Chisako Kakehi faces the death penalty over a serial after her conviction in a poisoning murder case targeting elderly men, including her past husbands

Chisako Kakehi, 70, who has been dubbed Japan’s “black widow” was sentenced to death by hanging Tuesday for killing her husband and two former lovers as well as the attempted murder of another man.
Kyoto District Court convicted 70-year-old Chisako Kakehi for the slayings, accusing her of poisoning them with cyanide after targeting their finances.
Chisako Kakehi was fingered as a “black widow” killer in 2014, after having seven of her partners die in 20 years, according to Agence France-Press. At least two past lovers of the Japanese millionairess had tested positive for traces of cyanide, at their death.
Investigators believed the then 67-year-old Kyoto widow was responsible for each partner’s death, motivated by lucrative beneficiary funds. Along the way, she had amassed a fortune of accumulated $8.8 million from each partner combined in benefits and other assets.

Chisako Kakehi allegedly targeted  men older than 70,  murdered all and reportedly inherited about $8.8 million from the men in over a decade

The men were all older than 70, and the murders occurred between 2007 and 2013. She reportedly inherited about $8.8 million from the men in over a decade.
Kakehi was arrested in 2014 after her fourth husband, 75-year-old Isao Kakehi, was found dead in his home in 2013. She married him almost a month before the killing.
In July, she admitted in court of poisoning him, saying it “was no mistake,” according to Japanese newspaper The Mainichi.
The motive, she testified, stemmed from Isao discriminating against her with finances and supporting another woman he previously dated with more money, Mainichi reported.
Investigators believed the then 67-year-old Kyoto widow was responsible for each partner’s death, motivated by lucrative beneficiary funds. She’s accumulated $6.8 million from each partner combined in benefits and other assets.
Kakehi was arrested on suspicion of her last husband’s death in 2014, following a history of mysterious deaths for those that cross her path.
Her first husband died in 1994 at age 54. The three other husbands died in 2006, 2008 and 2013.
She had two boyfriends who died in 2009 and 2013, in addition to a fiance who died in a motorcycle accident in 2012.
Deadly doses of cyanide, a poison which starves the brain of oxygen, were confirmed in the toxicology reports for both the last husband and fiance who died in 2013.
Kakehi has claimed she did not have access to cyanide, which is an organic chemical found in some seeds, algae and fungi.

Kakehi was sentenced to hang Tuesday, for the murder of her husband and two ex-partners, as well as in attempted murder of a fourth victim between 2007 and 2013

Prosecutors painted Kakehi as a woman who showed no remorse and said she tricked her lovers into drinking cyanide by passing it off as a health cocktail.
Her defense lawyers had entered a not guilty plea citing a lack of evidence in the murders. They maintained her innocence and pointed out that she was diagnosed with early stages of dementia, the Japan Times reported.