Đại Cathay

Lieutenant Trần Tử Thanh later boasted to several reporters in several newspapers before 1975 that he was the one who shot and killed Đại Cathay.

On the 28th of that November, Đại was placed in a C47 aircraft for transportation to the prison in Phú Quốc island. In 1967, Đại hatched a plan where he had his wife bribe the guards so that he could escape from the prison. On January 7, Đại and his men escaped from the camp, but when he passed through the front gate, the alarmed sound, alerting the guards surrounding the prison. Discovered, Đại was chased to the North part of the island, but the guards never found him and he was never heard from again. As a result of his mysterious death or disappearance, two main theories emerged to explain how Đại could have met his end:

In November 1966, Đại Cathay was arrested and placed in Phú Quốc Prison after being accused of having masterminded Trần Kim Chi's death when Trần Kim Chi, a subordinate general of Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, was killed when a truck that was loaded with wood drove straight into his car. As a result, Kim Chi's general, Nguyễn Ngọc Loan had Đại Cathay arrested on "special treaty" charges.

Upon hearing the news, Duyên Anh fled to Đà Lạt to hide until the end of 1966, when Đại Cathay was arrested by police and sent to Phú Quốc island, in which only then did Anh dare to return to Saigon.

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 Chợ Lớn. Tín Mã Nàm had the physical appearance of a dharmapala, had years of training in Shaolin Kung Fu and Choy Li Fut, and his nickname ngựa điên literally meant the "Mad Horse". He was known as Hồng Trượng within the Triad, second only to their leader, Hoàng Long (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 carrying two people per motorbike. 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 "Nine Fingers".

Đại Cathay, whose real name was Lê Văn Đại was a 1960s Saigon mobster, and was considered as the top or "number one" of the "Four Great Kings" of Saigon's criminal underworld before 1975. The Four Great Kings of the Saigon criminal underworld at the time referred to the four most powerful mobsters in the city, immortalized by the saying: 1st) Đại Cathay, 2nd) Huỳnh Tỳ, 3rd) Ngô Văn Cái, 4th) Ba Thế.

By the early 1960s, at the age of 20, Đại Cathay was quickly becoming a notorious gangster in Saigon; Đại was in control of nearly all the illicit establishments, such as prostitution houses, drug dens and night clubs in the first and third districts of Saigon. He was also becoming a familiar face around these establishments and befriended engineers, doctors and artists such as Dzach Buu, Dzi Buu and Hoang Sayonara, who would later help craft Đại's business strategy by advising him to open casinos. At around the same time, Đại began to exploit the often corrupt officials of the Saigon government by means of bribery; he was allowed to open many casinos in district 1 of Saigon, and in return, the city officials received monthly payments, which allowed Đại to ever increase his profits and control over the illegal activities in the city.

Dai 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, Dai'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.