The Misery Machine - The Boston Chinatown Massacre

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

This week, Drewby and Yergy take a trip (quite literally) down to Boston's Chinatown and discuss the Boston Chinatown Massacre, by far one of the worst spree killings to take place in Massachusetts history - and how organized crime changed the landscape of the neighborhood in decades past.  A very special thank you to Levi for supporting our show as our highest tier patron! Levi's Adoption Fundraising Page: https://gofund.me/d658a3a7 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine Join Our Street Team! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HfRUPQhB6LOqVupZm92OdV5rLDQcIMpHudmUZwt0C24/edit?usp=sharing Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Chinatown_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Boston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_On https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/30000-reward-for-fugitive-on-anniversary-of-1991-boston-chinatown-massacre-011221 https://www.masslive.com/boston/2021/01/this-cold-blooded-killer-has-been-on-the-run-for-30-years-fbi-seeks-hung-tien-pham-fugitive-accused-in-boston-chinatown-massacre-in-1991.html https://abc7news.com/hung-tiem-pham-fbi-boston-chinatown-massacre-most-wanted/9601927/ https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/15/in-the-shadow-of-the-dragon/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgr44mntoPo

Hi, we're the Misery Machine. I'm Yerick. And I'm Drewby. And as you can see, we're in Boston's Chinatown right now. And that's because we're doing a case that happened in Chinatown in 1991. And that's the Boston Chinatown Massacre. This is one of the most craziest cases and we still have one suspect that's been at large for over 30 years now. Yeah. If you're listening on YouTube, please like and subscribe. As this video drops, we may have just reached 5,000 subscribers.

But if we haven't yet, if you could hit that subscribe button, and get us there, we'd really appreciate it. You should do it anyway. You should probably do it anyway. But without further ado, the Boston Chinatown Massacre. After the 1950s saw the demise of Chinatowns in Providence, Rhode Island, in Portland, Maine, the last surviving historic ethnic Chinese neighborhood in New England is in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. As you might have guessed, there are an abundance of Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants located in Chinatown.

It is no small area by any means. by any means, and is one of the most densely populated residential areas in Boston, and is unarguably the epicenter of Chinese and Vietnamese cultural life there, and is one of the largest Chinatowns outside of New York City. The entrance to Chinatown has an architectural arch, known as a Pi Fang, which is located on the intersection of Beach Street and Surface Road. You've no doubt seen these traditional gates in the media at some point. Here, an Imperial Guardian lion, also known as a Fu Lion, sits on each side of the pie fang.

The gate is visible from South Station bus terminal. It's a popular tourist destination. You'll often see tourists taking pictures there. We were actually there today. Yeah, we were just there this morning. We left at about 5 o'clock. It's 3.30 right now when we're recording this. We literally just got in.

Yergi 8 really quickly. Yeah. And now we're recording. It was pretty cool. It was really chilly there. We picked not the greatest time to go. But we did get quite a bit of footage for you guys. I hadn't been there in a few years and it was really nice to see it during the daytime because

every time I've gone, it's been at night. It was really cold there today. Yeah, it was very, very cold. I couldn't feel my hands. No. So this is where our ill-fated story begins in a gambling den in the basement of a building on 85 Tyler Street in Boston's Chinatown, which we were at that exact place. It looks to be apartment buildings now of some sort.

It looks to be an apartment building, some sort of Asian-type food distrable. distributor and I believe there's a beauty salon in there. There was originally a beauty salon there. I couldn't find it. I read online it was called Jeannie's Salon or something like that, but I think some businesses there have changed hands. I didn't realize this, but I was getting footage of that place, which I will put up right now. Yergy said there was a bunch of people in the windows staring at us like we were crazy. We got a lot of strange looks today and that's totally fine.

Like I understand we're in an ethnic neighborhood where we are the outside. Siders. That is... Yeah, we're not really, we don't really belong there. We were one of maybe four other white people while I was there. And I'm not uncomfortable with that, but like, no, not at all. I definitely feel as if people thought we were very strange walking around with my cell phone on a selfie stick taking walking footage. Yeah. And at the same time, I want to... And that's weird anyway. Well, at the same time, I want to respect it. I don't want to be too overly a tourist there, especially when like this neighborhood is their home. And I don't want to be, kind of. I don't want to be, kind of ruining the vibe there.

