Furutani was born during the
Taishō era, on February 16, 1914, in
Tsushima, the eldest of five siblings. His parents were part-time farmers, who also operated as relatively wealthy fish traders, but when Sokichi was four, his mother died, While on the run, the accomplice, who was 19 years old at the time, had served 10 years in juvenile prison. The series of murders took shortly after his release (since then, the death penalty laws have changed). For this reason, many condemned individuals were convinced that it was too harsh of a sentence. Furutani got a job with civil engineering after his parole from Kumamoto Prison, and after reading a newspaper article, in May 1964, he decided to move to the
Kansai region. The next attack took place in
Nishinomiya, with Furutani continuing his crime spree until December 12 of that year, always attacking in West Japan, with his targets being persons above 50 years of age and living alone. He committed eight additional murders, as well as two attempted murders and two attempted robberies. On December 11, in
Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, authorities found that a fingerprint was consistent with those of Sokichi Furutani, who was designated as Internationally Wanted the following day. On that very day, Furutani was in Nishinomiya, walking around the coastal bank when he came across two local salvagers (51 and 69-years-old, respectively), whom he beat to death with a hammer. Coincidentally, a patrol of police officers were near the scene when they discovered the bodies of the two men in a hut. To their surprise, Sokichi was also hiding in the shadows of that very same hut, and tried to escape. Without a weapon, he still ignored the warnings from police, but Furutani, who was 51 at the time, was not physically capable of outrunning the multiple police officers who were on his tail. Initially, he denied any and all charges against him, blaming a fictitious accomplice while proclaiming his own innocence, much like with his 1951 crimes. However, this time the prosecution had sufficient evidence, and Sokichi Furutani was sentenced to death. When asked for a reason for the killings, he gave a very simple answer: he begged for meals and accommodation, and killed those who refused. Discounting his initial murders, eight men were murdered, including some construction workers. Police also determined that Furutani was responsible for an additional murder of an old man between 1964 and 1965, but lacked the appropriate evidence for it. In total, the prosecution accused him of committing 12 murders. == Trial ==