WEBVTT - Episode 2: Onionhead 0:00:15.411 --> 0:00:15.891 Pushkin. 0:00:19.610 --> 0:00:22.851 Hey everyone, before we get into this episode, I wanted 0:00:22.851 --> 0:00:24.410 to let you know that you can listen to the 0:00:24.451 --> 0:00:28.011 full season of The Chinatownstang add free right now. 0:00:28.371 --> 0:00:29.970 By signing up for Pushkin Plus. 0:00:30.451 --> 0:00:34.811 You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks, and other true 0:00:34.811 --> 0:00:38.771 crime binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Find 0:00:38.771 --> 0:00:42.891 Pushkin Plus on the Chinatownstaning Show page on Apple Podcasts. 0:00:43.171 --> 0:00:49.651 We're at pushkin dot fm, slash plus. Previously on The Chinatownsting, 0:00:51.851 --> 0:00:52.290 I was. 0:00:52.251 --> 0:00:57.651 Talking through a customs agent in California who says, hey, well, 0:00:57.891 --> 0:01:00.891 just got three shipments of heroin. Do you guys want 0:01:00.891 --> 0:01:01.291 the case? 0:01:01.891 --> 0:01:04.450 It was like the first time we've ever seen anything 0:01:04.571 --> 0:01:04.851 like that. 0:01:04.971 --> 0:01:07.771 Really, Basically, you're stay at home moms. We're picking up 0:01:07.851 --> 0:01:10.291 these these law chamansa heroin. 0:01:11.090 --> 0:01:13.971 We don't have that kind of money. So to have 0:01:14.091 --> 0:01:15.691 that kind of money, you take a chance. 0:01:20.211 --> 0:01:24.211 Federal authorities arrested Tina Wong on March first, nineteen eighty eight. 0:01:24.771 --> 0:01:27.531 She was accused of receiving packages of heroin in the mail. 0:01:28.531 --> 0:01:31.451 They took Tina to a jail in Long Island, miles 0:01:31.491 --> 0:01:34.411 away from her home outside of Manhattan's Chinatown. 0:01:35.771 --> 0:01:37.971 And at this moment, the gravity must be hitting you. 0:01:39.731 --> 0:01:43.171 Yeah, especially when they tell you twenty five years to life, 0:01:43.251 --> 0:01:45.971 which I didn't think was fair. But I don't make 0:01:46.011 --> 0:01:47.011 the rules. 0:01:47.451 --> 0:01:50.811 Tina was put in a cell. She doesn't remember much else. 0:01:51.851 --> 0:01:52.491 Are you crying? 0:01:54.251 --> 0:01:58.771 Yeah, because I was mad, not at yourself, not at 0:01:58.811 --> 0:01:59.451 the rule. 0:02:01.051 --> 0:02:02.371 Well, the whole thing everything. 0:02:05.411 --> 0:02:07.651 The next day, Tina was taken in a van with 0:02:07.651 --> 0:02:10.811 a whole bunch of other prisoners the US Attorney's office 0:02:11.011 --> 0:02:14.931 in Brooklyn. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency met her 0:02:14.930 --> 0:02:17.611 out front, put her in handcuffs and took her into 0:02:17.611 --> 0:02:21.531 a small office. They handcuffed her to a chair, and 0:02:21.571 --> 0:02:25.011 she found herself face to face with Beryl Howell, the 0:02:25.091 --> 0:02:28.210 lead prosecutor in the case, the person who could argue 0:02:28.331 --> 0:02:31.611 that Tina should be put away for decades for heroin smuggling. 0:02:32.491 --> 0:02:36.531 She's got this look, you know, like and no expression. 0:02:37.651 --> 0:02:39.931 I thought she didn't like us, but you know, I 0:02:40.011 --> 0:02:44.011 know she had a job to do, so I'm not 0:02:44.050 --> 0:02:47.931 gonna be hating on her for that. But I just 0:02:47.971 --> 0:02:51.490 thought that she really wanted us to go away for 0:02:51.531 --> 0:02:52.451 a long time. 0:02:55.050 --> 0:02:57.891 And at the same time that Tina was sizing up Beryl, 0:02:58.411 --> 0:03:00.530 Beryl was sizing up Tina. 0:03:01.131 --> 0:03:04.011 You know, to find out like, who was she, what 0:03:04.131 --> 0:03:06.371 was her background, what was her how smart was she, 0:03:06.571 --> 0:03:10.491 what was her educational background? How did she get this business? 