Tong Wars

by Scott D Seligman

  “weak men must be weeded out”: “Eggers Taken from Vice Squad; Sent to Brooklyn,” NYPR, Oct. 17, 1905.

  “I will continue to be”: “Topics in New York,” NYT, Oct. 17, 1905.

  Eggers’s comment was prescient: “Just the Truth,” DP, Nov. 11, 1905; “Gen. Bingham Dies at Summer Home,” NYT, Sept. 7, 1934.

  “plague spot that ought not”: Theodore A. Bingham, “Foreign Criminals in New York,” North American Review 188, no. 634 (Sept. 1908): 383–84, 391–94; “Waldo Visits Chinatown,” NYS, Jan. 27, 1906.

  On January 26, in one: “It Happened in New York,” WP, Jan. 29, 1906; “Deputy Waldo Now Wears Gold Shield on Duty,” NYTGM, Jan. 26, 1906; “He Scolded Lee and Duck,” NYP, Jan. 26, 1906; “Waldo Visits Chinatown and Sees the Tongs,” NYW, Jan. 26, 1906.

  “I want to compliment you”: “Mr. Waldo Visits Tongs,” NYTR, Jan. 27, 1906; “Transfers Captain Tracy,” NYT, Feb. 18, 1906.

  “This business has gone on”: “Truce in Chinatown,” NYTR, Jan. 31, 1906.

  Attorneys for both tongs: “Chinatown’s Warriors Agree to Real Peace,” NYT, Jan. 31, 1906; “Tongs Hold Peace Confab,” NYS, Jan. 31, 1906; “Truce in Chinatown.”

  The pact, as negotiated: “War of the Tongs Breaks Out Afresh,” NYT, April 17, 1910.

  “The truth of the treaty”: “Peace of Chinatown Is Merely a Merger,” NYT, April 1, 1906.

  Signing was set: “Hip Sings Sign Treaty,” NYT, Feb. 7, 1906; “On Leong Tongs Sign,” NYT, Feb. 9, 1906.

  As soon as the On Leongs: “Police Pinch Mock Duck,” NYS, Feb. 21, 1906; “On Leongs Sign; Tong War Over,” NYS, Feb. 9, 1906; “Peace of Chinatown Is Merely a Merger”; “On Leongs Dodge Peace Banquet,” NYH, Feb. 12, 1906.

  Lee’s decision to boycott: “There’s a New Tong in Chinatown Now,” NYT, Feb. 13, 1906.

  “It is at once irritating”: “Topics of the Times,” NYT, March 27, 1925.

  highly corrupt themselves: Philip C. C. Huang, Civil Justice in China: Representation and Practice in the Qing (Redwood City, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996), 21–50.

  Chinese immigrants naturally sought: Chu Chai, “Administration of Law Among the Chinese in Chicago,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 22, no. 6 (Spring 1932): 806.

  February 13 then brought: “There’s a New Tong in Chinatown Now.”

  Much had changed: Chinese Exclusion Act Case File for Wong Gett, Record Group 85, box 325, Case Nos. 95, 580, Immigration and Naturalization Service, National Archives and Records Administration—Northeast Region, New York; “Mock Duck Head of a New Tong,” NYH, Feb. 13, 1906.

  The news of a third warring tong: “Mock Duck Starts New Tong,” NYS, Feb. 13, 1906; “There’s a New Tong in Chinatown Now.”

  Captain Schlottman, eager to make: “Mock Duck Bails Prisoner,” NYS, Feb. 19, 1906.

  “What? Do you say”: “Mock Duck Goes to the Tombs,” NYTGM, Feb. 21, 1906.

  No bondsman appeared: “Mock Duck Held in $5,139 for Trial,” NYW, Feb. 24, 1906.

  “merely an agreement”: “Local Board Calls Hearing on Chinatown Park Plan,” NYW, March 6, 1906.

  “the worst slum in the city”: “Wipe Out Chinatown.”

  “It is better to clean out”: “Tear Down the Dens of Chinatown and Make a Park of New York’s Darkest Spot,” NYW, Feb. 28, 1906; “Some of the Plague Spots in Chinatown That Should Give Way for a Public Park,” NYW, March 1, 1906.

  “the instrumentalities of Christianity”: “Calls a Public Hearing on Park for Chinatown,” NYW, March 5, 1906; “Some of the Plague Spots in Chinatown That Should Give Way for a Public Park.”

