Original subtitles

??

- He is legendary. - He is an icon.

- Can't find him. - They can't locate him.

He's not answering his phone.

Famed film actor David Carradine

has been found hanged in the closet

of a luxury hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

One of his ex-wives accused him of deviant sexual behavior.

Bangkok is known to be a mecca of sex.

It would be physically impossible for him

to hang himself in that closet.

One big anomaly is that there's no evidence

of any padding being placed

between the ligature and his neck.

The side of Mr. Carradine's head,

like right in through here, there was, like, blood...

A lot of blood.

It is not inconceivable to me

there could be an ancient society

that currently exists that might cause harm to others.

He was possibly approached or he approached

the famous Thai ladyboys.

The photos showed what was extreme force.

The surveillance footage is very likely doctored or missing.

Nothing adds up.

- Why would you do this? - You're dicing with death.

911 emergency.

The official narrative doesn't tell the whole story.

You really have to look at everything.

You still have to go down that rabbit hole.

You still have to go down that path.

When a celebrity dies,

the search for answers moves online,

and the truth may be one click away.

??

June 4, 2009.

Bangkok, Thailand,

a city famous for its temples, floating markets,

and vibrant nightlife.

Around 10:00 a.m., at the Swissotel Nai Lert,

Bangkok's premiere destination for the world's rich and famous,

a maid arrives to clean one of the luxury hotel rooms.

But she is stopped in her tracks

by a scene that soon stuns the movie world.

A man is nonresponsive,

hanging naked from a rope inside a closet.

Within an hour, the Internet bursts with the news...

Iconic Hollywood legend David Carradine found dead.

Bangkok investigators announce their initial findings

and are quick to release their theory.

They believe it's likely a suicide.

David Carradine was a world-famous character actor

whose legendary performances for directors

like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino

spanned 50 years.

??

My name is Mark Ebner, and I'm an investigative journalist

and a nonfiction author.

David Carradine is part of an acting dynasty.

His father was John Carradine... Legendary actor.

And he's got two brothers,

Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine.

Carradine is most famous

for being America's homegrown introduction to martial arts.

I'm Marina Anderson.

I was married to David Carradine.

I'm his ex-wife, number four.

"Kung Fu," "Kung Fu: Legend Continues,"

"Bound for Glory," "Long Riders,"

"Death Race 2000," "Lone Wolf McQuade."

Quentin Tarantino said, "I want to work with this guy,"

and he put him in "Kill Bill."

"Kill Bill" resurrected David Carradine's career.

Off that, he just started working like a dog again.

And he was popular all over the world.

No matter where we went, he was recognized.

On remote corners of wherever, people were like,

"Autograph, please," you know?

He is legendary. He is an icon.

Then when I checked the computer and I started to see this stuff,

I was like, "What? No, no, no."

In a suicide? No, definitely not. No.

Like, what? No way.

He was his happiest whenever he worked.

Carradine's death incites Internet rumors and posts

trying to sort through fact and fiction,

breeding wild theories and conspiracies

that are still being debated today.

My name is Deanna Thompson,

and I am what you would consider like a cyber sleuth.

One of the things I'm known for is my work

in the 2019 documentary "Don't F with Cats."

Once I get that trigger, I'm kind of like a...

Like a dog on a bone.

So there's a community called Websleuths

that I'm a member of.

And when I got this case, I knew that his death

was a little kinky.

Justin is a journalist,

and he's really well-versed in conspiracy theories,

and he has a lot of experience breaking those down.

My name is Justin Ling, and I am an investigative journalist.

A big part of investigative journalism

is looking at the official story

and seeing if you can poke holes in it,

see if there is actually evidence

and a reason to trust the official story.

There's a pretty dogged fan base

for a lot of those classic martial-arts movies,

and I think a ton of people are really invested

in... in wanting to know more about exactly what happened

to David Carradine before his death.

I can bring some new analysis to David Carradine's case,

me being a criminal investigator by trade.

