A
Japanese court has sentenced to death a one-time millionairess dubbed the
"Black Widow", who tricked elderly lovers into drinking cyanide and
pocketed millions in insurance payouts and inheritance.
In
July this year , “The Black Widow of Kyoto” told a court she would laugh in the
face of a death sentence after she admitted fatally poisoning her husband to
inherit his money one month after they married.
“Even
if I were executed tomorrow, I would die smiling,” Chisako Kakehi, 70, said to the judges in her trial
testimony in July, according to Agence France-Presse.
Prosecutors
said she targeted wealthy men who were mostly elderly or sick.
She
became known in Japanese media as the Black Widow, after the female spider
which kills its mates after sex.
Ms
Kakehi was accused of murdering her fourth husband, 75-year-old Isao Kakehi, on
28 December 2013, a month after they got married.
She
was also accused of killing two other boyfriends, aged between 70 and 80, and
the attempted murder and robbery of another boyfriend - who later died of
cancer - between 2007 and 2013.
The
trial heard that she had joined matchmaking services in which she had
specifically requested to meet men who were rich and childless.
She
reportedly inherited around one billion yen ($8.8 million) in all, although she
later lost some of it through the stock market.
During
the 135 day trial Kakehi appeared to admit killing Isao Kakehi, saying he had
not treated her well financially, but later retracted it.
Her
lawyers reportedly plan to appeal to a higher court because of her dementia , arguing
that her dementia means she cannot be held criminally liable.
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