POISON SEEN USED IN MIXING COLOURS
Presence of Cyanide in Tempera May Pin Teigin Suspect
TOKYO, Sept. 14 — Police who have been trying hard to establish whether latest Teigin suspect Hirasawa Sadamichi ever possessed or knew anything about potassium cyanide are now believed to have unearthed positive evidence that the 57-year-old artist had frequently used the lethal poison in mixing colour for his tempera paintings.
Investigators working on the case are said to have found that Hirasawa frequently used potassium cyanide with copper materials and coins to produce light green colour for his tempera paintings. He is said to have neutralized green colour obtained from such a mixing with the white of eggs.
Furthermore, in producing light green colour, Hirasawa is reported to have used a small syringe similar to the one which the Teigin criminal is said to have used in perpetrating the diabolic crime.
Police efforts to ferret out conclusive evidence that Hirasawa committed the diabolic ‘poison holdup case’ have now entered the fourth week of investigation with the question of Hirasawa’s guilt still unsolved.
However, in the course of these past investigations, investigators have uncovered a wealth of other circumstantial and puzzling information, strengthening suspicion against Hirasawa in the Teigin case and proving that Hirasawa, at any rate, has been guilty of numerous cases of fraud.
HIRASAWA FACES ABORTION CHARGE
Teikoku Bank Suspect Is Alleged to Have Used Drugs in Treatment
TOKYO, Sept. 15 — Police authorities investigating latest Teikoku Bank suspect Hirasawa Sadamichi have come across information that the latter personally administered illegal abortion to more than 10 women, the Yomiuri learned.
This information is said to have been tendered to the police by a certain artist and another unnamed person, both of whom are well-acquainted with Hirasawa. The artist friend is alleged to have revealed that Hirasawa personally brought about more than 10 cases of abortion in Hokkaido by claiming knowledge of a method for inducing abortion through physical pressure. The other person is reported to have told the police that Hirasawa induced abortion by the use of drugs.
Should these allegations prove true, Hirasawa is liable to further indictment on the charge of violating medical practice.
Furthermore, it is said Hirasawa’s alleged use of drugs may lead to shedding important light on his believed employment of potassium cyanide in the Teigin case.
TEIGIN MURDER CASE
New Poison Angle Found; Will It Finally Lead To Hirasawa?
TOKYO, Sept. 20 — Police authorities who have been striving for some time without success to definitely link latest Teigin suspect Hirasawa Sadamichi with the Teikoku Bank case are reported to have turned up a new poison angle involving the daughter of his mistress.
It has become known that Hirasawa obtained some potassium cyanide from Miss Kamata Michiko, 25-year-old daughter of his mistress, shortly after the end of the war.
Miss Kamata is said to have told the police that this came about through her acquisition of some potassium cyanide while working as a typist for a firm in Tokyo during the war and shortly thereafter.
About this time, she said that Hirasawa frequently came to see her mother and is believed to have walked off with her potassium cyanide after she had shown it to him.
Meanwhile, authorities were said to be investigating other phases of the poisoning case, such as Hirasawa’s possible acquisition of potassium cyanide while working as a member of the special painting material research centre of the Kisarazu airfield during the war.
POLICE CLARIFY HIRASAWA CASE
Declare Teigin Suspect Is On The Point Of Making Vital Confession
TOKYO, Sept. 26 — Teigin suspect Hirasawa Sadamichi is believed to have been driven to the verge of making a vital confession at any time as a sequel to renewed, detailed police questioning relative to fresh incriminating evidence that has turned up concerning his possession of a large amount of questionable money shortly following the Teikoku Bank ‘poison holdup case’.
Chief Fujita of the Detective Section, Metropolitan Police Board, commenting on the progress of the latest investigation, said that it may lead the 57-year-old artist finally to come forth with a vital confession.
‘At any rate, the investigation has reached a highly important stage,’ he said, adding that if such a confession should be made the press would speedily be informed.
MURDERER OF 12 CONFESSES CRIME
Hirasawa Admits He Administered Poison to Bank Workers; ‘I Confessed My Guilt On Own Free Will,’ Says Hirasawa; Family Stands By Him
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, again and again I knock on her door, until she says from behind the door, ‘Who is it?’
‘It’s me,’ I say. ‘It’s Takeuchi.’
‘What do you want?’
‘He’s confessed,’ I tell her. ‘Hirasawa has confessed!’
The lock turns. The door opens. Murata Masako stares at me. Murata Masako says, ‘But it wasn’t him. I know it wasn’t him.’
‘But it was him,’ I tell her. ‘He’s confessed everything, says he made the unsuccessful attempts to poison and rob the employees at Ebara and Nakai, that he did what he did at the Teikoku Bank for money, that he needed the money for his tempera paintings and for family reasons, and that it was him and him alone …’
‘I don’t believe it,’ she says. ‘I can’t.’
‘Well, you should and you must…’
‘Why?’ she asks. ‘Why must I?’
I step forward into her genkan. I take her hand in mine. I say, ‘Because it means it’s over, it’s finished now. You don’t have to be afraid any more, you can forget it, forget him. You can move on now, you can start a new life. We can start…’
‘We?’ she laughs. ‘We? Us?’
‘Yes,’ I say. ‘Together …’
‘Are you asking me to marry you?’ she whispers.
‘Yes,’ I say. ‘I’m asking you to marry me.’
‘As a reporter,’ she says. ‘Or as a …’
‘As a man,’ I say. ‘I’m going to quit my job …’
‘You’re going to quit your job? Really?’
‘You don’t believe me?’ I ask her.
In the Fictional City, in the genkan to her house, Miss Murata Masako stares at me, Miss Murata Masako stares at me and says, ‘I don’t know what to believe any more …’
‘Believe me,’ I say. ‘Please …’
‘I’m not sure I can …’
‘Then pretend,’ I say. ‘Let’s both pretend …’
IN THE FICTIONAL CITY, I walk her streets and I hear her stories, but I’ve had enough of her streets and enough of her stories, her telephones and her voices, her wires and her cables, her alleyways and her back rooms, all her times and all her places –
‘I just want to know who did it…’
The man slowly folds up the newspaper. He takes off his glasses. He puts the glasses in the breast pocket of his jacket. He sits forward in his chair. He looks up at me and he says, ‘But why?’
‘For me,’ I say. ‘Not for a story, not for the paper.’