September 23, 2025 • 36 mins
Being only half Chinese, Tina Wong felt like an outsider growing up in Chinatown. But then she met another girl who was a natural leader and included her in the pack. After they grew up, that friend would eventually recruit her to accept and move packages of heroin. Now Tina faces a choice: betray her old friend, or condemn her baby daughter to growing up without a mom.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Hey everyone, before we get into this episode, I
wanted to let you know that you can listen to
the full season of The Chinatownstaning add free right now.
By signing up for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes,
full audiobooks, and other true crime binges from your favorite
(00:36):
Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin Plus on the Chinatownsting
Show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm,
slash Plus. Previously on The Chinatownsting.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Asian criminal groups are emerging on the American landscape. Law
enforcement authorities, particularly federal cannot afford to wait until these
organizations have fully emmerged.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
If I had to summarize why these gangs exist, I
can summarize it in one word. Racism. That is the cool.
The root of the issue is racism.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Are you crying, Yeah, because that was mad.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
Not at yourself, not at the rules.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Well, the whole thing everything.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
When Tina Wang was eleven years old, she met another
kid with an incredible knack for getting others to do
things they wouldn't normally do. Tina remembers they met while
they were playing a game they called Chinese jump rope.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
You put rubber bands together until you make a long
rubber band and then you got to jump over it
some like that.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
And then she came over with her friend. They go, oh,
what's your name.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Wah was a year older than Tina. She wore bell
bottomed jeans. She had shoes with big rubber soles called
marshmallow shoes. For Tina, it was friend love at first sight.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Yeah, she was very cute. How so she was just
a very good looking.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
A lot of people said, you know, though she was
good looking, she was good looking, and she was always
uh stylish, and she was always fashionable.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Wah's family had immigrated to the US from China when
she was six. That was right around nineteen sixty five,
when ethnic immigration quotas were finally banned. Wah's family lived
in Little Italy, but she and Tina hung out in Chinatown,
just a few blocks over. They would go to the
movies together or to the Chinatown Fair, which was actually
(02:45):
an arcade.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
They had a like a ferris wheel for one, but
we used to put like two people in there.
Speaker 7 (02:52):
Oh huh.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
It was like ten cents to go around.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
It was pretty fun.
Speaker 6 (02:58):
Wa has sisters and brothers, but her and her sister
used to fight a lot, so I don't know, we
just clicked.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
When she was little, Tina got picked on sometimes because
she was one of the few Chinese kids at her school.
After immigration opened up, she got picked on sometimes by
the new kids because she was only half Chinese. But
when she met Wah, she found her place. Wah was
the ring leader.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Sometime we would go like uptown. We would go shopping
on fourteenth Street or thirty fourth Street.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
For what it's for, like clothes, and.
Speaker 6 (03:36):
Wall was like the direct of what we should wear.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So you would go shopping and she'd be like, don't
get that shirt, get this shirt.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
No, get this, it's nice, it looks good on you. Well,
cut your hair like this.
Speaker 6 (03:49):
She is a bossy person, but we didn't mind because
she was funny. She was fun to hang out with.
Speaker 8 (03:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
They sometimes got into some light trouble cutting school, smoking weed,
getting rides in the back of some guy's truck, holding
on with ropes. What was your guys' reputation?
Speaker 6 (04:08):
We would the uh cool girls for the poor girls
because we all didn't really have money.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
One time, their click was mentioned in one of the
Chinatown newspapers. It was just in passing. Tina doesn't even
remember exactly why, but she does remember that the reporter
gave them a.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
Nickname they put in the newspaper, Pink Eagles, and we
were laughing. They go, who gave us that name?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Why? The pink Eagles? Because did you guys even wear pink?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You didn't like it.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
No, that's like so like for me, childish, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
To Tina, it didn't sound as cool as the actual
gang names, like, for example, the Flying Dragons. As Tina
talked about Wat, it made me think about how when
you become friends with someone when you're growing up, they
actually helped determine who you grow into. And when that happens,
there will always be a part of them in you,
(05:05):
whether you like it or not. I'm Lyddia Jean Cott.
This is the Chinatown Staying Episode three, What's a Friend.
(05:27):
When Tina and Wall were in their twenties, as sometimes
happens with childhood best friends, they drifted out of touch,
but then Wah reached out.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
She heard that I had a daughter, so I think
she contacted me somehow. She gave my daughter like a
little bracelet, and then we started hanging back again.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
They were having fun in the Majan parlors, and soon
Wah had a request Katina accept a package for Wall
in the mail. She'd pay her a lot. Of course,
the box is filled with heroin, but the money was good.
While invaded Tina on a trip to Asia with her,
they actually met up with Johnny ng There aka Missie
(06:09):
Sheen Gun Johnny or Onion Head, the leader of the
powerful Flying Dragons Gang. Tina says she wasn't that impressed.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
He was like Waa's friend. I mean, he was nice.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
She bought us like drinks and stuff and took us
like on a tour of Indonesia, which was.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
That's all right.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
After that trip, Tina started to get a bad feeling.
This time Wa was pulling her into a world she
shouldn't be a part of, while was asking her to
receive more and more packages, and Tina didn't want to.
Wah had gotten to bossy.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
And I just didn't want to take it no more.
So I just I guess she stopped calling me. I
stopped calling her.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
This was the only time they had ever really fought.
She thought they'd make up, but about five months later,
federal agents showed up at Tina's door and they took
her into custody. She hoped WA would help her get
a lawyer or something.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
She always said that she would help me if anything,
and no help came, so I said okay.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
In jail, Tina ran into another woman from the Majong parlors.
That woman had cooperated and given up Tina's name. She
had agreed to accept packages because she had gambling debts
and she was the mother of twin girls. Tina forgave her.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Well, I'm not going to hate her. You know, she
had to do she had to do.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
The question for Tina was would she also do what
she had to do. She didn't want to betray her
old friend Waw. She knew cooperating could be dangerous, but
if she went to prison, she might not be reunited
with her baby daughter for decades.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Of course, you're going to take a chance, even if
it's on your life, because when it comes to a kid,
everybody's gonna choose their kid.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But it's kind of a terrible choice because you could
get killed and then you're not going to be there
for your kid.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Yeah, with those chances you take.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
The day after her arrest, Tina sat in the office
a federal prosecutor, Beryl Howell. They would face each other
many times over the next few months. As Tina was
in custody.
Speaker 8 (08:24):
On March second, nineteen eighty eight, and March fourteenth, nineteen
eighty eight, Tina Wong was debriefed in the Eastern District
of New York. Wong stated that she became friends with
Wah at a young age. In June of nineteen eighty seven.
Wong said Wa asked her if she would like to
make some money by accepting male parcels from Hong Kong.
(08:45):
Wong further stated that Wa gave her a few days
of advanced notice regarding the arrival of the mail parcel Wong.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
As Tina talked, Beryl listened intently. She took handwritten notes
with the blue pen. Her questions in one column Tina's
answers and the other column, you.
Speaker 9 (09:04):
Hope you're getting the whole story. You do your best
to get the whole story. So you do the best
you can with both carrots and sticks to ensure that
you were getting You know the truth and the whole
truth from cooperators.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Beryl wanted to know more about Wall as a means
to an end Her ultimate goal was to bring down
Johnny Yang, the gangster she believed to be at the
top of this heroin scheme, but to do that, Beryl
would need lots of solid evidence against him. All the
people she had talked to so far were too low
down in the operation to describe Johnny's role, even Tina.
