What could still be a secret . Propublica reporter a. C. Thompson investigates this cold case, searching for answers across the United States and in thailand. Do you think the bureau should reopen the investigation . If new informations developed, oh yeah. Tonight, terror in Little Saigon. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontline is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. The ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. At fordfoundation. Org. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler, and Additional Support from Joseph Azrack and abigail congdon. Corporate funding for frontline is provided by the future of surgery is within sight. Our research is studying how realtime multimodality imaging during surgery can help precision and outcomes. Brigham and womens hospital. It all starts here. Thompson we tell ourselves that our work matters, that its worth the risk, that it will be remembered. When another journalist is killed, we rush to tell their story and to say to the world that their life was not wasted. And so it shouldnt have taken this long to get here. Over 30 years late, ive arrived at dam phongs grave. His case is three decades cold, without a conviction or an arrest. Just this headstone telling us that dam phong died for journalism. My dad was always controversial. Any time when you write the truth and the truth is not for sale, you are controversial. My dad get threatened all the times. Thompson what do you remember about the day your father was killed . I wanted to know if he needed me to help him with the newspaper. The delivery. So i call home and someone answer the phone who was an american. I hung up. I thought i got the wrong number. I call him again. The same person introduced himself as a sergeant with the hpd. Then he say, son, you need to come home quick, theres been an incident. And then at that time i knew it was over. Houston Police Detectives are still trying to find out who killed vietnamese newspaper editor dam phong nguyen. Night beat reporter kath. Thompson dam phongs sons gave me an old vhs tape. Journalism was dam phong nguyens life and possibly caused his death. Thompson on august 24, 1982, this 44yearold newspaper publisher and father of ten was shot and killed in front of his home in houston, texas. Nguyens 19yearold son tu wants to do political work to help other. Thompson its strange to see their young faces back then, saying brave words for the camera. He died for his country, he died for the truth. The most important thing is freedom. Thompson its as if their story is frozen in time without an ending. My fathers body was laying right over there. The blood drips all the way inside. My mother was on the phone with him so she heard everything and he said, honey, wait, i have to answer this door. My mom heard the voice, that he talk to a person and then all of the sudden my father scream and then the gun fired again. Thompson there was an audible sound from the weapon. But no witness on the right, no witness up front. Thompson the police never made an arrest but dam phongs sons say his old papers are full of suspects. The clues are all here. In his writing, in the newspaper. Thompson they tell me he was a dogged investigator whose stories on politics and corruption made him powerful enemies in the vietnamese american community. He receive threat all the time. I heard some of the threat come in the phone that said, tell your father to stop what hes doing or he will pay the consequences. Thompson how many of these threats do you remember getting on the phone that you heard . At least three a week. Thompson well, do you know if the Houston Police translated this into english . No. We gave them all the latest newspaper and they never gave us a feedback. Thompson you gave them to em . I gave it to them because since they have no witnesses, this is the only evidence. Thompson it snt a lot to go on, a stack of old articles i would need to get translated. ringing i tried to track down other reporters he knew. Hi, im calling for pham cong tieu. But their numbers no longer work. And even his old advertisers have closed down. These are the few details i can piece together seven shots, no shell casings, little forensic evidence, and no witnesses. It all sounds like a professional hit. And even those who know about the case dont want to talk. I just wondered if theres any way to meet with the detectives who are currently assigned to the case and just talk on background. Not for the record, just to get a better sense of the case. Cold case units are usually eager to speak to the press, but no one at the houston pd will talk about dam phongs murder. Ive begun to read translations of dam phongs newspapers and its clear he wasnt afraid of making dangerous enemies vietnamese gangs, con men targeting refugees, the kkk. But dam phongs final articles took aim at an anticommunist Political Group called the front. He had an angry meeting with them at a restaurant down on milam street days before he was killed. But the restaurant is gone and the front no longer exists. They were a community of mostly military elite who had been. Thompson a reporter who covered houston for tla times tells me the front was run by former officers in the u. S. Backed army of South Vietnam. Years after the fall of saigon, the war for them still hadnt ended. They collected money and they said that they had people on the ground in vietnam in the jungles and they were organizing. And here in houston, at the top of a restaurant, people would put on their tan and brown shirts and they would meet, and they would even do some kinds of military exercises in hopes that they could take back vietnam. For them, the war did not end. They would call themselves freedom fighters. They didnt see themselves as charging in to. To bring down a legitimate government. They were continuing a war that they