Then Wong Sing: “Freed of Tong Death Threat,” CPD, Aug. 28, 1924.
Everyone saw it coming: Gong and Grant, Tong War!, 253–54.
The opening salvo: “Steps Taken to Prevent More Chinese Trouble,” Biloxi Daily Herald, Oct. 9, 1924; “New York Slaying,” Rockford Morning Star, Oct. 12, 1924; “Tong War Brings Second Slaying,” CT, Oct. 12, 1924; “Dayton Chinese Slain in Tong Feud,” CPD, Oct. 12, 1924; “Tong War Worries Police of Big Cities,” Rockford Republican, Oct. 13, 1924; “Eastern Tong Killings Stir Up Police Here,” CT, Oct. 15, 1924; “Another Chinese Slain by Tongs,” NYS, Oct. 13, 1924; “Mexico Scene of Fatal Tong Feud,” CPD, Oct. 22, 1924.
On October 15, Chin: “Seize Tong Man; Find He’s Also Deputy Sheriff,” CT, Oct. 16, 1924; “Mysteries on Tong War,” Biloxi Herald, Nov. 4, 1924; “Chin Jack Lam Jailed When Caught Armed,” SJ, Oct. 16, 1924.
Over the next couple: “Fifth Chinese Slain in Tong Feud Here,” NYT, Oct. 17, 1924; “Tong Hatchetmen Believed Slayers of Elderly Chinese,” BDS, Oct. 18, 1924; “Tong Seeks Release of Murder Suspect,” BDE, Nov. 8, 1924; “Chinese Tells Court He Was Offered $500 to Kill Corona Man,” BDS, Nov. 11, 1924.
By the end of the month: “Warring Chinese Sign Armistice Ending Tong War,” San Diego Union, Oct. 31, 1924; “New Tong Murder Halts Peace Talk,” TT, Oct. 30, 1924; “Tong Murder Prelude to an Armistice,” CT, Oct. 31, 1924.
Then New York police got word: “Seize Tong Leader as Cause of War,” NYT, Nov. 10, 1924; “Peace Treaty of Tongs Extended,” CPD, Nov. 13, 1924.
On the morning of October 26, 1924: “Chinese Dies After Voyage in a Box,” NYT, Oct. 27, 1924; “Smuggled Suspects Tong Feud Recruits According to Police,” Tampa Tribune, Oct. 29, 1924; “Peace Is Expected in Tong War Here,” NYT, Oct. 30, 1924.
Acting on a tip, police raided: “Tear Bombs Seized in Raid on Chinese,” NYT, Oct. 29, 1924; “Chinese Waiter Taken with Bomb,” BH, Oct. 29, 1924.
But during a passionate speech: “Rev. Lee Tow Dies, Chinatown Mourns,” NYT, Nov. 24, 1924.
That day, the son: “Police Guard Chinese Shops to Avert Tong War,” CT, Nov. 27, 1924; “Two Chinese Murdered at Hartford,” SR, Nov. 27, 1924; “Truce of Tongs Broken Ere It Officially Ends,” CPD, Nov. 28, 1924; “Seven Slain as Truce of Tongmen Ends,” PI, Nov. 29, 1924.
In the meantime, Chin Jack Lem: “Takes Chinese to New York,” CPD, Nov. 28, 1924; “Tong Strife in New York Rages Again,” Buffalo Morning Express, Nov. 29, 1924.
Hostilities continued: “Police Ready to Foil New Tong Shootings,” NYP, Dec. 7, 1924; “Tongs Appeal to N.Y. Police,” BH, Nov. 30, 1924.
While Chin remained: “7 Chinese Guilty in Tong Case,” CPD, Dec. 13, 1924; “Chin Jack Lem on Way to Cleveland,” CPD, Dec. 19, 1924; “Chin Jack Freed on $15,000 Bond,” CPD, Dec. 21, 1924.
In Chicago, the going rate: “Murder Price List Established in Tong Warfare,” Queens Daily Star, Feb. 12, 1925.
He finally went on trial: “Chin Jack Guilty; Armistice in Tong War Is Forecast,” CPD, Feb. 19, 1925; “Chin Jack Off to Pen,” CPD, Feb. 24, 1925.
“The verdict means”: “Gashed by Cleaver in Tong War,” NYS, March 3, 1925; “Killing May Mean Tong War Resumed,” SR, March 23, 1925; “Convict Tong Leader; Means End of ‘War,’” WP, Feb. 19, 1925; “County-Wide Tong War Ends as Rival Leaders Sign Truce,” Buffalo Courier, March 27, 1925.