(09:45):
But Beryl was pretty sure that Wall was different, that
she took orders from Johnny directly, in part because she
seemed to be the one directing all the women, and
in part because her boyfriend Michael Yu was high up
in the Flying Dragon's gang. He went by the nickname Fox.
Speaker 9 (10:04):
The hope was that people had some direct contact with
Johnny Yang would cooperate, and that would have been Wah
or Michael U.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So Beryl had Tina's statements about how she accepted these
packages of heroin at Wah's direction. Beryl had also obtained
audio recordings of conversations between Wall and another woman who
had accepted packages of heroin. This woman had agreed to
call Waw and tell her she had received a package
while federal agents secretly recorded. The actual recordings are gone,
(10:37):
but we have the transcripts. My co reporter Shu Yu
Wang and I read them together. You want to be
Wall and I'll be the woman. Okay, hello, hello, I
got that thing at my house so fast.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
Huh.
Speaker 10 (10:52):
But listen, did you see the you know how speak
pick Latin?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You must be kidding.
Speaker 7 (10:59):
Yeah, that's to keep it safe. Stupid.
Speaker 10 (11:02):
You know they might have a fucking transmitter or bug.
You never know, stupid.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So yeah, as a lawyer, what would you think if
you were reading this this wire toop whow smart?
Speaker 10 (11:15):
So, like, while this whole time was just trying to
be very vague and not referring to anything, not using
any names or terms, like that thing, put it in
a bag, very vague instructions.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
To the other woman on the line, She's.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
Like, not really communicating any details about the delivery, about
the drop off location, about what it is, even though
we all know that is the drug packages.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
She's like, what about pig Latin? So that way, I
guess she could be like arowin, Hey.
Speaker 10 (11:48):
Yeah, she definitely have heard something or sence something that
is going on.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
So, through these wired taps and her conversations with Tina
and other people, Beryl was gathering this evidence about Wall.
But I think she was also kind of like trying
to figure out who this person is and what they're like.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
You know, Beryl was a lawyer at a time where
it was still like not that common to be a
female prosecutor. And while was this woman who was like
operating this business, this enterprise that was affiliated with the gangs,
and there weren't very many other women doing that either.
Speaker 7 (12:24):
Maybe there's a level of resinance.
Speaker 9 (12:26):
Yeah, One thing in the back of my mind is
how was she able to recruit all of these women
to do it? And what I found was that she
was a fun, charismatic, dynamic individual and that's part of
how she was able to do it, in addition to
all the other factors that went into them opting to
(12:47):
say yes all except package for ten to twenty thousand
dollars or thirty.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Every single person pretty much who knew why. Most people
did who I talked to you about this story talked
about her like she was like this force, like really
different from other people. I talked to this one guy,
a former gangster who I don't think i'd talked to
wall for a long time. I'm not sure, but as
soon as I brought her up to him, he instantly
(13:14):
remembered her She's.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
A very very pretty girl.
Speaker 11 (13:17):
Back then, everywhere you go, is you see her? A
matter of fact, can I show her the picture?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
He literally had a photo on his phone of her
and it was like all ready to go, like he
was just able to pull it up immediately, and it
was a picture of her from the like nineteen eighties.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
Sounds like someone had a crush.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
And in the photo it's like her and her boyfriend
Michael U known as Fox, and he's kind of like
leaning back but towards her a little bit. He's like
a small guy, and she does look super cool. She
has kind of like a mullet style of haircut that
I think was cool then, and like some like lip gloss,
dangly earrings. Definitely cool girl.
Speaker 7 (13:58):
She had a style.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
She just seems larger than life. So yeah, everyone talked
about Wall like she was special, and I think that's
why we really wanted to find her. Eventually, I found
an address in Florida, and I glue to Florida by
myself literally just to knock on this door. Yes, and
then this woman opened the door. And I remember this
(14:19):
because like she was wearing purple contacts. She was absolutely
beautiful in a bit like threw me off balances. Okay,
but yeah, Wah was not there, and I was like,
this is it. I've reached the end of the journey.
Speaker 7 (14:32):
But then what happened.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
At that house? I got a phone number for a while,
I called it and eventually she agreed to meet up.
Speaker 12 (14:42):
Don't call me on the weekends. Okay, I'm out to
the city at Lansa City. If you need to go
there you want to grow much.
Speaker 13 (14:48):
I can get to a room and.
Speaker 8 (14:50):
Where in the city.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, we'll be right back. I had heard so much
about this woman wh who had convinced all these moms
(15:11):
with young children to smuggle heroine. I wanted to hear
from her how and why she did it. We're referring
to her just as Wah because she asked us to
only use her first name.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
She You.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
And I finally met her at a Peaking Duck restaurant
in Chinatown. I had put a lot of effort in
trying to find a quiet place where we could talk.
Wah hated it.
Speaker 13 (15:33):
Next time go to a seven, saying, wow.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That's a different restaurant that I apparently should have chosen.
Waw is in her sixties. She has short, spiky hair.
She was wearing a leather jacket, tightish pants. She has
lots of gold jewelry and a dramatic white and beige manicure.
One person I talked to told me that her theme
song should be the Madonna song Who's That Girl? And
(15:59):
she was absolutely living up to the hype. It took
us months to pin down a time to meet. She
canceled a few times because she said she had been
up late the night before gambling.
Speaker 13 (16:12):
I'm already nervous, already.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Let's start with why do you like gambling?
Speaker 13 (16:18):
Why do I?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Who?
Speaker 12 (16:21):
I guess when you get older, you get bored, so
nothing moves you, not even men.
Speaker 13 (16:29):
So that's my drenaline rush.
Speaker 12 (16:32):
That's my excitement, you know, like when you bet, when
you place money, don't your heartbeat, that's the way it goes.
That's your adrenaline rush. That's the rush you want. You
know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Yeah, you know?
Speaker 13 (16:45):
I should have quit.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
She did not quit. Over the years, she's been betting
more and more.
Speaker 13 (16:52):
I play football, baseball.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
Do you watch sports?
Speaker 6 (16:55):
No?
Speaker 13 (16:56):
Only if I bet?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
But why is true? Passion? It's still magong.
Speaker 12 (17:01):
It keeps your mind occupied. You don't have to think
about anything else. All you do is look at your
court and you know, focus on it so you can
you can win.
Speaker 13 (17:12):
You want to win. But if you play for money,
that's like excitement. If you play for fun, you'd rather
go to sleep. If you win, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 12 (17:22):
Oh I can't buy buy something now, I have a
couple of hundred dollars. But if you lose, you, oh
my god, the win or help?
Speaker 13 (17:31):
Look at the money, right right right? You got to
go for revenge.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I've heard that part of what makes masong fun is
that it's an equal combination of skill and luck. You
can never predict what will happen next.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
How long does a game take for you or me?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 13 (17:52):
I played like twenty four hours. We're be talking about
if you do.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Not play twenty four hours?
Speaker 13 (17:58):
Do you sometime? I don't sleep?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
What was comfortable talking to me? And she you about gambling.
