As newcomers to America’s vast criminal marketplace, the Born to Kill gang followed patterns of criminal behavior remarkably similar to those established by earlier generations of immigrant racketeers.  In New York City’s bustling Chinatown, they took over the community’s most lucrative commercial boulevard through a campaign of extortion, robbery, and violent intimidation.  Then they took their act on the road, tapping into a sprawling network of young Asian gangsters stretching from the Deep South to the suburbs of California.

The gang’s leader was David Thai, known to his minions as Anh Hai, the oldest and wisest brother.  Raised in Saigon during the worst years of the war, Thai saw himself as a modern-day mandarin prince, the supreme commander of a vast Asian underworld.  Thai’s megalomania spurred the gang on to more and more outrageous acts of mayhem, culminating with the brutal shooting of a jewelry-store owner during a robbery gone awry...