0:03:10.851 --> 0:03:13.411 And to see how much of her story all hung 0:03:13.451 --> 0:03:17.011 together and made sense on details before we even started 0:03:17.050 --> 0:03:20.851 talking about any evidence she might have about other people. 0:03:23.491 --> 0:03:25.090 They were both about the same age. 0:03:25.251 --> 0:03:27.731 Beryl was thirty one at the time Tina was thirty, 0:03:28.251 --> 0:03:32.011 but the similarities pretty much ended there. Tina grew up 0:03:32.011 --> 0:03:34.691 on the outskirts of Chinatown, the same apartment where she 0:03:34.771 --> 0:03:38.931 still lived. She never finished college, neither did her parents. 0:03:39.371 --> 0:03:43.531 Beryl's mom nearly completed a PhD in biology. Her dad 0:03:43.651 --> 0:03:45.851 had been a colonel in the army, and she had 0:03:45.851 --> 0:03:48.691 grown up all over the US and abroad in Germany 0:03:48.891 --> 0:03:52.731 and the Netherlands. She had a law degree from Columbia University. 0:03:53.451 --> 0:03:56.451 So yes, she and Tina came from very different worlds 0:03:56.731 --> 0:04:00.451 and met under not the best of circumstances, but each 0:04:00.571 --> 0:04:05.371 needed the other person's trust. Recently, I showed up at 0:04:05.371 --> 0:04:08.251 Tina's apartment to get an interview. I told her the 0:04:08.251 --> 0:04:11.931 truth that Barrel Howell is my boyfriend's mom. I was 0:04:11.931 --> 0:04:13.891 worried she'd close the door as soon as I said that. 0:04:14.691 --> 0:04:17.171 But now I think that's actually why she let me in. 0:04:18.211 --> 0:04:19.531 Beryl, have you seen her. 0:04:20.171 --> 0:04:24.051 I hope she retired, because yeah, she's retired from chief 0:04:24.171 --> 0:04:25.891 judge them. But then it's like you just become like 0:04:25.931 --> 0:04:32.210 a regular judge. That Tina sounds lighthearted now, but she's 0:04:32.251 --> 0:04:35.091 still keeping tabs on what Beryl is up to because 0:04:35.131 --> 0:04:38.771 Beryl once held Tina's future in her hands, and in 0:04:38.811 --> 0:04:43.211 a way, Tina held Beryl's future in her hands as well. 0:04:45.971 --> 0:04:48.851 I am Lydia Jean Kott and this is the China 0:04:48.891 --> 0:05:04.890 Townsting Episode two Onion Head. Beryl is now a federal 0:05:04.971 --> 0:05:08.611 judge in Washington, d C. She's overseen a lot of 0:05:08.690 --> 0:05:12.731 high profile cases. When was a defamation case brought against 0:05:12.731 --> 0:05:16.131 former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The case was 0:05:16.171 --> 0:05:18.651 brought by Georgia election workers, and they won. 0:05:19.611 --> 0:05:22.171 It was a rejection of what Judge Beryl Howell called 0:05:22.211 --> 0:05:27.330 Giuliani's quote significantly tardy request for a bench trial and 0:05:27.411 --> 0:05:29.570 one of his latest art givens to dodge a jury 0:05:29.571 --> 0:05:32.171 that Howell called simply nonsense. 0:05:33.091 --> 0:05:36.531 Also, Beryl's overseeing dozens of cases related to the January 0:05:36.571 --> 0:05:37.690 sixth Capitol riot. 0:05:38.171 --> 0:05:41.891 Following President Trump's sweeping clemency for January sixth, defendants, federal 0:05:41.931 --> 0:05:46.211 judges who presided over cases are letting their discontent be heard. 0:05:46.331 --> 0:05:49.731 US District Judge Beryl Howell rebuke the President's claim of injustice, 0:05:49.731 --> 0:05:52.331 writing quote this quote cannot let stand the revisionist myth 0:05:52.531 --> 0:05:54.411 relate in this presidential pronouncement. 0:05:55.611 --> 0:05:58.971 And she ruled on Donald Trump's revenge on certain law firms. 0:05:59.411 --> 0:06:02.731 The federal judge tonight has just permanently blocked the president's 0:06:02.731 --> 0:06:05.891 executive order that targeted a law firm which represented Hillary 0:06:05.891 --> 0:06:09.131 Clinton in twenty sixteen, and the ruling from Judge Beryl 0:06:09.171 --> 0:06:10.251 Howe is scathing. 