Read Houses of Death (True Crime) for Free Online Page A

Prohibition, they had been estimated to be worth $7 million (£3.5 million).
    Then, on 20 March 1920, distressed by her failing marriage, Billy’s sister, Elsa Lemp Wright, shot herself, just as her father had done. Billy is reported to have commented on arriving at the house where she had killed herself: ‘That’s the Lemp family for you.’ He slipped further into depression as a result and, on 22 December 1922, he became the third member of his family to shoot himself. His weapon of choice was a .38-calibre revolver and he carried out the act in his office in the mansion where his father had killed himself 18 years earlier.
    Tragically, in 1943, his son, William Lemp III, died of a heart attack at the age of 42.
    All that remained were Billy’s two brothers, Charles and Edwin, who had never worked in the family business. Charles had made his money from banking and real estate and, having refurbished the mansion, he moved back into the old house. But, he became stranger as he got older. He had an obsessive and irrational fear of germs, wore gloves at all times and compulsively washed his hands. He would become the fourth Lemp to commit suicide.
    On 10 May 1949, Charles shot his much-loved Dobermann pincher before turning his .38-calibre Colt revolver on himself, on the stairs leading up to his room on the mansion’s second floor. He left a note saying, ‘St Louis Mo/May 9, 1949, In case I am found dead blame it on no one but me. Ch A Lemp’. It was the only suicide note left by any members of the Lemp family.
    After working in the brewery until 1913, Edwin, the last in the Lemp line, had led a quiet life at his estate in Kirkwood, Missouri, where he had an observation tower, two servants’ houses, a collection of birds, antelope, sheep, yaks and many other animals. He devoted himself to charitable causes, most notably the St. Louis Zoo.
    Before he died, in 1970, Edwin instructed his caretaker to destroy his art collection and all Lemp family heirlooms, perhaps in order to destroy the curse that had so tragically decimated his family.

Bangkwang Central Prison
    Nonthaburi Province, Thailand

Of all the prisons in all the world, Bangkwang is the most notorious. Dangerously over-crowded, crawling with parasites and disease, and chock-full of drug smugglers and violent criminals - this prison has more in common with Newgate gaol of 18th century London, than any modern-day western prison. The Bangkok Hilton is one place in Thailand no one wants to visit.
     
    The Thais call it the ‘Big Tiger’, because, they say, it eats you up. Westerners call it ‘the Bangkok Hilton’, although that name is used to describe several Thai prisons. This one holds around 7,000 murderers, rapists and drug smugglers, all of whom are in for a minimum of 25 years. It is, quite simply, the most notorious prison in the world − the Bangkwang Central Prison.
    Its history goes back as far as 1902, when Thailand’s King Rama V bought an extensive piece of land in Bangkok on which he planned to construct a prison for the very worst of Thailand’s convicts – prisoners whose appeals were pending in the appeal court and supreme court, convicted male prisoners facing sentences of at least 25 years and prisoners who had been sentenced to death and were awaiting execution. However, it was not until after Rama V’s death that building began, in 1927, during the reign of his successor, Rama VI. It was completed in 1931. Today it covers around 32 hectares (80 acres) with 11 dormitories and 11 dining halls. Its perimeter walls are 2,406m (7,894 ft) long, 6m (19.5ft) high, go down 1m (3ft) underground and are equipped with high-voltage wires to deter escape attempts. The walls separating each of the prison’s 13 sections are 1.3m (4.3ft) long, 6m (20ft) high and bristle with barbed wire.
    When prisoners first arrive at Bangkwang they are put into leg-irons, and these must be worn for the