“I am willing to do all”: “Another Chinaman Shot in Tong War,” NYT, April 13, 1910.
It actually took more than: “Tong War in New York,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, April 13, 1910; “Judge as Tong Arbiter,” NYTR, April 14, 1910.
“All that is wished”: “Peace Envoy in Chinatown,” NYT, April 15, 1910; “Chinese Envoy Steps In,” NYTR, April 19, 1910.
But peace was problematical: “Peace Again in Chinatown,” NYPR, April 22, 1910; “Treaty to End Tong War,” NYT, April 22, 1910; “Tong Peace to Be Signed,” NYS, April 22, 1910; “No Peace Yet of the Tongs,” NYS, April 23, 1910; “Chinese Tongs to Fight Some More,” Detroit Free Press, April 23, 1910.
Under these conditions: “Tong War Goes On; Mediation Fails,” NYT, April 23, 1910.
“almost elbowed each other”: “Bingham Shakes Up Police Again,” NYT, Nov. 7, 1907; “Old Tom Lee Balks Efforts at Peace,” WT, April 23, 1910; “Tong War Goes On.”
Hodgins got nowhere: “Big Bill Working on Chinese Puzzle,” WT, May 4, 1910; “Two Tongs Within a Tong,” NYS, May 2, 1910.
On June 10, 1910: “Chu Hen Acquitted of Murder,” NYS, June 10, 1910; “One Dead, One Dying in Chinese Shooting,” NYTR, June 27, 1910.
The Four Brothers members: “Three Shot Down in Chinese Feud,” NYC, June 27, 1910.
Suddenly, however, Pell Street: “War Under Big Bill’s Nose,” NYS, June 27, 1910; “Four Brothers Man Slain, Two Mortally Wounded When the On Leongs Open Fire on Deadly Enemies,” NYH, June 27, 1910.
A couple of weeks later: “Chinaman Crosses Dead Line and Dies,” Pawtucket Times, Aug. 17, 1910; “Chinamen Held for Coroner,” NYTR, Aug. 18, 1910; “Another Chinese Murder,” Harrisburg Patriot, Aug. 17, 1910; “Tong War Expected,” BS, Aug. 18, 1910; “Tong War Again Breaks One Victim in New York,” MT, Aug. 21, 1910.
“The On Leongs have regular”: “The Tongs at War Again,” NYTR, July 28, 1910.
The result was heightened: “Peace of Tongs Only Temporary, Chinese Assert,” NYW, Dec. 20, 1910.
It took a little longer: “Tongs Sign Peace Pact,” NYTR, Dec. 30, 1910; “Chinese Sign a Treaty of Peace,” Evening Standard, Dec. 30, 1910; “Chinese Tongs End Their War,” Daily Capital Journal, Dec. 30, 1910; “Tongs and the Wars They Waged in the Palmy Days of Chinatown,” NYS, Aug. 10, 1919.
“might have been accomplished long ago”: “Chinese Hold a Love Feast,” NYTR, Jan. 1, 1911.
“is what men fight for”: Lin, My Country and My People, 190–91.
“Starting a war”: Leong, Chinatown Inside Out, 76.
Chapter 12: Mock Duck’s Luck Runs Out
On January 25, 1911: “Opium Raids in Tenderloin,” NYS, Jan. 26, 1911; “Letters, &c., from Opium Dens,” NYS, Jan. 27, 1911.
Neither Charlie Boston: “Rooting Out the Evil”; “Opium Smokers Arrested,” NYT, Aug. 11, 1899.
The U.S. attorney’s office: “Opium Raids in Tenderloin”; “Letters, &c., from Opium Dens.”
The pieces of the puzzle: “Alleged Opium Chief Held,” WP, Jan. 31, 1911; “Henkel Nabs Charley Boston,” NYTR, Jan. 31, 1911; “Hold Chinaman as Head of Opium Ring,” NYT, Jan. 31, 1911.
At the Tombs, Boston: “Peace Treaty of Tongs in Danger,” Pittston Gazette, Feb. 1, 1911; “Charley Boston Indicted,” BA, Feb. 21, 1911.
Although protection payments: “The Tongs at War,” Honesdale Citizen, Feb. 3, 1911; “Opium King’s Arrest Cause of Tong War,” NYS, Jan. 7, 1912.
Nobody expected peace: “Tong Aided Slayer Elsie Siegel Escape,” MT, Feb. 12, 1911.