She also told us a bit about her family. She
has three kids. Asked her about her past involvement with
the gangs. Suddenly she didn't know a lot.
Speaker 13 (18:14):
Wait, we just hang out with them because they are friends,
and that's it. That's why we would call gangs. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I've heard from other former gang members that if you
were a member of say the Flying Dragons, you couldn't
even enter a gambling parlor operated by their rivals, the
Ghost Shadows. But from how Wall talked, it seemed like
she didn't really care about these feuds.
Speaker 12 (18:36):
I practically hang out with all the gangs. Almost where
do you go to school, you know them. All the
gangs are like good kids. They come out from the
same school.
Speaker 13 (18:47):
You know them more.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
I've also heard that all the gang members were guys.
They had girlfriends of course, and wives, but the women
didn't get involved with their activities. Again, Wall was different.
Were there other women who were like as powerful as
you were in like the.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
World of the gangs? I don't think so You're the
most powerful woman in the world of the gang.
Speaker 13 (19:10):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
WA's boyfriend, Michael U aka Fox, was high up in
the Flying Dragons. He ran the gambling parlor on Pell Street,
and that parlor was kind of like the gang's headquarters.
He also oversaw a bunch of other gambling parlors, including
the Mahjong parlors in Chinatown. Waw sometimes worked at that
gambling parlor on Pell Street. Her job was to get
(19:37):
people to keep playing. She also hung out in all
the other parlors, so she knew everyone. She knew who
was in debt, whose house might be undergoing renovation, whose
husband wasn't paying child support, who for whatever reason might
be interested in receiving a package in the mail in
exchange for a lot of money.
Speaker 12 (19:59):
First of all, you didn't think of nothing back then
you're just thinking, oh, seize it'll make money.
Speaker 13 (20:06):
That was it, You know, you didn't think of the outcome.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Waugh told us she feels terrible about bringing drugs into
the country, but she does not feel bad for the
woman who she brought into the scheme. They wanted money
and they knew they were taking a risk.
Speaker 13 (20:23):
If you're gonna make money, it must be something bad.
Speaker 12 (20:27):
So you got an idea ready. You don't have to
go into the detail.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Do you remember when you got arrested? What was that like?
Speaker 13 (20:34):
What's like? What the hell? I was gambling?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
On March first, nineteen eighty eight, the same day that
Tina Wong was arrested, Wall was having a great day.
She won seven thousand dollars. But as gonna happen in
Majong and in life, she was about to lose it.
Speaker 12 (20:53):
All, I'm coming now, I'm looking amber house over there.
And then I woke around the corner and like five
six white people, you know.
Speaker 13 (21:02):
Push me in the car.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
What the hell?
Speaker 13 (21:05):
Why? Who are they? You know?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Right there?
Speaker 13 (21:07):
And then you don't.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Know, you thought you were being kidnapped.
Speaker 12 (21:10):
Yeah, you walking down the street and there you go
to call stop right next to you and then wow,
a couple of guys come out and push you in
the car just like that and take off.
Speaker 13 (21:21):
What the hell I thought they with the mafia, I
don't know. And then they drove me to the seaport. Yeah,
so I'm not getting dumped in the river.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Just as they had threatened all the other women, the
agents threatened Wah. They told her that unless she told
them everything she knew, she was facing decades in prison,
she wouldn't be able to see her kids grow up.
But Wah was unmoved.
Speaker 13 (21:48):
I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 8 (21:55):
At approximately eight pm March first, nineteen eighty eight, Wah
was arrested on the corner of Pell and Bowery Streets,
New York, New York, by special agents Mattesser and Flood.
Wah was advised of her constitutional right, it's by Peter
Mattesser and refused to make any statements.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
The next day, WA's boyfriend, Michael U, was also arrested.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
On March second, nineteen eighty eight. Michael U was located
at his residence when informed by Special Agency and that
he was under arrest for importing heroin through the international mail.
You stated he quote never received any packages. That was
his girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Wah was taken to the mcc A jail right outside
of Chinatown. It's this huge, grayish building with tiny windows.
It looks kind of like a square death star. The
agents took Michael You there too, and Waugh was not
thrilled to see him.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
When did you guys? Break up?
Speaker 13 (22:56):
Will come ever since? In there?
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Did you guys talk when you're in jail?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Like?
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Were you like? Did you see each other?
Speaker 13 (23:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 12 (23:01):
He was across the hall like you could see the
window and window and I to talk to.
Speaker 13 (23:10):
Guys on the cycle. I might still see you.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Wah gives me a sly look, but you gotta pay.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Did you get blounder them?
Speaker 13 (23:25):
Yeah? We did a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
What else are you gonna do?
Speaker 13 (23:31):
I lost a lot of money in there.
Speaker 10 (23:32):
Too.
Speaker 13 (23:33):
All the women, they got money.
Speaker 12 (23:35):
If you could lose four or five thousand there blank carts.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It says a lot about Waw that it sounds like
she actually liked being in jail.
Speaker 13 (23:43):
Oh I had a good time. Yeah, I tell you
a lot of the offices they liked me. Yeah, they
like me. Yeah. So I got a lot.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
I got everything I want, you know, And I could
tell them to do whatever.
Speaker 13 (24:00):
You know, some of them they do for me.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
How do you get people to do whatever you want
for you?
Speaker 13 (24:06):
Because I'm smart, convince them, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Federal authorities hoped that once Wall was in custody, she'd cooperate,
but clearly that tactics didn't work, and Michael Yu, her boyfriend,
wasn't talking either, So Prosecutor Beryl Howell convinced a grand
jury to return in nineteen count indictment against them. Maybe
that would get them to turn. Still, Waw did not budge.
(24:39):
Wa tells people what to do. She doesn't let other
people tell her what to do. She and Michael U
got fancy lawyers. They were taking their case to trial.
Waugh was playing this one to win. After Tina told
(25:11):
Waugh she wasn't going to accept anywhere mail packages. The
next time she saw her was at her trial. Waw,
like Tina, was a mom. Tina hoped that Waugh would
understand that she was just doing what she had to do,
but she couldn't be sure. The proceedings began on August sixteenth,
nineteen eighty eight. Waugh was tried alongside her boyfriend Michael Yu,
(25:34):
and four other people lower down in the scheme. Beryl
Howell gave the opening statement for the prosecution.
Speaker 9 (25:40):
This is a heroin spiggling case. During the trial, you
will hear how each of the six defendants participated in
a scheme to smuggle into the United States from Hong
Kong over one hundred and fifty pounds of heroin. Wah
and Michael Yu were the ring leaders of this operation.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
For Beryl, of course, the goal of this trial was
for Waw and Michael U to be found guilty, because
then she hoped they would agree to testify against the
person she believed was really at the top of this
heroin importation scheme, Johnny ing onion Head.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
What does Barrel remember about a trial?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
What Beryl remembers about the trial was that it was
really far away, way out in long Island, and she
even had to get a hotel. And remember she was
new on the job, so she was by herself doing
this really complicated trial with six defendants.
Speaker 9 (26:35):
You know, I was accustomed to trying cases in Brooklyn,
where you know, just walking down the hall, I could
say I could toss ideas around or say this just happened.
