"monster with 21 faces", one of the strangest criminal cases in history, is On March 18, 1984, two men entered the home of Katsuhisa Enzaki, the president of Glico, a Japanese candy company, armed with pistols and rifles and with masks on their faces making it impossible to identify them.
He and Enzaki grabbed his wife and daughter while Enzaki himself fled to the bathroom with his two other children. The secret intruders proceded to retrieve the phonelines, tie up his wife and daughters and then knocked down the bathroom door and abducted Enzaki in front of his family, ignoring every offer of money he made
The next day the police received a demand from the kidnappers of 1 billion yen (4.2 million US dollars) and 100 kilos of gold, but when the company combined the money no one showed up at the meeting place to accept it Three days later Enzaki was able to escape from his captives. Unfortunately he could not give the police any information on them, as he had a bag on his head at all times, but he could provide an interesting detail: the guns of the kidnappers were likely false .
Toys, most likely Shortly after Enzaki escaped two cars were set on fire in front of a Glico factory, and attempts were made to set one of the factories on fire too. They showed that they somehow had access to the Glico factory. Police began to see these people are not normal kindnappers, wanting money. Something bigger is happening.
In an attempt to set fire to the Glico factory they left a note. It says:
"Stupid cop. Are you stupid? If you are pros, you can catch us. Since you have a high disability, we will give you some clues"
The letter included some clues such as what kind of car they used as an escape vehicle and also named a supermarket bought by the kindnappers.
"Should we kidnap the police chief?"
The note was signed Kaijin nijuichi menso, which directly translates to "monster with 21 faces"
The name is taken from a story by Edogawa Rampo, one of the first Japanese mystery writers.
The story is about a group of teenagers trying to drop a criminal called 20 faces. The 20 faces are a master at using costumes to hide his identity, no one knows what he really looks like. One day she was an old woman in need of help crossing the street, and next time she could be a construction worker in a museum.
In other words, he can be anywhere anytime.
And The 21-face monster is not done. Not close. Just getting started Shortly after the first letter the monster sent another.
In the letter they claimed to have poisoned some Glico candy with Potassium Cyanide, the same chemical used by the Hitler family at the end of WWII and for mass killings in Jonestown.
In other words it is deadly.
This ment that Glico had to pull all its products to stores. As a result, Glico lost millions of dollars, and had to lay off 2 thirds of its employees.
However when the candy was tested no trace of the deadly chemical was found. It is a simple significance, designed only to lose company money, suffer. What for? We do not know.
But shortly after The Monster began attacking other food companies. One of them, Morinaga Choco is the subject of a letter sent to the Japanese press, and not in a good way:
"To mothers all over Japan: In Autumn, when the appetite is strong, sweets are really delicious. When you think sweet - whatever you say - it's Morinaga. We added some special flavors. The taste of potassium cyanide is a bit bitter. It will not cause tooth decay, so buy sweets for your children. We have attached a notice to the bitter sweets that they contain poison. twenty boxes in stores from Hakata to Tokyo. ”
The police immediately started checking out Moranaga candy even though it had not been fake for the first time.
This time it is no longer. Police found several toxic candies simply labeled:
Danger: contains toxins. You will die if you eat it. The monster with 21 faces
Like 20 faces from Edogawa Rampo's story that the monster does not want to hurt anyone physically. That is why all the time The Monster terrorized food companies no one was seriously injured.
The only exception there was the police captain handling the case, who committed suicide after the case was not resolved.
And to this day the case remains unresolved No one knows who they are or what they want. And we probably won't.
Source: The Monster With 21 Faces