508:
the Flying
Dragons members spat on the sidewalk of Canal Street, a signal of disrespect towards Thai and the entire BTK. In response, Thai went to the back of the Asian Shopping Mall and into the Pho Hanoi restaurant cellar where he then retrieved two hand guns that he then proceeded to hand to two nearby BTK members, telling them to "Go shoot those motherfuckers." One of the two BTK members that was given the gun then ran to the front of the shopping mall where the two Flying Dragons had insulted Thai, and in broad daylight on Canal Street, pulled out his .38 caliber pistol and shot dead the two Flying Dragon members, with one of them being shot in the side of the head, while the other was shot through the lung and aorta. Afterwards, the store owners around Canal Street began closing down their stores. Despite the double murder being witnessed by several of the shopkeepers, when law enforcement came, none of them admitted to witnessing it, due to fear of retaliation from the BTK.
400:
youths began approaching Thai and asked for his assistance, which he usually freely obliged to by giving them money, advice, and at times, a place to live. Eventually, Thai was able to build a small gathering of young
Vietnamese men around him, whom he often employed as muscle-men to extort from local shop keepers and merchants on Canal Street, or as assemblers of counterfeit watches in safe houses as part of Thai's growing counterfeit watch business. Before long, Thai and his group began to organize and collectively call themselves the "Canal Street Boys". Eventually, however, the name "Born to Kill", a slogan that had originated from the helmets of American GIs from the Vietnam War was gradually used in favor of "Canal Street Boys", and it would eventually become the gang's official name that news media and state police would come to know them by.
613:
merely assisted young
Vietnamese refugees who didn't have money or a place to live. Thai's lawyer during the trial, Mr. Murphy, portrayed Thai as a hard working refugee who worked as a waiter to sponsor his brother and sister to the U.S. According to Murphy, Thai's biggest crime was "making watches and selling them without a license." Thai's answers and explanations however radically changed by the time that he was interviewed by Peg Tyres, at which point he denied being in New York at all during the time frame when most of the crimes were committed, and instead claimed that, for the last three years, he had been working mostly in Philadelphia where he supposedly worked fixing cars.
443:
540:, an underworld slang for negotiation with Thai, in order to discuss the matter. Presumably, had the meeting taken place, Benny Ong would have offered Thai the ability to hold onto his rackets and control of Canal Street in exchange of giving up the reins over his gang brothers. Though many in the Chinese community felt that Thai should've felt honored to attend a meeting with Uncle Seven, Thai did not respond to Ong's request for a meeting or negotiation. In retaliation, Thai's right-hand man at that point, Vinh Vu, was gunned down at a street corner at 1:00 AM when Vinh and his companion were waiting for a taxi to pick them up from a massage parlor.
422:
each had their own designated gang name and were only loosely affiliated with one another. During this meeting however, Thai made it strictly clear that all of the many separate
Vietnamese factions within the city would go under a single name and banner: Born to Kill, which would override any other name that any of the smaller groups had chosen for themselves. As a result, instead of being a loose confederation of loosely associated gangs, Born to Kill and the Vietnamese gangs in the city coalesced into a single criminal organization that from then on acted under a united hierarchical leadership system, with Thai as the head or the
563:
mourners approached the crowd and opened fire, wounding five of the mourners and causing the rest to attempt to flee the cemetery in a panic, with a few of the mourners returning fire back at the gunmen. Afterwards, according to the police, the gunmen reportedly escaped from the scene in a red car. The shooting at the cemetery would be widely recorded and subject by the local news media and national press, which mainly focused on the mourners themselves since the identities of the perpetrators were unknown at the time. Knowledgeable law enforcement and outside observers in the community felt that the shooting was orchestrated by
584:
afterwards he then told his gang members that he had convinced the witnesses not to testify. In another incident, Ta received an anonymous letter containing broken glass and a newspaper article about the robbery, which was a concealed threat that meant the gang might blow up his store. Finally, Thai again approached Ta in person one morning as Ta was starting to open up his store, where Thai heeded Ta to not open his store and instead go to court to say that the four arrested gang members were not the robbers. Ta ignored Thai's orders and opened the store.
580:
parlor. On
January 21, 1991, several gang members arrived at the store in two separate carloads, where they forced the store employees onto the ground, stole the money and jewelry from the store and beat down some of the employees before fleeing from the scene in a Cadillac. Although the Cadillac was shortly thereafter pursued by police, who then arrested the four gang members in the Cadillac, another gang member, who had not fled the scene using the Cadillac was able to meet up with Thai and deliver him most of the jewelry from the robbery.
