The Golden Dragon Massacre (Traditional Chinese: Simplified Chinese ; ??????? ; pinyin: J? nlÃÆ'³ngji? lÃÆ'³udÃÆ' tÃÆ'ºsh? ; Jyutping: Gam1lung4zau2lau4daai6tou4saat3 ) is a gang-related shelling attack that occurred on September 4, 1977 inside Golden Dragon Restaurant , located at 816 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California. The five actors, members of Joe Boys, a Chinese youth gang, tried to kill members of Wah Ching, Chinatown's Chinatown gang. The attack left five people dead and 11 others injured, none of which became gang members. The perpetrators were then convicted and sentenced in connection with the murder.
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Motive
The incident was motivated by the old feud between two competing Chinatown gangs, Joe Boys and Wah Ching, traced back to 1969, when the first victim was killed. Both groups control different parts of San Francisco, with Wah Ching in Chinatown and Joe Boys in the Richmond and Sunset districts, and have been rivals since Joe Boys apart from Wah Ching in the late 1960s. The attempted assassination of the Golden Dragon was a direct retaliation for a shoot-out with Wah Ching at the Chinatown Ping Yuen (Peace Garden) residential project (China: ???????) on July 4, 1977 sparked by a dispute. more than sales of fireworks. The shooting resulted in the death of 16-year-old Felix Huey (Chinese: sometimes romanized as Huie) and wounding Melvin Yu, both members of Joe Boys.
The assassination of Huey, in turn, is seen as retaliation for Kin Chuen Louie's early death, a 20-year-old member of Wah Ching who had been shot a dozen times on May 31 while trying to escape in his car. The car was parked near her apartment, close to Green and Kearny. Louie's death was later enshrined in a poem by Michael McClure, who came to the victim shortly after the shooting. Including the victims in the Golden Dragon, 44 people have been killed during the war between Joe Boys and Wah Ching in 1977.
Preparation
The attack was planned in Daly City's apartment.
At 2 am, Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, September 4, 1977, a member of Joe Boy gang, Tom Yu was notified by phone that rival gang member Wah Ching, including Michael "Hot Dog" Louie, one of its leaders, was present at the restaurant Golden Dragon in Chinatown San Francisco (China: ??????????). Golden Dragon was chosen as the site not only because it was Wah Ching's favorite hangout, it was also liked by members of Hop Sing Tong and jointly owned by Jack Lee, a Hop Sing elder.
Chester Yu (brother Tom), Curtis Tam, Melvin Yu, and Peter Ng, all members of the Joe Boys gang (Chung Ching Yee), took firearms and ammunition from a cabinet at a friend's house in Pacifica, where they stayed for the weekend, and Chester Yu drove the group to a restaurant in a car stolen earlier that night by Peter Cheung. Forty minutes later, at 2:40 am, Chester Yu parked a stolen car near the Golden Dragon and remained in the driver's seat while the others went to the restaurant. Armed with Commando Mark III caliber rifles of 0.45 (modern clones of the Thompson light machine gun), two 12 action pump rifles, and.38 caliber revolver, Curtis Tam, Melvin Yu, and Peter Ng wear nylon mask socks, restaurant, looking for members of Wah Ching. During the trial of Curtis Tam, Chester Yu testified that Tam uses a short shotgun, Ng has a rifle and a gun, and Melvin Yu uses a shotgun. From 50 to over 100 people, many of whom are tourists, were present at the restaurant at the time of the shootings.
Shot fired
According to Chester Yu, Ng had instructed Tam to fire a shot on the ceiling first so that "when people panic and get down to the floor, we will decide who will shoot." Instead, without warning, the three men randomly fired shots at customers in a crowded restaurant, killing five people, including two tourists, and injuring 11 others, none of which became gang members. In Tam's acknowledgment, he stated that he was forced to join the shooting and purposely did not target customers; he "heard Melvin start shooting, then Peter, I fired my first shot onto the couch, the second I directed to a place that did not exist." Testimony at the trial of Melvin Yu shows he was the first person to open fire.