Among the terms were pledges: “County-Wide Tong War Ends as Rival Leaders Sign Truce”; “Tong Peace Signed, Chinatown Happy,” NYT, March 27, 1925.
Trouble broke out again: “Tongs on Verge of Peace Pact,” BH, Sept. 6, 1925; “Last Honors for Lee Kue Ying,” NYS, Aug. 24, 1925; “Three Wounded in Tong Fight,” SR, Aug. 25, 1925; “Tong War Renewal Seen in Killing,” NYT, Aug. 25, 1925; “Chinese Tongs Renew Strife in Five Cities,” NYS, Aug. 25, 1925; “Eastern Cities See Renewal of Tong Warfare,” IS, Aug. 26, 1925.
The peace agreement: “Boston Tong Fight Brings New Warfare,” SR, Aug. 26, 1925; “3 Chinese Killed in New Outbreak of Rival Tongs,” Queens Daily Star, Aug. 25, 1925; “Tong War Renewal Seen in Killing.”
Because the agreement did not: “Fifth Chinese Slain in War of Tongs,” NYP, Aug. 26, 1925; “Tong War Claims Its 5th Victim; Scores Arrested,” BDE, Aug. 26, 1925; “Tong War Spreads into Five States,” NYT, Aug. 26, 1925.
New York police attempted: “Tongs in Peace Talk, One More Is Killed,” NYT, Aug. 27, 1925.
The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association summoned: “Call Leader of Tong to End War,” SDT, Aug. 28, 1925; Soohoo, Wo tonghen Meidi, 39–47.
After two hours: “Tong Men to Call on Pecora Today,” NYT, Aug. 28, 1925; “Banton Lines Up Tong Leaders,” NYS, Aug. 29, 1925; “Rival Tong Chiefs Agree on a Truce,” NYT, Aug. 29, 1925; “Tong Officers Pledge Peace,” CPD, Sept. 1, 1925; “Tong Forces Call Meeting to Make Universal Peace,” Kingsport Times, Sept. 2, 1925.
Barely two days later: “Tongs to Sign New Peace Pact,” Boston Globe, Sept. 1, 1925; “Chinese Slain, Peace Broken,” CPD, Sept. 3, 1925; “Tong Peace Broken by a Shooting Here,” NYT, Sept. 3, 1925; “One More Is Killed in Tong War Here,” NYT, Sept. 4, 1925.
The district attorney would not: “Plan Swift Justice for Tong Killers,” NYT, Sept. 5, 1925; “Tongs Are Warned Killings Must Stop,” NYT, Sept. 9, 1925.
“I am appealing to you”: “Demands Tong Truce,” NYP, Sept. 8, 1925; “Tong Chieftains Called on Carpet,” CPD, Sept. 9, 1925.
The evening after Banton’s: “Two Killed as Dread Chinese Gunmen Act,” SJ, Sept. 10, 1925.
At the arraignment: “Murder Indictment in Tong Outbreak,” NYT, Sept. 11, 1925; “Tong Leaders Are Released in New York,” CPD, Sept. 11, 1925.
New York police, who: “Murder Indictment in Tong Outbreak”; “Tongs Are Warned Killings Must Stop.”
In a drastic measure: “200 Chinese Arrested Here in Federal Raids,” NYS, Sept. 12, 1925; “Federal Drive on to End War of Tongs,” NYT, Sept. 13, 1925; “U.S. Lands Chinese Who Began Last War,” NYP, Sept. 12, 1925; “40 Chinese Seized; 1 Picked as Killer in New Tong War,” BDE, Sept. 12, 1925.
But the Feds didn’t care: “134 Chinese Taken in Raid Here to Be Deported by Government,” NYS, Sept. 15, 1925; “134 Chinese in Tombs After U.S. Tong Raid Await Deportation,” NYP, Sept. 15, 1925; “450 Chinese Seized, Tong Peace Signed,” NYT, Sept. 15, 1925.
Chinatown didn’t stay subdued: “On Leong Tong Member Is Murdered in His Laundry,” North Tonawanda Evening News, Sept. 18, 1925; “New Tong Murders; 500 Chinese Seized,” NYT, Sept. 19, 1925; Inmate Record of Jung Fung, Sing Sing Prison, Series B0143, Sing Sing Prison Inmate Admission Registers, 1842–1852, 1865–1971, New York State Archives.
