Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey everyone, before we get into this episode, I
Speaker 1: wanted to let you know that you can listen to
Speaker 1: the full season of The Chinatownstaning add free right now.
Speaker 1: By signing up for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes,
Speaker 1: full audiobooks, and other true crime binges from your favorite
Speaker 1: Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin Plus on the Chinatownsting
Speaker 1: Show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm,
Speaker 1: slash Plus. Previously on The Chinatownsting.
Speaker 2: Asian criminal groups are emerging on the American landscape. Law
Speaker 2: enforcement authorities, particularly federal cannot afford to wait until these
Speaker 2: organizations have fully emmerged.
Speaker 3: If I had to summarize why these gangs exist, I
Speaker 3: can summarize it in one word. Racism. That is the cool.
Speaker 3: The root of the issue is racism.
Speaker 4: Are you crying, Yeah, because that was mad.
Speaker 5: Not at yourself, not at the rules.
Speaker 4: Well, the whole thing everything.
Speaker 1: When Tina Wang was eleven years old, she met another
Speaker 1: kid with an incredible knack for getting others to do
Speaker 1: things they wouldn't normally do. Tina remembers they met while
Speaker 1: they were playing a game they called Chinese jump rope.
Speaker 6: You put rubber bands together until you make a long
Speaker 6: rubber band and then you got to jump over it
Speaker 6: some like that.
Speaker 4: And then she came over with her friend. They go, oh,
Speaker 4: what's your name.
Speaker 1: Wah was a year older than Tina. She wore bell
Speaker 1: bottomed jeans. She had shoes with big rubber soles called
Speaker 1: marshmallow shoes. For Tina, it was friend love at first sight.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she was very cute. How so she was just
Speaker 4: a very good looking.
Speaker 6: A lot of people said, you know, though she was
Speaker 6: good looking, she was good looking, and she was always
Speaker 6: uh stylish, and she was always fashionable.
Speaker 1: Wah's family had immigrated to the US from China when
Speaker 1: she was six. That was right around nineteen sixty five,
Speaker 1: when ethnic immigration quotas were finally banned. Wah's family lived
Speaker 1: in Little Italy, but she and Tina hung out in Chinatown,
Speaker 1: just a few blocks over. They would go to the
Speaker 1: movies together or to the Chinatown Fair, which was actually
Speaker 1: an arcade.
Speaker 6: They had a like a ferris wheel for one, but
Speaker 6: we used to put like two people in there.
Speaker 7: Oh huh.
Speaker 4: It was like ten cents to go around.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 4: It was pretty fun.
Speaker 6: Wa has sisters and brothers, but her and her sister
Speaker 6: used to fight a lot, so I don't know, we
Speaker 6: just clicked.
Speaker 1: When she was little, Tina got picked on sometimes because
Speaker 1: she was one of the few Chinese kids at her school.
Speaker 1: After immigration opened up, she got picked on sometimes by
Speaker 1: the new kids because she was only half Chinese. But
Speaker 1: when she met Wah, she found her place. Wah was
Speaker 1: the ring leader.
Speaker 6: Sometime we would go like uptown. We would go shopping
Speaker 6: on fourteenth Street or thirty fourth Street.
Speaker 4: For what it's for, like clothes, and.
Speaker 6: Wall was like the direct of what we should wear.
Speaker 1: So you would go shopping and she'd be like, don't
Speaker 1: get that shirt, get this shirt.
Speaker 4: No, get this, it's nice, it looks good on you. Well,
Speaker 4: cut your hair like this.
Speaker 6: She is a bossy person, but we didn't mind because
Speaker 6: she was funny. She was fun to hang out with.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 1: They sometimes got into some light trouble cutting school, smoking weed,
Speaker 1: getting rides in the back of some guy's truck, holding
Speaker 1: on with ropes. What was your guys' reputation?
Speaker 6: We would the uh cool girls for the poor girls
Speaker 6: because we all didn't really have money.
Speaker 1: One time, their click was mentioned in one of the
Speaker 1: Chinatown newspapers. It was just in passing. Tina doesn't even
Speaker 1: remember exactly why, but she does remember that the reporter
Speaker 1: gave them a.
Speaker 6: Nickname they put in the newspaper, Pink Eagles, and we
Speaker 6: were laughing. They go, who gave us that name?
Speaker 1: Why? The pink Eagles? Because did you guys even wear pink?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: You didn't like it.
Speaker 4: No, that's like so like for me, childish, I don't know.