According to unofficial sources, the gun-holding gunner (later identified as Melvin Yu) was the first to open fire, walked directly to a man at the table and shot him, continuing to shoot after he fell to the floor. After the victim was shot nine times, Melvin Yu then aimed his random automatic rifle into the crowd, accompanied by two gun blasts from other armed men. The first victim, later identified as Paul Wada, a visiting law student, may have been misidentified as a known gang sympathizer. A preliminary news report wrongly identified another shooting victim as a "highly placed" gang member. The intended target between Wah Ching and Hop Sing leaders, who sit at a table at the back of the restaurant, is unharmed.
Up to 10 members of Wah Ching, including their leader Michael Louie, duck under the table during the shoot. They had been warned by a friend, who had seen the three gunmen running toward the restaurant from the window in front of the restaurant and shouting, "A man with a gun!" in Cantonese and English. Triad member Raymond Kwok Chow, then aged 17 years and a member of the Hop Sing Tong ally, was among those who survived the attack.
The shooting lasted less than 60 seconds. Police later called it the worst massacre in San Francisco history.
The cast of Proctor and Bergman were eating at the Golden Dragon after their performances at Great American Music Hall during the filming. When Army veteran Peter Bergman realizes that the perpetrators have emptied their weapons, he gets up from behind the clock to see their faces as they come out. He then testified in their beliefs.
Two armed law enforcement officers were also in the Golden Dragon during the attack. James Bonanno, a restaurant patrolman, jumped in for cover when the gunmen entered; he then testified that he withdrew his revolver and asked for help over the radio, but because the shooting lasted only 30 to 45 seconds, it was over when he appeared and he changed his efforts to help injured visitors. Richard Hargens also fell to the floor after hearing gunfire and although he pulled his gun, he could not shoot armed men because others were in the line of his shot. No one can identify armed men outside describing them as "Young Oriental".
Clean
Chester Yu drives the shooter back home at Pacifica afterwards. After returning to Pacifica, Joe Boys stayed up until dawn to discuss the shooting, then slept for several hours before waking up to hear the news of the murder. They send Tony Chun-Ho Szeto, another Joe Boy, to take the noodles from Golden Dragon for breakfast. Later that morning, the perpetrators took weapons from the closet, cut them into sections in the garage, and asked Szeto to throw the pieces into San Francisco Bay. Szeto drove Chester Yu to a location inside Kee Joon's scenery, a Burlingame restaurant where Szeto worked, and together they dumped parts into the Bay near San Francisco International Airport.
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Victim
The five victims shot dead in the restaurant were identified as:
- Calvin M. Fong (???), 18, Archbishop Riordan high school graduate
- Donald Kwan (???), 20, Abraham Lincoln high school graduate
- Denise Louie (???), 21, a city planning student at the University of Washington
- Paul Wada (????), 25, a law student at the University of San Francisco
- Fong Wong (??), 48, immigrant from Hong Kong works as a waitress at Golden Dragon
Aftermath
One week after the shooting, two members of Joe Boys were shot by people suspected of being Wah Ching's gunmen, causing one Joe Boy to die and the other seriously injured, in what the police call a revenge shots. Michael Lee, 18, was killed and Lo "Mark" Chan, 19, was critically wounded in an ambush at the entrance of the Richmond District Chan home.
Night tourism in Chinatown was depressed because restaurant reservations were canceled en masse after the shooting. Although Golden Dragon reopened just seven hours after the shooting, it closed as early as March 10th. within a week after a decline in patronage that would normally remain open until 3 A.M. Business and tourism traffic remained depressed for several weeks after the shootings, although other immigrants claimed the rising labor costs in Chinatown were the cause of rising prices and business declines. In December, businesses in Golden Dragon have slumped and police still have not made arrests, although Michael Louie, the leader of Wah Ching who was reportedly targeted that night, has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the 1976 murder of Mun Louie Kit (no relationship), an immigrant 18 years old from Hong Kong.
Investigation
Chinatown residents came to the front to provide tips in the days after the shooting. The presence of Wah Ching's men and the attackers Joe Boys instantly identified. The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) announced that they almost completed the crime shortly after the shooting, but Chief Charles Gain criticized the Chinatown community for silence and "discharged responsibility" for "fear subculture" of gang vengeance. Gordon Lew, an editor of the local newspaper Chinatown, in turn criticized the SFPD for relying on information and cooperation from community leaders associated with the underworld, leading to public distrust of the SFPD, and concluding that "committing suicide is not a virtue among Chinese". Joe Fong, former head of Joe Boys, said in an interview from the prison that SFPD officers had been paid to protect gambling operations in Chinatown, where the Gainhead was debated as part of the police culture before his ascent to head. SFPD Lieutenant Daniel Murphy, head of investigation, said "because so many innocent people are killed and wounded, this time we have gained more cooperation from residents and witnesses in Chinatown than usual."
