When Will the Killer Bikes Come for Chuwit?
New York Times [13th August 2003]
These days the big money here is all on when not if — they will whack Chuwit Kamolvisit, the massage parlor tycoon. After all, this is a gambling town. We already know the probable method: a two-man team on a motorbike (the traffic jams make getaway cars something of a joke, and even big motorcycles are risky — they’re hard to control when you jump them up on the sidewalk and weave between lamp posts).
One of my best sources here, Somchai, who is a businessman with some underground dealings and refuses to have his full name used, speculates hyperbolically that if it goes on much longer, the betting on Mr. Chuwit’s likely demise will suck money out of the illegal casinos — even the cockfights will suffer.
Not that Somchai is above placing a bet on the precise date of a gangster’s murder. Indeed, he took the precaution of consulting his astrologer, who took the precaution of taking a look at Mr. Chuwit’s horoscope, which, thanks to the interest of thousands like Somchai, is readily available on the black market. The astrologer dismayed Somchai by declaring that Mr. Chuwit will not die before the Year of the Dragon, which is more than seven years away. Now Somchai has an excruciating decision: nobody is betting that Mr. Chuwit will live out this Year of the Goat — but suppose the astrologer turned out to be right? Somchai could make millions.