boyfriend to silence him. Justice minister Keisuke Suzuki stated the murders had been pushed by Shiraishi’s “sexual and monetary needs,” and concerned “theft, rape, homicide, destruction of a corpse and abandonment of corpse.” He added that the crimes precipitated “nice shock and nervousness to society.”
Defence brutally rejected
Shiraishi’s authorized staff had argued that the victims had consented to die as a consequence of their suicidal ideas and therefore demanded diminished sentence on the premise of “homicide with consent”. In addition they raised issues over his psychological state. Nonetheless, the court docket dismissed each claims. He pleaded responsible in court docket, stating he had killed the victims to fulfill his personal sexual needs, in keeping with NHK and TV Asahi.The choose known as the acts “crafty and merciless,” stating that Shirashi preyed on “mentally fragile” people and violated their dignity.
Public response
The execution has precipitated 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 at the moment round 100 inmates stay on demise row. Japan and america are the one G7 international locations 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 lifeless. In 2018, Japan executed cult chief Shoko Asahara and 12 members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect, chargeable for the 1995 sarin fuel assault on Tokyo’s subway system that killed 14 individuals and injured hundreds.