What did I do wrong? I what do I need
to do to fix it? But in Hoppog, I was
sort of by myself out there doing it, and there
were no computers, so I remember, like at night, when
(26:59):
there were emotions being filed by the defense attorneys, I
had to hand right my responses.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
So she was lawyer was Gerald Lefcourt. He's a very
experienced trial lawyer. And I printed out his opening statement
because I'm curious what you think about it.
Speaker 10 (27:19):
Okay WA's council stated, this is a case about Chinatown.
I don't know how many of you have visited Chinatown,
but it is a town that's late. In Chinatown, there
are gangs, there is prostitution, there is gambling on levels
that are very different than you or I understand. It
has an old history and an old culture. You will
(27:40):
hear in this trial proof about ancient Chinese games.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
What do you think about it? It's so dramatic.
Speaker 7 (27:46):
It's so dramatic.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Like you said, in Chinatown, there's gangs, there's prostitution, there's
gambling on levels that are different than you or I
can understand.
Speaker 10 (27:53):
Now I'm imagining like a jury of mostly non Asian people.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
It feels like he's talking to all white people who maybe, yeah,
have never been to a Chinatown.
Speaker 10 (28:06):
I guess like he was trying to build up some
financial hardship that eventually pushed him into this position, Like
you got to got into the culture and the background
in the community to understand why are people doing this
to create like a defense for his client.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, so Beryl was basically the only female lawyer in
the courtroom. The lawyers for all the six defendants were
men and David she and the US Customs agent told
me that what's it out to him was this one
moment that happened between Beryl and Fox's lawyer.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
I think I was on the witness stand and he
actually patted Beryl on the top of her head like
in a very condescending way, like thanks, little girl, you
don't go back to your table, And she handled it
so professionally. But she said, if you ever do that
to me again, you'll regret it.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
David Chan was like, heck, yeah, you're gonna regret it,
and he was going to make sure of that. And
he said that he noticed that all the defense lawyers
were getting paid in cash in the parking lot. If
you're getting paid in cash, there's like a form that
you're supposed to fill out to report it because you're
supposed to pay taxes on that, and he had a
feeling that they were maybe not filling out that form.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
Sounds like gangster of affairs.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
That Burrell was so not paying attention. She had just
like totally moved on.
Speaker 9 (29:23):
So I was like just focused on making my arguments,
you know, the best I could, getting my evidence in
front of the jury. You know, all the other noise
around me was something I probably just considered noise, and
the head patting I probably considered noise annoying noise.
Speaker 7 (29:41):
Yeah, she know what job she's at there for. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Beryl introduced her witnesses, and you know, one of her
star witnesses was, of course Tina, who was going to
testify about how Waugh had asked her to accept these
packages of Heroin. Based on the transcripts, it seems like
the Tina that was on the stand is the Tina
that we know, especially when on cross one of the
(30:06):
lawyers was trying to discredit her by being like he said,
Jerry her, you know, don't you play majong? And she
said yes, and he said, isn't that an illegal gambling game?
And then she said Jewish people play, and then he
had to be like, oh yeah, my grandmother plays majong.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And I feel like a snappy retort like that is
very is very Tina.
Speaker 10 (30:26):
If she holds the same image on the stand as
how she was talking to us. She seemed calm and
put together enough to be a convincing witness from what
we have observed.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
And I agree, when she's talking to you, it does
seem like she's not embellishing what she's saying is true,
but she does often give you the feeling that she's
not telling you everything. And Tina was different than a
lot of the women who had been pulled into this scheme.
A lot of the women accepted these packages of heroin
because they had gambling debts. But I actually talked to
(30:57):
Tina and she said that she wasn't in debt. That
wasn't the reason.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
First of all, it's friendship is my friend and we're
in it all together.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
So and then money, yeah, and then the money.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
So Tina did it because it was Wall who asked her,
and she thought that it would maybe make them closer.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
She was a good friend.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Do you think in a way she was trying to
look out for you when she offered you the package opportunity?
Speaker 4 (31:23):
I think so.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
I mean it was I'm the one that has to
think should I do that? I'm not, But you know,
I think she was looking out. She wanted me to
make money. She thought she made money and I made money,
that we'd be happy. And we were for a little
a little while.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
When Tina was on the stand talking about how Wall
had brought her into this scheme, she could actually see
Wah's face.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
I could tell she was kind of mad. So I
felt kind of bad because we used to be friends.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Do you think she was hurt or just mad or like,
what were her feelings for I think both. I think
she thought that Wall would understand and we talked to
Wall about what it was like when she was in
the courtroom, and she thought Tina while Tina was testifying, of.
Speaker 13 (32:12):
Course you don't like it, but what can you do?
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Was your friendship over then?
Speaker 12 (32:18):
I haven't told her since I don't what's her friend?
Speaker 13 (32:21):
I don't even have a number.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
She seemed over it. She seemed like she was like Tina.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Who Tina, who don't even have her number?
Speaker 1 (32:35):
But I still don't think Tina regrets meeting while.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
You know what, I have none bad to say about
Hull because she was a good friend. It's just that
we both chose the wrong road, you know. And then
after all this happened, she went her way and I
went my way.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
The trial of Waw and the others took about two weeks,
and based on the outcome, it seems like Tina was
a convincing witness. On August thirty first, nineteen eighty eight,
Wah and her boyfriend Michael Yu were both found guilty
of conspiring to just to heroin and possessing what the
intent to distribute, and because of the mandatory minimums, they
(33:15):
were facing at least ten years in prison. After they
were found guilty, Waw held out for a few more months,
but faced with the prospect of a decade maybe more
in prison, and the end, both she and Fox decided
to cooperate.
Speaker 9 (33:32):
Michael you saw the writing on the wall, so that's
when he decided to flip, and you get the benefit
of a cooperation agreement to lower the time he was
facing in jail.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
So Beryl started to interview her two new cooperating witnesses
to get to the top of the ladder. She was
gathering the information she needed to fashion an indictment against Johnny.
But Johnny most likely had someone watching the federal docket
for him. That's this calendar of court proceedings. Back in
those days, you had to go to the clerk's office
(34:05):
to see it in person. Whoever was watching could see
that the next proceed for WAW and Michael Yu were
not on the schedule. If you're Johnny, you know that
this can only mean one thing.
Speaker 9 (34:16):
As soon as he found out that Wah and Michael
Yu had flipped.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
He fled.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Johnny Yang was nowhere to be found, and everyone who
had agreed to testify against him or about his scheme
was now in danger. Coming up next on the chinatownsting.
Speaker 9 (34:44):
My reaction at the time was, oh my god. You know,
I hope nobody on my watch got hurt and did
I miss something? Did the agents miss something? About her security?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
The chinatownstan is written and produced by Me Lidy agin
Kot and reported by me and Shu yu Wang. Your
producer is Emily Martinez, additional production by Sonya Gerwit. Our
editor is Julia Barton, with additional editing by Karen Shakherji.
Our story consultant is wrong Shau Chang. Our executive producer
(35:25):
is Jacob Smith. Our music was composed by John Sung,
sound design and additional music by Jake Gorski. Our fact
checker is Kate Ferby, and our show art was designed
by Sean Karney. All voiceover work by Tally Leong. For
more information about this episode, check out our show notes
(35:45):
or visit Pushkin dot fm slash Chinatown. The ton of
Toown Stang is a production of Pushkin Industries. To find
more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.
