Last week’s circular (I’m not really sure what to call these installments) solicited several questions asking if it were true or based on a true story.

There is a Hotel Lafayette in New Orleans. There was a one-armed man who worked at the Camellia Grill past Tulane at the curve on St. Charles Avenue. I have never been on the run from a drug cartel. If I were on the run, New Orleans would nevertheless be a possibility. Yet at this point, it’s unlikely that I will be so pursued, but you never know.

I did visit New Orleans most recently in June, 2024 before leaving the United States. Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time in New Orleans, including a stint taking the Louisiana bar exam. It doesn’t feel like home, but it feels…familiar.

As recounted below, Vietnam has no extradition treaty with the United States. If you’re on the run from the authorities, you cannot trust too much in the absence of an extradition treaty to protect you. The foreign government can refuse to extend your visa or deliver you to the authorities of another country even if there is no extradition treaty in force.

There’s also extraordinary rendition, kidnapping and invasion.

Jho Low, the fraudster who financed The Wolf of Wall Street is on the run and protected by China for reasons yet unclear.

If you needed to go on the run, I suppose Da Nang in particular and Vietnam in general is as good a place as any. There’s a transient international expat community. Two different international borders are only hours away by bus.

The next planned circular will discuss federal criminal arrests and so will be 100% factual.

Vietnamese cuisine is not spicy. You might find someone who likes to put Tabasco sauce on their food; the grocery stores are full of bottles of spicy condiments, Sriracha and other imported brands. Not to be outdone, the Heinz company weighs in with its own brand of capsicum flavoring.

Unlike Thailand, the norm here is non-spicy. I had a plate of Louisiana jambalaya before I left Bangkok. The plate had been prepared for the Thai palate.

My eyes watered involuntarily. My nose became a faucet. I could no longer feel my tongue. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to keep breathing.

A waitress appeared. She could see I was under not a small amount of distress. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

—Spicy, I answered, just barely getting the word out.

—Not spicy at all, she said, and walked away.

I have not had this issue in Vietnam.

If there are spirit houses in Vietnam, I haven’t come across them yet. The consequence may be that the place is overrun by hungry ghosts.

There were over a million casualties in what here is called the American War. That ended with unification in April, 1975 but was followed by a skirmish with China and an invasion of Cambodia. The potential number of homeless ghosts is troubling.

Da Nang will soon become Vietnam’s crypto city. Crypto will be accepted for goods and services. Crypto can be exchanged for cash and cash can be converted into crypto.

Crypto is a way to avoid US financial sanctions. Converting Da Nang into a sanction-free international city may have more than a few unforeseen consequences. It could well become a criminal Casablanca all under the watchful eye of the Vietnamese Communist Party, an organization that not everyone is free to join.

The word is that the crypto experiment will be rolled out to other Vietnames cities if the project is successful here.

While keeping to myself and drinking my coffee this morning, I noticed that a man sitting catercorner from me (in Chicago we called this ‘kitty-corner’) appeared to be wearing a GPS ankle tracker, much like the one sported by Anna Delvey, she of Inventing Anna fame.

The man looked like a sex offender on the run. You’d think that if he had come to Vietnam, a country that has no extradition treaty with the United States that he would at least have gone to the trouble of cutting off his ankle monitor—it would set off the metal detectors in the airport.

I know that there is no extradition treaty because not too long ago, a Florida woman tried to fly to Vietnam and was grabbed before she could make it down the jetway.

Her name is Donna Adelson and in 2025 she was convicted for “orchestrating” (i.e. conspiring) the murder of her former son-in-law, a FSU law professor. In Florida, if you come across a hitman it’s usually a police officer pretending to offer such services. But in this case, it was a killer unaffiliated with law enforcement who accomplished the murder. Grandma Donna’s own son hired the hitman and paid him $35,000 for the hit.

This seems to be quite low. A hitman who works for low wages is unlikely to keep his mouth shut and this one didn’t.

After the murder, the police started connecting the dots: the law professor was involved in a bitter custody battle with Grandma Adelson’s daughter. Florida law grants visitation rights to grandparents, but some prefer an extrajudicial solution.