And it was, it's a really chill vibe, honestly. Like, by the Pi Fang, we saw a lot of older men playing cards. I couldn't tell what game it was. It looked like it was hearts, but there was only three people playing. They were throwing money around. I don't know. It was very interesting. It was absolutely fabulous.

And I really just love this place. Yeah. When I go to Boston, this is primarily where I go. So at the time, this is say 80s to early 90s, there were gamuteless. there were gambling dens here and this exact spot in 85 Tyler Street was a gambling den. Mahjong was quite common there. Mahjong is a game I don't know how to play, but it's one I want to learn because it's supposedly good for your brain. It's the game you see with the little tiles.

But this gambling den was frequented by ethnic Chinese immigrants from Myanmar, many of whom worked as waiters in nearby restaurants and gambled after work. The den was not open to the public and people who sought a mission. would ring a bell, and a doorman would view their face on a video screen before opening the door. It's far from the double-part trucks and sidewalk vendors hawking clothes and vegetables, away from the payphones topped by green and yellow pagodas, which are no longer there nowadays, sadly. Beyond the late-night restaurants with the brash neon marquees shouting dim sum cocktails, that's still there.

The den remained opened as long as patrons were present, so it did not keep regular hours, which are kind of like some gambling establishments I have frequented in my life where they'll literally go until like six or seven in the morning in very strange locations in very strange locations. So the club at the 85 Tyler Street site was originally run by a criminal organization

called the Pingon. That's P-I-N-G space-on. The Ping-on were a Boston-based criminal organization which rose to power in the 1970s and continued to operate throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. arguably. The Pingon was founded by Stephen Skydragons, who had heavy ties to the infamous 14K triad in Hong Kong. The Pingon was regarded as the farm team for the 14K triad, and Sky Dragon's intention was to come to Boston to set up another hub on the east coast of the United States.

However, it was not directly affiliated with the 14K, despite Sky Dragon having a history with them. By the early 1980s, the Pingon had taken control of. gambling in Chinatown. And had also taken over other Chinatown rackets such as prostitution, loan sharking, extortion, drugs. The organization had several allies in the late 1980s, including the Hung Mong, which was operated in New York City. I have to just kind of say the 1980s and in the 70s, Boston was a very different place. Very different. So on Boylston Street, which runs kind of adjacent to Chinatown, there was a lovely place called Combat Zone.

And that had a lot of sex shops, strip clubs. Horno theaters. Hormo theaters, live sex shows, things of that nature. It was not something you'd want to bring your children down the road. It's now the theater district, right? It's not a theater district. It's very ritzy. Very ritzies.

We were there today as well. Yes, we were. You never would have known that that's what it was. There's nothing left from that era. No relics, no signs. There's center folds on Lagrange. But it looked like someone beat that up with the bats. Right.

Yeah. Do you know why they call it the combat zone? So I believe this is just what I've heard. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's because a lot of military men would end up there. Oh, yeah, you'd get off the boat and somehow you'd end up in the combat zone because that's where you'd find comfort women strip clubs. It was basically like the red light district of Boston, if you will. So in 1984, Skydragon was jailed for refusing to cooperate with authorities with regards to Asian organized crime in the city. And from what I understand, when you become a triad, if you cooperate with the police and snitch, you basically are marked for death at that point.

So it makes complete sense that he wouldn't cooperate with authorities. Right. Well, that's like any organized crime, really. I watched this documentary about somebody who they were an undercover cop being inducted into the triads. When you pled your brotherly oath, there was like several steps and several rituals you had to do involving blood, I believe. It's been a while since I've... There's some blood drinking involved. Was it blood drinking? I thought you had to, like, cut your hands in front of them and stuff like that.

And then you had to do this, like, ritual kind of pledge. It was very interesting. It's different from a mobster being like, and if you talk, you're dead. It was a very... Well, his Hawaiian mob does that, too. They, like, cut their hand. They have to burn an effigy of a saint. Do they?

