He wasn't in jail until the extradition papers came through on the Ramsey killing. They picked him up at his guesthouse. He's committed no crime in Thailand. All the Thais are doing to him is revoking his visa for being an "undesirable person."
You got it right. He wasn't in prison in Thailand until the US officials had him arrested. Apparently, they were able to find him through the journalism professor in Boulder with whom he had been communicating. I heard last night that the place where he was living ("Guesthouse" doesn't begin to describe it!) was in a block of apartments and hotels that cater to the sex tourists. The place where he was living rents rooms for as little as 3 hours. EEEEWWWWW!
This is looking more and more phony to me every minute. I think he wanted to get back to the USA, and didn't have the money. You can't walk back, and you can't swim back. He would have to work on a tramp steamer or container ship, but it isn't a given that he could get a job in exchange for passage. A friend of mine had to buy a plane ticket to Thailand last year to go visit relatives, and it cost 1300.00 US dollars, on Priceline.com. Extradition would be a lot cheaper and quicker than any of his other options. Of course, he would have to be pretty smart and pretty crazy to be able to come up with a plan like that.