  The government had the power: “Wipe Out Foul Crime Dens—Make a Park,” NYW, March 2, 1906; “Calls a Public Hearing on Park for Chinatown”; “Dives Must Give Way to Chinatown Park,” NYW, March 24, 1906.

  “The whole east side”: “Rookery Owners Oppose Chinatown Park Plan,” NYW, March 20, 1906.

  “Greed is the bottom”: “Scores Men Who Shelter the Dens of Chinatown,” NYW, March 20, 1906; “Argue on Chinatown Park,” NYT, March 21, 1906.

  Even after opposition: “Fight to Wipe Out Chinatown for Park Good as Won,” NYW, March 21, 1906; “For a Chinatown Park,” NYP, May 1, 1906.

  Rumors about what would: “A Chinatown in Brooklyn?,” NYT, April 27, 1906; “Chinatown in the Bronx,” NYT, July 25, 1906; “Chinatown May Move Over to Williamsburg,” NYT, Aug. 6, 1906.

  The Board of Estimate finally acted: “A Park in Chinatown,” NYT, Feb. 9, 1907; “‘Dan’ O’Reilly Celestial Hero,” WT, June 27, 1907.

  “every Chinaman who did not”: “Tong Killings Pause and Chinatown Feasts,” NYT, March 29, 1906; “Feast for Tongs’ Treaty,” NYPR, March 29, 1906; “Eighteen Course Dinner to Celebrate Peace in Chinatown,” BDE, March 29, 1906.

  In mid-April, Mock Duck’s attorney: “Mock Duck’s Bail Reduced,” NYT, April 13, 1906.

  “I’m not going to do”: “Mock Duck Is Free,” NYT, April 15, 1906; “Mock Duck Is Free,” NYS, April 15, 1906.

  Three days later came the news: “Our Chinese Aiding ’Frisco,” NYT, April 23, 1906.

  Several days later: “Police Get Mock Duck Again,” NYP, April 24, 1906.

  For at least eight years: Testimony of Florence Bendorff and 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; Ancestry.com, “1910 United States Federal Census Online Database,” accessed Aug. 4, 2015, http://search.ancestry.com/search /db.aspx?dbid=7884.

  In March 1906: Testimony of Chin Hen Leon, 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; “Mock Duck Says the Girl Is His Wife,” PI, May 25, 1906; “Hostile Chinese Factions in Court,” PI, May 26, 1906; “Mock Duck’s Wife Was Lost,” NYS, March 9, 1906.

  On learning of her arrest: “Hostile Chinese Factions in Court.”

  When Tai Yow came to live: “Mock Duck’s Child Seized,” NYP, March 19, 1907.

  Although there was never: Ibid.; “Mock Duck Bereft of His Joy,” NYS, March 20, 1907.

  The child had some: “Mock Duck’s Child Seized.”

  On the morning of March 19: “Cruelty Sought at Mock Duck’s,” NYT, March 20, 1907.

  Their society—known: “Mock Duck Bereft of His Joy.”

  The couple explained: “Call Mock Duck’s Stepchild a Slave,” NYH, March 20, 1907.

  At which point, the hard-boiled: “Mock Duck Bereft of His Joy.”

  The couple attended the arraignment: “Ha Oi Still a Captive,” NYP, March 22, 1907; “Ha Oi Is Lost to Chinatown,” NYS, March 23, 1907.

  Based on nothing other: “Ha Oi Is Lost to Chinatown”; “Current News of the World,” Sausalito News, April 6, 1907.

  The judge questioned Mock Duck: “Law Takes Ha Oi from Mock Duck,” NYH, April 13, 1907; “Mock Duck Loses Little Ha Oi,” NYS, April 13, 1907.

  “The greatest satisfaction”: New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Thirty-third Annual Report (New York: Offices of the Society, 1908), 33–34.

  “So the courts have deprived”: “Mock Duck and Ha Oi,” NYH, April 15, 1907.

  Chapter 10: Have Gun, Will Travel

  Although New York was at peace: “Bad Chinamen These,” PI, Dec. 1, 1889; “Sing’s Romantic Career,” WT, Jan. 13, 1896; “Paid Them Blackmail,” WP, July 20, 1895.

  The Boston-based Meihong Soohoo: Meihong Soohoo, Wo tonghen Meidi: Qiao Mei qishinian shenghuo huiyilü [—; I bitterly hate imperialist America: Reminiscences of a seventy-year sojourn in the United States] (Beijing: Guangming Daily, 1951), 39–47; Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 244–45.

