Futoshi Matsunaga / Serial Killer / Sadomasochist Killer

Futoshi Matsunaga | Serial Killer

Futoshi Matsunaga
Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko Ogata

Futoshi Matsunaga

Born: 04-28-1961


Kitakyusyu Serial Murder Incident

A Japanese Serial Killer

Crime Spree: 1996 – 1998

Death:


Futoshi Matsunaga is a Japanese serial killer who both defrauded and tortured his victims in what is publicly known as the ‘Kitakyusyu Serial Murder Incident’.

Case Without Comparison

Futoshi Matsunaga was convicted of six counts of murder and one count of manslaughter, including those of two children, between the years 1996 and 1998. He murdered his victims with an accomplice, Junko Ogata.

His crimes were so atrocious that most mass 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”. Despite that, several writers, including Ryuzo Saki, did publish the details of the crimes.

Early Life of Futoshi Matsunaga

Futoshi Matsunaga was born in Kokura Kita-ku, Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture and grew up in Yanagawa. Although he did well in school and had a charming personality, Futoshi tended to exhibit disciplinary problems.

Futoshi Matsunaga married at 19 and had a son. However, in October of 1982, despite having at least ten mistresses on the side, he became involved with a woman called Junko Ogata. In 1984 he promised to marry Junko, but Junko’s mother, Shizumi, did not approve of Matsunaga’s abuse of her daughter. Angered at this, he beat and rape Shizumil.

Junko attempted suicide in February 1985. Futoshi Matsunaga then convinced Junko that her family hated her because of this act and talked her into living with him in 1985.

The World

Two years earlier, Futoshi Matsunaga opened a futon company named the World and in 1985 purchased a building in which to operate the company.

Around that time, Futoshi began to electrically shock his employees on the third floor of the building. He would sometimes suddenly and vigorously start shouting towards other men, saying things like “there is a spirit behind you! It is sucking away your fortune!” occasionally mixing in religious words like saṃsāra and referring to kami. His wife escaped with her son and accused him of domestic violence. He had stolen 180 million yen (approximately $2.2 million) through fraud or blackmail.

In 1992, he and Junko evaded police capture and were put on the nation’s most wanted list.

The Victims of Futoshi Matsunaga

Matsunaga’s 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 her that Junko was his sister. One of her children died under mysterious circumstances in September of 1993. Her two other children went to live with their father and grandfather in October of the same year.

During their relationship, Futoshi Matsunaga defrauded the woman for approximately $145,510.00. The woman died mysteriously in March of 1994 but the police were unable to prove that Matsunaga had killed neither the woman or her child.

Captivity and Murders

Futoshi Matsunaga lived in a condominium in Kitakyushu. In 1994, he began victimizing Kumio Toraya and his daughter. Kumio had confided to Matsunaga some information about his previous criminal history and Matsunaga began using this information to blackmail Kumio.

Kumio and his daughter were held captive in Matsunaga’s room. Matsunaga tortured Kumio with electric shocks, forced him to eat his own feces and forced his daughter to bite her father. Kumio was 34 when he died of the effects of this abuse on February 26, 1996.

Futoshi Matsunaga convinced Kumio’s daughter that she had murdered her father. He told Junko and the girl to dispose of the remains. Kumio’s remains were thrown into the sea near the Kunisaki Peninsula after being pulverized.

Futoshi Matsunaga

That same year, Futoshi Matsunaga found another target. The woman who had been an acquaintance of Kumio. Matsunaga promised to marry her. Instead he held her and her daughter captive and the torture began. He defrauded the woman of approximately $69,000.00. The woman finally escaped by jumping from the second floor to the ground in March 1997. She was put into the care of a mental hospital and her daughter was released.

One day in April 1997, Junko left for work and did not return. Futoshi Matsunaga called Junko’s family, informing them of her absence. He made threats to Junko’s family and told them that Junko was a murderer. He continued to blackmail Shizumi. But apparently to no avail.

Shortly thereafter, Futoshi Matsunaga faked his own suicide. Believing him to be dead, Junko returned, only to find him alive. Matsunaga continued to treat Junko abusively. He also raped Junko’s married sister, Rieko.

Junko’s family gave 63 million yen (approximately $777,000.00) to Matsunaga, after which he held them captive. He abused the vaginas of Shizumi and Rieko with electric shocks. He controlled the family in ways similar to the methods that cult-leader Shoko Asahara had used.

Futoshi Matsunaga

On December 21, 1997, he coerced Junko to torture her 61-year-old father, Takashige, to death by electrocution.

After suffering Matsunaga’s continued abuse, 58 year old Shizumi’s mental state began to deteriorate. He commanded Rieko and her husband Kazuya to strangle Shizumi on January 20, 1998.

Eventually, Rieko began to lose her hearing. On February 10, 1998 Futoshi Matsunaga commanded Kazuya to strangle Rieko, while their 10-year-old daughter Aya held her down. Rieko was only 33 at the time.

Matsunaga and Junko then confined Kazuya in a bathroom, where he starved to death on April 13, 1998. He was only 38.

Futoshi Matsunaga forced Junko, Aya, and Kumio’s daughter to kill Rieko’s 5-year-old son, Yuki. On May 17, 1998 Aya strangled Yuki while Junko and Kumio’s daughter held him down.

The Trial

During the trial, Kumio’s daughter testified that Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko had tortured Aya with electricity. Junko, however, denied Kumio’s daughter’s testimony about this, saying the girl’s recollections might have been inaccurate because of guilt feelings about committing her first murder. Kumio’s daughter strangled Aya on June 7, 1998.

Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko dismembered and boiled their victims’ remains in pots. The other residents of the condominium heard strange noises and smelled the stench. The victims’ remains were finally disposed of in washrooms or put out to sea. The condominium was renovated after the murders. Matsunaga blamed the murders on Junko, who, with their two children, were the only survivors in her family.

Matsunaga’s crimes continued. In July 2000, Futoshi 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 $246,580.00), telling her that they would need the money to bring up her children.

Arrest and Trial

Futoshi Matsunaga

Kumio’s daughter, who was being held captive, escaped from Futoshi Matsunaga on January 30, 2002, but Matsunaga found her again on February 15th and took her back into captivity. He then tortured the girl with electric shocks.

On March 6th the girl escaped from Matsunaga again, and reported the crimes to the police. She was 17 years old at the time. The police arrested Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko the next day when they tried to retrieve the girl. The twins and the couple’s two children were taken into police protection.

The media initially reported only that Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko had held their victims captive, similar to the case of Fusako Sano, but eventually the media revealed the details of the murders.

The pair were charged with seven murders.

No murder charges were brought against Kumio’s daughter. Junko calmly confessed to her part in the murders, but Futoshi Matsunaga professed his own innocence. He insisted that the women had fabricated their stories about him. The Japanese police never recovered any human remains and found no physical evidence, so they primarily relied upon the testimonies of Kumio’s and Junko’s daughters during the police investigation.

The Conviction

On September 28, 2005, a district court in Fukuoka sentenced Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko to die by hanging. The court tried six cases, but considered that Matsunaga and Junko had not killed Takashige directly, they had only injured him by electric shocks, which later resulted in his death.

The pair appealed the verdict. On September 26, 2007, a high court upheld Matsunaga’s original sentence, but Junko’s sentence was changed from death by hanging to life imprisonment because Futoshi Matsunaga had exerted control over Junko to force her to kill the victims.

Source: murderpedia

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