On the same day: “Chinese Is Slain as Truce Is Signed,” NYS, Sept. 18, 1925.
Although there was no: “72 More Chinese Here Ordered Deported,” NYS, Sept. 19, 1925; “Raids Net 400 More Chinese; To Deport 72,” BDE, Sept. 19, 1925; “New Tong Murders; 500 Chinese Seized.”
Detainees were held: “U.S. Raiders Arrest 354 in Tong Roundup; To Deport 74 More,” NYP, Sept. 19, 1925; “72 Chinese Held for Deportation,” PI, Sept. 20, 1925.
On September 21: “‘Real Peace’ in New York,” BH, Sept. 22, 1925; “Warring Tongs Sign ‘Eternal’ Peace Pact,” NYP, Sept. 22, 1925.
The Hip Sings, however: “Federal Tong Probe Asked by Hip Sings,” NYP, Sept. 25, 1925; “Hip Sing Tong Asks Trade War Probe,” WS, Sept. 25, 1925; “Mask Off at Last in Tong Wars Among U.S. Chinese,” St. Petersburg Independent, Sept. 26, 1925.
“It’s preposterous”: “Federal Tong Probe Asked by Hip Sings.”
Police joined two hundred: “Rival Tongs at Peace Dinner Agree to ‘Bury the Hatchet,’” BDE, Oct. 15, 1925; “Tongs Have Peace Dinner,” NYT, Oct. 15, 1925.
The first blood was shed: “5 Slain, 3 Shot as Tongs Renew War in 6 Cities,” BDE, March 24, 1927.
“The On
Leongs are the wealthy”: “Extortion Called Basis of Tong War,” NYP, March 25, 1927.
Late on March 25: “Tong Chiefs Order Slaying Stopped; Two More Killed,” BDE, March 26, 1927; “Tong Leaders Warn Fellows of No Warfare,” Canton Repository, March 26, 1927.
No doubt they were: “Warring Tongs Announce Truce,” IS, March 27, 1927.
“even the children play”: “New York Day by Day,” Lexington Leader, Aug. 30, 1927.
Suddenly, on the evening: “Tongman Is Killed in Laundry Attack,” NYP, Oct. 19, 1928; “Chinese Succumbs to Feud Wound,” BDE, Oct. 19, 1928; “Tong Strife Ends,” Bellingham Herald, Oct. 26, 1928.
It wasn’t until early August: “Chicago Police Patrol Chinatown,” Edwardsville Intelligencer, Aug. 5, 1929; “Chicagoans Fear New Tong Clash,” MT, Aug. 5, 1929; “Fear Serious Tong Outbreaks,” Richmond Times Dispatch, Aug. 5, 1929; “Chinese Chiefs Have Orders to Stop,” Bellingham Herald, Aug. 5, 1929; “Guns Roar, Tong War Spreading in East,” SDT, Aug. 5, 1929; “Tuttle Threatens Chinese Roundup,” NYP, Aug. 6, 1929.
But less than two hours: “Two Wounded as Tong War Reaches City,” BSU, Aug. 5, 1929; “Chinatown Raids On Today Unless Tongs Quit War,” BDE, Aug. 6, 1929; “Tuttle Threatens Chinese Roundup.”
The accompanying announcement: “A New Peace Treaty,” Lexington Herald, Aug. 7, 1929; “Tongs Sign New Treaty Early Today,” Baton Rouge Advocate, Aug. 7, 1929.
Initially, it was unclear: “Chicago Tongman Critically Wounded,” SR, Aug. 7, 1929; “New York Armistice Has No Effect on Rivals Here,” BH, Aug. 7, 1929; “Chinatown Raid Amuses Crowds,” BH, Aug. 8, 1929; “Stabbing Follows Tong Peace Pact,” NYP, Aug. 13, 1929.
Chapter 15: Coexistence
The Great Depression delivered: Song, Shaping and Reshaping Chinese American Identity, 50; “Tongs of Chinatown United by Necessities of Relief,” CSM, July 12, 1932; Tsai, Chinese Experience in America, 108–9.
Many were hungry: “Tongs of Chinatown United by Necessities of Relief”; “Bowery Now at Odds on Winter Breadlines,” BDE, Aug. 6, 1931.
“The warring tongs”: “Let’s Think This Over,” Augusta Chronicle, May 27, 1932.
