THE CASE OF VOLUNTEER 8

Abstract

In March 1973, a villager working for a logging concession in Northeastern Thailand was shot and killed under mysterious circumstances. The story did not make the news and would likely have been forgotten if not for another, more sensational murder-suicide a few weeks later. Working through news reports in the country's number one daily about these two crimes, this article brings to light the understudied terror and violence that plagued parts of rural Thai society preceding the mass protests against a corrupt military government in October 1973. At the same time, it analyzes how information about that violence became known, verified, and accepted as true to an urban audience in Bangkok. Tackling the issues of violence and information together, the author links the relatively abstract concepts of “knowledge production” and “justice” in a tangible case study, showing that the form that information takes and the technologies that produce it play a key role in determining its factuality. The author concludes that in Thai society today, historical truth and social justice emerge through a contingent process of documentation; without documents there is no historical knowledge and no justice.

Notes

^1. I adopt the phrase “hierarchy of credibility” from Ann Stoler in Stoler 1992. Stoler uses the phrase to describe how in colonial settings the accounts of white colonialists in a criminal case were more likely to have been accepted as true than that of local Malays or Chinese. The believability of information depended on its source, which was in turn based on ethnicity and class. Here I use the phrase to indicate that the believability of information also depends on the form it takes and the technology that produces it.

^2. Newspaper reports did not specify who was present at the shooting. Most of those questioned denied their presence. See Nai amphoe phoei ham jom ithiphon kon ying thing phuan O.S. [District chief reveals plea for (Chan's) life before volunteer's friend shot to death], Thai rat, 21 March 1973. Note:O.S. is short for asasamak, which means volunteer in Thai. Here it refers to civil defense volunteers. The newspaper often refers to Michai Phimphila, a key character of the story, as O.S. or O.S. 8, which I translate as Village Volunteer, Volunteer, or Volunteer 8, depending on the text of the newspaper story.

^3. On 6 April 1973, Thai rat reports eleven people present at the scene of the crime. On 16 April 1973, Thai rat obtains two photos taken the night of the crime and identifies thirty-eight people from those photos. On other days, the paper reports between ten and twenty people present.

^4. Phoei het O.S. kha luk mia 8 sop wan phawa jom ithiphon bang khap riak phuan pai ying thing [Revealed in multiple murder of Village Volunteer: Fear of influential figure forces Volunteer to lead his friend (Chan) to death], Thai rat, 9 March 1973.

^5. Buang lang O.S. kha mu luk mia 8 sop thuk ithiphon mai thuan bip. R.M.T. rut sop phuan thuk ying thing [Pressure from illegal logging syndicate causes Volunteer to murder family. Minister orders quick investigation into shooting death of Volunteer's friend], Thai rat, 8 March 1973.

^6. Nai amphoe phoei ham jom ithiphon kon ying thing phuan O.S. [District chief reveals plea for (Chan's) life before Volunteer's friend shot to death], Thai rat, 21 March 1973.

^7. Phoei het O.S. kha luk mia 8 sop wan phawa jom ithiphon bang khap riak phuan pai ying thing [Revealed in multiple murder of Village Volunteer: Fear of influential figure forces Volunteer to lead his friend (Chan) to death], Thai rat, 9 March 1973.

^8. Quote from Police Major General Thawi Botabut in Thai rat 9 March 1973.

^9. Tamruat sanoe yaiy phu mi ithiphon khadi kha phuan O.S. 8 sop [Police suggest moving influential figures in the case of the murder of Volunteer 8's friend], Thai rat, 25 March 1973.

^10. Phoei het O.S. kha luk mia 8 sop wan phawa jom ithiphon bang khap riak phuan pai ying thing [Revealed in multiple murder of Village Volunteer: Fear of influential figure forces Volunteer to lead his friend (Chan) to death], Thai rat, 9 March 1973.

^11. Jao pho mai thuan hai pit pak phayan khadi ying thing phuanO.S. 8 sop. R.M.Ch. sang khajat ithiphon duan [Godfather of illegal logging syndicate orders witnesses mouths shut in the case of the murder of Volunteer 8's friend. Assistant Minister in Ministry of Agriculture orders speedy suppression of syndicate], Thai rat, 10 March 1973.

^12. Ying luk mia taimu7 sop sang han tua eng tai mi ni sin mak klum jai [Family of 7 dies in multiple shooting; Father then kills self; Heavy debt and depression the cause], Thai rat, 7 March 1973.

^13. McCargo 2000, 2.

^14. Circulation data from World Association of Newspapers: www.wan-press.org/article2825.html; accessed 5 May 2008. McCargo, writing in the late 1990s, gives much lower circulation numbers. He gives circulation figures for the 1990s as follows: Thai rat, 700,000; Daily News, 400,000; Khao sot, 160,000; and Matichon, 120,000. The New York Time's circulation, as with that of most papers in the United States, has been in decline for several years and is now just under 1 million copies per day. This, however, does not include the number of hits the paper's website receives.

