A Secret History of the Bangkok Hilton

by Chavoret Jaruboon

  The initial cut would not be enough to sever the head cleanly, however. So immediately afterwards, the first executioner rushed off to wash his face with holy water in the holy circle. Then the secondary executioner finished the job with a second cut and threw the head into the hole the execution team had prepared.

  The second executioner then rushed into the holy circle as the first executioner sprinkled him with holy water. The rest of the five-man team, who had been waiting in the holy circle, went out to untie the lifeless body and kick it into the hole.

  In some cases, the heads of the condemned would be put on tall sticks and displayed in public for further humiliation and to deter others. Sometimes the bodies of the condemned were cut into pieces and used to feed vultures and crows. Another account states that there were three sword wielders and that the condemned would be whipped 90 times before being beheaded.

  The modern legal system had been long introduced in Thailand before Prime Minister Phraya Pahonphonpayuhasena proposed the abolition of capital punishment to the cabinet in 1934. He was the second premier of Thailand after political reform replaced the absolute monarchy with a constitutional monarchy in 1932. His proposal caused widespread debate. Many people did not want capital punishment removed as they feared crime rates would increase.

  Eventually it was decided that capital punishment was necessary as a deterrent and the debate shifted to whether to use electrocution or shooting, as decapitation was inhumane.

  A lack of proper training meant that sometimes executioners missed the spot on the convict’s neck that could deliver sudden death and instead hit the head. These hackings resulted in horrific scenes of convicts painfully struggling between life and death. During their last hours, some convicts buckled under the immense fear of what might happen and they appeared to go insane.

  At the time, the government was also concerned at how expensive beheadings were, saying the fees paid to the executioners and the costs involved in performing rituals were too high. Shooting was chosen as it would reduce costs in the long run and eliminate the excessive rituals.

  The last person to be decapitated was a man named Boonpheng. His execution took place in 1931. Boonpheng was an orphan who was raised by his maternal grandparents. He grew up to be a charismatic but directionless young man.

  Although he seemed to have no aim in life, he was obsessed with sorcery. He studied magic and other superstitious practices with an undertaker at a Buddhist temple. Although he had no real prospects of success, his good looks won him many female admirers.

  The kind of magic he was studying usually was intended to produce negative outcomes, so his grandparents tried to discourage him from using it, but to no avail. When their pleas became too much for him, he moved to the Banglampoo area of Bangkok to start his own life. From then on, his reputation as a sorcerer spread quickly as he offered various services from performing a ritual to extend one’s life expectancy to making love charms. He attracted a lot of female followers. Some were seen visiting him at night before disappearing. It turned out that he would have sex with his victims before killing them. Then he chopped them into pieces, which he put into metal boxes and then dumped in a canal near his house.

  His last victim, a wealthy woman, met her demise in a different manner. Abandoned by her husband, she took comfort in his company and became his regular lover for a while before she fell pregnant with his child. She then demanded that Boonpheng take her as his wife publicly. For this, he decided to kill her.

  After murdering her and their unborn child, he went into hiding in Ayutthaya province where he became a monk. Later he resigned from the temple to marry another woman. Before he could become her husband, however, he was arrested and charged with killing seven women. The police had found seven boxes filled with human remains.

  His execution was held in public and there were many people there to witness it, though the woman he intended to marry did not show up nor any relatives.

  Reportedly, the executioner hacked at his neck with a sword but it didn’t get through. The executioner demanded, ‘Take off whatever protection you have.’ He found an amulet on his body, threw it away and resumed the proceedings. Witnesses said Boonpheng murmured something seconds before his head was severed. They assumed he was chanting magic in an attempt to save his own life but his magic didn’t stand a chance against the sword. This time the impact was fatal. His head fell off his shoulders as the audience let out screams. Blood gushed from his torso.

  His relatives showed up later to arrange his cremation. It is rumored that his back resisted the fire initially. His ashes were stored in a small stupa at Pasee Temple in Bangkok. A shrine was erected in his name and some people pay respects to him there even now. They believe his spirit remains in this world. It is strange to think that Boonpheng has been elevated from serial killer to an entity worthy of respect.

  The first person to be executed by machine gun at Bang Kwang Central Prison was Sawat Mahamad. His execution took place on September 11, 1935, for a crime perpetrated against the royal family.

  Opinions vary as to whether capital punishment is necessary or not. The relatives of a killer and those who have never lost a loved one to murder may say they are against the idea but the relatives of the victim may want a life for a life.

  One of the main arguments put forward by those in favour of such a penalty in Thailand is that if offenders are treated too leniently, the injured parties could feel aggrieved or even seek to take revenge personally. This reminds me of one case in particular where relatives of both the offender and the victim had a chance to voice their feelings.

  In February 1980, nine men gang-raped a young girl called Lumduan and then killed her. One of them was her own relative named Somkid, a police officer. Her mother Wern was distraught and couldn’t believe that her own relative could inflict such an unspeakable act on her daughter.

