Hatchet Men: The Story of the Tong Wars in San Francisco’s Chinatown (31 page)

IT IS REPORTED LATELY THAT THERE IS A VIGILANCE COMMITTEE CALLED THE LAW ABIDING PROTECTIVE SOCIETY, WAI LEONG KUNG SUR. ITS OBJECT IS TO BREAK DOWN ALL TONGS. THIS ACTION CANNOT HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY MEN OF ABILITY. ITS ACTION IS TO ENCOURAGE THE WHITE PEOPLE AND MOLEST OUR PEOPLE, MY GOOD PEOPLE, DO NOT BLAME MEMBERS OF THE LAW ABIDING PROTECTIVE SOCIETY. IF ANYONE IS MURDERED ON THE STREET THE WHITE OFFICERS CAN ARREST THEM AND WITNESS AGAINST THEM WITHOUT THE ASSISTANCE OF THE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION. THE SOCIETY IS GOOD FOR NOTHING BUT TO INFORM THE OFFICERS AND ARREST PEOPLE FOR VISITING HOUSES OF ILL REPUTE OR HAVE THEM FINED $20 APIECE. THE ORGANIZATION OF A PROTECTIVE UNION IS THE SAME EVIL AS THE [WAVERLY PLACE] POLICE STATION IN CHINATOWN. DIFFERENT COMPANIES SUBSCRIBE MONEY FOR THE SOCIETY. WHY DO THEY NOT BETTER SUBSCRIBE MONEY TO SEND AGED PEOPLE TO CHINA? THERE IS A MAN NAMED GONG TYNG. [Suggested by Crowley for the task of approving bonds of arrested Chinese.] ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS WILL BE PAID FOR SHOOTING HIM DOWN AND $300 WILL BE PAID FOR INFORMATION REGARDING THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE’S INTERPRETER AND DIRECTOR. TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS WILL BE PAID FOR KILLING THE DIRECTOR OR INTERPRETER, $4,000 FOR THE KILLING OF THE TWO, AND $50 FOR INFORMATION CONCERNING THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY. WE WILL GIVE $1,000 TO A MAN WHO WILL KILL AN INSPECTOR OF CHINESE BONDS. WHOEVER JOINS THIS WAI LEONG KUNG SUR PUTS HIMSELF TO DEATH AND INTO HIS GRAVE.

The Chinese quasi Vigilantes did not panic. They went right ahead with their plans. They drew up fourteen resolutions which spelled out in fine detail their counter offensive against the tongs. Heads of families were to keep all kin out of the fighting tongs; merchant members of tongs were to withdraw from them, being promised protection by the society; no one was to go bail for hatchet men—if one should do so the Wai Leong Kung Sur would do some posting of its own, pasting up placards accusing the bail supplier of being a highbinder at heart; if a Caucasian should supply bail for a highbinder, a complaint would be made to the authorities. The society’s officers tried to cover everything. Anyone renting rooms to highbinders would be “published” in this fashion too. The Law-Abiding Protective Society promised to notify the police of rooms occupied by any hatchet men, to get landlords to oust known highbinders from rental rooms, and to set up rewards of $600, $400 and $200 for persons giving information leading to the arrest and conviction of tong murderers. Storekeepers were given police whistles to blow in case of attacks.

A regular battle of
chun hungs
now took place. With the posters of the mysterious Sing Ping King Sur tong still up in some areas, the new Chinese Vigilantes fostered by the Six Companies pasted up one of its own all over the Quarter:

NOTICE! BY THE SIX COMPANIES! WE, THE SIX COMPANIES HAVE ORGANIZED A VIGILANCE COMMITTEE FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROTECTING OUR INTERESTS. THE HIGHBINDERS ARE BECOMING TOO OPEN IN THEIR LAWLESSNESS. WE HAVE ALSO ISSUED AN APPEAL ASKING FOR THE GOOD CHINAMEN TO ASSIST US IN BREAKING OF THE HIGHBINDERS. IN RETURN, THEY HAVE ISSUED A PAPER DIRECTED AGAINST THE WAI LEONG SOCIETY. THEREFORE, WE GIVE NOTICE THAT WE WILL GIVE $100 TO ANY PERSON WHO WILL GIVE US INFORMATION AS TO WHO WROTE OR POSTED SAID INFLAMMATORY CIRCULAR, AND $200 WILL BE PAID FOR THE APPREHENSION OF THE AUTHOR AND INSTIGATOR OF ANY PAPER OF A LIKE CHARACTER. WE WILL ALSO GIVE $100 FOR THE ARREST OF THE PERSON WHO FORGED THE NAME OF THE SIX COMPANIES TO THE LATE PAPER.

