Imagine the neon glow of Tokyo's nightlife hiding a sinister secret that ensnares the unwary. That's where we take you in our latest episode, as we unravel the tragic tale of Carita Bridgway, an Australian whose dreams were shattered amid the enigmatic world of Japan's hostess clubs. We dissect a puzzling narrative full of dubious characters and questionable claims – like a severe shellfish allergy leading to a young woman's hospitalization – all while paying tribute to a life that ended far too soon.
The plot thickens with the heart-wrenching disappearance of Lucie Blackman, a parallel story that exposes the perils facing foreign hostesses in Tokyo. We share the frustration and fear that consumed Lucie's family as they battled cultural barriers and elusive authorities, piecing together the unnerving details of a cult-related phone call and the frantic search that ensued. The desperation of Lucie's loved ones in their fight for answers brings a sobering reality to the forefront of our discussion.
Our spotlight then shifts to Joji Obara, a man whose dark deeds surfaced in a narrative resembling a crime novel. His arrest peeled back a curtain to reveal a cache of evidence – videotapes, journals, and the harrowing accounts of over 200 victims. As we navigate through the twists and turns of his legal battles, the harrowing journey of Lucie's family and their painful pursuit of justice culminates our episode with a call for systemic change. Join us as we raise our glasses not only in memory of those lost but also in hope for a future where such tragedies are relics of the past.
Sources:
https://www.moviemaker.com/carita-ridgway-missing-the-lucie-blackman-case/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry_Irvine,_Baron_Irvine_of_Lairg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Chancellor
https://www.evidencelockerpodcast.com/transcripts/transcript-11-the-hostess-murders-joji-obara-japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joji_Obara
https://www.the-sun.com/news/8700456/carita-ridgway-who-what-happened/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1336304093519465
https://twitter.com/Murder_Mimosas
https://www.instagram.com/murder.mimosas/
murder.mimosas@gmail.com
https://uppbeat.io/t/the-wayward-hearts/a-calm-hellfire
License code: ZJZ99QK39IWFF0FB
Imagine the neon glow of Tokyo's nightlife hiding a sinister secret that ensnares the unwary. That's where we take you in our latest episode, as we unravel the tragic tale of Carita Bridgway, an Australian whose dreams were shattered amid the enigmatic world of Japan's hostess clubs. We dissect a puzzling narrative full of dubious characters and questionable claims – like a severe shellfish allergy leading to a young woman's hospitalization – all while paying tribute to a life that ended far too soon.
The plot thickens with the heart-wrenching disappearance of Lucie Blackman, a parallel story that exposes the perils facing foreign hostesses in Tokyo. We share the frustration and fear that consumed Lucie's family as they battled cultural barriers and elusive authorities, piecing together the unnerving details of a cult-related phone call and the frantic search that ensued. The desperation of Lucie's loved ones in their fight for answers brings a sobering reality to the forefront of our discussion.
Our spotlight then shifts to Joji Obara, a man whose dark deeds surfaced in a narrative resembling a crime novel. His arrest peeled back a curtain to reveal a cache of evidence – videotapes, journals, and the harrowing accounts of over 200 victims. As we navigate through the twists and turns of his legal battles, the harrowing journey of Lucie's family and their painful pursuit of justice culminates our episode with a call for systemic change. Join us as we raise our glasses not only in memory of those lost but also in hope for a future where such tragedies are relics of the past.
Sources:
https://www.moviemaker.com/carita-ridgway-missing-the-lucie-blackman-case/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry_Irvine,_Baron_Irvine_of_Lairg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Chancellor
https://www.evidencelockerpodcast.com/transcripts/transcript-11-the-hostess-murders-joji-obara-japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joji_Obara
https://www.the-sun.com/news/8700456/carita-ridgway-who-what-happened/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1336304093519465
https://twitter.com/Murder_Mimosas
https://www.instagram.com/murder.mimosas/
murder.mimosas@gmail.com
https://uppbeat.io/t/the-wayward-hearts/a-calm-hellfire
License code: ZJZ99QK39IWFF0FB
Darkcast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Murder and Mimosas, a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.
