Murder Case Ends Blocks From Where It Began in LA

Escorted by Los Angeles police, Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, a Japanese businessman accused of arranging the...

Escorted by Los Angeles police, Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, a Japanese businessman accused of arranging the murder of his wife in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, arrives at Los Angeles International Airport after being extradited from Saipan early Friday, Oct. 10, 2008.

(Reed Saxon/AP Photo)

A strange cold case murder story that stretched halfway around the globe and back over a span of nearly 30 years ended this weekend a few blocks from where it began, with the shocking suicide of Japanese businessman Kazuyoshi Miura in a downtown jail cell.

"None of this makes any sense," attorney Mark Geragos, who was representing Miura, said Saturday. "He was extremely engaged in his defense. He was giving us advice and input. He wanted to fight this."

Geragos said Miura, 61, maintained to the end that he had nothing to do with the death of his 28-year-old wife, Kazumi, in 1981. Miura battled extradition to the United States this year but finally agreed to come back and face trial on a charge of conspiracy to murder his long-dead wife.

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His suicide, in which police said he hanged himself with a piece of his shirt in his jail cell, was the last bizarre twist in a case that had many. The story became a sensation in Japan, where it was known as "the Japanese O.J. case," and hordes of Japanese journalists had flocked to Los Angeles for the impending trial.

The case, which inspired an episode of TV's "Law & Order," began in a downtown Los Angeles parking garage where, on Nov. 18, 1981, Miura reported that he and his wife were shot by unknown assailants after a day of sightseeing. The incident made headlines after Miura called a news conference from his hospital bed to denounce Los Angeles as a violent city for tourists. He portrayed himself and his wife as innocent victims.

The city, which was preparing for the 1984 Summer Olympics at the time, was sensitive to the accusations, and police vowed to find the killers. The police chief later said he suspected Miura from the outset.

Miura was shot in the leg and recovered, but his wife, who was shot in the head, lingered in a coma for a year. He eventually took her back to Tokyo, where she died.

In 1984, suspicion fell on Miura after Japanese media reported he had collected about $1.4 million in life insurance on his wife.