Speaker 1: To Tina, it didn't sound as cool as the actual
Speaker 1: gang names, like, for example, the Flying Dragons. As Tina
Speaker 1: talked about Wat, it made me think about how when
Speaker 1: you become friends with someone when you're growing up, they
Speaker 1: actually helped determine who you grow into. And when that happens,
Speaker 1: there will always be a part of them in you,
Speaker 1: whether you like it or not. I'm Lyddia Jean Cott.
Speaker 1: This is the Chinatown Staying Episode three, What's a Friend.
Speaker 1: When Tina and Wall were in their twenties, as sometimes
Speaker 1: happens with childhood best friends, they drifted out of touch,
Speaker 1: but then Wah reached out.
Speaker 6: She heard that I had a daughter, so I think
Speaker 6: she contacted me somehow. She gave my daughter like a
Speaker 6: little bracelet, and then we started hanging back again.
Speaker 1: They were having fun in the Majan parlors, and soon
Speaker 1: Wah had a request Katina accept a package for Wall
Speaker 1: in the mail. She'd pay her a lot. Of course,
Speaker 1: the box is filled with heroin, but the money was good.
Speaker 1: While invaded Tina on a trip to Asia with her,
Speaker 1: they actually met up with Johnny ng There aka Missie
Speaker 1: Sheen Gun Johnny or Onion Head, the leader of the
Speaker 1: powerful Flying Dragons Gang. Tina says she wasn't that impressed.
Speaker 4: He was like Waa's friend. I mean, he was nice.
Speaker 6: She bought us like drinks and stuff and took us
Speaker 6: like on a tour of Indonesia, which was.
Speaker 4: That's all right.
Speaker 1: After that trip, Tina started to get a bad feeling.
Speaker 1: This time Wa was pulling her into a world she
Speaker 1: shouldn't be a part of, while was asking her to
Speaker 1: receive more and more packages, and Tina didn't want to.
Speaker 1: Wah had gotten to bossy.
Speaker 6: And I just didn't want to take it no more.
Speaker 6: So I just I guess she stopped calling me. I
Speaker 6: stopped calling her.
Speaker 1: This was the only time they had ever really fought.
Speaker 1: She thought they'd make up, but about five months later,
Speaker 1: federal agents showed up at Tina's door and they took
Speaker 1: her into custody. She hoped WA would help her get
Speaker 1: a lawyer or something.
Speaker 6: She always said that she would help me if anything,
Speaker 6: and no help came, so I said okay.
Speaker 1: In jail, Tina ran into another woman from the Majong parlors.
Speaker 1: That woman had cooperated and given up Tina's name. She
Speaker 1: had agreed to accept packages because she had gambling debts
Speaker 1: and she was the mother of twin girls. Tina forgave her.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not going to hate her. You know, she
Speaker 4: had to do she had to do.
Speaker 1: The question for Tina was would she also do what
Speaker 1: she had to do. She didn't want to betray her
Speaker 1: old friend Waw. She knew cooperating could be dangerous, but
Speaker 1: if she went to prison, she might not be reunited
Speaker 1: with her baby daughter for decades.
Speaker 6: Of course, you're going to take a chance, even if
Speaker 6: it's on your life, because when it comes to a kid,
Speaker 6: everybody's gonna choose their kid.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of a terrible choice because you could
Speaker 1: get killed and then you're not going to be there
Speaker 1: for your kid.
Speaker 4: Yeah, with those chances you take.
Speaker 1: The day after her arrest, Tina sat in the office
Speaker 1: a federal prosecutor, Beryl Howell. They would face each other
Speaker 1: many times over the next few months. As Tina was
Speaker 1: in custody.
Speaker 8: On March second, nineteen eighty eight, and March fourteenth, nineteen
Speaker 8: eighty eight, Tina Wong was debriefed in the Eastern District
Speaker 8: of New York. Wong stated that she became friends with
Speaker 8: Wah at a young age. In June of nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 8: Wong said Wa asked her if she would like to
Speaker 8: make some money by accepting male parcels from Hong Kong.
Speaker 8: Wong further stated that Wa gave her a few days
Speaker 8: of advanced notice regarding the arrival of the mail parcel Wong.
Speaker 1: As Tina talked, Beryl listened intently. She took handwritten notes
Speaker 1: with the blue pen. Her questions in one column Tina's
Speaker 1: answers and the other column, you.
Speaker 9: Hope you're getting the whole story. You do your best
Speaker 9: to get the whole story. So you do the best
Speaker 9: you can with both carrots and sticks to ensure that
Speaker 9: you were getting You know the truth and the whole
Speaker 9: truth from cooperators.
