An infamous Japanese woman who killed three men with cyanide and tried to kill a fourth one has died in prison.
Chisako Kakehi, 78, received the death penalty for her crimes that earned her the nickname 'Black Widow,' CBS News reported. She was not executed, but found lying in her cell at the Osaka detention center. The cause of her death has not been determined yet.
The victims included her 75-year-old husband, Isao, and two other men who were her common-law husbands, The Japan Times reported. The newspaper reported in 2007 that Kakehi wanted to avoid paying a debt to an acquaintance and attempted to kill him as well.
The Japan Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against her in 2021, with judge Yuko Miyazaki saying that Kakehi used cyanide to kill the men after getting them to trust her as a "life partner," CBS News reported.
Kakehi used the men's deaths to build a fortune of $9 million through insurance and inheritance but then blew the money after making bad financial decisions and investments, the outlet added.
Police at first believed the deaths of the men were due to illnesses, but the assessment changed after the death of Isao, her last victim. After authorities found he had died of cyanide poisoning they launched an investigation that ended up unearthing her other crimes and leading to her conviction.