The next broadside to be plastered on walls bore the Consular seal. Consul General Li Wang Yu posted copies of a notice stating that he had received authority from the Chinese Minister in Washington to send highbinders home for beheading by Governor Kwong Si of Canton. Whether this was bluff or not, the
chun hung
which ended: YOU WILL NOT ONLY BE BEHEADED BUT YOU WILL BRING DISGRACE ON YOUR OWN FAMILY, FATHERS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS intimidated many
boo how doy.

Chief Crowley was asked about the Consul General’s c
hun hung.
“This much I know,” said Crowley. “That the Chinese Consul General told me recently that he has communicated with the Chinese Minister at Washington with the view of getting him to obtain power from the Chinese Government to confiscate all property belonging to highbinders arrested for a crime, and (if they have no property) suggesting that the Chinese Government should behead the relatives of these highbinders so as to make an end to these murders which are disgracing the whole Chinese population in this country. Whether the Consul General has obtained this power I do not know... If the Consul General would send the highbinders to China to be beheaded, I think it would be a mighty good thing and would please me very much.”

When the new president of the Yeong Wo Company arrived he brought with him from China a document printed by order of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of China. It deplored the fact that “Certain classes of Chinese have persisted in maintaining societies to carry on blackmail” and ordered all Chinese to obey the laws of their new land. But it had little effect. Just before Thanksgiving Day another Chinese was murdered in the Jackson Street theatre for informing the Immigration Bureau that the girls coming to the Omaha Exposition, ostensibly for the Chinese pavilion there, were in fact en route to Chinatown whorehouses.

Crowley kept his own “hatchet men” busy. The keen blades wielded by the Chinatown squad sent six more tong flagpoles crashing, including those of two new rising stars among the tongs—the Gee Sin Seer and the Bo Sin Seer. Sergeant Burke said, “The work will be continued till not a single flagpole, surmounting a place where highbinders have been in the habit of meeting, is left standing.” A quixotic campaign perhaps, but it appeared to have a calming effect on the tongs. Rumors of peace began to waft about the Quarter. A Chinatown police officer was not sanguine, however, of peace between the quarreling Hop Sing and Suey Sing tongs. The officer said: “I believe it is only a temporary truce forced upon the highbinders by the vigorous actions of Chief Crowley. They will wait till the present excitement blows over and will break out shortly, worse than ever. The clubbing by police and the destruction of their headquarters have had the effect of driving a number of the highbinders out of the city. But, as soon as things quiet down again, they will return and will be found in new headquarters, ready for offensive operations. In fact,” he added, “I have heard it rumored that a new highbinder society has been formed, even more powerful than any one of those known to the police.”

Proof that the highbinders had not gone underground was shortly supplied Crowley. Mrs. Annie Leonard complained to authorities of tong bribery attempts. Murder witness Annie told the court, “Last night two Chinese called at my residence and asked to speak to me. I asked them what they wanted. They said they had come to see me about Lee Sing who was on trial for murder. They said they knew that I was going to testify against him. Then one of them told me that Lee Sing was not a member of the highbinder society and had no authority from the society to kill the man, that he did it for private reasons and could expect no aid from the society-but that his friends had undertaken his defense. They then offered me a sum of money if I would leave the state and not testify here today. Of course, I showed them the door at once.”

As if the position of the Six Companies was not insecure enough after the Geary Act loss of face, in 1894 it split right down the middle when a See Yup was arrested for murder. He was acquitted by the jury, and the Sam Yups—who had not only refused to help his case financially but who had indicated that they thought him guilty—were ridiculed unmercifully by the other company. The result was a war of sorts between Sam Yups and See Yups: a lack of confidence in American law and justice on the part of the former; and a long-drawn-out boycott on Sam Yup stores by the much more numerous members of the See Yup Company. The on-again, off-again boycott did not end for four years. Stores went bankrupt; commercial stagnation added its woes to the political anarchy of the Quarter. The fighting tongs were delighted as the pressure was shifted from them after the Chinese vigilance committee had all but frightened them out of their coats of mail.

Hatchet men hired out to either or both sides and were generally quick to stir up what trouble they could. They mixed into Chinese “union” (guild) squabbles at this time, too, indulging their talent for arson in attempts to burn down two factories. They also bullied Chinese capitalists, but in one case picked a tartar. When Chun Mon, overall factory owner, learned that the factory workers’ guild had put a $1,000 price on his head after he had fired his whole labor force and substituted the Chinatown equivalent of scabs, he armed himself and marched into the guild’s headquarters. He saw that his executioner, hired from a tong, was there. He coolly walked up to him and said, “Well, here I am. Why don’t you earn your money? One thousand dollars does not grow on bushes to be picked so easily every day.” While the highbinder was slinking away Chun notified the Six Companies. Pressure was brought to bear and the hatchet man left on the next steamer for the Old Country.