620:. Thai was also convicted on fourteen other counts: one count of conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, one count of conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, eight counts of conspiracy to obstruct commerce by robbery or extortion, two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm and two counts of possession of a firearm without serial numbers. Thai was sentenced to life in prison without parole and ordered to pay $ 413,285 in restitution.
651:
into believing that he was the only powerful person in
Chinatown who truly cared about the welfare of his Vietnamese brothers", in spite of the fact that he was "venal and brutal" towards his own gang members and others behind closed doors. As stated in the court trial during Thai's 1994 appeal, gang members that disobeyed orders from their higher ups or members that were suspected to be cooperating with police suffered violent retribution at the hands of Thai and one of his lieutenants.
463:
police with firecrackers from the top of the building. After several successive police raids however, which Thai claimed to have cost him $ 100,000, Thai decided to order one of his gang members to blow up a police vehicle. The explosion severely damaged the unattended police vehicle and wounded two officers while eleven bystanders suffered minor injuries. In another instance, when Thai's illegal counterfeit watch business came under the watchful eye of a
525:, unlike many of their contemporary gangs, and as such, frenziedly robbed from establishments that were under control of other Chinatown crime syndicates; on one occasion, a group of six gang members robbed from a gambling den at 1 Catherine Street, in which they stripped several of the customers (including some Tong leaders) in the basement of the gambling den of their cash, jewelry, and credit cards.
689:, a term of clear acknowledgment of Thai's high level of respect, esteem and status within the gang, as "Anh hai" is a term in Vietnamese that is used to refer to the eldest and traditionally the wisest brother in Vietnamese families. The level of respect and loyalty that gang members had towards Thai was underlined when they used the Vietnamese pronoun
259:
loft leather loafers" alongside a pair of sunglasses, and was said to have resembled more a businessman than a gangster. During his interview with Peg Tyre after his arrest on murder charges in 1991 and other interviews that went on in the course of his trial, Thai often stated that he was trying to protect and help the
Vietnamese community in
414:
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and referred to Ta as "…the one who called the policemen." Eventually, Thai's right-hand man, Lan Tran volunteered to carry the duty of executing Sen Van Ta, which he later carried out on the evening of March 10, 1991. Both Thai and Tran would later be convicted in court for conspiring and murdering Sen Van Ta in 1992.
376:
since they viewed the
Vietnamese as mainly "coffee boys". Seeing no future or further possibilities of advancing himself within the gang, Thai left the Flying Dragons sometime between 1986 and 1987 and began to solidify his control over the counterfeit watch industry in Chinatown, whereupon his profits quickly grew.
458:
watches, an industry that he had spent several years trying to monopolize. Thai's primary method of forcing local merchants and shopkeepers in Canal Street to buy his watches was simple; as the leader of a violent band of criminals, Thai didn't need to be subtle: "Buy my watches or I'll kill you." On
650:
Author T. J. English, who had written an entire book devoted to the gang, wrote that "Thai always presented himself publicly as a kindly benefactor", as evidenced by his seeming concern for the welfare of his gang brothers by offering them money and a place to live, and that "He even deluded himself
612:
During the course of his trial which spanned the course of three months, Thai denied that he was the leader of Born to Kill, and asserted that such an organization never existed in the first place, instead claiming that the police had misinterpreted his criminal organization for an organization that
375:
however, Thai and a handful of other
Vietnamese members in the gang were cut off from the main gang's lucrative activities, and were forced to form their own sub-group known as the Vietnamese Flying Dragons, whom the Flying Dragons regularly employed to commit the riskiest and most dangerous crimes,
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who had also covered the rise of the BTK during his time as a journalist. During the interview, which Peg Tyre documented under the heading "Suspected Gang Leader Denies Link to BTK," Thai presented himself as a community leader that had been merely trying to provide aid and care for the welfare of
600:
In August 1991, after several months of investigation by a team of ATF agents, and with the critical aid of a former gang member turned undercover informant who, over the span of six months starting from
February 1991, leaked inside gang information to the police and wore a wiretap to gang meetings
591:
After Ta's repeated refusal to pay extortion money to the gang, combined with Ta's cooperation with law enforcement that ended with the arrest of several gang members, Thai decided to hold a meeting with several ranking members of the gang where he declared, "This store owner have to be taken out,"
548:
Vinh Vu's funeral procession took place on July 28, 1990, and lasted over the span of two days in which it was attended by between a hundred-and-twenty-five to nearly two hundred mourners. The funeral service was directed by the Wah Wing Sang Funeral home; the owner of the funeral home claimed that
507:
On the afternoon of August 5, 1989, as Thai was standing in front of the shopping mall at the middle of the gang's territory on Canal Street alongside a few of his associates, two members of the Flying Dragons approached Thai and began insulting Thai and the gang. The conflict escalated when one of
681:
Thai was described by T. J. English as being like a "prince presiding over his chosen people". Due to his seemingly genuine concern for the welfare of his fellow gang brothers, Thai was often seen as a godfather or father figure whom many of the young Vietnamese could turn to in times of trouble,
654:
Detective William Oldham who investigated the BTK wrote that "Thai built the gang by masquerading as a father figure leading a benevolent society designed to take care of lost and vulnerable boys, and to protect all Vietnamese from the much larger Chinese population," but then compares Thai to the
608:
After Thai's arrest along with much of the gang's leadership, law enforcement investigating the gang were more easily able to secure third party testimony from numerous victims of the gang, such as the many merchants and shopkeepers that had been extorted from and victimized, now that they did not
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After the entourage made their way around seven or eight of the densest blocks in Chinatown, they abruptly stopped at Canal Street, the main commercial boulevard of Chinatown, where they then loaded Vinh Vu's coffin into a waiting hearse, with the mourners piling into twenty nearby limousines. The
462:
In 1988, as Thai's profits grew, New York police became increasingly aware of Thai's illegal watch business; they raided his Canal Street store on multiple occasions. In response, on one instance, when police gathered in front of Thai's store on Canal Street, Thai ordered his members to shower the
421:
In June 1989, in a Japanese restaurant in Manhattan, David Thai orchestrated the first major gathering of the Born to Kill gang, in which nearly every gang member attended. At the time, the Born to Kill gang and many of the Vietnamese gangs in New York were in general small unconnected groups that
395:
dialects were spoken, thus forming a language barrier. In addition, due to the absence of previous generations of Vietnamese in New York City, there were no residential places where Vietnamese passed on living areas or apartments from one generation to the next, causing the newly arrived refugees,
579:
In early 1991, Thai decided that the gang should rob the Golden Star Jewelry store, a store owned by Sen Van Ta located at 302 Canal Street, primarily because Sen Van Ta had recently been refusing to pay extortion money to the gang and because of the close proximity of his store to Thai's massage
562:
before eventually arriving at the Rosedale Memorial Park Cemetery. At around 2:30 PM, as the mourners gathered around Vinh Vu's casket, which was adorned with the same gang banner that was marched down Mulberry Street during the funeral procession, two or three men, who were dressed just like the
429:
In the course of the meeting, Thai had forced all of the gang members who wished to join the gang to sign a paper contract that was passed from table to table throughout the meeting. The contract mainly emphasized the point that gang members had to swear allegiance to the gang, to never cooperate
399:
As Thai's successful watch business continued to grow, his name became well known throughout the back alleys, pool halls and skating rinks throughout New York that many Vietnamese commonly visited. Hearing stories of a wealthy successful businessman who could take care of his own, many Vietnamese
258:
Described as a sly, shrewd and lethal gangster, David Thai fashioned himself as a big brother and the protector to the Vietnamese community in Chinatown. Thai was described by crime writer T. J. English and many others as being well dressed, usually wearing "a tailored sports coat, silk shirt and
701:
During the first few months of his incarceration, Thai wrote several poems which were published in pamphlets that were placed in and around Vietnamese restaurants and newsstands. In one of his poems titled "Carrying the Vietnamese Blood", which was translated from Vietnamese to English in T. J.
583:
Shortly after the robberies, Sen Van Ta cooperated with police and identified several of the perpetrators in a line up. In response, Thai took a series of actions in an attempt to prevent Sen Van Ta from testifying; first, Thai spoke to Ta in person along with several of the employees, in which
516:
United under the leadership of Thai, the BTK brazenly committed crimes and robberies whenever and wherever they wanted, because according to Thai, since Chinatown's traditional power structure did not include the Vietnamese, the Vietnamese were therefore not bounded by the rules and laws of the
587:
In February 1991, as the BTK began their routine of collecting money from merchants alongside Canal Street, the gang members eventually arrived in Ta's store and demanded that he make payments to the gang. Sen Van Ta continued his refusal to pay to the gang, and began reporting these extortion
145:
As a young teenager on the streets of Saigon, when he wasn't in school, Hoàng often acted as a mediator between the American G.I.s stationed in Saigon who were in search of drugs, and the Bình Xuyên, an independent military group during the time of the Vietnam War that was also responsible for
314:'s passage out of Saigon, where he thereafter arrived in the U.S. three months later, going by the name David. Initially living in a small house for boys owned by a local Lutheran church in Indiana, in May 1976, David fled from the church house with $ 150 in his pocket and hopped onto a
459:
other occasions, David sometimes went out on his own to present himself as a conciliator between the local merchants and his own gang, claiming that he could stop the Vietnamese youths from extorting and robbing their businesses, but only if they purchased his merchandise.
