'Twitter Killer' who Raped and Murdered 8 Young Women — Then Kept Their Mutilated Remains as Trophies — Is Executed

A Japanese man who killed nine people and kept their cleaned bones and body parts in his apartment has been executed.

Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was hanged for murdering nine people — eight of them young women he met on what was then called Twitter — earning him the nickname “Twitter Killer.”

The women were “mentally fragile,” according to Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who said Shiraishi targeted them after they expressed suicidal thoughts or ideations on the platform, now known as X.

Shiraishi reached out to these women offering to help them end their lives, said Suzuki. Then, he lured them to his apartment, located approximately 20 miles outside Tokyo.

Once there, the victims were “beaten and strangled, killed, robbed, and then mutilated,” said Suzuki.

Shiraishi raped his eight female victims, said Suzuki, who also noted that three of the victims were teenagers. The youngest victim was just 15.

Shiraishi also killed the boyfriend of one victim in order to silence him and evade possible detection by law enforcement.

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His perverse plot was uncovered in 2017 when the brother of one victim found
communications between the serial killer and his sister on Twitter.

The brother then alerted police, leading to the discovery of bones and dismembered body parts from nine victims stored in coolers throughout Shiraishi’s apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Police said that at the time that Shiraishi used cat litter to mask the smell of the human remains.

Suzuki said on Friday that this was all done to satisfy Shiraishi’s “sexual and financial desires.”

That is why, Suzuki said, he ultimately agreed to order the execution after “careful consideration.”

Shiraishi’s execution marked Japan’s first since 2022. Japan and the United States remain the only G7 nations that retain the death penalty.

All executions in Japan are done by hanging and inmates are given little advance warning, often being told just a few hours before the event.

Family members are given no advance warning.

The decision to execute Shiraishi quickly drew criticism from many, including the European Union, which released a statement shortly after news of the hanging.

“In keeping with our consistent strong and principled position against the death penalty, we oppose the use of capital punishment in all cases and in all circumstances, and continue our active pursuit of its abolition worldwide,” read the statement in part. “The use of the death penalty is incompatible with the inalienable right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.”

The statement went on to say that capital punishment “fails to act as a deterrent to crime and makes possible miscarriages of justice irreversible.”

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.