[citation needed] Nishiguchi also left an impact on Japanese media, becoming the basis of a book by Ryuzo Saki, which itself was adapted into the film Vengeance Is Mine (1979).
Because of his family's religious beliefs, Nishiguchi was pressured by his father to enter the priesthood when he came of age and was sent to a Catholic mission school in Fukuoka Prefecture for his secondary education.
Upon being given a temporary release in 1945, following the end of World War II, Nishiguchi returned to Osaka and studied English at a training school in the hopes of becoming an interpreter for Allied servicemen.
Nishiguchi resumed his criminal activity and, taking advantage of his education in English, began extorting local businesses while claiming to be affiliated with the US occupation forces.
The following year, shortly before the birth of his second son, Nishiguchi was caught in possession of US currency, which was illegal under certain conditions during the occupation.
In 1952, Nishiguchi, having acquired an American military uniform and cap, posed as a Japanese-American and began luring people into a building under the pretense of selling them foreign cars, making an excuse and slipping out a rear entrance after he was handed their money.
On 18 October the two men traveled in a car, driven by Goro Mori, to an isolated mountain road in Fukuoka Prefecture, west of Kanda railway station.
He then proceeded to walk back to the car and fatally stab Mori, abandoning both vehicle and body at the Chuai Mountain Pass two kilometers away.
Hearing over the radio that police had believed he had fled to the Kansai region, Nishiguchi instead traveled to the small rural city of Karatsu, Saga Prefecture.
To throw off authorities, Nishguchi wrote a letter addressed to Yukuhashi police expressing remorse for the murders and announcing his intention to commit suicide.
Afterward he boarded a ferry bound for Tokyo and discarded several personal items on deck, including a signed will, to give the impression that he had jumped into the Seto Inland Sea.
When the bodies of Yuki and Harue were discovered on 22 November, authorities quickly found evidence pointing to Nishiguchi and doubled their efforts to capture him.
Police forces around the country were put on high alert and investigators traveled to Beppu to have Nishiguchi's family members write letters urging his surrender, which were then printed in national newspapers.
Undeterred by the efforts of the police, Nishiguchi turned up in Chiba on 3 December and, pretending to be either a lawyer or an accountant, swindled a total of ¥56,000 from two middle-aged women.
While taking a train from Tochigi Prefecture to Tokyo, Nishiguchi saw a story in a newspaper concerning Tairyu Furukawa, a Buddhist priest who was campaigning for the release of death row prisoner Sakae Menda.
However, upon meeting him, Ruriko immediately ran out of the house and to a nearby community bulletin board, upon which was placed a wanted poster for murderer Akira Nishiguchi.
Ruriko had previously taken note of the poster since Nishiguchi's name was very close to that of a classmate, deviating only by one character, and thereby had inadvertently memorized the fugitive's mugshot.
They successfully did so, but as the local police did not anticipate Nishiguchi coming to such a small, remote city, they were informed that the force needed several hours to gather enough officers to apprehend the fugitive.
In a twist of fate, his preparations for execution were witnessed by Sakae Menda, the death row prisoner whose release Furukawa was working to secure when Nishiguchi came to his home in 1964.
Elsewhere Nishiguchi's parents, ashamed by their son's actions and made social outcasts during his highly publicised crime spree, were forced to close their fishing business.
As a consequence of Nishiguchi's activities, the organizational structure of Japan's National Police Agency was broadened to allow for greater coordination between prefectural forces.
While based on Nishiguchi's story, the film changes the name of the killer (played by Ken Ogata) to "Iwao Enokizu" and depicts the murders out of sequence.