Tong Wars

by Scott D Seligman

  The election of Mayor Van Wyck: Hazlitt Alva Cuppy and Merwin Bannister, Our Own Times: A Continuous History of the Twentieth Century (New York: J. A. Hill, 1904), 1:209.

  The nonpartisan, blue-ribbon panel: Other members were the scholars Felix Adler and Edwin R. A. Seligman, the publisher George Haven Putnam, the former police commissioner and onetime mayoral candidate Joel Erhardt, and the prominent businessmen John Stewart Kennedy, Alexander E. Orr, and J. Harsen Rhoades.

  When it came to Chinatown: “Items,” CT, Aug. 12, 1890.

  “This woman solicited me”: Arthur E. Wilson, Report on Chinatown, n.d., reel 3, Committee of Fifteen Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.

  Most of the women: U.S. census figures are quoted in McIllwain, Organizing Crime in Chinatown, 123.

  The few Chinese prostitutes: Lucie Cheng Hirata, “Free, Indentured, Enslaved: Chinese Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century America,” Signs 5, no. 1 (Autumn 1979): 13–15.

  “are owned by powerful”: Leong, Chinatown Inside Out, 224–30.

  “Wong Aloy is a man”: “Highbinder Against Highbinder,” NYS, Jan. 8, 1888; Wilson, Report on Chinatown.

  The Chinese New Year celebration: “Chinatown’s New Year,” NYT, Feb. 18, 1902; “Officials in Chinatown,” NYTR, Feb. 18, 1902; “The Man in the Street,” NYT, Feb. 23, 1902.

  The dinner was inaugurated: “Chinatown Greets Jerome,” Atlanta Constitution, Feb. 18, 1902; “Chinatown’s New Year”; “Officials in Chinatown.”

  The day after the banquet: The People v. Mock Duck, Criminal Branch of the Supreme Court of New York County, Minutes of the First Trial, New York Public Library, 1902.

  The first hurdle: “Objections to Chinamen,” NYT, Feb. 19, 1902; “New York Daily Letter,” CPD, Feb. 21, 1902.

  “If this jury business”: “New York Daily Letter,” CPD, Feb. 21, 1902.

  The jury box: “Highbinder Case in Court,” NYT, Feb. 22, 1902; “Highbinders Influence Murder Case,” DPP, Feb. 23, 1902; Testimony of Emma Wing, Court of General Sessions of the Peace of the City and County of New York, Part II in the case of the People v. Mock Duck, Minutes of the Second Trial, New York Public Library, 1902.

  “You last Friday make witness”: “Threatens to Kill Witness of Murder,” NYH, Feb. 26, 1902; “A Chinese Warning,” DPP, Feb. 26, 1902.

  For whatever reason: “Mock Duck Jury Disagrees,” DPP, April 3, 1902.

  “If it be so”: Frank Moss, Esq., Summing Up for the Defense, Court of General Sessions of the Peace of the City and County of New York, Part II in the case of the People v. Mock Duck, Minutes of the Second Trial, New York Public Library, 1902.

  “I declare to you”: Ibid.

  In his summation: Assistant District Attorney Arthur C. Train, Summing Up of the People, Court of General Sessions of the Peace of the City and County of New York, Part II in the case of the People v. Mock Duck, Minutes of the Second Trial, New York Public Library, 1902.

  “Could any man”: Ibid.

  After an overnight session: “Mock Duck’s Jury Disagrees,” BDE, April 2, 1902.

  Mock Duck was released: “Mock Duck Out Again,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, April 4, 1902; “Mock Duck Free: No Third Trial,” NYTGM, April 28, 1902; “Mock Duck at Liberty,” NYP, April 28, 1902.

  Two weeks later, a banquet: “Highbinder Flag Afloat in Pell Street,” NYW, May 12, 1902.

  Chapter 6: “A Regular Highbinder, Six-Shooter War Dance on the Bowery”

  At 1:30 in the morning: “Feud in Chinatown,” NYG, Nov. 3, 1904; Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 160.

  The drama continued: “Chosen by Lot to Kill Victim,” NYW, Nov. 3, 1904.