  Each branch of the On Leong: “500 Chinese Here from 20 Cities
to Attend Convention,” WP, Sept. 2, 1924.

  boo how doy: Chinese translation courtesy of Ram Moy.

  In mid-August 1907: “The Peace of Pell Street,” NYT, Aug. 23, 1907; “Tongs, at Peace, Dine in Chinatown,” NYH, Aug. 22, 1907; “Eat Because Tongs Are Quiet,” NYS, Aug. 22, 1907.

  “the Great White Father”: “Chinaman Killed in Street,” NYS, Mar. 2, 1908.

  On this latter point: “Chinese Tongmen Battle and Four Are Injured,” Omaha World Herald, June 6, 1906; “Celestials at War Among Themselves,” SDT, July 5, 1906; “Chinese Feud On Again,” CPD, July 5, 1906; “Marked for Death,” Grand Rapids Press, July 7, 1907; “Chinamen Shot in Philadelphia,” Augusta Chronicle, July 8, 1907; “Chinatown Tongs Engage in Fight,” Harrisburg Patriot, July 8, 1907.

  The Hip Sings, too: “Battle of Rival Chinese Societies,” Oswego Palladium, Aug. 3, 1907; Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 175–80; “More Arrests in Hep Sing Killing,” BH, Aug. 4, 1907.

  Captain Robert F. Dooley: “Biggest Shake-Up in Police History,” NYT, Oct. 26, 1906.

  “Never been in Boston”: “War Cloud in Pell Street,” NYTR, Aug. 4, 1907.

  “I have to be very careful”: “No More Tong Wars Here for Mock Duck,” NYT, Aug. 6, 1907.

  He was right to be wary: “Mock Duck’s Home Afire,” NYTGM, Feb. 28, 1908; “Tenement Fire in Tong War,” NYT, Feb. 28, 1908; “Smoking Out Mock Duck,” NYT, Feb. 29, 1908; “Eight Fires Now at No. 42,” NYT, March 9, 1908.

  March also brought justice: “Nine Chinese Guilty of Feud Murders,” NYT, March 8, 1908; “Charles, the Vice Sleuth,” NYT, March 9, 1908; “Two Chinese to Be Hanged,” NYT, March 8, 1908.

  New York was nervous: “Police Guard Against Tong War,” NYT, March 16, 1908.

  The victim was Ing Mow: “Murder in Tong War,” WP, March 28, 1908; “Chinaman Killed in Street,” NYS, March 28, 1908; “Boston Tong Trial Inspires Murder in New York,” BJ, March 28, 1908.

  “The Hip Sing Tong already”: “Killed by Rival Tong,” NYTR, March 28, 1908.

  “Chinese of all classes”: Leong, Chinatown Inside Out, 68–69, 80–81.

  The On Leongs continued to feather: “G’long Now, Danny Riordan,” NYS, Sept. 5, 1908; “Foley Gives Big Outing,” NYT, Aug. 30, 1902.

  After the repeated attempts: “Mock Duck in Chicago,” NYS, Oct. 9, 1907; “Undesirable Citizens,” Huntington Herald, Oct. 8, 1907; “Wily Mock Duck, Fan-Tan King, Tells Why He Is Here,” DP, Nov. 12, 1908; “Mock Duck, Old Denizen, Angry at ‘Fake,’” DP, Nov. 19, 1908; “Mock Duck Leaves Denver Mysteriously,” DP, Nov. 7, 1908; “Chinatown in Denver Sees Deadly War,” Salt Lake Telegram, Nov. 20, 1908.

  After Denver, Mock Duck: “Mock Duck Back A-glitter,” NYS, May 24, 1909.

  “since they have had peace”: “Tom Lee Never Winked,” NYS, Feb. 2, 1909.

  Chapter 11: The Four Brothers’ War

  On June 18, 1909: For a complete and thought-provoking account of the Sigel murder and its broader significance, see Lui, Chinatown Trunk Mystery.

  Sigel’s murder was quickly: “Find Miss Sigel Dead in Trunk,” NYT, June 19, 1909; “Police Hunt in Washington,” NYT, June 20, 1909; “Arrest Friend of Miss Sigel,” NYT, June 20, 1909; “Chong Saw Ling Kill Sigel Girl,” NYT, June 23, 1909; “Chong Admits Lying About Sigel Murder,” NYT, June 24, 1909.

