The Moon Princess

It was a sultry Malayan night in September 1931. The rain-bearing northeast monsoon was late in arriving and the air was still and humid. iris Pearson was perspiring and awake in bed. The ceiling fan had not eased her discomfort. The bedside clock said it was just after 2 a.m. Her husband Thomas Pearson, a magistrate, was away in a neighbouring state on duty and would not return home until the following day. The large window of her bedroom was open and 'framed' within it was a picturesque scene of coconut palms silhouetted in the moonlight against a silver-blue sky and there was the heady fragrance of jasmine and frangipani.

Despite the serene beauty of the tropical night she had a strange feeling that an evil presence was watching her from the shadows on the veranda outside her bedroom. Presently she noticed a movement and a cold shiver ran down her spine when she saw a woman standing in the shadows. She had a beautiful face and eyes that glowered like red-hot coals. Iris Pearson had wanted to scream, knowing it would awaken the two maidservants in the adjoining bedroom and bring them quickly to her side. But, the cold fingers of fear had already gripped her throat as she helplessly saw the woman with red eyes transforming herself into large, black bird. it now had a grostesque human face, black feathers and long human-like hair. Flapping its wings, it jumped on to the windowsill, cackling softly. A moment later it stood at the foot of the bed and began combing its tresses with its curved claws. Trembling, Iris Pearson reached for the flashlight on the bedside table and in one desperate movement directed a powerful beam of light on to the creature. It shrieked in anger, its face turning into hideous mask. It began to back away, shielding its face with its wings from the light. It quickly spun round and flew out of the window, its high-pitched cries fading into the night.

On his returnto his home at Bukit Damansara a pleasant retreat on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Thomas Pearson was stunned when told by his house servants that his wife, who was five months pregnant with their first child was missing. Police were informed and a search was soon in progress. That night her mutilated body was discovered under a bush not far from her home. Her stomach had been ripped open exposing the feotus of the child she was carrying. Her eyes had been gouged and there were deep scratch marks on her breasts and face. A government pathologist's report said an animal with sharp claws could have cause the fatal injuries.

Six months later (March 1932), a beautiful, young woman named Puteri Bulan sat in the dock of the High Court in Kuala Lumpur charged with the murder of Iris Pearson. The court was filled to capacity as counsel for the prosecution and defence were about to make their final submissions to an all-European jury. A verdict was expected the same day in one of the most bizarre and sentional murder cases to have come before a British court of justice. People had gathered in the corridors of the old Victorian building where the High Court was situated while a large crowd waited outside.

A small group of stone-faced English tuans in starched white drill trousers, white baju tutup (tunic jackets) and white topi (sun helmets), the standard dress that identified members of the British colonial administrative service and those in private business, had gathered under a row of bright red and green flame-of-the-forest trees. They carried a placard on which was written in large capital letters : HANG HER! It also represented the sentiments of the small English community.

Thomas Pearson had suffered a severe mental breakdown after the discovery of his wife's mutilated body and was confined to a mental institution in England. His state of health didi not permit him to be a witness at the trial that had now entered its tenth and final day. Puteri Bulan was Thomas Pearson's mistress for two years before he married Iris Pearson. It had been a practice during British colonial rule in Malaya, as in order parts of the far-flung British Empire, for lonely English bachelors to take young native woman as mistresses.

Thomas Pearson had met the beautiful Puteri Bulan when he was a bachelor of twenty-seven and she was seventeen. they had first set eyes on each other when she was produced before him in court, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She had gone on her knees begging his mercy, 'I stole the bread because my grandmother who is blind and I were starving, tuan!' she cried, tears welling in her large, black eyes. A welfare officer's report said she was abandoned soon after she was born. The identity of her mother was unknown.

An old woman who had found the infant gave her the unusual name of 'Puteri Bulan'. It meant 'princess of the moon' in Malay because the old woman had thought the child was 'as beautiful as a moonbeam'. She grew up in poverty and sold fried bananas in the streets to support herself and the woman she called nenek (grandmother) who was almost blind. While in the court lock-up waiting to answer the charge against her Puteri Bulan had listened to gossip among the other prisoners and learnt that the magistrate before whom they would be appearing was 'a good and fair man'. She was also told that he was a bachelor.