Speaker 1: Beryl wanted to know more about Wall as a means
Speaker 1: to an end Her ultimate goal was to bring down
Speaker 1: Johnny Yang, the gangster she believed to be at the
Speaker 1: top of this heroin scheme, but to do that, Beryl
Speaker 1: would need lots of solid evidence against him. All the
Speaker 1: people she had talked to so far were too low
Speaker 1: down in the operation to describe Johnny's role, even Tina.
Speaker 1: But Beryl was pretty sure that Wall was different, that
Speaker 1: she took orders from Johnny directly, in part because she
Speaker 1: seemed to be the one directing all the women, and
Speaker 1: in part because her boyfriend Michael Yu was high up
Speaker 1: in the Flying Dragon's gang. He went by the nickname Fox.
Speaker 9: The hope was that people had some direct contact with
Speaker 9: Johnny Yang would cooperate, and that would have been Wah
Speaker 9: or Michael U.
Speaker 1: So Beryl had Tina's statements about how she accepted these
Speaker 1: packages of heroin at Wah's direction. Beryl had also obtained
Speaker 1: audio recordings of conversations between Wall and another woman who
Speaker 1: had accepted packages of heroin. This woman had agreed to
Speaker 1: call Waw and tell her she had received a package
Speaker 1: while federal agents secretly recorded. The actual recordings are gone,
Speaker 1: but we have the transcripts. My co reporter Shu Yu
Speaker 1: Wang and I read them together. You want to be
Speaker 1: Wall and I'll be the woman. Okay, hello, hello, I
Speaker 1: got that thing at my house so fast.
Speaker 7: Huh.
Speaker 10: But listen, did you see the you know how speak
Speaker 10: pick Latin?
Speaker 1: You must be kidding.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's to keep it safe. Stupid.
Speaker 10: You know they might have a fucking transmitter or bug.
Speaker 10: You never know, stupid.
Speaker 1: So yeah, as a lawyer, what would you think if
Speaker 1: you were reading this this wire toop whow smart?
Speaker 10: So, like, while this whole time was just trying to
Speaker 10: be very vague and not referring to anything, not using
Speaker 10: any names or terms, like that thing, put it in
Speaker 10: a bag, very vague instructions.
Speaker 7: To the other woman on the line, She's.
Speaker 10: Like, not really communicating any details about the delivery, about
Speaker 10: the drop off location, about what it is, even though
Speaker 10: we all know that is the drug packages.
Speaker 1: She's like, what about pig Latin? So that way, I
Speaker 1: guess she could be like arowin, Hey.
Speaker 10: Yeah, she definitely have heard something or sence something that
Speaker 10: is going on.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, through these wired taps and her conversations with Tina
Speaker 1: and other people, Beryl was gathering this evidence about Wall.
Speaker 1: But I think she was also kind of like trying
Speaker 1: to figure out who this person is and what they're like.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: You know, Beryl was a lawyer at a time where
Speaker 1: it was still like not that common to be a
Speaker 1: female prosecutor. And while was this woman who was like
Speaker 1: operating this business, this enterprise that was affiliated with the gangs,
Speaker 1: and there weren't very many other women doing that either.
Speaker 7: Maybe there's a level of resinance.
Speaker 9: Yeah, One thing in the back of my mind is
Speaker 9: how was she able to recruit all of these women
Speaker 9: to do it? And what I found was that she
Speaker 9: was a fun, charismatic, dynamic individual and that's part of
Speaker 9: how she was able to do it, in addition to
Speaker 9: all the other factors that went into them opting to
Speaker 9: say yes all except package for ten to twenty thousand
Speaker 9: dollars or thirty.
Speaker 1: Every single person pretty much who knew why. Most people
Speaker 1: did who I talked to you about this story talked
Speaker 1: about her like she was like this force, like really
Speaker 1: different from other people. I talked to this one guy,
Speaker 1: a former gangster who I don't think i'd talked to
Speaker 1: wall for a long time. I'm not sure, but as
Speaker 1: soon as I brought her up to him, he instantly
Speaker 1: remembered her She's.
Speaker 4: A very very pretty girl.
Speaker 11: Back then, everywhere you go, is you see her? A
Speaker 11: matter of fact, can I show her the picture?
Speaker 1: He literally had a photo on his phone of her
Speaker 1: and it was like all ready to go, like he
Speaker 1: was just able to pull it up immediately, and it
Speaker 1: was a picture of her from the like nineteen eighties.
Speaker 7: Sounds like someone had a crush.
