David Carradine died exactly how he lived. That’s presuming, of course, that he lived naked in a cupboard with a shoelace tied around his willy.

Anyway, due to the circumstances of David Carradine’s death, dignity isn’t exactly in ready supply right now. It’s difficult to reflect sensibly on Carradine’s extensive body of work while knowing that he probably died during a bizarre wanking accident. Still, though, basic decency tells us that we should respect the dead however they died.

Alternatively, if you’re a Thai newspaper, you can just print pictures of David Carradine’s naked corpse. It’s sort of the same.

For the most part, the worst thing about the unexpected death of a celebrity is the speculation. Did Princess Diana die or was she murdered? Was Anna Nicole Smith offed by one of her entourage? Did Heath Ledger die because playing The Joker literally sent him mad? The lack of black and white facts in the immediate aftermath of the death tends to be a conspiracy theorist’s playground.

That’s happened a little bit in the wake of David Carradine’s unusual death last week – with sources variously claiming that it was a deliberate suicide bourne out of financial problems or a murder by, somewhat inexplicably, a rival kung-fu gang – but it’s by no means the worst part about his death. No, the worst part about David Carradine’s death was the fact that the body of a 72-year-old man was found swinging naked from a Bangkok hotel cupboard with a piece of string tied around his genitals – an upsetting, undignified way for anyone to die, let alone a genuine cultural icon.

And now even that’s not the worst thing about David Carradine’s death. Now the worst thing about David Carradine’s death is that a Thai newspaper has decided to print pictures of his naked corpse, as BBC News reports:

The family of Kill Bill star David Carradine has said it is “profoundly disturbed” after images of the actor’s body were printed in a Thai newspaper. The leaked pictures, which Thai police said are probably forensic photos, reportedly show the actor’s body in the Thai hotel room where he died. His half-brother, actor Keith Carradine, threatened legal action against any “invasions of privacy”.

Now, we’ve taken the decision not to publish or link to the photos of David Carradine purely on the basis that they’re photos of a dead old man in the nude, but it’s hard to see how the publication of the pictures benefits anyone at all. David Carradine’s family is furious, most of the public is bound to be a little unsettled and a newspaper can hardly expect to see a spike in circulation purely because it prints a photograph of a dead pensioner’s penis, can it?

Honestly, even though he was a man whose last major role involved dressing up like a horny Asian ganglord in a film where Jason Statham wears an electrified dog collar and shicks himself until he craps in his own underwear, this shows an absurd lack of respect to David Carradine. On the plus side, this has to be as bad as it gets now.

Unless, of course, it turns out that David Carradine picked The Greatest Hits Of Michael Bolton as his fatal masturbatory soundtrack. Because that really would be too much to take.

You! Follow hecklerspray on Twitter!