Who Killed Haing Ngor?

In the last episode, we introduced the assassination of Henry Liu — a Taiwanese-American journalist killed in California in 1984 by members of the Bamboo Union. The killing had some similarities to the murder of Haing Ngor.

In this episode, Patricia Nunan travels to Taipei to find out if that case can reveal any new truths about the Ngor killing.  After all, if a triad had the reach to carry out a killing on U.S. soil once — couldn’t it happen again?

Nunan sits down with Chang An-lo, also known as “White Wolf,” a founding member of the Bamboo Union. He’s an “Original Gangster.” He was also a “blood brother” to of one of Liu’s assassins.

Together, they dive into the Liu assassination to see if it offers any answers to the Ngor case.

Patricia Nunan begins to explore the question of which triad or organized crime syndicate had the capacity to carry out a killing in the United States.

That search leads to another case: the 1984 assassination of Taiwanese-American journalist Henry Liu, carried out by members of the Bamboo Union — a powerful triad with a history of transnational violence.

The parallels are circumstantial but also  -- hard to ignore. Two prominent Asian Americans. Both gunned down in California.

This is a mini “cheat sheet” episode to introduce a complicated story. It sets the stage for a deeper investigation into the Bamboo Union, and its presence in Cambodia during the years leading up to Ngor’s death.

The next episode, “Original Gangsters,” drops Friday, May 8, 2026.

The Man We Call “Larry”

Welcome to the launch of season three of Who Killed Haing Ngor. This season, we dive deeper into a key question: 

If Haing Ngor was killed in Los Angeles, because of something that happened in Cambodia — then who had the reach to do that?  The answer is a triad – a transnational organized criminal group.

Join Patricia Nunan as she works with the Innocence Center to explore Ngor’s turbulent final months. Her goal is - hopefully - to bring justice to the three men wrongfully convicted of his murder, and to finally do justice to Ngor’s memory.

The Killing Fields is often described as a film that changed history.

Haing Ngor’s life reads like a Greek tragedy — promise, loss, survival, and a final act no one can quite explain.

People who knew him describe a man split between warmth and arrogance, humanitarian impulses and anger.  Plus there was his untreated trauma.

LAPD claimed Ngor’s murder was a robbery gone wrong. But nearly every part of that narrative collapses under scrutiny.  So do the other narratives – a Khmer Rouge assassination; a murder linked to the timber mafia; the murky question of involvement by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

This episode recaps the “known unknowns” - the unanswered questions that shape the last years of Ngor’s life.

This is the last episode of season 2’s investigative arc.  From eliminating known suspects, we’ll pivot to advancing the investigation. 

Season 3 will be out in early 2026.

*** A BONUS EPISODE WILL DROP IN DECEMBER 2025 ***

Haing Ngor was a doctor – launched into an unlikely career as an actor and activist. When Cambodia opened up in the early 1990’s, he decided he was also a businessman. 

 That may sound like Ngor had it easy. But he was dogged by the same financial turbulence that characterized nearly all his efforts in Cambodia’s post-war “compassion fad” economy. 

Was it nostalgia? Naïveté? Or did Ngor think he had what it takes to swim with the sharks?

Being a movie star allowed Haing Ngor to make new friends - and to connect with old ones he thought he had lost.

In this episode, Patricia Nunan talks to Ngor’s Hollywood agents, who knew the eager actor happy to take any job to finance his humanitarian work in Cambodia.

Jason Chan is one of the trio of gang-members who, in 1998, were convicted of killing Haing Ngor.  Prosecutors said Chan was holding the gun – because somebody had to be.

The jury didn’t buy it – but he still got life without parole.

Join Patricia Nunan has she shares parts of her nearly two-year text conversation with Chan, a client of the Innocence Center.

In the 1990s, Cambodia became the world’s newest “compassion fad” — a post-conflict boomtown flooded with aid groups, investors, and opportunists. Haing Ngor was one of many who returned, hoping to rebuild his country.

Instead, he found himself caught in a feud – with another humanitarian.

In this episode, Patricia Nunan opens her exploration of Ngor’s financial turbulence in the years before his murder.

Patricia Nunan sits down with journalist Roger Warner — Ngor’s close friend and co-author of A Cambodian Odyssey.

In some ways, it’s almost as if the universe was hinting that Ngor was on thin ice.

⚠️ Contains descriptions of Khmer Rouge torture and violence.