IN LATE October the Thai authorities announced that Prakrom Warunprapa—a disgraced police major accused of embezzling money by falsely claiming links to Thailand’s monarchy—had hanged himself in his cell in a small prison at an army barracks. On November 9th officials said that a second prisoner arrested during the same investigation had also met an untimely demise. Suriyan Sujaritpalawong, a fortune-teller and minor celebrity better known as Mor Yong, is said to have succumbed to blood poisoning only days after his jailers suggested his illness was feigned. The two deaths follow a wave of arrests and disappearances which have left many in the capital feeling anxious.

Mr Suriyan’s tale is dramatic. Until his arrest he was a darling of Bangkok’s ruling establishment, hobnobbing with the superstitious generals who have run the country since an army coup last year. He was also believed to be on good terms with Thailand’s crown prince, Maha Vajiralongkorn. Mr Suriyan stood accused—along with Mr Prakrom, and with a personal assistant who remains in custody—of pocketing money coughed up as sponsorship by large firms supplying two auspicious royal events: a nationwide bike-ride held in August in honour of the queen (called “Bike for Mum”) and another day of mass-cycling to be held in December, in honour of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (“Bike for Dad”).

Mr Suriyan’s case also relates to a purge of prominent people accused, through word or deed, of bringing the monarchy into disrepute—a crime known as lèse-majesté. Unusually, army officers as well as police are among those in the frame. An army colonel linked to Mr Suriyan’s alleged crimes is said to have fled to Myanmar; on November 4th a police spokesman appeared to suggest that 40-50 high-ranking members of the armed forces could be involved. As well as irregularities in the organisation of the two mass-cycling events, authorities are looking into allegations of corruption related to the building of a grand new royal park built on army land in the resort city of Hua Hin, which features statues of seven Thai kings.

Grimly, Mr Suriyan and Mr Prakrom are not the only lèse-majesté suspects to have died before trial. During a previous crackdown, which took place in late 2014, a senior policeman accused of defaming the monarchy fell from a hospital window. On November 8th the palace, citing only “gravely evil behaviour”, said that it was stripping Pisitsak Seniwong na Ayutthaya, a blue-blooded senior officer in the palace bodyguard, of his royal decorations. There are rumours that he too is dead.