Pushkin. Hey everyone, before we get into this episode, I
wanted to let you know that you can listen to
the full season of The Chinatownstaning add free right now.
By signing up for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes,
full audiobooks, and other true crime binges from your favorite
(00:36):
Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin Plus on the Chinatownsting
Show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm,
slash Plus. Previously on The Chinatownsting.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Asian criminal groups are emerging on the American landscape. Law
enforcement authorities, particularly federal cannot afford to wait until these
organizations have fully emmerged.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
If I had to summarize why these gangs exist, I
can summarize it in one word. Racism. That is the cool.
The root of the issue is racism.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Are you crying, Yeah, because that was mad.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
Not at yourself, not at the rules.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Well, the whole thing everything.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
When Tina Wang was eleven years old, she met another
kid with an incredible knack for getting others to do
things they wouldn't normally do. Tina remembers they met while
they were playing a game they called Chinese jump rope.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
You put rubber bands together until you make a long
rubber band and then you got to jump over it
some like that.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
And then she came over with her friend. They go, oh,
what's your name.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Wah was a year older than Tina. She wore bell
bottomed jeans. She had shoes with big rubber soles called
marshmallow shoes. For Tina, it was friend love at first sight.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Yeah, she was very cute. How so she was just
a very good looking.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
A lot of people said, you know, though she was
good looking, she was good looking, and she was always
uh stylish, and she was always fashionable.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Wah's family had immigrated to the US from China when
she was six. That was right around nineteen sixty five,
when ethnic immigration quotas were finally banned. Wah's family lived
in Little Italy, but she and Tina hung out in Chinatown,
just a few blocks over. They would go to the
movies together or to the Chinatown Fair, which was actually
(02:45):
an arcade.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
They had a like a ferris wheel for one, but
we used to put like two people in there.
Speaker 7 (02:52):
Oh huh.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
It was like ten cents to go around.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
It was pretty fun.
Speaker 6 (02:58):
Wa has sisters and brothers, but her and her sister
used to fight a lot, so I don't know, we
just clicked.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
When she was little, Tina got picked on sometimes because
she was one of the few Chinese kids at her school.
After immigration opened up, she got picked on sometimes by
the new kids because she was only half Chinese. But
when she met Wah, she found her place. Wah was
the ring leader.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
Sometime we would go like uptown. We would go shopping
on fourteenth Street or thirty fourth Street.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
For what it's for, like clothes, and.
Speaker 6 (03:36):
Wall was like the direct of what we should wear.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So you would go shopping and she'd be like, don't
get that shirt, get this shirt.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
No, get this, it's nice, it looks good on you. Well,
cut your hair like this.
Speaker 6 (03:49):
She is a bossy person, but we didn't mind because
she was funny. She was fun to hang out with.
Speaker 8 (03:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
They sometimes got into some light trouble cutting school, smoking weed,
getting rides in the back of some guy's truck, holding
on with ropes. What was your guys' reputation?
Speaker 6 (04:08):
We would the uh cool girls for the poor girls
because we all didn't really have money.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
One time, their click was mentioned in one of the
Chinatown newspapers. It was just in passing. Tina doesn't even
remember exactly why, but she does remember that the reporter
gave them a.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
Nickname they put in the newspaper, Pink Eagles, and we
were laughing. They go, who gave us that name?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Why? The pink Eagles? Because did you guys even wear pink?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You didn't like it.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
No, that's like so like for me, childish, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
To Tina, it didn't sound as cool as the actual
gang names, like, for example, the Flying Dragons. As Tina
talked about Wat, it made me think about how when
you become friends with someone when you're growing up, they
actually helped determine who you grow into. And when that happens,
there will always be a part of them in you,
(05:05):
whether you like it or not. I'm Lyddia Jean Cott.
This is the Chinatown Staying Episode three, What's a Friend.
(05:27):
When Tina and Wall were in their twenties, as sometimes
happens with childhood best friends, they drifted out of touch,
but then Wah reached out.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
She heard that I had a daughter, so I think
she contacted me somehow. She gave my daughter like a
little bracelet, and then we started hanging back again.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
They were having fun in the Majan parlors, and soon
Wah had a request Katina accept a package for Wall
in the mail. She'd pay her a lot. Of course,
the box is filled with heroin, but the money was good.
While invaded Tina on a trip to Asia with her,
they actually met up with Johnny ng There aka Missie
(06:09):
Sheen Gun Johnny or Onion Head, the leader of the
powerful Flying Dragons Gang. Tina says she wasn't that impressed.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
He was like Waa's friend. I mean, he was nice.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
She bought us like drinks and stuff and took us
like on a tour of Indonesia, which was.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
That's all right.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
After that trip, Tina started to get a bad feeling.
This time Wa was pulling her into a world she
shouldn't be a part of, while was asking her to
receive more and more packages, and Tina didn't want to.
Wah had gotten to bossy.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
And I just didn't want to take it no more.
So I just I guess she stopped calling me. I
stopped calling her.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
This was the only time they had ever really fought.
She thought they'd make up, but about five months later,
federal agents showed up at Tina's door and they took
her into custody. She hoped WA would help her get
a lawyer or something.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
She always said that she would help me if anything,
and no help came, so I said okay.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
In jail, Tina ran into another woman from the Majong parlors.
That woman had cooperated and given up Tina's name. She
had agreed to accept packages because she had gambling debts
and she was the mother of twin girls. Tina forgave her.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Well, I'm not going to hate her. You know, she
had to do she had to do.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
The question for Tina was would she also do what
she had to do. She didn't want to betray her
old friend Waw. She knew cooperating could be dangerous, but
if she went to prison, she might not be reunited
with her baby daughter for decades.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Of course, you're going to take a chance, even if
it's on your life, because when it comes to a kid,
everybody's gonna choose their kid.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But it's kind of a terrible choice because you could
get killed and then you're not going to be there
for your kid.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Yeah, with those chances you take.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
The day after her arrest, Tina sat in the office
a federal prosecutor, Beryl Howell. They would face each other
many times over the next few months. As Tina was
in custody.
Speaker 8 (08:24):
On March second, nineteen eighty eight, and March fourteenth, nineteen
eighty eight, Tina Wong was debriefed in the Eastern District
of New York. Wong stated that she became friends with
Wah at a young age. In June of nineteen eighty seven.
Wong said Wa asked her if she would like to
make some money by accepting male parcels from Hong Kong.
(08:45):
Wong further stated that Wa gave her a few days
of advanced notice regarding the arrival of the mail parcel Wong.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
As Tina talked, Beryl listened intently. She took handwritten notes
with the blue pen. Her questions in one column Tina's
answers and the other column, you.
Speaker 9 (09:04):
Hope you're getting the whole story. You do your best
to get the whole story. So you do the best
you can with both carrots and sticks to ensure that
you were getting You know the truth and the whole
truth from cooperators.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Beryl wanted to know more about Wall as a means
to an end Her ultimate goal was to bring down
Johnny Yang, the gangster she believed to be at the
top of this heroin scheme, but to do that, Beryl
would need lots of solid evidence against him. All the
people she had talked to so far were too low
down in the operation to describe Johnny's role, even Tina.