Speaker 1:Bringing you murder stories with Mimosas in hand.
Speaker 2:Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. Our show is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime podcast. This means that we do discuss crimes including, but not limited to, disappearances, murder and sexual assault. All our episodes are told with the respect of the victims and the victims' family even mind. We strive to ensure that we provide factual information with some information, if more verifiable than others. With that, grab your Mimosas and let's dive in.
Speaker 1:Welcome back. I'm Shannon and I'm Danica. Today we're going to cover a serial rapist and murderer, joji Arbara. So grab your Mimosas, you sit while we share.
Speaker 1:Imagine being in a foreign country and getting a call that your sister, who is also there, is in the hospital and her condition is severe. That was the scary reality for Samantha Bridgeway. Samantha had moved to Tokyo from Australia to teach English, and 1991, her 21 year old sister, harita, had come to join her in Japan, hoping to get a teaching job. Her real desire was to be an actress, and she was studying drama in Sydney before she had moved. She had student loans piling up, though, and had to be an adult and do the responsible thing before she could follow her dreams. Cartia realized all too quickly that getting a teaching job may not be in the cards, and she began to look for jobs any jobs, but of course she had bills. She began looking in the newspaper, like all of us ancient people used to do back in the day, and found one that looked promising as a hostess, which also paid incredibly well. Okay, is there a reason?
Speaker 2:a hostess job pays so well in Japan. That's like a minimum job, minimum wage job here in the States. And also I mean, how well are we talking?
Speaker 1:Okay, well, it's the same title, but not the same thing at all. Is what we have here? These were called hostess clubs that mostly Japanese businessmen put in and the hostess were there to make conversations with them, light their cigarettes, keep their drinks filled, and they could make up to $50 an hour, up to $400 a night, and this is in the early 90s around you.
Speaker 2:Okay, not to be like a cynic, but is there sex involved?
Speaker 1:No, well, not in the club anyway. They have it essentially a female manager that looks after the girls to make sure that they are not touched or come on to you sexually and anyway, in fact, if you are caught doing this, you're thrown out of the club indefinitely.
Speaker 2:Okay, I guess I'm not getting like the appeal of, like how they're making them, which they're not strippers, they're not sex workers, they just refill their drinks like a waitress and chit chat with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't get it either, but that was the job. I also need to say that most of these women were white women, and this was something that drew the Japanese men in for whatever reason. I don't know some kind of fetish they had, but these men could pay them to go on dates with them, though outside of the hostess club, and since they aren't in the club, we can't say for sure what is going on. You know, on these dates, maybe you're just hired for a date, maybe not.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of like a escort type option is available, that's available but that's not the hostess job.
Speaker 1:but you can do that outside of the hostess job. Okay, so nationally, cardiada's family was not thrilled with this new job. I mean even our little confused as to what it is and it sounds like it could be a little sketchy, if we're being honest. But she's grown, so what can they do? So on Friday, february 14, cardiada and several other coworkers went on a date with several customers. That night. After the date, an older man offered her a ride home that she accepted. Apparently, co chair of the team immediately approved the Fair kas declarations.
Speaker 1:The Fair�The Fairerdings業 is a joint venture and accounts for the roasted and rebuked you. Her friend was the one that saw her leave with this man and Samantha received a message from her sister that she would not be home that weekend. Monday morning, karita is rushed to the hospital and brought in by a man that says his name is Nishita and they were on a date and she's having a reaction to shellfish. Samantha barefully brushes to the hospital when she's called and she saw the man brought her in saying that Karita had eaten a raw oyster which is now causing liver failure. Karita was never able to speak to her sister or parents. She was in and out of consciousness and unable to talk.
