BANGKOK, Thailand -- William Young, a former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary commander who used Burmese and Lao tribesmen to kill Communists in Laos during the 1960s, died at home of a bullet to the head, reportedly clutching a crucifix alongside a gun, prompting speculation that he committed suicide. He was 76.
"Killing was part of the job", Mr. Young told Edward Loxton, who said he had interviewed Mr. Young extensively.
Mr. Young "became a top CIA Vietnam War-era hit-man in the jungles of Burma, Laos and Thailand," Mr. Loxton wrote on Monday (April 4) in The First Post, a British publication.
"Mr. Young was in poor health," said Susan Stevenson, the U.S. consul general in Thailand's northern town of Chiang Mai, where Mr. Young died on Friday (April 1).
Police said he died of a gunshot wound to the head, with a pistol next to his right hand while his left hand clutched a crucifix, according to news reports.
"In many ways, Mr. Young's exploits in this part of the world mirrored those of the U.S.," the American consul said in a statement dated Monday (April 4).