Gaynor was first and foremost: Mayor Gaynor’s activities with respect to the police department are well described in Johnson, Street Justice, 100–107.
“After Gaynor got in”: “Gambling Revival Blamed on Gaynor,” NYT, Sept. 29, 1914; “Gaynor Throws Out Plain-Clothes Men,” NYT, June 22, 1910; “Mayor Gaynor’s Career,” BS, Aug. 10, 1910.
To everyone’s surprise: “High Honors for Chu Tom,” NYS, Feb. 20, 1911; “Chinatown’s Tongs Raise Peace Banner,” NYH, April 4, 1911; “Chinese Dragon on Parade,” NYS, April 9, 1911; “Day of Amity in Chinatown,” NYS, July 5, 1911.
There was still some fighting: Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 203; “New Tong War Element,” NYTR, Aug. 4, 1912; Van Norden, Who’s Who of the Chinese in New York, 91; “Shot by Old Enemy,” WS, March 13, 1911; “Sing Dock Mortally Shot,” NYTR, March 13, 1911.
The federal case against: “Charley Boston Case Takes Officials East,” Gazette Times, Dec. 12, 1911; “Sale of Opium Is Admitted by Boston,” Gazette Times, Dec. 13, 1911.
Some of Boston’s Canadian: “Boston Pleads Guilty,” NYTR, Dec. 13, 1911.
“Brethren, we have buried”: “Chinese Here Bury Hatchet,” NYTR, Dec. 13, 1911.
There would be one final: “Hankow Is Bombarded,” Springfield Daily News, Jan. 1, 1912; “Chinese Cheer Republic,” NYTR, Jan. 2, 1912.
A bitter wind was blowing: “Chinese Tongs in Bloody Encounter,” North Tonawanda Evening News, Jan. 6, 1912.
The On Leongs wasted no time: “One Dead, One Dying in Tong Feud,” NYH, Jan. 6, 1912.
When the police arrived: “One Dead, One Dying in Tong War Raid,” NYS, Jan. 6, 1912.
In the meantime, a Hip Sing: “Chinese Tong War Denied,” BS, Jan. 7, 1912; “Two Chinese Held on Murder Charge,” NYH, Jan. 7, 1912.
The arrest and imprisonment: “Opium King’s Arrest Cause of Tong War.”
On the morning of January 9: “Axe Men Invade Chinatown,” NYT, Jan. 10, 1912; “Gamblers Captured in Chinatown Raid,” NYS, Jan. 10, 1912; “Masked Chinaman Led Police Raid,” NYH, Jan. 10, 1912; “Raid 20 Chinese Gambling Resorts,” NYTR, Jan. 10, 1912.
The On Leongs surely expected: “Hip Sing Boys Attack Men in Raid; Two Shot,” NYS, Feb. 28, 1912; “Two Chinamen Shot in a Tong Battle,” NYT, Feb. 28, 1912.
A couple of weeks later: “Fusillade in Chinatown,” NYT, March 13, 1912.
June brought Mock Duck’s trial: “Court Gets Lesson on Chinese Policy Game,” NYS, June 7, 1912; “Mock Duck on Trial,” NYTR, June 7, 1912; “Try Mock Duck on Policy Charge,” NYH, June 7, 1912.
“He seems never to be able”: The Honorable Edward Swann Jr., Pre-sentencing Remarks, Court of General Sessions of the Peace of the City and County of New York, Part IV in the case of the People of the State of New York v. Mock Duck, Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College, June 6, 1912.
Even before the sentence: “Mock Duck Escapes Again,” NYP, July 6, 1912; “Mock Duck to Appeal,” BDE, July 6, 1912; “Mock Duck Wins a Point,” NYS, July 7, 1912; “Mock Duck Going Home,” NYS, July 12, 1912.
A few days after Mock Duck’s: Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 13, 206.
The shooter was a China-born: “Riddled Yu Toy from Pell Street Doorway,” NYS, June 18, 1912.
Jung Hing, however: “New Tong War Element”; Van Norden, Who’s Who of the Chinese in New York, 91; “Tongs to Reward Gun Man,” NYTR, June 19, 1912.
On June 23, 1912: “Chinese Bomb Timed to Kill Packed Tong,” NYT, June 24, 1912.
Nor did a second bomb: “Chinatown Shaken by Another Bomb as Feud Re-opens,” NYW, July 1, 1912.
