Monster With 21 Faces
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The was a name (based on
Edogawa Rampo , better known by the pen name , was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the ...
's fictional villain ''"
The Fiend with Twenty Faces is a fictional character who serves as a recurring antagonist for Kogoro Akechi in Edogawa Rampo's mystery fiction. A gentleman thief and master of disguise, he is considered Akechi's archenemy or most famous adversary. Creation and origin Edoga ...
"'') used as an alias by the group responsible for the blackmail letters in the
Glico Morinaga case The , also known by its official designation , was a famous extortion case from 1984 to 1985 in Japan, primarily directed at the Japanese industrial confectioneries Ezaki Glico and Morinaga, and currently remains unsolved. The entire case spanned ...
in Japan, in 1984. Variations of the name's translation, including "the Mystery Man with the 21 Faces" and "the Phantom with 21 Faces", have also been used in articles and books featuring the case.


Kidnapping of Katsuhisa Ezaki

At around 9:00 pm on 18 March 1984, two masked men armed with a pistol and rifle (later assumed to be toy guns) used a key stolen from the home next door to enter the home of
Ezaki Glico , commonly known as Glico, is a Japanese multinational food processing company headquartered in Nishiyodogawa-ku, Osaka. It does business across 30 countries, in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Overview Ezaki Glico's primary busin ...
president, Katsuhisa Ezaki.
/ref> The home next door belonged to Katsuhisa's 70-year-old mother, Yoshie, and was located on the same property surrounded by a brick wall. The criminals had broken into her home and tied her up with a cut telephone line. They retrieved the key to her son's home which had a security system installed. Having entered the home of Katsuhisa Ezaki, the two masked men tied up his wife Mikieko (35 years old) and his eldest daughter Mariko (7 years old). Mikieko offered the men money and one of them responded, "Be quiet. Money is irrelevant." After cutting some telephone lines the two masked men located Katsuhisa Ezaki who was bathing with his other two children, Yukiko (4 years old) and Etsuro (11 years old). Katsuhisa Ezaki was abducted naked from his home and taken to a warehouse in
Ibaraki, Osaka is a Cities of Japan, city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 285,224 in 132,300 households and a population density of 3,700 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It is a suburban city of Osaka Cit ...
. Three days after his abduction, Ezaki was able to escape his captors after breaking free from the ropes they had tied him with. However he was unable to identify the culprits or provide police with any clues as to their motivations. Several weeks after Ezaki's abduction, the group set fire to several vehicles at the company's headquarters. Then on 16 April 1984, a plastic container full of
hydrochloric acid Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid or spirits of salt, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride (HCl). It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungency, pungent smell. It is classified as a acid strength, strong acid. It is ...
was found inside a Glico company building in Ibaraki, Osaka, the same city Ezaki was held captive in.


Letters


Letters to Ezaki Glico

On 8 April 1984, The Monster with 21 Faces sent a letter to police, saying (English translation): Although the letter told police the color of the vehicle they had driven while kidnapping Ezaki, as well as the supermarket they had bought the food used to feed him during his captivity, these clues provided little assistance to authorities. Meanwhile, the Monster with 21 Faces also sent letters to the media, taunting police efforts to capture the culprit(s) behind the scare. An excerpt from one such letter, written in ''
hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...
'' and with an
Osaka dialect The is a group of Japanese dialects in the Kansai region (Kinki region) of Japan. In Japanese, is the common name and it is called in technical terms. The dialects of Kyoto and Osaka are known as , and were particularly referred to as suc ...
, reads, "Dear dumb police officers. Don't tell a lie. All crimes begin with a lie as we say in Japan. Don't you know that?" Another letter sent by the Monster with 21 Faces that was received on 23 April was sent to both ''
Sankei The , name short for , is a daily national newspaper in Japan published by the Sankei Shimbun Co., Ltd, ranking amongst the top five most circulated newspapers in Japan. Together with its English-language paper ''Japan Forward'', the ''Sankei ...
'' and ''
Mainichi The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English-language news website called , and publishes a bilin ...
'' newspapers as well as the Koshien police station. It read: The Monster with 21 Faces sent its first letter on May 10 to the giant food company
Ezaki Glico , commonly known as Glico, is a Japanese multinational food processing company headquartered in Nishiyodogawa-ku, Osaka. It does business across 30 countries, in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Overview Ezaki Glico's primary busin ...
following the kidnapping and escape of Katsuhisa Ezaki, president of Glico. The letter stated it had laced $21 million worth of the company's confections with
potassium cyanide Potassium cyanide is a compound with the formula KCN. It is a colorless salt, similar in appearance to sugar, that is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications include ...
soda, and it later threatened to put them on store shelves. None of these poisoned candies were found, but Glico products were removed from stores, resulting in a loss of more than $20 million and the laying off of 450 part-time workers. By the end of the whole ordeal, Glico reported a total decrease in sales of nearly $130 million. On 26 June, the Monster with 21 Faces issued a message proclaiming its forgiveness of Glico, and subsequent harassment of the company ceased.


