Ten Workers of Teikoku Bank Slain In Broad Daylight – Robbery Behind Killing?
TOKYO, Jan. 26 – Ten were killed and (XX) others are in critical condition as a result of the attempted robbery and poisoning of the entire staff of the Shiinamachi branch of the Teikoku Bank at Nagasaki-chō, Toshima-ku, Tokyo by a (gang of) cold-blooded criminal(s) who apparently tried to snatch away heaps of bank notes in broad daylight on the afternoon of January 26.
The sensational ‘poison bank holdup’ case was perpetrated about X o’clock Monday afternoon shortly after the bank had closed for business for the day when a man (men) entered the building.
In no time the bank turned into a veritable death chamber with all the victims writhing in agony. When the relief party arrived at the scene, 10 of the victims had already died. XX others were rushed to the XX hospital and remain in a critical condition.
According to the police, who are strictly keeping away outsiders in an effort to find a clue, XXXXXXXXX.
An intensive police search is being conducted across the city for the bank robber(s).
A telephone rings. A voice shouts, ‘Takeuchi, telephone!’
I stop writing. I go over to the phone. I say, ‘Takeuchi.’
‘Takeuchi? It’s Tomizawa.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Shiinamachi.’
‘What’s going on? What have you got?’
‘There’s still been no statement from the MPB?’
‘No,’ I say, turning the pages of my notebook, licking the tip of my pencil. ‘So give me everything you’ve got.’
‘Well, it’s not food poisoning. It’s murder. Murder by poisoning. Ten dead for now. Six taken to the Seibo Hospital.’
‘Have you got a chronology for me?’
‘Locals found a young woman who works in the bank crawling around in the street outside at about 4 o’clock …’
‘Name? Age?’
‘No name yet, but early twenties.’
‘OK. Go on …’
‘Apparently she was trying to get to the local liquor store to telephone for ambulances and the police, so one local woman ran to the liquor store to call for the ambulances and police while another local stayed with the young woman who was losing consciousness, meanwhile other locals rushed up the road and into the bank …’
‘Great,’ I say. ‘What did they find? What did they see?’
‘A death chamber,’ says Tomizawa. ‘Bodies lying everywhere. In the corridors, on the floor, in the bathroom. A line of corpses by the sink. All of them with their eyes still open. Their mouths running with blood and vomit…’
‘Fantastic,’ I say. ‘Go on …’
‘Some of them were still alive …’
‘Any of them talking?’
‘No,’ says Tomizawa. ‘Coughing, spitting, losing consciousness. And then the police and the ambulances arrived.’
‘The locals say how many were alive?’
‘Six, but two were very bad.’
‘Have you been inside?’
‘Yes. When I got there it was still chaos, so I flashed my wallet, making out I was a detective, and I was in there for about ten minutes before they realized and threw me out.’
‘So go on, what did you see?’
‘Well, the bodies were still there, and there were loads of police, but there was a strange calmness, yeah calmness. All the desks were just as you’d imagine them, with ledgers and papers spread out. Stacks of cash on the desks as well…’
‘Stacks of cash?’
‘Yeah, just sitting there, untouched. A tray of cups as well. It was just as if it was a normal working day in a normal bank. Apart from the bodies and all the police, the police drawing chalk marks around the bodies, their photographers taking their pictures. There were even some of the locals in there, trying to tidy up …’
‘And the police? What were they saying?’
‘Well, you know the police. Not much. Muttering about it being food poisoning, not murder. And then of course they twigged who I was and they threw me out…’
‘So the cops, they don’t think it’s murder? Is that what you’re saying? They still think it’s food poisoning?’
‘Not any more,’ says Tomizawa. ‘Back outside, I was stood among the crowd – massive crowd by now – finding out what I could, when the Big Boys from the MPB arrived. Minute they got inside the bank, they threw out all the locals. But some of those locals had heard the detectives saying it was mass murder and that the bank was a crime scene and it had to be protected …’
‘You know what made them change their minds?’
‘Well, one of the uniforms who’d been inside the bank and was then sent outside to keep people away, I asked him what was going on,