Thread: 66-Year-Old Frenchman Shot to Death in Bangkok

Originally Posted by malmomike77

I wish you would stop trying to derail the investigation.

I am favouring one or more of the dead was involved in some nefarious dealings and the Thai boss has cleaned house so they will not be able to finger him if caught.

There is usually a Somchai involved somewhere along the line...strange, where's Poirot when you need him. Wow I actually spelt his name right first time.

Originally Posted by misskit

Frenchman Marc Lohberger

Haven't heard from him in a while and wondered what became of him. Marc was the owner of Eden club.

he was both a thug and a pimp and one of the many foreign criminals that operate, or have operated, in thailand with impunity with the full knowledge of the authorities.

Au Revoir, Monsieur Eden


Early last month the mainstream media reported on a shooting in Sukhumvit soi 49 involving a couple of foreigners. One Frenchman and one Thai woman were shot dead, while another Frenchman suffered serious gunshot wounds, but survived. The mainstream media did not pick up on a particular detail – one of those involved was Marc, the once hugely popular former owner and operator of the Eden Club.

In the early 2000s, Eden Club was one of the most popular nightlife businesses in all of Bangkok. Marc was the venue’s high-profile frontman and owner, a colourful character in an era when the bar industry was full of them. If you visited Eden Club during its heyday, you almost certainly met Marc.

Much is known about Marc from his time at the Eden Club. Much less is known about his time before he ran the bar, and how he spent his time after he sold up. What follows is a mix of memories about a fellow whose company I enjoyed away from Eden Club, and a piecing together of what happened on those fateful final moments on Sukhumvit soi 49 last month.

For a time Eden Club was the hottest ticket in town. It was so insanely popular that guys would book sessions with ladies months in advance. The venue was almost unique in the nightlife industry in that it often ran at capacity with all of the rooms full of horny customers and accommodating ladies.

Marc established himself as not just the guy behind Eden Club, he was Eden Club. Eden Club without Marc just wouldn’t be Eden Club. Marc would become known as Mr Eden or as he preferred, “Papa”, the name the girls called him. Eden Papa, the papasan of Eden Club.

For years, Eden Club was the perfect business. Customer feedback was overwhelmingly positive and guys kept coming back for more. Even today, a decade after Marc left the business, some readers still ask me about Eden Club.

And the girls were happy, making great money. Marc once told me that no girl who worked for him earned less than 100,000 baht / month – and many made a whole lot more. And we’re going back 15+ years when 100K went a lot further than it does today.

And of course Marc did very well from his venture, making huge profits along the way and then cashing out for what is believed to be well in excess of a million dollars.

Things couldn’t have got off to a worse start between Marc and I. Eden Club had been getting a lot of exposure online so myself and a mate thought we’d go along for a look. Only a look, mind you. At 1,600 per girl – and the requirement that you take at least 2 – we two school teachers had absolutely no intention of partaking. We were keen to have a drink, see what all the fuss was about, and leave.

Marc would have none of it. He had us pegged from the moment we walked in the door. Looky-loos, tyre-kickers, time-wasters, call us what you will. “Zees ees not a place for drinking”, he told us in this thick French accent and made a shooing gesture with his hand for us to go back the way we came. Eden Club was a place to have fun upstairs and those only after a drink weren’t welcome. We left.

Marc would later learn that that fellow he had asked to leave was Stickman and he would invite me back to the bar / club / brothel (just how do you refer to Eden Club?). A friendship began.

I would sometimes spend time perched at the counter bar on the ground floor of the Eden Club watching people come and go, nattering away with Marc in between him dealing with customers, girls and the seemingly never-ending stream of bookings customers would make. Most of our socialising was done away from the club.

Marc was typically French. Head-strong, frank and keen to argue the details. Whatever we were talking about, he’d either be absolutely interested in it and incredibly passionate about it, or completely disinterested and keen to move on to a new topic. Small talk? No, thanks. He was also a lover of good food.

Marc would call me and joke, “Paul, I cannot get a date tonight so my unlucky night is your lucky night” and with that I’d be summonsed to the club from where we’d head out in to the night. Never to a bar, always for a meal. Le Beaulieu, the New York Steakhouse and various French & Italian places, Marc delighted in telling me how he loved Bangkok after dark. It was his world. Bangkok by day? Not interested. Bangkok by night? I’m in love.

With a nasty scar / skin graft across a swathe of his neck and up to his ear, Marc had a striking look. I was much too polite to ever ask about the origins of the scar. Word was that he had been a competitive motorbike racer and the scars were the result of an accident. That sounded plausible and I never questioned it. I would later learn from a couple of mutual friends that Marc told them his ear had been sliced off after dealings with some Japanese gangsters went bad.

You couldn’t pigeonhole Marc. He was very much his own man. A connoisseur of French fine dining and living well, he also ran a hugely popular and highly successful brothel. To his customers he was the friendly, customer-focused papasan, always smiling, talking of the fun to be had upstairs and promising a full refund should anyone be unsatisfied.

Underneath the charm there was a calm ruthlessness. When things didn’t go his way and he was challenged or put under pressure, Marc would tense up and you wondered what might happen next. He could go from warm and friendly to stone-cold, steely and with an expression that sent chills down your spine.

