A murder-mystery for the ages landed in the laps of Thailand's expats in 2016: a frozen chopped up body; passport forgery gangs; Patpong and Soi Cowboy frauds; and a man who claimed he was CIA.
Chuck lost his home to a printer, so he had no money. Jeanette Carlson was his wife, he had no kids. All the money that supported Cedco for years came from Bob Preger who was employee number 009 at Oracle, so richy rich. Bob Grundy, the dead cancer dude, is a former librarian in San Francisco and retired to go to Thailand for the ladies. He was super duper creepy.
II just found this story. You have done a thorough job but there is so much more I know now that I I can't believe you have not contacted me. First, there was no thorough autopsy - I was told the only identification was the T-Shirt. The family received a large urn filled with ashes delivered by the FBI who were still looking for Chuck at the end of 2019 .They came to the new homeowners housewhich makes this very suspicious. Chuck did not fly directly to Thailand. He borrowed or some said stole a car to get to LAX. He flew to Hawaii and stayed with a friend who told me he was trying to contact me - in fact, he was desperate to see me. Once she confirmed I was who I said I was she sent me a very long autobiography which he wrote while in Hawaii. Robert Preger who friends of mine know quite well seems to have quite a bit of responsibility 4 Chuck's downfall.Chuck was a fanticist, a salesman & an artist who should not have been managing cedco. He was insecure, treated his staff like friends & expanded way too quickly without a plan to rebrand the company to appeal to new audiences. As a person who worked closely with many troubled corporations & Institutions much bigger than CEDCO - I have to say I fixed them all but generally fired many unnecessary & non-productive staff. & sometimes the CEO had to go. I knew how Chuck would have handled things because I could read his mind and he could read mine. I would have immediately reduced the staff & hired fewer but better people. Chuck relied way too much on Preger who was I believe actually bad for Chuck. As far as the wife goes Chuck wanted to look respectable - his idea of what how a corporate President should act. The marriage was short lived but she walked with at least a nillion.
Chuck started conceptualizing CEDCO around 1982 but it was very small. I picked out the train he used in the original train calendar from about 6 he was considering.
So even though I was looking everywhere I could for Chuck I had no idea until a couple of people called to tell me he died. One of the biggest mistakes he made was hiring Terrance Hallinan Jr. That would have been the worst advice he received. Hallinan is a blustery person with a big name because of his wild family but he had little respect for judges & they were aware of that. As a consultant I would have wanted a Montgomery Street firm which successfully litigated these cases. You can pick them out in a crowd. They are serious, conservative & they look like they are trustworthy. They play golf with judges on the week-ends, think like judges and always end up with the best settlements.
Chuck & I were the Haight Ashbury version of Romeo & Juliet. We were both wierd but he tried to be appropriately corporate.. I could look very corporate & for the most part the billionaires & multi-millionaires I worked with liked me. I was comfortable around very rich people & suffered no fools.
This comfort came from within & the young rich riders who became my friends, I showed horses from age 10 until now. I was also an 8th generation Californian & my mother's family came to America in 1705 so I am comfortable with who I am. My parents hated Chuck not because he believed in magical, mystical ideas & theories but because he had been gay & according to them was not in my class. One of the reasons he started a company was to prove my father wrong. I didn't care what Chuck did I would have been happy with him in a log cabin in the mountains. Chuck had a big misconception about my religion. Because my father was from a family of Bohemian arists & Trotsky was my grandfather's cousin Chuck thought they wanted me to marry a Jew. I was not Jewish. I was Anglican & a student of the nhilist philosophers who appeared after Darwin so I am not Jewish I would have been proud to be a Jew but I couldn't lie about it.
Part of Chuck's madness & charm was he stuck to many ancient myths & believed he spoke with ghosts. I never questioned his mysticism nor would I ever try to change him. But he did have delusions of grandeur which would be horrible when you had to make tough decisions.
In summary because I am not putting everything out at this moment. Chuck & I were terribly abused & I had Stockholm syndrome, held prisoner almost by my first husband who beat me up regularly & had we gone on longer he would have killed me he was so jealous. I couldn't take it- left to live with Chuck & my father & mother came down & dragged ne out of his apartment at least 2 times They made me end it. But I couldn't - we were so Cathy & Heathcliff. Like Cathy I was a coward. I am miserable. I blame nyself entirely for Chuck's death - I wish he could have found before he went to Bangkok My heart is broken & it will never be mended. So many things I could reveal. If he is alive he's not running around F'ing Thai entertainers & he does not have children. He knew he was not capable of being a father. We did want children but Chuck fell in love with the fantasy. He did not have the patience to deal with the demands of fatherhood. I know he was not the corpse we saw in the paper. There is a woman I am suspicious of who lives in a remote place & I am suspicious he has not found me. Chuck if you see this call me on my burner phone & leave a message at 415-509-9307. I can help you still - I think you still have a case and perhaps the statute of limitations has run out. Keep working Brad - you have a lot more than when we last
Disturbingly I sat down and had a beer with this guy 2 weeks before he was arrested. He was very interested in my chemistry background. Thanks for your article. Very well done!
