'Cold-blooded killer' Hung Tien Pham and sole fugitive of Boston Chinatown Massacre has evaded FBI for 30 years
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Boston Chinatown Massacre of 1991. In the early morning hours of January 12, 1991, Hung Tien Pham, Nam The Tham, and Siny Van Tran entered an illegal gambling den located at 85A Tyler Street in Boston, Massachusetts. They allegedly shot six men, execution-style, while they were playing cards. Of the six victims, only one survived the attack, and he subsequently identified the three as the shooters.
In a renewed bid to bring closure to a horrific crime that has haunted the city of Boston and its Chinatown neighborhood for 30 years, the FBI and Boston Police are hoping a $30,000 reward will help shed new light on the whereabouts of a lone remaining fugitive, Hung Tien Pham, described as a "cold-blooded killer" who has managed to evade the FBI for 30 years.
The FBI released pictures of Pham, both as a young man of 30 at the time of the crime and a digitally-aged version to show how he might look as a 60-year-old man. Following the massacre, it is alleged that Pham left his two children and their mother and drove to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to gamble. He then boarded a flight for Hong Kong from New York on February 1, 1991. In addition to the quintuple homicide, Pham is also wanted by the Boston Police Department for another murder that occurred on January 8, 1991, four days before the massacre.
While Pham's associates Tham and Tran were arrested in China after a decade-long international manhunt, Pham remains a fugitive. His last known location was Bangkok, Thailand, in the mid- to late-1990s. Pham was a major associate of Asian organized crime in the 1980s and early 1990s, and has family in the San Francisco Bay area of California, South Korea, and North Vietnam. The international publicity campaign will target publicity in the cities to which Pham has been tied and reach out to potential informants through social media outreach on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
"This cold-blooded killer has been on the run for 30 years, and we’re hoping this reward will incentivize anyone with information on Pham’s whereabouts to come forward so we can we bring him to justice for his role in one of the bloodiest massacres in Boston’s history,” said FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Joseph R. Bonavolonta during a press conference on the 30th anniversary of what’s often called the "Boston Chinatown Massacre". "There is no statute of limitations on murder. We will not stop looking until we find him,’’ said Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins.
Pham, a Vietnamese national of Chinese descent, was a legal, permanent resident of the United States at the time of the murders. Back then, he had black hair, brown eyes, weighed approximately 115 to 135 pounds, was approximately 5’2” to 5’4” tall, and resided on Clayton Street in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Anyone with information regarding Pham's whereabouts is advised to take no action themselves but immediately call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or their local law enforcement agency, or the nearest American embassy or consulate. Tips can also be submitted at tips.fbi.gov.