Gunpowder might have been: “They’re After Big Lou, Head of the On Leong,” NYS, July 2, 1912; Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 191–93.
“FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS”: “They’re After Big Lou, Head of the On Leong.” In this case, “Chinese Merchants Association” clearly meant the On Leong Tong, of which Gin Gum was secretary. The address at the end of the notice was incorrect; the On Leong Tong was located at 14, not 24, Mott Street.
“There’s a monkey dead”: “Hip Sing Gun Man Slain in His Bunk,” NYH, July 15, 1912; “Mock Duck Dealer Slain in His Bunk,” NYT, July 15, 1912.
Another Hip Sing met: “Shot Dead in Chinese Feud,” NYT, July 27, 1912.
Louie Way had been involved: “9 Years for Tong
Shooting,” NYT, May 29, 1906.
Sane or not, he didn’t: “Four Slain and Eleven Wounded in Chinatown Battle,” NYH, Oct. 15, 1912; “Four Dead in Street in Chinatown Battle,” NYS, Oct. 15, 1912; “Death List Now Has Total of Five,” NYW, Oct. 15, 1912; “Chinese Gunmen Held,” NYS, Oct. 16, 1912.
The proximate cause: “Four Dead in Street in Chinatown Battle.”
November saw the trial: “Chinaman Found Guilty of Murder in War of Tongs,” NYW, Dec. 7, 1912; “Chinaman Guilty of First Degree Murder,” NYS, Dec. 8, 1912.
Armed with a search warrant: “Seek Opium, Find Firearms,” NYH, Dec. 8, 1912; “Chinaman Guilty of First Degree Murder.”
On December 13, the judge: “Chair for Chinaman; First Case in 30 Years,” NYC, Dec. 14, 1912; “Chinese Murderer Sentenced,” NYTR, Jan. 23, 1913.
Without benefit of a divorce: “Chinese Couple Married,” SR, Jan. 17, 1913; Ancestry.com, “Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840–1915,” accessed Aug. 4, 2015, http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2511.
Then something remarkable: FamilySearch.org, “Ohio, County Marriages, 1790–1950,” accessed Aug. 4, 2015, https://familysearch.org/.
The end of May 1913: “Chinese Tongs End War,” NYT, May 22, 1913.
There were several reasons: “Chinese Tongmen Sign ‘Peace Forever’ Treaty,” NYTR, May 29, 1913.
The treaty, signed: “Chinatown Signs Treaty of Peace Among All Tongs,” NYW, May 28, 1913.
The agreement opened all: “Sign Chinatown Peace Pact,” NYS, May 29, 1913; “Paint Brush and Steel Pen Bring Tong War to End,” IS, May 29, 1913.
Apart from representatives: “Sketches at Love Feast,” NYW, June 13, 1913; “Chinese Tong Men See Millennium in Peace Banquet,” NYW, June 13, 1913.
Even before the banquet: “Call Tong Truce a Blind”; “Peace Irks Tongs: War Likely in Chinatown,” NYTR, May 31, 1913.
Even the police were pessimistic: “Police Distrustful of Chinatown Peace,” NYS, May 31, 1913.
Chapter 13: Chinatown: Renovated, Disinfected, and Evacuated
After a disgruntled: “Mitchel Again Asks for Baker’s Head,” NYT, Oct. 4, 1910; “Mayor Drops Police Heads; New Men In,” NYT, Oct. 21, 1910; “Waldo in the Lead for Police Head,” NYT, May 22, 1911; Bernard Whalen and Jon Whalen, The NYPD’s First Fifty Years: Politicians, Police Commissioners, and Patrolmen (Lincoln, Neb.: Potomac Books, 2014), 67–70.
Waldo had earlier: “Gaynor Puts Waldo in Cropsey’s Place,” NYT, May 24, 1911.
Determined to make his mark: “Strong Arm Squad a Terror to Gangs of New York,” NYT, Aug. 20, 1911; “Whitman Openly Says Police Let Gunmen Escape,” NYT, Aug. 22, 1912.
If graft remained a problem: “Inspectors Underpaid,” DPP, Aug. 20, 1912; “Find Underpay Creates Graft,” DPP, March 10, 1913.
Waldo also struck back: “Waldo Gives Record of 13 Sam Paul Raids,” NYS, Aug. 6, 1912; “Vice Haunt Owners,” NYT, Aug. 28, 1912; “Gambler Who Defied Police Is Shot Dead,” NYT, July 16, 1912.