Spend time in his company and you soon knew that he rubbed shoulders with people most of us wouldn’t want anything to do with. Marc was comfortable in Bangkok’s underworld.

Many years later I would later learn that Marc arrived in Bangkok shortly after a lengthy stay in a Japanese prison for drug-related offences.

As I said to a friend not so long ago, there were perhaps 4 people in Bangkok I knew who I would be very, very careful to never get offside with. You just knew that each had the propensity to exact revenge against those they felt had slighted them. Marc was one such person. We always had a good relationship but you really didn’t want to get offside with him.

Marc proudly showed off his Thai firearms licence, something that is usually impossible for a foreigner to be issued with. Did he actually own a gun? History would show that, yes, he most certainly did. Marc was connected.

With the huge success of Eden Club, Marc acquired Absolute Bar – a bar on the same soi – which he converted into Bangkok Beat, a live music bar / disco which would become popular with freelancers and just like Eden Club, go on to become a great success.

Soi 7/1 transformed from a quiet soi with little of interest to one worth stopping by. Eden Club’s popularity attracted more bars and Sukhumvit soi 7/1 would become known as Soi Eden, a nickname that remains today.

But nothing lasts forever and with various health issues, Marc was keen to cash out and enjoy life.

Marc had had his ticker rewired some years earlier and was a heavy smoker. Away from the smile, he never looked like a well man. His plan was to head down to Phuket and enjoy retirement. That was around 2010 and I guess Marc would have been early 50s or so.

I can’t remember exactly when each of Eden Club and Bangkok Beat sold, nor do I remember how much each went for. I do seem to recall that Marc had been asking north of 50 million baht for Eden Club and a little less for Bangkok Beat. Rumours were rife but it is generally accepted that he pocketed somewhere in the range of 75 – 90 million baht total for the two venues – more than enough to sail off in to the sunset and see his days out in comfort. Not bad for a guy who arrived in Bangkok with 100 baht to his name.

I had little contact with Marc after he left Bangkok. The occasional email would come. Then silence. Nothing. The last time I heard from him was several years ago and he sounded happy. The days of deep discussions over dinner had passed and while he would happily chat in person for hours, he wasn’t big on lengthy emails.

I am surprised his bad ticker didn’t get him first. Marc would exit this world in what sounds like it was a dramatic final scene in a Steve Leather thriller where all manner of plot twists come together and all hell breaks out.

The mainstream media news reports of the events of that fateful day in early May aren’t all that clear and we’ll never know exactly what led to two people dying.

It appears that Marc had gone along to a food factory in Sukhumvit soi 49 to settle a score with a fellow Frenchman with whom he had had business dealings.

He carried a black bag with him, and in that bag was a gun. He had arranged to meet a lady there too, believed to be a former love interest.

At the factory, Marc shot the lady, killing her instantly. He then shot the other Frenchman. The shot was to the lower abdomen and caused serious damage but it wasn’t lethal. In the melee the younger Frenchman managed to get his hands on the gun, turning it on Marc, shooting and killing him.

A handwritten note in English found on Marc by police shows that he had gone to the factory with a plan to shoot both the lady and his business associate and then turn the gun on himself. The note instructed those who found it to use the money on him to pay for his cremation.

Since that fateful day last month it has been revealed that Marc had late-stage lung cancer.

It’s a sad way for one of Bangkok’s bar industry characters to exit this world, a sad way to say goodbye to the city he once loved. Au revoir, Monsieur Eden. Rest in peace.

Au Revoir, Monsieur Eden | Stickman Bangkok

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stickman

it’s a sad way for one of Bangkok’s bar industry characters to exit this world,

fuck off stickman. he was a murderous cockroach. nothing sad about his demise at all. thailand is a better place without him and his ilk.

Originally Posted by Edmond

Haven't heard from him in a while and wondered what became of him. Marc was the owner of Eden club.

hey hey I never expected or heard about the bag of tools 5555

Not a big fan of the French , but had to take my hat of to the bloke for being able to run a very unique bar , guaranteed to not have to rub shoulders with the subcontinental chaps in that fine establishment either they were to cheap to pay the asking prices.

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

the route of all evil.

Are their tolls on this route?

bld

but had to take my hat of to the bloke for being able to run a very unique bar , guaranteed to not have to rub shoulders with the subcontinental chaps in that fine establishment either they were to cheap to pay the asking prices.

no surprise there then.

one of the forums most celebrated thick as a plank meatheads runs true to form taking his hat off to and praising a convicted drug dealer, pimp brothel owner and murderer and if that is not enough, even manages to shower 2 races with his hate.

stay classy you churlish neanderthal.

^Still pissed at being spun around at the door by security guards at Eden and all the other places that've told you it was private club over the years here 'aye? Hang on, I'm seeing a pattern here with you and sausages and local security guards now!

unlike you, bld, (a.k.a. homer simpsons stupid cousin) and some other of teak doors meatheaded, ignorant, impotent, henpecked and sex starved desperados, i have never found it necessary to pay for the types of service offered in the dead frenchmans seedy brothel.

