Blood Lust Read online

  Mah was one of her clients at the nightclub. She learned that he had connections with the Overlords in the drug trade. She said she did not love him but agreed to go with him to Britain in the hope that in her association with him, she would obtain more information which would help her track down the men who ordered her father’s killing. She arrived in London in March 1975. She made trips to Amsterdam with Mah. She acted on his instruction, and because the Overlords demanded ‘strict accounting’ she helped Mah keep two red account books on the drug sale transactions. She did not realise how deeply involved she was getting by helping Mah in his work. In early October, she decided to return to Singapore for good. Mr Harris said: “Wong had reached a point where she felt she could not go further. She packed up most of her possessions and returned to Singapore on 6 October.” Mr Harris appealed to the Judge to show compassion and to give her some hope for the future.

  The Judge disbelieved her story and sentenced her to jail for 14 years. Judge Argyle said he had come to the conclusion that May Wong and her lover Mah were undoubtedly the main ringleaders in a multi-million-dollar heroin-smuggling racket. The Judge said he did not accept the truth of her story that she infiltrated a criminal gang to avenge the murder of her father. “You did it to get money,” he said. Including both May Wong and Mah in his remarks, the Judge added: “You have become the spreaders of crime, diseases and even deaths. You have walked in the valley of the shadow of death.”

  In March 1980 in the Penang High Court, May Wong was divorced by her husband on the grounds of desertion.

  Afterthought

  ONE OF THE MYSTERIES OF THIS BRUTAL, ill-planned murder plot was how it was possible for three middle-aged men to be attacked, beaten and strangled by a gang of nine thugs in the compound of a bungalow without waking the other four occupants, a middle-aged woman, her daughter (in her 20s) and two young girls. The three men fought for their lives. They struggled and shouted. One pleaded for mercy. There were noisy blows and groans, and sounds of scuffling. The women and the children slept through it all. One explanation could be that it was all over in less than five minutes.

  The Solicitor-General suggested that the failure of the plot was because the gangsters who were recruited were incompetent (he used the word irresponsible). Had they been efficient and experienced they would have realised the importance of disposing of the bodies. The Solicitor-General argued that had the bodies been thrown down a deep well the police might never have found them, or when found the bodies might have been unrecognizable. As it was, the bodies were tossed into the fringe of the jungle, one into a pond, where they were soon found and recognized, the police quickly determining that the three men had been murdered.

  Did the Chou brothers and the other plotters plan this part of the operation carefully? Did they calculate that the bodies would not be found for some time, and that when found they should not be recognised? They must have known that in the tropics bodies decompose within a matter of hours. Were they counting on this? There was no evidence that the plotters placed any special emphasis upon the importance of getting rid of the bodies quickly and finally. There was a great deal of evidence about dumping the bodies, throwing them away, but none of the plotters or the gang recruited to dispose of the bodies stressed the vital need for this to be done efficiently and thoroughly. The very success of the whole plot depended upon the bodies not being found in a recognizable condition, but nobody involved in the murders apparently mentioned it.

  Of course the absence of a body makes a murder difficult to prove, but a body is not absolutely essential to prove a murder, providing there is strong circumstantial evidence to explain the disappearance of a person presumed to have been murdered. Decomposed bodies can be sometimes identified from dental work, and in other ways. Nevertheless, the chances of a murderer escaping justice are stronger if there is no body, and knowing this, the plotters went, shortly before the murders, to Changi to inspect a suitable disposal area. They went in the dark and their car broke down. They never went back to make sure there was a deep well in the vicinity. The Solicitor-General was perhaps right in using the word, ‘irresponsible’, for the very success of the entire operation depended entirely upon the corpses not being found for some time, if at all, as Andrew Chou and the others were quickly to discover. Within a matter of hours after the police found the bodies, they had all been arrested, and Augustine Ang soon decided that his only chance of living was to confess all he knew, thus incriminating his close and intimate friend, Andrew Chou, his confession helping to send Andrew to the gallows. It was inevitable someone would squeal once the bodies were found: Augustine was chosen to be the traitor because, after all, he was one of the principal plotters, and his English was better. He was the best speaker among them.

  None of this would have been necessary—there might never have been a trial, had the bodies been thoroughly disposed of; yet planning this side of the crime had received the least attention although sufficient gangsters had been recruited to throw away the bodies. Nobody had bothered much about where and how the bodies were to be thrown away. Had this been done, the Chou brothers and the other seven murderers might still be alive, and the gold bars melted down.

  There is just one other thought. Did the Chou brothers and Augustine Ang scheme to put the blame on the gangsters they recruited to throw away the bodies? This was the suggestion put forward by a counsel on behalf of the boys. He said the plan was for the three older men to strangle Ngo and his two assistants, and then to implicate the boys, to use them as stooges. Counsel never explained how he thought the Chou brothers intended to do this. Such a scheme, if in fact it existed, would of course have depended upon the Chou brothers and Augustine Ang remaining free and united. The prompt discovery of the bodies and the rapid arrest of all nine, followed by Augustine Ang’s decision to tell all to save his neck, ruined immediately any scheme the principal plotters may have had in mind to blame the boys. Suddenly everyone was fighting for his own life; personal loyalties disappeared. Everyone was prepared to blame everybody else. Only the Chou brothers supported each other. They had no alternative.