Waldo’s list included: “Houses Used for Gambling and Names of Owners,” NYTR, Aug. 28, 1913.
For several weeks, members: “Chinatown to Stop Its Own Gambling,” NYTR, Aug. 2, 1913; “Chinese Traders to Fight Gambling,” NYT, Aug. 2, 1913; “Chinese Merchants Name Tong Gamblers,” NYS, Aug. 2, 1913.
Conlon pledged to secure: “Lid Not to Lift While Waldo Stays,” NYS, Sept. 27, 1913.
Two weeks after Gaynor’s death: “Nice Day Says Tom Lee; Have Cup Tea?,” NYTR, April 30, 1916.
“Well, what shall we do”: “Waldo Suspends a Chinatown Captain,” NYS, Sept. 26, 1913; “Lid Not to Lift While Waldo Stays”; “Raid Leads to Changes,” NYTR, Oct. 2, 1913.
Riley, transferred from the Greenwich: “Riley Makes Raid Alone,” NYW, Oct. 3, 1913; “Capt. Riley Raids Chinatown Alone,” NYT, Oct. 5, 1913.
Riley’s tenure: “Chinatown Cleanup Too Much for Riley,” NYTR, Nov. 10, 1913; “Captain Riley’s Respite at Richmond Hill,” NYW, Nov. 12, 1913; “Say Ex-capt. Riley Took $1,000 Bribe,” NYT, Dec. 3, 1913; “Riley Charge Dropped,” NYTR, Nov. 28, 1914.
The first trial of Eng Hing: “Chinese to Die for Murder,” Bismarck Daily Tribune, March 23, 1913; “Captain of Death House,” Keowee Courier, Sept. 3, 1913.
McManus had engaged: “Dictograph Records Tong War Evidence,” NYS, Nov. 27, 1913.
“That,” she explained: “Girl Braves Tong to Save Chinese,” NYTR, Oct. 6, 1914.
“If On Leong Tong influence”: Opinion of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace of the City and County of New York in the case of the People v. Eng Hing and Lee Dock, Oct. 28, 1914, Executive Clemency and Pardon Case Files for Eng Hing and Lee Dock, Records of the Department of Correctional Services, New York State Archives, Series A0597-78, box 91, folder 27.
The executions were rescheduled: “Tong Men Cheat Little Green Door at Eleventh Hour,” NYW, Oct. 31, 1914.
“Now, if the On Leong Tong”: Motion for a New Trial on Newly Discovered Evidence, Court of General Sessions of the Peace of the City and County of New York in the case of the People v. Eng Hing and Lee Dock, Jan. 28, 1915, Executive Clemency and Pardon Case Files for Eng Hing and Lee Dock, Records of the Department of Correctional Services, New York State Archives, Series A0597-78, box 91, folder 27.
Eng Hing and Lee Dock finally: “Two Chinese Gunmen Are Electrocuted,” Elkhart Truth, Feb. 5, 1915.
On December 31, 1913: “Kline Ousts Waldo; Calls Him Childish,” NYT, Jan. 1, 1914.
In February 1914: “Raid Tong Headquarters,” NYT, Feb. 20, 1914.
With their departure: “Ban on Fan Tan Routs Chinamen,” NYTR, Feb. 1, 1914; “Chinatown Vanishing,” Duluth Herald, July 9, 1915; “New York’s Chinatown Annexed to the United States,” NYS, Feb. 8, 1914.
“Things very dull”: “Old Tom Lee Mourns; Chinatown ‘Velly Dull,’” NYTR, Feb. 5, 1915.
Under Falconer, the police: “Chinese Rebel, Ask That Court Keep Police Off,” NYTGM, April 13, 1915; “Appellate Court Decisions,” NYS, June 26, 1915.
A similar suit was filed: “Chinaman Asks Police Curb,” NYS, Oct. 13, 1915; “Chinaman Asks Injunction,” NYT, Oct. 13, 1915; “Chinese Denied Injunction,” NYPR, Oct. 17, 1915.
In late October, an association: “Too Many Police, Chinatown Plaint,” NYT, Oct. 23, 1915.
Although only fifty-two: “Gin Gum Dies in Bed After Stormy Life,” NYS, April 21, 1915; “Gin Gum’s Funeral Brings Tong Peace,” NYT, April 25, 1915; “Tongs at Peace at Jim Gun’s Bier,” NYH, April 25, 1915.