Thomas Perason was struck by Puteri Bulan's beauty and was filled with compassion as she stood in the prisoner's dock before him. He said to her, 'I'll let you off with a warning this time, but should you come back before me again i shall have to punish you.' 'Oh, thank you, tuan!' she cried, tears of shame and sadness instantly replaced by tears and joy. Her eyes met his and in the fleeting moment she felt a burning desire to be in his arms. She had also seen in his eyes that he was attracted to her. A thought flashed through her mind : What was it like to be in the arms of an English tuan? She had heard many stories of love 'affairs' between tuans and girls like herself from the kampungs.

As she was leaving the crowded court she glanced over her shoulder at Pearsong and held her breath because she thought his eyes had been following her. She wasn't sure. She hurried to the door and stealing another glance, saw his eyes were still at her. There was no mistake. A shiver of excitement ran through her shapely body. She opened the door and went out. She'd find a way to see him again soo, she told herself. Thomas Pearson couldn't concentrate on his work after he saw Puteri Bulan leave the courtroom. He kept glancing at the door hoping she would return, for any reason at all.

He adjourned court earlier than usual before lunch and went to the Selangor Club. European civil servants and those employed by commercial firms gathered at the bar at the same time each morning after making brief formal appearances at their respective places of work and where most of them remained for the remainder of the day. Pearson had played a few games of darts after lunch, hoping to dismiss Puteri Bulan from his thought. But it was of no use. He phoned his clerk to say he would not be returning to his chambers at the courthouse and decided to go home to his bungalow in picturesque Bukit Damansara where he lived alone with Ali, and old Malay servant who also prepared his meals.

He drove his car slowly on the way home hoping to see her among the crowd in the streets. Once or twice he stopped when he thought he had seen her. The effects of the whisky he had at the Club and the humidity made him feel drowsy. Reaching home he showered and fell asleep in a cane long-chair under a whirring ceiling fan. When he awoke an hour later Ali informed him there was a young woman waiting to see him. 'I told her you were asleep, hoping she would go away but she insisted on waiting. She said she had walked a long way and wished to deliver something personally to you.'

'Where is she now?' 'She's asleep under a mango tree in the garden, tuan. If you looked from the veranda, perhaps you could see her.' said Ali who had become suspicious of the girl's behaviour. Pearson got to his feet and went to the veranda, having no idea who she might be. His heart missed a beat when he saw Puteri Bulan asleep in the shade of the mango tree, her beautiful face caught in a shaft of the afternoon sun that had penetrated a canopy of leaves above. He hurried down the stairs and into the garden. She was awakened by the sound of his approaching footsteps and sat up quickly. Seeing him she jumped to her feet, smiled shyly and said in Malay, 'Forgive me for coming here tuan,' and handed him a small package wrapped in banana leaves. 'Please accept this. Its a gift of fried bananas from my grandmother and myself, a humble expression of our deep gratitude for the mercy you had showed me this morning.'

Turning on her heel, she ran quickly towards the gate hopinghe would call after her. He did. 'Wait! Please don't go away!' he cried. Her heart beat faster. 'Please wait!' he called out again. She halted, turned round slowly and shyly hung her head as he approached. 'Why did you run away like that?' he asked, smiling. 'You didn't give me a chance to thanks you for your gift.' Puteri Bulan smiled, delighted that she had snared him so easily. 'I am shy sir,' she said softly in English. 'You speak English!' said Pearson, pleasently suprised. 'Only a little, sir.' As they spoke, old Ali watched from a distance, concealing his thoughts behind a grim face. 'A waif no doubt from the way she dressed! Barefoot, too! There are lots of better class girls who would like to share the tuan's bed! The young fool will regret this!' he said to himself.

A few days later, Puteri Bulan came to live in the bungalow after Pearson had made arrangements for her grandmother to be admitted to a home for the blind. A misunderstanding with Ali about some trivial matter had provided Puteri Bulan with the opportunity to say to him, 'Listen, old man, I am the tuan's woman. Do as I say or get out!' He had left immediately, not bothering to wait until his employer returned to explained. Puteri Bulan or 'Princess' as Pearson called her, had become a 'kept woman' a term by which all mistresses of Europeans were known. It was considered a prestigious position for a 'native' girl in British colonial times. It meant living in a European home and money to provide food for her family.

Puteri Bulan was aware that life as a mistress would not be easy. Most tuans drank too much and there would always be competition from other aspiring young woman. She would cross those bridges if and when they appeared, she told herself. She had heard about 'the rule' that mistresses were obliged to observe and was aware that her 'affair' with Pearson would end whenever he decided to settle down to a 'respectable married life with an English wife' as other tuans were known to do. When that happened mistresses were usually 'paid off' and retained the clothes and whatever jewellery they had received from their lovers. A monthly cash allowance was paid if there were children. Few tuans had dified another 'rule', one that forbade them marrying their native mistresses. A tuan who broke this rule would loose his job, become ostracised by the European community and spend the rest of his day in the slums with local raiff-raff, White drifters, their native wives and half-caste children and there were many such examples.