When I started researching David's case,

I was intrigued by it

because it's not entirely clear what happened.

And I just think his case deserves another look

so that we can try to answer some of those questions.

Carradine is in Bangkok, Thailand,

in late May to shoot a new movie, "Stretch."

??

But just one day after Carradine's body is found,

a Thai newspaper publishes a disturbing photo

that shocks American audiences,

suggesting early reports of suicide may have been wrong.

The alleged photo raises questions

about the official cause of death.

Photos published in multiple tabloids

that claimed to show Carradine wearing fishnets and a wig,

maybe red women's lingerie.

The grainy photo published in Thailand's newspaper the Nation

allegedly shows David Carradine hanging dead in a closet.

Nobody is talking about how he could have tied up

his own hands above his head.

What Internet investigators find is different

than what Thai police seem to claim.

I couldn't let this one detail go. I couldn't move on from it.

I looked in, like, Google group discussions.

I went and looked at, like, archives, just forum threads.

I looked at old Reddit.

What was actually going on in that closet

when his heart stopped?

Did he actually die in the closet?

Cyberspace theories about Carradine's death

permeate the web so deeply,

Thai police feel forced to issue a statement,

one that no one was expecting.

Police revealed that he was found

with a cord around his neck and a cord around his genitals

and that the cords were tied together.

However, they could not make any determination

as to whether he had committed suicide,

if this was an accident,

or maybe if he'd even had a heart attack.

It was just like a bomb exploded.

I mean, there was just... Then the rumors started.

And I had the rag papers at my door.

Like, "How the hell did they find out where I lived?"

And it was just, "Whoa!"

And the new theory goes viral.

They were considering a scenario

in which David died as a result of autoerotic asphyxia.

In autoerotic asphyxia, generally,

the most common way that someone engages in this

is by putting a ligature around their neck

to restrict the oxygen going to their brain.

This is supposed to enhance an orgasm.

The Carradine family threatens to sue the newspapers

that published the photos.

Online rumors suggest Thai investigators

have either lost control, botched the investigation,

or Carradine was murdered and his death staged.

I'm just a member of the general public

without inside information about David's case,

and I've uncovered conflicting information.

So I can only imagine how his family members felt

when the people who are supposed to be

investigating this firsthand are giving them

conflicting information that doesn't match up.

This led to some of David Carradine's family members

asking for the FBI to get involved.

But Thai authorities refuse to allow the FBI jurisdiction.

Within 48 hours of David Carradine's death,

his body is flown back to the U.S.

To try and get to the bottom of things,

the family hired New York City's former chief medical advisor,

Michael Baden.

But before Dr. Baden can begin the American autopsy,

another private set of photos are leaked

by the infamous American newspaper

the National Enquirer.

The horrific, exploitive photos spread too quickly to contain.

Online investigators believe these haunting autopsy images

reveal evidence that pokes holes into the official Thai report.

There was a ton of leaks to the media

and a lot of misinformation flying around.

There's also never been a clear explanation

for why there was so much blood

found on Carradine's scalp when he was discovered.

Was he hit over the head with a baseball bat maybe,

and, like, put unconscious and robbed and, like, strung up?

There is definitely talk online

about his death being the result of foul play.

Official findings claim Carradine died of asphyxiation.

But authorities refuse to release

key evidence to the public.

An online surge to solve Carradine's death

proposes the theory of murder.

It really is just a petri dish that makes it very difficult

to link any discovery to a specific individual.

One area that was just really strange...

The side of Mr. Carradine's head,

like right in through here, there was, like, blood,

and it was, like, a lot of blood.

??

??

Famed actor David Carradine is found dead,

hanging in a Bangkok hotel closet.

Explicit death photos are leaked to the public,

causing an online frenzy.

I would say that a lot of people would view

David's death as having a taboo component to it.

Thai police release two inconclusive autopsy reports,

and Internet sleuths start theorizing

how it could have happened to someone

who seemed so happy and so healthy.

