Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
In 1991, three armed men came into a Chinatown social club and shot six people execution style. Five of the victims died, but one survived.
“Everyone was in shock it just doesn’t happen in boston “
back in 1991 there was a gambling game going on at a gambling den
when three individuals came in armed and shot execution stylee. six people.
the fact that three people would walk into a club and just execute.
basically all the people that were there.
it could happen any place, anybody , you could be innocent, like those were killed.
because it’s the 30 -year anniversary .
it was just recently people realized that one of the suspects is still out there.
two are captured and incarcerated.
photo from 1990s computer aged photo
there’s still one out there.
law enforcement will not rest until he’s captured.
chinatown actually was a booming community,buisness was bvibrant.
asian population increase.
chinatown is famous for the restaurant open to 3 or for o’clock in the morning
chinatown’s a very active community a lot of hustle and bustle .
but also had various criminal enterprises operating in there.
Boston had a reputation of being a very dangerous town, a lot a shootings and there were a lot of bad things happening.
chinatown was welll known that had gambling parlors what have you socual clubs where people would….
…play cards or other to gamble
there were a lot of prostitutes in there a lot of prostitutes worked that area.there was an aura of this was not exsctly a safe area to walk through by yourself late at night
“we know that the asian gangs exist,we know who the members are , we know who the leaders are , but we kind of co -exist.”
chinatown is kind of unique community ,but they j have they own rules.
everybody ‘s concerned about it. but the best is don’t associate with them, get away from them and while you see them around that area you walk away from them and you mind your own business .
if they were to go to your resturant to eat ,the restaurant owner probably wouldn’t charge them, they just eat and” thank you ” and leave.
before the shooting this seems peaceful, because those groups of people, they compete each other, but they did not fight each other.
for some reason,no one know what happened on that particular night that happened.
presume that was an interest who control the area.
let’s step back in time a little bit into the 1980s when chinatown was ran by stephen tse and the ping on gang.
they were a chinese criminal organization
they call him godfather because he knows a lot of people and people will respect him. he could negotiate and tell people,” shouldn’t do this , shouldn’t do that “
that’s why – some people call him ” godfather ” .
his rise to the top was kind of sudden and it like came out of nowhere
and that’s the name he gave himself ” sky dragon” that’s the english translation of his chinese named what he’s known as. instead of godfather they call him skydragon .
in chinese : heaven sky dragon . he was able to recruit, local kids, from china town to follow him.
many people in asian organized crime hsve nicknames, it is somewhat of a prestige name the dragon, during chinese new year the dragon is always very well represented
stephen’s resturant was the kung fu and it was in chinatown.he was basically ran the rackets in chinatown extortion gambling,prostitution things like that.
eventally though stephen tse ” sky dragon” did leave boston for hongkong only to return later on when his gang started to become less powerful.
when his chief lieutenant was murdered in his own resturant Tse realized that he was losing that grip from losing that grip from competing factions within chinatown.
when his right-hand man the lieutenant got shot the gang itself kind of broke of and disbanded and that’s what caused the void and other people trying to fill the void.
” the indictment charges ping on was a racketerring enterprise, dominating chinatown from 1978-1990 “
the ping on gang was being decimated through indictments and so there became this vacuum and like any vacuum it’s going to be filled by whichever entity can muster the strength to fill it .
there is a lot of conflicting, battles going on between rival gangs or affiliates kind of in the midst of a turf war at that time and some of that overflow FBI believed was a cause of the shooting occured that night.
on january 12 1991 in the early morning hours in boston’s chinatown neighborhood there is a gambling game going on at a gambling Den on 85 tyler street.
three indivuduals came in armed,had pushed through ,there was a security card there someone manning the door and immediately announced robbery and had laid everyone on the ground.
turned away from the shooters and systematically shot in the back of the head
one by one ,there were seven people there and six people were shot and five of them died .
they didn’t discriminate between the people that they had an issue with and just people that happened to be there ,they just shot everybody
when you go up and .you execute five people , that’s very personal. your are very close to a person, you place that gun in the back of their head and you pull that trigger that’s very personal .
the night of the incident was a dream,because it was a snowing out, there’s not much action on the street , there’s no prostitutes out. it’s quiet , it was a beautiful night.
they forced the door open and that’s when everything really started to go downhill literaly and figuratively
because the club was below ground.so when you’d walk in the front door youwalk down a dock and corridor maybe five ,six steps, but you dont have a clear view ahead of you ,the further you walk the more you see.
at the very bottom stairs, there’s a table , there’s a television monitor. which was interesting. there was a monitor inside the club that monitored the back and the front entrances.
how did the perpetrator get in or whatever if these guys were paying attention to the monitor.
blood all over the place.
chinatown people get scared and they ‘re not coming out more often.
it affected the community terribly to have something like that happen in your neighborhood . and then to have something like that happen is kind of a stigma on that neighborhood.
it’s one of those bizarre crimes that you really wonder what, what’s the teal story what really happened ? everyone knew that it was just rival factions having a war.
as long they stay away from that they continue to continue their life ,that’s it.
and thet was part of the nature of organized cfrime in boston at that time as long they stayed within the raks they were just killing each other, it wasn’t perceived as public menace number one.
