Wanphen Pienjai Murder: American Expat Arrested In Phuket

[kennalder]

Obviously it is impossible to form an opinion on guilt or innocence from the scant details. Does anyone have any statistics on the "confession rate" in Thailand? If so any breakdown on ethnicity? Seems like most of the suspects I read about here confess in the first few hours of being in custody. Reminds me of Bernie Madoff's perfect record of delivering 10% or thereabouts returns for many many years. Someone should have smelled a rat there, maybe somethings a little stinky here as well. (No reference to this case.)

Edited July 18, 2010 by kennalder

[Jingthing]

They do intimidate people into confessing. There are also reduced sentences if you confess. There is no mystery. That doesn't mean that most of those confessing aren't guilty, but obviously not all of them are.

Edited July 18, 2010 by Jingthing

[iSabai]

I was in Chumphon a few months ago and heard about another american that stabbed this expat over a dispute about the king.... we'll actually the american was talking really bad about the king and some brit expat punches him in the face. The american comes back and stabs this guy up (he did not die from the stab wounds), and is release after a few weeks. I just want to remind everybody from the states that every time an american does something in this country or any other country it will be scrutinized and added to the already infamous rep we have as a nation. We are already disliked by the majority of euro's I dont want to start being disliked by thais. May god's hand act swiftly and justly upon the murderer of this innocent lady.

That's quite sad you feel that way as an American. I have good friends here from many countries, including Thais. I didn't prejudge them based on where they came from before we became friends. And I don't expect them to prejudge me based on where I come from. If I can't be accepted for the person that I am, then I don't need friends like that to begin with.

[simosiam]

I hope they get the right person and they aren't just looking for someone to put in jail and spend the rest of his life in prison for nothing.

[balo]

Ron MadYank Farelli tried his luck as a professional pokerplayer for many years , before he fell in love with Thailand.

He won some big prizes in tournaments back in 2004-2005. He moved to Phuket in 2007.

This picture is from 2005 Monte Carlo Millions

Doesn't look like the guy arrested in the Newspaper, unless he suddenly got younger.

I agree but if you take away his beard and cut his hair I think it will look more like him .

This is a more recent picture from 2007

[bob4you]

Now that looks like the guy in the police sketch.

[Benjie]

Ron MadYank Farelli tried his luck as a professional pokerplayer for many years , before he fell in love with Thailand.

He won some big prizes in tournaments back in 2004-2005. He moved to Phuket in 2007.

This picture is from 2005 Monte Carlo Millions

Doesn't look like the guy arrested in the Newspaper, unless he suddenly got younger.

I agree but if you take away his beard and cut his hair I think it will look more like him .

This is a more recent picture from 2007

Then who is it they have arrested, its not the same guy.

[balo]

Ron MadYank Farelli tried his luck as a professional pokerplayer for many years , before he fell in love with Thailand.

He won some big prizes in tournaments back in 2004-2005. He moved to Phuket in 2007.

This picture is from 2005 Monte Carlo Millions

Doesn't look like the guy arrested in the Newspaper, unless he suddenly got younger.

I agree but if you take away his beard and cut his hair I think it will look more like him .

This is a more recent picture from 2007

Then who is it they have arrested, its not the same guy.

Ok if its not the same guy they share the same name and live in the same area .....

[balo]

More pictures from the arrest

.

[DickFarang]

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:

Italo- /.../ combining form

(with nouns and adjectives) Italian; Italian and something else:

Italo-Americans • Italophiles

[Benjie]

Ahh yes, looks like the same dude now.

[Jimi007]

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

Italo- /.../ combining form

(with nouns and adjectives) Italian; Italian and something else:

Italo-Americans • Italophiles

OMG another lesson in OLD english. As far as your dictionary you are correct But, he's an American...

Edited July 18, 2010 by Jimi007

[g00dgirl]

Ron MadYank Farelli tried his luck as a professional pokerplayer for many years , before he fell in love with Thailand.

He won some big prizes in tournaments back in 2004-2005. He moved to Phuket in 2007.

This picture is from 2005 Monte Carlo Millions

What's up with these poker players? That reminds me of Joran Van der Sloot, also a poker player, the murderer (confessed) who is also a suspect in the Natalee Holloway case, the girl who disappeared in Aruba. The guy was also living in Bangkok for a while and Thai police think he might be involved with some girls disappearing there.

[Jingthing]

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

Italo- /.../ combining form

(with nouns and adjectives) Italian; Italian and something else:

Italo-Americans • Italophiles

OMG another lesson in OLD english. Please, he's an American...

Indeed. As is the accused. I was of course talking about how Americans refer to Italian Americans. 'Nuff said/next ...

http://www.niaf.org/

[rbrick49]

<br>

<br>RIP for the lady....<br><br>This is the second American this week to take a fall, after the real estate ponzi scheme guy who was arrested and to be extradited...<br>

<br><br>The extradition rule really piss me off!<br>Any farang in Thailand can do every kind of illegal because in the worst case they will just be sent back home!<br>

I dont think so in the worst case he will do time in bangkok hilton or be shot to death and to the other some war sickness caused this I dont think so <br><br><br>

[Mhayden]

Curious, as I was told by a mod in another thread I could not name and shame a violent Thai contractor (attacked me with a shovel with a few other Thai guys) because he was innocent until proven guilty. Was tolf a police report does not prove anything, even though he admitted to attacking me.

Yet this guy, along with everyone else arrested or accused in Thailand, are also innocent until proven guilty. Why can these stories be posted time and time again for people are are also innocent until proven guilty, if we can not name and shame the locals in the same manner?

I agree with you, Tokay. If that's not double standards, I don't know what is!!! I'm all for you posting his details up on TV to warn the rest of us against using this nutters services. Definitely double standards.

[Jingthing]

Well, in most countries it is normal to publish the names of people arrested for crimes, even before conviction. It is in the news and is now in the public domain.

[jayjay0]

wow I lived near Chalong in Rawai beach for 1 month, in 2009, so bad, and so scary!!!!!!

Huh? I don't understand your comment. I've lived in Rawai for over four years. So what?

What about the Norwegian man with a Thai wife and two kids that was killed in a robbery just up the road from Icon a couple of years ago, no one was ever caught for that. Nor was there any reward offered by the police to help catch the killer like this case. But if this man, an American is really the one that did it, then it is good he was caught. But there seems to be something that doesn't fit. The article states: "Mr Fanelli, described as a long-term tourist, had lived at a home in Chalong with a Thai woman until the woman and her son returned to her home in the northeastern province of Mahasarakham, Col Wanchai said." If he had a preference for katoeys, why was he living with a women and her son until recently?

May be the son was a katoey.

[DreamRider]

Right, he's caught. That's fine, but if he is guilty can the authorities this time keep him banged up for the length of time for which he was sentenced.

This case has similarities to that of the ghastly, reptilian "Mick the Pom" who, also another Chalong ex-pat, murdered his girlfriend, was jailed and then managed to get out of prison and was last seen not long ago running amuck in the Philipines.

[IMA_FARANG]

This is the second American this week to take a fall, after the real estate ponzi scheme guy who was arrested and to be extradited...

The extradition rule really piss me off!

Any farang in Thailand can do every kind of illegal because in the worst case they will just be sent back home!

---------------------------------------------

You've got that wrong. The American you are referring to was arrested by the Thai police on a arrest warrent from the U.S. where he was wanted for that real estate Ponzi scheme. That's why he was extradited to the U.S. becuse the police in the U.S wanted him for the crime he had committed in the U.S. In fact. he was extradited to the U.S to face criminal charges there.

The crime was committed in the U.S.

-------------------------------------------------

Edited July 18, 2010 by IMA_FARANG

[moe666]

<BR>

<BR>RIP for the lady....<BR><BR>This is the second American this week to take a fall, after the real estate ponzi scheme guy who was arrested and to be extradited...<BR>

<BR><BR>The extradition rule really piss me off!<BR>Any farang in Thailand can do every kind of illegal because in the worst case they will just be sent back home!<BR>

<BR><BR><BR>Keymaker read the story before getting pissed, he is wanted in the states for a crime.

[ilyelol]

i know this guy.

For a long time i have been waiting for something like this to happen.

He's a delusional guy living on barely any money. Impregnated a hooker ... hangs with people that have money which probably drives him crazy.

He threatened me on the internet many times, he walks around with a machete all day long. He loved to start rumors about me because he couldn't handle having a baby with a hooker.

Dangerous guy, should of been put behind the bars many years ago when he caught hepatitis after doing hookers without protection for so long.

Buddah is behind this.. karma always gets the bad guys.

[Jimi007]

Well as an American, I would have to agree we would say he's Italian American, just as we would say African American, Mexican American or Scottish American in my case. But in reality we are all just Americans, if you get my point. Although, I have never heard of anyone referred to as an English American yet...

[Jingthing]

Well as an American, I would have to agree we would say he's Italian American, just as we would say African American, Mexican American or Scottish American in my case. But in reality we are all just Americans, if you get my point. Although, I have never heard of anyone referred to as an English American yet...

Anglo Americans ...

[Jingthing]

i know this guy.

For a long time i have been waiting for something like this to happen.

He's a delusional guy living on barely any money. Impregnated a hooker ... hangs with people that have money which probably drives him crazy.

He threatened me on the internet many times, he walks around with a machete all day long. He loved to start rumors about me because he couldn't handle having a baby with a hooker.

Dangerous guy, should of been put behind the bars many years ago when he caught hepatitis after doing hookers without protection for so long.

Buddah is behind this.. karma always gets the bad guys.

I guess he won't be using you as a character reference.

[TAWP]

i know this guy.

For a long time i have been waiting for something like this to happen.

He's a delusional guy living on barely any money. Impregnated a hooker ... hangs with people that have money which probably drives him crazy.

He threatened me on the internet many times, he walks around with a machete all day long. He loved to start rumors about me because he couldn't handle having a baby with a hooker.

Dangerous guy, should of been put behind the bars many years ago when he caught hepatitis after doing hookers without protection for so long.

Buddah is behind this.. karma always gets the bad guys.

I guess he won't be using you as a character reference.

I'm sorry, but that just made me LOL.

Good to see that he was found and arrested now anyway.

[BSJ]

Well good on the BIB for putting in the effort. Hopefully justice will be swift and severe.

[ilyelol]

if i was in the country right now, id def goto the police and provide them proof of his dangerous behavior that i have saved over the years

[dude007]

I'm not familiar with this story. How did they know he killed her? Or did he just go crazy in a bar and stab her to death?

Or was he defending himself from a crazed, drugged up, drunken bar girl and things got out of hand?

a murder is a murder and deserves capital punishment unless attenuating circumstances can be proven. We hear too much stories of this kind, always in Phuket... Pattaya, which is its mirror destination, seems to be less violent! What happens in Phuket with all these crimes in which often farangs are involved? It's not always the tuk-tuk mafia which is to be blamed as it appears to me... But Kathoeys are also often heard in these stories!

Good job from the Thai police: they have proven once again professionalism and that cannot be denied, despite all odds!

[Imkah]

I've never understood this thing about katoys: If I'd been into (pun intended) men, I would have chosen someone who looked and acted like a man... And since i prefer women; my choice is not a woman with a dick. My (katoy) sister in-law explained: For Thais it's possibly sanouk or pure love: For farangs crippled by Catholic or Protestant teachings it can be a road to living as a non- or dominant male partner without admitting to being homosexual. My sister-in-law's explanation was a bit more graphic.. Can explain why murder is the tragic result of such twisted sublimation. May the poor girl rest in peace, and all twisted minds use the possibilities of this extraordinarily friendly country to come to grips with their libido whatever that might be. We're a fair distance from Martin Luthers and facist Popes. But beware of Catholic schools etc. popping up like madhatters (pun intended again) all over the country. Beware or we might again have to "confess our sins"! :jap: