@hangingpro, the "Twitter Killer", is hung to death. A fitting end to the evil man behind the screen: Takahiro Shiraishi
“For those truly in pain, please DM me anytime.”
On Halloween morning (October 31st) 2017, a police officer opened the door to hell.
He was in a suburb of Tokyo, looking for a missing woman. The apartment had a stench that clung to the back of the throat—rotten meat and cat litter, they’d been told. But when Tokyo police stepped inside Takahiro Shiraishi’s Zama residence they found a slaughterhouse masquerading as a home. Coolers stacked like macabre furniture. Storage boxes leaking the sweet, metallic tang of decay. Nine dismembered corpses, stripped of flesh and dignity, their bones meticulously sorted. Nine heads in cooler boxes. Eight girls and young women and one young man, aged 15 to 26, all lured through Twitter by a predator who weaponized despair. "Let’s die together," he’d whispered into their screens, a digital reaper harvesting the suicidal. Instead of peace, he delivered rape, robbery, and the cold precision of a butcher’s knife.
Shiraishi’s confession was devoid of theater. He killed for sex and money, he said. Nothing more. He scoured Twitter for young women expressing suicidal ideation, coaxing them to his apartment with promises of a painless end. Once there, he drugged, raped, and strangled them. Their belongings—cash, phones, dignity—became trophies. The sole male victim, the boyfriend of a missing woman, was silenced when he came searching. Neighbors complained about the smell for weeks; Shiraishi shrugged it off as "spoiled meat." He dismembered bodies with hardware-store tools, storing heads in coolers and discarding flesh with the weekly trash. Cat litter boxes overflowed with human fragments, a grotesque attempt to mask the carnage.
The Hunt
The investigation began with a brother’s desperation. In late October 2017, the sibling of a missing 23-year-old woman hacked her Twitter account, discovering messages with a handle ominously named "Hanging Pro." He tweeted about her disappearance, prompting a follower—known only as "Yumi"—to recognize the username. Yumi contacted Shiraishi, posing as a suicidal woman, and arranged a meeting at Zama Station—-and tipped off the police.
Police tailed him back to his apartment. When officers knocked, Shiraishi gestured to a cooler: "She’s inside." A search revealed nine victims’ remains across eight containers, their identities confirmed through DNA. The brother’s digital sleuthing and Yumi’s courage had cornered the killer.
The Machinery of Death
Shiraishi’s spree lasted just two months—August to October 2017—but unfolded with assembly line efficiency.
Takahiro Shiraishi operated under the Twitter handle “@hangingpro”—in Japanese—首吊り士 /kubitsurishi—sometimes translated as “hangman”—during his crimes. His profile was deliberately crafted to attract those in psychological distress, especially individuals expressing suicidal thoughts. The bio, written in casual Japanese, read:
首吊りの知識を広めたい 本当につらい方の力になりたい お気軽にDMへ連絡ください
In English, this translates to:
"Wanna spread my know-how on hanging. For anyone really hurting and in need of resources—please DM me anytime."
Below are his verified tweets from the period, transcribed from Japanese police records and trial documents. Each tweet is dated and translated into casual English to reflect their predatory tone.
September 2017:
学校でも職場でもいじめは絶えない
"Bullying never quits—school, work, wherever."
毎日のように通う場所、会う人間とうまくいかないと、精神的にどんどん追い込まれてい
"When every damn place you go or person you see just grinds you down, it crushes your soul bit by bit."
世の中には、ニュースになっていないけど自殺未遂をしてしまって苦しい思いをしてる人がたくさんいると思います
"Bet there’s tons of people who’ve tried to off themselves and are still suffering—just ’cause it ain’t news doesn’t mean it ain’t real."
そんな人の力になりたいです #自殺
"Wanna help those people. #suicide"
October 2017:
苦しむ時間で比べるなら首吊りのほうが短い
"If you’re counting the time you spend in pain, hanging’s quicker."
練炭自殺は楽なんですか？とよく聞かれるのですが、ハッキリ言って苦しいです
"People ask if charcoal suicide’s easy. Straight up? It’s agony."
October 22, 2017 (Final Tweet):
自殺する前に友人、家族、SNSにこれから死にますなど連絡を入れるのはNG
"Don’t text friends, family, or post ‘bout dying before you do it. Total no-go."
This chillingly simple message masked his predatory intent, offering apparent empathy while actually serving as bait for vulnerable individuals. His profile and direct messages were the primary tools he used to lure victims to his apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, under the guise of a suicide pact.
His first victim, 21-year-old Mizuki Miura, wired him ¥500,000 ($4,400) for an apartment he’d use as a charnel house. He killed her days later, later admitting he felt "no hesitation." Next came her boyfriend, who came looking for her. Shiraishi killed him when he began asking too many questions--like some horrific Japanese remake of "The Vanishing."
Then, a procession of broken souls: high schoolers like 15-year-old Kureha Ishihara, and women like the 23-year-old whose disappearance ignited the manhunt. All had tweeted about wanting to die; Shiraishi slid into their DMs like a shadow. He varied his approach—sometimes offering to "guide" their suicide, other times proposing a pact—but the end was identical: rape, strangulation, dismemberment. His apartment became a factory of death, each murder refining his method.
At trial, his lawyers spun a ghoulish fantasy: "murder with consent." Shiraishi dismantled it himself. "I killed them for my sexual desires," he stated, flat and remorseless. The judge, Naokuni Yano, condemned his "cunning and cruel" exploitation, noting he "trampled upon their dignity." The defense’s mental-illness argument collapsed; the court found him fully culpable.
In December 2020, he was sentenced to hang. When asked about his fate, Shiraishi smiled. "It’s no different than normal," he told the Mainichi Shimbun, as if discussing the weather.
Death row
On June 27, 2025, Japan hanged him. Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki called the crimes "extremely selfish," driven by "sexual and financial desires." Shiraishi’s execution—Japan’s first in nearly three years—closed a case that exposed social media’s darkest alleyways.
Not all approve of his execution. The father of one victim stonily expressed that in his opinion, Shiraishi should have lived to regret his heinous actions. Instead Shiraishi died as he lived: a manipulator who indifferently turned despair into personal gain.
Yet there is delicious irony in a serial killer who operated under the name "Hanging Pro" being hung from the gallows. Few people have so richly deserved that painful death. His guilt is unquestionable, as was his lack of remorse.
The tragedy echoes in the silence of those he hunted—voices extinguished not by their despair, but by a predator who promised salvation and delivered slaughter. Shiraishi’s legacy isn’t just nine graves; it’s the chilling proof that monsters now stalk where hope goes to die.
Timeline of Victims
Approximate time of murder is taken from the order of victims going missing and Shiraishi’s own admission of one murder in August, four in September, and four in October.
August
Mizuki Miura (21): First victim, lured to her death after wiring Shiraishi money to acquire an apartment together
September
Kureha Ishihara (15): High school freshman who expressed thoughts of suicide online
Shogo Nishinaka (20): Miura’s boyfriend who came looking for her after she disappeared
Hinako Sarashina (19): Second year university student
Hitomi Fujima (26): Last seen leaving work early
October
Akari Suda (17): High school senior
Natsumi Kubo (17): High school student
Kazumi Maruyama (25): Convenience store worker
Aiko Tamura (23): Woman “scouted” by Shiraishi in Kabukicho. Her brother’s investigation led police to Zama
Richly deserved end.
Chilling. The depths of human depravity seem limitless at times.