page_title: Futoshi Matsunaga
section_title: Murders
hierarchical_section_title: Futoshi Matsunaga / Murders
caption_attribution_description: Beppu Gulf, Oita, Japan - 別府湾（大分県）
context_page_description: Futoshi Matsunaga is a Japanese serial killer who both defrauded and tortured his victims in what is collectively known as the Kitakyūshū Serial Murder Incident. Matsunaga was convicted of six counts of murder and one count of manslaughter between 1996 and 1998 and sentenced to die by hanging. He murdered his victims with an accomplice, Junko Ogata, who received a life sentence.
  Matsunaga's crimes were so atrocious that most Japanese media were not willing to report the details. The Japan Times reported that prosecutors said "[the case] is without comparison in the criminal history of our country". Several writers, including Ryūzō Saki, published the details of the crimes.
context_section_description: Matsunaga lived in a condominium in Kokurakita-ku. His first victim was a married woman with three children. In April 1993, he convinced her to leave her husband and run away with him, telling the woman that Junko was his sister. One of her children died under mysterious circumstances in September 1993. Her two other children went to live with their father and grandfather the following month. During their relationship, Matsunaga defrauded the woman for 11.8 million yen (about US$145,510). She died mysteriously in March 1994, and the police were unable to prove that Matsunaga had killed the woman or her child.
  Later that year, Matsunaga began victimizing Kumio Toraya and his daughter. Kumio had previously confided to Matsunaga about his previous criminal history; Matsunaga used this information to blackmail Kumio. Kumio and his daughter were held captive in Matsunaga's apartment, where Matsunaga tortured him with electric shocks, forced him to eat his own feces, and forced his daughter to bite her father. Kumio died as a result of this abuse on February 26, 1996. Matsunaga convinced Kumio's daughter that she had murdered her father. He told Junko and the girl to dispose of the remains, which were thrown into the sea near the Kunisaki Peninsula after being pulverized.
  Soon after, Matsunaga found another target in a female acquaintance of Kumio. He convinced the woman that he was a graduate of Kyoto University and promised to marry her. Instead, he defrauded her of 5.6 million yen (about US$69,066). As before, the woman and her daughter were confined to Matsunaga's apartment. The woman escaped by jumping from the second floor in March 1997. She was put into the care of a mental hospital and her daughter was released.
  The following month, Junko left for work and did not return. Matsunaga contacted her family, threatening them and blackmailing Shizumi over the 1985 rape. Matsunaga then faked his own suicide, prompting Junko to return, whereupon she was subjected to continued abuse. He also raped Junko's married sister, Rieko. Junko's family gave 63 million yen (about US$777,116) to Matsunaga, after which he held them captive and psychologically controlled them in ways similar to the methods of cult-leader Shoko Asahara.
  On December 21, 1997, Matsunaga coerced Junko to shock her 61-year-old father, Takashige, to the point of death. When Shizumi's mental state began to deteriorate, Matsunaga commanded Rieko and her husband, Kazuya, to strangle her on January 20, 1998. Several weeks later, he commanded Kazuya to strangle Rieko while their 10-year-old daughter, Aya, held her down. Matsunaga and Junko then confined Kazuya to a bathroom, where he starved to death on April 13, 1998. Matsunaga then forced Junko and Aya to kill Rieko's 5-year-old son, Yuki. During the trial, Kumio's daughter testified that Matsunaga and Junko had tortured Aya with electricity. Junko refuted this testimony, saying the girl's recollections might have been inaccurate because of guilty feelings about committing her first murder. Kumio's daughter strangled Aya on June 7, 1998. Matsunaga and Ogata dismembered and boiled their victims' remains in pots, then finally disposed of them in washrooms or into the sea. Matsunaga blamed the murders on Junko, who, with their two children, were the only survivors in her family.
  In July 2000, Matsunaga convinced another woman to go away with him, lured by the prospect of marriage. In August 2001, she gave her twin children to him and Junko. Matsunaga and Junko then convinced the woman to give them 20 million yen (about US$246,580), telling her that they would need the money to bring up her children.
caption: The Kunisaki Peninsula (left) and its surroundings
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