THE MONSTER WITH 21 FACES

Summary: was a name used as an alias by the group responsible for the blackmail letters in the Glico
Morinaga case in Japan, in 1984.

March 18th 1984

42 year old Katsuhisa Ezaki is abducted naked from his home by three masked men.

Katsuhisa is president of Japanese food company, Ezaki Glico.

Katsuhisa is taken to a little used warehouse where criminals took Polaroid photos of the company
president naked then dressed him in a black overcoat, a ski hat and handcuffed him.

At 1:15 AM, on March 19th 1984, at the Home of Glico Director of Human Resources, Fujie Hirotake,
a phone call comes in directing Fujie to a phone box where he finds a ransom letter at 1:40 am.

In part it reads:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I am holding a hostage. Prepare 1 billion yen in cash and 100 kilograms of gold (approximately
RM50 million)

Tell anything to the police, I will definitely kill the hostage.

I have friends at the Police and I will know immediately if you try to trace me.

Don’t try trick me with cash or gold. Don’t try to trace me, it is pointless. I won’t negotiate. Just listen
to what I say

(Found in a telephone box in Makami, Takatsuki, Osaka prefecture, in a brown tea envelope
sandwiched between telephone directory books at 1:40AM by Glico Director of Human Resources,
Fujie Hirotake)

March 19th 1984

a phone call is received of a taped recording of Katsuhisa Ezaki. In the recording Katsuhisa reads
directions for Glico to bring the ransom money to a restaurant.

Police in cooperation with Glico traveled to the restaurant awaiting contact with the criminals but
received no further instruction forcing the operation to end.

March 20th 1984

At about 10 pm Katsuhisa was abandoned by his captors after being redressed and loosely tied.Ezaki
managed to work his ropes loose and kicked down a door of the isolated warehouse he was kept in
and found 2 railroad workers to help him contact the police.

Nearly 14 hours later Katsuhisa managed to escape his bindings and seek help, contacting police at
2:22 pm

April 2nd 1984

a letter accompanied by a bottle of eye drops filled with Hydrochloric Acid arrives at Katushisa
Ezaki's residence.

In part it reads:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dear Katsuhisa,

How dare you break our promise and run away from us. I’m giving you one more chance.

It’s going to be 10 million yen per person in your family ,so for 6 people it’s going to be 60million yen
(Approximately RM1 Juta). At 7pm on the 8th of April, I’ll call the number at your house. I’ll forgive
the six of you once I get the money. I will never do anything to you again.

In the letter it also stated that they (the kidnappers) threatened to poison glico candies with cyanide
if they didn’t receive the money.Adding more credibility to their threats,the group then reportedly
snuck into glico headquarters to set some of their property on fire.

Despite a growing list of crimes,authorities were at a lost to pin responsibility on whoever was
behind on whoever was targeting Glico.Unfortunately for the cops their situation only became more
embarrassing .Perhaps no one was more upset at the polices lack of of progress on the case then the
criminals themselves.

April 8th 1984

The press received one of the first of what would be over 100 letters sent by the criminals over the
next year and a half.The letter taunted the police and even tried to help them do their job.It began

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To the stupid police,are you idiots? What are you doing with so many people? If you were pros,you
would catch us.
Because you guys have such a high handicap,we,re gonna give you some hints.

The letter then proceeded to debunk a few theories such as:

1.The kidnapping being an inside job

2.The owners of the warehouse Ezaki escaped from being kidnapped were involved in this crime

The criminals also gave the police more clues such as:

1.The car they used was grey

2.Naming the grocery store where they bought their food

the letter continued,

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If you can’t catch us after this much info,you guys are just thieves of the taxpayers money.Should we
also kidnap the head of the prefectural police?

Letters kept pouring in from the monster with 21 faces and showed a knack to gain the public
attention so they leveraged the media to ensure their threats and crime were widely spread.

The relationship between the Ezaki abduction and intimidation cases as well as the Glico Arson
events was considered to be extremely high. The National Police Agency of Japan designated the
series of events as Nationwide Case 114 on April 12th 1984.

By June,The criminals began to refer themselves in the letters sent out as “the monster with 21
faces” Inspired by "The Fiend with Twenty Faces", a children's book written by the Japanese author
back in 1936.

September 1984
Another Japanese confectioner Morinaga and Company began to receive extortion letters
threatening unspecified action if they (the monster with 21 faces) did not receive 410,000USD
(approximately RM 2 million).According to police,Morinaga never sent the payment.

October 8th 1984

Japanese newspapers received the following letter quote

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
To moms throughout Japan.In autumn when appetites are strong,Sweets are really delicious.When
you think sweets,no matter what you say it’s Morinaga.We’ve added some special flavour.The flavour
of potassium cyanide is a little bitter.It won,t cause tooth decay so buy the sweets for your kids.We’ve
attached a notice on these bitter sweets that they contain poison.We’ve put 20 boxes in stores from
Hakata to Tokyo.

The same day ,packages of cookies and candy we’re found in grocery stores throughout Japan with
type written labels attached,reading

DANGER-CYANIDE

In total,18 packages were discovered and tested.

While not all the labelled packages were found to contain cyanide,atleast 1 had enough to kill
someone.

The letter warnings of the tainted candies however said that next time there will be 30 boxes and
they would not be labelled.

For the next 2 weekends,it was reported that 40,000 officers staked out grocery stores across the
country,The stakeouts yielded nothing.Though thankfully,it ddn’t appear that the group went through
with their latest threat.

By the evening of October 8th 1984, shops where poisoned snacks were discovered had removed
their entire stock of Morinaga products out of caution.

The next day on the 9th, more poisoned products were found as the supermarket chain Daiei
removed Morinaga from 158 stores nationwide. Department stores such as Isetan, Matsuzakaya,
Tenmaya and Jusco among others did the same.

Like an avalanche, 3,500 shops across the country including those at National Railway Stations
dumped the tainted brand.

Due to the massive cuts in production and delivery, Morinaga halted 450 part-time jobs and
employees were sent home.

On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Morinaga shares reached a high price of 670 yen (RM22) at the end of
July. On October 8th the company's stock price plummeted to 580 yen (RM19). It would fall to 450
yen (RM14) by the end of the month and down to 380 yen by the end of the year. A fall much more
devastating than that of Glico.

August 12th 1985

The Monster With 21 Faces sent their last letter announcing they would stop.
By this time,according to Japan’s national police agency,authorities had received over 28,000 tips and
had used over 130,000 police officers with a stack of letters,a laundry list of crimes and a humiliated
police agency.

For over 35 years “The Monster with 21 Faces” has haunted Japan, long after its arrival in March
1984 and disappearance in August 1985.

In what is known as the “Glico-Morinaga” case the criminal gang commited: Attempted Murder,
Kidnapping for Ransom, Burglary Injury, Non-Residential Building Arson, Attempted Extortion and
many Postal Law Violations.

They were never caught .

The case remains unsolved till this day.