EPISODE ONE
AN INTRODUCTION TO SEASON THREE
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.
Enter “Larry.” He was a business partner of Ngor’s. When a deal over a bank license fell apart, “Larry” threatened Ngor, saying he knew professional killers. That’s according to the LAPD files. A few months later, Ngor was dead.
The LAPD focused on “botched robbery” narrative – locking up three teenaged gang-members. But authorities never seriously investigated “Larry.”
Join Patricia Nunan as she works with the Innocence Center to explore Ngor’s tumultuous 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.
EPISODE FOUR
METASTASIS
In 1996, a known Taiwanese hitman moves to Cambodia, after gaining fame for an assassination in California. His triad, the Bamboo Union, was already on the ground there — loan-sharking, money-laundering, and running protection rackets with corrupt officials.
The Bamboo Union – and other illicit networks -- haven’t disappeared. They metastasized. Today, they sit at the center of a cyber-scam economy worth billions — built on fraud, coercion, and trafficked workers.
In this episode, Patricia Nunan investigates if the Bamboo Union’s early forays into Cambodia can shed light on who Haing Ngor may have been dealing with.
EPISODE SEVEN
BANKS
DROPPING JUNE 12, 2026
In 1995, Haing Ngor tried to sell a license to open a bank in Cambodia. When the deal collapsed, police records say the buyer, “Larry,” threatened to kill him.
In this episode, Patricia Nunan traces how Cambodia went from abolishing money under the Khmer Rouge to becoming a Wild West financial playground in the 1990s.
Was Ngor’s bank license just a failed business deal? Or was it tied to something much larger — the emergence of a criminal economy that still shapes Cambodia today?
The episode also follows the larger question at the center of Season 3: If Ngor’s murder is linked to business disputes, then who in Cambodia would have the ability - and the willingness – to kill him in Los Angeles?
EPISODE TWO
HENRY LIU AND THE BAMBOO UNION
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.
EPISODE FIVE
FILM INDUSTRY
A Taiwanese triad - the Bamboo Union -- carried out the assassination of Henry Liu in California. Was that a precedent that could explain the murder of Haing Ngor? That’s the question what Patricia Nunan went to Taipei to explore.
But Ngor wasn’t just doing business in Cambodia. He was an actor – active in in the Hong Kong and Taiwanese film industries. The movie business was deeply entangled with triads.
That’s how Nunan can connect some dots between Liu’s assassins and Ngor. The result is a clearer picture of Ngor’s proximity to organized crime, as his financial life was in turmoil.
EPISODE THREE
ORIGINAL GANGSTERS
We introduced the assassination of Henry Liu, a Taiwanese-American journalist killed in California in 1984 by members of the Bamboo Union, in the last episode. 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
EPISODE SIX
WRONG BEDFELLOWS
Another dimension to Haing Ngor’s life that went ignored by authorities in Los Angeles? His decision to go into politics. In the weeks before his death, Ngor told friends that he had been asked to run for high office. But he got out of it, because – “it would get him killed.”
On top of that -- in Cambodia – the weeks surrounding Ngor’s death were especially volatile.
Ngor may have been trying to right a wrong of his own making. He returned to Cambodia after "The Killing Fields,” and aligned himself with the autocratic prime minister, Hun Sen. It was a decision friends said he had come to regret.