{"id":65371,"date":"2026-05-25T14:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T18:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=65371"},"modified":"2026-05-25T16:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:07:34","slug":"the-1968-assassination-of-thomas-merton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=65371","title":{"rendered":"

The 1968 Assassination of Trappist Monk and Religious Author Thomas Merton<\/span><\/h1>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photograph taken by Fr. Say and Fr. Egbert Donovan upon finding the deceased Thomas Merton in his bathroom at a Red Cross retreat facility named Sawang Khaniwat in Samut Prakan, a province near Bangkok, Thailand, while attending an interfaith monastic conference.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

SOTN Editor’s Note: The following expos\u00e9 is particularly meaningful for one of the editors because he went to Saint Bonaventure University nestled in the Allegheny foothills of southwestern New York state.\u00a0 Looking out the largest library window, one’e eyes would naturally fall upon a large heart carved out of the forest that blanketed the distant mountainside.\u00a0 Of course, all of us undergrads at that time were well aware that it was Bona’s college teacher Thomas Merton who literally carved out that heart tree by tree, with his own heart and hands, axe and log tongs.<\/p>\n

But the real connection with Thomas Merton stemmed from the historical fact that, after he converted to Roman Catholicism, Merton’s very first teaching assignment at St. Bonaventure U. was taken from 1939 to 1940 under the mentorship of a Franciscan monk—Fathers Irenaeus Herscher.\u00a0 Thirty-five years later in 1974 this SOTN editor was given the exclusive and great privilege to study alone after hours in Fr. Herscher’s office and book-bonding shop, which was located in the basement of the university library.\u00a0 To top it all off, the good father generously made available the largest classical music collection one had ever seen to listen to while studying in that monk cave (which was nicely secluded from the typical noisy college life even in the not so quiet library).<\/p>\n

Then there was the very strong shared mutual interest in all things having to do with the Eastern spiritual traditions and Oriental philosophies.\u00a0 While Merton’s spiritual pursuit in this regard was so intense it brought him to Thailand where he was ultimately murdered in December of 1968, this editor found himself living and working in a Maha Kundalini Yoga ashram later in life eventually becoming a meditation and hatha yoga instructor.<\/p>\n

But why was such a humble and loving and world peace-promoting Trappist monk killed with such cold calculation?\u00a0 Because Thomas Merton was a pivotal pioneer in interfaith dialogue between the Western and Eastern civilizations up to that time.\u00a0 In point of fact, he played an integral role in facilitating East-West monastic exchanges and laid the groundwork for the subsequent religious scholarship right up to his assassination by the C.I.A.\u00a0 The key point is that he had become world famous among the religious intelligentsia and he enjoyed a very large and high international platform to speak from about “The Unspeakable”.<\/p>\n

Much more significantly, the gifted and popular writer and speaker Merton wrote things that no high-profile VIP cleric was ever permitted to write except on pain of death.\u00a0 As follows:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019The Unspeakable\u2019 is a term Thomas Merton coined at the heart of the sixties after JFK\u2019s assassination\u2014in the midst of the escalating Vietnam War and the further assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. In each of those soul-shaking events, Merton sensed an evil whose depth and deceit seemed to go beyond the capacity of words to describe.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019One of the awful facts of our age,\u2019 Merton wrote in 1965, \u2018is the evidence that [the world] is stricken indeed, stricken to the very core of its being by the presence of the Unspeakable.\u2019 The Vietnam War, the race to a global war, and the interlocking murders of John Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy were all signs of the Unspeakable. It remains deeply present in our world. As Merton warned, ‘Those who are at present so eager to be reconciled with the world at any price must take care not to be reconciled with it under this particular aspect: as the nest of the world Unspeakable. This is what too few are willing to see.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we become more deeply human, as Merton understood the process, the wellspring of our compassion moves us to confront the Unspeakable.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Merton scholar and historian James W. Douglass<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now the reader truly understands why the venerable and courageous Thomas Merton was ruthlessly liquidated by the dark side on December 10, 1968 in Bangkok, Thailand in the very same year as the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n