I have collected the Howard Fogg train calendars that were originally produced by Cedco for years. The first one was for 1992. I remember that there was a delay in releasing the 2006 calendar. I was told by someone at the time that CEDco was in bankruptcy and the calendars were being held in a warehouse until the case was settled. At some point they were released for sale. In 2007 the Fogg calendar was released by a company called Tidemark and they are still being released today. I think they produce several other former CEDco titles as well. The 2007 Tidemark Fogg calendar was identical to the 2006 CEDco Fogg calendar with the exception that the dimensions were more rectangular than the square shaped CEDco calendars. I had always assumed Ditlefsen was behind the Tidemark calendars until I read your article yesterday. Wow, what a story! I also can't believe I missed the 2016 Trains magazine article about the body discovered in Thailand assumed to to be Ditlefsen.
I found your blog when I googled Charles Ditlefsen, an old client (haircuts), my first astrologer, a casual date or two and the officiant at my wedding 41 years ago. I also love true crime and I'm fascinated with the story. I am searching my storage for the wedding album to see if there are any pictures that might help (don't hold your breath) and I don't think I can add anything to your research except to confirm his height of about 6'2" from my memory. He was a client from about 1976 through about 1982 and we dated in 1977. I remember him living in the East Bay and he had a fabulous old restored car that he used regularly. He did astrology charts for me and my husband and married us in 1980. Charles gave us train calendars and I might still have one somewhere. Our paths drifted after about 1982. I sincerely hope he is alive somewhere enjoying himself - he was a really nice guy.
Great research! I have two other suggestions. A few years back an American was shot dead by another American in a restaurant in Chiang Mai. The shooter had a murky past just like this La Fon character. I never really read a good explanation for that one and I don't think the shooter got much if anything in the way of punishment.
The other case is also a Chiang Mai story. A charismatic cult-like guy build a huge place up in Chiang Mai and ended up getting shot by a lover who allegedly grabbed the gun he was threatening her with. She got a few years and that was it. That was a very bizarre case as well.
One thing about people being in prison here. I would never believe it for sure until you can verify it by visiting them in the prison.
Chuck lost his home to a printer, so he had no money. Jeanette Carlson was his wife, he had no kids. All the money that supported Cedco for years came from Bob Preger who was employee number 009 at Oracle, so richy rich. Bob Grundy, the dead cancer dude, is a former librarian in San Francisco and retired to go to Thailand for the ladies. He was super duper creepy.
II just found this story. You have done a thorough job but there is so much more I know now that I I can't believe you have not contacted me. First, there was no thorough autopsy - I was told the only identification was the T-Shirt. The family received a large urn filled with ashes delivered by the FBI who were still looking for Chuck at the end of 2019 .They came to the new homeowners housewhich makes this very suspicious. Chuck did not fly directly to Thailand. He borrowed or some said stole a car to get to LAX. He flew to Hawaii and stayed with a friend who told me he was trying to contact me - in fact, he was desperate to see me. Once she confirmed I was who I said I was she sent me a very long autobiography which he wrote while in Hawaii. Robert Preger who friends of mine know quite well seems to have quite a bit of responsibility 4 Chuck's downfall.Chuck was a fanticist, a salesman & an artist who should not have been managing cedco. He was insecure, treated his staff like friends & expanded way too quickly without a plan to rebrand the company to appeal to new audiences. As a person who worked closely with many troubled corporations & Institutions much bigger than CEDCO - I have to say I fixed them all but generally fired many unnecessary & non-productive staff. & sometimes the CEO had to go. I knew how Chuck would have handled things because I could read his mind and he could read mine. I would have immediately reduced the staff & hired fewer but better people. Chuck relied way too much on Preger who was I believe actually bad for Chuck. As far as the wife goes Chuck wanted to look respectable - his idea of what how a corporate President should act. The marriage was short lived but she walked with at least a nillion.
Chuck started conceptualizing CEDCO around 1982 but it was very small. I picked out the train he used in the original train calendar from about 6 he was considering.
So even though I was looking everywhere I could for Chuck I had no idea until a couple of people called to tell me he died. One of the biggest mistakes he made was hiring Terrance Hallinan Jr. That would have been the worst advice he received. Hallinan is a blustery person with a big name because of his wild family but he had little respect for judges & they were aware of that. As a consultant I would have wanted a Montgomery Street firm which successfully litigated these cases. You can pick them out in a crowd. They are serious, conservative & they look like they are trustworthy. They play golf with judges on the week-ends, think like judges and always end up with the best settlements.