Deanna's going to take over the idea

that, perhaps, he was murdered.

One of the theories about David Carradine's death

is that he was possibly approached

or he approached the famous Thai ladyboys.

And I'm going to take on that David Carradine was murdered

by the Chinese Mafia.

I have a long history of digging deep into conspiracy theories

to see if there is any truth at all to them.

I have some background that I think is very applicable

to David's case.

Jen is going to investigate whether or not

David Carradine's death could have been

autoerotic asphyxiation.

Investigators start their process

of piecing together Carradine's last 24 hours.

On Sunday, May 31, 2009, David Carradine checks in

to Bangkok's Swissotel Nai Lert Park.

David Carradine was involved in a movie called "Stretch,"

and so, he arrived in Bangkok on May 31st.

And for three days that he was there,

he was filming scenes for his movie.

He spent the following days hanging out in the hotel bar,

playing piano, playing flute, drinking a little bit,

and, apparently, being in an all-around good mood.

In the official story, the cast and crew decided

to go to dinner that night in the Red Light District,

and David was going to join them.

So they all get ready to go to dinner.

And they can't rouse David Carradine.

They can't find him. They can't locate him.

He's not answering his phone,

and he's not answering his... his hotel room door.

Carradine seems to be unreachable.

David's assistant did not get ahold of him,

and so, the crew left for dinner without him.

As they're eating, the assistant gets a phone call,

and it's David Carradine.

And he's like, "Did you guys leave without me?"

And the assistant's like, "Yeah, we're already here.

You're gonna have to find your way here."

And he's like, "Okay, I'll see you soon."

Unfortunately, the film crew never see Carradine alive again.

He never shows up.

And then he is found the next morning by a chambermaid.

??

That's the official, like, story from all sources.

He was naked.

He had some sort of a ligature

around his neck and around his genitals.

Over a decade later, detailed results

of the Thai investigation and the private Baden autopsy

have yet to be released to the public.

Internet investigators are not able to find

the kind of standard evidence released in high-profile cases.

And they wonder why.

I'm Dr. Michael Arntfield. I'm a professor and criminologist

at Western University, where I founded the Cold Case Society.

Problems arise when you have a death scene in a hotel room,

where you have patent and latent evidence,

fiber evidence, partial fingerprint evidence

from hundreds, potentially thousands

of previous occupants, workers, contractors.

It... It... It really is just a... a petri dish

that makes it very difficult

to link any discovery to a specific individual.

There's a famous pathologist in Thailand.

She goes by Porntip.

Porntip is the general forensic pathologist

of the Central Institute for Forensic Science in Thailand.

She believes that the Thai police

did not do a good job in collecting evidence

and that they left a bunch of stuff behind, right,

but that she's not going to get involved

unless the family ask her to.

And I just found that really weird.

Like, if you know something is wrong,

why wouldn't you get involved?

Hints of a botched crime scene blow the case wide open.

??

They have these, like, independent,

like, civilian body-snatchers is what they're called.

And they'll get paid a premium fee

to come pick up the body and take it to the morgue.

It's a very seedy kind of practice,

but it's very well-established that this is what they do.

I would think this would be, like, a chain-of-custody issue.

Like, could the body have been messed with in some way?

Could things have been taken from Mr. Carradine?

This is why police will often, using a pen,

initial the body somewhere on the arm or the leg

so that the body that left the scene

can be definitively identified as the same body

that ends up at the hospital and, ultimately, the morgue.

According to the Thai police and the hotel,

nobody came into the room.

??

Everybody that lives in Thailand,

especially Westerners that live in Thailand

that have reported on this, say how the surveillance footage

is very likely doctored or missing.

So that is not to be trusted.

Nobody's looked at the CCTV footage

in conjunction with the key-card data.

They should line up,

and I don't think anybody's looked through that.

They really need to be analyzed.

The key-card report confirms only the times

that the key was used to activate the door lock.

It doesn't account for other movement of the door.