  In a newspaper interview, Wern said: ‘Honestly, if they would allow me to kill Somkid myself I would not hesitate to do so because I am so angry. And I want to kill them the same way they killed my daughter. My heart ached when I saw the bruises on her body. I want them to suffer the same way my daughter did. Shooting them is too easy. It doesn’t offer me an ounce of satisfaction.’

  It was quite a statement to hear from a mild-mannered, middle-aged woman dressed in a simple blouse and sarong. The crime shocked the nation and four of the nine men were sentenced to summary execution under the regime of the then military government. Wern worried, however, that the five who had been given lighter sentences would try to harm her later.

  On the other hand, Mee, Somkid’s adoptive mother, said the death penalty given to her son was justified because of the severity of the crime, though she couldn’t believe he could have done such a thing as it was so out of character.

  Execution by shooting remained in effect until October 19, 2003, when the then warden of Bang Kwang Central Prison Pittaya Sangkanakin held a press conference to announce that it would be replaced by lethal injection from that day onwards. Four Buddhist monks performed rituals on the two crosses where convicts had been put to death. I was there to hand over to the new team.

  I put the HK MP5 submachine gun into its box, looked at it for the last time, before closing the lid and putting a lock it, marking the end of execution by gun. I looked at a plate placed above the entrance of the execution room. It says ‘Place to End All Sorrow’ though it should be called the ‘death chamber’. The ceremony concluded with 319 balloons being set free to symbolise the emancipation of the souls of the condemned from the prison. Three of them were female, six of them were foreigners from Burma, Laos, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and the rest were Thai males. I had pulled the trigger on 55 of them.

  After execution by lethal injection was introduced, I decided to enter a monastery for 15 days in November 2003. There were three reasons for my decision. First, it was to fulfil a long o
verdue duty as a son to my parents. Every Thai man is expected to become a monk at least once in his life as a way to make merit on behalf of his parents and to show how grateful he is to them. I was 55 years old but had been distracted from this duty by the business of raising a family. Second, there was a mass ordination being organised in honour of His Majesty the King on the auspicious occasion of his birthday and the merit the monks made was also devoted to the beloved king. Third, it was my way to make merit for those I had wronged including the people I put to death or helped to put to death.

  My wife joked that, of all the men being ordained, I was the one who needed merit-making the most. She was concerned about my spiritual wellbeing. All in all, it is a beautiful tradition and it provided me with a break from the usual business of living. I didn’t feel truly comfortable as a monk but I was glad to complete another rite of passage of a Thai man.

  Early on the morning of December 12, 2003, eight of my fellow monks, who also had worked as prison guards, and I decided to perform a well-wishing ritual for the souls of executed prisoners at Bang Preak Tai Buddhist Temple, which shares a wall with Bang Kwang. We thought it would be a good idea since we were leaving the temple in few days to resume our jobs at Bang Kwang. Little did we know the first lethal injection in Thailand would be administrated that afternoon.

  That day marked a new chapter for the death penalty in Thailand. The Department of Corrections ordered Bang Kwang Central Prison to carry out an order to execute four men. Three of them were drug offenders and the other one had committed premeditated murder. At that time, there were about 6,700 inmates in Bang Kwang, 851 of them on death row and shackled.

  A guard on duty that day told to me later what had happened.

  ‘By 3pm, we had already overseen food being given to them and asked them to return to their cells,’ he said. ‘It was earlier than usual and this made them realise what was about to happen. Many of them lost their appetites. After the last of them was returned to his cell, we locked them in. We closed the main door of the building but didn’t lock it and this confirmed to them that at least one of them would walk out that door and never return.

  ‘The usual sound of them chatting and playing around was replaced by silence. About 4pm, the main door opened and revealed 12 prisoner escorts in black vests standing at the doorway. Three escorts per convict [is standard], so, it was four convicts to be put to death that day. I led the escorts to the cells where the four men were to be collected. We made it brisk. Four names were called and they obediently walked out of their cells. Some answered loud and clear showing readiness to “go”. Perhaps, they took comfort in knowing that they would suffer less than those who had preceded them.’

  The prisoners and their relatives didn’t have time to tham jai (prepare mentally) before the execution. No one knew it was going to happen as it was kept secret from everyone. Other prisoners on death row have to live with the fear that every day may be their last day.

  They were escorted to an office where more officials waited for them and were informed that their petitions for royal pardon from the king had been rejected. They signed their names to acknowledge their respective execution orders. Police from the Criminal Records Division and the prison’s records officer verified photographs and fingerprints of the four men before they were allowed to write their wills and letters.

  Panom Changthonglek, at 32 the youngest of them, made a long distance phone call to his mother who lived in a southern province. She wasn’t home so he left a message with his sister.

  ‘Please tell Mae that I’m being executed today,’ he said before he put down the phone. Executions are carried out without prior warning to prevent convicts from committing suicide or harming themselves in an attempt to have the execution postponed.