had been dislodged from but still believed in. Thompson what was the theory that was going around about who killed dam phong . There was something close to a consensus that it must have been connected to the front. There were people who thought that he had it coming to him, that he was disloyal and unpatriotic, uh, for even questioning the front, and that it was somehow damaging to the whole community and it was damaging to the cause. Many people thought that it was inevitable, that he wouldnt survive this. thunder crackling thompson kolker says the front was the only suspect shed ever heard linked to the murder, but no one would give her anything more than rumors. thunder crackles i tracked down one of dam phongs old friends. He agrees to meet me at a restaurant. When you look at the killing of dam phong, this could have been about lots of different people he offended. What do you think . speaking vietnamese who do you think killed dam phong . speaking vietnamese so k9 was a death squad . Thompson what kind of personnel were on these teams . What made them want to kill dam phong . So you warned him . Thompson a couple months before he got killed . Yeah, before that. Thompson how come this case is still unsolved . speaking vietnamese on intercom the airport terminal building has been. Thompson a vietnamese Guerrilla Group meeting above a restaurant. A hit squad made up of former South Vietnamese soldiers. Its all a bit hard to believe, but when i start looking into the front, its clearly more than just a fringe group in houston. shouting in vietnamese it had thousands of members in dozens of cities and claimed it was raising an army to overthrow the communist government in vietnam. If k9 really was a hit squad targeting the fronts critics, like dam phong, maybe there were other murders. I cant find any similar cases in houston, but i widen my search and find what looks like a match. July 21, 1981. A year before dam phong, another vietnamese newspaper publisher, duong trong lam, was gunned down in front of his home in San Francisco. Id worked as a Police Reporter in the bay area for years, and i managed to get a copy of the police files from the lam case. Im looking for links to k9 and the front, but the police files take me in a different direction. Among the papers, i find a communique claiming responsibility for the murder. But its signed by yet another group voecrn. The Vietnamese Organization to exterminate communists and restore the nation had issued an execution order against lam because of his procommunist writing. It looks like a political murder. I want to know if the fbi ever investigated it. I file a freedom of information act request to see what comes up. The local police had lams murder pegged as a personal dispute. They wrapped up their investigation in a few weeks, charging his friend with the murder. But the whole thing fell apart, and the judge threw it out of court before the trial even began. Lam was standing approximately here, because he was shocked, threw up his hands, screamed, ran and fell to the ground, face down in front of that building there. Thompson jason wechter is a private investigator who looked into the case. These are the three who get the best look at his face, because hes coming towards. Thompson wechter walks me through the crime scene and its a tour of missed leads and lost opportunities. When we get further up, ill show you something that i thought was a very glaring omission on the part of the police. Thompson he tells me they failed to interview witnesses, never did a full canvass of the neighborhood, and didnt question a key suspect. The police never went there, never talked to anyone. Thompson the police never solved the case. So wechter has brought along his own files to share with me. On top of wechters files is the same strange communique from voecrn. When you saw these letters, what did you think . I thought it could be possible. We know hed been threatened. We have credible reports that people were looking for him with a gun. We have a credible report that someone had backed him into the end of the hallway and he seemed to be in fear of his life. The police looked at this through the prism of, uh, a homicide committed for personal reasons. That was the kind of thing they were fairly familiar with. I dont think they explored the poten. Possibility of a political motive. Thompson lams sister, nancy duong, has fond memories of living with her brother in the 70s. So thats him . Thompson wow. And then he had a newsletter. Thompson did he get threats . Yes. Thompson what were the threats like . Thompson they put guns to your head . Thompson what did the people say . Thompson so there was a. A letter that came out after your brother got killed, and it said the Vietnamese Organization to exterminate communists. Thompson they called you . Yes. Thompson they said, were a group, a terrorist group . Thompson how many times do you think someone called you and. Thompson you had to cut the phone . Thompson what did you think of the Police Investigation . sobbing phone ringing beeps thompson hi, inspector pierucci, this is ac thompson with propublica and pbs frontline. Im investigating the death of duong trong lam in 1981. I would love to talk to you about the case. If you get a chance, please give me a call. beep machine voice thank you for leaving your message. Thompson two separate storylines have emerged the front with its alleged k9 hit squad in houston, and voecrn in San Francisco. But i cant get anyone in Law Enforcement in either city to talk about it. And then, the freedom of information act request id filed comes back. Hundreds of partially redacted pages from an fbi investigation in the 90s. It pulled together dozens of crimes in cities from san diego to memphis to alexandria, virginia. It was captioned 266 for domestic terrorism and it linked voecrn to the front and k9. The fbi