  The police commissioner, Theodore Bingham: “Arrest Friend of Miss Sigel”; “Police Neglect, due to Mayor’s Shakeup, Let Ling Get Away,” TT, July 4, 1909.

  “Sightseers seem afraid”: “Chinese Merchants Ask for Protection,” NYT, July 4, 1909.

  Sigel’s murder, and the sensational: “Says Ling Escaped in Cousin’s Wagon,” NYT, July 6, 1909.

  Recognizing the threat: “Minister Wu Joins Hunt,” NYT, June 23, 1909; “Elsie Sigel’s Death,” Montreal Globe, June 23, 1909; “Chinese Freemasons,” NYT, July 4, 1909; “Cunning of the East Beats Western Wit,” WT, July 3, 1909; “Police Neglect, due to Mayor’s Shakeup, Let Ling Get Away.”

  The group was known formally: Lai, “Historical Development of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association/Huiguan System,” 31–32; James S. L. Jung, “A Concise History and Development of the Lung Kong Organization,” Pan American Lung Kong Tin Yee Association Web site, accessed Aug. 4, 2015, http://www.palungkong.org/concise%20lk%20history.htm.

  While the police were turning: “Five Boston Chinamen Must Die in Chair,” DP, July 3, 1909; “Tong War Threatened,” BS, July 6, 1909.

  Mock Duck, always a person: “Says Ling Escaped in Cousin’s Wagon”; “A 40-Course Chinese Banquet,” NYT, July 12, 1909.

  When no trouble broke out: “Chinese Girl Murdered,” Watertown Daily Times, Aug. 16, 1909; “Chinese Girl Slain in New York City,” Amsterdam Evening Recorder, Aug. 16, 1909.

  The policeman took Chin: “Chinese Girl Murdered,” NYS, Aug. 16, 1909.

  Chin Lem told the captain: “Chinese Girl Murdered,” Watertown Daily Times, Aug. 16, 1909.

  Over the next several days: “Clue in Bloody Fingers,” SJ, Aug. 16, 1909.

  The police asked why the couple: “Girl Murdered, Chinaman Held,” NYC, Aug. 16, 1909; “Murder of Woman Puzzles Chinatown,” NYPR, Aug. 16, 1909; “Suspect Chin Len,” Syracuse Herald, Aug. 17, 1909.

  The signs pointed to another: “Chin Len Caught in Tangle of Stories,” Utica Observer, Aug. 17, 1909; “Think Chin Len Killed Girl,” NYS, Aug. 17, 1909; “Chin Len Bailed Out,” Utica Observer, Aug. 18, 1909; “Says He Saw Man Murder Bow Kum,” WT, Aug. 18, 1909.

  Gin Gum, Chin Lem’s brother: “Bow Kum Laid to Rest,” NYC, Aug. 20, 1909.

  Police questioned several: “Arrests in Chinatown Case,” NYP, Aug. 20, 1909; “Chinamen Are Indicted,” SR, Sept. 11, 1909.

  San Francisco police records: “Arrests in Chinatown Case”; “May Be Murderers,” WS, Aug. 20, 1909.

  When Lau Tong learned: “Hatchet Men in Case,” BS, Aug. 21, 1909.

  Violence broke out: “Aims at Tom Lee’s Lieutenant but Hits Wrong Man,” NYS, Sept. 14, 1909.

  A policeman saw Lee Wah: “Police Feast with Hip Sings,” NYS, May 17, 1909; “Chinatown Going Fast,” NYTR, July 12, 1909; “Captain Galvin Tired Out,” NYTR, Aug. 25, 1909.

  Galvin was successful: “Chinatown Wrecks Galvin,” NYPR, Aug. 25, 1909; “Captain Galvin Tired Out.”

  Everyone braced for retaliation: “Hostile Tongs Prepare for War,” NYT, Sept. 15, 1909; “Gun Play in Mott Street,” NYTR, Sept. 13, 1909; “Human Target for Tong War Practice,” NYPR, Sept. 13, 1909; “Fearing Tong War, Arrest 19 Chinese in Raid,” NYTGM, Sept. 14, 1909.

  In mid-October: “Three Chinese Tong Murderers Killed in Chair,” NYTGM, Oct. 12, 1909.

  That evening, two On Leongs: “New Chinatown Warfare,” NYP, Nov. 6, 1909.

