Cult leader Sachiko Eto became, according to her creed, a "self-professed God" in the 1990's and promptly acquired a cult following that believed in her powers to drive out demons during bizarre exorcism ceremonies involving Taiko drum sticks.
Between December 1994 and June 1995 six of her exorcism
subjects, nevertheless, responded to her drumstick beatings not by casting off
the demons that possessed them by casting off their mortal coil and expiring at
her hands.
In early June 2005 police summoned to her home in Sukagawa,
Fukushima prefecture, about 100 miles north of Tokyo, found upon searching the
place the six decomposing corpses of the beaten followers. Police raided the house
because a woman who was beaten during one of Eto's religious ceremonies asked
police to investigate the disappearance of her husband, who was last seen at
the faith healer's home.
At her 2005 trial Eto claimed "I did it as part of a
religious service. I never thought they were going to die." She was gound
guilty and sentenced to death.
Also receiving the death sentence were her daughter and
another cult member, Yutaka Nemoto, Eto's lover, were sentenced to life
imprisonment after being convicted of acting as Eto's accomplices.
Eto was 65-years-old when she was hanged on September 27,
2012.
[Robert St. Estephe; compiled from various source]
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