Bio

Heck Van Tran was born on November 8, 1966. His mother was Vietnamese, and his father was an American serviceman who died in Vietnam when Heck was only two years old. After his father’s death, he lived with his mother in Vietnam during a tumultuous time, especially after Saigon fell in 1975. Because of this, his early education was disrupted. He started school at the age of six but stopped attending regularly due to the instability in the region.

In 1983, Hell Van Tran and his mother were resettled in Memphis, Tennessee, by a Catholic relief agency. Following their move, he briefly attended school again but dropped out in 1984. Reports indicate that he struggled academically and had difficulty learning English, which he did not study while living in Vietnam.

In his early years in the United States, Tran worked various jobs, including a short stint at the Jade East Restaurant in Memphis. He had worked there for only a few weeks when he became involved in a robbery with three other young men.

Murder Story

On October 20, 1987, Heck Van Tran and three accomplices entered the Jade East Restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, intending to commit a robbery. The restaurant was quiet, and the victims—Arthur Lee, his sister-in-law Amy Lee, and their elderly relative Kai Ying Chuey—were preparing for the day's business. The group confronted the victims, and during the encounter, firearms were drawn.

Heck Van Tran admitted to shooting Arthur Lee during a struggle for a gun. He later shot him again while he was on the ground. After this, he turned the gun on Kai Ying Chuey, who was also shot in the head. Amy Lee was shot too, but details regarding her death were not explicitly confirmed by Tran, leading to uncertainty about the exact sequence of shootings and who fired the fatal shots.

The robbery was for jewelry, and after the shootings, the group stole items worth about $25,000. They fled in a car belonging to one of the accomplices. Following a brief period of evasion, Tran was arrested in Houston, Texas, in April 1988. His connection to the crime was confirmed through finger and physical evidence as well as witness statements.

In August 1989, Heck Van Tran was sentenced to death after being convicted of three counts of felony murder related to the killings. The court found that his actions were committed in the course of the robbery and characterized the murders as especially depraved. Tran appealed his sentence, but his conviction was largely upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court in subsequent rulings.