0:06:11.531 --> 0:06:13.731 So yes, this is the person that I know on 0:06:13.771 --> 0:06:16.611 a first name basis as Beryl. When I asked her 0:06:16.611 --> 0:06:19.371 if I could do a story about her earliest major case, 0:06:19.811 --> 0:06:23.291 I was pretty confident she would say no. Judges rarely 0:06:23.331 --> 0:06:26.291 give interviews, and Beryl has been under more pressure and 0:06:26.331 --> 0:06:30.251 scrutiny than ever before. Not only did Beryl agree to 0:06:30.291 --> 0:06:32.851 be interviewed, she told me that she'd saved her notes 0:06:32.851 --> 0:06:38.291 from the Chinatown case. What about legoes? 0:06:38.331 --> 0:06:39.811 Oh my god, we have so many legos. 0:06:40.211 --> 0:06:43.131 She my boyfriend and I searched all over her house 0:06:43.171 --> 0:06:43.851 for them. 0:06:44.651 --> 0:06:47.851 The more under meet these things. Oh my god, I 0:06:47.891 --> 0:06:48.851 can't believe we found this. 0:06:51.171 --> 0:06:53.851 Before she let me have the goods, Beryl first went 0:06:53.891 --> 0:06:55.690 through all of the material to make sure it was 0:06:55.731 --> 0:06:58.451 all things that the public's allowed to see. She's a 0:06:58.491 --> 0:07:03.251 stickler for the law. My co reporter Shiru Wang's also 0:07:03.291 --> 0:07:05.971 a lawyer. She hasn't had a chance to meet Beryl, 0:07:06.091 --> 0:07:08.371 but one day we sat down and talked about her 0:07:08.731 --> 0:07:10.891 about how it feels to see Beryl through the eyes 0:07:10.931 --> 0:07:13.651 of the people she once encountered as a federal prosecutor, 0:07:14.091 --> 0:07:15.731 people like Tina won't. 0:07:16.371 --> 0:07:20.451 Does anything that Tina described about Beryl match what your 0:07:20.891 --> 0:07:23.971 personal perception or understanding of Beryl, or like, does it 0:07:24.091 --> 0:07:26.771 reflect anything that you have known about Beryl at that point? 0:07:27.531 --> 0:07:30.491 Well, Tina talked about what it was like the first 0:07:30.491 --> 0:07:32.731 time that she met Beryl, and she said she was 0:07:32.771 --> 0:07:38.131 expressionless and seemed kind of scary. I've definitely experienced being 0:07:38.291 --> 0:07:42.451 very intimidated by her. When my boyfriend was little and they, 0:07:42.611 --> 0:07:44.251 you know, if they were in trouble, it was it 0:07:44.291 --> 0:07:45.451 was their dad that they would go to. 0:07:45.691 --> 0:07:46.771 What does barrel look like? 0:07:47.251 --> 0:07:48.051 She's blonde. 0:07:48.771 --> 0:07:52.411 She has very expressive eyebrows, so if she's feeling skeptical 0:07:52.451 --> 0:07:53.811 of you, her eyebrows. 0:07:53.371 --> 0:07:55.131 Go very very high. 0:07:55.251 --> 0:07:57.811 There is once this tweet by a court reporter. I 0:07:57.851 --> 0:08:01.371 think that said the way that Beryl raised her eyebrows, 0:08:01.691 --> 0:08:03.731 any kid would feel like they have to clean their 0:08:03.851 --> 0:08:05.530 room if they saw that face. 0:08:05.571 --> 0:08:07.091 Oh my god, that's funny. 0:08:07.531 --> 0:08:09.291 So yeah, I've known Beryl since I was an a 0:08:09.411 --> 0:08:12.091 elementary school. I grew up down the street from her, 0:08:13.131 --> 0:08:15.491 but I really got to know her after I graduated 0:08:15.491 --> 0:08:16.291 from college. 0:08:16.731 --> 0:08:19.211 By that point, she was a federal judge. 0:08:19.531 --> 0:08:22.411 And you know, when I started talking to her about 0:08:22.411 --> 0:08:25.171 it over time, it was really cool to hear her 0:08:25.251 --> 0:08:27.771 talk about the law. It felt like she was pulling 0:08:27.811 --> 0:08:30.931 back a curtain and really showing me how the law works. 