Although the Glico Morinaga Case involves a kidnapping, some extortion, a bit of (humorous/not intended to hurt people) poisoning and lots of mass hysteria – which are all less-than-morally-righteous things to do – the case stands as an example of the influence that a single person (or a small group) can have on a large corporation if they are willing to act outside of the law.
The Monster with 21 Faces sent its first letter on May 10, 1984, to the giant food company Ezaki Glico following the kidnapping and escape of Katsuhisa Ezaki, president of Glico. The letter stated that it had laced the company’s confections with potassium cyanide soda, and it later threatened to put them on store shelves. None of these poisoned candies were found, but Glico products were removed from stores, resulting in a loss of more than $21 million and the laying off of 450 part-time workers.
Meanwhile, The Monster with 21 Faces also sent letters to the media, taunting police efforts to capture the culprit(s) behind the scare. An excerpt from one such letter, written in hiragana and with anOsaka dialect, reads, “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?” Another taunting letter was sent to Koshien police station. “Why don’t you keep it to yourself? You seem to be at a loss. So why not let us help you? We’ll give you a clue. We entered the factory by the front gate. The typewriter we used is PAN-writer. The plastic container used was a piece of street garbage. Monster with 21 faces.”[3]
On June 26, The Monster with 21 Faces issued a message proclaiming its forgiveness of Glico, and subsequent harassment of the company ceased. However, it began targeting Morinaga, another confectionery company, and food companies Marudai Ham and House Food Corporation with similar criminal campaigns, 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 with a warning similar to those sent to Glico. It stated that 20 packages of Morinaga candy had been laced with deadly sodium cyanide. After receiving this letter, police searched stores in cities from Tokyo to western Japan and found over a dozen lethal packages of Morinaga Choco Balls and Angel Pie before anyone was poisoned.[4] These packages had labels, such as “Danger: Contains Toxins”, put on them. More tampered confections were found in February 1985, making a total of 21 lethal sweet products.[5]
via The Monster With 21 Faces wiki entry.
Unfortunately the Monster with 21 faces was not defying authority for some noble cause – he, she or they – were just being greedy assholes and trying to extort money from a mega-corporate candy company. But still, the impact that the monster made is astonishing.