Speaker 2:Okay, I eat oysters often and I've never heard of it causing liver failure. And I'm just saying. We live in a landlocked state so I know I'm not eating fresh oysters.
Speaker 1:This is a little wild to be. Yeah, I know right. I know he said she was having a reaction to shellfish and I could never find in the sources if she even had an allergy to shellfish. I would think her sister would know that and question it, that Karita would also know that and say clear of any oysters. I would think if you're like this, severely re-er-er allergic to shellfish.
Speaker 2:Exactly. No one with a shellfish allergy is going to intentionally do that. Not to mention, it doesn't really sound like an allergic reaction to me.
Speaker 3:This is Tracy. This is Samantha. This is the Suspended Sentence. Grab your latte and join us as we enter season two, starting January 1st of 2024.
Speaker 1:A year packed full of serial killers that you may or may not have ever heard of Thanks for being there.
Speaker 3:Stay safe.
Speaker 1:I'm right there with you. Cardia was having liver failure. She was in a coma and brain dead after only a few days in the hospital. Her family made the gut-wrenching decision to remove her from life support and let her go. There was an autopsy done, but the family was never given a copy to spot their efforts to get it. They had her pre-emated there in Japan. Samantha hasn't forgot this Nishitauga and asked the hospital for more information, which they have absolutely nothing. He does call Samantha a few times to ask about her sister's condition. This is the part that made me say hmm, though. After she dies, he meets her family at a hotel, he tells them the whole oyster story and then he gives them a diamond ring and a diamond necklace he said he had bought for Harita and he says he loved her.
Speaker 2:Wait a minute, didn't they like meet for the first time that Friday and like that's?
Speaker 1:it. From what I could gather, yes, and that's not all. He wants to pay her family one million yen to cover the funeral and travel cost. Looking enough, that is the equivalent to $6,755.75 and the sales now. So the family, the plans, I mean this is all so strange, right. But then Samantha tells him yeah, I'll take it. So she's hoping this will get her a paper trail on this Nishita guy. But that got her nowhere. The family requests that the Tokyo police investigate her death in Nishita, but that fell in deaf ears and they went to the Australian Embassy for help and sadly got nowhere there also. So let's fast forward to May of 2000.
Speaker 1:So 21 year old Lucy Blackman and her friend Louise Phillips decide they're going to move to Japan to work as hostesses. Both women are from England. Lucy had worked at a French investment bank and as an assistant trader or assistant to the traders there. She joined the traders at bars after work and she wanted to dress the bar, which all of this cost money, and this racked up some serious credit card. Then she got a job with the British Airways as a flight attendant and she had had hopes of seeing the world with this job. The job turned out to not be fun as fun as she hoped, and she had a friend that boasted about how much her sister was making as a hostess in Japan. So this was Lucy's new adventure. But Cartier, her family, wasn't really thrilled with this job either. She told them this was pretty much like being a flight attendant, but not in the air. Again, she's grown, so what can they do? Bless, the money was good and she needed to pay off her debt.
Speaker 1:Both girls get a job at Casablanca, which is a hostess club and a row of p row, row Ponji. So Proponji is the entertainment district there. In Tokyo. There are tons of bars, clubs and restaurants in this area. It was the place to be if you wanted to enjoy the nightlife. It's also super busy with foot traffic. There are people everywhere.
Speaker 2:I'm envisioning in my head, like the shoulder-to-shoulder foot traffic you encounter around Tom Square in New York.
Speaker 1:Yes, this is even more people, if you can even believe that. So it's Saturday, july 1st 2000, and Lucy is on one of her dates that a client has paid for. She calls Louise from a number that's not showing up and says her date had brought her a prepaid cell phone. Now cell phones were just becoming a thing that people really had in their pocket and stuff at that time and they were starting to become a little bit more common for people to have, but most people still had the landlines. So she calls Louise again around 7 at night and says she's at his place and this is like some seaside place and would be leaving in about 30 minutes. The two girls had made plans to go dancing and party, in which she got home, except Lucy. Never showed up and Louise begins to get concerned.
