On March 18, 1984, Katsuhisa Ezaki, the President of Glico, a well-known Japanese confectionery company, was kidnapped from his home in Osaka by a group calling themselves ‘The Monster with 21 Faces.’ What followed was a bizarre and terrifying string of crimes that rocked Japan and left law enforcement officials scratching their heads.

Who was The Monster with 21 Faces

The Monster with 21 Faces was a mysterious criminal group that terrorized Japan for several months in the mid-1980s. They were responsible for a series of high-profile crimes, including the kidnapping of Katsuhisa Ezaki, the extortion of several major corporations, and the contamination of food products with cyanide.

The Monster claimed to be a group of professional criminals with a grudge against the Japanese government and big corporations. But despite their claims, their true identities and motives remain a mystery to this day.

The Kidnapping of Katsuhisa Ezaki

On the night of March 18, 1984, Katsuhisa Ezaki was at home with his wife and two children when a group of masked men broke into their house. The intruders tied up the family and demanded that Ezaki come with them. They told him that they were part of a group called The Monster with 21 Faces and that they had a bone to pick with Glico, the company that Ezaki ran.

In a brazen and calculated move, the kidnappers broke into the residence of Katsuhisa Ezaki’s mother, overpowering her and taking her spare keys. They used those keys to gain access to Ezaki’s home next door, where they found him in the middle of a bath. The kidnappers didn’t hesitate to drag him out of his bathtub, naked and vulnerable, leaving his wife and children bound and gagged as they took Ezaki to a warehouse in Ibaraki, Osaka.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom of one billion yen, a staggering amount that is worth nearly nine million US Dollars today, along with 220 pounds of gold bullion. The size of the ransom and the high-profile nature of the victim captivated the attention of Japan, a country known for its low crime rate and efficient police force.

The police and Ezaki’s family worked tirelessly to try and secure his release, but The Monster with 21 Faces proved to be one step ahead at every turn.

At one point, The Monster even sent a letter to the police taunting them for their incompetence. The letter read, in part: “Dear stupid police officers, don’t you know how to catch us? We’ve got a whole bag of tricks to play with, so why don’t you catch us if you can?”

Dubbing themselves ‘The Monster with 21 Faces’, the kidnappers proved to be unlike any other criminal enterprise before them. Their name seemed to be inspired by a fictional shape-shifting thief in a 1936 detective novel by Edogawa Rampo, a pseudonym used by author Hirai Tairô that was a translated version of Edgar Allan Poe. Perhaps the kidnappers felt they needed one more face to outsmart the local police, which they did with incredible ease.

The Terror Continues

After three agonizing days in captivity, Katsuhisa Ezaki was finally able to escape from the ropes that bound him. Yet, he was left with no clues as to the identity or motive of his captors. The candy executive’s harrowing experience had shaken the entire nation, but the worst was yet to come.

It was just three weeks after the daring escape of Glico president Katsuhisa Ezaki from his captors when six vehicles parked outside the company’s corporate offices were set ablaze. A week later, a container containing hydrochloric acid and a threatening note addressed to Ezaki was found at the warehouse where he had been held captive.

This ominous turn of events made it clear that the ordeal was far from over for Ezaki and Glico. The culprits were the Monster with 21 Faces, a group of criminals who had been taunting the police and the public with their antics for months. But it wasn’t until now that their true goal was revealed. They didn’t care about the ransom money they had demanded; they wanted to tarnish Glico’s reputation and disrupt the food supply.

Lacing Candy with Cyanide and Taunting the Police

The group began sending letters to various news outlets in Osaka, claiming that Glico’s candy products were laced with cyanide. Panic spread as retailers across the country pulled Glico products from their shelves, and citizens were urged to return any they had at home. The massive recall cost Glico millions of dollars and forced them to lay off hundreds of employees. But despite all this chaos, not a single trace of cyanide was ever found in Glico products.

The Monster with 21 Faces didn’t stop there. They continued to taunt the police and send out letters with clues, even going so far as to reveal what type of typewriter they were using. In June, they shifted their focus to another candy company called Morinaga, claiming that they felt bad for a kid in their group who missed Glico candy. They demanded a sum of money from Morinaga and when they didn’t comply, they laced their candy with cyanide.

The group even sent out letters with extra labels applied to boxes of Morinaga Choco Balls and Angel Pies that read: “Danger — contains poison. You’ll die if you eat this. Signed, The Monster with 21 faces.” This resulted in a treasure hunt for the cyanide-laced candy, causing stores to boycott Morinaga products and their stock prices to drop significantly. The Monster with 21 Faces had succeeded in sowing chaos and fear once again, leaving the police struggling to catch up with their elusive tactics.

The Extortion of Corporations

Following the kidnapping and escape of Ezaki, The Monster with 21 Faces turned their attention to other targets. They began sending threatening letters to several major corporations, including Kirin Brewery and Meiji Seika, demanding large sums of money in exchange for not poisoning their products.

The letters were often accompanied by packets of cyanide-laced food products, with instructions on how to identify and avoid them. The corporations were left with a difficult decision: pay up and risk setting a dangerous precedent, or refuse to pay and risk having their products poisoned.

