Tetsuyuki Morikawa

Tetsuyuki Morikawa was born on April 10, 1930, in Tenmei, Kumamoto Prefecture, as the third son of a fisherman.

At the time of his birth, Tenmei was a town renowned for its rather rough land pattern, and because of this, his father resorted to fishing for seafood and seaweed.

When he was two years old, Morikawa's father was stabbed to death with a stitching awl during a dispute with another fisherman, and shortly afterwards, his mother remarried and abandoned both him and her second son.

Because of this, Morikawa and his older brother were sent to live with their paternal grandparents.

When he was ten, Morikawa's grandmother passed away, whereupon he was placed in the care of his paternal aunt and her husband.

The couple, who were relatively wealthy and did not have children of their own, welcomed the brothers with open arms, but Tetsuyuki proved to be troublesome.

He dropped out of the Zendomo Elementary School after only one year, and on May 10, 1945, the 15-year-old was arrested for assault and fined a small sum of money.

He continued to commit crimes afterwards, and on December 7, he was arrested and imprisoned for another assault and embezzlement in Mie Prefecture.

Upon reaching the age of majority and being released, Morikawa became an itinerant construction worker, working as various sites in Fukuoka, Hyōgo, Mie and Aichi Prefectures.

However, he frequently quit due to repeated injuries, and was later jailed for another assault.

Around 1958, the then 27-year-old Morikawa settled down in his hometown of Kumamoto, where he soon started courting a woman, known only by the alias 'X'.

The pair married in January 1959 and moved into a new home built by Morikawa's parents-in-law, and the following year, the couple had two sons born one after the other.

At the beginning of his marriage, Morikawa made a living by selling seaweed, but after the birth of his eldest son, he became addicted to gambling, refused to work and spent most of the day drinking shōchū.

Around this time, he started pawning his wife's belongings to continue with his lavish expenses, in addition to assaulting, beating and burning her with cigarettes.

On one occasion, it was even claimed that he struck her on the arms with a hatchet so deeply that it reached the bones, and had on another occasion he help up a knife against her neck.

In spite of the excessive abuse, Morikawa's wife endured, consulting his aunt and uncle about his worsening behavior.

One night shortly after the birth of their second son, Morikawa threw his wife and eldest son into a stream behind the house in the middle of the winter, stomping on her head when she tried to get back up.

This event triggered his father-in-law to attempt to divorce the pair out of fear that X would be killed.

Tetsuyuki Morikawa (森川 テツユキ) was a Japanese serial killer who killed two of his ex-wife's relatives in Kumamoto, after having been released on parole for killing his mother-in-law in 1962.

X herself, who could not withstand the abuse any longer, divorced him in the summer of 1962, entrusting their children to Morikawa's brother and his wife, while she moved to the city of Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Shortly afterwards, however, Morikawa located her, forcing X to move back to Kumamoto and attempt to Reconcile with her ex-husband with the help of his aunt and uncle.

On September 15, 1962, Morikawa and several family members on both sides of the family gathered at his aunt and uncle's house in Kumamoto, where they intended to discuss his behavior towards his wife.

Deciding that he would kill both her and his mother-in-law, Morikawa left on the pretense of getting some money, but instead went to a hardware store and bought a knife.

At around 20:00, X and her mother left the house and went to the bus stop, intending to back to their house in Chūō-ku.

When they arrived there, Morikawa confronted them and requested that he able to talk to his wife, which the mother-in-law allowed.

The pair then stepped to the side and talked for a bit, but during the conversation, X announced her intention to break up with him and take custody of their child.

Upon hearing this, Morikawa took out the knife and stabbed her twice, once in the sides and once in the chest.

Her mother rushed to her aid, but she herself was then attacked and stabbed numerous times in the chest.

A passer-by witnessed the attack and called the police, who immediately transported the injured women to the Kumamoto University Hospital.

X survived her injuries, despite suffering tears in her lungs and diaphragm, but her mother, who had been stabbed in the liver and stomach, succumbed to her injuries.

Morikawa was arrested by the prefectural police soon after, and charged with murder and attempted murder.

On November 22 of that year, he was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to life imprisonment, but appealed the decision to the Fukuoka High Court.

However, he later withdrew his appeal on the suggestion of his defense counsel, and was sent to serve his sentence at the Kumamoto Prison.

Whilst serving his sentence, Morikawa explicitly stated that did not regret his actions and attempted to justify the crimes by exclaiming that he had been "made a bad guy" by his father-in-law.

On December 8, 1976, Morikawa was granted parole after serving 14 years of his sentence and was released from prison.

As it was legally required that he supervised by a relative, he moved back to his aunt and uncle's house, but refused to get a job and spent most of his time drinking.

Due to this, his aunt began to scold him, but this resulted in Morikawa physically assaulting both her and her husband.

When his older brother decided to intervene, Morikawa threw eggs at him.

On the early morning of June 21, 1978, Morikawa got into an argument with his aunt and uncle.

For the latter crimes, Morikawa was sentenced to death and subsequently executed in 1999.