On October 4, 1984, RCMP Sergeant Bob Newman knocked on the apartment door of an electronics factory worker living in Calgary, Alberta. The factory worker's name was Jim Wong, a Vietnamese in his early-twenties who shared an apartment with a man named Tri Sieu Tran. Wong was an avid reader, who spent a lot of time at the library across the street, reading books by Asian writers. He had also studied English at Connaunt School in Calgary with a friend. When Sergeant Newman arrived, he was led through the apartment by Tran and into Wong's room. The apartment was furnished with little more than a television set, mattress, and blanket. Cluttered around the apartment was mail from Vancouver B.C., two French dictionaries, and four cases of beer. Wong slept on the mattress and his roommate slept on the floor. The apartment was a low-rent unit in a seven-story building, located at 112 Third Avenue SW. The rent was a mere $275 per month, and Wong and Tran had been living there for a little over two months.

The roommates hung out at the video arcade sometimes. Tran had a punk hairdo and wore an earring. Wong was the quieter one. A few days before Sergeant Newman arrived, Wong went to his landlord and gave him notice. He would be moving out soon.

When Sergeant Newman arrived, he entered the room and woke the young man. He told him to get dressed. Wong put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and was taken to an immigration office in Calgary's Chinatown. He was arrested on charges of being in Canada illegally because he allegedly failed to seek a residence permit after living in the country for more than three months. It was at the immigration offices that Wong saw someone he recognized…Seattle Police Lieutenant Robert Holter. Wong produced some identification, but it was phony. Lieutenant Holter told the young man, "I know who you are. You know who I am. I'm not interested in how you got to Canada. I'm only interested in the investigation of the Wah Mee murders."

Jim Wong didn't need the glasses he regularly wore. Nor did he particularly like his hair cut so short. Jim Wong wasn't even Vietnamese. In fact, Jim Wong wasn't even Jim Wong.

Jim Wong was Tony Ng.

And so it was that Tony Ng's life as a fugitive came to an end. He had been placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, his picture plastered in post offices across the United States. The Bing Kung tong had offered an $80,000 reward for anyone who could provide information leading to his arrest. He was considered armed and extremely dangerous, and the search for him was the most intensive manhunt in Pacific Northwest history. Yet, in the end, this "armed and dangerous" fugitive was apprehended while sleeping. He was relieved to tell his story and, in many respects, the young man was glad the entire ordeal was finally over.

At the immigration office in Calgary, Ng and Lieutenant Holter talked for four hours.

"You must be aware from the newspapers that Willie Mak has seriously implicated you in the killings," Holter said.

Tony Ng was well aware. He told the Lieutenant that he had arrived in Canada in February 1983. He described his involvement in the killings at the Club. He admitted that he was in the Club on the night of the slayings and that he tied up several of the victims and stole their money. He told Holter that Mak then ordered him to wait in the area between the two security doors. He heard shots and, later, he joined Mak and Benjamin Ng as they fled the Club. In exchange for joining the men, Ng told Holter, he received $6,000 and his $1,000 debt with Mak was cleared. Ng said that he thought the incident would only involve robbery and assault, not murder, and that he had confronted Mak in an effort to call the whole thing off. Ng told Holter, "I would like to say that, if I had known that people were going to be killed or hurt, I would not have gone, and that nothing is worth doing this kind of thing."

Ng was captured after FBI investigators received an undisclosed tip that Ng was in Calgary, Alberta. The FBI contacted the RCMP and asked them to investigate the lead. Wary that they would "tip their hand" to Ng, RCMP asked the FBI and Seattle police to join them in Calgary. The three agencies met on Wednesday morning and, soon thereafter, spotted Ng. But they weren't certain it was Ng. "He didn't appear as in the photographs on our wanted flyer," said Allen Whitaker, a special agent at the Seattle FBI office. "We weren't able to positively identify Ng until near the time he was captured."

With Ng in custody, there was a celebration of sorts back in Seattle. "I am deeply gratified at the excellent work of the FBI, the Seattle police department, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police," King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng told the media.

