Link to The SUN - Head dangles from bridge
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok,
February 23 2008
NB Corrections update and comments at end of this story
Police in Thailand are trying to identify a western man made out to look like ‘a heart broken tourist’ whose decapitated head was placed in a plastic bag and left dangling 25 ft below a railing from the city’s showpiece bridge.
Detectives were forced to admit that the death was not self inflicted, despite a clumsy attempt to etch a suicide note on the walkway railing of the gold painted 1.5 mile long Rama VIII suspension bridge in Bangkok at the spot from which the head was suspended.
The note read: ‘Cath, I want but I can not. I came to Bangkok to be you’, and suggested the author may have been a foreign tourist who was jilted in love. But police do not believe the message on the railing.
The jilted English suggests it was written by someone who did not have English as a first language, and was most likely Thai because of the grammatical construction. Police say it could not have been written willingly by the victim.
In Thai a person would literally say ‘I want but can not’. The word ‘have’ is assumed.
Police Colonel Atcharat Heamathanon said: “The case has interested the most senior police here.
“This looks much more like a mafia, or drug related killing. It’s not a suicide. The victim just has been made out to look like a heart-broken tourist”
In a desperate attempt to identify the man Thai police asked newspapers to publish a photograph of the man’s face. Early today millions of Thais woke up to find the decapitated head on the front pages of their newspapers.
The man is Caucasian in his 40’s with close cropped greyish hair. Police are also contacting all western Embassies. The man’s corpse was was found in the river later.
Most foreigners murdered in Thailand are killed because of business dealings which have turned bad. Attacks on tourists are usually opportunistic or prompted by ‘loss of face’.
Last week a 34-yr-old Canadian male model turned property developer was assassinated by two gunmen on the holiday island of Phuket, who pumped seven bullets into him. Francis (Frank) DeGionanni, from Quebec, was suing his property business partner for £400,000 through the Thai courts.
The most famous bridge hanging was that of Roberto Calvi, ‘God’s banker’ whose body was suspended from Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. But five people were acquitted in Rome of his murder.
Link: http://www.matichon.co.th/khaosod/
Corrections/Updates
Once the forensic investigators had examined the body and head of the victim, their evidence contradicted statements from several Thai police officers, including the one in this story. Suicide, they said, was after all the most likely cause. Further they also identified the man as Maurizio Tosadori from Italy who was down on his luck in Thailand and staying in a guest house in Bangkok’s Samsen Road.
“People Lie”!!! “Believe the Science” unless the science comes from a Thai ME (Medical Examiner)!!!
Truth and real justice is a joke in Thailand. Time to change “LOS” (land of smiles” to “LOL” (land of lies).
I’m told, by my Thai wife, that Thais lie to save face. I would think living ones life correctly would leave no reason to lie.
AS for the Thai police and the countries political system, I divide what they say in half and discard both halves! Pretty much what I’m doing, in the US, since Obama lied his way into the highest office in the land! I hunger for a land with true moral fiber!
What a complete load of crap. You really don’t have a clue do you?
Ref: Spencer Barclay. Well I could have put it more politely myself. But,yes, the original story which was what police said at the time was completely different to what forensics say is the reality. Moreover the initial pictures and claim that the head was in a plastic bag seemed to support the police view.
I usually advise caution on local police statements. Perhaps I should have followed my own advice here. But the wire services and Thai national papers were also at fault. In the absence of any contradiction this story went out as is.
Another case for letting forensics take a leading role in police cases, prior to police conjecture.
I am happy to make the correction. Have a nice day Spencer
Jai Yen Yen! Just remember that there isn’t a single competitive activity here at which a farang can win except making a complete fool of himself. If that doesn’t suit your ego, you’re in the wrong place! In which case, get the hell out of the place while you can still afford it. Mauricio obviously didn’t. RIP!
In the wrong place: No probs. Its happened before and will, sure as the lord made toffee apples, happen again.
I’m also wondering where that land of moral fiber might be. The Land of Toffee Apples, probably
I don’t thinks its where they spell fibre - fiber
Ive seen two pictures - one clearly shows the head INSIDE a bag hanging from a bridge with uniformed people bringing the mystery item up.
The other pictures shows a head and a bag (or cloth) swinging from the rope but the head clearly outside of the bag.
Strange indeed. If the head was in the bag - and still swinging, why would the paramedics be there, why take photos of the scene? Its not strange seeing an object hanging from a bridge - so how did they know it was a head? Why call the police? Perhaps they thought it a bomb - in which case why stand there taking pictures?
I’d say that the police didn’t really have any motivation to say it was murder, if they really didn’t believe it was. What’s to gain? An investigation they can never close? If it’s simple suicide why lie and say it’s murder…so they can look like fools when they don’t find any leads? (then again all the thai police I’ve had the pleasure of dealing like have looked like fools whether they have leads or not..the only leads they seem interested in are ones that may lead towards a few hundred baht.)
I’d say that after the medical examiner got involved, the officials decided that the amount of paperwork involved would be considerably less in the case of suicide than in the case of murder. Plus, all those interviews looking for witnesses, canvassing, and actually having to look for the perpetrators…never mind all that. It’s easier to just call it a suicide and take a nap. Case Closed!