For instance, the key being used to open the door

and then the night latch being applied

and the door left ajar, perhaps to allow a visitor in

discretely later on, without Mr. Carradine

and having to ask for a second key.

It also doesn't explain someone just knocking on the door

and being admitted on consent by Mr. Carradine.

Files in Thailand are closed,

including the surveillance footage.

It's gone. It's done.

Thai police claim no one came in or out of Carradine's room

for over 12 hours.

But for Internet detectives, something isn't sitting right.

They pore over the morgue photos

the National Enquirer says are of Carradine.

One area that was just really strange and...

The side of Mr. Carradine's head,

like right in through here, there was, like, blood.

And it was, like, a lot of blood.

??

When your asphyxiating, you can, like, aspirate blood.

How would it get up here unless you were laying in it, right?

??

Whatever ligature was used was very thin.

And it burrowed itself deep into his neck.

??

I actually just sat there for, like, I don't know,

seemed like days, just crying.

Just feeling horrible how the end happened for him.

I... It was overwhelming. Absolutely overwhelming.

I want to find out really what happened. Yeah.

It was just kind of... It became my mission, is to find out.

??

A few days later, under extreme pressure

from the public explosion of disbelief,

a lawyer for the Carradine family

reads Dr. Michael Baden's preliminary autopsy result.

Mr. Carradine's death was not the result of a suicide.

Michael Baden ruled out suicide as a possible cause of death

because of the way the body was bound.

It's a bombshell reveal, and now Thai police

are on the hook again to investigate Carradine's death.

??

Baden said he was waiting on more information

from the Thai authorities

before he could definitively rule out homicide

as a cause of death.

David Carradine's hands

were roped up above his head.

And that was really my aha moment.

??

World-famous action film star

and kung fu icon David Carradine

sets the Internet on fire

when he is found hanging dead in a hotel closet.

Dissatisfied with the initial explanation

of Carradine's death,

online investigators scour chat rooms

and crime threads to find the real truth.

There's a number of Carradine's friends and family

who believe that homicide is the explanation for his death.

Could have been sex play gone south,

and he may have died accidentally

with assistance from somebody else in that hotel room.

Robbery, specifically hotel robbery,

has been correlated with any number of manners of murder

and would be an intuitive theory for police to explore.

Speculation about homicide seeps into these threads.

A thread on Reddit claims a female

was seen running from the room.

This is a classic example

of an unsubstantiated Reddit thread.

The fact that they're talking about it really accelerates

the... the theory that, you know, he was murdered.

David Carradine's fourth wife, Marina Anderson,

is a proponent of the homicide theory.

I don't believe it was by himself.

Just based on my experience,

he never flew solo... Didn't want to do that.

So I was always convinced

that there were other people in the room.

Bangkok is known worldwide as a place

that caters to any and all sexual desires.

It is basically a free-for-all there.

And if you've got money, you can get whatever you want.

There's girls throwing darts out of their vagina at balloons.

I wouldn't say David was a very trusting person.

He was very wary.

But when it came to sex, I mean, he was pretty open.

If you're engaging in this but your hands are above your head,

you can't self-stimulate.

The theory is that Carradine may have asked for help

to perform autoerotic asphyxiation.

If he had a partner with him prior to his death...

A companion, a girlfriend, a sex worker...

And he offended her or did something that upset her,

there could have been a moment of rage.

There's possibility that this could have been,

like, a crime of passion that happened very quickly.

Investigators scan the autopsy photos for supporting evidence.

One big anomaly in David's case

is that there's no evidence of any padding being placed

between the ligature and his neck.

This is evidenced by the medical examiner,

who made no note of padding,

and police, who never stated

they found any padding at the scene.

And you don't want to be on set, filming on camera

with these strange marks on your neck

that people are definitely going to notice.

So it tells me, if he was engaging in autoerotic asphyxia

over the years, he was using some sort of padding

between the ligature and his neck.

