Disappearance of Jim Thompson

This article is about the event of the subject's disappearance. For the biography about the same person, see Jim Thompson (designer)
Jim Thompson
Born James Harrison Wilson Thompson
21 March 1906
Greenville, Delaware, United States of America
Disappeared 26 March 1967 (aged 61)
Cameron Highlands, Pahang, West Malaysia
Status Declared dead in absentia by a Thai court in 1974
Citizenship American
Alma mater Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania
Occupation Co-founder of the Thai Silk Company
Spouse(s) Patricia Maury Thraves
(1943-1946; divorced)

James Harrison Wilson "Jim" Thompson (born 21 March 1906) was an American businessman who helped revitalise the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 1960s.

The son of a prominent Delaware family, Thompson graduated from Princeton University (1928) and studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1931 to 1940, he worked as an architect in New York City designing homes for the East Coast rich. In 1941, he quit his job and enlisted with the Delaware National Guard regiment. During World War II, he served as an operative in the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. He fought in North Africa, Europe and the China-Burma-India war zone. After the war, he was assigned to the US legation in Bangkok, Thailand. He left the army in 1946 and became interested in silk weaving. He co-founded the Thai Silk Company in 1948. The firm achieved a coup in 1951 when its fabrics were used for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. From then on, the company prospered.

Disappearance

Thompson disappeared from Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands while going for a walk on Sunday, 26 March 1967. He left “Moonlight” bungalow (now the Jim Thompson cottage) at 1:30 pm.[1][2][3][4][5] He failed to return before 6 pm.

"Moonlight" bungalow: The cottage is located at A47 Kamunting Road (Malay: Jalan Kamunting). The mock Tudor-styled home is still a draw for the many who have had an interest in the life and disappearance of Jim Thompson.

An intense search was conducted after he was declared as lost. More than 500 people were involved in the hunt. They included the police, the army, Orang Asli trekkers, Gurkhas, tourists, residents, mediums, scouts, missionaries, adventure seekers, American school students and British servicemen convalescing at the resort. At the end of the hunt, Thompson was not to be found, and no clues were unearthed. The official search lasted for 11 days,[6] and sporadic additional searching went on for months.

The case generated world-wide publicity and intense speculation, with most press reports and analysts contending that Thompson had been kidnapped (although no ransom note was forthcoming); had been murdered (although no body was ever found); had voluntarily left to do secret work in resolving the Vietnam conflict (although no evidence was presented); or was eliminated by business rivals (although no evidence on this emerged).

Recent information

One researcher believes the clue to Thompson's mystery may lie in some bone fragments that were found at the Cameron Highlands in 1985.

PLANNED DISAPPEARANCE

I still insist, like others who know far more about the affair than I do, that he (Thompson) disappeared by his own choice and will, and not by force.

“
”

Richard Hughes [7]

The remains, without the skull, were discovered by Orang Asli settlers in a grave at the edge of a vegetable plot off the main road in Brinchang.[8][9]

Captain Philip J. Rivers, a master mariner, said he learned of the discovery from a health officer while researching on Thompson's disappearance in 2007.

"The probability is that his body lay undiscovered in the thick under bush, hidden in an unmarked grave after a hit-and-run accident. A DNA on the bones might possibly provide a fuller answer," said Rivers at a lecture organised by the Perak Academy in Ipoh, West Malaysia on Friday, 26 March 2010.

To date, there has been no confirmation that the bones belong to Thompson. According to Rivers, however, “the bones are presently kept in a safe and secure place".

A Search and Rescue Analysis

In 2015 an analysis, report and four news articles were done (by Llewellyn Toulmin, see news articles and external links, below) of the 1967 search for Jim Thompson from a search and rescue (SAR) and scientific point of view. This analysis drew on interviews with a leader of and participants in the search; on interviews with other actors; on principles and mathematical formulae developed by the US National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR); on reviews of FBI, CIA and US Department of State material on the case and on Thompson; and on various other sources.

