Japan's 7 faced killer

 Kazuko Fukuda and her reign of terror

Fukuda Kazuko, was Japan's one of most notorious serial killer's with 7 different faces and identities. Each backed up by a detailed back story. For 15 years no one could identify her.

She was born on 2nd January, 1948 in Matsuyama, Japan. Her childhood was seemingly rough. It's said that her parents were divorced and her mother ran a brothel. Her mother remarried a fisherman but the marriage was anything but happy as they fought constantly.

In high school, Kazuko fell in love, it came as a ray of light in her dark life. But then darkness overtook again as her first love died from a car accident. Then she dropped out of high school and ran away from her abusive home. But at the age of 18, Kazuko was arrested and imprisoned for robbery. In prison Kazuko apparently was a victim of sexual assault by her fellow male inmates along with many other women (Matsuyama prison incident).    

After 2 years, Kazuko got out of prison and married her first husband, the marriage only lasted for 5 years. But in 1974, she married again and had 4 children. Now her life was somewhat stable. But wealth and greed started to consume Kazuko. She started gambling, loaning and living lavishly. but soon ran out of all her money and fell into a serious financial crisis. She was in a 2 million yen debt. That's when she started working as a cabaret hostess under the alias Hatsumi Takai. There she met her victim, Atsuko Yasuoka. 

Atsuko was one of the top hostesses and most liked. She was glamorous, beautiful, confident and everything Kazuko aspired to be. Jealousy struck Kazuko. Perhaps the jealousy and her greed drove her to the murder of Atsuko. 

One day, She asked Atsuko if they could have a little chat and Atsuko agreed. On 19 August 1982 Kazuko visited Atsuko's apartment, the sight of the apartment only added fuel to her jealousy. Suddenly her rage and jealousy took over her and she strangled Atsuko with a towel. Then she went back to her home and told her husband everything. She convinced him to bury the body and steal belongings from her apartment. After stealing furniture and other belongings from Atsuko's apartment, they drove 18 kilometers to Matsuyama mountains to bury the body.  

 In Japan many disappear in the middle of the night, cutting ties with everyone they know to start somewhere new. Kazuko wanted to use that cultural phenomena and take over Atsuko's life and wealth, while making it seem as if she had voluntarily disappeared. But unfortunately for her, Atsuko's body was found very soon. 

At first police marked it as a case of robbery and murder and were getting nowhere with it. But then Atsuko's father reported that there had been some suspicious activities in her bank account. Someone was trying to withdraw money. At the same time her partner reported that some items were missing from their shared room. Then, the apartment staff reported that they saw 3 men and a woman loading furniture into a rental truck. Which led police to track the rental truck and find the rental records.

When the police reached Fukuda's home, her husband greeted them at the door and they began questioning him. It didn't take him long to confess that he was the one who buried the body. But he had also claimed that he had done it under his wife's orders. But apparently, it was too late for them to catch the main culprit. Kazuko had already fled. 

The media started broadcasting the case. And soon enough, Kazuko became a wanted criminal for murder. But as the case dragged on, she also became more daring. As if she enjoyed the chase. 

After her husband was taken into custody, he tried to contact Kazuko one last time, but she had already fled to Kanazawa. There she adopted her first identity, Shinobu Onodera. She started working as a hostess again but the news was spreading quickly. So she went to Tokyo and decided to go the extra mile this time by getting plastic surgery. She went back to Kanazawa and started to enjoy her new life.

Although it didn't take long for things to take a turn again, one day Kazuko was on a call with one of her lovers, when suddenly she realized that the police were with him and they were trying to track her down. So, Kazuko tricked them into believing that she was in Kansai and they fell right into her trap.

After a year, Kazuko met a customer at her work. Their frequent interactions soon turned into an affair. However, the man was already married but left his wife to marry Kazuko. They got married and she helped him manage his shop very well. Life went on like this for 5 years. Even though the husband had his suspicions, he decided to ignore them. 

