David Thai

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David Thai (born Thái Hoàng Thọ on January 30, 1956) is a Vietnamese-American gangster. He was the founder and leader of the notorious Born to Kill gang during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was also responsible for running a massive illegal counterfeit watch operation and at his peak controlled the market and distribution of counterfeit watches in New York by means of "blackmail and extortion." He was the official leader of "New York Vietnamese Born to Kill" from 1988 until his arrest in 1991, which was the combination of months of investigation by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in conjunction with the aid of a former gang member who defected from the gang and became an undercover informant, helping secure the convictions of David Thai and several of his high-ranking officers. Described as a sly, shrewd and lethal gangster, David Thai fashioned himself as a big brother and the protector to the Vietnamese community in Chinatown. Thai was described by crime writer T. J. English and many others as being well dressed, usually wearing "a tailored sports coat, silk shirt and loft leather loafers" alongside a pair of sunglasses, and was said to have resembled more a businessman than a gangster. During his interview with Peg Tyre after his arrest on murder charges in 1991 and other interviews that went on in the course of his trial, Thai often stated that he was trying to protect and help the Vietnamese community in Chinatown, often by giving the newly arrived refugees money and a place to live. In his interview with Tyre, Thai went on to describe that he sacrificed his first marriage due to his "love for his Vietnamese brothers". On October 23, 1992, a United States federal judge in Brooklyn sentenced...