682:
either for advice or financially. As a result, many of the gang members within the gang held Thai in supreme reverence, as in the case of Thai's second-in-command, Lan Tran, who referred to Thai privately in his journal as "a model example of a young Vietnamese man."
549:
the funeral service was paid by men who did not identify themselves. From the Wah Wing Sang Funeral Home, six pallbearers carried Vinh Vu's coffin accompanied by a crowd of Born to Kill gang members who marched down through the heart of Chinatown, from
339:
in New York. In his spare time when he wasn't working, Thai began to dabble into the makings of counterfeit watches by constructing a small counterfeit watch factory in his apartment, an industry that he would later come to dominate a decade later.
553:
to Bayard Street as some of the gang members paraded openly down Mulberry and Bayard street with the BTK gang banner, which was later folded after a quick scuffle between some of the policemen and gang members in the middle of an intersection.
290:, where his family lived in a home on Tôn Đản street. As a young teenager on the streets of Saigon, when he wasn't in school, Hoàng often acted as a mediator between the American G.I.s stationed in Saigon who were in search of drugs, and the
647:
his "Vietnamese brothers" because he too had lived the same lives that they had, and he claimed that he had attempted to gain the assistance of the Vietnamese community to help the young refugees that struggled to survive in the city.
486:. Thai's defense moved to dismiss the charges, contending the mere fact that he was in possession of forgery devices failed to prove that he acted with the intent to defraud. Thai's motion to dismiss the charges, however, was denied.
434:. Thai did however, according to the contract, permit gang members to leave the gang, but only under the condition that they scrape their BTK tattoos off their skin and leave the vicinity of New York altogether and never return.
330:
As a young lost youth in New York, Thai was able to survive in the city by bouncing from job to job, and by various accounts, worked as a busboy in Manhattan restaurants, and was also at one point a dishwasher for the famous
351:
who was also a student at the university. The two quickly married, and within months, Thai's wife became pregnant. Afterwards, both of them dropped out of attendance from the university and moved into a cramped apartment in
263:, often by giving the newly arrived refugees money and a place to live. In his interview with Tyre, Thai went on to describe that he sacrificed his first marriage due to his "love for his Vietnamese brothers".
601:
in which he recorded several incriminating conversations, the authorities were able to obtain sufficient evidence to arrest Thai Thai and 10 members of the Born to Kill gang during a raid of Thai's house at
248:
769:"United States of America, Appellee, v. David Thai, Lan Ngoc Tran, Minh Do, Jimmy Nguyen, Hoang Huyngo, Quang Van Nguyen, and Lv Hong, A/k/a "l.v.hong", Defendants-appellants, 29 F.3d 785 (2d Cir. 1994)"
588:
attempts to the police, where he then identified one of Thai's lieutenants along with two other gang members to law enforcement, who then promptly arrested them; they were later released.
628:
One of the effects of the successful prosecution of Thai by the ATF was that Thai would never be able to fulfill his long-term plans, such as forging a relationship between his gang and
536:, which translates to "Uncle Seven". Hearing of the instability of the Chinatown criminal infrastructure caused directly as a result of the BTK's recent activities, Benny Ong demanded a
383:
who were severed from their families and cast adrift at sea prior to arriving in New York. Upon arrival, however, many of these newly arrived Vietnamese refugees struggled to survive in
605:. During the raid, police discovered that Thai was in possession of several unregistered firearms, multiple explosives, and had a counterfeit watch making factory in his basement.
294:, an independent military group during the time of the Vietnam War that was also responsible for funding and orchestrating many illegal activities in Saigon during the war. When
1722:
1717:
632:, and his plans of eventually making ties with and uniting the Vietnamese underworld in the U.S., with the hopes of one day establishing himself as its supreme commander.
1697:
379:
At around the same time Thai was establishing himself in Chinatown's underworld, many Vietnamese youths had begun arriving into the city; the majority of them were
1732:
1068:"FAREWELL, MY LOGO A DETECTIVE STORY COUNTERFEITING NAME BRANDS IS SHAPING UP AS THE CRIME OF THE 21ST CENTURY. IT COSTS U.S. COMPANIES $ 200 BILLION A YEAR"
1712:
1702:
1271:
1314:
1482:
442:
1707:
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devices, being accused of possessing 41 printing stamps which he allegedly used to alter 2,000 wristwatches by falsely imprinting them with
274:, and related offenses. Federal prosecutors claimed that David Thai's life sentence significantly impaired Asian gang activity in New York.
