Thai baby body parts case: Duo sold videos of homeless men fighting

Two Americans at the heart of the attempted smuggling of body parts from Thailand had produced online videos in which they paid homeless people to fight each other for money.

Ryan McPherson and Daniel Tanner were questioned over the weekend in Bangkok for their alleged involvement in sending body parts to Las Vegas in the US, Bangkok daily The Nation reported.

McPherson told police that he bought the items from a market but could not remember where.

The two claimed the body parts were meant to be a prank to be pulled on a friend in Las Vegas.

An X-ray by courier firm DHL found the body parts, which included the limbs of a dead baby and human skin in boxes. The contents were identified as "toys".

The men were released after Thai police failed to press charges.

The US media has reported that the Americans were involved in the controversial Bumfights video in which homeless people were paid to fight each other for money.

One of the homeless men in the video was allegedly even paid to have the word Bumfights tattooed across his forehead.

The videos were sold over the Internet for US$19.99 (S$25).

McPherson was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 280 hours of community service at a homeless shelter following the release of the film Bumfights Volume 1.

PAID MEN

The Nation quoted reports from the US as saying that the duo agreed to not make any more of the Bumfights films and paid three of the homeless men involved in the videos as part of an out-of-court settlement.

The men were attempting to sue them for emotional and physical damages in connection with the videos.

A doctor at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok has confirmed that the body parts were stolen from the hospital's medical museum.

Video footage showed the Americans visited the museum.

Police are investigating if they stole the items or hired someone to do it for them.

This article was first published on Nov 19, 2014.
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