Police Authenticate Letter on Fire That Killed Editor

Garden Grove police investigators Thursday verified the authenticity of a letter from an anti-Communist terrorist group that claimed responsibility for an arson fire that killed Vietnamese editor Tap Van Pham.

It marks the first time that a U.S. law enforcement agency has verified the existence and an activity of the Party to Exterminate Communists and Restore the Nation, Orange County Vietnamese community leaders said.

“All evidence accumulated to this point tends to indicate that the letter is genuine, and the author of the letter is responsible for, or directly connected to, the crime,” Garden Grove Police Lt. Scott Hamilton said.

Do Ngoc Yen, editor of Little Saigon’s Nguoi Viet newspaper, expressed surprise, as did other Vietnamese refugees, regarding the police finding.

“Until now, never had any of the authorities verified their activities,” Do said. “This is the first time the existence and activities of the organization, which has claimed responsibility for terrorist incidents since 1981, has been verified.”

Pham, 45, of Garden Grove, died Aug. 9 in a fire in his home and office at 10708 Westminster Ave.

The letter, dated Aug. 9 and postmarked San Jose, said the group had been responsible for the 2 a.m. fire. The letter, which at least two Vietnamese newspapers in Orange County received, did not mention an intention to kill Pham.

The typewritten letter said, in Vietnamese, that the “order to destroy” Pham’s offices was a result of his publication of ads for three Canadian companies that the group opposes because the party says they are pro-Communist.

Pham had received anonymous threats before publishing the ads in the July 31 issue of Mai magazine, Pham’s friends and associates said. The magazine covered entertainment news.

On Thursday, police said publication of the ads “appears to be the motive for the crime.”

No arrests have been made, but a number of leads are being pursued, Hamilton said.

Police also said investigators found about $80,000 in gold, jewelry and cash during a search after the fire.

In recent weeks, police had traveled to Montreal, San Francisco and San Jose--cities with substantial Vietnamese populations--in an attempt to determine the letter’s authenticity. In the meantime, a Vietnamese translator has been examining the letter to look for similarities, in grammar and key words and phrases, to other letters signed by the party that claim responsibility for other crimes.

Police did not disclose how they determined that the letter was genuine.

“Details of how it was determined to be genuine cannot be released, so that future letters, if any, can (also) be validated,” Hamilton said.

One Vietnamese refugee, who did not want to be identified, said he was surprised that police determined that the letter was authentic.

“A lot of people in the Vietnamese community doubted the organization was behind Mr. Pham’s death because other magazines and newspapers also ran the ad without any reprisal,” he said.

“But if the authorities, who have means of investigating these things, have said that, then I believe it.”

Some Vietnamese said they will pay closer attention to the police investigation of Pham’s death and to any communiques from the party.

In view of other letters claiming responsibility for arson, murder and attempted assassinations in Montreal, Los Angeles and San Francisco, police investigators suggested that the group may have enlarged its scope in recent years.

“The activities of this group, and groups like that, are occurring on a nationwide scale and have been occurring for several years,” Hamilton said.

Last year, the group claimed responsibility for the shooting of Tran Khanh Van of Santa Ana. Tran, once a top housing official in the South Vietnamese government, was shot twice in Westminster on March 20, 1986, after an assailant demanded $10,000 to help pay for anti-Communist efforts.

Tran, who survived the shooting, believed that he was chosen because he was seen as favoring normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam.

The three companies whose ads were mentioned in the letter claiming responsibility for the arson provide similar services. All offer to send packages of merchandise to relatives in Vietnam for a price.