Last night, the Seattle Channel aired a 2013 documentary about the cold-blooded 1981 double murder of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes.

Domingo and Viernes were shot to death by two men, both of whom were convicted of the murders and sent to prison. The end? Not even close.

Domingo and Viernes were two very different characters—Domingo was aggressive and sophisticated, Viernes was a country boy at heart and gentle—but they had one important thing in common. They were union organizers fighting to improve conditions for Filipino workers in Northwest canneries.

Their success, however, in addition to forming a strong faction within their local union, was inspiring people in the Philippines under dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was cracking down on all forms of activism.

At first, the Pioneer Square murders were dismissed as gang activity, but the activists who'd worked alongside Domingo and Viernes didn't believe that. They thought it was a hit.

For eight years, those fellow organizers—who are still local and active today—didn't let the issue rest. First, they suspected their own union president of being involved. His gun was used in one of the killings. He was arrested, brought to trial, convicted of murder, and sent to prison. But the workers uncovered more.

They discovered a $15,000 payment made by Ferdinand Marcos directly to the Seattle union president just before the murders.

Marcos died in 1989, but the Seattle workers were already in the midst of bringing a civil suit against the late president. And again, they were right: The president of the Philippines was posthumously ruled responsible in the deaths of Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo.

How many times in American history has a foreign government been held responsible for the murder of American civilians?

Here's the whole incredible hour-long documentary.

How did I not know this story before now? Am I alone in this?