Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Thailand Serial Killer - The Somkid Pumpuang story

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Somkid Pumpuang, known as the “Jack the Ripper of Thailand,” is a convicted serial killer who murdered multiple women. In 2005, he was sentenced to life in prison for murdering five women, all of whom were masseuses or karaoke hostesses, but was released early in 2019 for “good behavior.” Just six months after his release, he murdered another woman, leading to a nationwide manhunt and his swift recapture.

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Stephen, because he's so evil. I do think he is misunderstood. You see everyone base consequences. It's intoxicating. The writers just know how to trick you. There's always a twist in this show. Tell Me Lies, the official podcast, January 6th, and stream the new season of Tell Me Lies, January 13, on Hulu, and Hulu on

Disney Plus. So why did this super charming guy suddenly end up going crazy and murdering a bunch of people? Well, his name's Sommkid, but we'll call him Kidd. And Kidd lives in Thailand. And his whole life, he's been very charismatic and he's really good at getting people to trust him. But once he gets you to trust him, he'll swindle you. So he's always conning and stealing and cheating people out of their money. This is basically how he makes a living. He's a con man. And he does this, his entire life. life. But sometime around 2005, when he's around 40 years old, he decides that this con man life just isn't enough for him and he suddenly gets into murder. So one day, he checks into a nice hotel. Then he goes out to a karaoke bar. And there, bam, he sees this beautiful woman

and she's up there singing. And he thinks she is foin. And soon enough, he starts talking to her and they're chatting. And kid, he can't tell her that he's a con man and that he's got nothing going on. so he tells her that he's a talent agent and that she really caught his eye. And Singer is all flattered, and so when Kit asks her to come back to his hotel, she's like, I? And so they go back to his hotel. And once they're there, she starts asking Kid about the whole talent agent thing, and suddenly he gets all defensive. Because, you know, he's a liar who just got caught in a lie.

And so they're arguing about this, and this is where Kid just snaps. And boom, he grabs her by the neck, and he strangles. her, and then he ties her up, and he drowns her in the hotel bathtub. Then he steals some of her stuff, and he leaves. The next morning, police show up, and they find her body. And they have kids' real name because he used his name to book the hotel room. But, unfortunately, his name is apparently very common in that area. There's like thousands of people with that same name, so they don't catch him.

And thus, kid just keeps on traveling around Thailand, living his life, and no one suspects he did anything wrong. Five months later, one night, he books a room at another nice hotel. And he goes to a massage parlor and he hires a masseuse for her services and he brings her back to his hotel and for whatever reason they get into an argument. And once again, Kid just loses it and he attacks her, strangling her until she's unalived. Then he steals her phone and her jewelry and he leaves. And from there he just keeps going. A week later he goes to another massage parlor and he picks up another woman, and he takes her back to his hotel room,

and he's like, hey, I own a gemstone mine, and she's like, oh, cool. And there, he strangles her, too, until she's unalived. And then, of course, he steals a bunch of her stuff. Now, so far, the locations of the three women he's murdered, they've all been in Thailand, but they're about 100 miles apart from one another.

So police aren't yet seeing a pattern. However, some of these hotels do have security cameras, and one of them just happened to catch kid on video. And there he is checking into the hotel there. And so now police have an idea of what he looks like, and they start to piece all this together, that he's doing this to different women in different hotels, which means he's now officially a serial killer.

And now they've got to get the Royal Thai police involved, which is like the National Police Force. And so they get involved, and they start looking over the case. Meanwhile, kid just keeps going. A week after his last murder, he ends up in another hotel in a different province, and he picks up another masseuse. Then he takes her back to his hotel room, but this time he slips something into her drink that knocks her out. Once she's sedated, bam, he strangles her and he unalives her. Then, of course, he steals her stuff, and he flees.

But this time, kid screws up because he leaves his fingerprints. I guess he wasn't so sloppy before, but he's been getting really sloppy later. And so police investigate this death, and they look through the room and they find his fingerprints, so now they know who he is. And so boom, they start a nationwide manhunt looking for Kid. And soon screenshots from the security footage and an old mugshot of his are posted up everywhere, all over the news. But by this point, Kid has already fled. He's hundreds of miles away from the place he last murdered. And as you could have predicted, in this new place, he picks up yet another masseuse. And he takes her back to a hotel, and there he strangles her and unalives her. So this is number five.

After that, he escapes again, and he goes to another town, and he crashes at a friend's house. Now, this friend, she's a widow, so we'll just call her widow. And kid, he's staying at her house, and she's like, it's so good to see you. She has no idea he just unalived five women, four of them in the last three weeks. And so he lays low with widow, and she doesn't suspect a thing. and everything is going great for him. I mean, police have no idea where he's at. Until.

Here's the thing, though. I mean, you remember, Kid has stolen a bunch of stuff from his victims, including their cell phones. And at some point, he uses one of the victim's phones to make a couple of calls. And police have actually been tracking the SIM cards of those phones. And so the second he makes those calls, boom, they got his location. And so they send a squat out to that location, which is actually Widow's house. Meanwhile, Kid and Widow are there at the home watching TV, and suddenly a picture of him shows up on the news.

And Widow's like, hey, that guy kind of looks like you. And kid's like, nah, that don't look like me. But then, boom, boom, boom, police are beating on the door, and they come in and bam, they arrest kid. Here's his mugshot. But unfortunately, it's not over for him, because he's still got more murders to commit. And so anyway, he goes to trial, he pleads guilty, and he gets... life in prison, but he eventually gets his sentenced reduced. I guess he's a model prisoner and after 14 years he's granted royal clemency and he's released on good behavior. And so now after 14 years

Kid is out and it's 2019 and he's 55 years old at this point. But he's still a pretty charming guy. So pretty quickly he gets himself a girlfriend. And of course Kid doesn't tell her that he's a convicted serial killer. No, no. He tells her that he's a lawyer, and I guess she believes him. And so they get into a relationship and they move in together and they end up running a noodle shop together. But during that time, he's living with her. He gets on Facebook one day and he meets this other woman. Her name's Ratsumi. She's a hotel maid. And they hit it off and they start dating. And of course, he doesn't tell Ratsumi that he already has a girlfriend. Anyway, soon, they start getting pretty serious. And so he's splitting his time.

living with each girlfriend. And at some point, he talks Ratsumi into lending him money, because I guess he's broke. Specifically, he talks her into putting a down payment on a car for him. And once he gets the car and he has it for a while, I guess he realizes he can't afford the payments on it. So instead of figuring out a way to pay Ratsumi back for the money she put down on the car, he decides to just break up with her. And so then he goes to break up with her, and this turns into a huge argument and this argument gets heated, like really heated. And in that moment, kid suddenly snaps and he reverts to his old ways. And boom, he grabs her by the neck and he strangles Ratsumi until she's unalived. Then he steals her motorcycle and he flees. Here's the

thing though. When police find Ratsumi's body, they know it was kid who did it. I mean, there's only been like two or three serial killers in Thailand's entire history. And he's one, of them. And so pretty quickly, pow, they plaster his photo everywhere. Then about four days later, he gets on a train. And a young couple spots him and they're like, hey, I think that's the serial killer. And they contact police and once the train stops, bam, police arrest him. Here's another mugshot. And so, kid is busted again and he pleads guilty and this time he's sentenced to death. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task. task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything

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