Hatchet Men: The Story of the Tong Wars in San Francisco’s Chinatown

by Dillon, Richard

  Questioned about their reputation for criminality, Gibson said of the Chinese: “Gambling is a mere matter of buying the managers and purchasing the privilege to violate the law. Regarding the women brought here for purposes of prostitution, a percentage of the profit goes to persons other than Chinese, in order to secure freedom from interruption. A part of it goes to men around city hall. Regarding interference with justice in criminal cases, I will say that the Chinese are exceedingly clannish. When a man of one clan kills a man of another clan, his comrades do all they can to protect him from justice.”

  Concerning the tongs running the red-light district, Gibson had this to say: “The company [tong] collects a tax of forty cents for every prostitute imported and afterward collects two bits a week, part of which goes to the Chinese company and part to certain white men in this city. I do not know who the whites are, and I am under a pledge of secrecy not to tell the name of the person who informed me of the fact. Chinese gambling houses have paid five dollars a week to policemen to secure freedom from molestation. Last year as high as thirteen dollars was paid per month, part going to someone about the city hall.”

  Charles Wolcott Brooks, ex-Minister to Japan, followed Gibson to the stand. He stated: “The Six Companies, I think, have their own code of laws, and the existence of this hostile force within the laws of the United States is bad.” He thought the Chinese already in the city were a definite asset to San Francisco business but was opposed to further immigration.

  A subcommittee consisting of Lewis, Donovan and Evans made a safari through Chinatown on April 13 with the Reverend Gibson as guide and beater. They first explored filthy Spofford Alley, replete with whorehouses and some twenty gambling halls. Gibson translated the signs over the doorways of the latter—EVERY DAY AND EVERY NIGHT THE TABLE IS SPREAD and RICHS AND PEACE and so on. Most doors were shut to them, as the proprietors had long before learned, through the Chinese grapevine, of their coming. But they were able to enter one den to watch a game of fan-tan.

  Next, Gibson took them to a religious meeting in his own Methodist Episcopal Church; one which he had probably staged carefully for the Senators’ benefit. After listening to a Chinese expound the gospel to two hundred apparently enthralled countrymen, the impressed legislators were led by their guide to the rookery which was the old Globe Hotel. Here the stench forced them to clasp handkerchiefs over their noses. After dropping in at one of the Chinese theatres the little band of hardy committeemen trooped into the office of the Sam Yup Company to meet some of the leaders of the “natives.” Greeting them were the chiefs of the Sam Yup, Yeung Wo, Kong Chow, Ning Yeung and Yan Wo Companies. They informed the Senators that their societies took up and arbitrated only mercantile matters and never meddled in criminal affairs. They told them that they knew of gambling payoffs but they could not (or would not) identify the city hall grafters. They insisted that they wanted the gambling houses and bagnios of the Quarter closed. But they felt that they could be suppressed only if honest police officers were appointed.

  After E. J. Lewis reported on the subcommittee’s tour, George W. Duffield, a Chinatown special policeman, was called. The questions were put to him thick and fast, and information on Chinatown crime began to build up. After reporting that there were between 40 and 50 houses of prostitution, Duffield was asked by George Evans, “How many gambling houses are there?”

  “Very few,” the special answered. “There used to be a great many. I don’t think I can find one now.”

  “How many were there six weeks ago?” asked Evans.

  “Forty, fifty or sixty.”

  “As many gambling houses as houses of prostitution?” queried Evans.

  “Yes, sir,” responded the officer. “They have the reputation of being gambling houses, but the police could never catch them. I have not seen a game of tan played in three years. In the early days there used to be tables for white men. As many white men played as Chinamen. There are no gambling houses running now.”

  Donovan then took over the questioning: “The heads of the companies told us that the gambling houses had been in the habit of raising and paying money to men at the city hall to secure themselves from interference, and the same thing regarding the houses of prostitution. They said that if we could get honest American officers there would be no more gambling and prostitution in Chinatown, but until that time they will continue to exist. This was told to us by the heads of the companies, the six presidents present.”

  Duffield said, “In answer to that, I will state that all those men talking to you were interested in those gambling houses—”

  Senator Haymond cut in. “How is this population as to criminal propensities?”