Yeah. I'm not too familiar with the Italian mob. But regardless, he didn't cooperate, so he did his bid. During this time, a large number of Vietnamese refugees had moved to Boston, in particular Chinatown. When Skydragon was released from jail in 1986, the landscape of organized crime was very different. It wasn't as nearly as one-sided as it was when he was last free, where he basically owned the whole neighborhood. Skydragon was forced to negotiate peace with one, and I may say this wrong, Cal, Jundin, who is the leader of Vietnamese gangs, in Boston. So the reason a whole lot of Vietnamese folks had immigrated to the Boston area at the time

was due to all the war and communism and things of that nature that was going on at the time. Like post-Vietnam. Yeah. I watched this documentary recently on the triads in Boston Chinatown. It was a short podcast done by somebody in Boston who speaks fluent Chinese. And he said why the Vietnamese gangs had such loyal and dedicated foot soldiers was a lot of these people. who were immigrating here from Vietnam fought in the war. And as you know, they fought in terrible conditions. So this was like the rits to them. And if they went to jail, that was still far better living conditions they were used to. So they were happy to go to jail as long as they were serving the gang. Yes. And that podcast was called Old Dirty Boston. So definitely check them out. That was a really

great episode. It was very well done. Very, very informative. Yes. So overall, there is a lengthy cast of characters within our story. However, there's three key players to keep in mind. All three are Vietnamese nationals who either grew up in China or ethnically Chinese. And the three men also had work for Sky Dragon Pryor. They are Hungton Pham, aka Hung Suk or Uncle Hung. And he is a Vietnamese National of Chinese descent and was a rising star in Asian American organized crime in the late 1980s. Fam was a loyal Pingon member through the 1980s, and he had 200 men at his disposed He had control over lower Washington Street at the western edge of Chinatown, control over at least two gambling parlors, prostitution, and his own drug business offshoot from Pingon. This is a lot for a very small neighborhood.

It is. He was a big spender who liked flashy cars and expensive cognac. So it's very interesting. They say this is like the largest Chinatown, but it really is quite compact. It very much is. It's about four blocks. I don't know what it is now, but I remember at the time, somebody said there was five thousand. people living in this small neighborhood.

And I can't remember the exact square footage, but this is... Can they say 46 acres? I don't think it's that big. I don't think so. We walked all around it today. I think it's smaller than that. It would take you a bit to walk 46 acres. Yeah, I don't believe it's that big.

And remember, where we walked around is even smaller now than it used to be if you want to count the combat zone and some of these other areas that are slowly getting gentrified out. This is true. Because mostly when you go to China, in Boston now, it's mostly Beach Street and the offshoot streets, a little one-ways off a beach street

and then Washington Avenue. Yeah, yeah, and they're mostly just restaurants and you have some salons and the occasional convenience store and grocery. But other than that, it's much different than what it used to be. Namtha Tham,

a.k. Johnny Chung, I'll refer to him as that for the rest of the episode. He was born in North Vietnam in 1958. His father was a prominent Vietnamese lawyer who was arrested in 1978 and was disappeared. So after Tham was sent to school in China, he returned to Vietnam and then moved back to China. And then to Hong Kong. And then finally the United States arriving in San Francisco in 1981. And then we have a Cini Van Tran, aka Toothless Waugh.

Toothless Waugh. He has the best name. Yeah, I don't know where they get these names from. But it's great. Toothless Wa was born in Vietnam before growing up in China and working. as a sailor and a cook before ending up here in America. So in December of 1988, rival California gangster, and I'll try my best, Kung Khan, Dai Kung, Liu. We'll just call him Dai Kung for the rest of this. Di Kang, because that's his nickname. Everybody's got a nickname. Demanded $30,000 from a Pingong gang member in Boston for undelivered fake green cards. Dai Kung asked for the payment to be delivered to him in Sky Dragon's restaurant, which was called Kung

Fu, which also served as headquarters for the Pingong. This infuriated Sky Dragon as Peng a rival in his own restaurant would cause him to lose face. It's a huge disrespectful thing. It's very much an insult. Dai Kung was serving Peter Chong as a member of the Whole Earth Society, which is another gang operating in San Francisco that was conspiring to unify Asian organized crime in the United States under a single organization, which would have put Pingon out of business at the time. So because of this Skydragon ordered the assassination of Dai Kang after failed negotiations. In particular, Skydragon ordered Hung Suk to use automatic weapons to assassinate Dai Kung

and his men. With the specific instructions, shoot them in the balls, and then in the head. Around 11 p.m. on December 29, 1988, Pingong gang members launched an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Dai Kang and his associate, Chau Va Meng. parking lot on Tyler Street that resulted in no deaths. And this wasn't just somebody driving by and shooting with pistols. Allegedly, the verbiage that was used was get the heavy metal and that meant get automatic weapons. Now, these two pulled up in a car and fired at Nang and Dai Kong for 30 to 60 seconds. That is a long time when you're letting automatic fire go. And during this entire time they failed to shoot either man. They're lucky they didn't shoot anyone because Tyler's Street is a very

