david carradine death photo thairath VIDEO

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Threats by the family of dead Hollywood actor David Carradine to sue publications that republish photographs published by Thailand’s Thai Rath newspaper over the weekend amount to little more than bluster.

The photographs(scroll down), which have seen the Carradine clan have their lawyer publicly warn publications of lawsuits, appear to be nothing more than a fake at worst, or a re-enactment at best.

The photographs displayed by the Bangkok tabloid show a man with dark skin and black hair, naked and suspended by a rope tied around his wrists and attached to a clothes bar inside what appears to be a cheap closet. A bed is less than one meter away from the closet and the room has a wooden floor - all hardly the stuff of a suite in a prestigious hotel such as the Swissotel Nai Lert Park.

Police reports have said Carradine was found with a shoelace tied around his penis and a rope around his neck. An earlier claim that the dead actor’s hands were tied has been refuted by Thai police.

Senior Thai attorney general Sirasak Tiypan has said the FBI can observe the police investigation but must not try to interfere.

The FBI “cannot arrest any suspects or perform its own investigation, because that falls under the authority of the police where the crime was committed,” he said.

Police Colonel Somprasong Yenthaum, who is leading the probe, said he was, “confident we are working on the right track” and added that US embassy representatives had witnessed the examination of the hotel room.

Carradine was in the Thai capital to shoot a film called Stretch when he was found dead, naked and curled up inside the wardrobe with one end of a shoelace tied around his penis and the other end fastened around his neck, by a hotel housekeeper.

The director of Thailand’s Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS), Kunying Porntip, said he could have been be trying autoerotic asphyxiation to gain sexual pleasure and may have accidentally suffocated.

Carradine’s family have vigorously disputed claims he may have committed suicide and also rejected the kinky masturbation-sex angle.

The family has also employed high-profile forensics expert Dr. Michael Baden to perform an autopsy on the dead actor in the US.

David Carradine as shown on Thai Rath Tabloid

The 72-year-old actor will be best remembered for his staring roles in Kill Bill vols. 1 & 2, and the ‘70’s Kung Fu television series where he played Kwai Chang Caine, a fugitive Shaolin monk.