  Has Gold a Future?

  Gold stopped being the basis for international money when President Nixon suspended the Bretton Woods system in 1971. The system had been operating since 1945 when 44 nations meeting in Bretton Woods, in America, agreed upon international monetary cooperation. Then the dollar was backed by gold. Singapore’s Finance Minister, Hon Sui Sen, during a speech in 1980 to world bankers meeting in the Republic, recalled that the world was then told that gold was no longer important—that the system was flawed because of gold. Hon asked: “Were we justified in phasing out the monetary role of gold? The non-monetary role in future for gold is now legally enshrined in the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund. It is legitimate to question the wisdom of the IMF in supporting the demonetisation of gold. Opposed to those doing everything possible to phase out gold’s role in the monetary system, there are now some beginning to be convinced of the need for retaining it. The recent upsurge in the gold price to a peak of twenty times the last ‘official’ price of US$42.2 per ounce, clearly demonstrated that gold still has a wide following. Demand came not only from private sources, but, it is understood, also from official sources, notwithstanding the official lip-service to gold demonetisation.”

  Hon went on to say that a return to a modified gold standard, or a gold exchange standard would be facilitated perhaps if current gold prices could be taken as official prices somewhat along the method of valuation in the European Monetary System. “I recognize that this is not the most fashionable or orthodox view on gold and its role in the monetary arena at the moment. I am also aware that there are political and other difficulties in going back to gold. But a trend was set by the demonstration of belief in gold in the European Monetary System.” The Finance Minister believed this was an element of great strength in the EMS. “Given time to eliminate technical problems of operating the system it would not
be surprising to find the EMS growing in influence. If the European Currency Unit is allowed to evolve and develop in usage so that it can be freely transacted in international markets, it may well end the financial world’s search for an alternative to the dollar.”

  Hon was sure that on a national basis, countries which had built up their gold holdings were better able to meet present-day political and economic problems and other uncertainties. “The discipline of gold is salutory, especially for governments.” The man in the street had refused to accept the propaganda that gold should be demonetised. In this part of the world the value of gold as money was vividly demonstrated by the experience of the Vietnamese boat people. Without gold they could not have escaped their unhappy lot in Vietnam. So, in those countries where governments show a disinclination to persevere with stabilisation policies, there should be no surprise if the man in the street turns away from paper currencies—‘to that much abused barbarous relic, gold’. Perhaps, added the Minister, what was surprising ‘is that when the Bretton Woods system was cast aside, so many believed that gold no longer mattered’. The high price of gold in 1979 proved this to be untrue.

  In 1980, Singapore was doing a brisk trade in gold. In the first quarter of the year, gold worth more than US$400 million was sold. This was nearly double the nett amount of gold imported by Singapore in 1979. That year, the Republic imported sixty-five tons of gold (nearly 4 per cent of the worldwide market). Most of it was re-exported to Indonesia, but 13 tons were believed to be held in Singapore vaults. In 1979, Singapore was the sixth largest importer of gold in the world bullion market. The USA headed the list with 265 tons, followed by Italy, 240 tons, West Germany, 160 tons, Japan, 110 tons, Hong Kong, 100 tons, and Singapore, 100 tons. The world total was 1,835 tons.

  South Africa produced 703 tonnes in 1979 (about the same as in 1978). Altogether the free world is thought to have produced 980 tonnes of gold in 1979 compared with 969 tonnes in 1978. Nett communist sales in 1978 were 229 tonnes. In 1979, the figure was 225 tonnes. Total supplies of gold to the market (including sales by the US Treasury and the International Monetary Fund) were estimated at 1,765 tonnes compared to 1,752 tonnes in 1978.

  It is thought that between 850 and 900 tons of gold were used in 1979 to make jewellery (1,001 tonnes in 1978).

  In 1977 and 1978, about 22–25 per cent of total gold supply was absorbed by investors in the form of physical gold (gold bars and coins). In 1979, the figure was estimated to be 36 per cent.

  Investors sought gold mainly for the following three reasons:

  · to hedge against economic and political stability;

  · to diversify assets held in dollars or other vehicles prone to depreciation in real terms; and

  · to increase the ratio of gold to other assets held in investment portfolios in an effort to benefit from the contra-cyclical price behaviour of gold in contrast to other investment assets.

  It is interesting to note that in 1979, the price of gold appreciated in terms of all the major currencies.

  It is believed that 330 tons of gold were purchased by world investors in bullion form in 1979. The Krugerrand remained the main gold coin sold in world markets in 1979.

  Total gold used in the production of Krugerrands and R2 coins amounted to 145 tonnes during 1979. The British sovereign absorbed about 50 tonnes, the Canadian Maple Leaf, about 15 tonnes of gold, the Mexican Peso, about 15 tonnes, the Russian Chervonetz, about 25 tonnes and the Australian Corona, five tonnes of gold. In total, it is estimated that some 285 tonnes of gold were used to fabricate official gold coins in 1979, ten per cent more than was used in 1978.

