Slain Publisher Complained of Extortion

A month before he died in a Sunday fire now believed to have been arson, journalist Tap Van Pham had complained to friends about Vietnamese extortionists.

Pham, who died in his home and office in Garden Grove, said extortionists had stolen $360 from his mailbox and then demanded $60 to return the money, according to Pham’s longtime friend and fellow journalist, Kieu Loan Nguyen. He said Pham acquiesced, but then installed a mail slot in his office door and put up a note telling postal carriers to use the slot.

On Monday, acrid soot covered the quarters where Pham had published Mai magazine, an entertainment magazine that is among the most successful of a dozen Vietnamese publications in Orange County.

Flammable liquid had been poured into the front of the building, either through the new mail slot or through a broken window, and ignited about 2 a.m. Sunday.

Garden Grove police said Monday that they were uncertain about the motivation for the crime and were considering possibilities ranging from extortion to politically motivated retaliation for a controversial ad that Pham ran last week. They said they have no suspects and no leads.

Strong anti-Communist feelings have been blamed for past violence among Vietnamese immigrants in Orange County. But that explanation seems unlikely in this case because Pham had kept a low political profile, Vietnamese friends and community leaders said.

Pham ran a one-man operation, working 14 to 16 hours a day, six or seven days a week, according to friends and neighbors. Friends said he hoped to send for his wife and three children, whom he left behind in Saigon when he fled on a boat in 1981.