A JAPANESE MONSTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13543, 16 March 1906, Page 8

A JAPANESE MONSTER

The Japanese mail brings particulars of a Tokio cause celebrc, which concerns tlio murder of a Japanese poet, whose nom de plume was Neisai. His sister, Soye, was siid to hive been instigated by her husband, Osaburo Nocuchi, to kill her brother by poiton. The woman has been acquitted, but the man has boon committed for trial on the triple- charge of murder, forcery, and robbery. Osaburo, who is 26, in Tokio made the acquaintance of Soye and her brother Keisai. who was a leper. Soye fell in love with Osaburo, but her brother's consent to the union could not be obtained. Finding his finances exhausted, Osaburo persuaded the Noguchi family to let him live with them, and he became popular with everyone except the poet. Osaburo then resolved to gain Newai's goodwill by curing his leprosy, and, hearing of an old superstition that .human flesh would effect such. a oure, he killed an errand boy, made soup of his remains, mixed this with other soup, and served the ghastly concoction to Neisai. Previous to that he had deceived the Noguchi family by pretending that he held certificates from the Tokie School for foreipm Languages, whereas he had been expelled from the sshool, and his certificates were forgeries. Neisai grew no better, and Osaburo was unable to live with the Noguchis any longer, so he saddled himself on another family, but he still met Soye, who, finding herself about to become a. mother, begged him to marry her, or she would kill herself. Ho married her, but Neisai only disinherited his sister. The two men then quar--1 relied, and Osaburo asked to be divorced

from Soyo, and returned to his diher woman friend, but iior husband declined to havo anything to do with him, and he had to seek a fresh' home. Ho then repented his attitude towards the Noguchie, and tried to get back there. The poet was obdurate, and Osaburo bought strychnine and tried to set Soyo to poison her brother. This plan failing, Osaburo himself on May 12,1905, suffocated the poet in his home. He again tried to get the Noguelns to iako him in, telling them that ho had been engaged as an army interpreter, and must shortly start for Manchuria. To raise funds ho persuaded a druggist to accompany him to a lonely spot, where ho strangled him and robbed hiuvof 350 yen. This last-nanjM crime was the first brought homo to led to the discovery oi all his other wrong-doing.