665:, pointing out the fact that while the gang members within the gang barely made enough to survive from their crimes, Thai himself drove a
567:
in retaliation for Thai's refusal to participate in negotiations, while Thai believed that the actual shooting was done by members of the
528:
Sometime in the summer of 1990, Thai was personally requested to attend a meeting by Kai Sui "Benny" Ong, the adviser-for-life of the
1648:
1625:
1602:
1583:
819:
33:
1379:
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with police, and most importantly, according to Thai, to never undertake criminal action without the permission of the local gang
1692:
387:, mostly because the majority of the social services in Chinatown as well as the banks catered only to the Chinese, where only
37:
992:
1682:
356:. Struggling to provide for his family with his jobs as a busboy and dishwasher however, Thai began making regular trips to
1727:
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353:
1067:
307:
267:
1189:
894:
550:
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to refer to themselves during conversations with Thai, which is a subservient pronoun in the Vietnamese language.
239:
operation and at his peak controlled the market and distribution of counterfeit watches in New York by means of
357:
1687:
522:
1672:
380:
768:
640:
In October of the same year of his arrest, Thai granted a special interview to Peg Tyre, a reporter for
361:
176:
839:
1667:
1322:
529:
495:
464:
384:
365:
336:
260:
1617:
518:
344:
251:(ATF) in conjunction with the aid of a former gang member who defected from the gang and became an
232:
133:
235:
gang during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was also responsible for running a massive illegal
1237:
1194:
899:
844:
602:
517:
community. The gang had also, as a result of this belief, not sworn allegiance to any particular
270:
in Brooklyn sentenced Thai to life in prison for murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, robbery,
1644:
1621:
1598:
1579:
815:
483:
455:
372:
236:
224:
388:
74:
291:
1575:
1419:
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920:
417:
Image of Modern Day Canal Street, the location of the Born to Kill gang's former territory
315:
255:, helping secure the convictions of David Thai and several of his high-ranking officers.
629:
559:
295:
122:
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319:
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70:
1595:
Trademark Counterfeiting: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate
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617:
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who could not afford to pay for an apartment on their own, to live on the streets.
332:
192:
154:
1420:"FindLaw's United States Second Circuit case and opinions: THAI v. UNITED STATES"
670:
666:
616:
At the end of the trial, Thai and several members of his gang were convicted of
360:
to delve into financial possibilities, and in 1983, Thai became a member of the
299:
32:
532:, otherwise known to the Chinatown community as the Godfather of Chinatown or
499:
that he made $ 13 million from the sale of counterfeit watches in 1988 alone.
170:
158:
114:
431:
392:
271:
252:
196:
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funding and orchestrating many illegal activities in Saigon during the war.
1094:
493:
charges alongside several other indictments, he boasted on the TV program
243:." He was the official leader of "New York Vietnamese Born to Kill" from
467:
named Leech, Thai was rumored to have put up a contract on Leech's life.
228:
118:
1614:
The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia
812:
The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia
642:
471:
348:
306:'s father Dieu was jailed by the triumphant communists and sent into a
188:
184:
78:
490:
283:
180:
66:
413:
656:
479:
475:
451:
441:
412:
1572:
Born to Kill: The Rise and Fall of America's Bloodiest Asian Gang
249:
United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
1272:"Seven 'Born to Kill' members convicted of murder, racketeering"
767:
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (July 11, 1994).
247:, which was the combination of months of investigation by the
450:
Thai's most lucrative source of income was the sale of fake
1278:. New York: United Press International, Inc. March 30, 1992
282:
David Thai was born Thái Thọ Hoàng on January 30, 1956, in
1402:
1400:
1297:
1295:
1293:
1214:
1212:
999:. Orlando Sentinel. New York Daily News. August 27, 1990
960:
958:
1166:
1164:
864:
862:
793:
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have to fear retaliation from the gang if they did so.
945:
943:
941:
470:
In 1989, Thai was charged with criminal possession of
347:, whereupon he met a fellow Vietnamese refugee from
335:
restaurant, located at the sixty-fifth floor of the
923:
begin with a family name and end with a given name.
202:
168:
150:
139:
128:
110:
102:
94:
86:
45:
23:
711:Leaving my country, I swore to build a new life….
446:A counterfeit Rolex watch bought in New York City
1612:Lawson, Guy; Oldham, Willian (August 28, 2007).
1380:"10 Members of Violent Vietnamese Gang Indicted"
993:"Gang Violence Terrorizing New York's Chinatown"
810:Lawson, Guy; Oldham, Willian (August 28, 2007).