*President Woodrow Wilson was named Thomas Woodrow Wilson<\/strong>\u00a0at birth.<\/p>\n

T. Anthony Michael (where T stands for Thomas)
\nState of the Nation
\nMay 25, 2026<\/p>\n

N.B. What follows is just one of the many vital perspectives on the assassination of Thomas Merton.<\/p>\n

\n

Speaking the Unspeakable: The Assassination and Martyrdom of Thomas Merton<\/h1>\n

A Quasi-Review of The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton by Hugh Turley & David Martin<\/h3>\n

By Edward Curtin
\nGlobal Research<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

\u201cKilling a man who says \u2018No!\u2019 is a risky business,\u201d the priest replied, \u201cbecause even a corpse can go on whispering \u2018No! No! No! with a persistence and obstinacy that only certain corpses are capable of.\u00a0 And how can you silence a corpse?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ignazio Silone<\/strong>, Bread and Wine<\/em><\/p>\n

Fifty years have elapsed since\u00a0Thomas Merton<\/strong>\u00a0died under mysterious circumstances in a cottage at a Red Cross Conference Center outside Bangkok, Thailand where he was attending an international inter-faith monastic conference.\u00a0 The truth behind his death has been concealed until now through the lies and deceptions of a cast of characters, religious, secular, and U.S. governmental, whose actions chill one to the bone.\u00a0 But he has finally found his voice through\u00a0Hugh Turley<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0David Martin<\/strong>, who tell the suppressed truth of Merton\u2019s last minutes on earth on December 10, 1968.<\/p>\n

This is an extraordinary book in so many ways.\u00a0 First, because the authors prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Trappist monk and anti-war writer Thomas Merton was assassinated and did not die in a fabricated accident, as has been claimed for all these years.<\/p>\n

Second, because it is so meticulously researched, sourced, documented, and logically argued that it puts to shame and the lie to so many works, including academic ones, that purport to be profound but fall apart once carefully inspected, especially all those that have been written about Merton and his alleged accidental death. These false accounts of his death, obviously presented purposely by the key players \u2013 that he was electrocuted by a fan while wet from a shower \u2013 have been repeated\u00a0ad nauseam<\/em>\u00a0over fifty years as if curiosity were reserved for cats and a writer\u2019s job were to repeat commonplace absurdities. And of course the mainstream media, the prime organs of propaganda dissemination, have carried out their function by repeating these lies at every turn. The transparency of Turley and Martin\u2019s presentation is greatly enhanced by the presence of footnotes, not endnotes, which allow readers to easily check sources as they read. Most footnotes refer to primary documents \u2013 letters, police reports, etc. \u2013 that are reproduced in an appendix that is, however, in need of enlargement, but whose contents have, for some odd or not so odd reasons, escaped the thousands of writers who\u2019ve penned words about Merton.<\/p>\n

