Harn's clients included several distraught women who claimed he promised to
enhance their ability to attract men in exchange for hundreds of dollars, and
occasional sexual favors, they gave the 45-year-old occultist.
Physically, Harn displays a freakish appearance with dense "magical"
calligraphy and designs tattooed all over his body.
Many Thais believe tattooed quotes from Buddhist and Hindu scripture, written
in ancient Pali and Sanskrit, can deflect death, including bullets, car crashes
and other danger.
When love-stricken females came pleading for help, Harn allegedly chanted
cryptic prayers, performed obscure acts, and appealed to unknown spirits.
Harn, a Thai, purportedly learnt his craft in Cambodia, which many Thais fear
is a land of extremely powerful black magic that cannot be resisted or defied.
Police and other investigators, however, appeared immune to Harn's mumbo-jumbo
and knew his track record was morbid and macabre.
In 1995, when Harn was a Buddhist novice monk, Thai police arrested him for
roasting a still-born baby.
He had boasted in a published interview that he broiled the corpse to create a
much-feared ghost known as Kumarn Tong, widely believed to have hypnotic,
manipulative abilities.
Buddhist monks and novices often make spirit-infused amulets or other magic
items which are sold throughout Thailand in a multi-million-dollar amulet
industry, but Harn's was the first publicized case in which someone boasted of
using a dead baby to invoke a ghost.
Harn insisted he used a nine-month-old still-born, because it was the ideal
victim to be transformed into Kumarn Tong's ghost.
He said a devotee brought the tiny corpse to him, asking for it to be cremated.
Harn, also known as Nane Ae, allowed TV journalists to videotape him roasting
the baby, for a program featuring strange phenomena in Thailand.
The tape, banned from broadcast, reportedly showed Harn lifting the baby out of
an aquarium filled with preservation fluid, which he kept in his living
quarters at Wat Nong Rakam, a Buddhist temple in Saraburi in central Thailand.
At the base of the temple's crematorium, a fire was lit under an iron grill,
and the video showed Harn giving the baby's body to an assistant who mumbled
Khmer-language incantations while slowly roasting it.
After 10 minutes, a Buddhist monk appeared, catching the corpse's dripping oil
in a pot while Harn chanted.
Harn then took a sword and pierced the burnt baby to facilitate the flow of
human oil, which is essential in several Thai recipes to create magic potions
and conjure ghosts.
Harn was defrocked from the Buddhist clergy, and jailed after being charged
with committing an indecent act with a corpse, and for failing to report a
death.
Thais say true Kumarn Tong oil is a valuable love potion.
One drop on a person's skin is said to make that person fall in love with
whoever secretly touched them with the oil.
Many Thais wear a matchhead-sized, wooden rendition of Kumarn Tong in a vial of
a sunflower oil, on a necklace, as a magic amulet.
Nok Uraiwan, a merchant who sold the inexpensive necklaces, said in an
interview: "Inside this vial is Kumarn Tong's soul. He will do whatever you
secretly want him to do, but you'll have to keep feeding him and watch that he
does not crawl away.
"The baby's father, Khoon Paen, had a baby, but it died. But Khoon Paen loved
his baby, so he kept it in a little bottle. He fed it like it was alive. And
the baby's soul stayed with its father," Nok said.
"When the father wanted the baby to help him, the baby Kumarn Tong protected
him from his enemies. So Thai people believe baby Kumarn Tong has power and can
help or protect them," she said.
"But whoever buys this amulet, they have to feed this wooden baby like it is
their own son. When you eat your meals, you have to say to this wooden baby,
'Eat lunch,' or, 'Eat dinner,' and you have to put a small bowl out for him,
and place some small pieces of food in the bowl. Every day you have to feed
him.
"Some people say the baby comes out of the vial sometimes, and, like a real
baby, crawls away or is naughty. If somebody has this baby, they might see it
crawling inside their house," she added.
In 1995, Harn also had a thriving business selling charms and amulets made from
the bones of dead people and cemeteries' dirt, priced from 12 to 60 US dollars.
In 1994, however, Harn was arrested after promising to make a believer
invulnerable to knives.
Harn stabbed a sword through the person's stomach, inflicting a serious wound,
but the victim later dropped the charges after receiving a large cash
compensation, police said.
