The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton

This is the first really thorough study of the mysterious death of Thomas Merton since it occurred in Bangkok in December 1968. David Martin has written extensively on what informed people might consider the murder of White House Counsel Vincent Foster during the Clinton years, and his interest in Merton was piqued by James Douglass’s 2008 Book on JFK where his thesis was: ‘He chose peace. They marked him for death.’ Martin wondered if the same applied to Merton, and this book is the result of an in-depth investigation concluding that Merton was indeed assassinated, probably involving the CIA. This is what Matthew Fox told me years ago, and 1968 also marked the assassination of RFK and MLK. The official story is that Merton was accidentally electrocuted, even though the initial Thai police report stated that he had died of heart failure. Since then, the accidental electrocution story has been elaborated such that Merton is meant to have taken a shower (there is no evidence for this), which is supposed to explain the fatal mis-operation of the fan.

The authors highlight many detailed inconsistencies and contradictions in witness testimonies and documents, especially involving Fr Francois de Grunne in contrast to Fr Celestine Say, who took the original photographs of the scene, and was told to stop – Gethsemani Abbey did not give the authors permission to reproduce these evidential photos in the book (p. 256), though they do talk about them. Martin told Say the day before that his room had been rearranged (he supposed by a maid). When they found Merton’s body, he was lying face up, with the fan across his abdomen, and with his hands straight down his sides – not a plausible position if he had fallen against the fan. (pp. 157, 248) Merton could not have pulled the fan on to himself – it looked rather as if someone had placed the fan on top of him in what the CIA calls ‘a contrived accident’ in their assassination manual from the 1950s – ‘the most effective for a secret assassination.’ (p. 202) In addition, Merton had a wound in the back of his head that had nothing to do with the fan. No autopsy was performed either in Thailand or in the US, and the US Army took possession of Merton’s body which, ironically, was flown back with Vietnam casualties in a military aircraft – a war that Merton had vociferously opposed. Given that no autopsy was carried out, the exact cause of death remains obscure, and there is no explanation for the head wound. (The papers indicate that proper procedures have been followed, when they hadn’t.)

Given the mysterious circumstances of Merton’s death, not only should an autopsy have been performed, but the case should have been treated as homicide (and witnesses interrogated) until otherwise proven – and in this respect, an autopsy was essential in order to determine the cause of death. There are all kinds of inconsistencies with respect to timing according to the different witnesses, and also in their statements, one of which may well be fraudulent (p. 52). Moreover, the police report indicated that someone had tampered with the fan by installing a defective cord, but this was not pursued, nor was one of the witnesses that badly shocked when touching it. The official biographer Michael Mott changed the order of events (pp. 166-7, 170-1) to support what had now become the authorised version involving electrocution after a shower. The day after Merton’s death, plants from in front of the windows were removed along with all his furnishings so that no further forensic analysis was possible.

If all this sounds merely circumstantial, the devil is in the detail – of which there is a great deal. In this respect, Say’s photos are crucial and, as they contradict the official narrative, showing the fan’s position before it was moved. The first official biographer, John Griffin, advised Merton’s Abbot that the photographs should not be published as they showed Merton’s body ‘lying perfectly straight as if ready for a coffin.’ (p. 157) Another part of the argument is that Merton was a dangerous force for peace and truth in the same way as RFK and MLK, and Gethsemani Abbey collaborated with a cover-up in a number of ways described – Griffin and the biographers ‘had a responsibility to dispel the suspicions or resolve the contradictions (p. 226) – thus promoting a conspiracy of silence. The authors have put together a robust case to support their conclusion that ’the best evidence indicates beyond any serious doubt that Merton was murdered’ (p. 267). A summary review like this cannot convey the weight and detail of the evidence adduced, so readers must arrive at their own considered judgement by reading the book.

Note received from Matthew Fox:

They sent me the photo of Merton, I have it here. There is blood coming out of the back of his neck! Nothing to do with electrocution. I met a former CIA agent who was working in SE Asia at the time (actually several but this one most recently) who admitted that “Yes, we killed Merton. And the last 40 years of my life I have been cleansing my soul from what I did working for the CIA forty years ago in South East Asia.”