Third, because it greatly expands our understanding of that fateful year \u2013 1968 \u2013 by adding the prophetic Merton\u2019s name to the list of well-known anti-war leaders \u2013 MLK and RFK \u2013 who were slain that year by U.S. government operatives intent on crushing the growing opposition to their genocidal war waged on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The links between these assassinations are made manifest as one follows the authors\u2019 brilliant analysis that allows an informed reader to see the template common to them all and one that clearly leads to intelligence agencies practiced in the arts of murder and cover-up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fourth, because it proves that in the long run the pen is mightier than the sword, and the spiritually powerful poetic words of a God-entranced man living in seclusion can rattle the cages of men who embrace the void of violence while rejecting the spiritual essence of all religions \u2013 that non-violence and love are the laws of existence.\u00a0 Merton may be dead for his killers, but not for those who hear his voice whispering on every page:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very thoughts of a person like me are crimes against the state.\u00a0 All I have to do is think: and immediately I become guilty,\u201d Merton wrote in \u201cA Signed Confession of Crimes Against the State.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lastly, because\u00a0The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton\u00a0<\/em>markedly forces the reader to face its harsh truths and examine one\u2019s soul and complicity in evil as one learns of the perfidy and betrayal of Merton by friends, associates, and biographers whom a na\u00efve person might assume are beyond reproach, until, that is, one reads this book.\u00a0 It is a very hard lesson to accept and understand.\u00a0 But Hugh Turley and David Martin sequentially force the reader to contemplate such matters; to conjecture why some have conspired and abetted in Merton\u2019s murder and especially its fifty year cover-up.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Thomas Merton (Fr. Lewis) was a Catholic monk, poet, writer and theologian who became very well-known in 1948 with the publication of his autobiography,\u00a0The Seven Story Mountain<\/em>, which became a bestseller.\u00a0 Over the next dozen or so years, he published many books on religious themes, mainly avoiding social or political subjects.\u00a0 But although he lived in a monastery, and eventually by himself in a hermitage nearby, he corresponded widely and was tuned in to worldly events.\u00a0 He became a friend and mentor to religious\/political activists such as\u00a0Martin Luther King, Fathers Philip<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Daniel Berrigan, James Douglass,<\/strong>\u00a0among many others.\u00a0 He was a friend of\u00a0Dorothy Day<\/strong>\u00a0of the Catholic Worker.\u00a0 He corresponded with\u00a0Boris Pasternak<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Ethel Kennedy<\/strong>; wrote about\u00a0Albert Camus<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Eugene Ionesco<\/strong>.\u00a0 During the 1960s his writing turned more overtly political while remaining rooted in a deep mystical and contemplative spirituality.\u00a0 He became a major inspiration for radical activists who opposed nuclear weapons, the Vietnam War, and the materialist way of life fostered by capitalism that relied on the spread of the American empire through world-wide violence.\u00a0 Although living far away from the din and drama of day-to-day politics, his writing, encouragement, and influence were profound, and he became a major impediment to the propaganda and policies of the military-industrial-political-intelligence-complex.\u00a0 He was an inspiration whose spirit disturbed church and state in the most radical way. Turley and Martin say of him:<\/p>\n

Merton saw clearly that devotion to truth could not help but bring a person into conflict with sinister special interests.\u00a0 The effectiveness of the truth-seeker would, of course, be greater to the extent he could rally others to his cause, but ultimately, he said, the truth seeker\u2019s strength lay in trust in God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Merton died on the afternoon of December 10, 1968 when those sinister special interests snuck up on him.\u00a0 He had just given a talk, had lunch, and returned to his cottage shortly before 2 P.M., accompanied by\u00a0Fr. Francois de Grunne,<\/strong>\u00a0O.S.B. (Order of Saint Benedict) from Belgium, who shared the cottage with Merton and two others,\u00a0Fr. Celestine Say,<\/strong>\u00a0O.S.B. from the Philippines, whose room was across from Merton\u2019s on the first floor, and\u00a0John Moffit,<\/strong>\u00a0a journalist editor whose room was directly over Merton\u2019s on the second floor adjacent to de Grunne\u2019s. The walk from the dining hall to the cottage took 10-15 minutes.\u00a0 Say and Moffit were walking a good distance behind Merton and de Grunne and arrived at the cottage about 5-7 minutes after them. When they entered the unlocked building, they did not see Merton and de Grunne and presumed they had gone to their respective rooms.<\/p>\n

Shortly after de Grunne and Merton entered the cottage, Merton was killed.\u00a0 The actions of de Grunne, a mysterious figure who, according to the authors, \u201cseems to have fallen off the face of the earth\u201d and whose \u201cabbey will not even respond to our questions about him,\u201d clearly make him a prime suspect in the crime.\u00a0 His actions and story are not believable and are contradicted by the most reliable witness, Fr. Say, whose statements have been absolutely consistent.<\/p>\n