0:08:31.011 --> 0:08:33.211 And that's actually kind of why I decided I wanted 0:08:33.211 --> 0:08:35.691 to be a reporter who reports about the law because 0:08:35.690 --> 0:08:37.810 I wanted to share what I learned. 0:08:37.851 --> 0:08:41.891 Basically, does she talk about work naturally at all of 0:08:41.930 --> 0:08:45.370 these family friends gathering or she's more like, if you 0:08:45.450 --> 0:08:47.691 have questions, come to me out answer that. 0:08:48.290 --> 0:08:51.131 I mean, there's a lot about work that she can't 0:08:51.131 --> 0:08:53.971 talk about. But she's passionate about the law, and she 0:08:54.011 --> 0:08:54.931 does talk about it. 0:08:54.930 --> 0:08:57.170 It comes up all the time, including this case. 0:08:57.731 --> 0:08:58.290 Definitely. 0:08:58.970 --> 0:09:01.130 I think when I first heard about this case, and 0:09:01.170 --> 0:09:05.450 I think it was an evening after dinner, and it 0:09:05.450 --> 0:09:07.651 was one of those stories where everyone else had already 0:09:07.651 --> 0:09:11.410 heard it, but they were really happy to hear it again, 0:09:11.530 --> 0:09:13.410 kind of like a family legend where you love to 0:09:13.450 --> 0:09:14.651 tell it over and over again. 0:09:15.410 --> 0:09:18.050 By the time she got involved in this case, where 0:09:18.210 --> 0:09:20.011 was Berrow in her career. 0:09:20.410 --> 0:09:24.491 So she had actually just become a federal prosecutor. I 0:09:24.491 --> 0:09:27.050 think she had had the job for about six months. Okay, 0:09:27.170 --> 0:09:28.530 you know, you know, as a lawyer, it's a very 0:09:28.570 --> 0:09:30.851 big deal job. It was kind of a dream job 0:09:30.891 --> 0:09:31.170 for her. 0:09:32.050 --> 0:09:36.011 I felt like I was living a story every single 0:09:36.050 --> 0:09:39.651 day with every single investigation, and you know, it was 0:09:39.731 --> 0:09:44.810 all still fairly new to me and still very exciting 0:09:44.851 --> 0:09:45.050 to me. 0:09:46.491 --> 0:09:50.410 It was in the spring of nineteen eighty eight, and 0:09:50.690 --> 0:09:53.370 if you think about the eighties, you know, most people 0:09:53.491 --> 0:09:56.491 you think about the crack epidemic, but heroin was a 0:09:56.491 --> 0:09:58.851 really big deal at the time too, especially in New York. 0:09:59.131 --> 0:10:01.491 I think one out of forty people in New York 0:10:01.530 --> 0:10:02.610 were addicted to heroin. 0:10:03.450 --> 0:10:04.491 That's crazy ratio. 0:10:04.651 --> 0:10:05.851 Yeah, it's actually really a lot. 0:10:06.210 --> 0:10:06.530 Yeah. 0:10:07.050 --> 0:10:10.051 You know, for a long time, heroin was coming into 0:10:10.170 --> 0:10:15.131 New York through the mafia, but then in the mid eighties, 0:10:15.570 --> 0:10:18.771 the criminal underworld was going through a shift. 0:10:19.491 --> 0:10:22.371 Federal law enforcement officials are celebrating what they considered to 0:10:22.371 --> 0:10:25.011 be a major victory in their war against organized crime. 0:10:25.371 --> 0:10:28.011 A former head of the Sicilian mafia and sixteen other 0:10:28.050 --> 0:10:31.771 reputed organized crime figures convicted yesterday running one of the 0:10:31.771 --> 0:10:34.170 biggest heroin smuggling rings ever uncovered. 0:10:34.530 --> 0:10:37.891 The government says the operation was masterminded by Sicilians and 0:10:37.930 --> 0:10:40.691 brought one billion, six hundred and fifty million dollars worth 0:10:40.690 --> 0:10:43.851 of heroin into the United States over the past five years. 0:10:44.210 --> 0:10:48.210 The alleged American kingpin was Salvator Toto Catalano, linked by 0:10:48.210 --> 0:10:50.970 the government to organized crime and owner of this bakery 0:10:51.011 --> 0:10:54.410 and pizza restaurant in Queens. In fact, so many of 0:10:54.410 --> 0:10:56.971 the dealings in this case took place in pizza parlor's 0:10:57.131 --> 0:10:59.731 that federal officials have dubbed it the Pizza Connection. 