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Case file s1096 · Science and medicine · 1959
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1959
Siriraj Bimuksthan Museum 2023: ด้านหน้าของพิพิธภัณฑ์ศิริราชพิมุขสถานและอดีตที่ตั้งของสถานีรถไฟธนบุรี ในปี 2023
Siriraj Bimuksthan Museum 2023. Athikhun.suw. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
16 or 17 September 1959
Place
Bangkok and Nonthaburi, Thailand
Field
convicted murderer; body held by Siriraj Hospital's medical museum · Crime on the timeline
Legal tradition
Thai criminal law (death by firing squad); hospital custody of an unclaimed body · Chinese and East Asian law
Historical event
Thailand's first case reported as a serial killing
Science and medicineBodies, bones and burialsMurder and sudden deathPostwarEast AsiaThailand

Thailand executed Si Quey in 1959 and a hospital museum displayed his embalmed body as a "cannibal" for 60 years before he was cremated

Si Quey was a Chinese migrant who settled in Thailand in 1946. He was arrested in Rayong in 1958 and convicted of killing seven children. Reports said he confessed to eating organs. He was shot by firing squad in 1959, aged 32. His body was embalmed and put on display at the medical museum of Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, labelled "cannibal". Parents used his name to frighten children. Campaigners said he had been convicted of only the last murder, that there was no clear evidence he ate anyone, and that his confession was forced. Residents of Thap Sakae district complained to the National Human Rights Commission that the display violated his dignity. In May 2019 an online petition signed by more than 10,000 people asked the museum to return the body to his relatives or give it a funeral. On 21 June 2019 the hospital said it would remove the body and arrange a cremation. No relatives came forward. The Department of Corrections took charge. On 23 July 2020 he was cremated in Nonthaburi, near Bang Kwang Prison, while nine Buddhist monks chanted. A resting place for the ashes had not been decided.

What the law took from it

A body with no family to claim it can be kept by an institution for decades; a public petition was what brought this one to a funeral.

Record vs. record

Fox News (AP) gives the execution date as 16 September 1959: | Pattaya Mail gives 17 September 1959:

foxnews.compattayamail.com
Sources
  1. nationthailand.comPress
  2. pattayamail.comPress
  3. foxnews.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Thailand executed Si Quey in 1959 and a hospital museum displayed his embalmed body as a "cannibal" for 60 years before he was cremated,” story s1096, https://www.celebrity.estate/thailand-executed-si-quey-in-1959-1959, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Science and medicineBodies, bones and burialsMurder and sudden deathPostwarEast AsiaChinese and East Asian lawThailand