Hell Theater
Chess killer

The Chess Killer - Case was compiled and uploaded in 2013 by Rookurou users, who cited a series of disturbing police reports and graphics from the city of Chichibu in the Japanese prefecture of Saitama in 1986. More than three decades later, the case remains unsolved, and the case file - classified - was recently leaked online by an unnamed source.

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The suspect, nicknamed by Chichibu residents Chesu or - the "Chess Killer" - is believed to be responsible for several kidnappings and at least five murders in the area.

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The Chess Murder Case

The first victim, 22-year-old Kiyoko Tsuki, was found in a park in a forested area on Saturday, June 14, 1986 by two children, whose parents alerted police. The body of the young woman had been twisted so strangely that her arms and legs were crossed into an "X" shape, and one hand was holding onto a black chess piece. The coroner ruled that the cause of death was shortness of breath.

Earlier in the day, police had been alerted to the kidnapping incident, in which two women aged around 20 were reportedly taken hostage by a masked man. One of the women, whose name was not given, later told police she had been drugged by a masked man while leaving her workplace at 10 p.m.

She claims to be held in an undisclosed location while her captor asks her and another woman - who turns out to be the previously mentioned victim Kiyoko Tsuki - a series of unusual questions. He then woke up in the same area of the forest, with a white chess piece in his hand.

The second victim, 38-year-old Ryotaro Satoru, was found by a group of co-workers from the Nitchitsu Mine on June 18, 1986. His limbs had been crossed in the same way, with chess pieces tied in his hands. His death was determined by drowning.

Other details of the incident are nearly identical to those involving Kiyoko Tsuki, including the second abductee - in this case, one of Satoru's fellow miners - who has been detained at gunpoint, drugged and taken to an unknown place along with Satoru around 11 p.m., where the two men are asked an unusual series of questions by his masked kidnapper.

Another miner (whose name is not mentioned, although he is described as a younger man) also claims to have woken up in the same forest territory while holding a piece of chess - this time, a chess piece, a white pawn . When he reported the incident to the police, he recalled the masked man's questions: his age, his marital status, whether he had a wife and children (and if he really loved them), does he believe in God, and is he happy . The kidnapper also asks him about his childhood and his plans for the future.

The third victim, 27-year-old Takao Susumu, was found inside the Nitchitsu Mine (the same place that Ryotaro Satoru had previously used) on June 22, 1986. Surprisingly, Takao Susumu was not a mine worker, but a security guard near Chichibu.

A bulletin dated June 26, 1986 followed the case files, and described another similar abduction: 26-year-old Nayami Fumiko was kidnapped from the Chichibu forest on her way home from work two days earlier. The perpetrator is again described as a masked man, this time brandishing a knife, who then drugged Fumiko and took her to an unknown location.

Fumiko told police she woke up in the dark, blindfolded, and tied to a chair. He heard a man ask the same series of strange questions reported in previous cases before drugging him a second time, after which he regained consciousness near his workplace. When he woke up, he found a small chain around his neck. As with Takao Susumu, no second abductee was found.

On the morning of June 30, 1986, a pair of bodies were found near a highway that passed through Chichibu, later identified as Hanako Junko 23, and Mayumi Yuri30. Their bodies were laid out specifically, so that each of the victim's arms stretched wide and Junko's legs were crossed over Yuri's legs. Junko was found clutching a black bishop chess piece in his left hand, while Yuri held the black queen. The cause of death in both cases was shortness of breath - similar to the first victim found, Kiyoko Tsuki.

The files show that the police became very distressed when trying to relate identical or similar factors from each case, and found no clues or witnesses at all ... until they receive a call the same day from a woman who reports her daughter has been kidnapped from the front porch by a man wearing a mask, who takes her screaming girl to a nearby car.

The girl was found later that same afternoon near Ogurasawa School, unconscious but unharmed, inside what police believe was the vehicle of the perpetrator, though no license plate, was found, and the vehicle ID cannot track any owner. The report noted that the girl was wearing a bracelet on her left wrist when she was found - on which hung a piece of the little white bishop. On her right hand was a white queen.

The last report, dated July 4, 1986, detailed the discovery of an unconscious young man at a gas station near the Nitchitsu Mine. After waking up in the hospital, he was interviewed by police; he claimed to have driven his bike home from a party the night before when he found a man in black staggered across the street. When the younger man tried to help, he was surprised to find the stranger wearing a strange white mask.

The black-clothed old man caught him and drugged the younger man, who (like Nayami Fumiko before him) woke up in a dark room, tied to a chair, and then had a baby, where the kidnapper asked him the same strange question as the others.

However, there is one strange detail that distinguishes this case: when the young man woke up in the hospital, the doctor had removed an object lodged in his neck: a small chess piece - the white king. After finding this evidence, the police stepped up their efforts; they thought there was a black king out there ...

Despite the detectives' best efforts, the black king is never found - and there is no evidence of a second abduction and/or murder.

For the following year, the authorities attempted to search for clues, witnesses or further reports of similar incidents, but found nothing at all, the case is closed until further notice.

The crime of imitators, fakes and a bunch of urban legend myths sprang up in Chichibu and the surrounding area, during and after this bizarre criminal event. Since 1986, the name Chesu di Kira has been the source of a nightmare legend.

But the real Chess Killer was never caught...