Article published on October 14th, 1984.

HEADLINE: EMPLOYEES, FAMILIES SEARCH STORES FOR TAINTED CANDY

About 3,000 people, employees of a Japanese candymaker and members of their families, will search stores across the country next week for seven boxes of poisoned candy believed to be on store shelves, a company official said today. Mitsuo Yamauchi, a spokesman for Morinaga's Osaka office, said 2,000 employees and 1,000 family members will participate in the search.

The extortionists, calling their group "The Monster With 21 Faces," announced last week they had planted 20 boxes of Morinaga candy with lethal doses of sodium cyanide in food stores. Thirteen of the boxes were found by police last Sunday and Monday, mainly in the Osaka area of western Japan. There have been no reports of anyone eating any of the poisoned candy.

Last month the extortionists sent a letter to the company's Osaka office, demanding the equivalent of $410,000. The letter contained 30 grams of sodium cyanide. Early this week they sent letters to major newspapers saying another 30 poisoned packages would be put on store shelves in 10 days.

They also launched a kidnapping, arson and extortion campaign against another major candymaker based in Osaka, Ezaki Glico, earlier this year. The National Police Agency today issued an emergency order to local police headquarters to strengthen patrols at supermarkets and department stores, a police spokesman said. Osaka police said about 6,000 policemen would watch 1,751 retail outlets in that area alone.

Meanwhile, police said 468,733 people had dialed a special telephone number over a 41-hour period to listen to tapes made when the group telephoned Glico and Morinaga to demand money. Police made the tapes public Thursday in the hopes that it would provide a lead to the identity of the culprits.

Their name, "The Man With 21 Faces," refers to a figure in a popular mystery series of the early 20th century. Police said 30 people who listened to the tapes had given use­ful information. The tapes carry the voices of a young woman and a child reading instructions for the delivery of extorted payments. Yamauchi said his company has laid off 450 workers and cut production by half as thousands of stores around the country removed Morinaga products from their shelves. He said his company may resort to street sales or door-to- door sales to compensate for losses from the ordeal. Morinaga Confectionery Company employs almost 3,000 people and had sales last year of about $500 million.