Si Quey

Si Ouey or Si Uey Sae-Ung (, , ), commonly spelled Si Quey and whose actual name was Huang Lihui , was a Sino-Thai gardener who became best known as a convicted serial killer. Si Ouey was accused of killing several children throughout the 1950s before being arrested in 1958 and executed in 1959. According to some sources, Si Ouey was allegedly the first serial killer in the history of modern Thailand. Many believe him to be innocent of the charges and a victim of anti-Chinese sentiment in 20th-century Thailand.

Biography A novice monk viewing Si Ouey's body as it was displayed at the Siriraj Medical Museum in 2006. It was taken down in 2019 due to discussion about his possible innocence. Much of Si Ouey's history is unknown; the Thai Department of Corrections was never contacted by a family member, and as of 2020 Si Ouey was considered stateless.

According to the newspaper Thairath, Si Ouey was born in 1927 to a Teochew family of poor farmers in Huilai County, Shantou Prefecture. The given names of his father and mother were transcribed as Hun Ho and Bai Ding . He was reportedly neglected as a child by his parents and abused by his peers, leaving his home and travelling around as a nomad.

There are several rumours surrounding Si Ouey's life before his arrival in Thailand. It's said that as a young teenager, he encountered a Buddhist monk who told him to eat human livers and hearts, claiming it would improve his physical strength to protect himself. Si Ouey heeded the advice, but initially only killed animals to eat their raw organs. Upon turning 18, he was drafted into the "8th Infantry Battallion" to fight in the Second Sino-Japanese War. It's alleged that during an encirclement by the Imperial Japanese Army, Si Ouey engaged in cannibalism during a food shortage by removing the hearts, livers, and intestines of his dead fellow soldiers before boiling and eating them.

At the end of the war a few months later, Si Ouey returned to Shantou, but he left again due to escape poverty. He illegally immigrated to Thailand by stowing away on a freighter, arriving at Bangkok Port on 28 December 1946. With some fellow passengers, he stayed at a hotel in Phra Nakhon district before leaving for Thap Sakae district in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, where he lived for the next eight years. He resided in Thap Sakae subdistrict, sharing a space with several other Chinese immigrants in a small alley in the central area, later nicknamed "Si Ouey Alley". As Si Ouey did not speak Thai, he mainly sought employment by Chinese speakers, usually as a farmhand for cassava and coconut farms, but also as a general labourer and a tofu factory worker. Oral tradition in areas where Si Ouey lived described him as a gentle and kind man who feared strangers but was always willing to help others. A former co-worker, Ik-Liang Sae-Jiew, stated that Si Ouey treated him and other labourers like family.

Alleged murders From 1954 to 1958, Si Ouey was accused of killing several (sources disagree on whether four, or six According to Nawi Boonyakan, Somboon's body had been mutilated and placed on two logs, partially covered by cogon grass. Si Ouey had been caught carrying a cleaver and was reportedly in the process of cutting grass to add to the pile, though no fire had been lit yet.

Si Ouey was tried by the Court of First Instance, which sentenced him to death. However, the sentence was automatically reduced to life imprisonment due to his confession being counted as mitigating. The Court of Appeals reversed the reduction and reimposed the death sentence, with no chance for commutation. The Supreme Court of Thailand affirmed the decision. On 16 September 1959, Si Ouey was executed by firing squad at Bang Kwang Prison.

Legacy The case generated significant press coverage following Si Ouey's confession. For the following decades, Si Ouey was commonly invoked as a bogeyman-like figure to scare children into behaving. Several note that Si Ouey spoke no Thai and as such may not have given an accurate confession, and that he was forced to use a translator during his trial. The ceremony was attended by residents of Thap Sakae Subdistrict, who had maintained Si Ouey's innocence, and a film crew who were producing a movie based on Si Ouey's life.