Found in a Cambodian jungle - but are they the remains of Errol Flynn's war photographer son?
British adventurers have dug up what they believe to be the remains of the son of Hollywood legend Errol Flynn, who disappeared 40 years ago in one of the most enduring mysteries of the Vietnam War.
The expedition team had scoured the dense jungle in the remote north-east of Cambodia for months before unearthing bones and teeth.
Photojournalist Sean Flynn was just 28 when he disappeared in 1970 during a Time magazine assignment as the war spilled into Cambodia. It became one of the conflict's most celebrated mysteries, but it now seems clear that he was seized and executed by brutal rebel soldiers belonging to Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.
His grieving mother Lili Damita, Errol Flynn's first wife, spent huge sums on failed expeditions to find Sean's body before she died in 1994.
Now, in a search part-funded by Sean's half-sister Rory, adventurers David MacMillan, a Scottish-born Australian, and Briton Keith Rotheram have unearthed the remains of an executed Westerner who they believe is Sean.
He was the image of his movie idol father, the star of films such as The Adventures Of Robin Hood. The remains include four well-preserved teeth, two of them still bright white.
They were handed over to US Embassy officials in Phnom Penh on Friday and are being flown to America for DNA tests and to be checked against Sean's dental records.
MacMillan, 29, and Rotheram, 60, hired bomb clearance experts, a bulldozer and teams of local workers to dig at a site where a witness described a tall, blond Westerner matching Sean's description being executed in 1971.
The witness said the man was forced to dig his own grave and then battered to death with a rock after his executioner's gun jammed as he tried to shoot his victim in the back of the head.
The finds at the site include prisoner's clothes, jungle vines used to tie up a prisoner, bone fragments and the teeth.
Sean was known for his excellent teeth and MacMillan said that an expert who studied photographs of the remains said they showed signs of dental work done in the US in the mid-20th Century, when Sean was a budding actor.
Previous theories about his disappearance – immortalised in the song Sean Flynn on The Clash's classic Combat Rock album – include execution by lethal injection in 1970.
But witnesses in the village of Phka Dong in Kampong Cham province, where the remains were found, said a man matching Sean's description was one of five foreigners held prisoner there by the Khmer Rouge until 1971.
According to the witness of the execution, who was a buffalo boy at the time and used to take baguettes and cigarettes to the prisoners, they were kept bound and chained and taken one at a time to execution sites near the village.
MacMillan, who lives in Vietnam, and Rotheram, who runs a bar in Sihanoukville in Cambodia, say that they have spent about £7,000 on their expedition.
In an email from the US, Sean's 53-year-old sister Rory, Errol Flynn's daughter from his second marriage to Nora Eddington, said: 'I grew up with Sean and also named my son after him, so we have hoped and prayed that his remains would be found.
Information came to me in the past year that motivated this private search and we hope that the person found is my brother so that he can finally come home.'
Sean Flynn's remains (possibly) found in Cambodian jungle
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Sean Flynn's remains (possibly) found in Cambodian jungle
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google his story, buy a book... then you'll know the answer.Soi Dog wrote:Why would a photo journalist for Time magazine be photo
graphed wearing Army fatigues and carry an M-16?
Sorry, that was a bit of a curt answer. But really, if you don't know the story then educate yourself because it sounds as though you are judging and making comment ... without knowing anything at all about him or his story.
If you had asked "Who is Sean Flynn? Was he a combat during the war? Why is he holding a gun?" or something to that effect, it would have displayed an open and questioning mind.
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I agree; Read Tim Page's book " Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden" and you will know what kind of person Sean was.violet wrote:google his story, buy a book... then you'll know the answer.Soi Dog wrote:Why would a photo journalist for Time magazine be photo
graphed wearing Army fatigues and carry an M-16?
Sorry, that was a bit of a curt answer. But really, if you don't know the story then educate yourself because it sounds as though you are judging and making comment ... without knowing anything at all about him or his story.
If you had asked "Who is Sean Flynn? Was he a combat during the war? Why is he holding a gun?" or something to that effect, it would have displayed an open and questioning mind.
Most photgraphers would not carry a gun for they would not be as subjective but Sean often found himself on the Cambodian's side and he was one of the view that went off with the south Vietnamese and Local Cambodians to cover their side of the fight.
Tim has spent years and years looking for his friend
"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer." HST
Phuket2006 wrote:Most photgraphers would not carry a gun for they would not be as subjective
Many liked to pose with guns though, even if they might not have carried one on the job.
Joe Galloway
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Suggest a lot more reading of history by some here.
