Live Action’s ‘Conceiving Crime’ podcast: ‘The Demon Midwife’ tells of an unlikely criminal mastermind

In the first installment of Live Action’s new “Conceiving Crime” podcast, hosted by Sami Parker, a shocking and horrifying story of true crime at a maternity home is uncovered in the episode, “The Demon Midwife.” In late 1940s Tokyo, Japan, a police officer stopped a man leaving a maternity home carrying a suspicious package on the back of his bicycle. The contents of that package led to a disturbing revelation.

As the episode states, “Maternity homes, places for low-income women to give birth and have their children cared for by professional midwives, were a common institution in 1940s Japan. The Kotobuki Home was one of dozens in Tokyo alone. It had been established during the Second World War and was owned and operated by a married couple” – a retired police constable and his wife, who was a respected midwife in the area.

“When pressed by the police,” the podcast notes, the man with the package “was forced to admit the grim truth – he had been called to pick up the body of an infant that had died in the home and take it to his mortuary business, where he would cremate it the next day. The baby was wrapped in a knit shirt and diaper.” When questioned further, the man admitted that “this was the fifth deceased baby he had picked up from the maternity home–that day.”

READ: ‘Conceiving Crime’ podcast to highlight shocking stories about ‘all things human reproduction’

Listen to the entire episode below.

The Demon Midwife | Conceiving Crime Podcast

If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more true crime stories like it, subscribe for updates on ConceivingCrimePodcast.com, and rate the podcast at Amazon Music, Apple, Castbox, iHeartRadio, PodBean, and Spotify. Readers can also find more information about the podcast on social media platforms X, Instagram, and YouTube.