David Thai (30 January 1956-) was a Vietnamese-American gangster and the founding leader of New York City's Born to Kill gang, active during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Biography[]
Thái Thọ Hoàng was born in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1956, and he worked as a middleman between the Binh Xuyen crime syndicate and American soldiers during the Vietnam War, supplying GIs with drugs. On the fall of Saigon in 1975, Thọ Hoàng's father persuaded the Americans to help Thọ Hoàng escape the country, and he was evacuated to Hong Kong and from there to Lafayette, Indiana, where a Lutheran church accepted "David". Disappointed by the lack of glamor and opportunities in his new Midwestern home, he hopped on a Greyhound bus destined for New York City, where he worked as a busboy at several Manhattan restaurants before briefly attending New York University. There, he fell in love with fellow student Lan Pham, impregnating her; this forced him to drop out of college, marry her, and join the Flying Dragons gang in 1983. He and the handful of other Vietnamese members of the gang were cut off from the main gang's lucrative activities, even though he claimed to be ethnically Chinese. In response, he left the Flying Dragons in 1987 and started his own operation, selling counterfeit watches and forcing businesses to buy his watches lest he burn them down. He later claimed that, in 1988, he made $13 million from the sale of counterfeit watches alone. Many Vietnamese youths began to look up to Thai and asked for his assistance, and he invited the "Canal Street Boys" youth gang to join him in forming the "Born to Kill" (BTK) gang, offering them luxurious lifestyles.
Thai had BTK's members sport spiked hair, sunglasses, and BTK tattoos, and even sign contracts with the gang's rules and regulations. Thai was respected among his gang members for his patience and wisdom. However, Thai unwisely allowed Tinh Ngo to stay in the gang even after skimming a good deal of money obtained from the robbery of a Ghost Shadows-owned massage parlor. Thai and his gang brazenly committed crimes and robberies whenever and wherever they wanted, as he did not believe that Chinatown's traditional power structure applied to the Vietnamese. On 5 August 1989, two Flying Dragons gangsters insulted him as he shopped at a shopping mall on Canal Street, leading Thai to send Lam Trang to shoot them. Thanh Hlai and Duc Ly's murder led to the street shutting down, but no witnesses cooperated with the NYPD. The Flying Dragons were not only embittered over the loss of two members, but also by BTK's violation of Chinatown's rules. Thai ignored the Chinatown leaders' criticisms, as he was only there to feed his pockets and his love for power. His gang moved to Coney Island to lay low, but, whenever the gang came to Chinatown, they caused chaos, including at Flying Dragons-owned clubs and businesses. In 1990, Chinatown godfather Benny Ong demanded to meet with Thai after Thai's henchman Qui Tran's murder of two Ghost Shadows, Peter Wng and Dak Leong, at Winnie's Lounge on 8 February 1990 drew increased police attention to Chinatown. Thai ignored the meeting request, leading to the Hip Sing Tong retaliating by murdering Thai's right-hand man Vinh "Amigo" Vu at a Canal Street massage parlor on 26 June 1990. Vinh Vu's funeral was held in Linden, New Jersey on 28 July 1990, purposefully far from New York, but the Triads were still able to carry out a drive-by shooting at the funeral. Nobody was killed, but Thai knew that matters were serious. His gang began to hide out in New Jersey and Coney Island, allowing the Ghost Shadows to scour Chinatown for BTK. Thai realized that BTK would never be the top dog in Chinatown, and he had BTK separate into smaller groups as far afield as Bridgeport, Connecticut; Versailles, Louisiana; Hicksville, New York (where Thai lived); Gainesville, Georgia; and Toronto, Canada.
However, the BTK continued to hold monthly meetings in New York and carry out a series of jewelry store robberies. Thai planned for BTK to make money across the country and stay under the radar, but the FBI had been tracking them since early 1991. In April 1992, BTK was indicted on dozens of charges. Tinh Ngo had worn wires and served as an FBI informant, leading to Thai's arrest in Melville, Long Island. 20 members received between 10 and 60 years, while the remnants feld to Versailles, New Orleans or Doraville, Georgia. Thai was convicted of racketeering and sentenced to life in prison without parole.