Speaker 2:Okay, obviously don't really know Lucy or her patterns of behavior, so is this something that was typical? Is she known to make plans and then, like, cancel or blow them off without saying anything?
Speaker 1:That'll absolutely not Thought it on. That's one thing that really concerned Louise, and she's also thought it was odd that she got in his car much less went to his house, because she felt Lucy was much more cautious than that. When she does come home that night, louise calls her, or when she I'm sorry, when she doesn't come home that night, louise calls her family to tell them that Lucy is missing. She heads to Ropangy and begins looking. Any place the two of them hung out and places. Even they didn't hang out but she's not having any luck at all. She goes to the police to file a missing person report and was told that she was thrown and she could be on a date, and besides she hasn't even been missing a whole 24 hours yet.
Speaker 1:On Monday Louise gets a call from a man that says his name is Aarkea Tic-Taci I'm not sure if I'm saying that right. It was calling for Lucy and she had met a guru and joining their cult, the newly risen religion. She just wanted to let Louise know that she was alive and well but would not be returning home. Louise quickly thinking on her feet and knowing her friend well enough to know this is complete BS as, wow, I want to join the cult too, and he says he will talk to the guru and get that to her.
Speaker 2:I love this friend and if we could all be so lucky to have one just like her. I love that she's thinking under her feet, which, in a really stressful situation, can be very difficult.
Speaker 1:Right, I don't know that I could do that, but Lucy's father, tim Blackman, started making calls to the Japanese Metropolitan Police, as well as the British consulate housed in Japan, once he heard the news his daughter was missing. Sadly, this didn't get him far with the language barrier. Her sister, sophia and her ex-boyfriend decided to head to Japan to look for her.
Speaker 2:I mean honestly, in an area this size, and especially because you aren't from there, I don't know what they could really do. But I get you don't want to just sit there and be helpless either. So it's kind of a double-edged sword.
Speaker 1:Wow, and they too went to the police, but again, this wasn't really something they seemed really interested in and had yet to do anything. Even after Louise's request for help, her father decides he needs to fly over and talk with them, since he's getting nowhere on the phone. They distribute 30,000 flyers of police or Lucy and they put these all over anywhere they can, and they offer a reward of 100,000 pounds, which in the US dollars is $128,448.73.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a large amount of money that quickly, yeah, and this is $2,000, too.
Speaker 1:Just remember that. So, like I said, police are completely unconcerned with this and her family pleas with down to at least trace the phone call that Louise received. The police informed them that this is against Japanese law and refused their request. Tim, feeling frustrated and defeated with the police, decides to take it to the media.
Speaker 2:This can be very effective if you can get the media to help. I mean, you saw it in the disappearance of Natalie Holloway. We saw that everywhere. But not everyone can get the media to help, so did they end up having any luck?
Speaker 1:They actually did. This raises a lot of awareness as to her disappearance and also shed light on the lack of help they've gotten from the police. So Sir Richard Branson, a British business tycoon, made an appearance asking for information on Lucy, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair was made aware of the situation and spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister letting them know that the police are not being cooperative in any way. So the police that they couldn't get to help now have assigned 80 officers to Lucy's case.
Speaker 2:It's so scary when you think about that you have someone missing in another country. There's language barriers you have to account for, but it's sad that it took all of this rigmarole for them to even take this seriously. Not saying this happens in just other countries. We have this here, right in the United States, where the police don't always want to investigate the people here too.
Speaker 1:That's true, and especially if you don't have the connections this family have. So while they have all of the officers on this case they're keeping anything they find out flimsy to the best, which is really really frustrating the Blackman family.
Speaker 2:Of course I can understand that, because after all they've gone through they don't know how serious they are even taking this investigation, I would assume. But on the other hand, it's anything like the United States A lot of times they do keep things close to the best when it's an open investigation, so I get that too.