Journos often carried weapons and some like flynn used them in action.
Capture in vietnam was always a plus for journos,the viets were honourable and I think always released captured journos.
win win.
journo got the good story from behind the lines and the viets got plaudits for common sense.
howvever viets captured flynn and others in cambodia near the border and handed them over to the KR.
ia ma somewhat of an expert on missing journos and i have been to several sites including where flynn may have been held.
i corresponded with page about flynn.
every time i drive to kampot through angasom i say a prayer for the five journos killed or captured on highway three.
in cambodia between march and may 1970 23 journos were killed or disappeared.
i have been to the site in kratie where it was believed that many were held for years before being killed prior to viet invasion.
i too named by son sean,after flynn
Journos often carried weapons and some like flynn used them in action.
Capture in vietnam was always a plus for journos,the viets were honourable and I think always released captured journos.
win win.
journo got the good story from behind the lines and the viets got plaudits for common sense.
howvever viets captured flynn and others in cambodia near the border and handed them over to the KR.
ia ma somewhat of an expert on missing journos and i have been to several sites including where flynn may have been held.
i corresponded with page about flynn.
every time i drive to kampot through angasom i say a prayer for the five journos killed or captured on highway three.
in cambodia between march and may 1970 23 journos were killed or disappeared.
i have been to the site in kratie where it was believed that many were held for years before being killed prior to viet invasion.
i too named by son sean,after flynn
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I’m far from alone in having a strange fascination with this guy. The son of famous movie star Errol Flynn and a French actress Lili Damita, he grew up mainly in Paris, but did star in a few minor Hollywood movies in the early 60s. Perhaps he inherited some of the adventurous, wandering Irish spirit from his father, who he actually saw very little of growing up, but either way he eventually ended up covering the Vietnam war as a photojournalist.
A popular figure on the Saigon/Phnom Penh/ SE-Asian journalist’s scene, many of his adventures are recounted in the books by or about Tim Page, Neil Davis, John Swaine and other journalists who were around at the time. Tim Page’s 1991 book, “Off the rails in Ho Chi Minh’s Garden”, has as an almost central theme the search for his dead friend’s grave. “Page after Page”, is an autobiographical account of earlier years when he hung out with Flynn and others in a crazy-sounding scene of opium-dens, helicopters, exotic women, guts and blood.
There was apparently at the time a strange disconnection between what was happening at the front and life in Phnom Penh. In 1973, when Ronald Joffre turned up as an aspiring teenage photographer (after saving for a long time), he says he could hardly believe the lack of concern about the war on the streets of the capital. There were still restaurants, dancing clubs and casinos open to the people who could still afford it. It was a strange war, and it wasn’t uncommon for generals to spend their time near the front with their (mostly ghost) soldiers but then speed back in the evenings to the city center for some fine dining.
The war in Cambodia, which only really started properly with Lon Nol’s coup, was a strange one. There weren’t supposed to be any Hanoi troops around, and the movement that later became known as the Khmer Rouge weren’t exactly holding press-conferences. Serge Thionn is the only western journalist/scholar I am aware of who actually spent time in and reported back from this opaque zone during the whole civil war. The fact that he made liaisons with communist party people and was actually invited to the area makes a huge difference.
No other foreign journalist that I know of managed to come back with a report, they were all executed. At the time of Sean Flynn and Dana Stone’s disappearance, this would have been well known, and journalists were disappearing daily in Cambodia.
The journalists were meanwhile able to get back into town every night, and some seemed to have quite a lot of fun. Page after Page talks a lot about this stuff, all the late-night debauchery etc, it was adapted into a mini-series in the 80s that I’ve never seen. Anyway, on a trip down national highway one towards Vietnam, Flynn and Stone disappeared. They were caught up in a road mortar incident or something, and got dragged away by NVA forces. They were later passed on to the local communist forces who apparently executed them some time afterward.
In this particular area were supposedly allied Hanoi and local Khmer communist forces and also Saigon troops, who stayed on well after the much publicized US excursion. None of these groups would have been particularly keen to see a snap-happy journalist turn up and start taking shots of their recent rampages.
From the various villagers accounts, they were probably initially treated relatively well, almost as guests at first, at least until word came from above. Then, like the countless other people who found themselves in the way, they were disposed of with little ceremony.
I admire all these guys who covered the war a lot, and although it seems that all that excess and crazy behavior of the press-corps back in those heady days is gone, many of them are still with us and roll up around town regularly. Sean Flynn was once one of them. A guy who could have quite easily lived a comfortable life elsewhere, chose to come here at a bad time and get crucified instead. That’s interesting.