However, Kazuko's new life also came to an end in February of 1988, when the police were about to find her, she escaped once again. Afterwards, she went to Nagoya and took the name Kuramoto Kauru. But out of the fear of getting caught she kept moving. In May of the same year, she left Nagoya. Throughout the whole process she was still in contact with one of her sons. 

Kazuko had lived like this for almost 15 years, changing identities, jobs , places. With less than a year left, before her crimes were about to go unpunished, Kazuko went to Fukui. The police department, for the first time in Japan, made the bold move of announcing a 1 million yen bounty for Kazuko Fukuda. 

Despite the media pressure, Kazuko was living freely under the name Yukiko Nakamura. She became a regular customer at a local oden restaurant, charming the people there with conversations and karaoke. No one suspected anything, until one of Fuji TV's shows started to constantly broadcast about Kazuko Fukuda. They played her voice and one of the customers at the odeon restaurant recognized it. He immediately reported to the police about his suspicions. 

On July 29th, when Kazuko visited the restaurant again, they tried to bring her in for voluntary questioning. But Kazuko casually refused to answer questions and give her fingerprints. She quickly left the place and never went there again. But the police weren't ready to give up. They asked the owner of the place to provide them with any of the bottles or utensils that Kazuko has touched. From there, they collected her fingerprints, and the results were indeed positive. 

There were only 23 days left before the statute of limitations was about to expire on Kazuko's case. But the police were very close. The restaurant owner decided to help. She spotted Kazuko on the streets and invited her to the restaurant again. Despite the heavy chances of getting caught, Kazuko went anyway and while she was leaving, officers surrounded her. Kazuko Fukuda was finally arrested. 

Only 11 hours before the statute of limitations was about to expire on her case, Kazuko was officially indicted on August 18, 1997 for the murder of Atsuko Yasuoka. 

In May of 1999 Kazuko Fukuda was sentenced to life in prison, ending her 15 years journey of disguise. After 17 years of captivity, at the age of 57, in 2005 she passed away from illness.  

This case still stands as one of the most remarkable cases of Japan. Kazuko Fukuda carried herself with confidence and arrogance all those years, yet somehow she always knew her life of disguise would finally come to an end right before the statute of limitations would expire. In the end, Kazuko was a woman who wanted to be seen and heard and live a better life. Before her death, she said how she wanted to be remembered  as Kazuko Fukuda and not any of her false identities.  

The unsolved Black Dahlia case

The case of Elizabeth Short

In the morning of January 15, 1947 the Los Angeles dispatch center received a call, reporting an abandoned body. In the middle of suburbs, a woman's naked dead body was found. But that wasn't the only concerning part. The body was cut in half and drained off of blood. There were cuts on her forehead, each side of her mouth were cut and her right breast was also cut off. There was also a game of tic-tac-toe cut into her hip area. There were also rope marks on her neck, arms and legs. So who was this unfortunate woman? Let's break down.

Elizabeth Short was born on July 29, 1924 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Other than her parents separating when she was young, she had a seemingly normal childhood. Elizabeth stayed with her mother in Massachusetts and grew up to be a beautiful young woman. 

Like many teenagers Elizabeth felt as if she didn't belong in a small town. So she moved to her father's place in Vallejo. But Elizabeth was a bit of a rebel and would constantly break rules. So eventually after a very short period of time, her father kicked her out. But she didn't want to go back to her small town. Instead she found a job as a camp cook on the military base. After working there for 9 months she moved to San Diego.

There she met a woman by the name of Dorothy, who worked at an all-night theater. They connected well and Elizabeth told her that she didn't have any place to stay. Dorothy was kind enough to offer her place. 

Elizabeth stayed with Dorothy for a month. While leaving she told Dorothy that someone named 'Red' was picking her up. Later she hopped into a Studebaker Coup and that was the last time Dorothy ever saw her. Few days later Elizabeth's body was found by a local woman. The woman, Miss Bersinger, was on a walk with her daughter and that is when she found the body lying around in the grass on the side of a road and she immediately went to a nearby house and called the police.

Once they made some DNA tests, they were able to identify the body. They contacted her father, Cleo but he really couldn't care less that his young daughter was murdered. Thankfully, when they contacted her mother back in Massachusetts she immediately flew to Los Angeles to identify the body.

