Thai Death Certificate for Thomas Merton

from the

National Archives

Death Certificate Front

Death Certificate Reverse

with note by police officer

Death Certificate

English translation

from the

National Archives

Doctor's Certificate with cause of death

from the

National Archives

Doctor's Certificate

English translaiton

Doctor's Certificate

English translation

with note by Consular Officer

from the

National Archives

The cover letter for the police report that was sent from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok

Page one of the Thai police report from the embassy.  

The police report has no title, no author, no date, and no stamp of authenticity from the embassy.

from Northwestern University

Page 2 of the police report

from

Northwestern University

Page 3 of the police report

from

Northwestern University

American Foreign

Service Report

from the National Archives

Missing Documents

On December 27, 1968, the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok sent Merton's abbey a letter, a copy of which we discovered in the collection of the papers of authorized Merton biographer, Michael Mott, at Northwestern University.  That letter refers to enclosed copies of the doctor's certificate, the death certificate with a translation, letters from participants at the conference who found or examined Merton's body, and its own Report on the Death of an American Citizen.  Those enclosures were not with the letter and Brother Lawrence Morey, the archivist for the abbey, informed us that he no longer has any of them.

This document can also be viewed at The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

This document can also be viewed at The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

This document can also be viewed at The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

Thomas Merton had no children

There have been unfounded rumors that Merton fathered a child while he was living in England.  The best evidence is that Thomas Merton had no children.  On February 4, 1938, Thomas Merton sgined a Declaration of Intention for naturalization in court in New York, that stated,

"I have no children."  

On January 5, 1948, Thomas Merton signed a Petition for Natualization in the U.S. District Court in Louisville, Kentucky, where he stated, "I have no children."

These official documents are shown below.

For additional evidence see: Did Thomas Merton Have a Love Child?