I Don't Trust Them, Maria Lee Said

Sam Adams was a con man. He grew up in a family of grifters. He and his father did not get along – he left home at age 17 joined the navy to see the world. That lasted five years. He ended up in Asia as a down-and-out Western bum. Hanging out in Khaosan Road in Bangkok and frequenting the bars in Soi Cowboy, Nana Plaza, and Patpong supporting himself by a little drug dealing, and playing cons on unsuspecting foreign tourists.

One of his favorite women was also a con artist from South Korea named Maria Lee. She was drop-dead gorgeous and the rumor was that she had married a rich princeling son of one of the Chaebol (Korean family-owned corporations)families that ran Korea. She had been an actress who helped in her new line of work. She had stolen 50 million dollars from her husband before fleeing to Bangkok where she soon met Sam Adams and became his partner in crime.

When they met he was in the midst of a con game that he played with his crooked cop buddies he hung out at the Cosmos Club. They would target unsuspecting foreign drinkers suggesting that they could sell them drugs and take them to a private club for a little drug, gambling, and whoring. When they got there, the cops would secretly film them then bust in the door telling them they were busted. The cops would explain the facts of life to the fools. A little money of 5,000 dollars would make the case disappear.

Maria was the bait. They had the mark, a young American, But she said “I don’t trust them.”. She was right, the cops took off with the money and refused to share it with Sam and Maria threatening to deport them.