Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama signed the execution orders for three more death row inmates. The three were hanged yesterday and boosted Hatoyama’s list of hangings to 13.

One of the two men hanged at the Tokyo Detention Center was none other than Tsutomu Miyazaki, the infamous serial killer of little girls in Saitama back in the late 1980’s. He was executed 20 years after his first murder.

Miyazaki was one of those killers that was so feared that he was referred to by his first name, Tsutomu. He’s like the “Boogie Man” in the kanto region of Japan, the Keyser Söze invoked to scare little kids into good behavior.

Miyazaki was finally apprehended in July 1989 after trying to insert a zoom lens into the vagina of a grade-school girl in a park near the girl’s home. Fortunately, the girl’s older sister ran home to get her father after the man with the camera showed up. The father sprinted to the park and was able to save his daughter from becoming Miyazaki’s fifth victim. Police officers were waiting for him when he boldly returned to retrieve his car.

All four of Miyazaki’s victims were between the ages of four and seven. He sexually abused the corpses and ate pieces of his third and fourth victims. Additionally, he was famous for torturing his victims’ families by sending them details of the murders.

The family of his first victim, four-year-old Mari Konno, received several gruesome mementos from the killing. Miyazaki cremated most of Mari’s bones in his furnace, ground them into a powder, and sent them to her family. Her teeth and photos of her clothing were also sent. He also taunted them with a postcard that had letters snipped from a magazine which read: “Mari. Cremated. Bones. Investigate. Prove.”

The family of his third victim, four-year-old Erika Nanba, received a similar postcard which read: “Erika. Cold. Cough. Throat. Rest. Death.”

Miyazaki was analyzed by several psychiatrists during his lengthy trial. The conclusion in 1999 was that he had a severe form of schizophrenia. Despite this expert analysis, the court deemed that he was aware of the severity of his crimes, for which he never apologized, and sentenced him to death.

Miyazaki was joined in death at the Tokyo Detention Center by Shinji Matsuda (37). Executed at the Osaka Detention Center was Yoshio Yamasaki (73). Both Matsuda and Yamasaki were convicted on double-homicide charges.

On Tuesday, June 17, 2008, Hatoyama ordered the executions of:

11) Shinji Matsuda, 37, Tokyo Detention Center
12) Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45, Tokyo Detention Center
13) Yoshio Yamasaki, 73, Osaka Detention Center