A popular figure on the Saigon/Phnom Penh/ SE-Asian journalist’s scene, many of his adventures are recounted in the books by or about Tim Page, Neil Davis, John Swaine and other journalists who were around at the time. Tim Page’s 1991 book, “Off the rails in Ho Chi Minh’s Garden”, has as an almost central theme the search for his dead friend’s grave. “Page after Page”, is an autobiographical account of earlier years when he hung out with Flynn and others in a crazy-sounding scene of opium-dens, helicopters, exotic women, guts and blood.
There was apparently at the time a strange disconnection between what was happening at the front and life in Phnom Penh. In 1973, when Ronald Joffre turned up as an aspiring teenage photographer (after saving for a long time), he says he could hardly believe the lack of concern about the war on the streets of the capital. There were still restaurants, dancing clubs and casinos open to the people who could still afford it. It was a strange war, and it wasn’t uncommon for generals to spend their time near the front with their (mostly ghost) soldiers but then speed back in the evenings to the city center for some fine dining.
The war in Cambodia, which only really started properly with Lon Nol’s coup, was a strange one. There weren’t supposed to be any Hanoi troops around, and the movement that later became known as the Khmer Rouge weren’t exactly holding press-conferences. Serge Thionn is the only western journalist/scholar I am aware of who actually spent time in and reported back from this opaque zone during the whole civil war. The fact that he made liaisons with communist party people and was actually invited to the area makes a huge difference.
No other foreign journalist that I know of managed to come back with a report, they were all executed. At the time of Sean Flynn and Dana Stone’s disappearance, this would have been well known, and journalists were disappearing daily in Cambodia.
The journalists were meanwhile able to get back into town every night, and some seemed to have quite a lot of fun. Page after Page talks a lot about this stuff, all the late-night debauchery etc, it was adapted into a mini-series in the 80s that I’ve never seen. Anyway, on a trip down national highway one towards Vietnam, Flynn and Stone disappeared. They were caught up in a road mortar incident or something, and got dragged away by NVA forces. They were later passed on to the local communist forces who apparently executed them some time afterward.
In this particular area were supposedly allied Hanoi and local Khmer communist forces and also Saigon troops, who stayed on well after the much publicized US excursion. None of these groups would have been particularly keen to see a snap-happy journalist turn up and start taking shots of their recent rampages.
From the various villagers accounts, they were probably initially treated relatively well, almost as guests at first, at least until word came from above. Then, like the countless other people who found themselves in the way, they were disposed of with little ceremony.
I admire all these guys who covered the war a lot, and although it seems that all that excess and crazy behavior of the press-corps back in those heady days is gone, many of them are still with us and roll up around town regularly. Sean Flynn was once one of them. A guy who could have quite easily lived a comfortable life elsewhere, chose to come here at a bad time and get crucified instead. That’s interesting.
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You mean Errol Flynn? What makes you think he was Irish? Apart from maybe his surname there is nothing to indicate he was Irish. Errol Flynn was also married in an Anglican church, something which no (Catholic) Irishman would ever do in ye old days.hanky wrote:Perhaps he inherited some of the adventurous, wandering Irish spirit from his father
It's called Frankie's House. Great show, although I've only seen the 2.5-hr abridged version.hanky wrote:Page after Page talks a lot about this stuff, all the late-night debauchery etc, it was adapted into a mini-series in the 80s that I’ve never seen.
One of the shops in the very back of the DVD floor/section in Sorya has this in 2 DVD set, I think it must have been the full version as it was 4 hours or more.Starving Pelican wrote:It's called Frankie's House. Great show, although I've only seen the 2.5-hr abridged version.hanky wrote:Page after Page talks a lot about this stuff, all the late-night debauchery etc, it was adapted into a mini-series in the 80s that I’ve never seen.
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I didn't think he was born in Ireland, but his Irish surname and the fact that his parents were of Irish, English and Scottish decent may have influenced what I wrote. Sean is also an Irish name, and his half-sister's name is Rory, another Irish name but one I have never heard a woman called.I wrote it when I was drunk anyway, it's not supposed to be some sort of historical document.Starving Pelican wrote: You mean Errol Flynn? What makes you think he was Irish? Apart from maybe his surname there is nothing to indicate he was Irish.
It may come as a big surprise to you, but not all Irish people are Catholic, and there are many Anglican churches in Ireland itself, so I'm not sure what your point is.Errol Flynn was also married in an Anglican church, something which no (Catholic) Irishman would ever do in ye old days.
Last edited by hanky on Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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