  Gold is now traded on a 24-hour basis around the world.

  It is expected that South African mines will produce 20,000 tonnes of gold in the next 50 years.

  WORLD SUPPLY AND DEMAND (1979)

  CENTRAL BANK GOLD RESERVES (SEPTEMBER 1979)

  The Murder of a Beauty Queen

  Foreword

  There are two ways of

  looking at this tragic story of the savage murder of the lovely sensual beauty queen, Jean SinnappA.

  There is the love angle, generated partly by torrid love letters (some described in Court as being obscene), and partly by Jean’s own frank attitude towards sex.

  Then there is the legal aspect, the broken link in a chain of circumstantial evidence which at the trial was sufficient to convict one of her lovers of murdering her. This is the side of the case which fascinates me: I am prepared to accept a woman’s right to have lovers and, like men, deliberately to select them. Why condemn a promiscuous woman because she likes being loved by different men, and not equally blame men for sleeping with different women? George Simonen, the famous writer of crime stories, claims to have slept with 10,000 different women during an active sex life which spanned nearly 70 years. Nobody condemned him!

  Ideally, men and women should lead moral lives, husbands and wives sleeping together, and with nobody else sampling the joys of sex. This seems to be the attitude adopted by a writer in a Singapore Chinese-language newspaper. A striking headline indicates what is to follow:

  THROUGH LOVE SHE LIVES AGAIN …

  THROUGH LUST SHE HAD TO DIE ...

  SHE KNEW THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN

  AND THE FRIGHTFULNESS OF HELL …

  TWO LOVERS TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS

  Jean was an enigmatic female who existed in both spiritual and physical worlds. Though she wanted the most perfect kind of love, at the same time she desired the pleasures of the flesh. And this second best world which she pursued dominated after all. But like most ‘best’ things in life there was a price to be paid. Jean died, in her prime, in the midst of love and lust. This was the case which stirred the emotions of millions of people in Singapore and Malaysia. Jean’s beauty, style, and seduction were moving, but yet more moving was the relationship between her and her brother-in-law, and the sexual world which she inhabited rapturously with her secret lover, the triangular affair which led eventually to her cold-blooded murder.

  The Jean Sinnappa case can be said to have been the most exciting and torrid romance in the history of Malaysia.

  Jean has been compared with Lady Chatterley in Lawrence’s novel, but Jean was more passionate, more colourful than the British noblewoman.

  Jean Sinnappa was not only endowed with natural beauty, her wealth and her flirtatious nature, made her very desirable to men. Her own brother admitted that she was a woman of tremendous passion. When she was chosen as beauty queen her voluptuous figure was displayed in front of many men. She was truly unforgettable. She was uninhibited.

  She married Sinnappa the civil servant. Their marriage seemed to have been normally happy. But apparently, after they were wed, Sinnappa soon discovered her overwhelming sexuality. Night after night, when Sinnappa was unable to satisfy her sexual urge, he took to drink. Jean started to wander, and the number of men interested in her multiplied. Among them were her brother-in-law, Karthigesu (later to be accused of murdering her) and the mysterious Sri Lankan doctor.

  Unable to satisfy her, Sinnappa drove himself further to the bottle. Shortly before he died he drank too much at a dinner engagement and he died in a car crash. Thus Jean’s amorous nature can be said to have resulted in a man’s death. This is the substance of tragedy. Overnight Jean became a wealthy widow. With a fortune of half a million she became even more notorious. Enamoured with her was the man who had stood in the wings all along, quietly watching, Karthigesu.

  To many, Karthigesu was a gentle, mild and warm person. He would not hesitate to help any friend in trouble. He was someone who wouldn’t harm a fly. How could he murder a woman? Thus, when he was accused of being Jean’s murderer, the person who had plunged the knife with such force into her breast, his friends refused to believe him possible of such violence.

  As for Jean, she was living with Karthigesu. Yet simultaneously she was carrying on surreptitiously with the Sri Lankan Doctor W. This enjoyment of the favours of both men aroused K
arthigesu’s rage.

  At this stage the writer broke off to give a Chinese traditional reaction to the relationship between brother-in-law and sister-in-law. He wrote:

  The Chinese observe much decorum in all their relationships: the elder brother is looked upon as a father, and an elder brother’s wife as a mother. Jean was Karthigesu’s sister-in-law, and although they were not Chinese, there still ought to have been decorous distance between a brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

  The writer doesn’t hesitate to blame Jean for this. He wrote that Jean didn’t even spare her own brother-in-law from her lustful clutches. ‘What a sensual creature!’, the writer exclaimed, making no comment at all on the behaviour of Karthigesu. Wasn’t he equally to blame? Oddly enough the writer had decided that in this entire affair the villain of the tale is the Sri Lankan Dr W. He wrote:

  Born in Sri Lanka, he stayed there until he graduated in medicine. He was a model husband to his wife Ira who could never have imagined her husband capable of journeying to Kuala Lumpur to become ensnared with Jean’s charms and wealth. The Doctor was Jean’s quarry, almost wrecking his home and ruining his reputation. This was a lesson he will never forget. Yet the writer spits on him!