True Crime Friday: Kazuko Fukuda, the Woman with Seven Faces Serial Killer
Kazuko Fukuda was born in Japan in 1948. Kazuko Fukuda’s life was marked by hardship. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she lived with her mother. Her mother ran the world oldest profession business in Shikokuchuo, Ehime, Japan which exposed Fukuda to a world of crime at a young age. Her first crime was trying to score fast cash in 1966; she and her boyfriend robbed the home of a tax collector. She earned the moniker of the Woman with Seven Faces because she had plastic surgery seven times to evade capture from authorities. She was on the run for over fifteen years before being captured for all her crimes. This was a global manhunt because she never stayed in one place for a long period of time.
The Early Childhood of Kazuko Fukuda
Kazuko Fukuda, childhood, was mired in criminality. She joined a gang while in prison called the Yakuza. These gangs bribed prison officials, engaging in drinking, gambling, and sexually assaulting female inmates. Fukuda was also ganged raped. These early traumas shaped her path which she was already on the road to destruction.The Victims of Kazuko Fukuda
- Atsuko Yasuoka
- Unknown victim
- Unknown victim
- Unknown victim
Fukuda struggled to find work as a hostess, so she began altering her appearance with plastic surgery in Tokyo to look younger. She had her nose and eyes done. She went to a few clubs for a few hours of flirting with male customers and belting out some decent karaoke songs. She was offered a job at a nightclub. By then she had left her lover and began a new life with a candy store owner. She managed to help him boost his shop’s sales to the point that young Hideki Matsui, a future baseball legend who became a regular customer.
The candy man proposed to Fukuda who hesitated because she was on the run and the shop owner had no idea she was a fugitive. In 1988, her face appeared on television and on wanted posters which led a relative of the store owner to alert police. She was on the run once again. She found another job at a love hotel. She was recognized again at the love hotel and fled to another hotel. She was always one step ahead of the police.