Who Killed Haing Ngor?

By Mary Patricia NunanHistory

Who Killed Haing Ngor? episodes

October 10, 2025 The Khmer Rouge Misdirect
In 1996, Oscar-winning actor and Khmer rouge survivor Haing S. Ngor was gunned down outside his home in Los Angeles.

His murder gave rise to a conspiracy theory - that the Khmer Rouge sent assassins to silence their most famous critic.

This episode dismantles that myth - and examines how it stopped the right questions from being asked.

⚠️ Contains descriptions of Khmer Rouge torture and violence.
26 min
October 03, 2025 The Crime Scene
Episode Two - Season Two
The Crime Scene
Patricia Nunan visits Ngor’s home, in LA’s Chinatown - where Oscar-winning actor and Khmer Rouge survivor Haing Ngor was murdered in 1996.
With Innocence Center lawyer Mike Semanchik and friend Doug Niven, she retraces the crime and questions the state’s narrative.
33 min
October 03, 2025 Season Two - Intro
Haing S. Ngor survived the Khmer Rouge, only to be shot dead outside his Los Angeles home.

His raw performance in the 1984 film, “The Killing Fields,” won him an Academy Award and brought international attention to Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge period.
At the time of his murder, Ngor lived between worlds: Hollywood and post-war Cambodia. He was admired, but also resented.
Who Killed Haing Ngor explores his extraordinary life, and investigates the leads the LAPD missed or ignored.
9 min
May 19, 2024 Who Killed Haing Ngor - Season Two - Trailer
A look ahead at Season Two of "Who Killed Haing Ngor" - currently being investigated. Stay tuned for a release date!
3 min
August 01, 2023 Art Imitates Life - Then Changes It
Art, it’s been widely said, imitates life. But there are also moments when it changes it.
The impact of “The Killing Fields” was so profound, that some credit it with helping launch Cambodia’s peace plan, ending decades of civil war.
This is the second episode of a two-parter, in which I talk with journalist Jon Swain and photographer Roland Neveu. Along with Ngor, they share the distinction of having been the only people on the set of “The Killing Fields” who were also in Phnom Penh in 1975.
19 min
July 26, 2023 It’s Always the Fixer...
The first of two episodes covering my conversations with Jon Swain, of the Sunday Times, and photographer Roland Neveu. We take a look a closer look at Dith Pran, a so-called "fixer" for New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, whose courage and heroism is what "The Killing Fields" is about.
Both Swain and Neveu covered the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and went on to be involved in the film, “The Killing Fields.” We'll hear about that in the next episode.
21 min
July 05, 2023 Trauma Talking
This week I’m talking with Dorothy Chow, the producer of the “Death in Cambodia” podcast. In it, she interviews her father, Robert Chau about his experience as a teenager escaping the Khmer Rouge.
That’s relatively rare. Many survivors are reluctant to talk about their unresolved trauma. That trauma - and the intergenerational trauma they’ve handed down to their children - are linked to the conspiracy theories surrounding the murder of Dr. Haing Ngor.
But Dorothy Chow is a co-founder of Khmer Courageous Conversations - a new initiative to break the culture of silence and to loosen grip the Khmer Rouge still have on survivors, even decades later.
19 min
June 26, 2023 Finding Comrade Duch - Part II
here’s an enduring conspiracy theory about the murder of Haing Ngor. Many believe that the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot had him killed. That suggests that Pol Pot’s power stretched from the jungles of Cambodia to the streets of Los Angeles.
The person probably most responsible for fueling that conspiracy? It was Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Comrade Duch.He the top executioner for the Khmer Rouge.
That Pol Pot killed Haing Ngor is an idea I find wildly implausible, and so does Nic Dunlop, the Irish photographer who found Comrade Duch. This is the second part of our conversation.
19 min
June 21, 2023 Finding Comrade Duch - Part I
A conversation with Nic Dunlop, the man who found and “wrote the book” on Kaing Guek Euv, better known as Comrade Duch.
He was the infamous head of S-21 - better known as Tuol Sleng - the Khmer Rouge prison and torture center.
Duch is the one who claimed Pol Pot ordered the murder of Haing Ngor - a conspiracy theory we dismiss.
20 min
June 02, 2023 The Dissident and the Dictator
I have to admit: from the moment I decided to launch this podcast about the murder of Haing Ngor, I knew I had to interview Sam Rainsy.
When I was reporting from Cambodia in the 1990’s, Sam Rainsy was seen as a bright and shining star. He was a democracy activist, who had worked in finance in Paris – so he had his own money, and was seen as uncorruptible. He became Cambodia’s Finance Minister.
Rainsy was also an absolute darling of the international press. That’s partly because he made himself super accessible. If you got Sam Rainsy on the phone, you could always count on him for quote.
And there’s one quote I remember : It’s been stuck in the back of my head for decades. It was when Sam Rainsy said that Hun Sen was behind the murder of Haing Ngor.
20 min

About Who Killed Haing Ngor?

From the publisher's feed

The FBI ruled the 1996 murder of Haing Ngor a robbery gone awry. This podcast examines the lingering questions surrounding the case. We invite listeners to contact us with tips, or to arrange to…