Speaker 1: And in the photo it's like her and her boyfriend
Speaker 1: Michael U known as Fox, and he's kind of like
Speaker 1: leaning back but towards her a little bit. He's like
Speaker 1: a small guy, and she does look super cool. She
Speaker 1: has kind of like a mullet style of haircut that
Speaker 1: I think was cool then, and like some like lip gloss,
Speaker 1: dangly earrings. Definitely cool girl.
Speaker 7: She had a style.
Speaker 1: She just seems larger than life. So yeah, everyone talked
Speaker 1: about Wall like she was special, and I think that's
Speaker 1: why we really wanted to find her. Eventually, I found
Speaker 1: an address in Florida, and I glue to Florida by
Speaker 1: myself literally just to knock on this door. Yes, and
Speaker 1: then this woman opened the door. And I remember this
Speaker 1: because like she was wearing purple contacts. She was absolutely
Speaker 1: beautiful in a bit like threw me off balances. Okay,
Speaker 1: but yeah, Wah was not there, and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is it. I've reached the end of the journey.
Speaker 7: But then what happened.
Speaker 1: At that house? I got a phone number for a while,
Speaker 1: I called it and eventually she agreed to meet up.
Speaker 12: Don't call me on the weekends. Okay, I'm out to
Speaker 12: the city at Lansa City. If you need to go
Speaker 12: there you want to grow much.
Speaker 13: I can get to a room and.
Speaker 8: Where in the city.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be right back. I had heard so much
Speaker 1: about this woman wh who had convinced all these moms
Speaker 1: with young children to smuggle heroine. I wanted to hear
Speaker 1: from her how and why she did it. We're referring
Speaker 1: to her just as Wah because she asked us to
Speaker 1: only use her first name.
Speaker 3: She You.
Speaker 1: And I finally met her at a Peaking Duck restaurant
Speaker 1: in Chinatown. I had put a lot of effort in
Speaker 1: trying to find a quiet place where we could talk.
Speaker 1: Wah hated it.
Speaker 13: Next time go to a seven, saying, wow.
Speaker 1: That's a different restaurant that I apparently should have chosen.
Speaker 1: Waw is in her sixties. She has short, spiky hair.
Speaker 1: She was wearing a leather jacket, tightish pants. She has
Speaker 1: lots of gold jewelry and a dramatic white and beige manicure.
Speaker 1: One person I talked to told me that her theme
Speaker 1: song should be the Madonna song Who's That Girl? And
Speaker 1: she was absolutely living up to the hype. It took
Speaker 1: us months to pin down a time to meet. She
Speaker 1: canceled a few times because she said she had been
Speaker 1: up late the night before gambling.
Speaker 13: I'm already nervous, already.
Speaker 1: Let's start with why do you like gambling?
Speaker 13: Why do I?
Speaker 3: Who?
Speaker 12: I guess when you get older, you get bored, so
Speaker 12: nothing moves you, not even men.
Speaker 13: So that's my drenaline rush.
Speaker 12: That's my excitement, you know, like when you bet, when
Speaker 12: you place money, don't your heartbeat, that's the way it goes.
Speaker 12: That's your adrenaline rush. That's the rush you want. You
Speaker 12: know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know?
Speaker 13: I should have quit.
Speaker 1: She did not quit. Over the years, she's been betting
Speaker 1: more and more.
Speaker 13: I play football, baseball.
Speaker 5: Do you watch sports?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 13: Only if I bet?
Speaker 1: But why is true? Passion? It's still magong.
Speaker 12: It keeps your mind occupied. You don't have to think
Speaker 12: about anything else. All you do is look at your
Speaker 12: court and you know, focus on it so you can
Speaker 12: you can win.
Speaker 13: You want to win. But if you play for money,
Speaker 13: that's like excitement. If you play for fun, you'd rather
Speaker 13: go to sleep. If you win, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 12: Oh I can't buy buy something now, I have a
Speaker 12: couple of hundred dollars. But if you lose, you, oh
Speaker 12: my god, the win or help?
Speaker 13: Look at the money, right right right? You got to
Speaker 13: go for revenge.
Speaker 1: I've heard that part of what makes masong fun is
Speaker 1: that it's an equal combination of skill and luck. You
Speaker 1: can never predict what will happen next.
Speaker 5: How long does a game take for you or me?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 13: I played like twenty four hours. We're be talking about
Speaker 13: if you do.
Speaker 1: Not play twenty four hours?
Speaker 13: Do you sometime? I don't sleep?
Speaker 1: What was comfortable talking to me? And she you about gambling.
Speaker 1: She also told us a bit about her family. She
Speaker 1: has three kids. Asked her about her past involvement with
Speaker 1: the gangs. Suddenly she didn't know a lot.
