Kiyotaka KATSUTA
AKA "Kiyotaka Fujiwara"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Robberies
Number of victims: 8 - 22
Date of murders: 1972 - 1982
Date of arrest: January 31, 1983
Date of birth: August 29, 1948
Victims profile: Two chauffeurs and six bar hostesses
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
Status: Executed by hanging on November 30, 2000
Kiyotaka Katsuta (勝田 清孝 Katsuta Kiyotaka, August 29, 1948 - November 30, 2000) was a Japanese serial killer.
On January 31, 1983, he was arrested. He might have killed 22 people but the police accused 8 murders. In prison, he wasn't able to trust people, and he didn't meet any people except a female Christian, who uses pen name Yūko Kurusu. She became sister-in-law of him, so he was renamed Kiyotaka Fujiwara.
On January 17, 1994, the Supreme Court sentenced him to two death penalties for the first time in the history of the Japanese Supreme Court. One was for 7 murders between 1972 and 1980, and the other was for killing a man in 1982. He was executed on November 30, 2000.
Kiyotaka Katsuta (勝田 清孝 Katsuta Kiyotaka, August 29, 1948 - November 30, 2000) was a Japanese serial killer and thief.
Biography
Katsuta committed several murders and robbed several houses before being apprehended. The exact number of murders he committed is unknown. He killed his victims by strangling and shooting them.
His last crime occurred in 1982. On October 27, he hit a police officer with a car and stole a handgun. On October 31, he attempted to commit a robbery, but killed a man with a handgun during the failed attempt. On November 1, he shot another man, who survived. Because he was armed, Katsuta continued to elude capture. The incident was officially named Metropolitan Designated Case 113.
On January 31, 1983, he was arrested while threatening a man with a handgun. He was initially thought to have only killed his victims while robbing them, but later confessed to seven other murders.
He may have killed as many as 22 people, but the police charged him with only eight counts of murder. The police suspected that Katsuta raped some of his victims before killing them, but were not able to prove this. His crimes greatly shocked Japan because he was a firefighter.
The 1984 film Renzoku satsujinki: Reiketsu (連続殺人鬼 冷血) was based on his crimes. In the film, the murderer was named Kiyoshi Tatsuta. Kazuya Nakayama, who has a criminal record of his own, played the role of Tatsuta.
In prison, he was mistrustful of his fellow inmates. While incarcerated, he met a Christian woman, who was also known as Yūko Kurusu. She became his sister-in-law, after which he changed his name to Kiyotaka Fujiwara.
On January 17, 1994, the Supreme Court upheld his two death penalty convictions, a first in the history of the Japanese Supreme Court. One was for seven murders between 1972 and 1980, and the other was for killing a man with a handgun in 1982. He was executed on November 30, 2000.
Wikipedia.org
Court to return ring of serial killer's victim
2000.12.15
Mainichi Shimbun
NAGOYA - A diamond ring that belonged to one of eight victims of serial killer Kiyotaka Katsuta, who was executed last month, but was sold off by a court official without the permission of the dead woman's family was located and will be returned, it was learned Thursday.
Officials at the Nagoya District Court said the 1-carat diamond ring, which was sold in 1994 by the same court, was found in a Nagoya antique shop.
The court has notified the relatives of the victim, Yoshiko Shikina, who live in Okinawa Prefecture, and will return the diamond to its rightful heir.
From 1972 to 1982, Katsuta went on a killing spree, murdering and robbing eight people. He stole the ring from Shikina, a beautician from Showa-ku, Nagoya, in August 1977 after killing her. Katsuta was hanged on Nov. 30.
