Up until the resignation of his wartime ally, Pridi had enjoyed the prestige of his position as a senior statesman without having to involve himself in everyday politics. Pridi's failure to control inflation tarnished his reputation for competence, while official corruption bedeviled his governments. On 9 June 1946, the 20 year-old King Ananda Mahidol, who had restored popularity to the monarchy, was found dead in his bedroom of a gunshot wound to the head. Khuang, Seni, and the royalists who dominated their newly formed Democrat Party were quick to blame Pridi, spreading the rumour that the prime minister and his supporters had assassinated the monarch for their own political purposes and possibly to establish a republic. Conservative newspapers criticised the government for failing to protect the monarch, provoking Pridi to use repressive measures: he declared a state of emergency, censored newspapers, and arrested two editors and two opposition MPs. In an attempt to preserve his political influence, Pridi resigned on 21 August 1946. He was replaced five days later by Rear Admiral Thamrong, who would serve as Pridi's front man. Rear Admiral Thamrong’s government was soon engulfed in scandals. Thamrong privately confided to US Ambassador Edwin F. Stanton that the evidence gathered during investigations of the regicide implicated King Bhumibol in the late king's death. In a declassified US State Department memo, Ambassador Stanton noted: "Luang Thamrong said speaking quite confidentially the evidence which was accumulated while he was Prime Minister tended to implicate the present young King, but that he would never have dared to hint by any official action that such was the case." Luang Thamrong noted that Bhumibol would probably abdicate if it was revealed that he was involved in the regicide and that this would cause "confusion and wild intrigue". Those next in the line of succession to the throne, Prince Chumbhotbongs Paribatra and Prince Bhanubandhu Yugala, were both unpopular and he thought they would probably not be able to ascend to the throne. Luang Thamrong doubted whether the murder would ever be cleared up inasmuch as he felt Siam could not dispense with the monarchy. Thamrong's government was also faced with charges of corruption, stemming from a government program to hand out free shovels and spades to rural farmers. The farming equipment brought and handed out was sub-standard, leading to charges of corruption and embezzlement by the public.