The FBI wiretapped their suspects, then sent an agent to Grandma Donna, asking for money. The wiretaps then recorded a chatfest among the conspirators. When the hitman was arrested, having already provided services on a discounted basis, he offered to help the prosecution by providing key testimony at Grandma Adelson’s trial.

While last year Grandma Donna was willing to chuck it all and move to Vietnam; ten years ago murder was a more practicable solution to her family’s problems. Her dramatic arrest at the airport at the door of the jetway, was, in the prosecution’s case, evidence of consciousness of guilt.

Here’s a view of the ocean from my hotel in

Da Nang, a view Grandma Addison will never see:

Donna was sentenced to life plus 30. She has appealed her conviction, but of course she would. They have her on tape so the trial error will have to be…substantial.

Florida is home to spectacular hits. In 1990, Marlene Warren answered her doorbell to find a clown who handed her flowers before shooting her in the face. She did not survive.

Advances in DNA detection led to an arrest almost three decades later: the killer clown was the deceased’s husband’s girlfriend. The killer clown wanted her boyfriend for herself.

The killer clown plead to 2nd degree murder, was sentenced to an absurdly light twelve years and was released after only six, still proclaiming her innocence.

At least Donna didn’t pull the trigger herself.

I suspect that there is much more to the Donna Adelson story but what, I don’t know. This pair of cases shows the vast difference in outcomes when you plea vs. taking a case to trial. Donna got life plus 30 years, the killer clown only got 12 and served only six.

If the FBI’s undercover operation or wiretaps were illegal, the suppression of evidence at a new trial might make an early release possible. Theoretically possible, that is, but not likely.

Would it be cruel if I sent Donna a postcard from Vietnam?

I would remiss if I did not recommend Gordon’s New York Bagels in Da Nang. I got a cinnamon raisin bagel with a schmear of cream cheese. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from my part of the My The beach. I tried to take a motorcycle taxi but I couldn’t read my phone’s screen in the sun. An automobile taxi stopped for me and communication was remarkably easy, easier than Thailand.

There’s a real advantage in taking a cab when the driver is familiar with the destination.

Since beginning this letter, I have come across several influencers who have found spicy food in Da Nang. I ate at a Chinese restaurant yesterday. I was hoping for Cantonese, but no. There was a good deal of Dim Sum on offer as well as Vietnamese dishes. I ordered Taiwanese beef with noodles.

—A little bit spicy, the waitress said.

Halfway through the bowl I felt like I had been pepper-sprayed.

So yes, there is spicy food in Da Nang.

I had some Korean-style fried chicken for lunch. It was horrible. The breading was stone-like. Once you broke through the breading, the chicken wasn’t half bad.

I’ll try to do some tourist things on Monday. I understand that made to order footwear is a feature of Hoi An. They even do Birkenstock style. A pair of authentic B’s in Bangkok will run you close to $200. I’m guessing $45 for the custom-made clones here.

Everyone extols the rideshare program “Grab” here. The first time I tried to use it, I couldn’t read the screen even with my magnifying glass in the sun. So I ended up just taking a regular street taxi which was 2.5x the price. I was happy to get picked up.

The second time was stranger. I put in my info and went to wait for the car. One appeared. I got in the car and off we went. I showed the driver the name of our destination. I had written this down because I knew this had happened. He said he knew where it was, so off we went. A few minutes into the ride, my phone rang. The Caller ID read, “Grab Driver,” which was strange as the Grab driver driving the car hadn’t called. I handed him the phone nevertheless and there and then a lively conversation in Vietnamese took place.

Apparently, despite checking the license plate I had gotten into the wrong vehicle. We stopped at the nearest roundabout, waited for the contracted driver and I changed cars. When we arrived at the destination the new driver announced that he could not take cash. Long story short: it’s better to take cash than not get paid.

While eating the stone chicken I found that I had not entered a credit card into the Grab program. This was surprisingly easy. After navigating to the correct page, you merely hold the card next to the back of your phone and almost all the details are automatically entered. The secret code has to be entered manually so the card was entered successfully.

I may even try using Grab on a sunny day.