Not necessary, but can be an occasional pleasant diversion. No different to enjoying a fine cigar, whiskey or massage.

Originally Posted by taxexile

unlike you, bld, (a.k.a. homer simpsons stupid cousin) and some other of teak doors meatheaded, ignorant, impotent, henpecked and sex starved desperados, i have never found it necessary to pay for the types of service offered in the dead frenchmans seedy brothel.

See, all that "You must give discount!" training at the Coconut bar and Soi Bangabint with your 5 mates has really paid off!

Eden Club was simply sensational back in the day, assuming you weren't told to piss off at the door because it was a *private club* in which case you'll never know what went on inside and just just how good it actually was

"How good it was"???? Headfuck, any swinging dick with the price of a fuck could get into it.

It was a fucking brothel, for fuck's sake, you dozy mongering guttersnipe.

Christ, and waxing lyrical over its pimp owner who in his cancer riddled delusional Froggy fuck'd-up brain formed a psychotic, psychopathic death wish involving the slaughter of two innocents?

But attempting to kill a purveyor of farang charcuterie ??? How fucking low could you get. The pimp was certainly a lowborn cvunt.

Originally Posted by taxexile

even manages to shower 2 races with his hate..

And not even chicken heads amongst them, which would be OK with you.

The nerve!

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

"How good it was"???? Headfuck, any swinging dick with the price of a fuck could get into it.

No they could not, your best (only?) mate taxgul for example would've got told to fuck right off at the door much like what happen to you at Gulliver's

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

It was a fucking brothel, for fuck's sake, you dozy mongering guttersnipe.

Yes we all know what it was you total fucking retard, and it wasn't a sausage shop that needed the driveway cleaned so it would have been of no interest to you would it. What it was, unlike anywhere else in Bangkok, was a gents club where every girl was bisexual, with every type of sex toy and uniform known to man on hand to help turn your 90 minutes into a session normally only seen in porn movies, short of getting really weird nothing was off limits, you had to take 2 or more girls, the hygiene and staff heath checks and safe-sex only rules were as stringent as it gets in Thailand P4P, and having a good time was guaranteed as part of the house policy. There was/is many brothels in Bangkok but there was absolutely nothing like Eden club at the time which is why the place did so well for so long before the owner sold it for well over a million USD. He also opened a place in Pattaya with exactly the same format that he sold too.

I'm completely out of touch with the Bangkok scene these days but doubt anywhere like that has existed since. It definitely wasn't for vanilla once a month missionary position with the lights off fuddy-duddies, but for anyone who wanted to take a walk on the wildside with guaranteed performers who knew what they were there for and more importantly, knew what you were there for, it was a must-visit establishment.

Originally Posted by DrWilly

Not necessary, but can be an occasional pleasant diversion. No different to enjoying a fine cigar, whiskey or massage.

Yikes.

Creepy as fuck.

Originally Posted by cyrille

And not even chicken heads amongst them, which would be OK with you.

The nerve!

I didn't say I hate the French and the jinglys , The French geezer was tolerated for running a decent whorehouse with staff that, went above and beyond,cold beverages and ones slippers didn't stick to the carpet, as an added bonus subcontinental types weren't allowed in .

An illuminating thread to be welcomed if only to shine a light into the sleazy ugliness of the typical blue collar, knuckle dragging, lumpen oafs of the forum, so ably represented by the repulsive Headfuck, whose predilection for rutting whores in Thailand mark them out as baseless creatures satisfying their animal urges by using women as little more than masturbatory aids.

And this gutter trash actually think they are not mere worthless sacks for food and fillers of pisspots?

^As usual, you're talking about a subject you know absolutely nothing about you feckless fuckwit. If this topic was about hiding behind a desk pretending to do something for an entire working lifetime or living in sheer misery afterwards, your opinion and views would go unchallenged of course.

I suppose with your extensive time hanging around lower Sukhumvit and North Pattaya you've never once even noticed there's a thriving sex industry, in between getting unceremoniously booted from freelancer hangouts obviously

He's the kind of bloke that asks the bargirls what time they finish work so he can avoid the barfine. But most of them clock him as a cheap Charlie and tell him to fuck off.

^Yeah be a real charmer, kitted out in yellow y-fronts that were white when he stole them, breaking hearts all over Soi 7/1. A dead set lady slayer our sausages would have been in his younger days

Tax, those three are simply glorified ditch diggers, uncouth munters whose social interaction with the opposite sex in their own society was no doubt limited to the lower end that they inhabited and as such were most likely overweight, mottled-skinned, cellulite riddled, uneducated slobs addicted to cigarettes and booze. No wonder they jumped at the chance of buying sexual gratification from vulnerable Asian whores half their age.

But justifying their sexual depredations on the grounds it was an acceptable norm?

Nah, they're just pitiful dirtbags, ageing dross romanticising their exploits in life's gutter as if drunken whoring actually gave substance to their meaningless lives.

Yeah couldn't be bothered reading it all. You're a fuckwit and it comes through in everything you write as well.

Wouldn't have updated the thread if I thought there'd be a big load of shitflinging.