Charlie Boston didn’t have to worry: “Chinatown’s Patriarch Buried, Soul Commended by 2 Faiths”; “Brewing Chinatown Tong War May Dethrone Charley Boston,” NYTR, May 21, 1921; “Chinatown to Bury Boston on Sunday,” NYP, Jan. 7, 1930; “About Burying Charlie Boston,” NYS, Jan. 8, 1930.
In the end, the affair: “Charlie Boston Finally Buried,” NYS, Jan. 13, 1930.
Even before Boston’s passing: Harry R. Sisson to Chinese Inspector in Charge, New York, Feb. 21, 1927, and Deposition of Wong Gett before Immigration Inspector P. A. Donahue, March 1, 1927, in 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; “Tongs Sign New Peace Pact,” NYS, June 7, 1930.
Both tongs marched peacefully: “Murder Charges to Two Chinese,” SR, Feb. 13, 1930; “Hostile Tongs Bar Census of 500 Chinese in Newark,” NYP, April 18, 1930; “Raid Chinatown After Rumor of Tong Wars,” CT, May 19, 1930; “Chicago’s War of Gangsters Goes Oriental,” Seattle Times, June 5, 1930; “Outbreak of Tong War in New York Feared Following Rumors of Strife Among Chinese in the Middle West,” Bellingham Herald, June 5, 1930; “Brooklyn Chinese Shot Dead,” NYS, June 6, 1930.
“Whatever caused this outbreak”: “Brooklyn Chinese Shot Dead.”
But the situation was more complex: “Two Heads Hunted, Two More Die Here,” NYT, June 7, 1930; “Chinatown War Still Going On,” MT, June 7, 1930; “Tong Toll Now 6; Peace Parley On,” NYP, June 7, 1930.
A treaty was signed: “Tongs Sign New Peace Pact”; “Another Chinese Is Shot to Death,” MT, June 8, 1930; “Blame Hip Sing Desertions in New Tong War,” CT, June 8, 1930.
Tong leaders disavowed: “Hip Sing ‘Reveres’ Quizzed by Police,” NYP, June 9, 1930; “Report Chicago Tongs Will Defy N.Y. Peace Pact,” CT, June 9, 1930.
“The On Leong Merchants Association”: “Tong Chiefs Sign Treaty of Peace,” SR, June 10, 1930.
Kellogg Peace Pact: “Men and Events,” China Weekly Review, June 14, 1930.
In July, Chinese were slaughtering: “Chinese Warned to End Killings,” Reading Times, Aug. 19, 1930; “Tong War Flames Forth in New York,” Tonawanda Evening News, July 31, 1930.
The cause of the trouble: “Alleged £100 Offer for Murder,” Manchester Guardian, Aug. 16, 1930; “Chinese Warned to End Killings.”
More shootings followed: “Boost Patrols to Curb Tong Warfare,” SDT, Aug. 12, 1930; “Five Chinese Hurt in New Tong War: Poolroom Shot Up,” BDE, Aug. 18, 1930; “Five Chinese Shot in Pell St. Ambush,” NYT, Aug. 18, 1930; “Chinese Warned to End Killings.”
The final twenty-article agreement: “Chinese Societies to Sign Pact Ending New York Tong Wars,” Tampa Tribune, Aug. 19, 1930; “Mulrooney Named Arbiter as Tongs Accept Peace Pact,” BDE, Sept. 2, 1930; “Tongs Sign Another Peace Pact,” NYS, Sept. 2, 1930.
“In spite of the fact”: “Tongs Sign Another Peace Pact.”
“Sightseeing buses dump”: “Canaries Warn Chinese of Raid Peril,” NYS, April 21, 1931.
In fact, they held their caucuses: “Chinese to Gather Here,” NYS, April 22, 1931; “The Heathen Chinee Is Peculiar,” NYS, April 24, 1931; “Two Tongs Convene,” BDE, April 27, 1931.
Tens of thousands of red: “Trouble Feared as Tongs Meet,” NYS, April 27, 1931; “Chinatown in Ominous Quiet as Big Tongs Prepare Parley,” BSU, April 28, 1931.
The On Leongs, however: “Police Watch Hips of Hips and Leongs,” NYP, April 28, 1931.
Both tongs held banquets: “Rival Tongs at Play Together,” NYS, April 28, 1931; “Tongs Under Guard Plan Aid for Idle,” NYT, April 29, 1931.
At 9:30 p.m. on February 28: “Old Tong Leader Is Shot,” NYS, Feb. 29, 1932; “Shooting Revives Mock Duck Legend,” NYT, Feb. 29, 1932.
