Elderly Woman Was Looking for Love. Then ‘Black Widow’ Serial Killer Murdered 3 Men

More than a decade after losing her husband of 25 years, Chisako Kakehi appeared to be seeking love again.

The widow, who worked at a printing factory, began dating 78-year-old Toshiaki Suehiro in 2007, according to CNN. On December 18 that year, Suehiro suddenly fell ill after a lunch with Chisako and his children and was rushed to the hospital.

Doctors said he had suffered internal asphyxiation, per CNN, but he ultimately died a year and a half later from cancer, UPI reported.

Cupid struck again for Chisako in 2011 when she met 71-year-old Masanori Honda. The pair planned to marry, but tragedy struck once more. Shortly after visiting a store together on March 9, 2012, Honda blacked out while riding his motorcycle and died a few hours later in the hospital, according to CNN.

In 2013, Chisako began dating Minoru Hioki, a lung cancer survivor. After they dined together on September 20, Hioki passed out and later died, CNN reported. Just two months later, she married 75-year-old Isao Kakehi in November 2013 after meeting him through a matchmaking service.

Weeks after their wedding, Isao collapsed following a meal at their home in Muko, near Kyoto, on December 28, per CNN. His sudden death raised suspicions, prompting police to launch an investigation.

An autopsy revealed that Isao had died from cyanide poisoning. Investigators then revisited the earlier deaths of Honda and Hioki and Suehiro’s mysterious illness, according to CBS News.

Chisako was arrested in 2014 for the murders of Isao, Honda, and Hioki, and for the attempted murder of Suehiro, per the BBC. The media soon labeled her Japan’s “Black Widow.”

Prosecutors claimed she had amassed about $9 million in life insurance payouts and inheritance from her deceased partners, reported News.com.au. However, much of that fortune was reportedly lost in financial markets, according to The Guardian.

During her 2017 trial at the Kyoto District Court, then 70-year-old Chisako admitted to fatally poisoning Isao.

“I felt like (Isao) was discriminating against me financially compared to his previous partner, and I got angry,” she testified, according to Mainichi News.

“I was waiting for the right timing as I wanted to kill him out of deep hatred,” she added, per News.com.au.

She also confessed to acquiring the poison from a “business associate,” per Mainichi.

“Even if I am sentenced to death, I’m prepared to die laughing,” she reportedly said, according to Mainichi News.

Her defense lawyers argued she was suffering from dementia, as noted by The New York Times.

Chisako was convicted and sentenced to death in 2017, according to Asahi News.

In June 2021, Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision, ruling that she had murdered the men for financial gain, Asahi News reported.

She died in detention in Osaka in December 2024 at age 78, per CBS News.