The plan that so many could put into place is,

you know, you provide the entertainment for David

and just take the preference, you know,

a few steps beyond what's necessary and kill him.

The ladyboy population in Thailand can really trick you.

They look like women.

I mean, they are beautiful.

It's... It's hard to know that they're male

or they're, you know... Or they're transitioning.

??

To be moving him into a closet,

it wouldn't necessarily have been female-females

because David was, what, 6'3" or something.

And, you know, they wouldn't have been able to do it.

So, I mean, they do have ladyboys there.

So that would be more of the scenario.

This darker theory is supported by witnesses

to strange anomalies who point to a cover-up.

When I got to where the room

was supposed to... Supposed to be,

another strange coincidence... They had disappeared the room.

The hotel had sealed up the door,

and they had pulled off the number plate

for the room number.

There was no family members there.

There were no agents, manager, people,

concerned people there.

There was nobody there. It was like it never happened.

My understanding is there was, like, an hour lag

by the time they brought people in,

and the source told me that

it was time for them to be able to clean it up,

probably stage it.

If you have an autoerotic asphyxiation act

for sexual pleasure,

you don't need very much force.

The photos showed what was, in my opinion, extreme force.

The frustrating lack of access to evidence,

like crime-scene photos, forces investigators,

friends, and family to speculate on the neck wound.

One of the comments that I read on these morgue photos...

You know, people are talking about them...

Is that it looks like he was almost decapitated.

You would think that you would start to see

the ligature marks kind of rise and fade away

as tension, you know, is all right here.

But they go really far back,

almost like somebody was behind him

kind of, like, crisscrossing the rope like this,

like pulling this way and pulling this way, right?

But if Carradine was murdered, there has to be motive.

David always had a lot of money,

you know, per diem.

He wore expensive watches,

specifically one that he barely ever took off.

The Patek Philippe watch was worth thousands.

No mention of any of that.

Was it a possible homicide suspect that took it?

Was it the chambermaid who found the body,

you know, and saw maybe an opportunity?

Was it the police? Who would have done it?

Unfortunately, we're never going to get an answer to that

because it's untraceable.

But there is another theory that seems to be popular.

More than just incompetence, there's a real possibility here

that the Thai police weren't very thorough

or weren't very forthcoming

because this is bad press for their country,

especially a county that is so dependant on tourism.

Bangkok is the sex capital of the world.

Why do people go to Bangkok?

Well, they have good food, but, ultimately, it's sex tourism.

And this is a very fragile economy

that they don't want to mess with.

And if a celebrity was murdered in a hotel room in Bangkok,

my guess is they're going to try and cover it up,

because this could damage that city immeasurably.

??

Frank Krueger actually acted alongside David Carradine

in the movie "Break,"

and he's pretty sure that this secret kung fu society

is actually responsible.

And Chinese organized crime does not like being made fun of.

??

??

David Carradine's mysterious death has taken on a new life

in the online world of sleuthing.

But the most sinister theory of how he died

cuts to the very heart of who he was.

A user on the conspiracy subreddit,

which is always really good for this kind of speculation,

wrote, "David Carradine's death... who is behind it?"

In a situation like this, where there's not a lot

on the official record,

people love to fill that void

with speculation, innuendo, and rumor.

And it makes it really hard to figure out what really happened

when so much of the stuff out there is really half-baked.

A lot of the theories around David Carradine's death

involve Chinese secret societies,

organized crime, and, frankly,

a lot of the things that would have been the hallmark

of a movie that David Carradine would have starred in.

The theory goes that David Carradine

had run afoul of the Triads,

one of the most powerful organized crime groups in Asia,

or this secret martial arts society

and they had him taken out as a result.

Okay, so why would Chinese organized crime

want to take out David Carradine?

The web seems to zero in on this specific theory,

as it directly reflects Carradine's career.

According to the online rumor mill,

it all goes back to the 2009 movie "Crank: High Voltage."

Hey, baby. How you doing?