There had actually been a few: “Gin Gum Dies in Bed After Stormy Life”; “Gin Gum’s Funeral Brings Tong Peace”; “Tongs at Peace at Jim Gun’s Bier”; “Chinatown Turns: Seeks Aid of Law,” NYTR, April 8, 1915; “Bankruptcy Notices,” NYT, Nov. 30, 1917; “Police Watch Hips of Hips and Leongs”; “Hip Sing Heads Called to End Local Dispute,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 10, 1928.
The police made an attempt: “Old Tong Leader Is Shot”; “Profiles: Tong Leader,” New Yorker, Dec. 30, 1933.
The greatest contribution: “Tongs of Chinatown United by Necessities of Relief.”
Putting aside their differences: Ibid.; “So They Say,” Miami Daily News-Record, Feb. 29, 1932; “Chinese Throughout the U.S. Work and Sacrifice for War Stricken Homeland,” Columbus Daily Enquirer, March 13, 1932.
Even the Chinese New Year: “Rival Tong Dragons Greet Chinese Year,” NYT, Jan. 27, 1933.
When, on July 21: “Chinatown Guarded as Tong Man Is Slain,” NYT, July 23, 1933; “Denies Tong Mediation,” NYT, Aug. 4, 1933; “Tong Slayers Fool Police,” SJ, July 29, 1933; “Chinese Shot to Death; N.Y. Tong Feud Blamed,” BS, July 29, 1933.
Later that day, Sing Kee: “New Tong War Spreads Here in Shooting,” NYS, July 29, 1933; “Chinatown Fears Tong War Start,” TT, July 30, 1933.
Just as the earthly remains: “May Avert Tong War,” NYS, July 31, 1933; “Tong War Inquiry Begun by Medalie,” NYT, Aug. 1, 1933.
In describing the pact: “Tongs in Truce After Killings,” NYP, Aug. 17, 1933; “Tong Peace Signed; NRA Is Credited,” NYT, Aug. 18, 1933.
“This was many degrees”: “Tong Peace Signed; NRA Is Credited.”
“because the Hip Sing”: Leong, Chinatown Inside Out, 79.
Then, too, the Chinatown of the 1930s: Carlos E. Cortés, ed., Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2013), 1:489; Wang, Surviving the City, 69–81.
Yet another factor: Sue Fawn Chung, “Fighting for Their American Rights: A History of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance,” in Claiming America: Constructing Chinese Identities During the Exclusion Era, ed. K. Scott Wong and Sucheng Chan (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), 96.
The Depression also made: Tsai, Chinese Experience in America, 108–9; Leong, Chinatown Inside Out, 74.
Then there were China’s needs: “So They Say.”
In the run-up: Yu, To Save China, to Save Ourselves, 42–45; Kwong, Chinatown, New York, 55.
“With the sharp decrease”: Leong, Chinatown Inside Out, 82–84.
On February 14, 1934: “Chinatown Lions on Parade,” NYS, Feb. 15, 1934.
Epilogue
The body of Tom Lee: “Tom Lee Is Going to Grave in China,” NYS, April 4, 1918.
Chin Jack Lem: “Deposed Tong Tyrant Slain,” NYS, Nov. 2, 1937; “Governor White Commutes Former Tong’s Sentence,” Coshocton Tribune, Nov. 20, 1931; “Not So Good,” CPD, Nov. 21, 1931; Alan F. Dutka, Asiatown Cleveland: From Tong Wars to Dim Sum (Charleston, S.C.: History Press, 2014), 68.
Sue Sing: Executive Clemency and Pardon Case Files for Sue Sing, Inmate No. 6033, Records of the Department of Correctional Services, New York State Archives, Series A0597-78, box 73, folder 32.
Chin Lem: “Chin Lem Buried with Full Rites,” NYH, Feb. 22, 1914; “Deadly Tongman Is Quiet Forever,” TT, Feb. 22, 1914.
William McAdoo: McAdoo, Guarding a Great City, 175–76.
William T. Jerome: “Jerome Dies at 74,” NYT, Feb. 14, 1934.
Wong Aloy: Twenty-first Report of the State Civil Service Commission (Albany: Oliver A. Quayle, State Legislative Printer, 1904), 154; “Blame Tong War for Poolroom Death Mystery,” CT, April 28, 1922; “Fear Tong War,” IS, Jan. 13, 1923.
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