In this connection, Attorney General Suzuki Yoshio admitted that the incident involving Hirasawa’s arrest may enmesh the Government in a suit for payment of damages on the charge of failure to safeguard basic civil rights.
The Attorney General said he personally felt that officials associated in the manhunt possessed ample suspicion for carrying out the arrest but it had been ‘imprudent’ for them to have prematurely disclosed their action.
He said, moreover, that there appeared justification in criticism levelled against the remark by Police Inspector Ikki that he was ‘100 per cent certain’ that Hirasawa was the criminal who perpetrated the Teikoku Bank case. Authorities of the Metropolitan Police Board, on the other hand, defended their action relative to Hirasawa. They stressed that they had secured enough incriminating information to arrest Hirasawa, although they felt that Police Inspector Ikki had gone ‘a bit too far’ in making a flat personal statement of his view. But Tanaka Eiichi, Inspector-General of the Police, also pointed out that police had done no wrong in handcuffing Hirasawa in the course of bringing him to Tokyo from Otaru. He said that such a measure was duly provided in police regulations in such instances.
I look up from the paper. I turn around from my desk, my editor standing over my shoulder, and I say, ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Hirasawa’s just tried to kill himself …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, in the genkan to her house, she takes her hand from her mouth and she asks, ‘Why? What happened?’
‘Apparently Hirasawa had a piece of glass on him,’ I tell her. ‘And sometime this afternoon he tried to sever the artery of his left wrist with the piece of glass and with the point of a pen …’
‘Is he all right?’ she asks. ‘Will he survive?’
‘Yes,’ I tell her. ‘Luckily, Hirasawa wasn’t alone at the time. There were other prisoners in the cell with him and so they raised the alarm. Doctors were quickly in the cell and they were able to bandage his artery before there was any great loss of blood. So he’ll live.’
‘Why?’ she asks again. ‘It’s not him. He’s innocent?’
‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘But I’m going to find out…’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, down an alley off the main street, on the sofa at the back of the room, I say, ‘I thought Hirasawa was in the clear. I thought they were going to release him …’
‘I told you it was a set-up.’
‘And so this is all part of the set-up, is it?’ I ask. ‘The suicide attempt, keeping him locked up like this?’
‘They won’t give up,’ he says. ‘Especially not now, not now there’s all this talk of his civil rights, of suits and of damages. They’ll find other crimes, other crimes to investigate, other crimes to detain him on. They’ll never give up …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, they don’t give up, they never give up:
4 FRAUD VICTIMS IDENTIFY ARTIST
Police to Indict Suspect in Teikoku Bank Case on Four Charges
TOKYO, Sept. 2 — Hirasawa Sadamichi, 56, well-known water-colour artist, who is now held at the Metropolitan Police Board as a suspect in the Teikoku Bank mass poisoning murders, is expected to be indicted in a few days on charges of absconding with a deposit book issued by the Marunouchi branch of the Mitsubishi Bank and committing three abortive attempts fraudulently to secure money with it.
The discovery that the latest Teigin suspect had been engaged in such unlawful practices was bared by Prosecutor Takagi of the Tokyo district prosecutor’s office as a sequel to further intensive police investigations into Hirasawa’s past activities.
The four persons said to be victims of his acts have identified him and this has brought hope to the long-harassed police that these cases may lead to the murder case. For it appears that there was some extremely pressing need for Hirasawa to obtain at least ¥100,000 and thus might have made him desperate enough not to stop at murder. Another point about these charges is that they invariably have to do with banks.
The police still cannot say as yet whether they believe Hirasawa to be the Teikoku Bank murderer but the attempted swindles, with one connected with a branch of the Teikoku Bank, place him under the case will be continued with heavy suspicion. Investigation on Hirasawa held on the four charges.
HIRASAWA HELD ON FRAUD CHARGE
Authorities Still Pinning High Hopes of Linking Artist with Bank Case
TOKYO, Sept. 5 — The Tokyo District Public Procurator’s Office Friday prosecuted Hirasawa Sadamichi, water-colour artist and the latest suspect in the Teikoku Bank holdup-murder case, for falsification of private documents and fraud to which he has confessed, as the period for its investigation of the man as a Teigin murder suspect expired.
The procuratorial authorities, who are said to be 80 per cent confident that Hirasawa is the Teigin murderer, will continue to investigate his suspected crime after his prosecution for other crimes, it was learned.
The Yomiuri has also learned that the procuratorial authorities have decided to have the handwriting endorsing a cheque, the only clue to the bank murderer, studied by experts to determine whether the handwriting is not that of Hirasawa.
A number of people who saw the bank murderer have had a look at Hirasawa but most of them are not sure that he is the murderer.
On Friday Hirasawa had his hair cropped before a photograph was taken of him. Three officers in charge of the case were dumb-struck at the sight of Hirasawa with his hair cut. They said that the man now answered the description of the murderer.
Is Hirasawa Culprit In Teigin Murder Case?
Is Hirasawa Sadamichi the actual culprit who perpetrated the diabolic Teikoku Bank mass poisoning murder?
On the left is the hypothetical drawing of the murderer made immediately after the murders on the basis of the description given by the eye-witness survivors.
On the right is a photo just taken at the special investigation room of the Metropolitan Police Board of Hirasawa with his hair cropped close.
PAST ACTIVITIES OF ARTIST BARED
Teigin Suspect Found to Have Made Big Deposits Under Assumed Names
TOKYO, Sept. 9 — Police efforts to trace the source of a large amount of questionable money acquired by Hirasawa Sadamichi have led to a fresh exposure that the latest Teigin suspect deposited a sum of ¥80,000 with the Hongoku-cho branch of the Bank of Tokyo three days after the Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’.
The latest discovery showed thereby that the water-colour artist, who is known to have had no steady income about that time, opened two deposits under assumed names shortly following the Teigin crime.
Meanwhile, handwriting experts studying Hirasawa’s handwriting with that on a money order which is believed to have been used by the Teigin criminal, said that there was some likeness between them but declined to give a decisive answer pending a further check-up.
A fresh slant relative to Hirasawa’s suspected use of potassium cyanide in the Teikoku Bank case was also offered to the police on Monday when a conference of scientific experts clarified that the Teigin criminal did not have to possess expert knowledge in the use of the poison. This has stirred police to make a renewed effort to trace how and where Hirasawa may have possibly obtained the poison.