(09:45):
But Beryl was pretty sure that Wall was different, that
she took orders from Johnny directly, in part because she
seemed to be the one directing all the women, and
in part because her boyfriend Michael Yu was high up
in the Flying Dragon's gang. He went by the nickname Fox.
Speaker 9 (10:04):
The hope was that people had some direct contact with
Johnny Yang would cooperate, and that would have been Wah
or Michael U.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So Beryl had Tina's statements about how she accepted these
packages of heroin at Wah's direction. Beryl had also obtained
audio recordings of conversations between Wall and another woman who
had accepted packages of heroin. This woman had agreed to
call Waw and tell her she had received a package
while federal agents secretly recorded. The actual recordings are gone,
(10:37):
but we have the transcripts. My co reporter Shu Yu
Wang and I read them together. You want to be
Wall and I'll be the woman. Okay, hello, hello, I
got that thing at my house so fast.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
Huh.
Speaker 10 (10:52):
But listen, did you see the you know how speak
pick Latin?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You must be kidding.
Speaker 7 (10:59):
Yeah, that's to keep it safe. Stupid.
Speaker 10 (11:02):
You know they might have a fucking transmitter or bug.
You never know, stupid.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So yeah, as a lawyer, what would you think if
you were reading this this wire toop whow smart?
Speaker 10 (11:15):
So, like, while this whole time was just trying to
be very vague and not referring to anything, not using
any names or terms, like that thing, put it in
a bag, very vague instructions.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
To the other woman on the line, She's.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
Like, not really communicating any details about the delivery, about
the drop off location, about what it is, even though
we all know that is the drug packages.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
She's like, what about pig Latin? So that way, I
guess she could be like arowin, Hey.
Speaker 10 (11:48):
Yeah, she definitely have heard something or sence something that
is going on.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
So, through these wired taps and her conversations with Tina
and other people, Beryl was gathering this evidence about Wall.
But I think she was also kind of like trying
to figure out who this person is and what they're like.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
You know, Beryl was a lawyer at a time where
it was still like not that common to be a
female prosecutor. And while was this woman who was like
operating this business, this enterprise that was affiliated with the gangs,
and there weren't very many other women doing that either.
Speaker 7 (12:24):
Maybe there's a level of resinance.
Speaker 9 (12:26):
Yeah, One thing in the back of my mind is
how was she able to recruit all of these women
to do it? And what I found was that she
was a fun, charismatic, dynamic individual and that's part of
how she was able to do it, in addition to
all the other factors that went into them opting to
(12:47):
say yes all except package for ten to twenty thousand
dollars or thirty.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Every single person pretty much who knew why. Most people
did who I talked to you about this story talked
about her like she was like this force, like really
different from other people. I talked to this one guy,
a former gangster who I don't think i'd talked to
wall for a long time. I'm not sure, but as
soon as I brought her up to him, he instantly
(13:14):
remembered her She's.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
A very very pretty girl.
Speaker 11 (13:17):
Back then, everywhere you go, is you see her? A
matter of fact, can I show her the picture?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
He literally had a photo on his phone of her
and it was like all ready to go, like he
was just able to pull it up immediately, and it
was a picture of her from the like nineteen eighties.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
Sounds like someone had a crush.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
And in the photo it's like her and her boyfriend
Michael U known as Fox, and he's kind of like
leaning back but towards her a little bit. He's like
a small guy, and she does look super cool. She
has kind of like a mullet style of haircut that
I think was cool then, and like some like lip gloss,
dangly earrings. Definitely cool girl.
Speaker 7 (13:58):
She had a style.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
She just seems larger than life. So yeah, everyone talked
about Wall like she was special, and I think that's
why we really wanted to find her. Eventually, I found
an address in Florida, and I glue to Florida by
myself literally just to knock on this door. Yes, and
then this woman opened the door. And I remember this
(14:19):
because like she was wearing purple contacts. She was absolutely
beautiful in a bit like threw me off balances. Okay,
but yeah, Wah was not there, and I was like,
this is it. I've reached the end of the journey.
Speaker 7 (14:32):
But then what happened.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
At that house? I got a phone number for a while,
I called it and eventually she agreed to meet up.
Speaker 12 (14:42):
Don't call me on the weekends. Okay, I'm out to
the city at Lansa City. If you need to go
there you want to grow much.
Speaker 13 (14:48):
I can get to a room and.
Speaker 8 (14:50):
Where in the city.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, we'll be right back. I had heard so much
about this woman wh who had convinced all these moms
(15:11):
with young children to smuggle heroine. I wanted to hear
from her how and why she did it. We're referring
to her just as Wah because she asked us to
only use her first name.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
She You.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
And I finally met her at a Peaking Duck restaurant
in Chinatown. I had put a lot of effort in
trying to find a quiet place where we could talk.
Wah hated it.
Speaker 13 (15:33):
Next time go to a seven, saying, wow.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That's a different restaurant that I apparently should have chosen.
Waw is in her sixties. She has short, spiky hair.
She was wearing a leather jacket, tightish pants. She has
lots of gold jewelry and a dramatic white and beige manicure.
One person I talked to told me that her theme
song should be the Madonna song Who's That Girl? And
(15:59):
she was absolutely living up to the hype. It took
us months to pin down a time to meet. She
canceled a few times because she said she had been
up late the night before gambling.
Speaker 13 (16:12):
I'm already nervous, already.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Let's start with why do you like gambling?
Speaker 13 (16:18):
Why do I?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Who?
Speaker 12 (16:21):
I guess when you get older, you get bored, so
nothing moves you, not even men.
Speaker 13 (16:29):
So that's my drenaline rush.
Speaker 12 (16:32):
That's my excitement, you know, like when you bet, when
you place money, don't your heartbeat, that's the way it goes.
That's your adrenaline rush. That's the rush you want. You
know what I'm saying?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Yeah, you know?
Speaker 13 (16:45):
I should have quit.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
She did not quit. Over the years, she's been betting
more and more.
Speaker 13 (16:52):
I play football, baseball.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
Do you watch sports?
Speaker 6 (16:55):
No?
Speaker 13 (16:56):
Only if I bet?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
But why is true? Passion? It's still magong.
Speaker 12 (17:01):
It keeps your mind occupied. You don't have to think
about anything else. All you do is look at your
court and you know, focus on it so you can
you can win.
Speaker 13 (17:12):
You want to win. But if you play for money,
that's like excitement. If you play for fun, you'd rather
go to sleep. If you win, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 12 (17:22):
Oh I can't buy buy something now, I have a
couple of hundred dollars. But if you lose, you, oh
my god, the win or help?
Speaker 13 (17:31):
Look at the money, right right right? You got to
go for revenge.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I've heard that part of what makes masong fun is
that it's an equal combination of skill and luck. You
can never predict what will happen next.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
How long does a game take for you or me?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 13 (17:52):
I played like twenty four hours. We're be talking about
if you do.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Not play twenty four hours?
Speaker 13 (17:58):
Do you sometime? I don't sleep?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
What was comfortable talking to me? And she you about gambling.
She also told us a bit about her family. She
has three kids. Asked her about her past involvement with
the gangs. Suddenly she didn't know a lot.
