Plantation murders in Malaya during the 1920’s

After researching the inspiration behind some of Maugham’s Far Eastern tales in the Singaporean archives, I stumbled across a number of articles from The Straits Times reporting on ‘murders’ of Rubber plantation managers between the years of 1900-1940. I initially counted sixteen murders; I believe there is more. The Straits Times articles are short, their language restricted, they give few details about the murders, but what struck me immediately was that in all cases the plantation managers had been shot and usually no one was arrested. The Straits Times often speculated that it had been a robbery gone wrong, the crime of a Chinese gang or an act of revenge by a disgruntled former worker.

I decided to start writing a novella exploring such murders in the form of a Singaporean archive transcript. It is still in its early days, but I am imagining the possibility of a serial killer existing in the jungle during that time…