Sia Yae eventually lost his life in 1989, As he was leaving the court house in the northeastern provincial capital of Korat, a modified claymore mine was detonated by remote control killing Sia Yae and several of his companions. The assassination method suggested some expertise with explosives which is usually acquired in the military.
For someone who had died in a fashion worthy of the most melodramatic gangster movie, his funeral was truly a star-studded affair. The guest of honour was the minister of
Interior along with several other ministers and MPs.
Sia Yae started out as the son of a Chinese immigrant, began his business career as a bicycle repairman, made his first pile by managing a gambling den, married the relation of a police officer, rose from being a nobody in a sleepy provincial town of Angthong to become a manipulator at the highest level of government, gave all three of his sons the college education he never had, died in a spectacular assassination on the steps of a court house, and was mourned by some of the leading politicians in the land.
Sia L- of Khon Kaen. Sia L- was born in 1934 in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat). Both of his parents had migrated from mainland China. He said his family was poor. He had four years of elementary schooling in a Chinese school. When he left school he had to help tlhe family by selling noodles , until a grocery store owner in Khon Kaen offered him a job as an all-round shop assistant and delivery boy. He was good at the job and after four or five years he was promoted to look after buying supplies. He travelled a lot and acquired a good knowledge of the surrounding areas in the northeast. With his promotion he received 700 baht a month and he began studying Chinese and accountancy by correspondence. After his study he was promoted to the position of accountant. When he was 28 he left the shop and started his own business.
With the help of a friend, he borrowed several thousand baht from a bank and began buying and selling cash crops around Khon Kaen. Once he had some capital, also acted as a moneylender, advancing the villagers cash and seed in return for a lien on the crop, Next he invested in processing the crops, He set up a flour mill, a cassava processing plant and a rice mill. Finally he extended into a crop wholesaling business and into crop exporting.