Soon Dorothy was also informed. She told the police about the last time she saw Elizabeth and how a man, by the name Red, picked her up in his Studebaker Coup. The police searched for him everywhere and finally found him through a motel. His real name was Robert Manley. He was a sales engineer and lived in South Beach California with his wife. 

Police found that on January 17th, 2 days after Elizabeth's murder, Manley took off to San Francisco with his friend Harry. The police went to Harry's place to find Robert and had to wait 2 days to find them. The police took Robert into custody. They were very confident about this but Robert took 2 polygraph tests but nothing came out of it. The police also searched his car but they found 0 evidence. They had nothing against him.  

A month went by and the cops had no clue. The media pressure started increasing. The media loved the case because a beautiful young woman was murdered which caught a lot of public attention. That's when they gave her the name 'black Dahlia'.

Because of the insane public attention, many started coming forward, claiming to be the murderers of the Black Dahlia. But they had no real evidence that they had actually killed her. But then police also started receiving anonymous letters, whom they believed was the actual murderer because this person was sending the police some of Elizabeth's personal belongings. 

By February, They arrested Red again but still, they had nothing against him. Then they found another suspect. George Hodel who was an infamous Hollywood doctor.  

The police found a tip that Elizabeth was seen around George for a while. When the police dig up his past, he became a very strong suspect. So, allegedly Gorge sexually abused his own daughter but for some reason the charges were dropped against him. There were also other questionable reports against him.

But since he was financially well off, they knew it wouldn't be easy to arrest him. So they decided to bug his house and listen to his day to day conversations. 

In February of 1950, George was speaking on the phone and a woman's scream was heard twice. The cops went to check inside the house but they didn't find anything. After they left George was heard making a phone call and he said something about covering her with a blanket and putting a pillow over her face. Then he was heard saying something along the lines of, "Supposing, I did kill the Black Dahlia, They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she is dead". (George's secretary was found dead from a drug overdose a few days back). Even Gorge's own son believed that he was the one responsible for the murder of Elizabeth and many more.

By April, the cops had enough evidence to arrest him, but by then he had already fled the US. In 2013, they tested the soil of George's home for human remains, and the results were positive. But again, there was nothing the police could do about it.

Then on November 24, 1950 the 27th confessor of the Black Dahlia murder, came forward. But this person was slightly different. A woman by the name of Christine Reynolds confessed to committing the murder. 

According to her statement, Elizabeth and her were lovers. They met at a bar 3 years before Elizabeth's murder and she knew her as "Libby". 4 nights before the murder, Christine went out looking for Elizabeth and found her at a bar with another woman. They got into an argument and shortly after, left the bar in Christine's car. They continued to argue in the car and Christine said that she was so mad that she proceeded to choke Elizabeth. Elizabeth managed to get out of the car and started running. Cristine ran behind her and began to choke her again and eventually stabbed her with a pocket knife that she had. Then she left her body by the street.

The police didn't believe her story until she mentioned one detail that the police spared the public from. Christine said how she cut some of Elizabeth's hair off and then proceeded to insert it in her vaginal region. 

But again her story wasn't fully aligning. So the police sat her down and asked her and she finally broke down and admitted that she was in fact lying. She said that she had a friend in the police department who told her about the intimate details. When the police asked her the reason behind her lies, Christine said how 2 days before Elizabeth's body was discovered, she had woken up with blood all over her. She couldn't remember what had happened the previous night due to heavy drinking. She went to the cops but no one took her seriously. But she really believed that she had killed or at least hurt somebody and the thought of it bugged her for years. So she decided to come forward.

Another strong suspect that the police had, was a serial killer, known as, 'The Cleveland Torso Killer' of Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland there was a series of disturbing murders and the evidence suggested that it was all done by one person. The bodies found there were very similar to the Black Dahlia's (cut in half).  Many believe that she was his last victim. Many also believe that George Short was the actual Cleveland killer.

Regardless, the Black Dahlia case still remains unsolved.