A grey-headed tuan who had confessed to having two mistresses in his younger days remarked at the Selangor Club bar one day : 'I think they should have a home for ex-mistresses. There was no hope of these woman marrying or becoming mistresses of any 'local' chap since they bore the stigma of having once been the lovers of the much disliked European tuans. Neither would these women stand much of a chance of being considered by newly-arrived tuans from England, despite their knowledge of 'the ways of the White man' because of the availability of much younger candidates for such positions. Most ex-mistresses were destined to spend the rest of their days in isolation with their illegitimate children and having to survive on paltry incomes. Some became bar waitresses or whores, rather shameful conditions that White men were guilty of creating for their ex-lovers. 'Out East, a White man's folly in his polly', so they say. But, could the White man he be blamed when he was surrounded by such irresistable temptation?'

Pearson appeared to be extreamly happy with his beautiful acquisition and Puteri Bulan doted him. She was popular at 'house parties', having learnt a few classical Malay and Indian dances that she performed with grace and skill. He had hired a retired teacher to tutor her in English and he was as pleased as she with the results. She had learnt popular English love song from the records she played on the gramophone at home the endeared him even more to her.

For two years they had been 'a perfect pair'. He had told her in tender moments that he would be 'totally lost' without her and she would whisper softly, 'If you leave me, I shall die'. His feelings towards her were to change dramatically after he met Iris Foster who had recently arrived from England to take up an appointment as principal of a girl's school. She was a few years younger than him, pleasant and cultured and the niece of Sir Ronald Foster who would soon be appointed ;British Adviser' to the sultan of the state.

Pearson had taken her to lunch a few times and it was obvious they enjoyed each other's company. It had occurred to him that marriage to her would greatly enhance his career in the Malayan legal service in view of her uncle's forthcoming appointment and dreams of becoming solicitor-general or even a High Court judge were not easily dismissed from his mind. People with the 'right connections' became successful. He couldn't imagine himself remaining a lowly police court magistrate all his life. He was attracted to Iris Foster but not in the wild, passionate way that he was attracted to Puteri Bulan. Iris Foster was pleasant, intelligent and English. But more importantly, she had, without realising it, opened his eyes to career possibilities he hadn't seen before. If things 'developed' romantically between them, what was he going to do about Puteri Bulan, he had wondered. She was beautiful, intelligent in her own way and she gave him a kind of sensual love that no other woman could have challenge.

Would she accept the idea of still being his mistress if he married Iris Foster? He knew of some tuans with English wives who still 'carried on' with local mistresses. Such things were done in secret, of course. 'Affairs' between Europeans and native woman were always 'juicy' subjects for gossip and Pearson realised a divorce would shatter all his career dreams. The thought of being sent back to England in disgrace and becoming a junior solicitor with an obscure law firm in foggy London had horrified him, after experiencing the pampered life of a tuan in sunny, beautiful Malaya with all its wonderful temptations.

His meeting with Iris Foster become more frequent. She had come to know about his relationship with Puteri Bulan but had accepted it as 'something all lonely English bachelors did out East'. She had avoided embarrassing him by asking about it. He finally came to a decision : Puteri Bulan would be told the truth. She would have to go because he was going to ask Iris Foster to marry him. He felt the time had come when his future career and happiness had to be considered and after he had given the matter serious consideration he was convinced his decision was correct.

Speaking softly in halting English while making her defence at her trial, Puteri Bulan said, 'On the night he told me he was going to marry the English woman, I was too shocked and too said to speak. It was as though the sunshine had suddenly been blocked out of my life and replaced by darkness. I could feel my heart breaking into little bits and I wanted to die at that very moment. 'He told me that he was sorry our romance had to end so suddenly and offered me some money, which I refused. 'You're young and beautiful.' he told me. 'You could find a nice husband or, I am sure there are other tuans who would be happy to have you.'

