"The Monster with 21 Faces" (怪人21面相, Kaijin Nijūichi Mensō) was a nickname inspired by a fictional villain named "The Fiend with Twenty Faces" created by author Edogawa Rampo. This name was used as a false identity by the group behind the threatening letters in the Glico Morinaga case in Japan in 1984. Other translations of the name, such as "The Mystery Man with 21 Faces" and "The Phantom with 21 Faces," have also appeared in writings about the case.

Kidnapping of Katsuhisa Ezaki

At approximately 9:00 pm on 18 March 1984, two men wearing masks and carrying a pistol and rifle (later believed to be toy guns) used a key taken from the house next door to enter the home of Ezaki Glico president, Katsuhisa Ezaki. The house next door belonged to Katsuhisa’s 70-year-old mother, Yoshie, and was located on the same property, which was surrounded by a brick wall. The criminals had entered her home and tied her up using a cut telephone line. They then retrieved the key to her son’s home, which had a security system in place.

After entering Katsuhisa Ezaki’s home, the two masked men tied up his wife, Mikieko (35 years old), and his eldest daughter, Mariko (7 years old). Mikieko offered the men money, and one of them responded, “Be quiet. Money is irrelevant.” After cutting some telephone lines, the two men found Katsuhisa Ezaki, who was bathing with his other two children, Yukiko (4 years old) and Etsuro (11 years old). Katsuhisa Ezaki was taken from his home while naked and transported to a warehouse in Ibaraki, Osaka.

Three days after his abduction, Ezaki managed to escape his captors by breaking free from the ropes they had tied him with. However, he could not identify the people who had taken him or provide police with any information about their reasons.

Several weeks after Ezaki’s abduction, the group set fire to multiple vehicles at the company’s headquarters. On 16 April 1984, a plastic container filled with hydrochloric acid was discovered inside a Glico company building in Ibaraki, Osaka, the same city where Ezaki had been held captive.

Letters

On April 8, 1984, the Monster with 21 Faces sent a letter to Japanese police. The letter, translated into English, said:

"To Japanese police fools: Are you stupid? There are so many of you, what are you doing? If you are real professionals, try catching me. There are too many obstacles, so I will give you a hint. There are no members of the Ezaki family, no members of the Nishinomiya police, and no members of the flood-fighting corps. The car I used was gray, and the food was bought at Daiei. If you want more information, ask for it in the newspaper. After telling you all this, you should be able to catch me. If you fail, you are tax thieves. Should I kidnap the head director of the prefectural police?"

Although the letter provided details about the color of the car used during the kidnapping and the supermarket where food was purchased, these clues did not help police find the suspect.

The Monster with 21 Faces also sent letters to the media, mocking police efforts to catch the person or people responsible. One letter, written in hiragana and using an Osaka dialect, said: "Dear dumb police officers. Don't tell a lie. All crimes begin with a lie, as we say in Japan. Don't you know that?"

On April 23, another letter was sent to the Sankei and Mainichi newspapers and the Koshien police station. It read:

"To police fools: You shouldn't lie. If you lie, you steal. I also sent this to the Koshien police. Why are you lying? Don't hide things. Why are you complaining? You guys are having such a hard time, so I will give you a hint. I entered the factory from the side staff entrance. The typewriter we used is a PAN-writer. The plastic container used was a piece of street garbage. Monster with 21 Faces."

The Monster with 21 Faces sent its first letter on May 10, 1984, to Ezaki Glico, a large food company, after the kidnapping and escape of Katsuhisa Ezaki, the company’s president. The letter claimed that $21 million worth of the company’s candy had been laced with potassium cyanide soda and threatened to sell the poisoned candy in stores. No poisoned candies were found, but Glico products were removed from stores, causing a loss of more than $20 million and the loss of 450 part-time jobs. By the end of the incident, Glico reported a total sales drop of nearly $130 million.

On June 26, the Monster with 21 Faces issued a message stating it forgave Glico, and its attacks on the company stopped.

