Golden Triangle Digest #14: Walking in the Footsteps of Ghosts & Gangsters
Those who have come before and a tale for what's to come.
Dear expats and readers,
The main concern that I had when putting together the True Crime Thailand project was the risk that it entails.
I’m quite certain that anybody reading this dispatch is well-aware of the pitfalls of free and open reporting in the Land of Smiles — or not even reporting, but just simply penning a poor review of a business, hurting somebody’s feelings, or falling on the wrong side of any number of issues.
A few weeks back I spent a sleepless night reading up on the Phuketwan case. If you haven’t heard of it, you can start here with an interview or here with a brief self-summary or here with a brief write-up by our beloved Bangkok Post when the case wrapped up.
There’s a lot more to the case than those 3 links, of course — it’s a real rabbit hole and the further I dug, the more paranoid I became about the potential legal repercussions in doing any sort of investigative reporting. If you’re not gonna open the links, here’s a brief summary:
Two journalists down in Phuket, a foreigner and Thai, discovered a human trafficking operation that set up shop off the coast of Phuket. The pair tracked the operation for months and months — boating out to collect evidence of human trafficking abuse, rape, torture, and even murder; tracking the movement from the Phuket coast through southern Thailand’s jungles; and spilling their findings on the pages of Phuketwan, their little cozy Phuket publication that informed local expats and foreigners of restaurant specials and local goings ons.
The people being trafficked? The Rohingya — and Phuketwan was one of the first rags out there to cover those people that have become synonymous in some circles with refugee plight.
The journo’s crime? Republishing a Reuters article, which conjured a foul ire from the Royal Thai Navy. Wait, this wasn’t just a normal Reuters article. It had won a Pulitzer. For this they were facing defamation and Computer Crimes Act repercussions.
They were acquitted in 2016. But they were ordered to shut down Phuketwan and never so much as write again in Thailand.
Even with a busted aircon in the tropical oven of Thailand’s hot months, I could feel the chilling effect from that case in 2021.
A mysterious journo death almost 50 years old
Around the same time I was researching Phuketwan, I came across an article in Thai about a Thai journalist who wrote about drug syndicates in Bangkok.
He wrote about the wrong guy and ended up getting gunned down in front of his home when he was going out to his car. This happened sometime in the past 10 years, if memory serves me.
Sadly, I lost the link to that story — there are just so many links that I keep track of! — but I will track it down and share it when I find it.
In the search for that link, though, I had come across another journo death — this time American, this time in 1974, this time a knife murder.
The victim’s name? Claudia Ross, and you can read a fascinating write-up of the background of the murder case here.
She’s definitely going to get a proper True Crime Thailand treatment. It’s only right that we honor the ghosts that come before us.
The living giants
When I first started reading about Thailand, I started with the crime: I devoured Andrew Drummond’s columns, who I see as a living master of the genre. Boiler rooms and property investment scams — themes that seem to repeat even until today. The man was never afraid to put his neck on the line to get those stories.
But my fascination with Thailand, and with Thailand crime, pulled me to the north — this newsletter’s eponymous Golden Triangle — and it’s there that I found Bertil Lintner.
A gentle and brave Swede, he’s the real deal, living and traveling the region for many decades: collecting interviews with Khun Sa as if they were trinkets and tracking the history of meth production in Burma.
He still writes, of course: he put out this piece 3 days ago on the coup in Myanmar and the China relationship — a must read for anybody interested in the timely subject.
There are the stories, too
Nobody could write a word on crime in Thailand without a nod to the storytellers.
From The Big Mango by Jake Needham to Bangkok Rules by Harlan Wolff, the genre of Bangkok crime fiction — whether it’s noir, or thriller, or detective — is as comforting and delicious as a plate of pad kraprao moo sap khai dao.
To me, that dish is Thailand, and so are these stories — this country, especially as an expat, just wouldn’t be anything in my mind without them.
Whether they’re penned in a novel, or a tall tale shared from the bar stool, the lore of Thailand and the expat experience bestows untold riches to those willing to listen.
Just today I got an earful from a friend. I don’t want to give too many details, as it is still fresh and the story still unfolding, but it involved: 4am card games, ladyboy bars, bar girl assaulting him, an overseas sponsor who caught wind of the girl’s game, and a good laugh over a beer Chang.
I listened to it all as I sipped on a Coke Zero — my beverage of choice these days.
Lame, I know.
But it ensures I get these newsletters out in a timely manner and live to write another day.
At your service,
True Crime Thailand
One more thing
I am opening up my schedule for freelance writing engagements. If you have a business, or know anybody with a business, that needs a freelance writer — put me in touch. I’m confident that I can help.