0:11:00.731 --> 0:11:03.930 Federal law enforcement agents realized that heroin was coming into 0:11:03.930 --> 0:11:06.331 the States through these pizza. 0:11:05.970 --> 0:11:09.891 Parlors, Unite sent pizzas. 0:11:09.611 --> 0:11:12.251 I don't actually know what type of pizza parlors they were, 0:11:12.290 --> 0:11:15.651 but yeah, it was a huge bust and I think 0:11:15.970 --> 0:11:21.330 like twenty one mobsters were arrested. But after the pizza connection, 0:11:21.930 --> 0:11:25.091 believe it or not, heroin was still making its way 0:11:25.131 --> 0:11:28.410 into New York City. That's when the Senate started to 0:11:28.450 --> 0:11:31.170 have these hearings and investigations. 0:11:31.330 --> 0:11:35.170 Asian criminal groups are emerging on the American landscape in 0:11:35.251 --> 0:11:40.530 the sense they're becoming more powerful, may become an alternative 0:11:40.611 --> 0:11:46.690 to traditional organized crime. Law enforcement authorities, particularly federal cannot 0:11:46.731 --> 0:11:50.730 afford to wait until these organizations have fully emerged. 0:11:51.690 --> 0:11:55.691 So yeah, in nineteen eighty three, Chinese dealers accounted for 0:11:55.731 --> 0:11:58.210 a three percent of the heroin that was coming into 0:11:58.251 --> 0:12:01.730 the city, and then three years later, according to these hearings, 0:12:01.891 --> 0:12:04.651 they counted for a twenty five percent, and. 0:12:04.690 --> 0:12:07.011 That's a big jump, and the number was going up. 0:12:07.050 --> 0:12:09.771 It was getting, you know, higher and higher. Of course, 0:12:09.771 --> 0:12:13.530 when Beryl started as a federal prosecutor, she was briefed 0:12:13.570 --> 0:12:14.450 and knew about this. 0:12:15.251 --> 0:12:18.731 Was I aware of Chinatown gangs, absolutely, But did I 0:12:18.731 --> 0:12:25.131 immediately think that these boxes being shipped through JFK were 0:12:25.970 --> 0:12:29.491 related to Chinatown gangs that wasn't the first thing on 0:12:29.530 --> 0:12:29.930 my mind. 0:12:30.050 --> 0:12:31.090 I didn't really know. 0:12:31.330 --> 0:12:33.011 You generally had no idea what was going to happen 0:12:33.011 --> 0:12:36.050 where these boxes, where this control delivery was going to 0:12:36.090 --> 0:12:36.371 lead you. 0:12:36.450 --> 0:12:37.370 Yeah, not at all. 0:12:38.450 --> 0:12:42.170 What was Barrow's impression about Chinatown before she took on 0:12:42.290 --> 0:12:42.690 his case. 0:12:43.851 --> 0:12:47.610 So Beryl lived in Chelsea, which is not that far 0:12:47.651 --> 0:12:51.050 from Chinatown. It was a place that she walked through 0:12:51.090 --> 0:12:54.570 a lot. But through working on this case, Beryl also 0:12:54.611 --> 0:12:57.891 started to see that Chinatown was a more complicated place 0:12:57.891 --> 0:13:01.611 than she knew, and that also what she was asking 0:13:01.851 --> 0:13:04.410 from these women was really a lot. 0:13:06.330 --> 0:13:10.971 They gave me an insight into all the you know, 0:13:11.011 --> 0:13:18.131 sort of the complexities and loyalties and pressures that were 0:13:18.491 --> 0:13:23.611 all unseen to a mere visitor from Chelsea going to 0:13:23.731 --> 0:13:26.810 Chinatown not that far but world's away. 0:13:28.731 --> 0:13:30.651 So it was clear to Beryl that she had to 0:13:30.731 --> 0:13:33.651 understand more about Chinatown and the pressures her witnesses were 0:13:33.731 --> 0:13:36.611 under if she wanted to get any useful information from 0:13:36.611 --> 0:13:40.050 them about those mail packages and who was really in charge. 0:13:41.891 --> 0:13:42.690 We'll be right back. 0:13:55.170 --> 0:13:58.371 Beryl Howell's goal as a federal prosecutor was not to 0:13:58.410 --> 0:14:01.051 put a bunch of low level drug smugglers in prison. 