In the end, most of the corporations chose to pay. The Monster collected over 400 million Yen (about $3.2 million at the time) in total from their extortion scheme.

The Investigation and Manhunt

The police were under intense pressure to catch The Monster and put an end to their reign of terror. They established a special task force to investigate the case, but the investigation proved to be incredibly difficult.

The Monster was adept at covering their tracks and seemed to have an intimate knowledge of police procedures. They even managed to outsmart the police by planting fake evidence and staging elaborate hoaxes to throw them off their trail.

One of the most bizarre incidents occurred when The Monster sent a letter to the police claiming that they had buried a large amount of cyanide-laced candy in a park in Osaka. The police searched the park but found nothing. However, a few days later, a group of children playing in the park found a bag of candy that had been buried in the ground. The candy was indeed laced with cyanide, but it was never determined whether it had been placed there by The Monster or if it was just a coincidence.

Despite their best efforts, the police were unable to catch The Monster. The investigation went on for years, but eventually, the case went cold.

Suspects in the Monster with 21 Faces Investigation

The hunt for the Monster with 21 Faces was a long and arduous process, with several suspects being identified and investigated. The police had a difficult time capturing the mastermind behind the threats and extortion of major corporations in Japan. Here are some of the key suspects in the investigation:

The Videotaped Man

In the midst of the Monster with 21 Faces threatening to poison Glico products, a mysterious figure known as the Videotaped Man was caught on camera placing Glico chocolate on a store shelf. The man was seen wearing a Yomiuri Giants baseball cap, which only added to the enigma of the case. 

Despite being considered the mastermind behind the threat and having his image made public, the Videotaped Man was never identified or captured, leaving authorities and the public alike with lingering questions and speculations.

Manabu Miyazaki – The Accused Son of a Yakuza Boss

Manabu Miyazaki, the son of a well-known yakuza boss and a criminal himself, was initially identified by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police as both the Fox-Eyed Man and the Videotaped Man, as he bore resemblance to the suspects. Moreover, Miyazaki had been involved in a labor dispute with Glico about a decade before the Monster with 21 Faces case. 

However, after verifying his alibis, Miyazaki was eventually cleared of any involvement in the Glico-Morinaga crimes. Despite this, some still speculate that Miyazaki might have played a role in the enigmatic group behind the Monster with 21 Faces, adding another layer of intrigue to the already complex case.

The Fox-Eyed Man

On June 28, 1984, the Japanese police were hot on the trail of The Monster with 21 Faces. An investigator, disguised as a Marudai employee, followed the Monster’s instructions for a money exchange. As he rode the train to the drop point, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. And there, across the car, sat a man with piercing eyes that seemed to glow like those of a fox. The man was large and well-built, with short permed hair and dark sunglasses that obscured his features.

The investigator tried to stay calm as he watched the Fox-eyed Man, but his nerves were fraying as the train rattled along. As they transferred to another train, he and the other investigators tailed the Fox-eyed Man, hoping to finally capture one of The Monster’s members. But just as they thought they had him cornered, he slipped away once again, disappearing into the crowds of commuters.

Despite this setback, the police didn’t give up. In another incident, the Fox-eyed Man was spotted accompanying the alleged Monster group during a secret money exchange with House Food Corporation. The police were so close they could practically taste victory, but once again, the elusive Fox-eyed Man was able to slip away and evade capture.

The Fox-eyed Man remains one of the most intriguing and mysterious figures in the case of The Monster with 21 Faces. His identity and connection to the group remain unknown, and his ability to evade the police has only added to the enigma surrounding this unsolved crime.

The Suicide of Shoji Yamamoto and The Monster With 21 Faces’ Reaction

In August 1985, the pressure of the case became unbearable for the head of the Shiga Prefecture police, Shoji Yamamoto. He committed suicide by pouring kerosene over his head and setting himself on fire. 

The Monster With 21 Faces responded to Yamamoto’s death with contempt, saying “how stupid of him!” in a letter. They also seemed to back down, stating they would no longer threaten food-making companies. They claimed that any future blackmailing attempts would be the work of imitators. With this announcement, The Monster With 21 Faces vanished without a trace. 

Despite a massive investigation that involved over 125,000 people, The Monster With 21 Faces was never identified, and the case remains unsolved. Sadly, with the statute of limitations having expired, even if the group were to come forward and reveal their identities, they could not be charged or held accountable for their actions.

For the uninitiated, In Japan, the statute of limitations refers to the maximum amount of time during which legal proceedings can be initiated after a crime has been committed. The statute of limitations varies depending on the type of crime and can range from three years for misdemeanors to 15 years for serious crimes such as murder.

The Legacy of The Monster

The case of The Monster with 21 Faces remains one of Japan’s most infamous unsolved mysteries. The group’s true identities and motives remain a mystery to this day, and the case has become something of a legend in Japanese popular culture.

The Monster has been the subject of countless books, movies, and TV shows over the years. Their antics and taunting of the police have captured the imagination of the public, and their legacy lives on.

The Monster with 21 Faces case has become one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in Japan’s history and continues to fascinate and intrigue people around the world.

Sources:

Poisoned candy found on Japanese store shelves

Themonsterwith21faces.com

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