^15. Sukanya 1983, 160.

^16. From hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/cty/cty_f_THA.html; accessed 5 May 2008.

^17. Data from Zimmerman 1931 and Paintal 2006.

^18. McCargo 2000, 30, 41. He uses Thai rat's campaign against the Chuan Leekphai government, fueled by the publisher's personal dislike for Chuan, in the late 1990s as an example.

^19. This was said at the funeral for one of Ari's reporters who had been assassinated by the police in retaliation for his critical stories about the government under Phibun Songkram and the police under Phao Sriyanond. Ari himself was killed by the police in 1953 outside Bangkok. See Khatha Dam 1961, frontispiece.

^20. McCargo 2000, 2–3.

^21. Tamruat yai yammupun “Seng” jamnon saraphap poei nathi ying thing talot. Hai nayok chi khat khadi wan ni [Top cop says gunman Seng has no option but to confess and reveals all about the moment of shooting. Prime minister asked to decide case today], Thai rat, 10 April 1973. This story may not be altogether impossible, however, because other witnesses later corroborated the presence of a plane or helicopter at the scene of the murder.

^22. Phoei het O.S. kha luk mia 8 sop wan phawa jom ithiphon bang khap riak phuan pai ying thing [Revealed in multiple murder of Village Volunteer: Fear of influential figure forces Volunteer to lead his friend (Chan) to death], Thai rat, 9 March 1973.

^23. Rong O.T.R. yam khadi kha phuanO.S. 8 sop mai tong wan ithiphon [Deputy director general of police stresses the case of the murder of Volunteer 8's friend need not fear syndicate], Thai rat, 11 April 1973.

^24. Nai amphoe phoei ham jom ithiphon kon ying thing phuan O.S. [District chief reveals plea for (Chan's) life before volunteer's friend shot to death], Thai rat, 21 March 1973.

^25. I define technology here broadly as physical objects, or tools, employed to generate information or to make an intervention on the world, e.g., cameras, print presses, paper, and TVs.

^26. See Valverde 2003.

^27. The photo appears in Thai rat on 17 April 1973.

^28. Sanoe yai duan kharachakan radap sung khadi ying thing roi et. Triam ja jap khrang yai [Proposal to reassign high ranking officials in case of Roi Et shooting death. Preparing to make sweeping arrests], Thai rat, 17 April 1973.

^29. Ibid.

^30. Klum ithiphon khuk kham khana sop khadi kha phuan O.S. 8 sop [Syndicate intimidates investigating officers in shooting death of Volunteer 8's friend], Thai rat, 24 March 1973.

^31. Tamruat yai yammupun “Seng” jamnon saraphap poei nathi ying thing talot. Hai nayok chi khat khadi wan ni [Top cop says gunman Seng has no option but to confess and reveals all about the moment of shooting. Prime Minister asked to decide case today], Thai rat, 10 April 1973.

^32. De la Loubere 1969, 86.

^33. Bowring 1969, 138.

^34. Bock 1985 (1884), 234–36.

^35. The Phra ayakan laksana phisut (Laws related to proofs) provides detailed instructions on how to conduct an ordeal by fire and by water.

^36. Jao Phraya Surasakmontri 1961, 176; and Phirasak 2008, 195.

^37. The exact phrase is khao khuap na ja sanoe to pai [updated news to be presented].

^38. Moore 1992, 30.

^39. Lak inthaphat, sections 30–31. The Law of the Three Seals is the name for the collected laws of the Siam that date back to the Ayutthaya period. The version that exists today is one that was compiled and revised during the early Bangkok period (c. 1782–present).

^40. Section 44 of the Lakasana phayan says that tralakan should write out a witness's testimony and have the witness either accept or reject the written account. Section 32 of the Lak inthaphat also refers to the writing down of testimony. See Anonymous 1963 (Kotmai).

^41. Khajon 1983, 1.

^42. Ibid., 3.

^43. Ho Samut Haeng Chat 1970.

^44. Piyakanit 1988, 83.

^45. Ibid., 127.

^46. Anonymous 1963 (Chiwit). No page numbers.

^47. Freeman 1997, 58, 60. He adds that the Daily Mail was not alone in this regard. Advertisements filled the front pages of many papers, including Sayam ratsadon and Sri krung, through the 1920s.

^48. Anonymous 1963 (Chiwit). No page numbers.

^49. Freeman 2007, 107.

^50. Ibid., 87.

^51. See Davis 1983.

^52. Stoler 1992, 153.