  They were offered a big last meal, which included some of the best-known Thai delicacies such as green curry and coconut soup with chicken. They didn’t touch the food but asked for water and cigarettes instead. They listened to a last sermon from a monk at the visiting area before being transported on golf cars to a gazebo where they were blindfolded. There they performed rituals to ask for forgiveness.

  In the execution room, two of them at a time were asked to lie down on separate beds. A heart rate monitor, showing their vital signs, faced the officers who were there to act as witnesses. Each was restrained at five points—legs, torso and arms—and stabbed with needles in the veins on the backs of both hands. Only one needle was connected to a long tube. The other needle is there in case the first doesn’t work. Three executioners were waiting to release three chemicals at the other end of the tubes in a separate room.

  Sodium pentothal was sent in first to sedate them. Pancuronium bromide was sent in next to relax their muscles. Potassium chloride was the last to go in to stop their hearts. The cost of the three chemicals used on each of them was only about 200 baht. The prison doctor was there to confirm their deaths and announce the time of death. The executions transpired without a hitch. Their bodies were kept in cold storage at minus 18 Celsius until the next morning when the prison doctor checked to confirm they were dead. Then the corpses were taken to Bang Preak Tai Temple through a small door the guards call the ‘ghost door’.

  After I retired, I had a feeling that more execution orders would be coming to Bang Kwang because drugs are rife in Thailand. That premonition came true when lethal injections were administered almost six years later to two drug offenders on August 24, 2009. They had been found to be in possession of more than 110,000 amphetamine tablets with intent to sell them. Their assets, which amounted to 73 items worth about 41 million baht, were confiscated.

  Although it is well known that the death penalty can be imposed for drug offences here, it seems drug dealers are not deterred. Arrests of major dealers feature regularly on the front pages of Thai newspapers. Some of them have connections with local dealers while some sell their wares to foreigners at tourist islands. They take their chances because they know that if they can get away with it, they will make the type of money could never get from working in honest jobs. No money can make up for a lifetime lost in prison, however.

  Drugs have ravaged our society. They destroy the addicts, who commit crimes to get the money to buy more, and those who are close to them. Hallucinating addicts have held innocent people hostage with knives to their throats.

  I think the death penalty will be in effect in Thailand for years to come. The notion that the introduction of lethal injection will serve as a stepping stone towards the abolition of death penalty is patently untrue, at least for now.

  Chapter 4

  Prison Visitors

  Bang Kwang prison is not a place for anyone with no real business there. The officials have their hands full as it is a seriously over-crowded and under-resourced facility, holding some of Thailand’s most dangerous men. Yet posters on Khao San Road advertising prison visits have made it an alternative ‘must-see’ destination for many western tourists, particularly young back-packers. It has now become part of the standard itinerary for a lot of visitors to Thailand. I can’t help but think that some drop into the prison simply in search of cheap thrills and so they can show their friends at home how adventurous they are by going into the Big Tiger.

  Although I have no doubt that most of the western inmates in Bang Kwang appreciate visitors from abroad, the motives behind the visits of these drop-in tourists have to be questioned. Putting it on a tourist map creates problems. It’s against regulations to allow drop-in visitors who know the inmates simply from posters. I’m sure no self-respecting guidebook in a western country would include an active high-security prison as an attraction.

  In a way, inmates are the forgotten underprivileged people. Many of the Asian prisoners come from poor backgrounds and are cut off by their families when they get into trouble. Foreign inmates are locked away in alien land. On top of that, the prison runs on an
inadequate budget, which is why there are many businesses, honest or not, inside.

  The conventional thought here is that inmates do not deserve help, and some prison guards assume female visitors are lonely souls who cannot get male attention on the outside and have to look for it in a prison. Yet some Thai people can look past that and give up their time to assist needy convicts. There are also a number of expatriates living in Thailand who visit inmates regularly. They really want to help them and to improve their living conditions and have more than proved themselves to the Thai authorities. The irony is that the much-feared Bang Kwang prison is where I have met the best kind of people as well as the worst.

  One group of prison visitors calls itself Jailbird. The founding members were volunteers appointed by the British Embassy in Bangkok and most of them are from the British Women’s Group. Although it is not a nice nickname, they don’t mind as they jokingly refer to themselves as old birds anyway. One such visitor, Gale Bailey, has become a good friend and we share a mutual love of the Beatles and have been out to see a Beatles tribute band. She is a visitor with single agenda: to help others.

  She says: ‘It is hard to imagine how one could build friendship with an inmate, isn’t it? It took me only one visit and I was hooked. Despite the unpleasant circumstances, we are simply good friends: the chaps, their families and us visitors. I enjoy talking to the chaps as they do to me. There is no mention of age differences nor is there any sexual aspect to our meetings at all. We air our problems to each other and have good laugh together just like friends anywhere do.

  ‘My husband jokes that they are a captive audience who can’t go anywhere so they have to deal with me. It proves that you can build friendships through honest conversation, even if you have to do it with Plexi-glass and bars between you and the other person.’