0:14:01.851 --> 0:14:04.251 She wanted to make an actual difference by building a 0:14:04.290 --> 0:14:06.330 case against whoever was at the top of the scheme, 0:14:06.891 --> 0:14:09.290 whoever was bringing millions of dollars worth of drugs and 0:14:09.530 --> 0:14:10.810 New York through Chinatown. 0:14:11.690 --> 0:14:13.090 To do that, she needed. 0:14:12.851 --> 0:14:15.690 The lower level people like Tina Long to tell her 0:14:15.690 --> 0:14:18.530 everything they knew. But as I look through Beryl's notes, 0:14:18.570 --> 0:14:20.891 it seemed like she was getting one word answers and 0:14:20.931 --> 0:14:24.370 a lot of evasion. Clearly, something was scaring these women 0:14:24.371 --> 0:14:29.291 more than prison, and that's something was in Chinatown. So 0:14:29.371 --> 0:14:31.811 my producer and I did what we imagine Beryl might 0:14:31.851 --> 0:14:36.131 have done. We headed downtown to do some investigating. We 0:14:36.171 --> 0:14:38.251 found three people who could talk to us about how 0:14:38.291 --> 0:14:41.291 criminal networks in Chinatown worked back in the nineteen eighties. 0:14:41.931 --> 0:14:44.531 When these women agreed to receive packages of heroin in 0:14:44.571 --> 0:14:45.210 the mail. 0:14:45.491 --> 0:14:47.691 Henry walked around the shave with two white girls. 0:14:48.251 --> 0:14:50.651 Henry Tann grew up in Chinatown and is now an author. 0:14:51.051 --> 0:14:54.451 He's written five detective novels, all set here, and a 0:14:54.451 --> 0:14:56.970 little reluctantly, he's agreed to give us a tour of 0:14:57.011 --> 0:14:57.650 the neighborhood. 0:14:57.851 --> 0:15:00.811 The building looks better than it did then. We lived 0:15:00.811 --> 0:15:05.891 there on the dirt floor. There was a railroad flat. 0:15:06.411 --> 0:15:08.890 My brother and I had beds in the middle of department. 0:15:09.931 --> 0:15:13.970 We were here for five years and maybe six. 0:15:15.371 --> 0:15:18.131 We're on Pell Street. It's a street so short it's 0:15:18.131 --> 0:15:19.051 almost an alleyway. 0:15:20.051 --> 0:15:22.971 During the holidays, we'll be crowded. Hip Sing would come 0:15:22.970 --> 0:15:25.731 out with their lion dancers and the street will be 0:15:25.811 --> 0:15:27.250 packed and it'll be fireworks. 0:15:27.931 --> 0:15:31.651 The Hip Singh is a community organization. The name roughly 0:15:31.691 --> 0:15:35.771 means cooperating for success. They're buildings on the opposite end 0:15:35.811 --> 0:15:37.931 of the street from the apartment that Henry grew up in. 0:15:38.771 --> 0:15:41.211 Further down the block on the right side, you see 0:15:41.491 --> 0:15:47.291 the golden doors and the official Hip Sing Organization. 0:15:51.090 --> 0:15:54.370 In the eighteen hundreds, organizations called Tongs first formed in 0:15:54.451 --> 0:15:59.691 Chinatown's across the US. They supported and protected residents. Henry 0:15:59.691 --> 0:16:02.411 writes about the Tongs in his first novel, Chinatown Beat. 0:16:02.891 --> 0:16:05.971 The Hip Singh was considered the working class Hong, and 0:16:06.051 --> 0:16:09.211 around the corner on Maud Street, the onl Tong was 0:16:09.210 --> 0:16:13.091 for merchants. Henry slightly changes their names in his book. 0:16:13.970 --> 0:16:19.491 The One was a businessman's benevolent association. The number one 0:16:19.571 --> 0:16:23.371 high roller in America a coast to coast secret society 0:16:23.491 --> 0:16:27.171 no working man was able to join. They sneered at 0:16:27.210 --> 0:16:31.491 the ship jumpers, the waiters and dishwashers, the laundrymen who 0:16:31.571 --> 0:16:33.571 joined their arrival hip chains. 