Takahiro Shiraishi, Japan’s Twitter killer, hopes to marry ‘normal girl’ before execution
- The 30-year-old befriended nine lonely people online before luring them to his flat and strangling them
- Sentenced to death for murder, forced sexual intercourse, and robbery, he says ‘it would be good to have someone who supports me’
Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, has been dubbed the “Twitter killer” for his tactic of befriending lonely people on the internet who had expressed a desire to kill themselves, before luring them back to his flat in Zushi and strangling them. He murdered eight women and one man, aged between 15 and 26, from August to October 2017.
When police entered Shiraishi’s flat, they found the heads and arm and leg bones from his victims stored in cooler boxes.
In an interview with the Mainichi newspaper conducted at the Tachikawa Detention House after his punishment was announced, Shiraishi said he “thought nothing” when he was sentenced to hang.
“I thought I might feel something,” he said. “But I didn’t sweat and my heart was not pounding or anything. I already knew full well what was coming.”