Speaker 13: Wait, we just hang out with them because they are friends,
Speaker 13: and that's it. That's why we would call gangs. I
Speaker 13: don't know.
Speaker 1: I've heard from other former gang members that if you
Speaker 1: were a member of say the Flying Dragons, you couldn't
Speaker 1: even enter a gambling parlor operated by their rivals, the
Speaker 1: Ghost Shadows. But from how Wall talked, it seemed like
Speaker 1: she didn't really care about these feuds.
Speaker 12: I practically hang out with all the gangs. Almost where
Speaker 12: do you go to school, you know them. All the
Speaker 12: gangs are like good kids. They come out from the
Speaker 12: same school.
Speaker 13: You know them more.
Speaker 1: I've also heard that all the gang members were guys.
Speaker 1: They had girlfriends of course, and wives, but the women
Speaker 1: didn't get involved with their activities. Again, Wall was different.
Speaker 1: Were there other women who were like as powerful as
Speaker 1: you were in like the.
Speaker 5: World of the gangs? I don't think so You're the
Speaker 5: most powerful woman in the world of the gang.
Speaker 13: I think so.
Speaker 1: WA's boyfriend, Michael U aka Fox, was high up in
Speaker 1: the Flying Dragons. He ran the gambling parlor on Pell Street,
Speaker 1: and that parlor was kind of like the gang's headquarters.
Speaker 1: He also oversaw a bunch of other gambling parlors, including
Speaker 1: the Mahjong parlors in Chinatown. Waw sometimes worked at that
Speaker 1: gambling parlor on Pell Street. Her job was to get
Speaker 1: people to keep playing. She also hung out in all
Speaker 1: the other parlors, so she knew everyone. She knew who
Speaker 1: was in debt, whose house might be undergoing renovation, whose
Speaker 1: husband wasn't paying child support, who for whatever reason might
Speaker 1: be interested in receiving a package in the mail in
Speaker 1: exchange for a lot of money.
Speaker 12: First of all, you didn't think of nothing back then
Speaker 12: you're just thinking, oh, seize it'll make money.
Speaker 13: That was it, You know, you didn't think of the outcome.
Speaker 1: Waugh told us she feels terrible about bringing drugs into
Speaker 1: the country, but she does not feel bad for the
Speaker 1: woman who she brought into the scheme. They wanted money
Speaker 1: and they knew they were taking a risk.
Speaker 13: If you're gonna make money, it must be something bad.
Speaker 12: So you got an idea ready. You don't have to
Speaker 12: go into the detail.
Speaker 5: Do you remember when you got arrested? What was that like?
Speaker 13: What's like? What the hell? I was gambling?
Speaker 1: On March first, nineteen eighty eight, the same day that
Speaker 1: Tina Wong was arrested, Wall was having a great day.
Speaker 1: She won seven thousand dollars. But as gonna happen in
Speaker 1: Majong and in life, she was about to lose it.
Speaker 12: All, I'm coming now, I'm looking amber house over there.
Speaker 12: And then I woke around the corner and like five
Speaker 12: six white people, you know.
Speaker 13: Push me in the car.
Speaker 2: What the hell?
Speaker 13: Why? Who are they? You know?
Speaker 1: Right there?
Speaker 13: And then you don't.
Speaker 5: Know, you thought you were being kidnapped.
Speaker 12: Yeah, you walking down the street and there you go
Speaker 12: to call stop right next to you and then wow,
Speaker 12: a couple of guys come out and push you in
Speaker 12: the car just like that and take off.
Speaker 13: What the hell I thought they with the mafia, I
Speaker 13: don't know. And then they drove me to the seaport. Yeah,
Speaker 13: so I'm not getting dumped in the river.
Speaker 1: Just as they had threatened all the other women, the
Speaker 1: agents threatened Wah. They told her that unless she told
Speaker 1: them everything she knew, she was facing decades in prison,
Speaker 1: she wouldn't be able to see her kids grow up.
Speaker 1: But Wah was unmoved.
Speaker 13: I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 8: At approximately eight pm March first, nineteen eighty eight, Wah
Speaker 8: was arrested on the corner of Pell and Bowery Streets,
Speaker 8: New York, New York, by special agents Mattesser and Flood.
Speaker 8: Wah was advised of her constitutional right, it's by Peter
Speaker 8: Mattesser and refused to make any statements.
Speaker 1: The next day, WA's boyfriend, Michael U, was also arrested.
Speaker 8: On March second, nineteen eighty eight. Michael U was located
Speaker 8: at his residence when informed by Special Agency and that
Speaker 8: he was under arrest for importing heroin through the international mail.
