FBI offers $30,000 reward for information on fugitive Vietnamese 'gangster,' 60, who 'brutally executed five men' at a Boston Chinatown gambling den 30 years ago

On the 30th anniversary of a grisly killing at an illegal gambling den in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, the FBI has announced a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a Vietnamese fugitive accused of executing five men. 

Hung Tien Pham, now 60, and two others are accused of shooting six men at close-range while they played cards at the social club on Tyler Street in the early morning hours on January 12, 1990. 

Of the six victims, only one survived the attack and subsequently identified Pham, along with Nam The Tham and Siny Van Tran, as the shooters. 

'Cold-blooded killer': The FBI is offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of fugitive Hung Tien Pham in connection to the 1990 Boston Chinatown massacre. Pham is pictured on the left and 1989 and on the right in an age-progressed image 

The FBI has been hunting for the Vietnamese national of Chinese descent for the last 30 years 

Tham and Tran are serving life sentences after being arrested in China and returned to the US, but Pham has never been found.

Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office, urged anyone who knows anything about Pham's whereabouts to come forward, saying no amount of information is too small or irrelevant in the hunt for the 'cold-blooded killer.'

'We will not rest until Hung Tien Pham is located, arrested and brought to justice,' Bonavolonta said.

Pham, a Vietnamese national of Chinese descent, was last seen in Bangkok, Thailand, in the mid-1990s. He also has family in the San Francisco area, South Korea and North Vietnam. The FBI says he was known to be a 'big spender who liked flashy cars and cognac.' 

The FBI has released crime scene photos, including an image of playing cards resting on a wooden table stained with what appears to be blood, and an age-progressed photo of Pham, and are launching an international publicity campaign in a renewed effort to track him down.

Investigators say on the morning of January 12, 1990, Pham and two accomplices walked into this social club on Tyler Street in Boston and opened fire 

The social club housed an illegal gambling den. At the time of the attack, a half-dozen men were playing cards inside 

The victims were shot execution-style while playing cards at this table, which is stained with what looks like blood. Five of the men died 

Authorities have never established a motive in what Bonavolonta called 'one of the bloodiest massacres in Boston history.'  

'We’re not sure if it was a robbery or if it was just bad blood between rival groups, but they did go in there with a plan, and they did go in there shooting, and five of the six people that were there ended up dying,' said Daniel Duff, a lieutenant detective with the Boston Police Department who is investigating the case. 

Pham is also wanted by Boston police for another killing that happened four days before the social club slayings, Bonavolonta said.  

After the massacre, Pham allegedly left his two children and their mother, drove to Atlantic City to gamble, and then took a flight from New York 

Following the massacre at the Tyler Street social club, it is alleged that Pham left his two children and their mother and drove to Atlantic City to gamble, and then to New York, where he boarded a flight for Hong Kong on February 1, 1991. 

A federal arrest warrant was issued for Pham two weeks later, charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for the crime of murder. 

'For those of us who were in the Boston area 30 years ago, the massacre is something that cannot be forgotten,' stated Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins. 'Five families lost their loved ones that night, the one surviving victim’s life was changed forever, and an entire neighborhood was traumatized.'

It took law enforcement officials decades to track down Pham's alleged accomplices until they were arrested in China in 1998. Following extensive negotiations they were extradited back to the US in 2001.

In 2005, both Tham and Tran were convicted of murder and handed five consecutive life sentences. But Pham, who was known as a major associate of Asian organized crime, specifically the Ping On crime syndicate, operating in Boston; Philadelphia; Chicago, and Toronto, Canada, remains a fugitive

At the time of the murders, he was a legal permanent resident of the US and had black hair, brown eyes, weighed approximately 115-135lbs and stood at 5-foot-2 to 5-foot-4.

In 2005, Pham's alleged accomplices, Nam The Tham, center right, and Siny Van Tran, behnd left, were convicted of murder and handed five consecutive life sentences

Pham is now 60 years old. He is fluent in Chinese, Vietnamese and English. Over the years, he has used at least 10 different aliases and held a variety of jobs, inclduing a cook, a bicycle repairman and a floor sander. 

'It took years to find Pham’s co-defendants, and we will not rest until Pham is brought to justice and held accountable,' Rollins said. 'There is no statute of limitations on murder. We will not stop looking until we find him.' 

Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts should take no action themselves but should immediately call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), their local law enforcement agency, or their nearest American embassy or consulate.