Poker NewsMuch more than just a poker blog...
To be honest, I don’t really believe this is any more of a poker-story than that of Joran van der Sloot [3]. I also agree with Tao of Poker [4] that relating crimes of ex-poker players to the (effects of the) game can do little good and is only a tool in the hands of anti-poker people. Yet here you are, because another person you might have once supported has drifted away from the harsh but peaceful world of poker.
[5]
Ron 'Mad Yank' Fanelli
Fanelli, winner of the 2004 Brighton Harbour Lights Poker Festival and 2nd in the London Gutshot Poker Festival Main Event the same year, saw his luck diminished by 2006 and eventually, short of money, he followed his new Thai girlfriend to Phuket, Thailand. She left him, as did his next girlfriend whom he married and had a child with. It is assumed that after divorcing and consequently beginning to use prostitutes, he met Wanphen at Sweethearts Bar earlier this year. In a drunken state, he stabbed the girl and later tried to hide the body chopping it up. “It was wrong. It was a horrible, horrible accident, in my opinion. I never intended to do any harm to this person,” Fanelli confessed according to OnlinePoker.net [6].
Not much else is yet known; there are several speculations, however. Probably the most personal story about Fanelli you will get to read is from Victoria Coren. You can access it here [7].