narrow one way. Yeah. So on Tyler Street, you mostly have some restaurants. That's where China Perl is. You have that big parking lot that has all the murals. I wonder if that actually was the parking lot. It could have been. So right now it's like a parking lot. You can pay 20 bucks to park in, which is like a rip off. We parked for $2 and got street parking. Two dollars an hour, yeah. We were lucky. It's hard to park on the street in Chinatown, but we got there early enough. We found a spot. So other than that, you have some massage parlors and beauty salons. You've got a school. There's a Chinese school there.

And then you have apartments. So they're lucky they didn't hit anybody. It's amazing to me that nobody was injured from what we know anyways. So after this failed, Skydragon fled to Hong Kong weeks later. Dikong began gathering gang members in New York in January 1988 for a retaliatory assassination attempt on the pingon leaders in Boston. High-ranking pingon members were aware of this plot, and Skydragon safely returned to the United States via Canada in May of 1989, and October 1990 with Hung Suk.

So Johnny Chung claimed that Hung Suk gave him a gun, instructed him to kill, kill, kill, the gambling den manager, Uman Young, aka wrinkled skin man. I love wrinkled skin man. I'm not making this up. He later told detectives that the targets had both been, young and Dai Kang. So Wrinkled Skin Man and Dai Kang, who we mentioned earlier,

with Dai Kung being the primary target that night. I really wonder, I haven't been able to find the information anywhere, why they wanted to kill Wrinkle Skin Man? I'm assuming because he owned the gambling den, and that was linked to Dai Kung. I'm pretty sure. And Dai Kung was frequenting there. That's the only thing I can think of.

There are some gaps in the story, and there's not a lot of information in English as you think there would be. So this is basically what I had to go off of. All right, so let's talk about the night this went down and I am going to try.

I tried to simplify this as best as possible. But like we talked about before, everyone has a nickname. And huge cast of characters. Huge cast of characters. We'll try to simplify as much as possible so you don't get lost. Yes. So on the night of January 11th

into the 12th, 1991, at approximately midnight, Young, who is Rinkled Skin Man, arrived at the club and was admitted by Chung-Wasun, aka Four-Eyed Guy. According to Rinkle Skin Man's testimony, Van Tran, also known as Tong, someone named A.B., Daikung, and Dai Kang's friend Man Chung, were present and playing cards. After 2 a.m., Pak Wing Lee arrived in Tong, Tongue. left. Sini Van Tran

That's Toothless Wah. Yeah, Toothless Wah. Entered the club for the very first time at 2.30 a.m. With David Kwong Lam, aka Dai Sun Wai or Big Mouth Howe. He's two nicknames. He's got few. Then left alone. Sinney Van Tran, aka Toothless Wah. I'm just going to call him Toothless Wa. That's way cooler. And more memorable, I would think. And Lim had been drinking together early that evening. So according to Rinkled Skin Man, Toothel Ruehsua returned later with Hung Suk and Johnny Chung. Okay, so these are the Vietnamese born folks. The three guys are trio.

Yeah, the three Vietnamese from the rival gang. That all worked for Sky Dragon here. The three men announced their intent to rob the gambling den and brandish guns. Sun was the first victim to be shot. Hung Suk shot him after the door was opened. Lee testified that Hung Suk was the first to enter, followed by Toothless Wa and then Johnny Chung. The trio ordered the other patrons to put their hands behind their heads.

Daikung and his friend Chung knelt on the floor. Van Tran laid his head on the table. Ah, B, hid under the table, and Lamb stood behind the table. According to Wrinkled Skin Man's testimony, the victims were subsequently all shot in the head, back of the head, if I'm correct, at point-blank range. Toothless Wa shot Chung, Hung-Sook shot Dai Kung. And three more men, Van Tram, Lamb, and Lee were shot over the next five to six minutes. The range was sufficiently close that gunpowder residue was later found on the victim's clothing.

