Đại Cathay

Đại Cathay, whose real name was Lê Văn Đại, was a 1960s Saigon mobster, and was considered as the top of the "four great kings" of Saigon's criminal underworld before 1975, followed by Huỳnh Tỳ, Ngô Văn Cái and Ba Thế.

Early life Đại Cathay was born in 1940 as the son of Lê Văn Cự, who was a gangster in the market area of Cầu Muối. After 1945, Đại's father became a revolutionary and joined the Bình Xuyên army to fight against the French, where his father served under his leader Ba Dương. In 1946, his father was captured and exiled to Côn Đảo prison, where he later died.

As a youth wandering around the markets of Saigon in the 4th ward, Đại stole melons and bananas from the local produce, which he would then share with the many local street kids that he had befriended. Eventually, Đại gained a following of street youths around him, but unlike many other gang leaders, Đại was well known for his generosity and looking out for his henchmen, always keeping as little to himself as possible while sharing the rest with his gang. He also never punished members who didn't bring in enough money to the gang, a trait uncommon for gang leaders. It was through this that Đại earned the respect of his fellow peers as the size of his gathering grew.

Clash with Tín Mã Nàm As Đại sought to increase and expand his criminal rackets, he eventually began to venture some of his activities into the seemingly impenetrable fifth district, Chợ Lớn, which was under the control of Tín Mã Nàm, an infamous mob leader at the time of ethnic Hoa descent who was the leader of the Chinese mafia in the area. Tín Mã Nàm had a strong physical appearance, had years of training in Shaolin Kung Fu and Choy Li Fut, and was nicknamed ngựa điên (lit. Mad Horse). He was known as Hồng Trượng within the Triad, second only to Hoàng Long (lit. Yellow Dragon), who was the leader of all the Hoa gangs in Chợ Lớn. The clash between Đại Cathay's gang and Tín Mã Nàm's had been taking place over the course of many years. At the beginning of 1964, Đại, followed by Ba Thế and Lâm Đào Già brought two cars and a dozen motorbikes with the markings Goebel, Push, Brumi, Ishia, each one carrying two people. The gang then suddenly brought out knives, swords, sticks, bayonets and simultaneously attacked the roadside shops in the Great World district. After a moment of shock, Tín Mã Nàm's gang calmed down, began shouting and ran into the bars to arm themselves with knives, swords, and nunchakus in which afterwards they then hid and counterattacked. Đại Cathay's gang was severely beaten and bloodied, and thus was forced to flee from the scene. In addition, Lâm Đào Già, one of Đại's followers during the battle was wounded and lost one of his fingers, which later earned him the nickname Lâm chín ngón (lit. Lâm nine fingers).

However, because of the gang battle, many people began to avoid Tín Mã Nàm's establishments and casinos. With his business rapidly declining, Tín Mã Nàm was desperate and so he asked to meet Đại Cathay at Đồng Khánh restaurant in order to negotiate. As a result of the negotiation, Tín Mã Nàm and the Chinese gangs in Chợ Lớn ceded away the entire areas from between Nancy market and District 1, allowing Đại to open more casinos and run a monopoly on illicit activities within those regions. With captain Trần Kim Chi, the chief of the Republic of Vietnam National Police, one evening, Đại Cathay had paid for the Paramouth restaurant's services and specially invited Trần Kim Chi to the banquet. Đại Cathay then said: "If you, captain, pardon some of my brothers who were arrested, then we will be forever indebted to you." Trần Kim Chi responded, "Eating is eating, working is working. If you invited me to this banquet to do bargain, then I decline." "Oh no no," Đại Cathay softly replied, "if you do not accept then it is fine. Still, today you were invited here to let us enjoy ourselves. Please captain, this whole restaurant tonight is here just to serve us, so don't be worried about anything."