In that film, Carradine plays the head of

a Chinese organized crime family

in what some reviewers called a totally racist performance.

It was basically a parody of Chinese organized crime.

And Chinese organized crime does not like being made fun of.

And the online community is abuzz

trying to draw connections with this notion

as it relates to Carradine's most famous role.

- My name is Jay Albanese. - I am a criminologist.

I study organized crime and corruption and related issues.

David Carradine was the face of kung fu

being spread to the rest of the world.

So you can see how some people interested in martial arts

wouldn't necessarily be happy about that, because martial arts

is considered to be something you practice, you meditate.

I had heard that he had actually beat out

the legendary Bruce Lee for the role.

Would that happen today? I don't think so.

Internet critics weren't pleased that Carradine

continued to leverage his Asian roles for profit.

In 1997, there is a video... There's a video on YouTube.

And it's like "David Carradine's Tai Chi Workout For Beginners."

And then... then David Carradine, like, appears.

Okay?

And he's wearing, like, this Chinese silk.

And he goes on to

start talking about the workshop and the benefits,

and he's speaking... the cadence in which he's speaking,

it's all... it's like he is imitating

not an Asian stereotype.

He is pushing the narrative

that he is this kung fu Shaolin master

who has all these secrets to healthy living.

You know, like, it's... It's embarrassing.

It would not fly today.

Retaliation can be a motive and a factor in homicide,

no doubt.

Someone took offense at something somebody said or did

and then retaliated

and got revenge against them and killed them.

The buzz online points to the one group

you never want to offend.

In the same way that Italy has La Cosa Nostra

and Japan has the Yakuza, China has the Triads.

They are an international crime syndicate

that is largely based in China but really pops up anywhere

with a significant Chinese population.

The Triads can wield enormous influence,

and they are absolutely an organization to be feared.

Internet advocates of the Triad murder theory

claim a similar fate happened to other martial arts movie stars.

They point not just to David Carradine

but to Bruce Lee and his son, Brandon.

Even though they all died

in incredibly different circumstances,

conspiracy theorists are convinced

that all three are linked.

Bruce Lee was in ill health and died

of basically a brain aneurysm.

His son died when a dummy gun fired a real bullet.

David Carradine was found hanging in his hotel room.

Yet conspiracy theorists are convinced

that all three are linked

and that they were all the responsibility of the Triads

or this secret society.

David did comment that he always felt

that both Bruce Lee and Brandon's death was suspicious.

And he was fairly close with Brandon,

and that really disturbed David.

He was very affected by that.

And he... he definitely felt something went wrong.

And online deep dives reveal several sources

who believe Carradine was not afraid

of confronting underground elements.

Frank Krueger actually acted alongside David Carradine

in the movie "Break,"

and he's pretty sure that this secret kung fu society

is actually responsible.

Apparently, according to Krueger, Carradine

wanted to stand up to crime families

that threatened him back in the '70s.

He carried himself with a large martial arts presence.

And from his story, it was clear he was pretty fearless

when dealing with groups of that nature.

And Krueger wasn't the only one.

In an interview with Larry King,

an attorney named Mark Geragos, who knew Carradine,

said David was very interested in investigating

and disclosing secret societies.

Being uncovered could be a threat to a secret society.

So while it's certainly true

that there are historically secret societies in China,

that doesn't mean they killed David Carradine.

This is an incredibly powerful

international criminal organization

that probably doesn't waste too much time

bumping off Hollywood celebrities.

??

Some cases, you want the body found.

Other cases, you don't want the body found.

But if you do want the body found,

then you want it found in a way

that it cannot be traced back to you.

If you're trying to deliver a message

through the death of David Carradine,

the question would be,

"Well, what the heck would that message be?"

If it isn't... No one's figured it out.

That says it's probably unlikely that that was,

you know, a factor in that case.

[ Crowd cheering, camera shutters clicking ]

Individuals who practiced autoerotic asphyxia,

they themselves were worried

about the lethality of their behavior.

