In all of the ensuing murders, Nishikawa, pretending to be a customer, entered snack bars and locked the door behind him if he was left alone with the female employees. Almost all of them (except the Takahashi killing) were committed at night. When the bodies were discovered, it was noted that the neon lights of all four bars had been turned off, and that in three of them, the doors had been locked from the outside to simulate that they had closed early. According to an employee at a bar in Kyoto, Nishikawa would approach them and ask that they turn off the neon lights and lock the door, as he and several supposed friends who wanted to browse the premises without being disturbed by others.