^53. The account that follows is summarized from Khon hae du tham phaen [People flock to see reenactment], Thai rat, 29 April 1973.

^54. This statement is not meant as rhetorical flourish. In an interview conducted on 14 March 2011 with a former head of the Central Investigation Department (kong sorp suan klang), it was stated that the police sometimes try to make the suspect smile into the camera to indicate that that suspect has voluntarily agreed to participate in the reenactment. It has been suggested to me also that some photographers will occasionally spice up a crime scene, say by hiking up the skirt on a female murder victim, before taking the picture.

^55. The year Thai police began implementing reenactments is usually given as 1929. See for example Pattaravit 2007, 103. An interview of retired police officers by Erika Fry of the Bangkok Post in 2008 also cites 1929 as the year the practice was introduced to Thailand. The practice itself is said to have been invented by Major General Sir Llewellyn W. Atcherley, inspector with the Royal British Police during the early 1900s. His system was then revised by August Vollmer, chief of police for Berkeley, Calif., during the late 1910s.

^56. Pattaravit 2007, 107–8. Emphasis added.

^57. Interview with former head of the Central Investigation Division on 14 March 2011. See also Pattaravit 2007, 102–6.

^58. Mnookin and West 2001, 389.

^59. On the “hazard,” or the potential for things to go wrong, associated with rituals, see Keane 1997.With reenactments things do sometimes go wrong in that people watching them will attack and injure or kill a suspect as he demonstrates his crime.

^60. Interview with retired Criminal Court judge on 25 November 2010 and with former head of Central Investigation Department on 14 March 2011. Study by Aphisak and Jutharat 2010.

^61. Mnookin 1998, 8.

^62. The first handheld cameras were called detective cameras because they were designed to be hidden (e.g., under hats or in lapels) and the popularity of these machines coincided with the processing technology and mail-in services of Eastman Kodak. See Gunning 1999, 47.

^63. Tagg 1988, 60.

^64. Mnookin 1998, 8.

^65. Ibid., 11.

^66. Cole 2001, 20.

^67. In 1886, the head of the New York Police Department's detective bureau published a coffee-table book filled with photographs of criminals. Ibid, 21–22.

^68. Mnookin 1998, 22–23.

^69. Tagg 1988, 5.

^70. Anek 2005, 15.

^71. Ibid., 15.

^72. Ibid. King Mongkut, for example, had photos of himself and his queen taken and sent as postcards to various heads of state in Europe.

^73. Sayam nikon, 4 March 1949.

^74. Barker 1999, 271.

^75. James Siegel in Siegel 1998 suggests the state demonstrates through violence that it, not the criminal, has the power over death.

^76. Barker 1999, 298.

^77. In the case of Volunteer 8, the first few days of reporting feature pictures of Michai, his wife, and his chidren (see Thai rat on 9, 10, and 12 March 1973).

^78. Three years later, on 6 October 1976, protestors would again take to the streets near Thammasat University. The military, along with right-wing para-military groups, would crush the movement with excessive, deadly force much more horrifying and brutal than in 1973.

^79. Many criminal cases, especially those that involved what was perceived to be national security risks (i.e., anything involving communism), were tried in military courts under the emergency decree that was in effect in many parts of the northeast during the early 1970s. See Streckfuss 2011, 127.

^80. Sang prahan khadi roi et yan phu wa ru mu pun kha thing kam mae khrai sang mung ying wa [Court issues death penalty in Roi Et shooting death. Asserts governor knew identity of killer; Governor curses gunman's mother, “Who told you to shoot the bastard?”], Thai rat, 2 October 1973; and Railaiat kham phiphaksa khadi kha khayao khwan thi roi et. Tamruat triam jap krao rud! Rabu kharachakan nap sip laloei mua ru hen ying thing [Details of court decision in case that shook Roi Et; Police prepare for sweeping arrests! Failure to report shooting after witnessing death; Ten officials named], Thai rat, 3 October 1973.

^81. Railaiat kham phiphaksa khadi kha khayao khwan thi roi et; Tamruat triam jap krao rut; Rabu kharachakan nap sip laloei mua ru hen ying thing [Details of court decision in case that shook Roi Et; Police prepare for sweeping arrests! Failure to report shooting after witnessing death; Ten officials named], Thai rat, 3 October 1973.

^82. The rules were issued by then inspector general of police A.J.A. Jardine.

^83. Wisut 2000, 76–78, 133.

^84. Nayok reng sasang khadi roi et [Prime minister demands resolution in Roi Et case] Thai rat, 21 April 1973.

^85. Khon khap rot khon sop chae khadi roi et. Phop krap luat nai rot [Driver of vehicle used to dumpbody provides revelation in Roi Et case. Traces of blood found], Thai rat, 25 April 1973.