The death of King Ananda: A forensic interview-FreeThai

[FACT comments: Some readers may consider our decision to post this interview on the the King’s birthday inauspicious. However, the reason for the ninth Chakri reign is inextricably bound to the death of the King’s elder brother.

Available forensic conclusions have been drawn by Rayne Kruger in The Devil’s Discus (1964), by British expert pathologist, Keith Simpson, in his Forty Years of Murder, and in Unsolved 40-King Ananda of Siam. Unfortunately, we shall never know the truth.

The reality is that the three Palace servants executed for regicide in 1955 were, in all likelihood, innocent pawns in strongman Plaek Pibulsongkhram’s political game to discredit Pridi Banomyong, no matter who shot the King.

The three people in a position to really know what happened were the Princess Mother, Somdej Ya, and the King’s elder sister, Princess Galyani Vadhana; both are dead. The only person left who knows first-hand about the death of King Ananda is King Bhumibol. We hope he chooses to speak out before this history is lost forever.

We dishonour the memory of King Ananda for our failure to teach this object lesson in Thai history.

FACT readers may wish to follow this discussion at New Mandala: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2008/05/29/the-devils-discus-in-thai/ or to read The Devil’s Discus: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&vci=1330729&an=&tn=devil%27s+discus&kn=&isbn=&x=0&y=0.

Mark Teufel is the appropriately-named German translator of König Ananda: Des Teufels Diskus to which he has appended much original material: http://www.epubli.de/shop/showshopelement?pubId=2141. The following is a corrected Google translation of his interview with German forensic biologist Mark Benecke.]

The King’s Discus

The death of the King of Siam

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[Here is the interview as. Pdf]

Mark Teufel

FreeThai: September 11, 2009

http://wiki.benecke.com/index.php?title=2009-09_Mark_Teufel:_König_Ananda

Interview with Dr. Mark Benecke, Dipl.Biol, Dr. rer. Medic., M. Sc, Ph.D, born in 1970, publicly appointed and sworn expert, Cologne. The interview was on 11 September 2009.

Teufel: Dr. Benecke, we had earlier entertained the background of the case of Ananda, King of Siam from 1946 and I would be grateful if you could now answer some questions about the points of contention in the proceedings against the three defendants… We had talked about the behavior and the situation of King Ananda. Think of it as possible that he was suicidal risk?

Benecke: It is absolutely impossible to rule out a suicidal risk. We were here in Cologne the case in which he hanged himself an active member of a carnival club, during a carnival meeting on the toilet. No one had previously thought possible. The situation of King Ananda, who grew up abroad and was suddenly confronted with the situation of becoming King of Thailand, while still under a loving mother, but strict, being completely unfamiliar with the character of the king may well produce a situation that leads to a suicidal risk.

Finally, it must also be taken into account, the disease appears in the gastro-intestinal tract, which compelled him to leave responsibilities to his brother. There are only speculations.

Teufel: From the British pathologist Keith Simpson was the fact that the shot seems to have not been done directly it must be taken that it was not a suicide.

Benecke: You have explained the theory of Rayne Kruger and it seems to me entirely understandable. By the hand position and release of the bullet, it is quite possible that the weapon was a little bit away from the forehead, even if it had initially been pressed against it.

And the explanation of my colleagues that he had never seen a suicide who had been shot lying down, seems a bit strange. For the assumption that King Ananda discharged the bullet while sitting as Rayne Kruger described and justified, and then together falls, is just as likely as the assertion that he was lying down before his death by another’s hand.

It would be important to determine the exact angle of the projectile in the mattress, and of course look to whether the projectile was fired from the barrel of the gun or not. Testimonies of excited people without objective measurements are basically of very little or no value. They have photos or measurements needed by then.

Teufel: The prosecution had made a great effort to prove that the basal ganglia were not hit by the projectile and therefore would have to enter a death spasm, had King Ananda shot himself. The expectation would be that the gun would have been then still be clutched in his dead hand.

