The News Minute| November 22, 2014| 3.57 pm IST
Chisako Kakehi, a 67-year-old Japanese woman was arrested last week for suspected involvement in her 7th partner’s death. Dubbed the ‘black widow’ by the Japanese media, Kakehi has reportedly amassed a wealth of over 800 million yen after being involved with 10 partners in the last 20 years.
Seven out of the 10 partners have suffered untimely deaths, which very conveniently led to Kakehi inheriting all their money. Japanese media reports say that Kakehi would specifically choose older men with land or property and no children.
After the death of her 4th husband, Isao Kakehi, in December of 2013, one month after their marriage, officials became suspicious of Chisako. They investigated Isao’s death for 11 months, in which they found cyanide in the Kakehi house. Isao’s autopsy revealed unnatural amounts of cyanide in his stomach and blood stream.
Chisako Kakehi was apparently known to be with multiple partners at the same time. Her partners always seem to suffer sudden deaths just after a month or two of courting her. Before Isao, Chisako was engaged to a 54-year-old man who died in a motorcycle accident. His autopsy, too, revealed trace amounts of cyanide.
Chisako has denied all allegations of murdering her husbands for their money and claims to not know where the cyanide came from and that she is incapable of murder.
Japan is seeing many similar cases of ‘black widows’ surfacing off late, with more than 4 women being arrested under similar charges and being sentenced to death.
(Image: The 'black widow', Chisako Kakehi. Courtesy: The Age)