'I couldn't believe he was saying such to me. We had loved each other dearly. I walked away from him and went into the moonlit garden. He got his car and drove away. Later, I went upstairs to our bedroom and began to pack my clothes because I had wanted to leave before he returned. It was very late. There were no buses or taxis. I carried my bags to a nearby fruit orchard. I was exhausted and my mind was blank. I spread a mat under a tree and soon fell asleep. I was awakened when I felt my head being gently stroked. I open my eyes and in the moonlight I saw a beautiful woman sitting beside me. 'She kissed my forehead and told me not to be afraid and that she was my mother. I began to cry and she held me close to her. I thought I was dreaming at first but when she told me she had died shortly after giving birth to me and had left me at the door of an old woman's hut. I realised it wasn't a dream.

'She told me she roamed the moonlit skies with the spirits of those who had been cursed to die in childbirth when they had lived as humans. They were called pontianak, half-human creatures who sought revenge and the blood of those who had harmed them. 'Tonight you have become one of us!' she said. 'Because of our lust for blood and revenge in our hearts we are cursed not to know the joys of true and lasting love as had happened to you tonight when your lover rejected you! But revenge shall be yours and I shall always be there to guide and protect you!' Puteri Bulan paused to wipe her tears.

'What happened after that?' asked the English judge. 'My mother embraced and kissed me. I felt her fingers running through my hair and they touched a small lump at the back of my head that i hadn't felt or noticed before and she said,'I found it.. The nail I had inserted into your head when you were born so that you could live as a human! It's time for me to remove it so you could become like me!' 'I felt her remove something from my head and she showed me a small, silver nail... and then she disappeared into the moonlight.' 'And, what were your feelings after that happened?' asked the judge. 'I became frightened, sir,' she said. 'I didn't know what was going to happen to me next. I also felt strangely different and discovered I could move about without my feet touching the ground and I could easily fly up to the branches of the tallest trees! I realised then that I had become a half-human pontianak!'

In a voice that echoed in the large courtroom Reginald Withers, the prosecutor, recounted the 'damning evindence that had established the guilt of Puteri Bulan 'beyond all doubt' as he adressed the jury of seven grim European tuans. He said, 'The extraordinary difference between this murder trial from any other is that the accused, according to her counsel, was in supernatural state when she committed this terrible crime and therefore could not be held responsible for her actions! In other words, this honourable court and members of the jury have been asked to believe Iris Pearson and her unborn child were killed by a demon!'

He took a deep breath and raising his voice, said, 'In all my nineteen years as a senior officer of the High Court I have not heard anything so bizarre, scandalous and outrageously preposterous!' Going up to the dock where Puteri Bulan sat with he head bowed, he boomed, 'She's not a demon or a supernatural creature! Look at her! She is as human as anyone in this courtroom! She was human as she is now and completely concious of her actions when she viciously killed Iris Pearson in cold blood!' He paused to look at the crowed in the packed courtroom and continued, 'While making her defence she told us a fantastic story of meeting her mother who had died after giving birth to her and who is now a pontianak a demon! She also told us how, in the light of the full moon, she was transformed by powers beyond her control into a bird that had a woman's face and long hair and sharp claws and that she was able to fly! And, let us not forget her most fantastic claim, that she had no recollection whatsoever of killing Iris Pearson! These are the preposterous lies she expects this court to believe!

'She was the mistress of Thomas Pearson for two years before he married the deceased. The accused was fully aware that when the time came for their illicit relationship to end, she would have to depart from the comfortable home she had shared with him. And, when she was told that their love affair had come to an end, she was filled with bitterness! Pearson has tried to compensate her with money but his gesture had failed to douse the flames of revenge and hatred within her. Flames that would also devour an innocent woman, Iris Pearson who was five months pregnant when she was butchered by this woman who sits so calmly in the prisoner's dock here today! But, Iris Pearson wasn't the only victim of this heinous crime! It had also destroyed the life of Thomas Pearson. He suffered a serious mental collapse after discovering his wife's horribly mutilated body and the foetus of his unborn child! Since his wife's death, he has been in a mental institution in England where he sits in solitary confinement, a wreck of a man who cannot even remember his name!'

Withers closed the case for the prosecution by saying, 'Witnesses at this trial have described Puteri Bulan as 'pleasant and cheerful,' Looking at her it is difficult for me, as it might also be for members of the jury, to imagine she is a fiendish killer,' The suave and articulate Clarence Wong had read law at Oxford and was the author of many books on Malayan black magic, demons and ancient superstitious beliefs. He had volunteered his sevices for the defence.

Standing in the centre of the courtroom, he bowed to the judge and jury and said with a smile, 'Mr. Withers, the prosecutor, has accused me making 'bizarre, scandalous and outrageously preposterous claims.'What I have attempted to prove is that this regrettable crime was committed by the accused while she was in a supernatural state and therefore cannot be held responsible for her actions. I do not blame the prosecutor for his accusations against me. He did so out of ignorance not of the law but of some of the ancient mystic beliefs and practices of the people of this country and region and on which the defence has based its case.