Ng's capture came just hours after the celebration of Kung Chau -- a day the Chinese remember their dead. Buddhists believe that Kung Chau is the only day that the King of Hell allows the spirits of those who died violently to return to earth and seek retribution. And in Chinatown, friends and relatives of the victims were rejoicing. "When news began hitting here," said Henry Lee, an employee at the King Cafe, "people flocked to nearby family association halls. When they watched on television or listened to radios about what happened, they cheered."

"Everybody is feeling better," said Peter Wong, past president of the Bing Kung Association. "Now maybe the case will be finished."

Capturing Tony Ng was one thing. Getting him back to America was an entirely different matter. In order to have Ng extradited back to the United States, prosecutors in Seattle agreed not to pursue the death penalty. Under a treaty with the United States, Canada could refuse to extradite a person if it was believed the person would be executed if extradited. In what appeared to be a compromise in an effort to return Ng to the United States for a trial, prosecutors agreed that Ng's involvement with Mak and Benjamin Ng "differ[ed] significantly from that of his accomplices" and Ng "appear[ed] to be a last-minute recruit." Instead, prosecutors would seek consecutive life sentences.

Jury selection for Tony Ng's trial began on April 1, 1985. The trial began a week later. Tony Ng's defense team consisted of two attorneys -- John Muenster and Mark Mestel. The prosecution team would remain the same, with William Downing and Robert Lasnik seeking murder convictions against the young man. Tony Ng's trial was not followed as closely as Benjamin Ng's and Willie Mak's. Whereas Benjamin Ng's trial was front-page fodder for its duration, Tony Ng's trial was buried in Section C of the two major daily newspapers. There were no celebrated defense attorneys, no stories of warring tongs, and no fingers of blame pointed at one another. Tony Ng's trial was simply that of a young man confessing that he had robbed the victims at the Wah Mee and was relieved that this chapter of his life was coming to a close. It was enough to bore media reporters to tears.

On April 8, 1985, the confession and conversation that Ng had with Holter in Calgary was entered as evidence. The statement was an integral part of Ng's defense, in that his attorneys were arguing that Ng did not kill anyone at the Club. He simply tied the victims, robbed them, and then waited in the hallway between the security doors. When the three men left the Club, the defense argued, Ng had no idea that anyone had been killed. The defense also argued that Ng was a follower in the robbery, and only participated because Mak had threatened to kill him if he didn't cooperate. Defense attorney Mestel told the court, "Tony basically was like a robot. He followed orders. He took what they gave him."

The following day, Wai Chin took the stand for the last time in all three trials. After the two previous trials, Chin had returned to a somewhat normal life free of bodyguards and police protection. When he heard that Tony Ng had been captured, Chin said he didn't want to discuss its significance and commented, "I want to forget this thing." The police didn't see any need to reinstate their 24-hour protection of Chin -- there was no need, considering all the culprits had been apprehended. Instead, Chin lived quietly with his companion, Rose, and the media left him alone.

Chin's testimony remained the same. Chin had stated that at least two men had fired their weapons, but Chin had admitted that his severe wounds and the demands of his tormentors prevented him from seeing everything. It was enough of a hole for the defense to try to prove that Chin did not see Tony Ng kill anyone.

Defense attorney Mestel asked the witness, "You can't tell who was standing in what position when the guns went off?"

"No, I can't remember."

"Can you tell us which gun goes off first from what position?"

"No," Chin replied. He said he heard either Mak or Benjamin Ng say, "Is that all the bullets?" Chin was certain that it wasn't Tony Ng who asked the question, nor was Chin in a position to see if all three men were in the Club when the question was asked.

"So," Mestel continued, "You couldn't see whether Tony was there or whether he was gone?"

"No," Chin replied.

The following day in court, Tony Ng took the stand. Ng recalled how Mak had fired a bullet at the floor, barely missing Ng's feet, when Ng said he wanted out of the plan. He said that Mak threatened to kill him if he didn't participate in the robbery. Tony Ng testified that Mak stated he would shoot him, his family and his girlfriend, and burn down his family's restaurant if Ng refused to join. Ng said that he tried to get out of the robbery by borrowing $1,000 from his girlfriend in an effort to pay off his debt. But Mak refused the money and continued with his threats against Ng.