After stopping its attacks on Glico, the Monster with 21 Faces began targeting other companies, including Morinaga, a confectionery company, and food companies Marudai Ham and House Food Corporation, using the same alias.

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. It warned that 20 packages of Morinaga candy had been laced with deadly sodium cyanide. After receiving the letter, police searched stores from Tokyo to western Japan and found over a dozen poisoned packages of Morinaga Choco Balls and Angel Pie before anyone was poisoned. These packages had labels such as "Danger: Contains Toxins." More tampered candies were found in February 1985, totaling 21 lethal products.

On November 1, 1984, a threatening letter from the Monster with 21 Faces arrived at the home of Morinaga Dairy’s vice president, Mitsuo Yamada. It read:

"To President: You saw our power, didn’t you? If you disobey us, we will destroy your company. You will get killed. Decide whether you want to give us money or see your company destroyed. Tell us in the Mainichi Newspaper on either the 5th or 6th of November. Use the missing persons. Use these words in the reply: Jiro, Morinaga, Mother, Police, Bad friend, Money, Meal. As we said before, we want two hundred million yen. Monster with 21 Faces."

Morinaga responded on November 6 by placing an advertisement in the Mainichi Newspapers Morning Edition: "Dear Jiro, Bad friend disappeared. Come back. Warm meal is waiting. Mother Chiyoko."

Two letters from the Monster with 21 Faces were sent to House Foods on November 7. On the same day, Morinaga & Company was forced to reduce its production by 90% due to the poisoning.

Police were unable to capture the suspect believed to be the mastermind behind the Monster with 21 Faces. In August 1985, Shiga Prefecture Police Superintendent Yamamoto died by self-immolation. Five days later, on August 12, the Monster with 21 Faces sent its final message to the media:

"Yamamoto of Shiga Prefecture Police died. How stupid of him! We have no friends or secret hiding place in Shiga. It’s Yoshino or Shikata who should have died. What have they been doing for one year and five months? Don’t let bad guys like us get away with it. There are many more fools who want to copy us. No-career Yamamoto died like a man. So we decided to give our condolence. We decided to forget about torturing food-making companies. If anyone blackmails any of the food-making companies, it’s not us but someone copying us. We are bad guys. That means we’ve got more to do other than bullying companies. It’s fun to lead a bad man’s life. Monster with 21 Faces."

After this letter, the Monster with 21 Faces was not heard from again. The time limit for legal action on the kidnapping of Katsuhisa Ezaki, president of Glico, ended in June 1995. The time limit for the attempted poisonings ended in February 2000. At one point, it was estimated that over a million police officers had worked on the case, chasing more than 28,000 tips and investigating nearly 125,000 persons of interest. However, no suspect was ever charged.

Major suspects

After the Monster with 21 Faces threatened to poison Glico candies and Glico products were removed from store shelves, a man wearing a Yomiuri Giants baseball cap was seen placing Glico chocolate on a store shelf by a security camera. This man was believed to be the Monster with 21 Faces. The photo from the security camera was shared with the public after the event.

On June 28, 1984, two days after the Monster agreed to stop threatening Marudai Ham in exchange for 50 million yen, police nearly captured the suspected leader. An investigator dressed as a Marudai employee followed the Monster’s instructions for the money exchange. While traveling on a train to the drop-off location, the investigator saw a man who appeared suspicious. This man was described as tall and strong, wearing sunglasses, having short and styled hair, and with eyes compared to those of a fox. As police followed him on trains, the Fox-eyed Man (キツネ目の男, kitsune-me no otoko) managed to escape. Later, during another secret money exchange with House Food Corporation, the Fox-eyed Man was seen with the suspected "Monster" group. Again, he avoided capture.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police first believed Manabu Miyazaki, the son of a known yakuza leader and a criminal himself, was the Fox-eyed Man and the Videotaped Man because of his appearance. Miyazaki had also been involved in a labor dispute with Glico about ten years earlier. However, after checking his alibis, he was cleared of involvement in the Glico-Morinaga crimes. Some people still believe he might have been connected to the group.