Boonpeng

Boonpeng (1890 – 19 August 1919), popularly known as Boonpeng Heep Lek (, ) or Iron-Chest Boonpeng, was a Thai murderer and suspected serial killer who killed between two and seven religious worshippers in 1917. Convicted for these killings, he was beheaded in 1919. He is the last prisoner executed by beheading in the country.

Early life Boonpeng was born in 1890 to a Chinese father and a Lao mother in Tha Uthen, Monthon Lao Phuan (now Nakhon Phanom province). He was brought to Bangkok at age 5, where he lived in the Bang Khun Phrom district.

As a teenager, Boonpeng was considered a handsome, charming and eloquent character who easily swooned local women, but was also known for avoiding hard work and being very lazy. While his foster grandparents were working, he would spend his free time studying black magic, superstitions and making love potions. After that, Boonpeng is said to have sealed his body in an iron chest and dumped it into the Khlong Bangkok Noi, which was found in May 1917. His other known victim was a wealthy 20-year-old woman named Prik, who had originally approached him to concoct a love potion to make her husband love her again, but then became his lover and was eventually impregnated by Boonpeng. As she wanted him to be a responsible father and look after their child, Boonpeng decided to kill her, as he had already arranged marriage for himself.

Boonpeng is said to have hit her and then wrapped her in a mosquito net, before stuffing her into an iron chest and dumping in the Chao Phraya River, which he had filled with bricks to weigh it down and drown her. It was discovered in early January 1918 by fishermen in Nonthaburi Province. Since they believed it might contain some treasures, as these chests were usually only used by wealthy people, the fishermen opened it but were shocked to find a woman's body inside. They notified the authorities, who frantically began searching for the killer, but to no avail. When news spread of the mysterious unidentified woman's death, the police were contacted by her mother, who claimed that her daughter, Prik, had gone to reclaim a gold necklace from a notorious monk named Boonpeng, who operated out of the Wat Suthat temple in Bangkok.

Acting on her tip-off, police began investigating Boonpeng, but were unable to arrest him immediately as they had no solid evidence against him. They appealed to the public for any information, prompting a rickshaw driver, Charan, to approach them, claiming that he had been hired by the monk to dump the iron chest into the river. After receiving this information, police finally swept in and arrested Boonpeng during his wedding ceremony on 14 January 1918. While in custody, he confessed to killing both Nai Learm and Prik, but it was also suggested that he was responsible for up to five other disappearances, mostly of alleged lovers, whom he also sealed in iron chests and then dumped them in canals.

He would be charged with his two known murders, convicted and swiftly sentenced to death. He was publicly beheaded on 19 August 1919 and buried at , now in Watthana District.

In the decades that followed, locals built a shrine in the name of his spirit, in their belief that with the passage of time, his soul would be purified. Nowadays, he is affectionately referred to as "Uncle Boonpeng" and is revered as a friendly spirit which protects his worshippers from evil, and that his seven iron chests are buried under the temple.