This analysis concluded that:

1. The 1967 search delivered about 1448 person-days of searching, a substantial number, but likely not enough to cover all the 17.7 square miles that were estimated in 1967 to be the target segment in the Cameron Highlands area;

2. The "probability of success" (as defined by NASAR) of the 1967 search, calculated by the "probability of area" (likelihood that Thompson was in the searched segment vs. some other nearby segment) times the "probability of detection" (likelihood of finding the subject in the searched segment) was in the range of 43 to 30 percent or less, meaning that there was a fairly high chance that the search missed Thompson's body, if it was in fact present in the general search area;

3. Various possible, likely or certain errors in search tactics and execution reduced the quality of the search effort; and the massive nature of the search made it almost certain (and even arguably provable mathematically) that just because it was the "biggest land search in Malaysian history," it was almost certainly not the "best search in Malaysian history";

4. Three bloodhound type dogs searched the Moonlight Bungalow (the "last known point" or LKP) for scent trails of Thompson, and did not find any going down the only access road or into the jungle, and this led the Malaysian Police early on to conclude that Thompson left the area in a car, thus breaking the scent trail (this bloodhound search detailed information was not revealed previously); but this evidence is not conclusive;

5. A possible sighting of Thompson in Tahiti did take place several months after the disappearance, but this sighting is not certain;

6. The "bones of Jim Thompson" did exist, in that some unknown bones were at one time in the Tanah Rata District Medical Office, but the bones were never proved to be human, were not provably connected to the Thompson case, and have since disappeared in an office move.

7. Of the 25 possible causes for the disappearance cited by the press in 1967, about half can be eliminated as not credible.

8. Of the "eyewitnesses" who may have seen Thompson after he left the LKP, two can be impeached as being too far (as measured on Google Earth) from Thompson to be credible, and the rest are of fairly low to very low credibility.

9. The literature on the decomposition of bodies in various climates shows that if Thompson's remains are in the jungle, they are likely to be spread over 1 to 4 square miles, due to predation.

The Toulmin report concludes that the probability (but not certainty) is that Thompson's remains are still in the Cameron Highlands, and that a possible way to move the case forward is to use proven SAR techniques of detailed scenario development, "Mattson voting," and human remains detection (HRD) or "cadaver" dogs. (Mattson voting is a standard SAR technique in which SAR field staff (and/or experts on a case) rank search segments (areas to be searched, developed in the scenario development phase) using a secret ballot, in priority order. These individual rankings are then summed and the group results used to allocate SAR resources.)

The Toulmin analysis also reviewed the brutal, still unsolved murder of Jim Thompson's sister, in Chester County, PA, just a few months after Thompson disappeared. The analysis drew on an interview with the Pennsylvania State Police cold case officer; on a review of the wills and estate administrations of Thompson, his sister, and his sister's son; on interviews with neighbours and residents; and on contemporary (1967) news sources. The analysis concluded there is no provable link between the Jim Thompson disappearance and the murder of his sister; that the two cases are unlikely to be related; and that several persons of interest (POIs) can be named but there is no proof against any of them.

The Toulmin report (see External Links below) contains over 500 pages of primary source material on the Jim Thompson disappearance and the murder of his sister; this is the only such compilation available. The material includes CIA, OSS, FBI and US Department of State material, maps of the search area, 200 pages of previously unpublished letters from Thompson to a former lover and fellow art collector, detailed interviews with various actors, photos and exact lat/longs of all the key locations (including possible witness locations), and other items.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "THE HUNT (8th day) CONTINUES, Eastern Sun, Monday, 3 April 1967". p. 2.
  2. ↑ De Souza, Edward Roy (2010). SOLVED! The "Mysterious" Disappearance of Jim Thompson, the Legendary Thai Silk King (2nd ed). Word Association Publishers. pp. 21–23. ISBN 978-1-59571-505-0. LCCN 2009944204.
  3. ↑ "On Thompson’s trail, The Malay Mail, Thursday, 21 March 2013". p. 24.
  4. ↑ "Cameron Highlands: Malaysia’s enduring ‘Little England’, CNN Travel, Thursday, 27 June 2013".
  5. ↑ "Cloaked in mist and mystery, New Straits Times, Thursday, 4 December 2014".
  6. ↑ De Souza, Edward Roy (2010). SOLVED! The "Mysterious" Disappearance of Jim Thompson, the Legendary Thai Silk King (2nd ed). Word Association Publishers. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-59571-505-0. LCCN 2009944204.
  7. ↑ "Where Is Flamboyant Silk King, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Saturday, 26 March 1977". p. 83.
  8. ↑ "Researcher: DNA may help unravel the mysterious disappearance of "Thai Silk King", The Star, Wednesday, 31 March 2010".
  9. ↑ "Bones May Cast Some Light to Jim Thompson's Mystery, Ipoh Echo, Thursday, 1 April 2010".

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External links

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