And just to clarify, Van Tran that was shot is not related to Cini Van Tran, aka Toothless Waugh. Yeah. So after he was returned to Boston in 2001, Toothless Waugh told local police that his brief initial appearance in the gambling den was, quote, a failed errand to purchase cocaine, end quote. He also claimed that he did not have a gun and that he did not shoot any of the victims as demonstrated by the recovery of only two guns, neither of which bore his fingerprints. In contrast, Tam claimed that Cini Van Tren and FAM were the shooters. Toothless Wa claimed that he was the one that told Wrinkled Skin Man to run. Young Wrinkled Skin Man testified the killers ran out of bullets before they could shoot him or A.B.

while Lee said he heard wrinkled skin man beg for his life and Ah, B, swore he would work like a cow or a horse for fam. Fam being Hung-Sook. So Young, also known as Rinkled Skin Man, Abi, and the three assailants fled in different directions after Lee was shot. Five of the six victims were killed, so that was Chung, Lamb, Liu, aka Dai Kang, son, and Van Tran. Two security guards that were stationed at the emergency room at the nearby Tufts Medical whole center on Harrison Street. Which is very close. Very, very, very close. May have heard the shots. One of the guards attributed the sound to a snowplow going over a manhole cover. I don't know how snow plow is fitting down this road. But anyway, they do miraculous things down in Boston to

get through some of this stuff. While the other had not noticed any sounds, the guard later testified the sounds had occurred at about 3.30 a.m. After waking up at around 4 a.m., the 6th shooting victim Lee, crawled away from the massacre, dragged himself through the back door to a parking lot, and shouted for help. A passing couple noticed he was bleeding and alerted one of the two security guards at Tuft Medical Center ER. The guard alerted police and called for an ambulance, which took Lee to a hospital where he stayed for approximately a week while recovering. I just want to say, like, Tufts is practically in Chinatown. Basically is, yeah. So where Lee was found, maybe a block over is Tufts. So it would be very easy to get him there.

there. So it's really, really hard to say as well exactly where this is in contrast. So when we walk down Tyler Street, we were at the back of a Tufts building. Yeah, we were. So I don't know if they were referring to security guards hanging out there. It could be if we saw security guards hanging out there when we went by. So when you think of like, wow, this guy survived getting shot point blank in the back of the head. This is why the time was of the essence and they were right by a hospital. Furthermore, he survived because while the bullet entered his skull, it narrowly missed his brain. And so he later became a key witness in the investigation. Police entered the scene around 4.15 a.m. and they found one of the gunshot victims inside was still breathing. He was taken

to the hospital, but he later died. So the three perpetrators drove to Atlantic City to gamble for a few days before escaping to Hong Kong on a United Airlines flight from Philadelphia, via Tokyo three weeks after the massacre. So they basically went into hiding, gambled, and just left, okay? Two days after the shooting, Lee identified the perpetrators for the police. He was the victim who was shot that survived. So you've got here, Hung Suk, you've got Toothless Wa, and you've got Johnny Chung. And they were placed on the Boston Police Department's most wanted list, and they were also on America's Most Wanted. Yeah. So I, saw the episode for that and the details there differ. It seemed like it was...

It was really dramatized. Yeah, I was dramatized a bit, but you basically get the idea. And this was kind of a pulling the curtain back moment for me because I grew up watching America's Most Wanted. I remember as a young child, it really scared me. I was like, oh my God, these people are ruthless. I can't believe they're doing these things. But now that I watched one where I actually knew the case, I realized that they really like to ham up some of these details, even to the point of making up details that don't seem to be accurate based on my research. No, it wasn't very accurate at all. They made the gambling done look like this posh nightclub.

Yeah, they really did. It really was just like, you know, some car tables in the basement. And they made it sound like everyone died in there. It was very strange, but regardless, they still got the names of these three men out on America's most wanted, which I. believe very much assisted in catching two of them. So two of the guns used were discarded in the club after the shooting ended. Based on the shell casings, live ammunition, and bullets present,

forensic experts concluded that one gun, which was a 38 revolver, had been fired five times, another gun, which was a 380 semi-automatic, had been fired four times and ejected three live rounds, and a third gun had been used but not recovered from the scene. From the bullet fragments pulled from the victims, police concluded that the third weapon, also had been used to shoot some of the victims.

The third weapon could have been another 380 semi-automatic based on shell casings and live rounds that had been recovered, but they did not match the 380 that they recovered. And no fingerprints were recovered at the scene. And I feel like had this happen nowadays, they would have found some fingerprints. I agree. As the shootings happened in his club,

the police visited Rinkled Skinman during the day of January 12th. Fearful for his life, Rinkled Skinman, denied being president that night. and stated he had left four eyes in charge. He discontinued club operations and fled to Puerto Rico where he lived for three months. So even with an attempt on his life, he still wasn't talking to the cops. Right. Sky Dragon was stopped in January of 94, trying to cross the border from Hong Kong to China with $150,000 cash.

He was eventually extradited to the United States and convicted in 1996 for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder relating to the attempt on Dai Kong and Meng. in 1988. In 1998, the FBI notified Chinese authorities that they believed that the suspects were in China. Later that year, Johnny Chung and toothless Wa were arrested and held in prison in China on drug charges and undisclosed crimes. A grand jury had indicted both men for their roles in the massacre on June 29, 1999. After delicate negotiations, the Chinese authorities agreed to extradite the two men in exchange for Kin Hong, who was a fugitive one, in China for millions of dollars of fraud who was arrested in New York by the FBI in April of 2001. I want to stress, it's, from what I understand, very rare for China to extradite a national.

It makes sense that they had to do some sort of plea deal here to exchange somebody. So after they arrived in Boston on December 22nd, Toothless Wall waived his Miranda rights and provided a tape-recorded statement with his version of the events. The trial of toothless law and Johnny Chung began on September 13th, 2005. On October 5th, they were each convicted for five counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed assault with the intent to murder and sentenced to five consecutive life terms in prison to be followed by a term of approximately 20 years for assault with the intent to murder, then followed by a term of five years for possession of a firearm. Basically, they're doing life in prison. Yeah, basically. As of this recording, Hungton Fam, also known as Hung Fong, Sooker Uncle Hung has not been found despite a global hunt by the FBI. There is currently a $30,000 reward for information that could lead to his capture.

It is thought that Hungton Fam has family in the Bay Area. I also have heard that he has been seen in Hong Kong and Vietnam. And his last sighting, I believe, was in 2005. He has not been cited in well over 15 years. So he could be dead now. He very well could be dead or have been disappeared. We don't know. So as retaliation for the death of Dai Kung,

San Francisco-based members of the Wo Hoptoe flew to Boston to murder Tangu, a.k.a. Bai Ming or Bike Ming. He was Skydragons lieutenant and leader of the Pingon in his absence. So the restaurant where Ming was to be assassinated was being heavily guarded by police officers. So the would-be assassins had to abort the mission altogether. For most Bostonians, the trial revealed for the first time a brutal but largely unseen gang war that raged right in their midst. Because you need to understand, if you live in Boston in one of these other areas, you knew Chinatown existed and you kind of knew what was going on there, what you could find there. But you didn't know exactly this level of organized crime going on there.

You did not know a massacre like this was going on. You didn't hear about it. And for a long time, the police allowed Chinatown to kind of operate as its own, like, little sovereign nation for a really long time. I've read that, too, that the police didn't really go in there. And then after- They didn't even have any Asian-American people on their police force. At the time. They do now.

But without the police officers, it was basically ruled by organized crime at that point. So many of the residents, you have to remember, and merchants had come here to escape the violence and oppression in their homelands. So China, Vietnam, as we've talked about in Cambodia, which we have a lot of folks from Cambodians. Modi in Maine that were escaping war and oppression and Khmer Rouge. Yeah. So this is why it's really important to them that Chinatown, we thought as a vibrant and safe neighborhood, a safe place to raise your family, do business, not a place where gangs rule the streets.

And fortunately, you know, that's what happened. Like, some of these people quite literally left one war zone to come into another. Come to a war zone that basically looks different. We can talk about what led to this. I'm sure allowing the organized crime to run out of control might have had something to do with it. We don't really openly see organized crime in these areas nowadays, or they're not as obvious if they still are going on. It's still going on. It's just not as obvious. Right. I mean, the thing that I hear thrown around the trope is that a lot of organized crime isn't operating anymore because they all started legitimate businesses because that became more profitable.

I don't know how true that is. All I know is that the claims that organized crime is definitely not a thing now where it used to be with your, you know, your Italian mob, your Irish mob, or the triads here. If anything gives credit to that comment, I mean, just look at what's going on in Boston now compared to Boston not even 30 years ago. I know, but I think it's really important, too, to strike a balance. So obviously you don't want organized crime running amok, but you don't want the area gentrified either.