717:my blood scattered to every corner of the world,
231:who was the founder and leader of the notorious
708:
106:1978: Thai briefly attended New York University
685:Thai was also referred to by gang members as
8:
1066:Stipp, David; Curry, Sheree (May 13, 1996).
1723:Vietnamese expatriates in the United States
1183:
1181:
1179:
987:
985:
729:I learn to smile without shedding a tear.
20:
1718:Vietnamese emigrants to the United States
669:and lived in a nice comfortable house on
40:mugshot of Thai at the time of his arrest
1698:Gangsters sentenced to life imprisonment
1637:Sonia Sotomayor: The True American Dream
1345:"Review: Gang Wars The Other Side Story"
895:"Life Sentence for Scourge of Chinatown"
805:
803:
727:But having Vietnamese blood in my veins,
721:my heart shall not fail to remain free….
676:
326:Life in New York and criminal beginnings
206:2 consecutive life sentences + 43 years
1554:
1542:
1530:
1518:
1506:
1468:
1456:
1444:
1406:
1365:
1347:. Austin Chronicle Corp. April 28, 1995
1301:
1258:
1233:"Fake Mourners Shoot 5 at Gang Funeral"
1218:
1170:
1155:
1143:
1131:
1053:
1041:
1017:
976:
964:
932:
880:
868:
833:
831:
762:
760:
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756:
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750:
713:to create my own soul, my own identity.
1378:Hays, Constance (September 29, 1991).
1733:Vietnamese people convicted of murder
1119:
1115:
1029:
949:
893:Steven Lee Myers (October 24, 1992).
725:which I hold forever inside my heart.
426:of the newly established collective.
7:
1190:"Mourners Returned Fire, Police Say"
310:, but Dieu was still able to secure
1570:English, T.J. (November 15, 2011).
1315:"YING JING GAN v. CITY OF NEW YORK"
814:. Simon and Schuster. p. 142.
715:Even if my body shall be destroyed,
1481:David Chanoff (January 30, 1995).
1188:Lorch, Donatella (July 30, 1990).
575:Extortion and murder of Sen Van Ta
489:When Thai was finally arrested on
14:
624:Effects of arrest on Thai's plans
558:entourage then continued towards
16:Vietnamese-born American gangster
1713:People from Chinatown, Manhattan
1703:People convicted of racketeering
31:
1635:Felix, Antonia (July 6, 2010).
838:Fifield, Adam (June 23, 2002).
677:Thai's image among gang members
512:Conflict with the Hip Sing Tong
503:Double Homicide on Canal Street
343:In 1978, Thai briefly attended
98:Anh hai (meaning "Big Brother")
1321:. June 1, 1993. Archived from
1231:George James (July 29, 1990).
997:tribunedigital-orlandosentinel
364:, one of the largest gangs in
1:
1593:Hatch, Orrin (June 1, 1995).
245:1988 until his arrest in 1991
1708:People from Ho Chi Minh City
1678:Gangsters from New York City
796:. Federal Bureau of Prisons.
268:United States federal judge
177:Conspiracy to commit murder
1749:
723:How I remember the grudges
719:or jailed in a dark room,
210:
164:
30:
241:"blackmail and extortion
223:January 30, 1956), is a
1093:Straus, Robert (1989).
404:The "Born to Kill" gang
266:On October 23, 1992, a
1693:American extortionists
738:
735:Tho Hoang "David" Thai
447:
418:
1683:American crime bosses
623:
603:Melville, Long Island
445:
416:
1728:Vietnamese gangsters
1618:Simon & Schuster
1597:. DIANE Publishing.
1325:on December 24, 2016
840:"The Knockoff Squad"
465:private investigator
253:undercover informant
1487:The Washington Post
1426:. November 23, 2004
438:Counterfeit watches
385:Manhattan Chinatown
345:New York University
1384:The New York Times
1238:The New York Times
1195:The New York Times
1074:. FORTUNE Magazine
900:The New York Times
845:The New York Times
544:Funeral of Vinh Vu
448:
419:
298:at the end of the
1616:. New York City:
1574:. New York City:
318:bus destined for
237:counterfeit watch
214:
213:
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1608:
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1540:
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1319:www.ravellaw.com
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1216:
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1185:
1174:
1168:
1159:
1158:, p. 56-58.
1153:
1147:
1141:
1135:
1134:, p. 46-48.
1129:
1123:
1113:
1107:
1106:
1104:
1102:
1095:"PEOPLE V. THAI"
1090:
1084:
1083:
1081:
1079:
1063:
1057:
1051:
1045:
1039:
1033:
1027:
1021:
1020:, p. 34-36.