'From what I gather Mr. Withers has not thought it important to acquaint himself even briefly, with supernatural beliefs, an important ingredient in the culture and daily lives of Asian people. He is typical example of Europeans who come to live in this part of the world and who would dismiss age-old local traditions and beliefs as 'mumbo-jumbo' or 'superstitious nonsense!' But, many millions of people in this country and the region believed that there were half-human females known as pontianak who could transform themselves from beautiful women into large birds with evil human faces and vice versa, who used their razor-sharp claws to rip open the stomachs of pregnant woman whom they had reason to kill and also killed lustful men by depriving them of their manhood! These creatures were sometimes called sundal bolong in Malay, half-human vampires who were beautiful whores from hell!'

He went up to the jury and said, 'Gentlemen, there are a lot of people in this courtroom and outside of it who will agree with me when I say, Puteri Bulan was in the form of a pontianak when she killed Iris Pearson and when she reverted to human form, she had no recollection whatsoever of having committed the crime! It was like a person committing murder while being unsound mind. Such people were not hanged! The law had other ways to dealing with them. i sincerely believe Puteri Bulan is not guilty of the murder of Iris Pearson.

'We have heard in evidence that Puteri Bulan was for two years Thomas Pearson's unofficial wife and she was devoted to him. Then, suddenly one night after they had made passionate love, he told her that it was all over between them because he was going to be married! we would never know the extent of the shock his words had on her! I recall the words of William Congreve the English dramatist that may describe her reaction and I quote,'Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned,' unquote.'

There were gasps and murmurs in the packed courtroom as Clarence Wong continued, 'It is common knowledge that people in sophisticated Western countries are worshippers of Satan and belonged to Satanic cults. There are others who believed that certain people could transform themselves into blood-thirsty vampires like the evil Count Dracula while others became were-wolves who committed gruesome crimes while in supernatural states. Is all fantasy and make believe? Are all the religions wrong when they warn us about the power of evil and the Devil? Are demons that are the servants of Satan, fantastic creations of warped minds? Or, are they real?'

Turning round and pointing a finger at Puteri Bulan, he said,'Here is a living example to prove that the evil of Satan exist among us! Look at her! A beautiful, young woman whose life is possessed by the Devil! She didn't wish that such a terrible thing would happen to her! you have heard her say how the ghostly appearance of her mother who died after giving birth to her, had drastically changed her life! Fantastic as it may seem, gentlemen of the jury, you must believe Puteri Bulan was speaking the truth and that she had no recollection whatsoever of killing Iris Pearson because she was in supernatural state at the time and her actions were controlled by the Devil! I implore upon you, please believe her!' The jury retired and after twenty minutes returned a unanimous verdict of guilty.' When the judge had asked Puteri Bulan if she had anything to say before he sentenced her to death, she shook her head slowly from side to side.

A month later, shortly after dawn on the morning she was to be hanged, there was pandemonium at the Pudu Prison where she was being held. Alarms and whistles sounded and every light was switched on as guards began a frantic search of the old building. Puteri Bulan had escaped. Earlier, when Major James Howard the prison warden, had arrived with an armed guard and unlocked the steel door of her cell to escort her to the gallows, his eyes had bulged in horror and disbelief when he saw the cell was empty.

He swung round and glared at the British sergeant in charge of the escort. 'Alright!' he roared. 'Dammit! Where's the prisoner!' 'I have no idea, sir!' replied the astonished man. Howard looked at the blank faces around him and realised there was something terribly wrong. 'Don't stand there!' he exploaded. 'Sound the bloody alarm! Call the police! Find her!' He looked blankly around him for a few moments. It was an absurd situation to be in. It was grostesque! Unthinkable! He entered the empty cell, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and fully aware of the repercussions the incident would cause. He shuddered. It had been his boast at the Selangor Club bar that there had never been an escape from his prison during the seventeen years he had been in charge. In acknowledgement of his services, he was decorated with the Medal of the British Empire (MBE). Speaking about his 'beautiful prisoner, Puteri Bulan', he had told his friends, 'I take delight in making the last days of that bitch's life as unbearable as i possibly could. She'd be happy when the day comes when she has to face the hangman!'