Benecke: This is a theory I had heard in England once before at a seminar about traces of blood. But it is completely unfounded. Today as a large number of police videos showing how a perpetrator is shot or shoots himself, and often enough no death or other spasm occurs. I’ve even shown you videos of this kind just a minute ago. In the case we had watched, the shot was set so that the basal ganglia were certainly not affected by the projectile. Nevertheless, the suicide is immediately relaxed and falls. Even a minute later, almost sliding down the chair next. If we translate this to the case of King Ananda, Rayne Kruger’s theory seems easily possible that the body went limp and fell into a position where they were found. Also the position of the gun could be explained because the hand might not have released it immediately but the arm fell down as you can see in the video of a real suicide case who shot himself while seated and only then the gun slipped out of the hand.

Each case can thus seem to run contrary to the theory, if one is to assess any objective signs, but only rely on witnesses. The tissue injury caused by a projectile is much greater because of the temporary wound channel than the shot alone would suggest. But it does not matter what the reason for seemingly strange findings in detail. It depends on the death by bullet to the head often to cramps, which is simply proved by watching the videos.

Teufel: As to rust in the barrel of the gun Rayne Kruger said: “Among the police officers was a certain Captain who studied and privately concluded that it would look dirty and rusty, and that there would be a residual stale smell. Could it really be that this gun had been fired only one or two hours before. Could it really be that this gun had been fired only one or two hours before  (note that he mentioned this was not the case, but only after several months when he was called by the prosecution as a witness)? Two days later, his boss sent the pistol to the Director General of the Ministry of Science, and asked him for his opinion, when was the last time they were fired. How do you assess this statement?

Benecke: If the gun was dirty and rusty, this contradicts the statement that it was well cared for constantly. A well-oiled weapon can not rust. The stale smell of oil, or storage in a closed place, or of rotting blood or tissue, which could result from a potshot. Without good photos, or blood tests all this means nothing at all.

Teufel: When the gun was fired plays an important role. Kruger says: “The Director General should be a key witness. A nice man with a square face, thick eyebrows and long ears. He had a degree in natural sciences (physics, chemistry and metallurgy) from Germany, where he had lived for one or two years of chemistry and metallurgy. He had worked 18 years in the scientific department of the army until he was promoted to its top job. After he had the .45 he received from the police, he handed it over to the Chief of the Department of Chemistry Law. He had completed medical school and had a Diploma in Pharmacy from a national university. A certain test was done and a swab taken. The results troubled them. Later in the day a friend stopped by, the Director General of the Navy, a graduate Engineering and Natural Sciences from Cambridge, who had researched in the Danish Navy on pistols, gunpowder and explosives. When he gave him the .45, he looked down the barrel and confirmed the findings of the morning: The gun was fired the last time many days before, maybe weeks, long before the death of the king.” So he looks to the naked eye in the barrel, after tests had been made and immediately knows what happened?

Benecke: That is absolutely unclear. If the tests were done accurately, it may be that the statement is true, that the pistol had last been fired a long time ago. A key question is whether and how often it had been cleaned in between. It is thus impossible without knowing the detailed investigation and the conditions of storage and cleaning of the gun before the discovery.

Teufel: Kruger writes: “From Ananda’s pistol, two days after the tragedy, a swab was taken, which assumed was the fatal weapon, showed particles of gunpowder which, however, as the head of the legal department of chemistry said, had been in rusted. When the nitrite test took place, the director-general also tested the rust.

He found none during the first two days after firing, and a metal quality similar to that of Ananda’s pistol needed from four to eight days to rust. This confirmed the nitrite test.” Immediately before the first nitrite test was taken, a smear was there. Is such a smear relevant and it does it not influence the outcome of the nitrite test?

Benecke: Yes, the smear may have rubbed off only part of the buildup. Or he may have destroyed all traces. On the other hand, it might be a good thing that there was dirt in the barrel, which adulterated the other studies. Unfortunately, we do not know the exact procedure, so that I can not tell exactly what was tested and when.

Teufel: Kruger also wrote that if the rust resulted if storage conditions and humidity (season) were taken into account.

Benecke: Just that … they would also need to necessarily know what is meant by “similar quality material”. How similar is “similar”?

Teufel: Kruger also wrote: “The prosecution also called an ordnance expert of over twenty years to the witness stand, an expert on small handguns. He explained that based on the quality of Ananda’s pistol, the barrel had a color like white smoke, which would only appear after four or five days, and the color of red earth would, which was the rust that had been seen by the police captain in the Palace meeting and by the officials in the Wissenschaftsabeilung.

The defense could not shake his opinion even when he admitted that weapons rust faster if the weapon is not properly cleaned after each use.”