files reveal a nationwide reign of terror. Seven murders and dozens of attacks, many targeting journalists who were critical of the front. But the fbi closed the case in the late 90s, and today this unsolved wave of terror has been all but forgotten. I inherited a file room of documents. About probably from this desk over to the corner there. The reason i left, ultimately, is because i developed an ulcer, and it started affecting my health. Thompson special agent Katherine Tang wilcox helped run the voecrn investigation for the fbi. She amassed a mountain of evidence, but prosecutors were never able to bring a case. Throughout the files, weve got three different organizations. Weve got vorn, weve got the front, and weve got k9. How were they tied together in your mind . K9 was established as the assassination arm of the front, to take care of the people who either represented a threat to them and their anticommunist movement, or were viewed as being communist. Im more inclined to believe that voecrn was just a name given by either the front leadership or k9, to take responsibility for. For the actions. Thompson but how did k9 operate . I mean, who was the boss . We never got enough information at that time, because people were still so afraid to really pin down who was in k9. I do think that, particularly with nguyen dam phong in houston, there is a distinct belief on my part that the front was responsible. Thompson why do you think that dam phong was killed by the front . There were no other motives developed, other than the problems that he was having with the front, because of the articles he was publishing. And then the way the murder was conducted. The casings were picked up and collected. Thompson the shells . Yeah. That was someone who was highly trained. That knew what they were doing, and wasnt going to leave any evidence that would be remotely helpful behind. Thompson and what did that spell out to you . It was an assassination. Thompson but she and other retired agents tell me the kills and violence were overshadowed by higher profile cases at the time, like the unabomber. And it didnt get the resources it needed. It sounds crazy, a political death squad operating in the u. S. For a decade with impunity. I do feel badly. I was never, ever able to bring someone to justice, to bring closure to those victims families, but even after we finally got a task force set up to address it, we. I. There was more than just me trying to work these cases all over the place. It wasnt something every agent wanted to take on. Thompson do you think the bureau should reopen the investigation . Should they be reopened if new informations developed . Oh yeah, yeah. Because if one person comes forward, thatll encourage others to come forward. Somebody knows whos responsible for each and every one of these acts. Theres somebody that knows. And even. And there is no statute of limitation on homicide. Thompson the fbi was never able to penetrate the fronts leadership or flip a key member, but special agent tangwilcox is right, someone out there knows whos responsible. They would be 30 years older now, but that might make it easier to talk. The front was led by former soldiers, and i managed to get an invitation to a south Vietnamese Army reunion in san jose. National Anthem of South Vietnam playing it all feels a bit surreal, but its still part of the vietnameseamerican culture today. The martial songs, the speeches calling for the overthrow of the communist government. The pressed uniforms from a military that hasnt existed for 40 years. Some of the vets are former front members and theyre eager to talk about the glory days of the battle against communism. When i turn the conversation to k9, they quickly become cagey. The next day, a former south Vietnamese Army ranger and front member agrees to speak on camera. If you had seen someone that you thought was a communist, back in the 1980s, what would have happened . speaking vietnamese thompson what was the k9 unit . mumbling thompson because what people say is that the k9 assassinated people like dam phong, the journalist in houston. And were just trying to figure out whats rumor and whats real. Thompson youre a smart guy. You knew about the k9. Thompson it feels like khoa knows more than hes saying. But decades after the fbi closed the case, people are still reluctant to talk. Thompson over the following months, i tracked down dozens of victims and former front members in Little Saigons from Orange County to virginia. Some seemed genuinely scared and many refused to appear on camera. This is a call for mr. Wong co dien. Weve been trying to get in touch with you for months. We would really like to interview you. But after countless meetings, a handful of former front leaders confirms the suspicions in the fbi files that k9 was a secret unit the front used to target its enemies. Who was in charge of k9 . Thompson i still dont know who ran k9, who gave the orders, who pulled the trigger. The closest Law Enforcement ever came to cracking the fronts leadership was with the same tool that took down al capone a tax case. The San Jose Police investigator who helped build the federal tax case has retired to the hills of northern california. Doug zwemke keeps a scrapbook from his investigations. Some of my friends call this the rolodex of death. Thompson it is filled with the photos of informants who were murdered while working with him. He had a little sign on his chest. Im snitch, i die snitch. Thompson oh, my god. Yeah. She was an informant, she moves to texas, they killed her and burned her. He got murdered. Heres a guy that helped on the front a little bit. But, um, he was murdered in san quentin. Now here is the star. The person that started the whole thing. This is freedom fighter. And thats his wife, velvet. This is the guy that murdered him. Whether he was murdered for helping me, or becau