Public Beheading in Siam.

Public Beheading in Siam: Three True Stories of Crime and Punishment in the Siam of Old (Part 1 – Ai Yone: The Jealous Husband.)

Long before the lethal injection, long before the firing squad, and many thousands of miles away from the cold efficiency of the guillotine, the Siamese[1] had their very own way of executing their murderers, thieves, adulterers, and unfortunate individuals who got on the wrong side of the king, princes, and nobles. 

Before the year 1919, those sentenced to death were publicly beheaded by sword in an intricate ritual that involved two swordsmen, Buddhist monks, and state officials. 

This practice was discontinued after August 19, 1919, when Boonpeng Heep Lek was the last person to be executed by decapitation in Siam.

Over the coming week, I will be posting three accounts of public executions in Siam. Today’s story tells the tale of Ai Yone, a jealous husband who lost his wife to another man, and consecrated their love affair with a blood bath. 

Some of the places and names used in this account have been fictionalized; the main story, however, is based on a true account of crime and punishment in Siam.

When Ai Yone’s wife ran away with another man, he became possessed by an irrational desire to murder the cheating couple.

 He had always been an honest and upright man, working hard to earn his living. But now, nothing else mattered to him except the death of his adulterous wife (Nok) and her Casanova lover. 

Driven by an irrepressible urge to exact revenge, he stalked the carousing pair with the cool headedness of a detective, and the burning hatred of Mephistopheles. 

On April 13, he located them at a house in Phra Pathom, about 50 kilometres west of Bangkok. He watched their movements and waited patiently; he was in no particular rush. 

Later that day, the perfect opportunity revealed itself. His wife and her new lover were alone in the house, and he watched through burning eyes as the hated man bestowed kisses upon his wife. 

He sprang upon them unexpectedly, but the lover – quick and agile – deftly leapt from an open window and ran for his life, leaving the unfortunate Nok to face the wroth of Ai Yone alone. 

He wounded her in several places with a knife, and she died not long after. Ai Yone was promptly arrested, tried, and condemned to death.

Ai Yone was released from prison amidst taunts and jeers from a crowd that had gathered to witness the prisoner’s removal. 

He seemed oblivious to their presence, and chewed betel nut noncommittally. He was escorted by a heavily armed guard; bound in iron shackles. 

They took him to the river where he and a procession of state officials, police, and military, boarded a boat.  They left the port at six a.m., and headed for Wat Matkasan, where Ai Yone was to be executed.

At 7:15 a.m., the procession arrived at Wat Matkasan, where preparations for the execution got underway. 

Ai Yone remained bound and shackled on board the boat, smoking and engaging in animated conversation with those around him. 

Meanwhile, the executioners – seven in number – began the lengthy ritual, first making offerings of boar’s head, fowls, rice and betels at the temporary altar, erected for the occasion. 

The swords to be used for the execution were placed on the altar and duly consecrated and anointed. 

Looking on from the boat, Ai Yone seemed disinterested and detached as he received the last ministrations of the Buddhist monks. He held his head high, and showed no signs of fear.

Promptly, he was brought onto land and placed on the grass. The executioners were arrayed in red, and had wrapped red sashes around their foreheads. 

They knelt in front of Ai Yone and asked his pardon for what they were about to do. 

Some of the executioners took Ai Yone a little distance away, where they removed his neck-chain and handcuffs, then tied his elbows to a bamboo post, securely planted in the ground. 

He sat cross-legged on freshly-cut plantain leaves, neck exposed to receive the fatal blow, murmuring prayers and holding lighted tapers between his pressed palms. 

Next, his ears were closed with wet clay, so that he would not hear the deadly approach of the executioner.

 A line was drawn across his neck, to guide the descending sword; a white cloth wrapped around his body. All was ready.

The severed head rolled across the floor; vacant eyes stared at the morning sky; a light covering of rain clouds began to form. 

The body was quickly buried in a nearby grave and the head displayed on a pole; a warning to would be criminals. 

The once-handsome face of Ai Yone looked out across the execution ground, now nothing more than flesh and blood. 

The whole episode came to a close at 9 a.m., just four hours after he first saw the light of day. 

The crowd of Chinese and Siamese onlookers quickly lost interest, and dispersed within minutes. The rain came out of nowhere, cleansing the bloodstained ground.

Thanks for reading.