[4] His parents were part-time farmers, who also operated as relatively wealthy fish traders, but when Sokichi was four, his mother died,[4] while his father went to Korea in search of new land, breaking up the family.
Finally, Furutani, unable to stand his stepmother's abuse, began earning a living by stealing, and engaged in a life of theft and violence, spending his nights under the eaves of a temple.
His misfortune and misery in childhood led to the formation of a crude, self-centered and bizarre personality, which would later be responsible for numerous violent events.
He remained at the Iwakuni reformatory in Yamaguchi Prefecture until April 1933, but was rearrested in August for another theft that occurred on May 4, for which he received four years imprisonment to be in served the Fukuoka Prison.
[citation needed] Furutani got a job with civil engineering after his parole from Kumamoto Prison, and after reading a newspaper article, in May 1964,[6] he decided to move to the Kansai region.
[3] His victims included one man in Fukuoka, three in Hyōgo, one in Osaka, one in Shiga and two in Kyoto - all were killed by stabbing, strangulation or severe beating in either junkyards or construction sites.
105 Case" on December 9, after establishing that the latest murder, that of a judo lecturer killed in Kasuya-gun, Fukuoka, on November 22, was the work of a serial offender.
[8] 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.
[citation needed] 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.
[citation needed] On June 29, 1966, the first trial of Sokichi Furutani was held in the Kobe District Court before the presiding judge of Nagahisa.
[10] Since the trial was closed, Furutani tried to convince the court that he was innocent and that the incompetent police had beaten him into confessing,[9] especially concerning the seventh case in Nishinomiya,[7] for which he claimed the real culprit was a man named "Oka".
[7] Furutani only admitted to the Nishinomiya murder, but denied robbery being the motive, claiming that he had not intended to steal the gold, but instead stopped to borrow some food and only killed the lodger when he refused to offer some.
[13] On May 31, 1985, six years after being sentenced to death, Sokichi Furutani was executed in the Osaka Detention House following an order by Minister of Justice Hitoshi Shimazaki.
Immediately after the execution, an official told Asahi Shimbun that Furutani "alternated" in his later years – one day, he would be calm like a Buddha, and on others, he would behave like a beast.