Mayor George Moscone announced the prize of US $ 25,000 (equivalent to $ 101,000 in 2017) for information leading to the shooter's conviction two days after it happened, the greatest prize offered to date. The unprecedented prize eventually increased to US $ 100,000 (equivalent to $ 404,000 in 2017) at the end of September, the highest prize allowed by city law. It was eventually collected by Gan Wah "Robert" Woo, a member of Joe Boys. Woo was arrested in March 1978 for his role in the shooting at Portsmouth Square on February 15th which left two Wah Ching members injured. He gave Tam a tape talking about the massacre to the police, kept in protective custody after he was identified as an informant.
Woo gives the first clue in this case two weeks after the shootings, pointing police to Curtis Tam.
Capture
Five people from Joe Boys were eventually arrested and punished for massacre: Curtis Tam, Melvin Yu, Peter Ng, Chester Yu, and Tom Yu; the gunmen were identified as Ng, Melvin Yu, and Tam, all 17 years old at the time of the shootings.
Curtis Tam was first arrested on March 24, 1978. Tam, an immigrant from Hong Kong, was 18 years old and attended Galileo High School at the time of his arrest. Shortly after his arrest, an anonymous source identified Tam as one of the gunmen. Robert Woo, a police informant, notes Tam telling details of the attack, which led to his capture. During interrogation after his arrest, Tam confessed and involved 11 other participants. The tape of Tam's interrogation was first played at the indictment hearing in May 1978 and again at his trial; he claims "They made me do it If I do not shoot somebody then they will say, you know, I am a cock, I do not think I shot anyone because I did not shoot anyone." The hearing was held in April 1978 to determine whether Tam should be tried as an adult, given.
On April 21, SFPD announced the arrest of Peter Ng and an unnamed teenager (later identified as a holiday car driver, Chester Yu), and named Melvin Yu as the other suspect they sought in connection with the massacre. Melvin Yu and Peter Cheung were arrested on the morning of April 23, 18 miles (29 km) east of Carson City, Nevada. Overall, nine were arrested and scheduled for trial for their role in the massacre: Curtis Tam, Peter Ng, Tom Yu, Melvin Yu, Kam Lee, Chester Yu, Tony Szeto, Peter Cheung, and Donald Wong.
The weapons used in the attack were discovered by police divers from San Francisco Bay on April 20, 1978 after Chester Yu showed where they were thrown. In a preliminary hearing in May 1978, Tony Szeto described "a careless attempt to dispose of a bag of weapons".
Trial
Three young men accused of being criminals were found guilty or pleaded guilty in a children's court trial that closed in August 1978.
Tam left scheduled for trial on July 31, 1978, but the trial was postponed while the place change was being contemplated. Tam's trial began on August 21, and he was found guilty of five counts of murder and eleven allegations of assault on September 5, 1978. The lawyer for the defendant made several moves to move the court, confiscate the jury, and ban journalists from the courtroom, nothing was given. During the trial, Tam testified that he deliberately pointed his shotgun away from the visitors and only participated in the shootings under pressure. However, Chester Yu testified that Tam was "very happy" after the shootings and remembered Tam saying he "wanted to shoot more people," and Tam was recorded by Robert Woo making threats to the life of a suspected police informant.
Thirteen eyewitnesses were summoned to testify in Tam court, including eight of the eleven wounded; no one identified Curtis Tam as one of the armed men, although the witness who initially saw the trio running towards the restaurant identified Peter Ng from a police photograph. The prosecutors handed over their case against Tam on August 29 after playing the tape of his confession, taken after his arrest on 24 March. The lawyers made the closing argument on September 1, and after Labor Day weekend, the jury reunited on September 5; after deliberating for more than a day, the jury found Tam guilty of five counts of second degree murder, eleven allegations of assault, and several allegations of possession of weapons. Tam faces up to 35 years in prison, but defense lawyers vow to appeal against the verdict, which he calls a "compromise" because he thinks [the jury] considers duress in reducing their findings about intentions on Tam's part. Court ruling is set on 3 October. Tam received a sentence of 28 years in prison. On June 18, 1981, the California Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to 23 years. Tam filed another appeal in August 1981.