Chuck & I were the Haight Ashbury version of Romeo & Juliet. We were both wierd but he tried to be appropriately corporate.. I could look very corporate & for the most part the billionaires & multi-millionaires I worked with liked me. I was comfortable around very rich people & suffered no fools.
This comfort came from within & the young rich riders who became my friends, I showed horses from age 10 until now. I was also an 8th generation Californian & my mother's family came to America in 1705 so I am comfortable with who I am. My parents hated Chuck not because he believed in magical, mystical ideas & theories but because he had been gay & according to them was not in my class. One of the reasons he started a company was to prove my father wrong. I didn't care what Chuck did I would have been happy with him in a log cabin in the mountains. Chuck had a big misconception about my religion. Because my father was from a family of Bohemian arists & Trotsky was my grandfather's cousin Chuck thought they wanted me to marry a Jew. I was not Jewish. I was Anglican & a student of the nhilist philosophers who appeared after Darwin so I am not Jewish I would have been proud to be a Jew but I couldn't lie about it.
Part of Chuck's madness & charm was he stuck to many ancient myths & believed he spoke with ghosts. I never questioned his mysticism nor would I ever try to change him. But he did have delusions of grandeur which would be horrible when you had to make tough decisions.
In summary because I am not putting everything out at this moment. Chuck & I were terribly abused & I had Stockholm syndrome, held prisoner almost by my first husband who beat me up regularly & had we gone on longer he would have killed me he was so jealous. I couldn't take it- left to live with Chuck & my father & mother came down & dragged ne out of his apartment at least 2 times They made me end it. But I couldn't - we were so Cathy & Heathcliff. Like Cathy I was a coward. I am miserable. I blame nyself entirely for Chuck's death - I wish he could have found before he went to Bangkok My heart is broken & it will never be mended. So many things I could reveal. If he is alive he's not running around F'ing Thai entertainers & he does not have children. He knew he was not capable of being a father. We did want children but Chuck fell in love with the fantasy. He did not have the patience to deal with the demands of fatherhood. I know he was not the corpse we saw in the paper. There is a woman I am suspicious of who lives in a remote place & I am suspicious he has not found me. Chuck if you see this call me on my burner phone & leave a message at 415-509-9307. I can help you still - I think you still have a case and perhaps the statute of limitations has run out. Keep working Brad - you have a lot more than when we last
Disturbingly I sat down and had a beer with this guy 2 weeks before he was arrested. He was very interested in my chemistry background. Thanks for your article. Very well done!
I have collected the Howard Fogg train calendars that were originally produced by Cedco for years. The first one was for 1992. I remember that there was a delay in releasing the 2006 calendar. I was told by someone at the time that CEDco was in bankruptcy and the calendars were being held in a warehouse until the case was settled. At some point they were released for sale. In 2007 the Fogg calendar was released by a company called Tidemark and they are still being released today. I think they produce several other former CEDco titles as well. The 2007 Tidemark Fogg calendar was identical to the 2006 CEDco Fogg calendar with the exception that the dimensions were more rectangular than the square shaped CEDco calendars. I had always assumed Ditlefsen was behind the Tidemark calendars until I read your article yesterday. Wow, what a story! I also can't believe I missed the 2016 Trains magazine article about the body discovered in Thailand assumed to to be Ditlefsen.
I found your blog when I googled Charles Ditlefsen, an old client (haircuts), my first astrologer, a casual date or two and the officiant at my wedding 41 years ago. I also love true crime and I'm fascinated with the story. I am searching my storage for the wedding album to see if there are any pictures that might help (don't hold your breath) and I don't think I can add anything to your research except to confirm his height of about 6'2" from my memory. He was a client from about 1976 through about 1982 and we dated in 1977. I remember him living in the East Bay and he had a fabulous old restored car that he used regularly. He did astrology charts for me and my husband and married us in 1980. Charles gave us train calendars and I might still have one somewhere. Our paths drifted after about 1982. I sincerely hope he is alive somewhere enjoying himself - he was a really nice guy.
Good read, what a mystery, make's me wonder who the poor guy is that was discovered in the freezer, another victim of Thailand...
As in all crime, follow the money, in this case the $1.355M, what happened to it?
Great research! I have two other suggestions. A few years back an American was shot dead by another American in a restaurant in Chiang Mai. The shooter had a murky past just like this La Fon character. I never really read a good explanation for that one and I don't think the shooter got much if anything in the way of punishment.
The other case is also a Chiang Mai story. A charismatic cult-like guy build a huge place up in Chiang Mai and ended up getting shot by a lover who allegedly grabbed the gun he was threatening her with. She got a few years and that was it. That was a very bizarre case as well.
One thing about people being in prison here. I would never believe it for sure until you can verify it by visiting them in the prison.
This is a knock-your-socks-off well researched story–and it's well told, too! You reported the hell out of this cold case. More, more!