John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree

By Andrew Drummond in Bangkok
Last Updated: 3:50pm GMT 08/03/2008

A gunman in Thailand shot-dead eight neighbours, including his brother-in-law, after tiring of their karaoke versions of popular songs, including John Denver’s Country Roads.

Weenus Chumkamnerd, 52, put his gun to the head of a respected female doctor and seven of her guests as they partied at her home in Songkhla Province, South Thailand.

“When I began shooting nobody pleaded for his life because they were all drunk,” he said after his arrest.

He said he was so furious with their awful singing that he did not notice he had murdered his own brother-in-law.

“I warned these people about their noisy karaoke parties. I said if they carried on I would go down and shoot them. I had told them if I couldn’t talk sense into them I would come back and finish them off,” he added.

Mr Chumkamnerd, who works as a rubber tapper, was arrested after going on the run after his killing spree in the townn of Hat Yai, near the Malaysian border.

The doctor who was hosting the party, Dr Suthathip Thammachart, 36, was the director of a local hospital who was due this month to get an award for her services to medicine.

One of the revellers survived by playing dead, convincing the gunman that he too had been killed.

When he realised he had shot his brother-in-law, Boontip Desaro, Mr Chumkamnerd said he was filled with remorse.

He got his son to take Boontip to hospital, but he was already dead.

A neighbour said that the karaoke group normally sang Thai pop and southern Thai ballads, but one particular western tune could be heard often - John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’.

Country Roads is a hugely popular song in south east Asia andthe neighbour said the revellers had been singing it over and over again.

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I can’t decide what I like best about this story.... is it the thought of drunken revelers singing bad karaoke? Or the last sentence notifying us how popular that song is in SE Asia? (As though the choice of song is relevent)

Or perhaps it’s the guy’s seemingly calm explanation that he “warned them”? Or was it that he felt “remorse” after killing his bro-in-law, but apparently not any of the others?

I’m not sure..... but I’m leaning heavily toward “Weenus Chumkamnerd”?

:)

Guess their lives didn’t end up being ‘older than the trees’ then.

We used to sing that song at primary (elementary) school.

Double nuts.

Thailand is certainly not West Virginia. Ouch.

Harry: I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this.
Lloyd: I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver’s full of shit, man.

Saki Mountain Low?

Guns don’t kill people, Karaoke kills people.

LOL.

Actually, there’s a really sad song called ‘Golden’ mourning the death of John Denver (by The Red House Painters (Mark Kozelek) who specialise in depressing melancholy shit that I tend to like)…
http://www.lyricsdir.com/red-house-painters-golden-lyrics.html

Sister woke me up
As he fell out of the sky
There’s a golden place
Where the angels crash and die
You can jab and poke
But what did you ever give?
I don’t hear your voice
Resonate like his
Hear it resonate like his

So stop yer jabbery and pokery.....!

Coun-ry roads, take me home
To the prace I berong
Wess virginia, moun-ain momma
Take me home, coun-ry roads

BANG....

Justifiable homicide

More jabbery and pokery! Where’s that ban button?!

CM’s convinced me.

I don’t hear your voice
Resonate like his

r.j. - 11 March 2008 09:03 PM

Coun-ry roads, take me home
To the prace I berong
Wess virginia, moun-ain momma
Take me home, coun-ry roads


BANG....


Justifiable homicide

Not to be a stickler, but it should be coun-lee loads, I’m jus’ sayin’.

Meanwhile at the frat house:

“Darn, my chum camera is broken. Can anyone fix it quick? The Party starts in an hour!”
“Hey, Weenus! Come here! Meet Weenus, chum-cam nerd!!!! He’s also our prime rubber tapper!”
“You mean he...”
”Yessirree! He also bought and maintains our battered battery of Fleshlights! Haha! Get it? Batteries, Fleshlights!?  Ah, you will after a few brewskis! So who are you and where ya from, frosh?”
“Takmehoam Kantreerotes, foreign exchange student from Thailand.”
“Hey, just like Weenus! Lets all Thai one on! So, is it really true that Asian girls’ ...”

...fade out to John Denver cover of “One Night In Bangkok”....

Each night a rubber tapper must remove a thin layer of (wink, wink) bark along a downward half spiral (nudge, nudge) on the (ahem) tree trunk. If done carefully and with skill, this (cough) tapping panel will yield latex for up to 5 years.