After Tam's experiment, Tom Yu, Melvin Yu, and Peter Ng were tried. On September 26, 1978, Melvin Yu was convicted after four hours of consideration of five first-degree murders and 11 attacks with deadly weapons; his lawyer did not offer a defense against the allegations, and Melvin Yu did not testify at his trial. He received a life sentence.
Peter Ng was tried on January 8, 1979 in Fresno, and was found guilty on 22 February of five counts of first-degree murder and eleven allegations of assault with a deadly weapon. The spokesmen conferred four hours before reaching the verdict.
Tom Yu entered a guilty plea in 1979 for one count of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and admitted that firearms were used in the crime. However, after reviewing the experimental report, called Tom Yu "prime mover in all matters", the court did not accept the plea bargain and return the original charge; where the trial has been moved first to Fresno because of publicity in San Francisco, and then to Santa Barbara since Peter Ng has been tried and convicted in Fresno. Yu's first trial ended with a suspended jury in September 1979. He was later found guilty of five counts of first-degree murder, eleven allegations of assault using force that tended to produce large bodily injuries, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and one count of conspiracy to attack with deadly weapons. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in a state prison.
Release and Conditional
In October 1991, Curtis Tam was released from prison.
In 2014, Melvin Yu was granted parole, and during the parole hearing he said he had plans to stay with a cousin in Hong Kong and was expected to be deported back there. Although, by 2017, a spokesman for the Chinese Consulate of San Francisco stated that there was no record for deportation requests for Yu, and Yu had resided in San Francisco.
Tom Yu is eligible for conditional release in 2017.
Peter Ng can seek parole in 2020, after being rejected eight times, last in 2015.
Long-term results
A former member of Joe Boys, Bill Lee, writes of murder and his life as a gangster Joe Boys in his book, Chinese Playground: A Memoir .
The Golden Dragon Massacre led to the establishment of the SFPD's Asian Task Force, which is credited with ending gang-related violence in Chinatown in 1983.
Michael Louie, the famous leader of Wah Ching who was targeted that night, took to the streets in December 1977, when he was arrested for the murder of Kit Mun Louie August 29, 1976 (nothing to do). Michael Louie has been involved in an affair with an 18-year-old immigrant from Hong Kong, but he admits to being angry with him for "getting in touch with Joe Boys". To frighten him, he puts what he thinks as a pistol that is dismantled into his head while he is sleeping and pulls the trigger. Even though he had removed the clip, he forgot to check the firing room, which was still full of life spins when he shot him from close range. To cover up the crime, he spread pieces of weapons in San Francisco Bay and dumped his body near Stinson Beach, where he was found on January 1, 1977, but was not identified until November 1977. Michael Louie pleaded guilty to murder and voluntary possession of lethal weapons after his arrest, received a sentence of 15 years in prison in January 1978.
Robert Woo, an informant who collected a $ 100,000 prize, was killed in a police shoot while robbing a jewelry store in Los Angeles on December 19, 1984.
The Golden Dragon restaurant resumed operations shortly after the massacre, but patronage went down and failed medical examination in September 1978. After failing another medical examination in January 2006 it was closed. The restaurant also has a one-year salary to its employees. It reopened as Imperial Palace Restaurant .
See also
- List of massacres in the United States
- Wah Mee massacre, similar bullying in Seattle
- 101 California Street shooting, another mass murder that occurred at a short distance from the Golden Dragon, in the financial district of San Francisco, in 1993.
References
External links
- Morris, Brockman (2000). Bamboo tiger: Golden Dragon Massacre in San Francisco Chinatown 1977 . self . Retrieved July 17 2017 .
- Kamiya, Gary (July 8, 2016). "The feud of the Chinatown gang sparked one of the worst massacres in SF". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved October 12 2017 . (subscription required)
- Underworld Notes, AsianWeek
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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