  At Hudson Street Hospital: “Chinaman Shot,” Lowell Sun, Nov. 3, 1904; “Chinatown Reformer Shot,” BDE, Nov. 3, 1904; “Chinaman Murdered,” Rock Rapids Reporter, Nov. 10, 1904; Ancestry.com, “1900 United States Federal Census Online Database.”

  The Irish-born McAdoo: “New York’s New Chief,” DP, Jan. 5, 1904; “McAdoo and New York Police Force,” San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 3, 1904.

  Armed with warrants: “Parkhurst Men Raid over Police Heads,” NYT, July 22, 1904; “‘Graft’ in Chinatown,” NYTR, July 22, 1904.

  But the interests of McAdoo: “‘Graft’ in Chinatown”; “M’Adoo Tours Chinatown,” NYS, July 23, 1904.

  Newspapers across the country: “Chinese Assassin’s Work,” NYS, Nov. 4, 1904.

  Several papers suggested: “Chinaman Shot”; “Chinatown Reformer Shot”; “Chosen by Lot to Kill Victim”; “Chinese Assassin’s Work”; “Takes Vengeance on Chinese Spy,” NYTGM, Nov. 3, 1904; “Assassins,” Newark Advocate, Nov. 4, 1904.

  “Quite as deadly”: “Rival Chinese in Deadly Feud,” NYW, Nov. 4, 1904.

  “somewhere in the dark labyrinths”: Ibid.

  By 1904, some sixty fan tan parlors: “Chinese Lid Off,” NYG, May 16, 1904.

  Fifty cents of each payment: McIllwain, Organizing Crime in Chinatown, 94–95; Yu, To Save China, to Save Ourselves, 17.

  Another half dollar went: “Call Tong Truce a Blind,” NYT, May 31, 1913. The Times maintained that there were two organizations called the Chinese Merchants Association and distinguished both from the On Leong Tong in 1913. One was listed as headquartered at 14 Mott Street and the other at No. 16; the On Leong Tong, the Times said, was domiciled at No. 18. In fact, On Leong headquarters was at No. 14, and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association was at No. 16; No. 18 was a building owned by Tom Lee. In most references, the Chinese Merchants Association was listed as being domiciled at 16 Mott, and it is clear it was a distinct organization from the On Leong Tong and affiliated—though not synonymous—with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.

  The system amounted to: Riordon and Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, 3–4, 20.

  Tom Lee had never been guilty: McIllwain, Organizing Crime in Chinatown, 112.

  The trouble in New York’s Chinatown: “Rival Chinese in Deadly Feud”; “Warnings for Highbinders,” NYS, Dec. 1, 1904.

  “We invite you to meet”: “Chinatown Gambling Feud,” NYS, Nov. 8, 1904.

  If it was an olive branch: “On Leongs Have Stolen the Hep Sings’ Crest,” NYT, Nov. 27, 1904.

  “a regular highbinder”: “Highbinders Fight in Mail,” NYS, Nov. 27, 1904.

  The fusillade lasted: “Chinese in Pistol Duel,” NYTR, Nov. 26, 1904; “Chinese Fighting Armor in Court,” NYTGM, Nov. 26, 1904; “Armor Clad Chinese Battle on the Bowery,” NYT, Nov. 26, 1904.

  None of the Chinese involved: “Chinamen in Coats of Mail,” BA, Nov. 28, 1904; “Gambling Causes Chinatown Feud,” NYW, Nov. 26, 1904.

  For his part, Mock Duck: “Mock Duck Back, Chinatown Fears,” NYTGM, March 18, 1905.

  “prepared to spend every penny”: “Police Graft in Chinatown,” NYW, Dec. 12, 1904.

  “There will be murders”: “Moss Accuses Police,” NYTR, Dec. 11, 1904.

  “You appear here in behalf”: “Police Graft in Chinatown,” NYW, Dec. 12, 1904; “Moss Accuses Police.”

  “For a week, every Hip Sing”: “Graft from Chinese,” NYS, Dec. 12, 1904.

  “In the present crisis”: “Police Graft in Chinatown.”

  “thugs, murderers, dealers”: “Graft from Chinese.”

  “I do not want to say”: “Wants Real Detectives,” NYTR, Dec. 12, 1904.

  The Hip Sings got wind: “Chinamen Taken in Raid,” NYT, Dec. 12, 1904; “Hip Sing on Top, Leong on Run,” NYS, Dec. 13, 1904.