0:16:35.611 --> 0:16:37.931 By the time Henry was growing up, lots of people 0:16:38.011 --> 0:16:40.691 were ping dues to one tong or another. They were 0:16:40.691 --> 0:16:42.611 doing this in exchange for the kind of help that 0:16:42.651 --> 0:16:44.571 they couldn't get or didn't know how to get from 0:16:44.571 --> 0:16:46.931 the US government way back. 0:16:47.651 --> 0:16:51.090 They will receive the mail for their members because a 0:16:51.090 --> 0:16:53.811 lot of their members who lived in buildings didn't have mailboxes. 0:16:54.491 --> 0:16:58.210 Because when people came here, you know, they were strangers 0:16:58.210 --> 0:17:01.370 in a foreign land, and they didn't speak the language, 0:17:01.491 --> 0:17:04.130 they didn't read English, and so this was the one 0:17:04.131 --> 0:17:07.171 place they could go to for any kind of assistance. 0:17:08.411 --> 0:17:10.331 And the reason that the hip saying matters so much 0:17:10.330 --> 0:17:13.651 to our case is because the organization had another building, 0:17:13.971 --> 0:17:17.090 one right across the street we're now standing in front of. 0:17:17.131 --> 0:17:20.291 It doesn't make you nervous to be here? Should we 0:17:20.371 --> 0:17:21.131 go someplace else? 0:17:21.331 --> 0:17:26.251 No, Well, I'm the one that looks shady, you guys. Obviously, 0:17:26.331 --> 0:17:29.291 I'm being an interview only saying good things. 0:17:31.651 --> 0:17:35.371 Henry's directed that last comment to a security camera that's pointing. 0:17:35.051 --> 0:17:38.531 Straight at us. He's joking. I think. 0:17:40.411 --> 0:17:43.451 In the nineteen eighties this was a gambling parlor. Henry 0:17:43.451 --> 0:17:45.091 tells us that when he was a kid, he would 0:17:45.091 --> 0:17:48.171 watch men head down the basement stairs here it was 0:17:48.251 --> 0:17:51.971 off limits to children. One day, when he was finally 0:17:52.011 --> 0:17:54.211 old enough, he followed those men inside. 0:17:55.171 --> 0:17:59.251 You step into a cloud of cigarette smoke. You could 0:17:59.291 --> 0:18:04.131 barely breathe, and all these men, mostly men, smoking and gambling, 0:18:04.131 --> 0:18:08.451 and they would play thirteen cards, Subsam Jam, seven cards, 0:18:08.571 --> 0:18:11.691 chuck Jam, majong here and there. 0:18:12.051 --> 0:18:15.371 What was the vibe? Was the vibe lighthearted? Was it serious? 0:18:15.811 --> 0:18:16.931 How did it feel down there? 0:18:17.011 --> 0:18:19.090 Well, it was all of that. I mean, you know, 0:18:19.131 --> 0:18:22.211 if you're winning, you know you're giddy. If you're losing, 0:18:22.211 --> 0:18:26.330 your grumpy. But twice on these men they have with 0:18:26.451 --> 0:18:31.771 this very guttural way of like being loud, and because 0:18:31.771 --> 0:18:34.611 of the dialect, sounds like they're always cursing, even when 0:18:34.651 --> 0:18:35.531 they're not cursing. 0:18:36.691 --> 0:18:39.171 Henry already knew by then that he wanted to be 0:18:39.211 --> 0:18:41.611 a writer, and he knew he wanted to write about 0:18:41.651 --> 0:18:42.131 this world. 0:18:43.011 --> 0:18:45.131 You can't whip out a pad and pencil and start 0:18:45.131 --> 0:18:49.891 taking notes. So I would go in the bathroom and 0:18:49.931 --> 0:18:51.931 I would roll up my sleeves and I would write 0:18:52.011 --> 0:18:56.090 things on my arm up and down my own and 0:18:56.131 --> 0:18:57.891 then when I get home and I wake up the 0:18:57.931 --> 0:18:59.971 next morning, I would remember. 0:19:01.731 --> 0:19:04.331 This gambling parlor was operated by one of the most 0:19:04.371 --> 0:19:08.531 powerful gangs in Chinatown, the Flying Dragons. It was also 0:19:08.571 --> 0:19:12.091 their main hangout, kind of like their HQ, and this 0:19:12.171 --> 0:19:15.891 gang would come to matter a lot to Baryl. Part 0:19:15.931 --> 0:19:18.890 of the reason the Flying Dragons were so powerful is 0:19:18.891 --> 0:19:22.611 because they reported to the Hip sing that influential community 0:19:22.691 --> 0:19:26.171 organization with the Golden Pagoda across the street. 