Speaker 8: You stated he quote never received any packages. That was
Speaker 8: his girlfriends.
Speaker 1: Wah was taken to the mcc A jail right outside
Speaker 1: of Chinatown. It's this huge, grayish building with tiny windows.
Speaker 1: It looks kind of like a square death star. The
Speaker 1: agents took Michael You there too, and Waugh was not
Speaker 1: thrilled to see him.
Speaker 5: When did you guys? Break up?
Speaker 13: Will come ever since? In there?
Speaker 5: Did you guys talk when you're in jail?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 5: Were you like? Did you see each other?
Speaker 13: Yeah?
Speaker 12: He was across the hall like you could see the
Speaker 12: window and window and I to talk to.
Speaker 13: Guys on the cycle. I might still see you.
Speaker 1: Wah gives me a sly look, but you gotta pay.
Speaker 4: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: Did you get blounder them?
Speaker 13: Yeah? We did a lot of people.
Speaker 5: What else are you gonna do?
Speaker 13: I lost a lot of money in there.
Speaker 10: Too.
Speaker 13: All the women, they got money.
Speaker 12: If you could lose four or five thousand there blank carts.
Speaker 1: It says a lot about Waw that it sounds like
Speaker 1: she actually liked being in jail.
Speaker 13: Oh I had a good time. Yeah, I tell you
Speaker 13: a lot of the offices they liked me. Yeah, they
Speaker 13: like me. Yeah. So I got a lot.
Speaker 12: I got everything I want, you know, And I could
Speaker 12: tell them to do whatever.
Speaker 13: You know, some of them they do for me.
Speaker 1: How do you get people to do whatever you want
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 13: Because I'm smart, convince them, you know.
Speaker 1: Federal authorities hoped that once Wall was in custody, she'd cooperate,
Speaker 1: but clearly that tactics didn't work, and Michael Yu, her boyfriend,
Speaker 1: wasn't talking either, So Prosecutor Beryl Howell convinced a grand
Speaker 1: jury to return in nineteen count indictment against them. Maybe
Speaker 1: that would get them to turn. Still, Waw did not budge.
Speaker 1: Wa tells people what to do. She doesn't let other
Speaker 1: people tell her what to do. She and Michael U
Speaker 1: got fancy lawyers. They were taking their case to trial.
Speaker 1: Waugh was playing this one to win. After Tina told
Speaker 1: Waugh she wasn't going to accept anywhere mail packages. The
Speaker 1: next time she saw her was at her trial. Waw,
Speaker 1: like Tina, was a mom. Tina hoped that Waugh would
Speaker 1: understand that she was just doing what she had to do,
Speaker 1: but she couldn't be sure. The proceedings began on August sixteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. Waugh was tried alongside her boyfriend Michael Yu,
Speaker 1: and four other people lower down in the scheme. Beryl
Speaker 1: Howell gave the opening statement for the prosecution.
Speaker 9: This is a heroin spiggling case. During the trial, you
Speaker 9: will hear how each of the six defendants participated in
Speaker 9: a scheme to smuggle into the United States from Hong
Speaker 9: Kong over one hundred and fifty pounds of heroin. Wah
Speaker 9: and Michael Yu were the ring leaders of this operation.
Speaker 1: For Beryl, of course, the goal of this trial was
Speaker 1: for Waw and Michael U to be found guilty, because
Speaker 1: then she hoped they would agree to testify against the
Speaker 1: person she believed was really at the top of this
Speaker 1: heroin importation scheme, Johnny ing onion Head.
Speaker 7: What does Barrel remember about a trial?
Speaker 1: What Beryl remembers about the trial was that it was
Speaker 1: really far away, way out in long Island, and she
Speaker 1: even had to get a hotel. And remember she was
Speaker 1: new on the job, so she was by herself doing
Speaker 1: this really complicated trial with six defendants.
Speaker 9: You know, I was accustomed to trying cases in Brooklyn,
Speaker 9: where you know, just walking down the hall, I could
Speaker 9: say I could toss ideas around or say this just happened.
Speaker 9: What did I do wrong? I what do I need
Speaker 9: to do to fix it? But in Hoppog, I was
Speaker 9: sort of by myself out there doing it, and there
Speaker 9: were no computers, so I remember, like at night, when
Speaker 9: there were emotions being filed by the defense attorneys, I
Speaker 9: had to hand right my responses.
Speaker 1: So she was lawyer was Gerald Lefcourt. He's a very
Speaker 1: experienced trial lawyer. And I printed out his opening statement
Speaker 1: because I'm curious what you think about it.
