Teigin robbery - Teigin robbery

On January 26, 1948, a murder and robbery using cyanide compounds occurred at the Shiinamachi branch of the Teikoku Bank in Nagasaki-cho, Toshima-ku, Tokyo. The perpetrator, posing as a metropolitan sanitation official, tricked 16 bank employees into drinking a liquid containing cyanide compounds, claiming it was a medicine to prevent dysentery, poisoning 12 of them, and stealing about 180,000 yen in cash and checks while he was at it and escaping. At first, the police pursued a person connected to the former Imperial Army Bacteriological Unit, who they believed to be knowledgeable in handling cyanide compounds, but the investigation ran into difficulties. However, seven months after the incident, the investigating authorities arrested tempera painter Hirasawa Sadamichi in Otaru, using the only piece of evidence, a business card, as a clue. Hirasawa initially confessed, but denied the charges at trial, and was sentenced to death at the first trial in 1950. Even after the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1955, he continued to request a retrial. Due to a lack of physical evidence to support the theory that Hirasawa was the real culprit, a movement to assert his innocence also grew, such as the formation of the "Save Hirasawa Sadamichi Association" led by author Morikawa Tetsuro in 1962. Hirasawa's long detention continued without successive Ministers of Justice issuing an execution order, but in May 1987, 32 years after his sentence had been finalized, Hirasawa died at the age of 95 in Hachioji Medical Prison in Tokyo, leaving a unique mark on the history of the postwar judicial system.

[Yuji Odabe]

"Postwar Political Trial History 1" edited by Jiro Tanaka, Isao Sato, and Jiro Nomura (1980, Daiichi Hoki Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1948年（昭和23）1月26日、東京都豊島(としま)区長崎町の帝国銀行椎名町(しいなまち)支店で起こった、青酸化合物による殺人強盗事件。犯人は都の衛生課員を装い、赤痢予防薬と欺いて行員ら16名に青酸化合物入り液体を飲ませ12名を毒殺、この間に現金・小切手約18万円を奪って逃走。当初、警察は青酸化合物の扱いに熟知した人物として旧陸軍細菌部隊関係者を追ったが捜査は難航した。しかし事件発生から7か月後、捜査当局は唯一の証拠品の名刺を手掛りにテンペラ画家平沢貞通(さだみち)を小樽(おたる)で逮捕。平沢はいったんは自白したが、公判で否認し、1950年一審で死刑判決、55年最高裁で確定後も再審要求を続けた。平沢真犯人説については物的証拠に欠けるため、62年には作家の森川哲郎を中心とする「平沢貞通氏を救う会」が結成されるなど、無実を主張する運動も広がった。歴代の法務大臣が死刑執行命令を出さないまま長期拘置が続いたが、平沢は刑確定32年を経た87年5月、95歳で東京の八王子医療刑務所で死亡、戦後司法制度の歴史に特異な軌跡を残した。

［小田部雄次］

『田中二郎・佐藤功・野村二郎編『戦後政治裁判史録1』（1980・第一法規出版）』

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