Standing alone in the empty cell, Howard's eyes slowly went from the narrow wooden bed to the cement floor, the walls and the ceiling and came to rest on the small, barred window close to the ceiling. he could see something had become lodged between the iron bars but couldn't make out what it was. He stood on the bed and was shocked to see it was a black feather that had obviously belonged to a large bird. He also noticed there were deep scratches that appeared to be freshly made in the plaster at the base of the window. 'Impossible! Nothing! Not even a bloody cockroach could have entered this cell!' he said softly to himself as perspiration trickled down his face because the discovery of the feather and scratches were clues, but ones that only deepened the mystery of Puteri Bulan's disappearance.

He stared at the feather in his hand for some time and recalled what she had said at her trial 'she could transform herself into a bird'. 'Bloody mumbo-jumbo!' he muttered. Then he asked himself, ;But... the feather... to whom did it belong?' His jaw sagged and he felt cold all over. 'Good God! What that bitch had said at her trial was true!' he gasped. 'The evil, black whore!' He felt his knees giving way under the weight of his fat, round body. He backed against the wall of the cell, sliding down it slowly. He sat helplessly on the floor and felt like crying. He got to his feet unsteadily as he heard excited voices coming from the prisoner's exercise yard below. He staggered towards the guardroom. Looking out of a window he saw armed police and European officers running about. 'Jesus Christ!' he panted. 'I'll be laughed out of town if I told them that she had changed into a bird an escaped and left me a souvenir of one of her feathers!'

He slumped into a cane chair and withdrew the revolver from the holster attached to his belt, tears flooding his eyes. He was going to save himself from disgrace. He had placed the barrel of the gun to his head and was about to squeeze the trigger when he saw her! He lowered the weapon slowly, his mouth and throat suddenly dry with fear. She was standing in the doorway of the guardroom dressed in a beautiful, shimmering turquoise gown. Her eyes suddenly turned the colour of blood and her face was transformed into a white mask of hate. At that moment he heard the heavy footsteps of policemen climbing the stone steps and a voice calling out, 'Major Howard, are you there?'

He was still clutching the revolver in his right hand when they discovered him on the floor of the Guard Room. His face was contorted in fear, as though he had seen something horrifying in the last moments of his life. The revolver in his hand had not been fired. His khaki trousers around his waist and thighs were soaked in blood. They found his genitals in a corner of the room. Evidence was produced at a coroner's inquiry to show that he had died of 'a self-inflicted bullet wound to the head'. A verdict of 'suicide' was recorded. There had been no mention of his gruesome injuries and the heavy loss of blood that caused his death. There had also been no mention of the discovery of a black feather that police found on the floor of Puteri Bulan's empty cell.

Months later, Iris Pearson's grisly murder, the mysteriously escape of Puteri Bulan from prison and the strange circumstances surrounding the death of Major Howard wee still being spoken about at the bar of the Selangor Club. Some sceptics had thought the police had 'done a good job concealing the facts and hushing-up the case', One such person was Wakefield, a retired army captain, who knew Howard well. He had said, 'Nobody was brave enough to tell the truth at the coroner's inquiry the fact that Howard was killed by a pontianak who was none other than Puteri Bulan!'

Someone said, 'Good lord! Are you suggesting that he didn't shoot himself and that this woman who had escaped, returned in supernatural form to kill him?' 'Precisely', said Wakefield. 'Howard was about to blow his brains out that morning after her escape because he knew he wouldn't be able to face the responsibility for her escape and the disgrace. Then, something happened.. and he died in a most agonising manner... the way in which a pontianak would have killed men they hated by destroying their manhood! I've lived in this country long enough to know about such things! Howard had confessed to me one night when he was drunk that Puteri Bulan was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He desired her madly and enjoyed peeping at her while she was bathing and yet he hated her because he realised there was no way that he could have satisfied his lust for her. He once said to me, 'Think of the scandal if somebody found out that i was sleeping with a condemned female prisoner! She knew I desired her but that I didn't have the guts to do anything about it! She did her best to taunt me! The evil bitch!' In accordance with normal police procedure at the time, a reward of $100 was offered for 'the recapture or for information leading to the arrest of Puteri Bulan, convict No. 257122D'. She was not seen or heard again.

For some years later, lovers strolling along the footpaths in scenic Bukit Damansara on moonlit nights would sometimes see a beautiful young woman wandering sadly alone beneath the trees... and suddenly the air would be filled with the scent of frangipani and jasmine. They would see her pause and look tearfully at an abandoned colonial-style bungalow and move on until she disappeared in the moon's silver light.