Letters to Morinaga

After ceasing its harassment of Glico, the Monster with 21 Faces began targeting Morinaga, another confectionery company, and food companies Marudai Ham and House Food Corporation with similar criminal campaigns, using the same alias. In October 1984, a letter addressed to "Moms of the Nation" and signed by the Monster with 21 Faces was sent to
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
news agencies with a warning similar to those sent to Glico. It stated that 20 packages of Morinaga candy had been laced with deadly
sodium cyanide Sodium cyanide is a compound with the formula Na C N and the structure . It is a white, water-soluble solid. Cyanide has a high affinity for metals, which leads to the high toxicity of this salt. Its main application, in gold mining, also expl ...
. After receiving this letter, police searched stores in cities from Tokyo to western Japan and found over a dozen lethal packages of Morinaga Choco Balls and Angel Pie before anyone was poisoned. These packages had labels, such as "Danger: Contains Toxins", put on them. More tampered confections were found in February 1985 for a total of 21 lethal sweet products. On 1 November 1984 a threatening letter from the Monster with 21 Faces arrived at the Tokyo home of Morinaga Dairy vice president Mitsuo Yamada: Morinaga responded on 6 November to the criminals by placing the missing persons advertisement in the Mainichi Newspapers Morning Edition: "Dear Jiro, Bad friend disappeared. Come back. Warm meal is waiting. Mother Chiyoko." Two letters from the Monster with 21 Faces were sent to House Foods on 7 November. Furthermore, Morinaga & Company was forced to reduce its current production by 90% that day due to the poisoning.


Death of Superintendent Yamamoto and cessation of letters

Unable to capture the suspect believed to be the mastermind behind the Monster with 21 Faces, the police superintendent Yamamoto of
Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...
died by
self-immolation Self-immolation is the act of setting oneself on fire. It is mostly done for political or religious reasons, often as a form of protest or in acts of martyrdom, and known for its disturbing and violent nature. Etymology The English word ' ...
in August 1985. Five days after this event, on August 12, "the Monster" sent its final message to the media: After this letter, the Monster with 21 Faces was not heard from again. The
statute of limitation A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
for the kidnapping of Katsuhisa Ezaki, president of Glico, ran out in June 1995, and the statute of limitation for the attempted poisonings ran out in February 2000. At one point, it was even estimated that over a million police officers had worked on the case in some capacity or another over the years, chasing down more than 28,000 tips and investigating nearly 125,000 persons-of-interest. However, no suspect was ever charged.


Major suspects


"The Videotaped Man"

Following threats by the Monster with 21 Faces to poison Glico confections and the resulting mass withdrawal of Glico products from shelves, a man wearing a Yomiuri Giants baseball cap was caught placing Glico chocolate on a store shelf by a security camera. This man was believed to be behind the Monster with 21 Faces. The security camera photo was made public after this incident.


"The Fox-eyed Man"

On 28 June 1984, two days after the Monster agreed to stop harassing Marudai Ham in exchange for 50 million
yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. T ...
, police came close to capturing the suspected mastermind. An investigator disguised himself as a Marudai employee and followed the Monster's instructions for the money exchange. As he was riding a train to the money's drop point, he noticed a suspicious man watching him. He was described as a large, well-built man wearing sunglasses and with his hair cut short and permed. He was also quoted to have "eyes like those of a fox". As investigators tailed him from train to train, the eventually eluded them. In a later incident, investigators saw the Fox-eyed Man again, accompanying the alleged "Monster" group during another secret money exchange with House Food Corporation. Once again, he was able to elude police and avoid capture.


Manabu Miyazaki

Tokyo Metropolitan Police The , known locally as simply the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), is the prefectural police of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Founded in 1874, the TMPD is the largest police force in Japan by number of officers, with a staff of more than 40,000 p ...
at first identified
Manabu Miyazaki was a Japanese writer, social critic and public figure. He is the author of several best-selling books in Japan. His autobiography ''Toppamono'' sold 600,000 copies and has since been translated into English. In 1985, Miyazaki was named by the ...
, the son of a known
yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...
boss and a criminal himself, as the Fox-eyed Man and the Videotaped Man because of his resemblance to these suspects. Miyazaki had also been involved with a labor dispute with Glico about ten years prior. However, after his alibis were checked, he was cleared of the Glico-Morinaga crimes, though some still suspect he could have been involved with the group.


See also

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List of fugitives from justice who disappeared This is a list of fugitives from justice, notable people who disappeared or evaded capture while being sought by law enforcement agencies in connection with a crime, and who are currently sought or were sought for the duration of their presumed ...
*
Paraquat murders The were a series of indiscriminate beverage poisonings carried out in western and central Japan in 1985. The drinks were placed in and around vending machines, where the victim would consume the beverage. All the beverages were poisoned with the ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monster with 21 Faces 1984 crimes in Japan Blackmail Extortionists Food scares Fugitives wanted by Japan Japanese criminals Possibly living people Unidentified criminals Year of birth unknown Unsolved crimes in Japan