Speaker 13 (18:14):
Wait, we just hang out with them because they are friends,
and that's it. That's why we would call gangs. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I've heard from other former gang members that if you
were a member of say the Flying Dragons, you couldn't
even enter a gambling parlor operated by their rivals, the
Ghost Shadows. But from how Wall talked, it seemed like
she didn't really care about these feuds.
Speaker 12 (18:36):
I practically hang out with all the gangs. Almost where
do you go to school, you know them. All the
gangs are like good kids. They come out from the
same school.
Speaker 13 (18:47):
You know them more.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
I've also heard that all the gang members were guys.
They had girlfriends of course, and wives, but the women
didn't get involved with their activities. Again, Wall was different.
Were there other women who were like as powerful as
you were in like the.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
World of the gangs? I don't think so You're the
most powerful woman in the world of the gang.
Speaker 13 (19:10):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
WA's boyfriend, Michael U aka Fox, was high up in
the Flying Dragons. He ran the gambling parlor on Pell Street,
and that parlor was kind of like the gang's headquarters.
He also oversaw a bunch of other gambling parlors, including
the Mahjong parlors in Chinatown. Waw sometimes worked at that
gambling parlor on Pell Street. Her job was to get
(19:37):
people to keep playing. She also hung out in all
the other parlors, so she knew everyone. She knew who
was in debt, whose house might be undergoing renovation, whose
husband wasn't paying child support, who for whatever reason might
be interested in receiving a package in the mail in
exchange for a lot of money.
Speaker 12 (19:59):
First of all, you didn't think of nothing back then
you're just thinking, oh, seize it'll make money.
Speaker 13 (20:06):
That was it, You know, you didn't think of the outcome.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Waugh told us she feels terrible about bringing drugs into
the country, but she does not feel bad for the
woman who she brought into the scheme. They wanted money
and they knew they were taking a risk.
Speaker 13 (20:23):
If you're gonna make money, it must be something bad.
Speaker 12 (20:27):
So you got an idea ready. You don't have to
go into the detail.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Do you remember when you got arrested? What was that like?
Speaker 13 (20:34):
What's like? What the hell? I was gambling?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
On March first, nineteen eighty eight, the same day that
Tina Wong was arrested, Wall was having a great day.
She won seven thousand dollars. But as gonna happen in
Majong and in life, she was about to lose it.
Speaker 12 (20:53):
All, I'm coming now, I'm looking amber house over there.
And then I woke around the corner and like five
six white people, you know.
Speaker 13 (21:02):
Push me in the car.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
What the hell?
Speaker 13 (21:05):
Why? Who are they? You know?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Right there?
Speaker 13 (21:07):
And then you don't.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Know, you thought you were being kidnapped.
Speaker 12 (21:10):
Yeah, you walking down the street and there you go
to call stop right next to you and then wow,
a couple of guys come out and push you in
the car just like that and take off.
Speaker 13 (21:21):
What the hell I thought they with the mafia, I
don't know. And then they drove me to the seaport. Yeah,
so I'm not getting dumped in the river.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Just as they had threatened all the other women, the
agents threatened Wah. They told her that unless she told
them everything she knew, she was facing decades in prison,
she wouldn't be able to see her kids grow up.
But Wah was unmoved.
Speaker 13 (21:48):
I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 8 (21:55):
At approximately eight pm March first, nineteen eighty eight, Wah
was arrested on the corner of Pell and Bowery Streets,
New York, New York, by special agents Mattesser and Flood.
Wah was advised of her constitutional right, it's by Peter
Mattesser and refused to make any statements.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
The next day, WA's boyfriend, Michael U, was also arrested.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
On March second, nineteen eighty eight. Michael U was located
at his residence when informed by Special Agency and that
he was under arrest for importing heroin through the international mail.
You stated he quote never received any packages. That was
his girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Wah was taken to the mcc A jail right outside
of Chinatown. It's this huge, grayish building with tiny windows.
It looks kind of like a square death star. The
agents took Michael You there too, and Waugh was not
thrilled to see him.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
When did you guys? Break up?
Speaker 13 (22:56):
Will come ever since? In there?
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Did you guys talk when you're in jail?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Like?
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Were you like? Did you see each other?
Speaker 13 (23:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 12 (23:01):
He was across the hall like you could see the
window and window and I to talk to.
Speaker 13 (23:10):
Guys on the cycle. I might still see you.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Wah gives me a sly look, but you gotta pay.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Did you get blounder them?
Speaker 13 (23:25):
Yeah? We did a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
What else are you gonna do?
Speaker 13 (23:31):
I lost a lot of money in there.
Speaker 10 (23:32):
Too.
Speaker 13 (23:33):
All the women, they got money.
Speaker 12 (23:35):
If you could lose four or five thousand there blank carts.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It says a lot about Waw that it sounds like
she actually liked being in jail.
Speaker 13 (23:43):
Oh I had a good time. Yeah, I tell you
a lot of the offices they liked me. Yeah, they
like me. Yeah. So I got a lot.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
I got everything I want, you know, And I could
tell them to do whatever.
Speaker 13 (24:00):
You know, some of them they do for me.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
How do you get people to do whatever you want
for you?
Speaker 13 (24:06):
Because I'm smart, convince them, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Federal authorities hoped that once Wall was in custody, she'd cooperate,
but clearly that tactics didn't work, and Michael Yu, her boyfriend,
wasn't talking either, So Prosecutor Beryl Howell convinced a grand
jury to return in nineteen count indictment against them. Maybe
that would get them to turn. Still, Waw did not budge.
(24:39):
Wa tells people what to do. She doesn't let other
people tell her what to do. She and Michael U
got fancy lawyers. They were taking their case to trial.
Waugh was playing this one to win. After Tina told
(25:11):
Waugh she wasn't going to accept anywhere mail packages. The
next time she saw her was at her trial. Waw,
like Tina, was a mom. Tina hoped that Waugh would
understand that she was just doing what she had to do,
but she couldn't be sure. The proceedings began on August sixteenth,
nineteen eighty eight. Waugh was tried alongside her boyfriend Michael Yu,
(25:34):
and four other people lower down in the scheme. Beryl
Howell gave the opening statement for the prosecution.
Speaker 9 (25:40):
This is a heroin spiggling case. During the trial, you
will hear how each of the six defendants participated in
a scheme to smuggle into the United States from Hong
Kong over one hundred and fifty pounds of heroin. Wah
and Michael Yu were the ring leaders of this operation.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
For Beryl, of course, the goal of this trial was
for Waw and Michael U to be found guilty, because
then she hoped they would agree to testify against the
person she believed was really at the top of this
heroin importation scheme, Johnny ing onion Head.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
What does Barrel remember about a trial?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
What Beryl remembers about the trial was that it was
really far away, way out in long Island, and she
even had to get a hotel. And remember she was
new on the job, so she was by herself doing
this really complicated trial with six defendants.
Speaker 9 (26:35):
You know, I was accustomed to trying cases in Brooklyn,
where you know, just walking down the hall, I could
say I could toss ideas around or say this just happened.
