BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 5.0.18//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:https://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The Japanese Twitter Killer DTSTAMP:20250627T223637Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:364-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":noreply@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n Japan executes man dubbed the \"Twitter killer\,\" convic ted serial killer who murdered and dismembered 9 people\n\n\n\n Japan on F riday executed a man dubbed the \"Twitter killer\" who murdered and dismem bered nine people he met online\, in the nation's first enactment of the d eath penalty since 2022.\n\n\n\n Takahiro Shiraishi\, 34\, was hanged for killing his young victims\, all but one of whom were women\, after contact ing them on the social media platform now called X.\n\n\n\n He had targete d users who posted about taking their own life\, telling them he could hel p them in their plans\, or even die alongside them.\n\n\n\n According to t he BBC\, his Twitter profile contained the words: \"I want to help people who are really in pain. Please DM [direct message] me anytime.\"\n\n\n\n H e killed the three teenage girls and five women after raping them. He also killed the boyfriend of one of the women to silence him\, The Associated Press reported.\n\n\n\n Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Shiraishi's c rimes\, carried out in 2017\, included \"robbery\, rape\, murder ... destr uction of a corpse and abandonment of a corpse.\"\n\n\n\n \"Nine victims w ere beaten and strangled\, killed\, robbed\, and then mutilated with parts of their bodies concealed in boxes\, and parts discarded in a garbage dum p\,\" Suzuki told reporters in Tokyo.\n\n\n\n Nine dismembered bodies were found in coolers and tool boxes when officers visited his flat\, which wa s dubbed by media outlets as a \"house of horrors\,\" the BBC reported.\n\ n\n\n Shiraishi acted to satisfy \"his own sexual and financial desires\" and the murders \"caused great shock and anxiety to society\,\" Suzuki sai d.\n\n\n\n \"After much careful consideration\, I ordered the execution.\" \n\n\n\n Japan and the United States are the only two G7 countries to stil l use capital punishment\, and there is strong support for the practice am ong the Japanese public\, surveys show.\n\n\n\n There was one execution in 2022\, three in 2021\, three in 2019 and 15 in 2018\, the justice ministr y told AFP.\n\n\n\n Shiraishi was sentenced to death in 2020 for the murde rs of his nine victims\, aged between 15 and 26.\n\n\n\n After luring them to his small home near the capital\, he stashed parts of their bodies aro und the apartment in coolers and toolboxes sprinkled with cat litter in a bid to hide the evidence.\n\n\n\n His lawyers had argued Shiraishi should receive a prison sentence rather than be executed because his victims had expressed suicidal thoughts and so had consented to die.\n\n\n\n But a jud ge dismissed that argument\, calling Shiraishi's crimes \"cunning and crue l\,\" reports said at the time.\n\n\n\n \"The dignity of the victims was t rampled upon\,\" the judge had said\, adding that Shiraishi had preyed upo n people who were \"mentally fragile.\"\n\n\n\n The grisly murders were di scovered in autumn 2017 by police investigating the disappearance of a 23- year-old woman who had reportedly tweeted about wanting to kill herself.\n \n\n\n Her brother gained access to her Twitter account and eventually led police to Shiraishi's residence\, where investigators found dismembered b ody parts.\n\n\n\n Executions are always done by hanging in Japan\, where around 100 death row prisoners are waiting for their sentences to be carri ed out.\n\n\n\n Nearly half are seeking a retrial\, Suzuki said Friday.\n\ n\n\n Executions are carried out in secrecy\, where prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging\, according to the AP.\n\n\n\n Japanese law stipulates that executions must be carried ou t within six months of a verdict after appeals are exhausted.\n\n\n\n In r eality\, however\, most inmates are left on tenterhooks in solitary confin ement for years\, and sometimes decades.\n\n\n\n There is widespread criti cism of the system and the government's lack of transparency over the prac tice.\n\n\n\n Shiraishi's execution was the first under Prime Minister Shi geru Ishiba's administration\, the Japan Times reported.\n\n\n\n In 2022\, Tomohiro Kato was hanged for an attack that killed seven people in 2008\, when he rammed a rented two-ton truck into a crowd in Tokyo and went on a stabbing spree.\n\n\n\n The high-profile executions of the guru Shoko Asa hara and 12 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult took place i n 2018.\n\n\n\n Aum Shinrikyo orchestrated the 1995 sarin gas attacks on T okyo's subway system\, killing 14 people and sickening thousands more.\n\n \n\n If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or suicidal crisi s\, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). \n\n\n\n For more information about mental health care resources and suppo rt\, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reache d Monday through Friday\, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. ET\, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) o r email info@nami.org.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n Takahiro Shiraishi covers his face inside a police car in Tokyo\, in this photo taken by Kyodo November 2017 and released by Kyodo December 15\, 2020. KYODO / REUTERS\n\n\n\n  \n\n \n\n URL\n\n\n\n https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-executes-twitter-kille r-takahiro-shiraishi-serial-killer/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\n\n\n\n  \n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250627 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR