Cia-Hitman-Bill-William-Young-Found-Dead-At-His-Chiang-Mai-Home

[jaideeguy]

Just found this story about an old timer that just passed away here in CM and if you can access the story, you'll be amazed by this guys life. Maybe someone out there knew Bill and could share a few stories......

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/77251,people,news,cia-hitman-bill-william-young-found-dead-at-his-chiang-mai-home-air-america

[HaiSoh]

Thanks for this interesting link !

[bridge]

Thanks for this interesting link !

Very interesting indeed.

RIP

[searcher22]

What an amazing life this guy had! I never thought I'd feel some sadness for a hitman! Thanks for posting.

[Johpa]

The Young family, as well as many of the older missionary families, have long had an impact upon Chiang Mai; the Chiang Mai Zoo was partly founded by the Young family. I only met Bill Young briefly once, maybe twice, long ago. I knew of his background, but he came across as a rather modest man, there was certainly no braggadocio present during our very brief encounters. I do hope he left a memoir as he was a first hand witness, and often for better or worse an actor, to a very changing environment up in the hills, an area where there is still little first hand reporting apart from missionaries and anthropologists and the few intrepid freelancers like Bertil (Shan) and Jim (Akha). By the way, there is a rather different perspective on Young over at akha.org.

[philw]

The Young family, as well as many of the older missionary families, have long had an impact upon Chiang Mai; the Chiang Mai Zoo was partly founded by the Young family. I only met Bill Young briefly once, maybe twice, long ago. I knew of his background, but he came across as a rather modest man, there was certainly no braggadocio present during our very brief encounters. I do hope he left a memoir as he was a first hand witness, and often for better or worse an actor, to a very changing environment up in the hills, an area where there is still little first hand reporting apart from missionaries and anthropologists and the few intrepid freelancers like Bertil (Shan) and Jim (Akha). By the way, there is a rather different perspective on Young over at akha.org.

Nice comments and very fair.

Relevant that he lived with the gun and crucifix and killed himself both with them in his hands........( thought that was a mortal sin )

" those who live by the sword etc......"

[SteeleJoe]

CIA "hitman"? Who came up with that? He was a lot of things -- good, bad, or both depending on your perspective -- but that's sort of a silly description.

EDIT: oops! Sorry, I didn't realize that was the title of the article (hadn't read it yet): still think it's stupid.

Though I know a fair bit about him (for various reasons) I didn't know him well at all but knew some who did -- and I liked him.

RIP

Edited April 5, 2011 by SteeleJoe

[SteeleJoe]

Not like I was contemporaies or intimates of either of them but first Tony Po and now Bill Young -- I don't know, it feels sort of personal due to adventures (and fantasies?) I had as a youth and the minor but somewhat significant impact/influence knowing them and spending a bit of time with them and some of their people had on me.

[LaoPo]

Interesting story by the author of the same.....the question remains how much is truth and how much is made-up.

The way the deceased spoke to the author (if we may believe so) is the kind of stories we hear about on and off in our lives.

In a way another Asian story like the mysterious disappearance of Jim Thompson (the King of Thai Silk) who disappeared* in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia on Easter Sunday, March 26th, 1967 when he walked out of the house for a stroll...

They never found him...they never knew what happened; many books and stories later about Jim Thompson, also a CIA agent, so they claim and nothing new.

I know of 2 chaps (brothers) who could tell the same kind of stories; their problem is that they both don't know anymore what's the truth and what not.

One of them just wrote a book and will appear on television this week.

I found numerous "mistakes/lies" in his book, so who knows if the stories about this Mr. Bill Young are true also....? Nobody to confirm anymore I suppose.

May he RIP....and RIP for his victims, if any.

* http://en.wikipedia....9#Disappearance

LaoPo

[whimsy]

There is another news link and more comments about Bill Young in the page of remembrance thread pinned at the top of this forum.

Edited April 5, 2011 by whimsy

[SteeleJoe]

They never found him...they never knew what happened; many books and stories later about Jim Thompson, also a CIA agent, so they claim and nothing new.

Thompson was OSS, which is not precisely the same thing (some think that he was an agency guy too and that is connected to his disappearance but that's never beed substantiated and many who knew him well swear he wasn't); whether there was more to it or not what we know about the part of Jim Thompson's life that had nothing to do with cloak and dagger is plenty remarkable. His ending only makes it moreso.

[SteeleJoe]

DELETED DUPLICATE

Edited April 5, 2011 by SteeleJoe

[trisailer]

and here's more interesting reading

[LJW]

A good friend for many years.. RIP

[Lizard2010]

Thanks for sharing the storey

[Bizz]

if anyone would like to know more there are some good accounts in a Book called

The Ravens Pilots of the secret war in Laos by Christopher Robbins

[SteeleJoe]

A good friend for many years.. RIP

My sympathies.

[Loaded]

He murdered political enemies of the American government during their colonial war in SE Asia. He was from a Chiang Mai Christian missionary family.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Loaded

[slapout]

Calm down Loaded. believe half of what you think you see and subsequently less of what you read, and even less of what you hear.

I would venture to say you have used the term "unbelievable" here in Thailand a few times. There will probably be a few individuals popping up who will claim intimate knowledge, information, etc about the man and his life. If he left a bio (which I doubt) that may disagree with what some remember or have information on.

[SteeleJoe]

...their colonial war in SE Asia...

[BarnicaleBob]

I attended Bill Young’s Funeral today and it was a well attended event with even a member of the Thai police and military present. During the ceremony the VFW presented Bill’s son an American flag, there were also some retired Special Forces fellows that came to town for the funeral as well as a few representatives of several American agencies. I spoke to Bill’s son as well as some Americans who had worked with him and heard some good stories about how knowledgeable Bill was about the tribes living in Burma and Laos. He was still called upon sometimes from some people who currently work those areas for information. In my mind he was without a doubt a true American hero.

Rest in Peace

[Flatouthruthefog]

<br />I attended Bill Young's Funeral today and it was a well attended event with even a member of the Thai police and military present.  During the ceremony the VFW presented Bill's son an American flag, there were also some retired Special Forces fellows that came to town for the funeral as well as a few representatives of several American agencies.  I spoke to Bill's son as well as some Americans who had worked with him and heard some good stories about how knowledgeable Bill was about the tribes living in Burma and Laos.  He was still called upon sometimes from some people who currently work those areas for information.  In my mind he was without a doubt a true American hero.  <br /><br />  Rest in Peace<br /><br /><br />

<br /><br /><br />

I was there too and it was all very impressive and I respect what you say.

But one element was missing.

No-one from the US Consulate. Well, not recognisable anyway, and i know the current people fairly well.

So I don't know if this man wore a white hat or a black hat.

Maybe we shall never know......?

[Naam]

"Killing was part of the job," he told me, detailing several scenes where he had shot his way out of tight corners in remote hill tribe villages.

that made him a "hitman"?

[ozzieovaseas]

"Killing was part of the job," he told me, detailing several scenes where he had shot his way out of tight corners in remote hill tribe villages.

that made him a "hitman"?

If you believe what you read, "hitmen" usually prey on people when they are unarmed and basically defenseless.

If he had made any important "hits", i doubt he would have lived to that age without getting payback at some stage..and i doubt whether villagers in those "remote hill tribes" would have been armed up to the teeth either.

+1 for the NOT a hero posters

[BarnicaleBob]

<br />I attended Bill Young's Funeral today and it was a well attended event with even a member of the Thai police and military present. During the ceremony the VFW presented Bill's son an American flag, there were also some retired Special Forces fellows that came to town for the funeral as well as a few representatives of several American agencies. I spoke to Bill's son as well as some Americans who had worked with him and heard some good stories about how knowledgeable Bill was about the tribes living in Burma and Laos. He was still called upon sometimes from some people who currently work those areas for information. In my mind he was without a doubt a true American hero. <br /><br /> Rest in Peace<br /><br /><br />

<br /><br /><br />

I was there too and it was all very impressive and I respect what you say.

But one element was missing.

No-one from the US Consulate. Well, not recognisable anyway, and i know the current people fairly well.

So I don't know if this man wore a white hat or a black hat.

Maybe we shall never know......?

There was also another service for Bill the day before the funeral and the U.S. Consulate gave a very moving speech at that event.

[Ulysses G.]

If you believe what you read, "hitmen" usually prey on people when they are unarmed and basically defenseless.

Yes, but the "hits" are often men who have killed a lot of other unarmed, defenseless people for less than noble reasons.

[klikster]

I never had the pleasure of meeting Bill Young, but have heard about him for the past 15 years from friends who knew him. One was a retired CIA operative in Laos, another was former Air America, another (Thai) stationed at one of the Lima sites in Laos, another a former USAID officer.

Some of the stories they told were amusing, others less so. None of then said anything ill of the man. I never heard "hit man".

Even if I filter out all that could be exaggeration, he still must have been a helluva guy.

Rest well, Bill Young.

[SteeleJoe]

dam_n shame about the title of this thread: I'm sick of seeing it every time I go to My Contents.

[Johpa]

dam_n shame about the title of this thread: I'm sick of seeing it every time I go to My Contents.

Although I did not know Bill Young personally, I did pass on the first link to some friends of mine who did know him and they too were rather upset at the headline that they considered bordering on libelous. Out of respect to the Young family, one of the most respected western families in Chiang Mai, perhaps the mods might want to edit the topic heading.

[sbk]

Clearly the OP copy pasted it from the headline at the First Post link he posted. I suggest the family talk to them about the inappropriateness of their headline.

Unfortunately, altering the topic headline is out of the question since its already been indexed by google and would screw up the search parameters and yield a 404 page with google.