You know, one big problem is it really seems like Chinatown has shrunk. It's not big and sprawling as it once was, despite being the largest Chinatown outside of New York City. It's so tiny. It is very small. It's really just Beach Street and the side streets and Washington. That's really what it is now.

And there's all these high rises going up. Yeah. So it feels like Chinatown is kind of hiding, this small little square just hiding amongst all these high rises. And we're in Chinatown, there's this, there's almost like a natural shade

from all the buildings that are surrounding you, big buildings at that. I don't know. I just don't want to see it be taken away. I love it for what it is. Yeah, I, so much. So I was talking to somebody. I don't, I don't have experience with this personally,

but they told me about how they were living in New York for an extended period of time. The reason why Chinatown in New York was able to avoid large-scale gentrification was because a lot of the building owners there, the people that owned apartments and living complexes and things like that, they would only rent to Chinese immigrants or Chinese speaking people and they would keep the rents as low as they possibly could.

So that way, they wouldn't have rich people buying it up or anything like that. And they would be able to keep Chinatown true to what it was originally. And with nobody selling those buildings, Chinatown in New York has largely, from what I understand, I have not been there in a very long time, but it has largely resisted gentrification and is still true to itself. It's actually grown. So my goodness, my kitty cat is going crazy in here right now. I don't know what her problem is.

So you have Chinatown proper, which is mostly Canal Lafayette, and that's in like one area. However, Chinatown is also in like flushing now, too. So it's just getting bigger, which is great. It is awesome because unlike a lot of these places where, we're seeing culture dying out. To think culture could be flourishing there, I think that's really awesome. But I do worry about Boston's Chinatown.

Will one day they'll just have the Pi Fang, that gate, and then nothing else, you know, the gate will serve as a memorial of once was and then all these buildings are now, I don't know. It's shrunk already in 30 years. What's to stop it from shrinking more? So that's all we have for the episode. If you're listening on YouTube,

if you could please hit like and subscribe. This goes a long. way to helping us. I think we're almost, if we're not at 5,000 subscribers, we're very close. And that's thanks to people like you for helping us grow as a podcast and for allowing us to be able to go down to Boston in one day, take a lot of pictures, take a lot of videos, see what it's like before we spoke on it. And I'll just kind of give a little teaser. This isn't the only Boston episode we're doing. Nope. We were very, very lucky to find a case that's going to be very interesting. And it was literally three blocks away. Yeah, we walk to a prominent site that had to do with this place,

which has now been gentrified, but it was very cool to go see it. So that will be happening to. And again, like, we never would have thought of being able to do these types of trips and go on location. We want to go on location more. And it's thanks to support from people like you that allows us to do this. So if you like that we're doing this, if you want to see us do this more and at a larger scale, which I think we can do. But first, I need your help to. So, subscribe, like, share this video with someone you think would like it. If you're listening on one of the other platforms, Spotify, iTunes, if you could subscribe on there, iTunes especially if you could leave a five star in written review, those things will help us grow on other platforms as well.

And we have some very wonderful people that are becoming our patrons. And this greatly helps us be able to do things like this. And I want to thank those people now. So thank you, Eddie, Rowan, Marky, Holly, Ashley, Voo, Anna, Lauren, Serena, Chloe, Mark, Tara, Sophie, Neil and Karen, Dave and Karina, Dom, and Liz. Jen Mo, Jenny, Nora, Robin, Tom, Dylan, Kaylee, Alex, Jacob, Victoria, Dakota, Bailey, Lindsay, James, Stephen, Casey, C, Asia, Amanda, and welcome, and welcome, and welcome, and subscriber, you get access to our secret episodes, which we'll be doing one here soon. We just released one the other week. We'll be doing another one very soon. Probably talk about our Boston trip a little bit more. If it wasn't so cold in Boston, we had planned on doing it in Boston. Yeah, we probably, it was just too freezing. My hands had not been that cold all winter. I was

very surprised. And it's the wind. It's just been so gusty, but we'll save that for Patreon. And not just our Patreon episodes. You also get access to our secret Snapchat and Discord groups. And may even get a postcard, patreon.com slash the misery machine. If you want to join our street team, put your email address in the comment section if you're listening on YouTube. We'll get you out some merch free of charge and you can go and put that up in places where you think people will see it that appreciate it. But until next week, we love you.

We love you. Bye. Bye.