1015:
1009:
1008:
1006:
1004:
989:
980:
979:, p. 32–33.
974:
968:
962:
953:
947:
936:
935:, p. 30-31.
930:
924:
921:Vietnamese names
918:
912:
911:
909:
907:
890:
884:
878:
872:
866:
857:
856:
854:
852:
835:
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807:
798:
797:
794:"Inmate Locator"
790:
784:
783:
781:
779:
764:
736:
596:Arrest and trial
308:reeducation camp
203:Criminal penalty
185:attempted murder
173:
142:
95:Other names
75:Ho Chi Minh City
63:
60:January 30, 1956
59:
57:
35:
21:
1748:
1747:
1743:
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1738:
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1658:
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1605:
1592:
1586:
1576:Open Road Media
1569:
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983:
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948:
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892:
891:
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879:
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867:
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829:
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809:
808:
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792:
791:
787:
777:
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766:
765:
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743:
737:
734:
731:
728:
726:
724:
722:
720:
718:
716:
714:
712:
702:English's book
699:
679:
638:
626:
598:
577:
546:
514:
505:
440:
411:
406:
371:Because he was
328:
280:
227:-born American
169:
151:Criminal status
140:
82:
64:
61:
55:
53:
52:
51:
41:
26:
17:
12:
11:
5:
1746:
1744:
1736:
1735:
1730:
1725:
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1715:
1710:
1705:
1700:
1695:
1690:
1688:Counterfeiters
1685:
1680:
1675:
1670:
1660:
1659:
1656:
1655:
1649:
1632:
1626:
1609:
1603:
1590:
1584:
1565:
1562:
1560:
1559:
1557:, p. 221.
1547:
1545:, p. 237.
1535:
1523:
1511:
1509:, p. 166.
1499:
1473:
1461:
1449:
1447:, p. 233.
1437:
1411:
1409:, p. 222.
1396:
1370:
1358:
1336:
1306:
1289:
1263:
1251:
1223:
1208:
1175:
1160:
1148:
1136:
1124:
1122:, p. 100.
1118:, p. 11;
1108:
1097:. Casetext Inc
1085:
1058:
1046:
1034:
1032:, p. 100.
1022:
1010:
981:
969:
954:
937:
925:
913:
885:
883:, p. 275.
873:
858:
827:
820:
799:
785:
749:
747:
744:
742:
739:
732:
709:
706:, Thai wrote:
698:
695:
678:
675:
637:
634:
630:"the Italians"
625:
622:
597:
594:
576:
573:
560:Holland Tunnel
545:
542:
513:
510:
504:
501:
439:
436:
410:
407:
405:
402:
362:Flying Dragons
354:Hell's Kitchen
327:
324:
279:
276:
221:Hoàng Thọ Thái
212:
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174:
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129:Known for
126:
125:
112:
108:
107:
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100:
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65:
50:Hoàng Thọ Thái
49:
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42:
36:
28:
27:
24:
15:
13:
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9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
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1673:Living people
1671:
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1666:
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1663:
1652:
1650:9781101434864
1646:
1642:
1641:Penguin Books
1638:
1633:
1629:
1627:9781416523383
1623:
1619:
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1604:9780788138027
1600:
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1581:
1577:
1573:
1568:
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1536:
1533:, p. 26.
1532:
1527:
1524:
1520:
1515:
1512:
1508:
1503:
1500:
1488:
1484:
1477:
1474:
1471:, p. 35.
1470:
1465:
1462:
1459:, p. 82.
1458:
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1450:
1446:
1441:
1438:
1425:
1421:
1415:
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1367:
1362:
1359:
1346:
1340:
1337:
1324:
1320:
1316:
1310:
1307:
1304:, p. 95.
1303:
1298:
1296:
1294:
1290:
1277:
1273:
1267:
1264:
1261:, p. 11.
1260:
1255:
1252:
1240:
1239:
1234:
1227:
1224:
1221:, p. 73.
1220:
1215:
1213:
1209:
1197:
1196:
1191:
1184:
1182:
1180:
1176:
1172:
1167:
1165:
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1146:, p. 58.
1145:
1140:
1137:
1133:
1128:
1125:
1121:
1117:
1112:
1109:
1096:
1089:
1086:
1073:
1069:
1062:
1059:
1056:, p. 30.
1055:
1050:
1047:
1044:, p. 29.
1043:
1038:
1035:
1031:
1026:
1023:
1019:
1014:
1011:
998:
994:
988:
986:
982:
978:
973:
970:
967:, p. 31.
966:
961:
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955:
952:, p. 11.
