Quotes of the Day

Thai lawmaker Hangthong Tumwattana was visibly upset when he turned up at his family's 12-bedroom mansion on the night of Sept. 5, 1999. A scion of one of Thailand's richest business clans, Hangthong's personal fortune had been depleted by costly political campaigns and his familial relations strained by an ugly inheritance feud. "He was nervous, hands shaking as he ate," recalls younger brother Nopdol Tumwattana, who lived at the compound in Bang Khen in northern Bangkok with Hangthong and may have been the last person to see his brother alive. Hours later, after calls from panicked relatives, police found Hangthong slumped in a living room chair, still clutching a revolver. Investigators quickly ruled his death a suicide.

But the case would not stay closed. Four years on, Hangthong's younger sister Narumol, convinced her brother was killed over their late mother's fortune, hired a Scottish forensics specialist and enlisted the aid of a Thai medical examiner to scrutinize the evidence. Their conclusion: blood spatters at the scene, the angle of the entry wound and other factors strongly indicated murder. Last Friday, after an investigation that lasted more than two months, prosecutors charged Nopdol with murder, but he isn't the only one on trial. The sensational case has raised so many questions about the way cops handled the 1999 investigation that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has vowed to clean up the country's notoriously corrupt legal system.

With its seamy mix of political power, billions of baht in booty, and high-society scandal, the Hangthong case is just the latest installment of a Tumwattana family saga that is Shakespearean in its tragic body count. Starting in the 1950s as owners of a slaughterhouse, the clan's patriarch, Arkom, and his wife, Suwapee, built a Bangkok-based real estate empire worth an estimated $400 million. But wealth didn't bring security to the family, which numbered 10 children. In 1966, Arkom was shot dead in what was believed to be a business dispute. The case remains unsolved. Thirteen years later, Suwapee was shot and wounded in another unsolved case. Her oldest daughter Kusuma was slain while collecting rents in 1982. Her uncle and two nieces were convicted of plotting the murder, but later they were released by the Supreme Court. Suwapee died of cancer in 1990. Disputes over her wills sparked 50 lawsuits among family members. Not long after Suwapee's death, daughter Naiyana was found strangled, handcuffed and shot to death in a car. In 1991, oldest son Therdchai was abducted from Bangkok's airport and never found. At least one suspect in that case was himself later murdered.

In an interview he granted TIME while under investigation, Nopdol offered a simple explanation for this history of bloodshed. "It's greed," he says, alleging that relatives and in-laws fighting over the family businesses and inheritance are responsible. He says he is innocent and had no reason to kill his brother, because he made his own fortune running a jewelry company and selling Body Glove clothing. "I'm the victim now," he says. He claims that Hangthong took his own life because, unable to prevent family members from going to court over their mother's fortune, he knew that Nopdol would present evidence that Hangthong forged two of the five wills that surfaced following Suwapee's death—revelations that would ruin his political career. As for the forensic evidence, Nopdol has enlisted his own expert to support the suicide theory: Dr. Henry C. Lee of the U.S., who testified for the defense in O.J. Simpson's criminal trial.

In Thailand, business disputes are often settled out of court, sometimes murderously. Economist Chris Baker, who helped conduct a survey for the World Bank, said most Thai businessmen don't trust the legal system, because they believe courts and cops can be bought. "Violence was quite a big option," says Baker. The country has an estimated thousand or so professional gunmen who earn their livings mainly by "solving" business conflicts. Few are ever caught. Shortly after Nopdol's arrest, Thaksin told the press that fingerprint evidence showed that more than one person was involved in Hangthong's death. Instructing police to investigate the original team that had concluded that the politician committed suicide, the Prime Minister said, "It's time to reform the whole system."

Nopdol, whose trial was scheduled to begin on Monday, says he fears he will be found guilty due to the current political climate. Meanwhile, the six surviving Tumwattana siblings remain a family divided. "It's really a shame," says Hangthong's son Changwat, who adds that he believes his uncle Nopdol is innocent. "Our family could have become one of the most prominent in Thailand. But greed has held us back. Greed has been our tragedy."

• Robert Horn | Bangkok
• Did a vicious family feud decimate a wealthy Bangkok family?