The Glico-Morinaga Case

The Monster with 21 Faces:

The Glico-Morinaga Case

The Monster proceeded to carry out almost an exact replica of their Glico attacks against the Morinaga corporation, complete with threatening letters & ransom demands

The Monster sent their last letter to newspapers in February of 1985.

Perhaps because of previous widespread panic about the Glico incidents, however, these died down much quicker without as much coverage

The Monster sent out letters to several other companies in this time, including Marudai Foods, but none ended up being as prominent as their attacks on Glico and Morinaga

Hirai Taro (known by the pseudonym Edogawa Ranpo) was a Japanese mystery author active around 1920-1960

A recurring antagonist in his series "Private Detective Kogoro Akechi" and "Boy Detectives Club" is known as "The Fiend with Twenty Faces"

EDOGAWA RANPO

EZAKI-GLICO CORPORATION

• Japanese candy manufacturer

October 7, 1984: A man is seen on security tapes placing an object on a shelf in a Familymart store in Nishinomiya

• Founded in 1919 by Riichi Ezaki

• Founded by Riichi Ezaki in 1919

March 19, 1:15 AM: HR director Fujie Hirotake receives a strange call from an unknown number

• One of the most popular food companies in Japan to this day

• One of the largest multinational food companies in Japan to this day

The caller directs him to a nearby phone booth, inside which is a ransom note that reads as follows:

Ezaki-Glico corporation would later receive a taped message from Katsuhisa Ezaki, instructing them to bring the money to a restaurant

The object was later found to be a jar of Morinaga fruit candies with an attached note that read "This has poison in it. If you eat it, you will die. Signed, the monster with 21 faces."

Police escorted company representatives to the specified location, but no exchange was made & the operation was terminated.

"I am holding a hostage. Prepare 1 billion yen in cash and 100 kilograms of gold. 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 to 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."

Following the unsuccessful trade-off, employees began receiving threatening letters & ransom notes

April 10th, 1984: A fire breaks out in the west wing of Ezaki Glico headquarters, its source a gasoline-soaked cushion

20 minutes later a similar fire is started in a company vehicle outside the Glico Nutrition subdivision, but is put out almost immediately

The relation between these attacks and Katsuhisa Ezaki's abduction is considered to be very high

Due to the nature of the case, there are very few suspects

The Fox-eyed Man was first seen on the train to a ransom drop-off with the Marudai corporation

CEO of Ezaki Glico since June 1982

• Handcuffed & given a black overcoat + ski hat to wear

• Police noted that he was behaving suspiciously

On March 18th, 1984...

However, the police do have two potential leads:

• Led to an abandoned warehouse, naked photos taken as blackmail

• Attempting to take a bath after work

He was later seen again at the dropoff point for an exchange with the House Food corporation, but after a police chase managed to evade capture

• The man who appeared on Familymart security tapes placing the poisoned jar of Morinaga candy, and...

May 10, 1984: A letter arrives to several major news outlets in Japan

• Seized by three masked men

• Redressed and abandoned by captors on March 24th (6 days later)

"To the poor policemen [...]

A police sketch of him was released to the public, but he has never been identified or found

• A suspect known only as the "Fox-eyed Man"

• House broken into; wife, daughters, & mother tied up; phone lines cut

• Would not escape and seek help from police until nearly 14 hours later

Glico is annoying so I injected 2 with 0.05 grams of hydrogen cyanide in the stores in the area between Nagoya and Okayama. It’s not enough to kill but the target will be hospitalized. After eating Glico let’s go the the hospital. Eat Glico and end up in the grave.

Glico products were quickly pulled from shelves and would not return until June 26th, 1984

Monster with 21 faces."

After sending a variety of threats & instructional notes to Ezaki Glico, the Monster cites boredom and agrees to take back almost* all of the poisoned candy

KATSUHISA EZAKI

???

* "We left 1 on the 9th of May in the Daiei store in Ibaraki Prefecture, but we don’t know what happened with it."