What did I do wrong? I what do I need
to do to fix it? But in Hoppog, I was
sort of by myself out there doing it, and there
were no computers, so I remember, like at night, when
(26:59):
there were emotions being filed by the defense attorneys, I
had to hand right my responses.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
So she was lawyer was Gerald Lefcourt. He's a very
experienced trial lawyer. And I printed out his opening statement
because I'm curious what you think about it.
Speaker 10 (27:19):
Okay WA's council stated, this is a case about Chinatown.
I don't know how many of you have visited Chinatown,
but it is a town that's late. In Chinatown, there
are gangs, there is prostitution, there is gambling on levels
that are very different than you or I understand. It
has an old history and an old culture. You will
(27:40):
hear in this trial proof about ancient Chinese games.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
What do you think about it? It's so dramatic.
Speaker 7 (27:46):
It's so dramatic.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Like you said, in Chinatown, there's gangs, there's prostitution, there's
gambling on levels that are different than you or I
can understand.
Speaker 10 (27:53):
Now I'm imagining like a jury of mostly non Asian people.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
It feels like he's talking to all white people who maybe, yeah,
have never been to a Chinatown.
Speaker 10 (28:06):
I guess like he was trying to build up some
financial hardship that eventually pushed him into this position, Like
you got to got into the culture and the background
in the community to understand why are people doing this
to create like a defense for his client.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, so Beryl was basically the only female lawyer in
the courtroom. The lawyers for all the six defendants were
men and David she and the US Customs agent told
me that what's it out to him was this one
moment that happened between Beryl and Fox's lawyer.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
I think I was on the witness stand and he
actually patted Beryl on the top of her head like
in a very condescending way, like thanks, little girl, you
don't go back to your table, And she handled it
so professionally. But she said, if you ever do that
to me again, you'll regret it.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
David Chan was like, heck, yeah, you're gonna regret it,
and he was going to make sure of that. And
he said that he noticed that all the defense lawyers
were getting paid in cash in the parking lot. If
you're getting paid in cash, there's like a form that
you're supposed to fill out to report it because you're
supposed to pay taxes on that, and he had a
feeling that they were maybe not filling out that form.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
Sounds like gangster of affairs.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
That Burrell was so not paying attention. She had just
like totally moved on.
Speaker 9 (29:23):
So I was like just focused on making my arguments,
you know, the best I could, getting my evidence in
front of the jury. You know, all the other noise
around me was something I probably just considered noise, and
the head patting I probably considered noise annoying noise.
Speaker 7 (29:41):
Yeah, she know what job she's at there for. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Beryl introduced her witnesses, and you know, one of her
star witnesses was, of course Tina, who was going to
testify about how Waugh had asked her to accept these
packages of Heroin. Based on the transcripts, it seems like
the Tina that was on the stand is the Tina
that we know, especially when on cross one of the
(30:06):
lawyers was trying to discredit her by being like he said,
Jerry her, you know, don't you play majong? And she
said yes, and he said, isn't that an illegal gambling game?
And then she said Jewish people play, and then he
had to be like, oh yeah, my grandmother plays majong.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And I feel like a snappy retort like that is
very is very Tina.
Speaker 10 (30:26):
If she holds the same image on the stand as
how she was talking to us. She seemed calm and
put together enough to be a convincing witness from what
we have observed.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
And I agree, when she's talking to you, it does
seem like she's not embellishing what she's saying is true,
but she does often give you the feeling that she's
not telling you everything. And Tina was different than a
lot of the women who had been pulled into this scheme.
A lot of the women accepted these packages of heroin
because they had gambling debts. But I actually talked to
(30:57):
Tina and she said that she wasn't in debt. That
wasn't the reason.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
First of all, it's friendship is my friend and we're
in it all together.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
So and then money, yeah, and then the money.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
So Tina did it because it was Wall who asked her,
and she thought that it would maybe make them closer.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
She was a good friend.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Do you think in a way she was trying to
look out for you when she offered you the package opportunity?
Speaker 4 (31:23):
I think so.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
I mean it was I'm the one that has to
think should I do that? I'm not, But you know,
I think she was looking out. She wanted me to
make money. She thought she made money and I made money,
that we'd be happy. And we were for a little
a little while.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
When Tina was on the stand talking about how Wall
had brought her into this scheme, she could actually see
Wah's face.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
I could tell she was kind of mad. So I
felt kind of bad because we used to be friends.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Do you think she was hurt or just mad or like,
what were her feelings for I think both. I think
she thought that Wall would understand and we talked to
Wall about what it was like when she was in
the courtroom, and she thought Tina while Tina was testifying, of.
Speaker 13 (32:12):
Course you don't like it, but what can you do?
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Was your friendship over then?
Speaker 12 (32:18):
I haven't told her since I don't what's her friend?
Speaker 13 (32:21):
I don't even have a number.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
She seemed over it. She seemed like she was like Tina.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Who Tina, who don't even have her number?
Speaker 1 (32:35):
But I still don't think Tina regrets meeting while.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
You know what, I have none bad to say about
Hull because she was a good friend. It's just that
we both chose the wrong road, you know. And then
after all this happened, she went her way and I
went my way.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
The trial of Waw and the others took about two weeks,
and based on the outcome, it seems like Tina was
a convincing witness. On August thirty first, nineteen eighty eight,
Wah and her boyfriend Michael Yu were both found guilty
of conspiring to just to heroin and possessing what the
intent to distribute, and because of the mandatory minimums, they
(33:15):
were facing at least ten years in prison. After they
were found guilty, Waw held out for a few more months,
but faced with the prospect of a decade maybe more
in prison, and the end, both she and Fox decided
to cooperate.
Speaker 9 (33:32):
Michael you saw the writing on the wall, so that's
when he decided to flip, and you get the benefit
of a cooperation agreement to lower the time he was
facing in jail.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
So Beryl started to interview her two new cooperating witnesses
to get to the top of the ladder. She was
gathering the information she needed to fashion an indictment against Johnny.
But Johnny most likely had someone watching the federal docket
for him. That's this calendar of court proceedings. Back in
those days, you had to go to the clerk's office
(34:05):
to see it in person. Whoever was watching could see
that the next proceed for WAW and Michael Yu were
not on the schedule. If you're Johnny, you know that
this can only mean one thing.
Speaker 9 (34:16):
As soon as he found out that Wah and Michael
Yu had flipped.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
He fled.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Johnny Yang was nowhere to be found, and everyone who
had agreed to testify against him or about his scheme
was now in danger. Coming up next on the chinatownsting.
Speaker 9 (34:44):
My reaction at the time was, oh my god. You know,
I hope nobody on my watch got hurt and did
I miss something? Did the agents miss something? About her security?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
The chinatownstan is written and produced by Me Lidy agin
Kot and reported by me and Shu yu Wang. Your
producer is Emily Martinez, additional production by Sonya Gerwit. Our
editor is Julia Barton, with additional editing by Karen Shakherji.
Our story consultant is wrong Shau Chang. Our executive producer
(35:25):
is Jacob Smith. Our music was composed by John Sung,
sound design and additional music by Jake Gorski. Our fact
checker is Kate Ferby, and our show art was designed
by Sean Karney. All voiceover work by Tally Leong. For
more information about this episode, check out our show notes
(35:45):
or visit Pushkin dot fm slash Chinatown. The ton of
Toown Stang is a production of Pushkin Industries. To find
more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.
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