A Japanese “black widow” who killed three men after dating them for

A Japanese “black widow” who killed three men after dating them for their money was sentenced to death yesterday in a case known by the name of the female spider that eats its partner after mating.

Kanae Kijima, 37, was convicted of murdering the three men, aged 41, 53 and 80, whom she met through Internet dating sites.

Kijima, who has a past as a paid-for mistress, killed the men by poisoning them with carbon monoxide from burning charcoal briquettes after giving them sleeping tablets.

Saitama district court heard how she had wanted to stop them from demanding back money she had taken from them over the course of brief relationships.

the prosecution rested on layers of circumstantial evidence, such as Kijima’s purchases of sleeping pills and coal briquettes, in addition to the fact that she had met with each man shortly before he died.

She killed Takao Terada, 53, and Kenzo Ando, 80, in Tokyo and nearby Chiba prefecture in January and May of 2009, by leaving burning briquettes in their homes, a fairly common method of suicide in Japan.

Yoshiyuki Oide, 41, died in a rented car, also from the fumes from briquettes, in neighbouring Saitama prefecture in August 2009.

Kijima’s plain appearance seemed to commentators at odds with her defence that two of her victims had killed themselves because they were distraught at the idea of her leaving them.

She totally killed them. Would you kill yourself if she dumped you? NOTTT!

Source AP