Did he have maybe, like, a subliminal death wish?

??

??

The official findings of both autopsies agree

that David Carradine died of asphyxiation.

The Thai investigation insists he died alone.

But they are unwilling to release any conclusive evidence,

triggering suspicion of a cover-up.

??

Dr. Baden stated that he ruled out suicide in David's death

due to the nature of the ligatures

that were found on his body.

Autoerotic asphyxia is actually more common

than a lot of people think.

My name is Dr. Steve Hucker.

I'm a semi-retired psychiatrist and university professor.

Autoerotic asphyxiation is

the production or enhancement of sexual arousal

by restricting one's breathing.

??

If this is an autoerotic scene, then what's the sex bit, right?

Because that helps differentiate from a suicide.

Online sleuths point to the black shoelace

as evidence of a game being taken to another level.

His hands were tied above his head, like this.

And there was a rope that he was hanging from.

And then that rope was tied to a rope

that was tied to his genitals.

A lot of the videos are gone,

but the transcripts are still online.

There's interviews with Carradine's wives

who come forward with disturbing details

of a sex-fueled star obsessed with bondage.

Most people who perform autoerotic asphyxiation

masturbate at the same time.

Is the shoelace evidence that he was into bondage, as well?

Having their penis with a string attached to it,

tied around it, adds to the feeling.

It causes... It's pain.

It's... It's something which is

part of their erotic arousal pattern.

From the morgue photos, investigators speculate

on how Carradine's rig may have functioned.

It was a cord, and he had constructed

a pulley-type situation.

If he lifted his arms, he could, in effect, castrate himself

and choke himself out at the same time.

Hands go down, relief.

Back up, genitals, neck, desired goal.

He had some practice going into this situation, that's for sure.

It was very elaborate and intricate.

Frankly, I marveled at his ingenuity.

Rumors of deviant sexual behavior

have the global online community in a feeding frenzy,

fueled by testimony from ex-wives

who discovered the hard way what turned him on.

Gail, his... One of his ex-wives...

Was talking to RadarOnline.

And she said before they were married in 1984,

she found him...

He was hanging from a beam and unconscious.

And she basically lifted him up and took him off this beam.

And when he woke up, he was just, like, blas� about it,

like, "I'm hungry, and I want a sandwich."

Why did David Carradine

continue to engage in autoerotic asphyxia

when he almost died from it in 1984?

Did he have maybe, like, a subliminal death wish?

Individuals who practiced autoerotic asphyxia,

they themselves were worried

about the lethality of their behavior,

or their wife had come upon them when they were doing this

and said, "Are you crazy?

You need to go and see a psychiatrist."

Online chatter among autoerotic aficionados

reveals dangerous strategies

prone to miscalculation over time.

Strategy to prevent a mishap can be very simple.

They could have the other end of the rope

goes over a bar or a beam

and they hold the other end, saying to themselves,

"Well, when I lose consciousness, dead man's grip,"

they fall to the floor.

Most of them are not particularly elaborate.

They'll... They'll just bend their legs

and tighten the noose that way.

And they'll recover by rising themselves up.

If you recover by rising up,

well, then what happens when you cant?

It's the deep neck wound that online researchers point to

when supporting the accidental death theory.

If he was struggling, he might have struggled,

and the rope or the cord would have abraded,

and it might have got so deep that blood came out.

A key discussion in many autoerotic chat rooms

allege the realism is the turn-on.

One of the things which are hard for people to understand

is that it's possible to tie your hands together

and end up with them behind your back.

I can't do this because I'm too old and decrepit,

but younger people can do that,

and they walk through the loop, and it ends up behind you.

So you could have done that on your own.

One thing that immediately made people suspicious

was that there was not a lot of the trappings

of a modern police investigation here,

or at least not the ones we're used to.

You didn't see the same care taken of that hotel room

after the fact, and there may have been mistakes made.

But many cyber sleuths who take the Thai police findings

as fact point to one key factor.