Benecke: It is: may be, can not be.

Teufel: The defense pointed out how important was this fact because the last time anyone was aware that Ananda had fired the gun that was months before the fatal Sunday, but no one could tell whether and how well the gun was then cleaned.

Benecke: Even (so it is)

Teufel: Kruger writes: “The only evidence they could make was the fact that Ananda gave any kind of weapon after firing to an official for cleaning. This official, concluded the court,” had probably cleaned the gun thoroughly, and not in the way private guns are cleaned.”

Benecke: The statement “probably” does not help. Either the gun was cleaned, oiled and well maintained or it was not. We can only guess at this apparently crucial fact.

Teufel: Then there was the question of the supposedly bloody cuff a suspect. Kruger says: “He had made the experiment, a 45 pistol shot at close range into the body of a man who was around the age of Ananda, and he found that blood and fragments of skull and brain squirted his wrist or the gun. At Ananda’s wrist or  on the pistol no such had been found, from which the evidence concluded that he therefore could not have shot himself. But as the testimony of Lieutenant Vacharachai’s laundress, was that they washed the blood from his sleeves.”

Benecke: Well – there can be only one … that all depends on the firing distance of the projectile and the weapon. Normally, not much tissue and blood is blown back . Other head shot people often survive for some time (minutes), so that they still can touch their head with their own hand. I myself had in Cologne, a case in which a dying man in his own bathroom was wearing a sponge which was rotated into the gunshot wound of his head to stop the blooding. The dead person then has of course the blood on his hands, even though the shot had been delivered by another person.

Teufel: In the murder trial the prosecution explained that it would be impossible that the projectile had been fired through the skull of the victim because it showed no deformation. On the other hand shot experiments on cadavers have shown that the projectiles were all deformed.

Benecke: That depends on what ammo was used and exact shape of the projectile – particularly the apparently existing full-coat – which was the projectile fired from the weapon. If we assume that war munitions were used, we can according to your testimony at least assume that it was a solid jacket. These are designed so that it seems quite likely that they can pierce a cranium without major deformation. Why did the experiments show no spot to the contrary, I can not understand from a distance. But without details, the whole thing does not make sense anyway, neither for one or the other.

Teufel: For two reasons, the trial proceeded on the assumption that the weapon had not been used for the deed: 1) it would have rust in the barrel and 2) the nitrite test had shown that the weapon could not have been fired in the given period.

Benecke: It is hard to say why the gun should not rust or if rust was in the barrel. These are subjective statements which cannot be assessed retrospectively. I rather bet on backspatter, so the blood by the near-shot effect to the barrel of the gun, of course, as red-brown rust can hardly be seen  if you don’t have a good lamp and a magnifying glass. Apart from that, debate over an allegedly very well-maintained weapon, such as that of the king, would definitely not be rusty.

As for the nitrite test, it was a colour test from the 1940s and 1950s, a precise determination of time in that context, that is a statement of whether the weapon was fired the last time three days before or 7 days or 14 days, is difficult possible. Even with today’s serious laboratory resources, it would be extremely difficult to make such a statement in court, with usable accuracy. Today it might be possible but would mean a large expenditure, which at that time according to the information available to us here and in my experience with laboratories in tropical countries, where I often work, and is not used.

I remember for example the statement that a “similar” metal was used to test the rust. Either this is a translation error or a fundamental problem of the investigation.

Teufel: The location of the body and the weapon was considered contradictory to a suicide.

Benecke: When I look at the videos available in recent years of killings and suicides, I come to the conclusion that Rayne Kruger’s theory – that the body went limp and just fell together into the position as described, namely procumbent, with both arms on the blanket, and the gun near his hand – *appears plausible, without any problems*. In any case, the position of the body alone is certainly *not proof enough for the assumption* that it was a murder..

Teufel: Thank you for the interview.

Benecke: Thank you for the information on this interesting case.

Mark Benecke, Ph.D., Certified & Sworn In Forensic Biologist, International Forensic Research & Consulting, PO Box 250,411, 50520 Cologne, Germany, E-mail: forensic@benecke.com, www.benecke.com, Emergency Text / SMS for crime cases only +49-173-287-3136. No Facebook, no Xing, no Myspace friend requests, open StudiVZ no, no social networks of any kind. Never send. Doc,. Ppt,. Xml – we only. Rtf and. Pdf.