0:19:26.491 --> 0:19:28.851 They had their glorious building where they took care of 0:19:29.051 --> 0:19:33.011 their business and where they funded the gang kids. 0:19:34.291 --> 0:19:35.691 They kept that out of sight. 0:19:37.531 --> 0:19:41.691 Because while the Tongs helped families, they also exploited them. 0:19:42.051 --> 0:19:44.651 In the nineteen eighties, the leaders of the Hip Singh 0:19:44.771 --> 0:19:48.171 didn't just earn money from collecting member dues. They also 0:19:48.211 --> 0:19:51.571 earned money from this gambling parlor and other gambling parlors 0:19:51.651 --> 0:19:54.811 all over Chinatown. To help with the seedier parts of 0:19:54.851 --> 0:20:03.651 their operations, they recruited teenagers. Teenagers like Mike Moy. 0:20:01.971 --> 0:20:06.451 Because I grew up being bullied, not being bullied by 0:20:06.891 --> 0:20:11.131 fellow Asians. I was being bullied by the whites, blacks, Hispanics. 0:20:10.971 --> 0:20:11.931 Was physically beat up. 0:20:12.371 --> 0:20:14.531 Oh, everything, everything, everything. 0:20:16.011 --> 0:20:18.890 Mike moy was also born in Chinatown. He says that 0:20:18.971 --> 0:20:21.650 many tongues were connected to youth gangs. It was kind 0:20:21.691 --> 0:20:22.931 of like an open secret. 0:20:23.531 --> 0:20:27.691 The Hipsyng Tongue Association they affiliated with the Flying Dragons, 0:20:27.971 --> 0:20:31.411 the Online was affiliated with the gold Shadows, and then 0:20:31.451 --> 0:20:36.371 you have the Somezing Association, the dun Lawn Associations associated 0:20:36.371 --> 0:20:38.611 with the dun Lawn Gang. So these were three major 0:20:38.611 --> 0:20:43.811 gangs in Chinatown during that time, from the seventies into 0:20:44.131 --> 0:20:46.971 the mid eighties. These were the Flying Dragons, the Gold Shadows, 0:20:46.971 --> 0:20:47.531 and the dun Lag. 0:20:48.651 --> 0:20:51.891 Like many people we've spoken with, Mike points out something important, 0:20:52.931 --> 0:20:55.330 the whole gang system of Chinatown did not arise in 0:20:55.331 --> 0:20:56.251 a vacuum. 0:20:56.691 --> 0:20:59.531 If I had to summarize why these gangs exist, I 0:20:59.571 --> 0:21:04.931 can summarize it in one word. Racism. That is the core. 0:21:05.171 --> 0:21:08.931 The root of the issue is racism. Okay, what does 0:21:09.011 --> 0:21:11.211 racism it created these gangs. 0:21:13.411 --> 0:21:15.931 When Mike was fifteen, he was approached by an older 0:21:15.971 --> 0:21:18.371 gang member in a pool hall. The man had seen 0:21:18.411 --> 0:21:21.291 him there before. He had been watching him, and he 0:21:21.371 --> 0:21:24.771 knew exactly what to say to a lost Chinese American teenager. 0:21:25.731 --> 0:21:29.731 Bullying was it was pretty bad, you know which. It 0:21:29.771 --> 0:21:34.131 was constantly every day, it was something new, and I'm. 0:21:33.931 --> 0:21:36.691 Just sick and tired of it. So that hit a 0:21:36.771 --> 0:21:37.291 chord with me. 0:21:37.451 --> 0:21:41.131 And since I joined a gang, I can tell you 0:21:41.171 --> 0:21:42.571 I never got bullied of it again. 0:21:43.251 --> 0:21:44.850 How did people know not to billy you? 0:21:45.691 --> 0:21:48.171 It's the way you carry yourself. I mean, once you 0:21:48.251 --> 0:21:51.771 join a gang, you feel like you have the whole 0:21:51.811 --> 0:21:53.291 gang behind you. 0:21:53.291 --> 0:21:55.130 You think you're invincible. 0:21:57.811 --> 0:22:00.451 Mike didn't join the Flying Dragons. He joined a gang 0:22:00.491 --> 0:22:03.491 called the Fox Chang. But all the gangs worked pretty similarly, 0:22:03.571 --> 0:22:06.931 he says. When teens joined them, they often moved in 0:22:07.131 --> 0:22:08.651 and lived with other gang members. 0:22:09.451 --> 0:22:12.051 They supply us with the safe house. When we move 0:22:12.091 --> 0:22:14.771