Born to Kill: America's Most Notorious Vietnamese Gang, and the Changing Face of Organized Crime

• NCJ Number: 155929
• Author(s): T J English
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 318 pages
• Sale Source: William Morrow and Co, Inc
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Throughout the late 1980's and early 1990's, a gang of young Vietnamese refugees committed many violent acts as part of the Asian underworld in the United States, and this book traces the rise of the "Born to Kill" Vietnamese gang phenomenon.

Abstract

As newcomers to the American criminal marketplace, the Vietnamese gang followed patterns of criminal behavior remarkably similar to those established by earlier generations of immigrant racketeers. In New York City's Chinatown, they took over the community's most lucrative commercial boulevard through a campaign of extortion, robbery, and violent intimidation. They expanded their activities throughout the United States at the direction of the gang leader, David Thai, who saw himself as the supreme commander of a vast Asian underworld. One of the gang members who joined the gang for brotherhood became increasingly disenchanted with the violence and eventually began to cooperate with Federal law enforcement officers. The account of the "Born to Kill" Vietnamese gang examines the changing face of organized crime and the multicultural nature of organized crime in the United States. Photographs