  “we are not making”: “Marked for Death by Chinese Tongs,” NYT, Nov. 17, 1909.

  At the end of November: “Gotham Chinese Make Odd Move; Trouble Feared,” New Orleans Item, Nov. 26, 1909; “Tong Expulsion Not Real,” NYS, Nov. 25, 1909; “It All Began with Bow Kum,” NYS, Dec. 29, 1909.

  A month later: “Deadly Tong War Claims Two More New York Victims,” Salt Lake Telegram, Dec. 28, 1909; “New York Trying to Prevent Tong Outbreak,” Deseret Evening News, Dec. 28, 1909.

  Three days later, Ah Hoon: “Chinese Killed Were to Testify at Murder Trial”; “Tong War Is Renewed,” Marion Daily Mirror, Dec. 30, 1909.

  There were two theories: “Police Hold Chinese Woman as Witness in Tong Murder,” NYTGM, Dec. 30, 1909.

  Ah Hoon had known: “Chinese Clown Acts While He Knows Highbinders Are Waiting to Kill Him,” NYH, Dec. 31, 1909.

  On the night of his death: “Ah Hoon’s Death Warning,” NYP, Dec. 30, 1909; “Police Trying to Stop Tong Fight in New York,” Cincinnati Post, Dec. 30, 1909; “Tong War Closes Theater,” NYS, Dec. 30, 1909.

  A year after the slaying: The first mentio
n in the press of the Bloody Angle on Doyers Street appears to be in “His Fourth Attempt to Die,” NYT, Dec. 25, 1910.

  With the rise to prominence: “War of the Tongs Breaks Out Afresh.”

  “All the companies and tongs”: “Tongs United to Fight On Leong,” Detroit Free Press, Jan. 4, 1910.

  This would have posed: “Mock Duck at Bow Kum Trial,” BH, Jan. 5, 1910; “Mock Duck Comes to Denver,” DP, Sept. 5, 1909; “40-Course Chinese Banquet.”

  The attorney Terence J. McManus: “Chinese Murder Trial,” BDE, Jan. 4, 1910.

  Moss began by telling: “Bow Kum Trial On,” NYC, Jan. 6, 1910; “Accuse Witness on Stand of Slaying Girl,” NYH, Jan. 6, 1910; “A Chinese Love Tragedy,” BA, Jan. 6, 1910.

  On cross-examination: “Bow Kum’s Man Is Grilled,” NYS, Jan. 6, 1910.

  The principal prosecution witness: “Bow Kum Case In,” NYTR, Jan. 7, 1910; “Heard Two Chinamen Make Death Threat,” Pawtucket Times, Jan. 7, 1910; “The Two Laus May Go Free,” NYS, Jan. 7, 1910.

  The defense presented: “Chinese on Stand,” NYTR, Jan. 8, 1910; “Chinese Trail Still Blind,” NYS, Jan. 8, 1910.

  “A bewildered jury”: “Acquit Chinamen of Killing Bow Kum,” NYT, Jan. 11, 1910.

  After deliberating for several hours: “Two Chinese Freed,” NYTR, Jan. 11, 1910.

  The war Captain Galvin: “Shot in the Back in Chinatown Feud,” NYT, Jan. 24, 1910; “Chinese Kills a Japanese,” NYS, Jan. 24, 1910.

  Nearly half of the police: “Chinese Entertain,” NYTR, Feb. 22, 1910.

  “There was Coroner Feinberg”: “On Leongs Very Peaceful,” NYS, Feb. 22, 1910.

  Not to be outdone: “Chinese New Year Dinner,” NYT, Feb. 28, 1910.

  The first victim: “Items of Interest from Busy Gotham,” SFC, April 18, 1910.

  Retaliation took only: “Killed in Tong War,” NYTR, April 11, 1910.

  Captain Richard E. Enright: “Chinaman Slain in Tong Outbreak,” WH, April 11, 1910; “New Head Detective M’Cafferty Is Out,” NYT, April 1, 1910; “Big Crowd at Galvin’s Funeral,” NYTR, Sept. 2, 1910.

  Several newspapers blamed: “Bloody Tong War May Sweep East,” Niagara Falls Gazette, April 11, 1910; “War over Slain Girl Costs Lives of Six,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, April 11, 1910; “War of Tongs Fatal to Five in Two Cities,” Syracuse Post-Standard, April 11, 1910; “Chinatown Going Fast”; “It All Began with Bow Kum.”