  The Sun observed: “Hip Sing on Top, Leong on Run.”

  “There’ll be three”: “15 Hip Sing Tongers Soaked,” NYS, Dec. 27, 1904; “Raid Ends in Sub-cellar,” NYT, Dec. 27, 1904.

  “You can never convict”: “Chinaman’s Shot Fatal,” NYTR, Nov. 27, 1904; “Chinese in Coats of Mail,” BS, Nov. 27, 1904.

  But death threat
s: “Swear Missing Chinese Was Mock Duck’s Slayer,” NYTGM, Dec. 6, 1904.

  The trial went on: “Accused of Murdering Mock Duck in Chinese Feud—No Evidence,” NYTR, Jan. 19, 1905.

  Chapter 7: A Price on Tom Lee’s Head

  “flopping like a landed trout”: “Hip Sing Life for Each Raid,” NYS, Feb. 1, 1905.

  “for every raid”: Ibid.

  At Yee’s arraignment: Deposition of Lee Loy before Immigration Inspector F. W. Berkshire, April 6, 1904, in Chinese Exclusion Act Case File for Lee Loy, Record Group 85, box 323, box 10, Case No. 14/3504, Immigration and Naturalization Service, National Archives and Records Administration—Northeast Region, New York; “Detective Is Real Thief,” NYS, April 4, 1905.

  “Four highbinders from Boston”: “Price Put on Tom Lee’s Head,” NYW, Feb. 2, 1905.

  The China-born Gin Gum: “Gin Gum Convicted of Forgery,” San Francisco Call, May 7, 1898; “A New Trial for Gin Gum,” SFC, Aug. 29, 1900; “Charlie Lee Is Free,” SFC, Aug. 30, 1900.

  Tom Lee applied to his friends: “Offer $3,000 to Kill Tom Lee,” NYW, Feb. 3, 1905; “Chinese Hatchets Buried for a Day,” NYH, Feb. 4, 1905.

  “The ’Melican people”: “Frenzied Finance ’Midst Chinese New Year Fun,” NYW, Feb. 4, 1905.

  “They argue that if they pay up”: “Chinese Prisoners Let Go,” NYS, Feb. 14, 1905.

  Like most of New York’s Chinese: “Chinatown as It Really Is.”

  Ching Gong, a Hip Sing: “Warfare of Tongs Claims New Victim,” NYT, Feb. 9, 1905; “Murdered by Highbinders,” NYW, Feb. 9, 1905.

  In retaliation: “Chinatown Feud Shooting,” NYT, Feb. 25, 1905; “Old Chinaman Shot in Feud of the Tongs,” NYT, Feb. 25, 1905.

  If the On Leongs were depressed: “Mock Duck Back, Chinatown Fears.”

  “When Mock Duck ducked”: “‘I’m a Dead Man,’ Says the Mayor of Chinatown,” NYTGP, March 19, 1905.

  The Hip Sings were serious: “New Terror in Chinatown,” NYS, March 19, 1905.

  Tom Lee vanished: “Mock Duck Back, Chinatown Fears”; “Mock Duck, He Velly Bad,” NYT, March 19, 1905.

  Louie Way and Lung Gow were held: “Mock Duck Arrested,” Deseret News, March 18, 1905; “Bad Mock Duck in Jail: His Enemy in Hiding,” NYT, March 21, 1905; “Frank Moss and Jerome in Tiff over Mock Duck,” NYTGM, March 22, 1905.

  “I don’t care”: “Bad Mock Duck in Jail.”

  Mock Duck’s reemergence: “Doomed by Highbinders,” CPD, March 20, 1905; “Killing Overadvertised,” NYP, March 20, 1905; “Bad Mock Duck in Jail.”

  “I don’t want to kill anybody”: “Mock Duck Now in a Tombs Cell,” NYH, March 21, 1905.

  But only after Mock Duck: “Mock Duck’s Wings Clipped,” NYS, March 21, 1905.

  “A few months ago”: “Frank Moss and Jerome in Tiff over Mock Duck”; “Hot Words in Courtroom Between Jerome and Moss,” BDE, March 22, 1905.

  “This simple, angelic creature”: “Frank Moss and Jerome in Tiff over Mock Duck.”