Beyond speculation, however, are the facts gathered by the authors that clearly prove that from the start there was a concerted effort to make a crime look like an accident.\u00a0 These efforts were initiated by de Grunne, who was the first to call it an \u201caccident,\u201d but ably assisted by many others, including the Thai police or their surrogates, whose police report was released by the U.S. Embassy seven months after Merton\u2019s death and has no title, author, date, photographs, laboratory reports, or investigators\u2019 memos, and omits the testimony of the first two witnesses on the scene, Fr. Say and Fr. Egbert Donovan, who viewed Merton lying in a position and dressed in shorts totally inconsistent with the accidental death scenario.\u00a0 Most importantly, this \u201creport\u201d omits an autopsy report since no autopsy was conducted, a dead giveaway that a cover-up was underway.\u00a0 When a person is found dead, the first assumption of a competent investigation is that a crime may have been committed, and when the victim is found with a severe gash on the back of his head, is lying in a position inconsistent with an accident, an autopsy becomes essential.\u00a0 But none was performed in Thailand or when Merton\u2019s body arrived back at the Abbey of Gethsemane.\u00a0 That the United States Embassy, at the request of\u00a0Most Reverend Dom Rembert Weakland<\/strong>, O.S.B., who was presiding over the conference, had the U.S Army take possession of Merton\u2019s body shortly thereafter, embalm it, and five days later fly it back to the U.S. aboard a military plane together with the corpses of American casualties of the Vietnam War is not only supremely ironic but downright suspicious.<\/p>\n

The first public report of Merton\u2019s death was delivered on December 11, as Turley and Martin report:<\/p>\n

On December 11, 1968, the Associated Press reported that Merton had been electrocuted when he touched a short in a cord while moving an electrical fan, according to\u00a0anonymous<\/strong>\u00a0[my emphasis] Catholic sources.\u00a0 The initial news reports did not include any important details such as who found Merton, the names of any witnesses or officials at the scene, or who determined it was an accident.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Thai doctor\u2019s cause-of-death certificate and the official death certificate said Merton died of sudden cardiac failure, but failed to mention the bleeding rear head wound seen by witnesses.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, when Say and Donovan first saw Merton lying on the floor on his back, his legs straight, and his arms straight down by his side with palms to the floor as if placed in a coffin, with a floor fan lying across a thigh to the opposite lower waist, Donovan urged Say to take photographs of Merton before the crime scene was subsequently disturbed. \u00a0They were very suspicious. \u00a0Through great detective work, Turley and Martin have acquired a copy of these two photos, but they have been prohibited by the current abbot of Gethsemane from publishing them or even an artist\u2019s rendering of them.\u00a0 The authors say:<\/p>\n

The photographs taken by Say are the best available evidence of the actual scene of Merton\u2019s death\u2026.The reason the monks took the photographs, as we have emphasized, was to document exactly how they found the body.\u00a0 As we have seen, people whom they would hardly have ever suspected, have consistently done their best to suppress those images.\u00a0 The photographs are an essential resource to anyone interested in knowing the truth about how Merton was killed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it is clear that many people would like to suppress that truth and have been hard at work doing so for half a century.\u00a0 But since this is intentionally a quasi-review because one must read this book from beginning to end to grasp the intricacies of this murder mystery and the cast of characters that comprise it (no review can do justice to such a detailed and brilliant investigation,and, even so, attempting one would spoil the book), I will end with the authors\u2019 words:<\/p>\n

Contrary to the common view, there is really no mystery about how Merton died. The best evidence indicates beyond any serious doubt that Merton was murdered. It\u2019s a simple fact that the average person is far more likely to be murdered than to be killed by an electric fan, and Merton was no average person.\u00a0 The story that a fan killed Merton is so preposterous that a series of fantastic stories have had to be invented to make it believable\u2026.Who did it and why? The CIA had the motive and the means.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

1968: It was a very dark year: MLK, RFK, and Thomas Merton \u2013 martyrs all.<\/p>\n

If we want to see clearly and revive hope, the time has come to face the faces of the ghastly gallery of liars and deceivers guilty of these crimes.\u00a0 Only then can we live the truths their victims suffered and died for.<\/p>\n

Then we too can confess with Merton that we have thought \u201cCrimes Against the State.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Edward Curtin\u00a0<\/strong>is a writer whose work has appeared widely; is a frequent contributor to Global Research. He teaches sociology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. His website is\u00a0http:\/\/edwardcurtin.com\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

____
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