56 Years Ago: Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat executes Bangkok wrongdoers on the spot

Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat: Do-It-Yourself Premier – Time, August 17, 1959
…When a rash of fires broke out in the business district last winter. Sarit raced to the scene one night, ordered four Chinese merchants shot on the spot—a brutal but effective reminder that the annual custom of burning down shops to collect insurance for the Chinese New Year celebration was thenceforth taboo. Fortnight ago. prowling La Guardia-style about the streets of Bangkok in his chauffeur-driven car, Sarit drew up behind an automobile in which a woman sat eating fruit and throwing the peels out the window. The Premier characteristically took her license-plate number, ordered the police to pick her up and fine her 100 bahts ($5) for littering…