The Monster with 21 Faces

[3] The home next door belonged to Katsuhisa's 70-year-old mother, Yoshie, and was located on the same property surrounded by a brick wall.

[3] Three days after his abduction, Ezaki was able to escape his captors after breaking free from the ropes they had tied him with.

[4] Several weeks after Ezaki's abduction, the group set fire to several vehicles at the company's headquarters.

Then on 16 April 1984, a plastic container full of hydrochloric acid was found inside a Glico company building in Ibaraki, Osaka, the same city Ezaki was held captive in.

[5]Although the letter told police the color of the vehicle they had driven while kidnapping Ezaki, as well as the supermarket they had bought the food used to feed him during his captivity, these clues provided little assistance to authorities.

[4] Meanwhile, the Monster with 21 Faces also sent letters to the media, taunting police efforts to capture the culprit(s) behind the scare.

An excerpt from one such letter, written in hiragana and with an Osaka dialect, reads, "Dear dumb police officers.

Another letter sent by the Monster with 21 Faces that was received on 23 April was sent to both Sankei and Mainichi newspapers as well as the Koshien police station.

The letter stated it had laced $21 million worth of the company's confections with potassium cyanide soda, and it later threatened to put them on store shelves.

None of these poisoned candies were found, but Glico products were removed from stores, resulting in a loss of more than $20 million and the laying off of 450 part-time workers.

[4] On 26 June, the Monster with 21 Faces issued a message proclaiming its forgiveness of Glico, and subsequent harassment of the company ceased.

In October 1984, a letter addressed to "Moms of the Nation" and signed by the Monster with 21 Faces was sent to Osaka news agencies with a warning similar to those sent to Glico.

After receiving this letter, police searched stores in cities from Tokyo to western Japan and found over a dozen lethal packages of Morinaga Choco Balls and Angel Pie before anyone was poisoned.

Use these words in the reply: Jiro, Morinaga, Mother, Police, Bad friend, Money, Meal.

Monster with 21 faces"[9]Morinaga responded on 6 November to the criminals by placing the missing persons advertisement in the Mainichi Newspapers Morning Edition: "Dear Jiro, Bad friend disappeared.

[10] Unable to capture the suspect believed to be the mastermind behind the Monster with 21 Faces, the police superintendent Yamamoto of Shiga Prefecture died by self-immolation in August 1985.

Five days after this event, on August 12, "the Monster" sent its final message to the media: Yamamoto of Shiga Prefecture Police died.

At one point, it was even estimated that over a million police officers had worked on the case in some capacity or another over the years, chasing down more than 28,000 tips and investigating nearly 125,000 persons-of-interest.

[11] On 28 June 1984, two days after the Monster agreed to stop harassing Marudai Ham in exchange for 50 million yen, police came close to capturing the suspected mastermind.

In a later incident, investigators saw the Fox-eyed Man again, accompanying the alleged "Monster" group during another secret money exchange with House Food Corporation.