951:
946:
944:
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929:
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902:
901:
896:
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886:
882:
877:
874:
871:, p. 32.
870:
865:
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846:
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832:
828:
823:
821:9781416523383
817:
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774:
773:JUSTIA US Law
770:
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694:
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688:
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655:manipulative
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569:Ghost Shadows
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531:
530:Hip Sing Tong
526:
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368:at the time.
367:
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323:
321:
320:New York City
317:
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171:Conviction(s)
167:
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123:counterfeiter
120:
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111:Occupation(s)
109:
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90:South Vietnam
89:
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72:
71:South Vietnam
68:
62:(age 68)
48:
44:
39:
34:
29:
22:
19:
1636:
1613:
1594:
1571:
1555:English 2011
1550:
1543:English 2011
1538:
1531:English 2011
1526:
1521:, p. 9.
1519:English 2011
1514:
1507:English 2011
1502:
1490:. Retrieved
1486:
1483:"BOOK WORLD"
1476:
1469:English 2011
1464:
1457:English 2011
1452:
1445:English 2011
1440:
1430:December 23,
1428:. Retrieved
1423:
1414:
1407:English 2011
1387:. Retrieved
1383:
1373:
1366:English 2011
1361:
1351:December 23,
1349:. Retrieved
1339:
1329:December 23,
1327:. Retrieved
1323:the original
1318:
1309:
1302:English 2011
1282:December 23,
1280:. Retrieved
1275:
1266:
1259:English 2011
1254:
1242:. Retrieved
1236:
1226:
1219:English 2011
1199:. Retrieved
1193:
1173:, p. 8.
1171:English 2011
1156:English 2011
1151:
1144:English 2011
1139:
1132:English 2011
1127:
1111:
1099:. Retrieved
1088:
1076:. Retrieved
1071:
1061:
1054:English 2011
1049:
1042:English 2011
1037:
1025:
1018:English 2011
1013:
1003:December 23,
1001:. Retrieved
996:
977:English 2011
972:
965:English 2011
933:English 2011
928:
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904:. Retrieved
898:
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881:English 2011
876:
869:English 2011
849:. Retrieved
843:
811:
788:
776:. Retrieved
772:
710:
704:Born to Kill
703:
700:
690:
686:
684:
680:
662:Oliver Twist
660:
653:
649:
641:
639:
636:Public image
627:
618:racketeering
615:
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607:
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590:
586:
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494:
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469:
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358:Canal Street
342:
337:RCA Building
333:Rainbow Room
329:
311:
303:
281:
265:
257:
244:
240:
233:Born to Kill
220:
216:
215:
193:racketeering
155:Incarcerated
141:Notable work
134:Born to Kill
18:
1668:1956 births
1244:December 8,
1072:fortune.com
671:Long Island
565:Uncle Seven
476:brand names
381:boat people
300:Vietnam War
296:Saigon fell
87:Nationality
1662:Categories
1639:. London:
1389:October 1,
1201:October 2,
1120:Felix 2010
1116:Hatch 1995
1101:October 1,
1078:October 1,
1030:Felix 2010
950:Hatch 1995
906:October 2,
851:October 3,
778:October 1,
741:References
373:Vietnamese
292:Bình Xuyên
278:Early life
225:Vietnamese
217:David Thai
159:FMC Devens
132:Leader of
115:Crime boss
56:1956-01-30
25:David Thai
746:Citations
432:underboss
409:Formation
393:Cantonese
366:Chinatown
316:Greyhound
272:extortion
261:Chinatown
197:extortion
103:Education
733:—
551:Mulberry
534:Chut Suk
496:48 Hours
478:such as
389:Mandarin
229:gangster
219:, (born
119:gangster
1564:Sources
1424:Findlaw
687:Anh hai
643:Newsday
538:kong su
521:or the
484:Cartier
472:forgery
456:Cartier
424:Anh hai
349:Da Nang
189:robbery
79:Vietnam
1647:
1624:
1601:
1582:
1492:May 8,
818:
697:Poetry
667:Jaguar
491:murder
284:Saigon
181:murder
67:Saigon
659:from
657:Fagin
523:Triad
519:Tongs
480:Rolex
452:Rolex
312:Hoàng
304:Hoàng
73:(now
1645:ISBN
1622:ISBN
1599:ISBN
1580:ISBN
1494:2016
1432:2016
1391:2016
1353:2016
1331:2016
1284:2016
1246:2016
1203:2016
1103:2016
1080:2016
1005:2016
908:2016
853:2016
816:ISBN
780:2016
482:and
454:and
46:Born
38:NYPD
1276:UPI
391:or
157:at
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