85 tyler street where the murdering was, there’s four similar buildings right next to each other . none of the tenants moved out of the units ,they felt that it was just an isolated event.
if they startedb lasting the entire street then obviously they would have more fear . but it wasn’t, it was contained downstairs in a basement. two a clock in the morning .
unfortunate that it happened.
a lot of fear being a witness,people don’t want to get involved for one reason or another.if they come out put their face out there they’re afraid that on the end they may get repercussions.
especially when it comes to a homicide , a lot of people are apprehensive about talking to the police FBI were lucky in this case that there were a surviving witness.
be shot in the head and suvive is pretty miraculous.
the surviving victim was able to make his way out and flagged down a passer -by who notifying some security guards at one of the hospitals.
when the police showdd up an ambulance.the surviving victim was brought to the hospital and soon thereafter he was able to give a statement to the detectives.which was key in finding out who the suspects were.
they had identified the three shooters. and had developed information that they fled boston,had gone down to atlantic city for a few night where thery found lodging ,they gambled.
and then from there they ended up in new york city and from new york city
they punched out of the country around january 31 st february 1st 1991
overseas to hongkong
after the incident happened and the suspects fled
it became a joint investigation with the FBI , various federal agencies.
the violent crimes task force comes in with the FBI .they handle the ufap which is an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution ,this is a tool to assist local law enforcement the federal level can come in and provide additional resources and assistance to track that individual down .
back in 1999-2000 siny van tran
nam the tham
were both arrested by the chinese law enforcement, they were deported to hongkong in october of 2001 and then the hongkong authorities arrested them on FBIs behalf.
once they were picked up they were ultimately extradited back to the united states around 2001 to face their trial
and their charges in suffolk county which they did so in 2005
both of them were convicted of five murder counts ,they were sentenced to life in prison
it was a big moment fro boston , in the sense that these three individuals had committed this horrific murder and had been on the run for over 10 years and this was not only a sign to the two that were arrested but also to the asian community here as a whole that we’re not going to forget. it was unfinished business.
and as an agent or police officer or a detective you never want to leave unfinished business.
there are different theories
of why siny van tran,nam the tham,hung tien pham went into this social club/gambling den and committed these five murders.
you don’t go into a place like that , three people all armed with guns wihout a plan .
it comes down to this vying for competing interests for control of that racketeering money down in the greater chinatown area.
there were slights that took place, insults that took place which the chines culture can be somewhat insulting. they call it saving face.
face , asian , everything is face.if you don’t have face you don’t have power.
one group gets offended and they have to respond so everyone is looking for face you gotta have respect.
until the suspects reveal what those motivations are or somebody with inside information ,it will always be a question mark of what was the exact motivation
two are acptured and incarcerated….
but there’s still one out there hung tien pham and law enforcement will not rest until he’s captured.
hung tien pham ,he’s also known as his nickname hong suk . he¨s currently approcimately 60 years old. pham’s status was lpr legal permanent resident that had immigrated from móng cái vietnam , móng cái’s a city on the northern border of vietnamn raid of china and he’d come over here as a refugee and detained status here in the early 1980s.
but ultimately ended up inboston.his sort of bread and butter in terms of criminal activity was prostitution, illegal gambling,extortion,he had kind of rose through theranks of the criminal enterprise .
he was involved in chinatown.
and was ultimately considered like an up -and -coming individual. he was a rising star within the chinatown criminal community.
wouldn’t call him a substantial member in the ping on gang. if he was he would have been indicted along with the other 15 members of the ping on gang.
but he was definitely associate and affiliate of stephen’ s Tse. his rise was somewhat stunted when he committed these murders and he was forced to flee.
“today we are renewing our call for the public’s assistance,in locating longtime fugitive Hung Tien Pham ,we are also announcing a reward of up to thirty thousand dollars for information leading directly to his arrest.we know this crime has haunted the chinatown community for decades and we hope this renewed effort will produce real results.
this guyis still out there , the he hasn’t answered for his crimes.he’s out there someplace and somebody knows where he is.
