CASE OF THE MISSING SILK KING: A DELICIOUSLY BAFFLING MYSTERY STILL STIRS WHISPERS IN BANGKOK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100105-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 105
• Publication Date: December 11, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100105-6
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
,;.(-F Ft~rtK,ED 11 December 1983
Q deliciously baffling mystery
Still stirs whispers. in. Bangkok
Case of the missing silk. king:
ur T%Xnvn, a unuauu--u1 a Furl ol Lae designers in Paris, London and New York.
world where mysteries are common and legends abound. the disappearance of Thai
.such fashion pplates as Princess Grace and
Elizabeth Tavlnr and into the showro
e
oms o
By Janet Cawley
silk king Jim Thompson still -ranks as a
deliciously knotty riddle.
Some 16 years after he vanished without a
trace in the Malaysian jungles, the legend of
Jim Thompson lives on, an enigma that
remains an integral part of Bangkok's city
life and its commerce. -
At the Jim 'Thompson Thai Silk Co., bolt
upon bolt-of the rich silk he made famous-
generally considered the best in Thailand-is
stacked in a rainbowlike display for the
thousands of tourists and residents who flock
to his company's only retail outlet. Other.
items, ranging from clothing to pillowcovers
to napkins, bear Thompson s bold signature .
stroked across the fabric or on its.label. .
At his canal-side home, now a museum,
tourists can view his collection of Southeast
Asian art and antiques-one of the most
extensive and valuable in the world.
And in the bars and other meeting spots of
his adopted city, where locals gather for
drink and conversation, Jim Thompson's
name still comes up regularly to tantalize -
and baffle. The story has. all the right ele-
ments: Fabulous wealth, powerful diplo-
mats, royalty, rumors of spy activities, the
mysterious setting of Bangkok and murder.
THOMPSON'S STORY began in a much
less dramatic fashion than it ended. Born
March 21, 1906, James Harrison William
Thompson was graduated from Princeton
and studied architecture at the University of
Pennsylvania before practicing in New York
,and enlisting in the Army in 1941.
During the war, Thompson worked for the
Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of
.the CIA. He spent most of his wartime
career in Europe and North Africa, eventual-
ly parachuted into Thailand and wound up in
Bangkok after the Japanese surrender. After
his discharge, Thompson, then 40 years old,
returned to Bangkok.
He. did some architectural work, redesign-
ing the majestic Oriental Hotel, but it was
when Thompson decided to turn his talents
to the silk industry that he made his fame
and fortune and assured himself a place in
d
Almost singlehandedly Thompson revived
the dormant Thai silk industry, revitalizing
the craft of handweaving and at one point
dyeing the fabrics in the canal by his house.
Thompson established the Thai Silk Co. in
1948 and within a decade it had become a
worldwide phenomenon, turning out a singu
lar fabric with irregular threads and nubby
texture that found its way onto the backs of
mo
ern Thai history.
turning entrepreneur, he also began assem
bling the art collection that later -was
deemed "irreplaceable" and housed in the.
solid teakwood home. he had assembled from
Thompson, ruggedly handsome and out-
going, became something of a living legend
in Thailand, hobnobbing with kings and
princes, ambassadors and diplomats, as he
wove his fortune from the silk industry.
At the same time, there was a certain
amount of suspicion in the expatriate com-
munity that Thompson was still working for
the CIA-something he never denied but
never admitted to. either. Friends.later sug-
gested he was willing to let the suspicion
linger to protect the real CIA operatives.
Then, nearing the pinnacle of his storybook
career, Thompson simply vanished.
It was Easter Sunday, 1967, and Thompson
had. gone with a companion to. the Cameron
Highlands of Malaysia to stay with his old
friends Dr. and Mrs. T. J. Ling in their
isolated cottage atop a jungled crest. Just a '
few days past his 61st birthday, he was
described as being in good spirits, despite
'the prospect. of an upcoming gallbladder
.operation, and had joined his friends for a
picnic earlier in the day.
THEN, AS they retired for an afternoon
nap, Thompson apparently walked away
from the cottage and into the jungle-leaving
'behind his cigarettes and jacket. He was
laysian troops, U.S. Army helicopters Flown
in from Thailand and several dozen abori-
.Sine guides, not one hint was found to
indicate what had happened to Thompson.
Theories, of course, abounded. These
ranged from suicide to apolitical kidnaping
to robbery to some kind of dark intrigue
linked to his cloak -and dagger days. One
suggestion was that he had been murdered'
by the CIA because of his influence on Thai
government leaders-which didn't always
,coincide with American military strategy
Others theorized he had been carried off by
a tiger, that he fell down one of the steep
ravines or that he fell into an animal trap
.studded with poison-tipped spikes. Then, of
'course, there was the theory he staged his
own disappearance-for whatever reasons-
which led to subsequent reported "sightings"
in such - places as China, Tahiti and
Singapore.
His close friend and biographer, William'
Warren, who spent a year chasing. leads,
finally settled on one of the more prosaic CQA7J,7D
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100105-6 -