however, there are other accounts of how thomas died. the first claim appeared on oh mun-hwan's "christian news" article of 8 december 1926, reporting that thomas was killed in retribution by the relatives of those who had been killed by the crew of the "general sherman". in the same article, the author cites a statement from rev. lee jae bong, a minister in southern province (1000 miles away). he had a distant relative who happened to be a soldier present during the general sherman incident. this former soldier said that one of the crew being executed by sword had a red book which he begged the soldiers to take. mr. oh concluded that this man must have been thomas. a year later, this account had evolved stating that thomas tried to hand his bible to the executioner and that this soldier later told his family that he had killed a good man (the "korea mission field," sept. 1927). others claimed that thomas's executioner was none other than chun-gwon park, who had previously rescued the government official, hyon-ik yi.