日本“黑寡妇”疑谋杀四任丈夫被捕

日本“黑寡妇”被疑谋杀四任丈夫

When Isao Kakehi, a 75-year-old retired salaryman, was found dead on the floor of his home last December, the police at first believed the cause to be heart failure.

去年12月，75岁的退休上班族笕知勋(Isao Kakehi)被发现死在家中的地板上时，警方起初认为他死于心脏衰竭。

But a sharp-eyed detective grew suspicious. He noticed that Mr. Kakehi, a longtime widower, had suddenly remarried the month before his death, and to a woman he had just met through a dating agency. When a test of the dead man’s blood revealed lethal cyanide, the police began an investigation of his bride, Chisako, now 68, on suspicion of murder.

但是，一位目光敏锐的侦探开始产生怀疑。他注意到，长期没有再娶的笕知勋在去世前的一个月突然再婚，而且与他结婚的女性是他通过婚介所刚刚认识的。在死者的血液中检出致命的氰化物后，警方以涉嫌谋杀为由，开始对他的新娘、现年68岁的佐子(Chisako)展开调查。

What they discovered would shock a country that has one of the fastest-aging populations in the world.

他们的发现将震惊这个世界上人口老龄化最快的国家之一。

According to the police and news media reports, Mr. Kakehi was just one of six outwardly healthy elderly men who died abruptly over the last eight years after marrying or starting romantic relationships with Ms. Kakehi.

根据警方提供的信息和媒体报道，过去八年，共有六名看起来比较健康的老年男性在与笕知佐子结婚或恋爱后突然死亡，笕知勋只是其中之一。

All were at least moderately wealthy, with homes and ample savings accounts accumulated over a lifetime of work in order to enjoy a comfortable retirement. Most died soon after drawing up wills that named her as the sole beneficiary.

他们至少都处于中等富裕水平，拥有房产和充足的储蓄，这是他们工作了一辈子积攒下来的，为的就是舒服地享受退休生活。他们大多是在立下遗嘱，指定笕知佐子为唯一受益人后不久去世的。

The lurid deaths, some spaced only months apart, have grabbed national headlines, prompting tabloids to call Ms. Kakehi the Black Widow, after the venomous female spider that kills its mates. But the case also struck a deeper nerve. If the police allegations are true, Ms. Kakehi preyed on one of the biggest fears of Japan’s rapidly growing legions of retirees, members of a postwar mega-baby-boom who enjoy the longest life spans on earth — but are terrified of having to spend all those silver years alone.

这一系列耸人听闻的死亡信息——有的仅相隔数月——已经登上了日本的新闻头条，小报甚至开始把笕知佐子称为“黑寡妇”。黑寡妇是一种有毒的雌蜘蛛，会杀死与它交配的雄蜘蛛。但是，此案还引起了更深层的担忧。倘若警方的指控属实，也就意味着笕知佐子利用了日本正在迅速扩大的退休人群最大的恐惧。这些人都出生于战后规模巨大的婴儿潮时期，他们的平均寿命最长，但是也害怕将不得不独自度过老年时光。

A former bank teller who looks more like an aging auntie than a femme fatale, Ms. Kakehi (pronounced Kah-kay-hee) met the men through the dozens of specialized dating services that have sprung up here catering to lonely older people. The police say she carefully screened her prospective partners, looking for relatively wealthy men left single by divorce or the death of a spouse. Once she found one, the police said, she showered him with romantic emails professing her love.

笕知佐子曾是银行柜员，她看起来更像是一位上了年纪的阿姨，而不是一个蛇蝎美人。她通过数十个专门的交友服务认识了这些男性。这种满足孤独老年人需求的服务在日本方兴未艾。警方称，她对自己未来的伴侣进行了仔细筛选，专门寻找那些相对富裕，并且因为离婚或配偶死亡而一直单身的男性。警方说，每找到一个这样的人，她就会给对方发送情意绵绵的电子邮件，表达自己的爱慕之情。

“The elderly are an easy target because they have all the money, but they are also so afraid of isolation,” said Hiroyuki Kurokawa, a novelist who published a crime thriller this year that foreshadowed the Kakehi case. “This incident exposed the vulnerability of our aging society.”

“老年人很容易被当做目标，因为他们很有钱，又很害怕孤独，”小说家黑川博行(Hiroyuki Kurokawa)说。他今年发表了一部犯罪惊悚小说，故事情节与笕知勋一案有相似之处。“这件事暴露了我们这个老龄化社会的弱点。”

The Japanese news media have begun using the title of the novel, “Gosaigyo,” or “The Second Wife Con,” to refer to the Kakehi case. Mr. Kurokawa said he had recently signed a movie deal.

日本新闻媒体纷纷开始使用小说标题《后妻业》(Gosaigyo)来指代笕知勋一案。黑川博行说，他最近刚签了一部电影合约。

In recent years, Japan has grown fascinated with crimes against the elderly, even though police figures show that such crimes have declined as the society has aged. The most famous scam was “Ore ore sagi,” or “It’s me! It’s me!,” in which swindlers call old people on the phone, impersonating their sons while making tearful requests to send money.

近年来，日本开始关注针对老年人的犯罪，尽管警方数据显示，随着社会的老龄化，此类罪行已经减少。最著名的骗局是“是我是我诈骗”(Ore ore sagi)。在这些骗局中，骗子打电话给老年人，冒充他们的儿子，眼泪汪汪地让他们给钱。

Partly, this fascination may stem from guilt. While adult children traditionally shared their homes with their parents, the custom has been discarded as Japan has embraced Americanized, middle-class lifestyles in which the elderly live alone.

