Summary
A communal pot of curry being served to residents of Sonobe district, Wakayama, was poisoned with at least 1,000 grams of arsenic — enough to kill over 100 people — on July 25, 1998.
Two children and two adults fell sick and died after consuming the curry, and 63 others suffered from acute arsenic poisoning. Killed in the incident were 64-year old Takatoshi Taninaka and 53-year old Takaaki Tanaka (council president and vice president of Wakayama, respectively), 10 year-old Hirotaka Hayashi, and 16-year-old Miyuki Torii.
Attention quickly focused on 37-year-old Hayashi, as she was seen by a witness at the curry dish, and she had easy access to arsenic because her husband was an exterminator. After her arrest, she and her husband were indicted on a number of insurance fraud charges as well. Her husband was subsequently convicted and imprisoned for insurance fraud. Prior to the murders, Masumi had been an insurance saleswoman. Masumi was also tried for three other attempted murders by poison that had occurred during the previous 10 years, with the motive in those cases being life insurance benefits. She is believed to have tried to kill her husband at least once. The motive of the mother of four in this case is said to be anger at her neighbors for shunning her family. The arsenic found in the curry was identical to arsenic she had in her own home from her husband's extermination business.
Read more about this topic: Masumi Hayashi (poisoner)
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