  “I am very glad to see you”: “Jerome Warns the Tongs,” NYT, March 22, 1905; “Mr. Jerome Warns Gin Gum,” NYH, March 22, 1905; “Jerome’s Cure for the Tong War,” NYS, March 22, 1905.

  It took five days: “Mock Duck Is Free,” NYS, March 28, 1905; “Mock Duck Released on Bail,” NYT, March 28, 1905.

  “These shops pay money”: “Chinese Lid Off.”

  “At present time the Detective”: “Detective Is Real Thief.”

  “Of course any man”: Ibid.

  “The detectives who do”: Ibid.

  “You think it was written”: “Mock Duck: Evil Genius,” NYP, April 4, 1905.

  Chapter 8: The Chinese Theatre Massacre

  At a quarter to eight: “300 Arrested in Chinatown Raid,” Utica Herald-Dispatch, April 24, 1905.

  But it was Easter Sunday: “Police Snare Hundreds in Spectacular Raid on Nine Chinatown Resorts,” NYPR, April 24, 1905.

  It was the largest: “213 Pigtail Prisoners Arraigned in the Tombs,” BDE, April 24, 1905; “300 Arrested in Chinatown Raid.”

  The Parkhurst superintendent: “Police in Carriages Descend on Chinatown,” NYT, April 24, 1905; “Chinatown Raided,” Corning Journal, April 26, 1905; “Why Chinatown Was Raided,” NYP, April 24, 1905.

  McAdoo reiterated: “Hold 400 Chinese for Gambling,” BH, April 23, 1905; “All Chinatown in Court,” NYP, April 24, 1905.

  But anyone naive enough: “400 Arrested in Chinatown Raid,” NYH, April 24, 1905.

  “two white women”: “Made Murder Signs in Court,” NYS, April 25, 1905.

  By noontime, placards: “On Leongs All Alike,” NYTR, April 25, 1905; “Made Murder Signs in Court.”

  Later that day, McAdoo: “Chinatown Mayor Is Under Arrest,” NYH, April 27, 1905; “Chinatown Mayor Now in Police Toils,” NYT, April 27, 1905.

  At 1:00 a.m. the following day: “Cops Astray in Chinatown,” NYS, April 29, 1905; “Eggers Fan Tan Raid a Farce,” NYS, May 10, 1905; “Chinatown Graft Stories,” NYS, May 12, 1905.

  Dong Fong, the Hip Sing: “Dong Fong Gets Off Lightly,” NYW, May 15, 1905; “Shot Tom Lee’s Cousin,” NYS, May 16, 1905.

  In the afternoon of May 30: “Hip Sing Gets Eggers’ Axe Now,” NYS, May 31, 1905.

  “Fine day for Decoration Day”: “Avenging On Leongs Descend on Hip Sings,” NYT, May 31, 1905.

  Less than a month later: “Says Jim Wang’s a Grafter,” NYS, June 23, 1905; “Chinese Gamblers Paroled,” NYP, May 31, 1905; “Wang, Reformer, Jailed,” NYP, June 22, 1905; “Alleged Chinese Blackmailer,” BDE, June 22, 1905.

  “strange, curious and grotesque”: “Chinese Drama a Mighty Serious Matter,” NYS, Feb. 12, 1905.

  Suddenly, during a dramatic moment: “Three Shot Dead in Chinese Theatre,” NYT, Aug. 7, 1905.

  Soon a squad of police: Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 74–77, 112–30, 158–69.

  The On Leongs had been expecting: Ibid.; “Mock Duck Held for Murder,” NYS, Aug. 8, 1905; “Chinese in Battle; 3 Dead,” CT, Aug. 7, 1905; “Highbinders in Battle,” Binghamton Press, Aug. 7, 1905.

  Bond was posted: “Mock and His Friends Are Remanded,” NYTGM, Aug. 7, 1905.

  Tom Lee served as master: “The Yucks Buried,” NYT, Aug. 11, 1905.

  Smarting from the assassination: “Tong Midnight Murder Squad,” NYS, Aug. 13, 1905.

  Poor Hop Lee: “Chinamen Wield Cleaver, Kill Their Countryman,” BDE, Aug. 12, 1905.

  The police were certain: “Tong Midnight Murder Squad.”

  Three days after Hop Lee’s murder: “$3,000 on Tom Lee’s Head,” NYT, Aug. 15, 1905.