In 1913, his son Frank: “Tom Lee’s Son Back as Chinese Official,” WT, Jan. 23, 1914; “Pell Street Boy Here as Official,” WH, Jan. 4, 1914; Who’s Who in China: Biographies of Chinese Leaders (Shanghai: China Weekly Review, 1936), 136–37.
Old Tom remained active: “Arousing Interest of Chinese in America’s Liberty Loan,” Greensboro Daily Record, May 21, 1916.
Lee’s body, in a silk brocade shroud: “Tom Lee, Mayor of Chinatown, Dies”; “On Leong Chieftain Dies Quietly in Bed,” NYTR, Jan. 11, 1918; “Chinatown Chief’s Body Lies in State,” NYTR, Jan. 14, 1918; “Chinatown to Bury Mayor with Honor,” NYS, Jan. 14, 1918; “Chinatown’s Patriarch Buried, Soul Commended by 2 Faiths,” NYTR, Jan. 15, 1918.
“Now that the last columns”: “What Goes On in Gotham Now,” Riverside Enterprise, Jan. 30, 1918.
“While it is impossible”: “Woods Reviews His Police Work,” NYT, Dec. 28, 1917.
Chinese who were citizens: Tsai, Chinese Experience in America, 97.
“entertainment of the Orient”: “Chinese Leaders Buy Bonds While Tongmen Enlist,” Salt Lake Telegram, April 27, 1918; “Arousing Interest of Chinese in America’s Liberty Loan”; “Back the Fighting Lad with the Fighting Loan,” NYW, April 26, 1918.
In April 1919, Hip Sings: “Chinatown Forgets Feuds to Arrange Soldiers’ Welcome,” NYTR, April 14
, 1919; “Chinese Leaders Buy Bonds While Tongmen Enlist”; History of the Seventy-seventh Division, August 25th, 1917, November 11th, 1918 (New York: Seventy-seventh Division Association, 1919), 44.
In late 1921: “Rival Tongs Join in Fete,” KCS, Oct. 2, 1921; “2,000 Chinese Arrive to Open Club House,” NYW, Sept. 30, 1921; “2 Chinese Held as Assassins of Tong Leader,” NYTR, Aug. 9, 1922; “Chinatown Mourns Death of Dr. Fung, Tong Chief,” NYW, July 12, 1922.
“Chinatown is a joke!”: “‘Chair’ Makes Good Chinese; Tong Wars End,” Riverside Enterprise, Feb. 14, 1922.
Not even the cold-blooded murder: “Police Fear Tong War Is on as Head of Hip Sing Is Shot,” NYW, Aug. 8, 1922; “Tong Leader and Woman Shot in Feud,” NYTR, Aug. 8, 1922; “2 Chinese Held as Assassins of Tong Leader,” NYTR, Aug. 9, 1922.
The newspapers assumed: “Tong Leader and Woman Shot in Feud,” NYTR, Aug. 8, 1922; “Tong War On,” NYT, Aug. 8, 1922.
Aided by Chinese informers: “2 Chinese Held as Assassins of Tong Leader”; “Identify Tom Yee as Man Who Shot President Ko Low,” NYW, Aug. 9, 1922.
Ko Low’s funeral: “Ko Low to Be Buried with Christian Service,” NYTR, Aug. 12, 1922; “Chinese Tong Leader Buried,” Boston Globe, Aug. 14, 1922; “Tongs Arbitrate Ko Low Crime at Peace Table,” NYTR, Aug. 15, 1922.
The police, however: “New York Police Seize Many Guns; Tong War Feared,” Anaconda Standard, Dec. 2, 1922; “Tong War Nipped by Arms Seizure,” PI, Dec. 2, 1922.
Chapter 14: The Defection of Chin Jack Lem
By the 1920s: “500 Chinese Here from 20 Cities to Attend Convention”; “Hip Sings Meeting,” Bellingham Herald, Sept. 27, 1926; “Tong Men Meet in Parley Here,” Spokesman-Review, Sept. 19, 1924.
In April 1924: Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 250–51.
The Hip Sings were divided: Ibid., 247–55; “Tong of Chinese Merchants Will Meet Here Next Week,” WP, Aug. 27, 1924; “Arrest Chinese, Blame Rivalries in Tong Shootings,” CPD, May 30, 1924.
Tong Wars Page 36