Speaker 1:So that's exactly what they think and Lucy's mother, jane, ends up hiring a private investigator to look for Lucy and the PI gets a lead when one of the hostesses at the club describes the man she last saw Lucy lead with and he gets a sketch artist to work with her and they get a sketch of the man. He shows the sketch around. That doesn't really have any luck. Her father and sister set up a hotline for people to call for leads and this does provoke a few leads. Several women that worked as hostesses in various clubs come forward saying they had been on a date with this Japanese man. He took them to dinner and then afterwards to his condo, which was on the seaside. He gave them each a drink and they were soon out with no recollection of what occurred that night. They all describe the same man, that he had different names when each of these women just dropped him.
Speaker 2:So does he have like some sort of date rape drug? Did any of them go and report this? I realize many don't, since they feel ashamed and probably feel like they can't prove anything, but maybe one of them did.
Speaker 1:Some of the girls had actually reported this to the police that nothing was ever done or looked into, to their knowledge. They can't even get on to looking into looses with all the people, that's true. So Tim goes to the police with this and they decide they will actually pull out those old reports of rape and maybe check into them. Now they also have Lord Chancellor Thierry Irvine, which is the highest ranking minister in England he outranks even the prime minister assisting them. He also was an attorney and at one time taught law. So he informs the Japanese authorities that tracing Lucy's last call is not technically illegal and they do finally trace that call.
Speaker 2:I don't want to state the obvious, but laws in England and laws in Japan are not the same. So how you get someone from another country to interpret your law and then convince you that it's fine to do this, I guess he's a very persuasive person. He's got that attorney charm.
Speaker 1:I guess, and I need this meeting to find everyone on trial. But thank God he was good at his job, because this led them to Joji Urbara. Who is this guy anyway? So his birth name was Kim Sung Jong and he was born in 1952, and he's actually Korean, and his parents started out very poor. His father was a taxi driver but saved money by his own taxis until he owned a whole fleet of them. He then used the money to invest what we call here in America casinos, and I don't know how long all this took him, but by the time Joji was 15, he was enrolled in prep school. His parents bought home a home in Tokyo, complete with a maid. He studied law in Tokyo, in politics at Keel University, and then, in 1969, his father passed away while in Hong Kong under suspicious circumstance. It was all I was able to find out, and not the actual cause of death either.
Speaker 3:Hi. I'm Ashley, a true crime fanatic. I'm Dan, and I don't know anything about true crime. Together, we host Fuck that, a true crime podcast that covers cases that highlight important topics that are often overlooked, such as wrongful convictions, domestic violence and social inequities, sprinkled in with the occasional case with spooky themes. If you are looking for your next true crime fix, delivered candidly with a hint of sarcasm, you can listen and subscribe to bi-weekly episodes of Fuck that wherever you listen to your podcasts, and don't forget to give us a follow on Facebook and Twitter, at F that Pod and at F that underscore pod on Instagram.
Speaker 2:So was there anything as to why they thought it was suspicious?
Speaker 1:All I could find is that the authorities believe that he was in bed with some underworld businessmen with the casinos, and I have to say they think some bad businesses still stay far longer something to that effect. So this left Joji and his two brothers very well off. This is when he changes his name and moves to Japan. Joji invested the well in real estate and he already thought he did At one point. His assets were estimated at $38 million US dollars. He'd make good money and he spent it even better and this put him in debt and this mother had to bail him out at one point. But don't worry, he got to keep all of his fancy cars and assets. I'll say God, I was very concerned.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you were.
