Jim Thompson was an American who formed the Thai Silk Company in 1948 in Bangkok, Thailand. He is often referred to as the Thai silk king.
Thompson was born in 1906 at Delaware in the USA. After initially trying to avoid the draft for WWII he became an OSS operative. The OSS being the forerunner of the CIA. His undercover work took him to many war time theatres but eventually he ended up in Bangkok at the end of WWII as OSS head of station.
Thompson fell in love with Thailand and decided he wanted to move to the Thai capital. He also realised that post war Thailand would provide many business opportunities and might well become a tourist destination. With the latter in mind he and a group of other businessmen acquired The Oriental Hotel in Bangkok and set about refurbishing it.
However it wasn’t long before Thompson “discovered,” Thai silk. Realising the potential of the product, Thompson went about forming The Thai Silk Company. A group of foreign and Thai investors formed the new company which organised and developed the cottage based industry where workers produced the woven product in their homes.
During his stay in Thailand Thompson had a home built in Bangkok at the side of a canal in an area where the Thai silk weavers lived. Part of the Jim Thompson House still remains today and is a museum which is said to be the second most visited Bangkok attraction after the Grand Palace.
The Thai Silk Company continues to this day and Thompson was awarded the Order of the White Elephant( Thailand’s highest decoration) in recognition of his work.
However the story of Jim Thompson doesn’t end there, because of the continuing mystery surrounding his death in 1967 at the Cameron Highlands hill station in modern day Malaysia. Indeed it is a death that has spawned many a conspiracy theorist to write about the events surrounding Thompson’s disappearance.
The story goes something like this, for some reason, Thompson decided to take an Easter break at the home of some friends, Dr T.G. and Mrs Helen Ling of Singapore at their holiday bungalow, Moonlight Cottage, located above the golf course in Tanah Rata which is in the Cameroon Highlands. At some point in time on the afternoon of Easter Sunday Thompson allegedly left the house and went for a walk(in the jungle) never to return or be seen again.
Extensive local searches failed to find any trace of the man or indeed his remains. Almost immediately various theories started to surface which have continued to grow over the years.
One such theory suggested by author Francine Matthews(Tracking the Legend-My Search for Jim Thompson) is that the then Thai government was involved in his death in some way:
“I told her that I thought Thompson had never ceased working as a spy, and that when he journeyed to Malaysia on that final weekend of his life, he intended to meet someone—an agent, a contact, perhaps his killer—in the jungle of the Cameron Highlands. I said I believed that he possessed a vital piece of information the Thai government wanted suppressed”
Given that Thompson had a huge collection of Thai artifacts in his home in Bangkok which apparently displeased the Fine Arts department in the Thai capital, Francine also speculates:
“The Thai government wanted to appropriate everything. Obstinate and enraged, Thompson attempted to negotiate in the Thai style: he threatened to reveal all he knew about the assassination of ………….unless he and his collections were left in peace. He gambled with the Thai government, and he lost.”
Two other authors of note have also written books about the disappearance of Thompson:
William Warren “The Legendary American: The Remarkable Career and Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson”
Edward Roy De Souza “Solved!”
Earlier this year The Star(Malaysian Press) published an interesting article that once again fuelled the fire about the mystery. Entitled, Researcher: DNA may help unravel the mysterious disappearance of “Thai Silk King.”
The article reports on an investigation completed by Captain Philip J. Rivers, a long-time resident in the Cameron Highlands and suggests that bone fragments discovered in 1985 may well be part of the remains of Jim Thompson. During a talk on the disappearance of Thompson, entitled, “He Never Left The Hills — The Real Search For Jim Thompson” he recalls the following tale:
“Recently, I heard a story of an elderly Chinese, wanting to ease his conscience, confessing that he had knocked down and killed a European.
“His family urged him to disclose where the body was buried so that the deceased could have a proper burial. However, the man died before he could reveal the spot,” said Rivers.
Rivers, who scrutinised books, articles and police reports from Deputy Supt (Retired) Ismail Hashim who was the OCPD then, said he concluded that Thompson never left the highlands and had suffered an accidental death.
Whatever the truth behind Jim Thompson’s death there will no doubt continue to be questions asked and I will leave you with this quote from author Francine Matthews:
Six months after Thompson’s death, his sister was murdered in her home outside Chicago during a bungled burglary.
According to Chase McQuade, Thompson’s great-nephew, the family believes she died during a botched attempt to locate Thompson’s last will, which bequeathed his estate to his extended family.
In the end, however, the Thai government seized his art collection. The house on the khlong is now a museum—one of the most beautiful sites a traveler may visit in Bangkok today. Thompson’s books still sit on his bedside table, just as he left them on Good Friday, 1967.
If you are ever in Bangkok and you want to see Jim Thompson’s house and museum you can find details here. Chances are though if you do visit you won’t find much information about Thompson’s demise.
But then again you wouldn’t expect too would you, especially if you are a conspiracy theorist?
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