Speaker 10: Okay WA's council stated, this is a case about Chinatown.
Speaker 10: I don't know how many of you have visited Chinatown,
Speaker 10: but it is a town that's late. In Chinatown, there
Speaker 10: are gangs, there is prostitution, there is gambling on levels
Speaker 10: that are very different than you or I understand. It
Speaker 10: has an old history and an old culture. You will
Speaker 10: hear in this trial proof about ancient Chinese games.
Speaker 1: What do you think about it? It's so dramatic.
Speaker 7: It's so dramatic.
Speaker 1: Like you said, in Chinatown, there's gangs, there's prostitution, there's
Speaker 1: gambling on levels that are different than you or I
Speaker 1: can understand.
Speaker 10: Now I'm imagining like a jury of mostly non Asian people.
Speaker 1: It feels like he's talking to all white people who maybe, yeah,
Speaker 1: have never been to a Chinatown.
Speaker 10: I guess like he was trying to build up some
Speaker 10: financial hardship that eventually pushed him into this position, Like
Speaker 10: you got to got into the culture and the background
Speaker 10: in the community to understand why are people doing this
Speaker 10: to create like a defense for his client.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Beryl was basically the only female lawyer in
Speaker 1: the courtroom. The lawyers for all the six defendants were
Speaker 1: men and David she and the US Customs agent told
Speaker 1: me that what's it out to him was this one
Speaker 1: moment that happened between Beryl and Fox's lawyer.
Speaker 11: I think I was on the witness stand and he
Speaker 11: actually patted Beryl on the top of her head like
Speaker 11: in a very condescending way, like thanks, little girl, you
Speaker 11: don't go back to your table, And she handled it
Speaker 11: so professionally. But she said, if you ever do that
Speaker 11: to me again, you'll regret it.
Speaker 1: David Chan was like, heck, yeah, you're gonna regret it,
Speaker 1: and he was going to make sure of that. And
Speaker 1: he said that he noticed that all the defense lawyers
Speaker 1: were getting paid in cash in the parking lot. If
Speaker 1: you're getting paid in cash, there's like a form that
Speaker 1: you're supposed to fill out to report it because you're
Speaker 1: supposed to pay taxes on that, and he had a
Speaker 1: feeling that they were maybe not filling out that form.
Speaker 7: Sounds like gangster of affairs.
Speaker 1: That Burrell was so not paying attention. She had just
Speaker 1: like totally moved on.
Speaker 9: So I was like just focused on making my arguments,
Speaker 9: you know, the best I could, getting my evidence in
Speaker 9: front of the jury. You know, all the other noise
Speaker 9: around me was something I probably just considered noise, and
Speaker 9: the head patting I probably considered noise annoying noise.
Speaker 7: Yeah, she know what job she's at there for. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Beryl introduced her witnesses, and you know, one of her
Speaker 1: star witnesses was, of course Tina, who was going to
Speaker 1: testify about how Waugh had asked her to accept these
Speaker 1: packages of Heroin. Based on the transcripts, it seems like
Speaker 1: the Tina that was on the stand is the Tina
Speaker 1: that we know, especially when on cross one of the
Speaker 1: lawyers was trying to discredit her by being like he said,
Speaker 1: Jerry her, you know, don't you play majong? And she
Speaker 1: said yes, and he said, isn't that an illegal gambling game?
Speaker 1: And then she said Jewish people play, and then he
Speaker 1: had to be like, oh yeah, my grandmother plays majong.
Speaker 7: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: And I feel like a snappy retort like that is
Speaker 1: very is very Tina.
Speaker 10: If she holds the same image on the stand as
Speaker 10: how she was talking to us. She seemed calm and
Speaker 10: put together enough to be a convincing witness from what
Speaker 10: we have observed.
Speaker 1: And I agree, when she's talking to you, it does
Speaker 1: seem like she's not embellishing what she's saying is true,
Speaker 1: but she does often give you the feeling that she's
Speaker 1: not telling you everything. And Tina was different than a
Speaker 1: lot of the women who had been pulled into this scheme.
Speaker 1: A lot of the women accepted these packages of heroin
Speaker 1: because they had gambling debts. But I actually talked to
Speaker 1: Tina and she said that she wasn't in debt. That
Speaker 1: wasn't the reason.
Speaker 6: First of all, it's friendship is my friend and we're
Speaker 6: in it all together.
Speaker 4: So and then money, yeah, and then the money.
Speaker 1: So Tina did it because it was Wall who asked her,
Speaker 1: and she thought that it would maybe make them closer.
Speaker 4: She was a good friend.