Part of our problem is that we don't have any clear pictures

that would normally happen in a modern-day investigation.

We don't have any pictures of, like, the contraption

being broken down.

We don't have any pictures of it hanging up in the closet.

We don't have anything at all.

72 years old, which is old for fatalities.

The... The average, in our study, was about 28 years.

But it means that this is somebody

who's been doing this for many years

and, if you can coin a phrase, got to know the ropes.

A deep dive into Internet groups

that practice autoerotic asphyxia

claim it's about being on the edge of death.

Do I recommend that everybody gives this a go?

Absolutely not.

Because anything can go wrong.

On the other hand, people who do this often say,

"It's sexually arousing to put my life on the line."

??

The Internet is still alive with talk

of kung fu film pioneer David Carradine's

2009 grisly death by hanging.

But the refusal of Thai police to release evidence

has Internet sleuths believing a cover-up has buried the truth,

denying closure to family, friends, and fans

across the world.

In life, his charisma was undeniable.

So he was just a very interesting person,

and I think he was a bit eccentric, and I think

that's what drew all these, like, beautiful woman to him.

His ex-wives and whatnot still have a lot of reverence for him.

And they talk about him with great respect and admiration.

But separating online fact from fiction

about the way David Carradine died

is an ongoing puzzle that may never be solved.

It seems fairly clear to me

that some of the evidence for the idea

that Carradine was murdered rests on misinformation

that was reported in the tabloids at the time.

Back in 2009,

there was a whole bunch of contradictory information

going in both directions.

One of my biggest issues is injustice.

If I see an injustice happening and I'm like [groans],

I get triggered, and I feel that way

with David Carradine's case.

I really feel that there's been an injustice with him.

It appears to me that the two autopsies

got his manner and cause of death correct,

manner of death being an accident

and cause of death essentially being the loss of oxygen,

which, ultimately, stopped his heart and killed him.

But what actually went down is still in doubt.

I do think David died as a result of an accident.

The lingering question for me is,

was somebody else present in the hotel room with him

at any point on the night that he died?

That question has never been answered by law enforcement.

Online conclusions spiral into three key theories.

One is that he was engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation

by himself.

The second one is that he was engaging in it

but with a partner.

The third one is that his death

could have actually been a homicide

and staged as autoerotic asphyxia

to make people think that's how he died.

??

I think, on balance, David Carradine's death

was autoerotic asphyxial in nature.

He was found in a closed room

where nobody else was or had been.

He's nude, he's hanging.

There's a part of the rope complex

which is around his genitals.

And he's had a history of this.

I would say this was 90% sure.

I don't think David Carradine was in that room alone.

You want to prove me wrong? Show me the tapes.

Show me the surveillance tapes,

and then maybe I'll change my tune.

But until then, I'm not buying the accidental death,

not by a long margin.

When you have somebody, a celebrity, they have success,

they have every reason to want to live.

So this is why it's very difficult,

when someone in that circumstance dies, to accept it.

It was pretty crushing when David Carradine died.

I was actually particularly looking forward to the idea

of a prequel to the "Kill Bill" movies,

maybe "Kill Bill: Volume 3."

But obviously, that's no longer on the table.

??

It's clear from how the body was found

that autoerotic asphyxiation

is the most likely explanation for Carradine's death.

I believe that he was killed and then moved to the closet

to make it look like a suicide or something to cover up.

My official opinion is that

David Carradine's death was accidental

but that it was performed by another person

and that he was robbed after

and it was staged as if he done it himself.

So now that I know what happened

or I know a little bit of details about what happened to

David Carradine and the... And the way he was found

and what was reported, I absolutely believe

there should be an official, like, FBI investigation

into what happened to David Carradine.

There's something wrong here.

I mean, there's just something very wrong here.

And... And I want to get to the bottom of this.

And it took me years to get over the anger

and the hurt and all that.

I want to see justice done.

I want to see the information.

I want to see the truth come out.

??

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