从一定程度而言，这种关注可能源于内疚。过去，成年子女一般会与父母同住，但是随着日本接受了美国化的中产阶级生活方式——老人单独居住——这种习俗已经被摒弃。

However, Ms. Kakehi has drawn particular attention because she is both elderly, and a woman. Some of her former neighbors in Muko, a small industrial suburb of the city of Kyoto, said that she may have been driven by economic desperation in a society where women still often earn less than men, including their pension payments.

不过，笕知佐子之所以会引起特别关注，是因为她既是老人，又是女性。她之前在京都市郊的工业化小城镇向日市的邻居说，她这样做可能是出于经济上的困难。因为在这个社会中，女性挣的钱仍然往往比男性少，连退休金也是如此。

“I think this is as much about inequality as aging,” said Keigo Sada, 51, a truck driver who lives two houses down from the small beige house where Mr. Kakehi died. “She was looking for easier ways to get money.”

“我认为这既与老龄化有关，也与不平等有关，”51岁的佐田庆吾(Keigo Sada，音译)说。这名卡车司机住在距离笕知勋死去时所处的一座小小的米黄色房屋两座房子的地方。 “她在寻找更简单的挣钱方式。”

Then again, in that Ms. Kakehi may have accumulated as much as $8 million from the deceased men, according to numerous news reports, something else seems to have been at work.

不过，鉴于笕知佐子从死者那里获得了高达800万美元(约合4962万元人民币)，根据大量新闻报道，这里似乎还有一些其他东西在起作用。

Last month, the police in Muko arrested Ms. Kakehi in connection with two deaths, that of her husband, Isao, and also a 71-year-old fiancé who suddenly fell dead off his motorcycle in 2012. A blood sample that a hospital happened to keep also contained cyanide.

上个月，向日市警方因为两起死亡案件逮捕了笕知佐子，其中一起是她丈夫笕知勋的死亡，另一起是2012年，她71岁的未婚夫在骑摩托车时，突然倒地身亡一事。恰巧被一家医院保存的血样中也含有氰化物。

Last week, the police said they found a small bag of cyanide in a plant pot that Ms. Kakehi had tried to throw away.

上周，警方说，他们在笕知佐子试图扔掉的一个花盆里发现了一小袋氰化物。

The police said they were still investigating her role in the other deaths, which had puzzled doctors because they came so suddenly to otherwise healthy men. But the police said it took them a long time to grow suspicious because of the relatively advanced age of the victims.

警方称，他们仍在调查她与其他死亡案件的关系。这些人的死亡都让医生疑惑不解，因为这些原本健康的男性都是突然死亡的。但是警方说，由于受害者相对而言年纪较大，所以他们花了很长时间才开始怀疑。

“If an old person dies without signs of struggle or bruises, we don’t usually suspect a crime,” said Koji Nishiyama, a detective for the Kyoto prefectural police department, which oversees Muko city.

负责管理向日市的京都地方警局的侦探西山浩司(Koji Nishiyama，音译)说，“一名老人死亡时，如果没有挣扎或者瘀伤的痕迹，我们通常不会怀疑存在犯罪。”

Before her arrest, Ms. Kakehi denied killing the men, saying that she was the bereaved victim of a string of tragic misfortunes. Reporters who interviewed her said she alternated between warm and charming, and coldly calculating.

被捕前，笕知佐子否认自己杀害了这些男性，并称自己才是受害者，这一系列不幸事件令她悲痛欲绝。曾经采访她的记者称，她表现得时而热情，时而充满魅力，有时则表现出一种冷漠的审慎。

They also speculated that she was frustrated with her lot in life: news media reports say she graduated from a competitive high school but was blocked from attending college by her conservative parents.

他们还推测，她因为自己的命运而感到挫败：新闻媒体报道称，她毕业于一所颇有竞争力的高中，但保守的父母却不让她上大学。

Instead, she married a truck driver who later started a small printing company. He died suddenly in 1994 at 54. While the police now view his death as suspicious, they will not be able to prove it; he, along with most of the other victims, was cremated in accordance with Japanese custom.

后来，她嫁给了一名卡车司机，此人后来开了一家小型印刷公司。1994年，此人突然去世，享年54岁。虽然警方现在认为他的死亡也比较可疑，但他们无法证明这一点;与其他大多数受害者一样，他的遗体也按照日本习俗火化了。

The next death came in 2006, to the 67-year-old president of a small drug company she had married two years before. All told, she has been linked by the police and the news media to seven deaths: four husbands, including Mr. Kakehi, and three boyfriends and fiancés.

下一名死者是一家小型制药公司67岁的董事长。当时是2006年，笕知佐子两年前刚刚与此人结婚。警方与新闻媒体把她与七起死亡案件联系了起来：包括笕知勋在内的四任丈夫，以及三位男朋友和未婚夫。

Some of these relationships overlapped, the police say. In February 2008, when she was married for the third time, to a 75-year-old landowner, she was also dating a clothing boutique owner in his 70s. The men died within two months of each other, in March and May of that year.

警方称，其中有些关系存在重叠。2008年2月，她第三次结婚，嫁给了一名75岁的地主，但同时也在与一名70多岁的精品服装店店主约会。两个月内，即当年的3月和5月，这两人先后死亡。