Speaker 1:So they arrest Joji and he admits to nothing. The police searched his home and they hit pay art. They found tons of video tapes that Joji has made over the course of 18 years. This is a sweet home videos we're talking about either. This is some raping unconscious women. If the women begin to act as if they're coming to he had a rag there with horror form he would pop them back out again. They find a huge amount of pharmaceutical drugs in horror form. The police impute the tapes and find there over 200 women that he had videoed, one being Cardia Ridge White. Not only that, he has journals with over 200 women where he describes the rapes, and by Cardia he also left himself a note that he had used too much chloroform.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is giving me like Russell Williams vibes, maybe because we did an episode on him recently. Maybe it's the serial rapist in, but you don't keep damning evidence against you, so I don't know, yeah, that's weird.
Speaker 1:So they probably didn't listen to enough true crime podcasts, as my guess. Well, of course they didn't, since this wasn't a thing then, but I mean, if they had they didn't have time anyway.
Speaker 2:They were too busy committing crimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. So going back to Carita, we talked about the fact that the hospital wouldn't share anything about the autopsy and of course they can't resume her body because of course she was pre-mated but for whatever reason they had kept a sample of her liver. That seems a little sketch, to be honest. Yeah, it totally does. Thankfully they did this because they have her liver tested and it shows traces of chloroform. So they also review all these videos and had hoped well, that's probably that choice of words but as soon as they would see Luciana film. But after reviewing them all, she's not on any of these video tapes. And I just want to say I'm really sorry for whoever had to watch all the videos. They didn't stop looking. They found a roll of film that has pictures of Luciana. They get his phone records and on July 2nd he had called several local hospitals. They also see in his computer history he had searched on how to dispose of a body and sapuric acid.
Speaker 2:Okay, that doesn't look good, but also, in all fairness, that's probably not. Search is probably much better than that.
Speaker 1:Right. So please know I'm not a serial killer, no matter how much, trying to commit murder or of any kind. But just in case someone looks at mine, yeah, it looks the same. So it took seven months. But they found a bathtub turned over, upside down on the beach near his condo. They flip it over and there are eight plastic bags which it does that reminds you of, but of Dexter, except they're not at the bottom of right. So when they open these bags, they found various body parts of Lucy. Not only has he dismembered her body and threw her out like trash, but he took her head and put it in a block and covered it in cement. They were able to confirm it was Lucy with her dental records.
Speaker 1:He ends up being charged with eight cases of rape, the murder of Cardian and Lucy. He please not guilty to all of them. Now I can't find out why he was only charged with eight rapes. I don't know if they may have you know what and passed the statute of limitations, but I don't even know if they have that in Japan, but if they had had it passed, this is just my speculation and it's no way fact. So it's not until April of 2007 that he's found guilty on all counts of rape and the murder of Cardia, but not of Lucy.
Speaker 1:They say they don't have a jury there, but a panel of three judges, and the judges felt like this was just circumstantial evidence of the murder of Lucy. So he did still receive a lot of cements. While knowing he's imprisoned for life may have been enough justice for some, it wasn't for Lucy's family. They hated the fact that he was acquitted on the murder charges and appealed the decision. So in December of 2008, he was found guilty of kidnapping and dismembering a body, as well as concealing the body, but not for the murder. They took this as somewhat of a win and they didn't appeal further.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have some thoughts, but first so we're gonna say he kidnapped her, we're gonna say that he cut her up, we're gonna say that he hid the body, but now, I don't think he murdered her, no, I don't think there's not enough evidence for that. But he definitely kidnapped her. He definitely cut her up after she was dead, definitely hid her body. That makes sense, yeah. But it's wild to me because, like, had the police taken any of these hostages allegations of rape seriously, maybe neither one of these women would have died and it could have saved so many others from being raped. It sounds like how a lot of people view, like a lot of police view sex workers here, though it gives me like the same vibe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it did me too, and this could have saved many. But I do want to say that there are a lot convicted of rape, or if you were convicted of rape there in Japan, you may have only gotten two years for that, and this may not have been enough to stop him, but it would have been enough to at least hopefully slow him down.
Speaker 2:Let's hope so, but at least now he is stopped and imprisoned forever. True.
Speaker 1:We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers.
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