Men Finally Going On Trial For Chinatown Slayings
Killings Stunned Tight-Knit Neighborhood
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/4970746/detail.html


BOSTON -- It was one of the most gruesome crimes in Boston's
history: five men shot execution-style in a Chinatown social club as
they begged for their lives.

The killings on Jan. 12, 1991, stunned many in Boston's Chinatown, a
tight-knit neighborhood packed with restaurants, markets, shops and
apartment buildings. Police said the suspects had ties to organized
crime in Chinatown and the killings appeared to be part of a dispute
between rival gangs vying for control of gambling rackets.

Nearly 15 years after the early-morning massacre, two men are
scheduled to go on trial next week. A third suspect has never been
apprehended.

A group of men in the social club had been playing cards when three
gunmen burst in.

"It was like a scene right out of the Valentine's Day Massacre,"
recalled former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, who arrived at the crime
scene shortly after police. "There were bodies all over the place,
there were people running, and blood everywhere. It was really gory
and eerie. People were shocked and afraid."

Police said Siny Van Tran, Nam The Tham, and a third man, Hung Tien
Pham, walked into the basement club at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 12. One
of them yelled "Robbery!" and Tran told everyone to lie down on the
floor.

Six men were shot in the back of the head, one by one, as they
begged for their lives, prosecutors have said.

Powers said autopsy results showed that the men were shot at very
close range, some with the gun pressed against their heads. Five men
died. A sixth man, also shot in the head, crawled to the back door
and called for help. He and a seventh man who was pistol-whipped
identified Tran, Tham and Pham as the shooters, Assistant District
Attorney John E. Powers III has said.

Prosecutors would not discuss details of the case or the motive for
the killings before trial. Powers said at the arraignment that the
victims knew the men who shot them.

It took more than a decade for authorities to catch two of the
suspects and bring them back to the United States.

Tran, also known as "Toothless Wah," and Tham, also known as Johnny
Cheung, are Vietnamese nationals, but were apprehended in China,
which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Donald Stern, who was the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts when the
arrests were made, said it was not initially clear if China would
agree to extradite Tran and Tham. But after the FBI arrested Qin
Hong, one of China's most wanted fugitives, China agreed to return
Tran and Tham.

"It involved not only law enforcement considerations, but diplomatic
considerations," Stern said. "When there is no extradition treaty,
everything is more ad hoc."

The two survivors are expected to testify against Tran and Tham.

Tran's attorney, Robert George, said his client denies any ties to
organized crime and claims he went to the social club that night to
play cards, but was turned away.

"This is a case of mistaken identity by people with motives to lie
and in circumstances under which no one could make an accurate and
certain identification," George said.

Flynn said gang violence in Chinatown was prevalent in the early
1990s. Social clubs where people went to drink and gamble could be
found in basements all over Chinatown. Police were constantly trying
to shut the illegal gaming clubs down, Flynn said.

"There were always these little competing conflicts over who was
going to have control," Flynn said.

The five killed were: Choung Kand Luu, 26; Man Cheung, 55; David
Quang Lam, 32; Chung Wah Son, 58; and Van Tran, 31.

Jury selection in the trial was scheduled to begin late Tuesday.
Opening statements were scheduled for Sept. 20.