  Because of the attempt: “Tong War Worries Eggers,” NYS, Aug. 22, 1905.

  At the arraignment: “Four Shot in Chinatown,” NYS, Aug. 21, 1905; “Tongs Fight Again; Four Shot This Time,” NYT, Aug. 21, 1905.

  “Aren’t you afraid”: “Tong War Worries Eggers.”

  New Yorkers knew gang wars: “Fatal Riot in New York,” NYT, Sept. 17, 1903; “To End Shooting Affrays,” NYT, Sept. 18, 1903; “Greene Takes Up Riots,” NYT, Sept. 24, 1903; “Pistol Carriers Fined,” NYT, Sept. 21, 1903; Lardner and Reppetto, NYPD, 125–28.

  “The present outbreak of crime”: “Great Crime Wave Puzzles Jerome,” NYW, Aug. 26, 1905.

  New Yorkers were feeling: “All Immigration Records Broken,” NYS, May 10, 1905.

  A gang shooting in Chinatown: “Outbreak of Crime in New York the Worst for Years,” NYW, Sept. 4, 1905; “Great Crime Wave Puzzles Jerome.”

  “When there is trouble”: “The Heathen Chinese,” New York Age, Aug. 10, 1905.

  “His big ears can hear”: “Reign of Terror in Chinatown Now,” NYTR, Aug. 13, 1905.

  “I kill no one”: Ibid.

  “Chinatown has been the synonym”: “To Clean Up Chinatown,” Buffalo Express, Aug. 20, 1905.

  There ha
d been just over: Report of the Police Department of the City of New York for the Year Ending December 31, 1904 (New York: Martin B. Brown, 1906), 41–43, 46, 48–49, 58.

  “The internal politics”: “Chinatown as It Really Is.”

  “the worst slum in the city”: “Chinatown a Pest: Shame to the City; ‘Clean It Up,’” NYW, Aug. 25, 1905; “Wipe Out Chinatown,” NYW, March 2, 1906.

  Eagerly abetting this skewed view: McIllwain, Organizing Crime in Chinatown, 105–6.

  “an ulcer spot”: McAdoo, Guarding a Great City, 170.

  “That there is such a thing”: Ibid., 151, 175.

  The situation in Chinatown: “Tong War Worries Eggers.”

  Local pawnshops: “A Chinatown Roundup,” KCS, Aug. 23, 1905; “Chinese Fear a New Tong War,” Pawtucket Times, Aug. 23, 1905.

  Everyone braced for bloodshed: “Chinatown Asks for Peace,” NYS, Aug. 29, 1905; “Five Chinese Coming to Kill Tom Lee,” NYW, Aug. 29, 1905.

  On August 29: “Damaging for Mock Duck,” NYP, Aug. 29, 1905; “Coroner Holds Mock Duck,” NYS, Aug. 30, 1905; “Mock Duck Held in Murder Case,” NYH, Aug. 30, 1905; “Mock Duck Held for Killing of Four Chinese,” NYTGM, Aug. 29, 1905.

  The trial, however, would never: “Mock Duck Let Go,” NYS, Dec. 21, 1905.

  Chapter 9: Profit Sharing

  A little before 2:00 p.m.: Court of General Sessions of the Peace of the City and County of New York in the case of the People v. George Tow, impleaded with Louie Way and Yee Toy, Municipal Archives of the City of New York, box 10327, folder 106458, March 20, 1906.

  When police searched: “Two Killed in Ambush in Chinatown Battle,” NYT, Jan. 25, 1906.

  “If we can get”: “Lull in the Tong Gun Play,” NYS, Jan. 26, 1906.

  The Pell Street killings: “Two Killed in Ambush in Chinatown Battle.”

  The Pell Street shootings were not: “Chinese Killed Were to Testify at Murder Trial,” NYW, Jan. 25, 1906; “Five Held for Tong War,” NYH, Jan. 26, 1906; Court of General Sessions of the Peace of the City and County of New York in the case of the People v. Charlie Joe and Mon Moon, Municipal Archives of the City of New York, box 10315, folder 106446, Oct. 13, 1905.

  “the most quiet New Year”: “Tongs in Battle; Two Dead,” NYS, Jan. 25, 1906.