More and more people fled Chinatown. The Chinese Government tried to stablilize the situation through the Consulate General. A succession of consuls and vice-consuls was tried. Each failed to end the boycott and was recalled. Finally Wu Ting Fang, Chinese Minister in Washington, sent his brother-in-law Ho Yow to San Francisco as Vice-Consul. He got the two companies to come to terms with one another and to jury rig a peace of a kind. As a tribute to his success, the Emperor made him Consul General. But his labors in this area had to go on for months to preserve even the shakiest peace.

Ho Yow also had a radical plan for exorcising the tongs. He put his plan to city authorities. By it he would have a say in determining which officers, Chinese or others, should be detailed to the Chinatown squad. He would coordinate police judges’ jurisdiction over Chinatown. Ho Yow urged the abolition of jury trials of arrested Chinese, in order to stop bribery. He asked for the deportation of convicted Chinese felons rather than their imprisonment in California. “In this manner,” he said, “the United States would be rid rapidly of the Chinese criminal class and the sources of the disturbing tong wars removed.” Inspector Frank Schuyler of the Chinese Bureau of the Customs House went further. He urged that the Chinese Consul General be made head of a court to deport aliens found “guilty” of membership in any of the fighting tongs.

The city was not about to surrender its hegemony—even over Chinatown—to the Chinese Empire’s representative, but it did adopt some of Ho Yow’s ideas. When the Chinatown squad smashed the Ross Alley gang, for example, the quartet of burglar-robbers was given the choice of imprisonment or deportation. One chose the latter course and was soon joined by three more felons aboard the
Gothic,
bound for China. This was a good beginning. By a revival of the half-forgotten McCreary Act, deportation of Chinese criminals was made feasible, and the Consul General prepared a list of potential deportees for the police department. Typical of the kind of men picked up in the ensuing dragnet was an ex-con named Jeong Woo. Walking down Washington Street one lazy day, Jeong felt a gentle but firm pressure on his arm. He saw Detective Chris Cox. “I’d like to talk to you,” said Cox. “Where you takee me?” asked Jeong. Soothingly Cox responded, “We’ll just drop down to the Old Prison where we can talk without fear of interruption. I think you’ll see some of your old friends in China before long, Jeong, my boy.” The face of the highbinder fell. He protested, “Why you takee me? Me been out of San Quentin ten years.” “That’s a fact,” agreed Cox, “and you’ve made lots of trouble during those years. Now you’ve got to go home.”

Another symptom of the sickness afflicting Chinatown in the mid-’90s was the police shakeup of 1894. A number of men were discharged from the department, for corruption. Chief Crowley, too “sick” to go before the Grand Jury, sent his able aide Captain Isaiah Lees to appear in his place. The captain explained that the evidence against Police Clerk William E. Hall and the others was enough to show their guilt but was not enough for a court conviction. After leaving the Grand Jury room he was pressed by reporters for a fuller explanation. Lees said, “I explained to the Grand Jury the difficulty with which the information was obtained which led to the dismissal of delinquent officers in the department. But I could not go into it all. It would be the part of idiocy for us to give all our sources of information and the methods pursued to obtain evidence against the corrupt ones. This would prevent us from getting any more information from these quarters and the guilty ones might escape. It would be foolish to tip our hands.”

By the time of the police scandals the Chinatown squad had become a potent factor in controlling crime. It remained so as long as it stayed honest. After the scandal broke, Lieutenant William Price explained how it had come into being:

When I first went into the Chinatown district in 1888, things were in a very bad condition. There was hardly a day that someone was not killed, even white people killed by accident, as shot was flying everywhere. One afternoon there were seventy-five shots fired on the street from one faction toward another… One night about eleven o’clock I was on the corner of Spofford Alley and Washington Street when the people were coming out of the Chinese theatre. A shot was fired and it struck a woman who was passing… The man who fired the shot was not more than one foot away from me but… turned so quickly and got away in some alley that I could not find him… Once I had two officers with me and there were two more across the street in uniform, though we did not usually wear uniforms in the Chinese Quarter. Notwithstanding all this, the murderer walked deliberately out into the middle of the street, and surrounded as he was by all those officers when it was impossible for a man to escape, he killed his man…

I went to Chief Crowley and said, “Chief, when any one of these Chinamen commit deeds of violence they run into the numerous small alleys of Chinatown and get beyond our reach, and after being once lost sight of it is impossible to identify them unless by some peculiar mark about them.” [In later years Price used to boast he could tell a hatchet man from a peaceful Chinese by the former’s “fluffed” hair, not so well kept as others, his round, stiff-brimmed felt fedora, and the little piece of red silk he carried on his person somewhere which identified him as one of the
bow how doy.]

These societies are unlawful and organized for unlawful purposes. They do not recognize our laws and to compete with them we have to go beyond our present laws. They are not sufficient. I can put a stop to these societies if you will give me my own way.