Speaker 1: Do you think in a way she was trying to
Speaker 1: look out for you when she offered you the package opportunity?
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 6: I mean it was I'm the one that has to
Speaker 6: think should I do that? I'm not, But you know,
Speaker 6: I think she was looking out. She wanted me to
Speaker 6: make money. She thought she made money and I made money,
Speaker 6: that we'd be happy. And we were for a little
Speaker 6: a little while.
Speaker 1: When Tina was on the stand talking about how Wall
Speaker 1: had brought her into this scheme, she could actually see
Speaker 1: Wah's face.
Speaker 6: I could tell she was kind of mad. So I
Speaker 6: felt kind of bad because we used to be friends.
Speaker 1: Do you think she was hurt or just mad or like,
Speaker 1: what were her feelings for I think both. I think
Speaker 1: she thought that Wall would understand and we talked to
Speaker 1: Wall about what it was like when she was in
Speaker 1: the courtroom, and she thought Tina while Tina was testifying, of.
Speaker 13: Course you don't like it, but what can you do?
Speaker 5: Was your friendship over then?
Speaker 12: I haven't told her since I don't what's her friend?
Speaker 13: I don't even have a number.
Speaker 1: She seemed over it. She seemed like she was like Tina.
Speaker 7: Who Tina, who don't even have her number?
Speaker 1: But I still don't think Tina regrets meeting while.
Speaker 6: You know what, I have none bad to say about
Speaker 6: Hull because she was a good friend. It's just that
Speaker 6: we both chose the wrong road, you know. And then
Speaker 6: after all this happened, she went her way and I
Speaker 6: went my way.
Speaker 1: The trial of Waw and the others took about two weeks,
Speaker 1: and based on the outcome, it seems like Tina was
Speaker 1: a convincing witness. On August thirty first, nineteen eighty eight,
Speaker 1: Wah and her boyfriend Michael Yu were both found guilty
Speaker 1: of conspiring to just to heroin and possessing what the
Speaker 1: intent to distribute, and because of the mandatory minimums, they
Speaker 1: were facing at least ten years in prison. After they
Speaker 1: were found guilty, Waw held out for a few more months,
Speaker 1: but faced with the prospect of a decade maybe more
Speaker 1: in prison, and the end, both she and Fox decided
Speaker 1: to cooperate.
Speaker 9: Michael you saw the writing on the wall, so that's
Speaker 9: when he decided to flip, and you get the benefit
Speaker 9: of a cooperation agreement to lower the time he was
Speaker 9: facing in jail.
Speaker 1: So Beryl started to interview her two new cooperating witnesses
Speaker 1: to get to the top of the ladder. She was
Speaker 1: gathering the information she needed to fashion an indictment against Johnny.
Speaker 1: But Johnny most likely had someone watching the federal docket
Speaker 1: for him. That's this calendar of court proceedings. Back in
Speaker 1: those days, you had to go to the clerk's office
Speaker 1: to see it in person. Whoever was watching could see
Speaker 1: that the next proceed for WAW and Michael Yu were
Speaker 1: not on the schedule. If you're Johnny, you know that
Speaker 1: this can only mean one thing.
Speaker 9: As soon as he found out that Wah and Michael
Speaker 9: Yu had flipped.
Speaker 4: He fled.
Speaker 1: Johnny Yang was nowhere to be found, and everyone who
Speaker 1: had agreed to testify against him or about his scheme
Speaker 1: was now in danger. Coming up next on the chinatownsting.
Speaker 9: My reaction at the time was, oh my god. You know,
Speaker 9: I hope nobody on my watch got hurt and did
Speaker 9: I miss something? Did the agents miss something? About her security?
Speaker 1: The chinatownstan is written and produced by Me Lidy agin
Speaker 1: Kot and reported by me and Shu yu Wang. Your
Speaker 1: producer is Emily Martinez, additional production by Sonya Gerwit. Our
Speaker 1: editor is Julia Barton, with additional editing by Karen Shakherji.
Speaker 1: Our story consultant is wrong Shau Chang. Our executive producer
Speaker 1: is Jacob Smith. Our music was composed by John Sung,
Speaker 1: sound design and additional music by Jake Gorski. Our fact
Speaker 1: checker is Kate Ferby, and our show art was designed
Speaker 1: by Sean Karney. All voiceover work by Tally Leong. For
Speaker 1: more information about this episode, check out our show notes
Speaker 1: or visit Pushkin dot fm slash Chinatown. The ton of
Speaker 1: Toown Stang is a production of Pushkin Industries. To find
Speaker 1: more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.