Born to Kill: America’s Most Notorious Vietnamese Gang,
and the Changing Face of Organized Crime by T.J. English
William Morrow, $22 hard
I had just finished readingBorn to Kill, a novel chronicling the
rise
and fall of the most feared gang ever to stalk the streets of New
York’s
Chinatown, when I decided to give my buddy John a call. You see, John
lives in
New York, and is, like myself, an avid fan of Chinese films, thus
requiring
that he make many trips into his local Chinatown. After I inquired
about his
knowledge of the local gangs, our conversation went something like
this: “John,
I just finished reading a book about gang activity in New York’s
Chinatown…”
I began carefully. “Green Dragons, right?” he replied quickly, cutting me off.
“No… well, they were in the book,” I stammered. “But the focus
was
on the
Born to Kill gang…”
“Ooooohhhhh…,” he sighed knowingly, “you mean BTK…”
Even today, people mention the “BTK” with fear upon their lips, for
their
sheer ballsiness and the audacity of their random violence, extortion,
and
generally preying upon their community was unmatched by any other gang
in
Chinatown. They are the torrid and fascinating subject of T.J.
English’s latest
work of non-fiction, Born to Kill: America’s Most Notorious
Vietnamese Gang,
and the Changing Face of Organized Crime, a gripping investigation
of gang
lifestyle, as well as a careful examination of the lasting effects of
the
Vietnam War. English, whose last book was a study of the Irish mob in
Hell’s
Kitchen called The Westies (later made into the Sean Penn
vehicle
State of Grace), has many cultural, ethical, and criminal
aspects to
explore – and he pulls it all off rather well. From war-torn Vietnam, on to a horrific two-year journey to
America,
the book
follows the misadventures of Tihn “Timmy” Ngo, a young boy sent away
from his
homeland by his parents in hopes that he would find a “better life” in
the
United States. After a whirlwind of foster homes and lousy jobs for low
pay,
Tihn finally found his place in America – with the up-and-coming Born
to Kill
gang. Led by the charismatic and coldly manipulative David Thai, the
BTK was to
signal the arrival of a new breed of organized crime, an unruly,
chaotic,
anything-goes style that ignored the traditional “ethics” and “rules”
that, no
matter how twisted, had made Chinatown an acceptable place to live and
work for
Asian-Americans who wanted to be among their own. Dealing with the
Chinese
gangsters like the “Tongs” or “Triads” had simply become a way of life
for the
citizens living in New York’s Chinatown, and the areas shop owners had
settled
into a comfortable routine of paying protection money and showing
respect in
order to avoid the cruel consequences that were to befall those who did
not
cooperate. But no one, neither the citizens nor the rival gangs, was
prepared
for the impact that the BTK would have upon their community. The moniker of the gang, made up entirely of both pure and
mixed-blood
Vietnamese youngsters, was taken from the intimidating slogan scrawled
by
American GIs while in Vietnam. The irony is not lost on the gang
members, nor
on author English, or for that matter, anyone reading the book. Faced
with
resentment from the Chinatown community, to which the Vietnamese
immigrants
were relatively new, and outright hostility from the mainstream society
outside
the Asian community, it was easy for David Thai to lure in and control
much of
the young Vietnamese kids living in the area with money, power, and,
most
important, a sense of identity and brotherhood. “Think of this as a
business,”
Thai tells the gang members at their very first meeting, “not a gang.”
Earlier
he had told Tihn, upon joining the gang, the BTK crime policy: “We rob
and
steal only from other Asians. They don’t know anything about U.S. law.
They’re
afraid… to even report the crime.”
During the first section of the book, English details the daily
rituals of
gang life with a hard-hitting, vaguely cinematic style, but always
maintains an
understanding sensitivity towards the plights of both the gang members
and
their victims – a tightrope act he walks quite well. The scenes of
violence,
crimes, and robberies are vividly handled and do a solid job of placing
the
reader right smack-dab in the center of the mayhem – one particularly
incredible passage, the bloody shooting of two rival gang members only
a couple
of minutes after offending Thai by spitting on his sidewalk (!), is
startling
and written with a frightening urgency that comes out of nowhere,
lingering in
the reader’s mind long after a number of pages have been turned.
The second half of the book marks a turning point as Tihn Ngo
begins
to regret
his gang lifestyle after participating in a particularly brutal jewelry
store
robbery in Georgia (an event made even more horrifying due to the
graphic crime
photos included in the book’s midsection), the beginning of Thai’s
plans to
expand the BTK’s criminal activities outward across the country. Tihn,
feeling
desperately guilty and looking for a way out, gets his chance when he
is
arrested by the police, who bargain to not charge him with any crimes
if he
wears a wire and acts as an undercover operative. He grudgingly agrees
in order
to avoid arrest, and a complex cat-and-mouse game ensues, with Tihn
trying to
coax as much information out of the gang and, in particular, Thai,
without
giving himself away.
This leads to several hair-raising sequences. Tihn first wears the
wire and it
burns a little hole in his shirt, revealing a flashing red light which
one of
his gangland buddies notices…. But Tihn and the cops always manage to
stay
one step ahead, no matter how ludicrous the situation (a series of
conveniently
botched robberies almost becomes a comic running gag) or how high the
stakes
rise, as the evidence and suspense mount, leading towards the
inevitable,
powerful conclusion.
Born to Kill is a fine piece
of work, an involving read about an important subject: What chances do
immigrants have in this country? Are they given a chance at the
so-called
American Dream? Have they been shut out by prejudice? Or have they shut
themselves out? And finally, if a young person living in America can
only find
solace for the future in the arms of crime and murder, who is really to
blame?
So where does English come down on his controversial subject? Does he
wind up
painting the BTK as a group of cold-blooded hoodlums without
conscience, or as
tragic youth forced into this brutal lifestyle by poverty, racism, and
a
general lack of opportunity?
Well, the answer is neither and both. English seems so torn between
sympathizing with the BTK and despising them that he, like the rest of
us, just
seems to be trying to make sense of all the craziness.
This article appears in April 28 • 1995 and April 28 • 1995 (Cover).