Thailand cremates Chinese immigrant serial killer Si Quey after body displayed for decades
- The ‘cannibal’ gardener was executed in 1959 after being linked to six child murders, and apparently eating their hearts, livers and intestines
- His body was displayed in a Bangkok museum until doubts emerged about his guilt, and a campaign was launched to give him a proper funeral
If the threat of a ghostly visit from the executed child killer, long called a cannibal, proved ineffective, those children could always be taken to see Si Quey. His mummified corpse – gnarled and blackened – for years stood on display in a glass case in the Forensic Museum at Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital.
In recent years, however, doubts were raised about whether the man called Thailand’s first serial killer was given justice and a campaign was launched to at least give him a proper funeral. On Thursday, six decades after his execution, that finally happened.
Nine Buddhist monks at a temple north of Bangkok chanted prayers and paper flowers were placed in front of Si Quey’s coffin, which was then moved to the crematorium, where the head of the Corrections Department lit the fire. Hospital officials as well as residents of a town where he once lived looked on.
Si Quey, a Chinese immigrant who worked as a gardener, was reportedly caught red-handed in 1958 in a forest in Rayong province burning the body of a 8-year-old boy who had disappeared on an errand.