The most mysterious disappearance in Asia is almost certainly that of Jim Thompson, the “Silk King of Thailand,” who vanished in the high jungles of Malaysia in 1967. The 61-year-old millionaire was the most famous American in Thai history. He rose to Lieutenant Colonel in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the predecessor to the CIA) in World War II, fought behind the lines in France and the Balkans, won five Bronze Stars, became the OSS head in Bangkok for a year after the end of the war, serving as de facto US Ambassador to Thailand, then founded the Thai silk industry and the famous silk firm that still bears his name, assembled six antique teak Thai houses into a fabulous museum-home in Bangkok stuffed with art, and entertained visiting movie stars, renowned authors, and world leaders every night for two decades. Whew!
In March 1967 Jim went for a short weekend vacation to a friend’s house, the Moonlight Bungalow, in the cool, 5000-foot-high jungle of the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia. On Easter Sunday, March 26 he went to church, picnicked with his hosts and a friend, then went for a walk in the afternoon while they napped.
He was never seen again.
The biggest search on land in SE Asia was undertaken, with hundreds of people searching full time for 11 days, including Malay Police Field Force officers, Thai police, Malaysian Army personnel, British Army volunteers, US Army observers, Boy Scouts, patients from a local hospital, Orang Asli indigenous native trackers, the most famous mystic in the world, and over 118 local mystics. The latter busily set off fireworks on all the jungle trails in the area, to disperse the evil spirits who had kidnapped Jim. Later intermittent searches went on for months.
Not a trace was found.
Having grown up in Thailand from 1959 to 1965, and because my mother was a client of Jim’s, I was always interested in the case. In 2013 I was able to visit the Cameron Highlands, track down and interview leaders and participants in the 1967 search, and undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the case, focused on the quantity and quality of the search. I obtained information from the CIA, US Department of State, the Malaysian state archives, and many other sources, and wrote a 688 page (!) report on the case, with 106 pages of analysis and 582 pages of original source documents.
My conclusion was that of the 25-odd possible causes cited for the disappearance, 11 could be eliminated (e.g., “swallowed by quicksand” – there is none in the area), and of the rest, the most probable was that Jim went walking cross-country through the jungle, got lost (as he had the day before), then was injured or succumbed to his intermittent, severe gall bladder condition, and died in the jungle. I suggested that modern search and rescue methods such as statistical area analysis, Mattson secret ballot voting, and human remains cadaver dogs might be able to find his body.
I contributed other new work, by estimating the number of search person-days actually delivered at 1448 (a very high number), and the area to be searched at 17.7 square miles using one approach, or 70 square miles (larger than the District of Columbia) using another. Employing formulae from the US National Association for Search and Rescue, I calculated that the “probability of success” of the 1967 search was only about 30-43 percent. Another method showed a PoS of only 3 percent. Hence the chances were (but not the certainty) that Jim’s body was still out there in the jungle.
This contradicted the conventional wisdom held in 1967, advocated by the FBI, US Department of State, and Malaysian and Thai authorities, which was that “the jungle has been searched, and Jim is not there.” This view led to dozens of conspiracy theories, including that Jim was kidnapped (but there was no ransom note), killed by business rivals (possible but no evidence), hit by a speeding truck (again no evidence, and nobody sped on those twisty mountain roads), murdered by various jealous husbands Jim had cuckolded or by a homosexual lover (the FBI was keen on that one), or self-disappeared (but there was no paper or money trail). The only direct beneficiaries of his disappearance, his wealthy nephew heir and ex-wife, were not viable suspects.
I was open to the possibility of conspiracies, but none had any real supporting evidence. That was where the case stood, until a few years ago.
Then along came Barry Broman, ex-CIA officer and reportedly a former CIA station chief in Rangoon, now a photographer and writer. In 2017 he made a film called “Who Killed Jim Thompson?” and propounded the theory that Jim was kidnapped and killed by terrorists from the Communist Party of Malaya. Barry said he had two witnesses.
Was this the answer? You’ll have to wait until next month…
Photos courtesy Lew Toulmin
-
- Jim Thompson during World War II. He rose from private to Lt. Col. in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS – the predecessor to the CIA), fought behind the lines, was the OSS head in Bangkok for a year after the war, and founded the Thai silk industry.
-
- The Jim Thompson house museum in Bangkok. He built it from six antique teak houses brought in from around Thailand, linked together and decorated with priceless Asian art. Almost every night he entertained numerous guests, including world leaders, movie stars and entertainers.
-
- A Thai girl spinning silk from the cocoons of silkworms at the Jim Thompson house in Bangkok, which is open to the public and is one of the top attractions in the city.
-
- Jim Thompson in the 1960s, with spools of Thai silk, famous for its amazing iridescence.
-
- The Moonlight Bungalow, set on a hilltop in the jungles of the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia, is the “last known point” (LKP) for Jim Thompson, the “Silk King of Thailand.” He went for a short hike from the Bungalow in March 1967, disappeared, and was never seen again. The biggest land search in SE Asian history never found a trace.
-
- Author Lew Toulmin stands beside the “Jim Thompson stone,” about a half a mile from the Moonlight Bungalow. A local resident asserted that she saw Jim sitting on the stone, smoking a cigarette, on the afternoon of his disappearance.
-
- Captain Mokh Ta Mohammad of the Malaysian Army was a leader of the 1967 search for Jim Thompson, and provided never-before-revealed information on the search strategy and tactics. He had never been interviewed at all re the search before my expedition to Malaysia.
-
- The only photo of the 1967 Jim Thompson search operations. Note the thick undergrowth that could easily hide a body, and the very close spacing of the searchers. The single canopy (not triple canopy) jungle in the Cameron Highlands allows light to reach the ground, encourages thick undergrowth, and makes effective searching very difficult. Many hikers have disappeared in this area of Malaysia.
-
- The primary search area north and west of the Moonlight Bunglalow. The bright yellow line marks the three-mile limit of searching, specified by Capt. Mohammad, and this search area was 17.7 square miles, quite substantial. If the area had been extended out to the entire light green area, six miles out, then the area that should have been searched was massive, at 70 square miles, larger than the District of Columbia.
To stay at Jim Thompson’s Moonlight Bunglalow, go to: https://jim-thompson-cottage-brinchang.booked.net/ However, I suggest staying at a normal hotel in Tanah Rata and visiting the Bungalow first, to make sure it is up to your standards and to make reliable bookings in person.
To visit the amazing Jim Thompson House museum in Bangkok, with six linked antique Thai houses and masses of glorious Asian art, see: https://jimthompsonhouse.org/
To see Broman’s 45-minute film and 67-minute Q&A at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cic9Wh-MSw
To read my report and earlier stories on the case, see Academia.edu (with a paywall) or my website at: http://www.themosttraveled.com/The%20Disappearance%20of%20Jim%20Thompson%20FINAL%20redacted.pdf (free).
To hire Barry Broman or one of his 60 ex-CIA, ex-FBI, ex-DoS, ex-NSA, ex-DIA, ex-Mossad, or even ex-KGB associates, see https://www.spyex.com/experts, one of the most unusual websites I have ever come across. These women and men are also available for speaking engagements.
