7/30/2019 Book Review Born to Kill - The Rise and Fall of America's Bloodiest Asian Gang - by T.J. English

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Book ReviewBorn to Kill - The Rise and Fall of America's Bloodiest Asian Gang - byT.J. English

It was a sweltering summer day in 1990 and more than 100 Asian gang members andtheir families were gathered at the Rosedale Memorial Park Cemetery in Linden, N.J to bury 21-

year-old Vinh Vu, the No. 2 leader of the violent Born to Kill Gang (BTK).Suddenly, three men approached wearing long coats covering the automatic weaponsthey were carrying. These men then did the unthinkable: they opened fire on the mourners andpandemonium broke loose. Frightened people ran in all direction, including the gangs leader

David Thai and 19-year old Vietnamese refugee Tinh Ngo, called Timmy by his cohorts. Over100 rounds were fired into the crowd. Five mourners were wounded, but, shockingly, no one waskilled.

Tinh, like most of the typically teenage gang members, had no family in America and hegravitated to the mostly-Vietnamese BTK gang for the same reason the other gang members did:he wanted a sense of family in a foreign land - people he could trust and converse with in hisnative language. Tinh never realized he would be drawn into a vipers nest, where the 34-year

old Thai would order his underlings to perform violent crimes (shakedowns, robberies and evenmurders) against other Asian immigrants - people who traditionally never reported crimes to thepolice.

Tinh did his first dirty deed when he participated in the holdup of a Chinese brothel inChinatown. While Tinh didnt enjoy the caper, it still gave him a sense of exhilaration, knowingthat he now was one of the gang. As he committed robbery after robbery, Tinh gradually beganto question whether this violent life was meant for him.

David Thai sent his underlings all over America to perform their mayhem. In late 1990,Thai directed a group of BTKs, including Tinh, to Doraville, Ga. to rob a Chinese curio shopowned by Odum Lin. Lin, not impressed with gangsters who barely shaved, resisted and wasshot in the side of the head.

Miraculously, Lin survived but Tinh did not know the owner was still alive; he thoughthe was an accessary to murder. This senseless shooting sent Tinh over the top, and when he wasarrested on a minor charge soon after, he was met by a group of investigators, both Federal andNew York City law enforcement officers, who were trying to build a case against the Born toKill Gang, and its leaderDavid Thai specifically.

Tired of the gang life, Tinh easily flipped, and under the guidance of New York CityDetective Bill Oldham, Special ATF Agent Dan Kumor, and Assistant U.S. Attorney AlanVinegrad, he began wearing a wire during his meetings with Thai and other top BTK gangmembers.

InBorn to Kill, T.J. English, a former New York City taxi driver and the author ofanother fine book - The Westies, gives us a vivid account ofTinhs confidential activities whichdecimated the Born to Kill Gang. Tinhs inside information was so accurate; Kumor and Oldhamwere even able to thwart several BTK robberies before they were able to occur.

At first, Tinh was terrified of wearing a wire. On one occasion, while Tinh sat in theliving room of a safe house watching television with several other BTKs, another gang membernoticed a red glow inside Tinhs shirt. The glow was the battery light on his tape recorderwhichwas taped to his chest.

Thinking he was now a dead man, Tinh rushed to the bathroom, removed the recorder,and then slinked back to the living room to await his fate. Amazingly, the other gang member

7/30/2019 Book Review Born to Kill - The Rise and Fall of America's Bloodiest Asian Gang - by T.J. English

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were glued to the television set and barely noticed Tinh had left the room and returned. Tinhmumbled something about a bad beeper to the gang member who had noticed the red light; thegang member bought Tinhs explanation, and Tinh was safe - for now.

After Thai tried to engage his gang in a robbery in concert with Italian mobsters fromNew Jersey, which was again prevented by Tinhs inside knowledge of the impending event,

Oldham, Kumor and Vinegrad decided it was too dangerous for Tinh to stay undercover. Theypulled Tinh off the streets and began the prosecution of Thai and other top BTK operatives. Thisresulted in Thai being sentenced to life behind bars with no chance of parole.

Born to Kill was originally written in 1996 and is now available in a Kindle Edition for$7.69. I was lucky enough to purchase the ebook for only $1.99 when English ran a specialpromotion. The book is a bargain at both prices. Its also available in a paperback version for$14.99 at Amazon.com.

Buy it. You wont be sorry.