Masumi Hayashi (poisoner)
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Masumi Hayashi (林 真須美 Hayashi Masumi?, born July 22, 1961) is a Japanese woman convicted of putting poison in a pot of curry being served at a 1998 summer festival in the Sonobe district of Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan.
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[edit] Summary
A communal pot of curry being served to residents of Sonobe district, Wakayama, was poisoned with at least 1000 grams of arsenic--enough to kill over 100 people, on July 25, 1998.
Two children and two adults quickly sickened and died after consuming the curry, and sixty-three others suffered from acute arsenic poisoning. The dead included the council president and vice president of Wakayama (64-year old Takatoshi Taninaka and 53-year old Takaaki Tanaka), as well as 10 year-old Hirotaka Hayashi and 16-year old Miyuki Torii.[1]
Attention quickly focused on the then 37 year old Hayashi, as she was seen by a witness at the curry dish, and she had easy access to arsenic because her husband was an exterminator. After her arrest, she and her husband were indicted on a number of insurance fraud charges as well. Her husband has since been convicted and imprisoned for insurance fraud. Prior to the murders, Masumi had been an insurance saleswoman. Masumi was also tried with three other attempted murders via poisoning that had occurred during the past 10 years, with the motive in those cases being life insurance benefits. She is believed to have tried to kill her husband at least once. The motive of the mother of four in this case is said to be anger at her neighbors for shunning her family. The arsenic found in the curry was identical to arsenic she had in her own home from her husband's extermination business.
[edit] Trial
At trial she pleaded innocent, but she was sentenced to death in 2002. On June 28, 2005, a high court in Osaka upheld her death sentence. However, her lawyers insisted on her innocence because there were only circumstance evidences.[2]
Former prosecutor Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a Hakuoh University Law School professor of criminal procedure law, criticized the decision to acquit Joji Obara for the murder of Lucie Blackman by pointing to the conviction of Masumi Hayashi due to circumstantial evidence.[3]
[edit] Fallout
Hayashi's case gained a lot of public attention. The crime inspired a wave of copycat poisonings.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Curry victims' kin sue convicted poisoner. The Japan Times (2003-03-12). Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
- ^ Courts ignore reasonable doubt: lawyers. The Japan Times (2006-11-16). Retrieved on 2008-02-04.
- ^ Oddly, raft of circumstantial evidence not enough. The Japan Times (2007-04-25). Retrieved on 2008-02-04.
- ^ Japan's 'curry killer' sentenced to death. BBC (2002-12-11). Retrieved on 2008-02-04.
[edit] External links
- New York Times story about her conviction
- Posionous Year for Japan BBC
- Japan poison arrests BBC
- Stampede at curry poison trial BBC
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