"Did you believe him?" Mestel asked his client.

"I did," Ng replied.

Tony Ng's testimony in court conflicted with that of his written statement prepared shortly after his capture. In his statement, Ng said all three robbers "pulled out" their guns after Benjamin Ng came into the club. But in court, Ng testified that he never pulled out his weapon while he was in the Club. These conflicting statements coupled with Chin's testimony that he saw all three men "pointing at us" with guns only helped to discredit Ng's defense.

Throughout his testimony, Ng was soft-spoken and broke out in tears at times. The young man recounted his life as a fugitive living in Calgary, Alberta. He spent four days a week reading Chinese books at the library across the street from his apartment building. He also testified that he survived on money netted from the robbery along with checks that were regularly mailed to him by his mother. That Ng's mother was aiding and abetting a fugitive was not a surprise. Tony Ng's father had told two Times reporters, "I haven't seen him since before the killings." Yet, at Benjamin Ng's trial, one witness testified that Willie Mak and Tony Ng were spotted at the Imperial Lanes shortly after the murders and that the senior Ng told the two young men that "a lot of people had been killed in Chinatown." Furthermore, in the same Times article, Ng told reporters that he had been bowling at the Imperial Lanes in the hours after the murders, but that neither Tony Ng nor Willie Mak were there.

In defense attorney Muenster's closing arguments, he told the jury, "All evidence shows that, fundamentally, [Tony] is a decent person. The prosecutor seeks to brand him a murderer because he yielded to fear."

Prosecutor Downing urged the jury to believe the survivor's version of what happened: Ng was an equal partner in the criminal team, and Ng was still in the Club when Chin was wounded.

After nearly two weeks of testimony and thirteen hours of deliberation, a jury acquitted Tony Ng of the murders at the Wah Mee Club. However, he was found guilty of robbery and second-degree assault. Commenting on the verdict, juror Diann Fouse told reporters, "We felt he was under duress for being in there in the first place. I believed Ng's testimony. I don't think he lied. That's my gut feeling."

But the verdict confused both the defense and the prosecution.

"I'm somewhat puzzled by the [verdicts] because duress is just as applicable to robbery as it is to murder," said defense attorney Mestel. "If he was there under the compulsion of someone else, he wasn't guilty of robbery either."

Prosecutor Downing said, "My suspicion is that their result has more to do with their sense of justice rather than strict following of the court's instructions. They only go so far as to put the label of robber-times-thirteen on him. I have no quarrel with that whatsoever. It's simply a matter of the way the law works -- that logically, if they got that far, they should have found him guilty of felony murder."

Prosecutor Lasnik commented, "The jurors apparently sought to make a clear distinction between the killers -- Willie Mak and Benjamin Ng -- and Tony Ng, who had no intent to kill, didn't fire a gun, and didn't kill anybody."

Jeannie Robertson, the sister of Jean Mar, said, "I can't believe we attended the same trial. It's an unspeakable insult. It's outrageous. He acted in concert with the two other defendants. If the jury bought that duress garbage, then they should have acquitted him of all charges. It's ludicrous."

Tony Ng's sister, Barbara Mar, left the courtroom in tears. Her husband accompanied her. Later, her husband told reporters, "[Tony's] innocent. He is a good young man. He got in with the wrong people in the wrong place. He's not entitled to that punishment. He [had no] control."

Chinatown's reaction was one of disbelief and exhaustion. They had endured a barrage of media stereotypes during three high-profile trials. "People hope it's over," said Bob Santos, the director of the International District Improvement Association.

Times staff columnist Rick Anderson, who had followed the investigation and trials for more than two years, wrote about Chinatown's reaction:

The sidewalks are almost empty. It is cold, and there is rain in the air. The lights of other restaurants and shops beckon along the street. They would be warm, with people in them.

The customers could be interrupted, and queried, and the last reporter could watch their faces fall like all the other faces fell last night and then he could hear them say what the others had already said last night.

He could do that. Or he could do Chinatown a favor.

He could leave. Go back to the office. And put down one last line.

It's over.

Chapter Fourteen | Willie Mak avoids the death penalty

This story originally appeared as a serialized feature in Asian Focus newspaper