Kiyoshi Ōkubo

was a Japanese serial killer. Between March 31, 1971, and May 10, 1971, he raped and murdered eight girls and women. He used a pen name, Tanigawa Ivan (谷川伊凡).

Early life Ōkubo was born in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. He was a quarter Russian. His mother, who was half Russian and half Japanese, doted on him even after he grew up. He was bullied by other children after the Pacific War began on December 8, 1941.

Sexual offenses and murders He raped a woman on July 12, 1955. On December 26, 1955, he attempted to rape another woman but was unsuccessful. He was arrested, put in jail, and then released on December 15, 1959. On April 16, 1960, he attempted to rape another woman but was again unsuccessful. The victim, however, withdrew the charge.

On May 5, 1961, he married a woman and had a son and a daughter. He threatened a man on June 3, 1965, and then raped two women on December 23, 1966, and February 24, 1967. On June 7, 1967, he served a prison sentence in Fuchū Prison for rape and blackmail, but he was later released on parole on March 2, 1971, and returned home.

Between March 31 and May 10, 1971, he killed eight women. On May 7, 1971, a 21-year-old female office worker in Fujioka City disappeared while riding a bicycle. Later, on May 13, her brother found her bicycle in Fujioka City and saw a man driving a Mazda Rotary Coupe. When the brother approached to question him, Ōkubo ran away. The brother then reported the man's license plate, and Ōkubo was caught in Maebashi by the police. In two months, Ōkubo has invited more than 150 young women; nearly 50 women got in the car, 30 of whom he had sex with, and the 8 women who were killed and their bodies abandoned because they resisted. He found Ōkubo, and the police finally arrested him on May 14, 1971. The eight women whom he killed are: Miyako Tsuda (津田 美也子, Tsuda Miyako) – 17 years old Mieko Oikawa (老川 美枝子, Oikawa Mieko) – 17 years old Chieko Ida (伊田 千恵子, Ida Chieko) – 19 years old Seiko Kawabata (川端 成子, Kawabata Seiko) – 17 years old Akemi Sato (佐藤 明美, Satō Akemi) – 16 years old Kazuyo Kawaho (川保 和代, Kawaho Kazuyo) – 18 years old Reiko Takemura (竹村 礼子, Takemura Reiko) – 21 years old Naoko Takanohashi (鷹嘴 直子, Takanohashi Naoko) – 21 years old

Trial and execution The district court in Maebashi sentenced Ōkubo to death by hanging on February 22, 1973. He did not appeal and was executed on January 22, 1976. It was reported that he could not stand up on the day of his execution.

In media Ōkubo's crime led to Tsukuba Akira writing a book called "Spring of 1971 in Gunma: The Crime of Kiyoshi Okubo". It later became a TV drama on August 29, 1983, titled . Takeshi Kitano played Ōkubo in the drama.

On November 29, 2008, a YouTube video titled "Whitehouse - Why You Never Became A Dancer" was uploaded. The video featured a black and white picture of a woman in which her facial expressions are edited, most likely using the program CrazyTalk, to move in loop while the song "Why You Never Became a Dancer" from the band Whitehouse was playing in the background. The disturbing nature of the video sparked a search for the identity of the woman, and in 2023, a Reddit post on the community InternetMysteries by the user lanecampbell77 identified her as Reiko Takemura, one of Ōkubo's mortal victims, all after coming upon a search on the Japanese webpage thetuburo.com, where the search finally provided results after the author of the post was sent an unedited picture of Takamura, also appearing on a book and documentary on Ōkubo's crimes, with the second case being found fortuitously while doing a research on the case.