  Duffield’s answer was, “They are a nation of thieves. I have never seen one that would not steal.”

  Haymond went on. “Do you know anything of the spiriting away of witnesses and compounding crimes?”

  “Yes, sir. They will do it all the time—from the presidents down.”

  When asked if they settled cases outside of court Duffield answered, “They all do it.”

  “And they settle crimes whenever they can do so?” asked Haymond.

  “Sometimes one company will prosecute another, but where they can settle for money they will do it.”

  “Have they any regard for justice here?”

  “No, sir, not a bit.”

  “How does their testimony stand in the courts?”

  “They think no more of taking an oath than they do of eating rice,” stated the opinionated officer. “They have no regard for oaths at all. Their own oaths they regard as sacred and the only way you can get them to tell the truth is to cut off a rooster’s head and burn Chinese paper.”

  Haymond continued the questioning. “Is it not often the case that on a preliminary examination there is testimony enough to convict a man, but when you come to the trial these same witnesses testify exactly the reverse, or else will not testify at all?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Senator Pierson interjected a question. “Do you know of the existence of any Chinese opium dens?”

  “Yes, sir.” The cocksure officer smiled.

  “Every house is one. Ninety-nine Chinese out of one hundred smoke opium.”

  “Do you know of any white people being interested in the business of Chinese prostitution—receiving any part of the profits?”

  “No, sir,” answered Duffield with a straight face.

  Pierson turned the questioning back to the chairman, and Haymond asked, ‘”Why are the gambling houses closed now?”

  “Because the police officers made raids on them. This excitement has had a great deal to do with it. How long it will last, I can’t tell.”

  “Have you had any instructions from the head of the department as to your duty in closing them up?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Have you had any instructions in regard to closing up houses of prostitution?”

  “Since Mayor Bryant has been in office he has given me instructions. I never received any before.”

  Senator Evans had another try at Duffield. “How are you special officers paid?” he asked.

  “By the Chinese. We draw nothing from the city treasury. We have no regular salary but we depend on the voluntary contributions from the storekeepers.”

  On April 15 another lawman was called, but this time a regular police officer, James R. Rogers. He was asked about Chinatown’s grubby alleys—“To what purpose are the alleys devoted?”

  “Partly devoted to prostitution,” responded Rogers, “and there is a part which are [sic] the rendezvous of thieves—Cooper’s Alley, for instance.”

  Rogers turned out to be a font of information. He was particularly knowing on gambling: “The number [of gambling dens] has decreased lately. I should judge that before this excitement, t
here were from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five, and including lottery ticket houses, fully five hundred. They draw the lotteries twice a day—at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and at 11 o’clock at night—and are patronized by many white people. Eight hundred people would be a fair estimate of the number engaged in and about houses of prostitution. There is not a Chinaman but what gambles. I believe there are very few Chinamen but what are thieves. I know some six or eight Chinamen in this town that are reliable but they are, as a nation, thieves... In court we cannot believe their testimony. They will swear to anything. I have had them come to me to ask how many witnesses would be required to convict men. They will produce enough witnesses to either convict or acquit, as the case may be.”

  Asked about secret courts in Chinatown, Rogers answered, “I do not know of my own knowledge that such a tribunal exists. I only know that when a Chinaman swears differently from what they want him to, his life is in danger. A Chinaman has just returned here after an absence of three years. A man was killed by accident and he was notified that he must pay twelve hundred dollars. His partner had a knife stuck in his back on Jackson Street, and he was told that he must pay twelve hundred dollars. He asked me what he should do and 1 said not to pay it. He said they would kill him or get Chinamen to swear him into State prison….”

  After Rogers defended the Chinatown specials as fine police officers, he was asked by Pierson, “Do you know of the Chinese paying money to persons other than special policemen for the purpose of protecting themselves in their business?”

  “I have been told so by Chinamen,” replied Rogers. “Chinese who collected the money told me of its payment. The Chinaman was Ah You, a keeper of a store and gambling house.”

  “To whom did he pay the money?”

  “Five hundred dollars, one month, to_______ _______. [The name of the party was stricken from the public record by the committee.] He said he paid it from the gambling houses to secure freedom from interruption. He said so much money was paid per month to allow gambling houses to run.”

  Asked about another quasi-legal law-and-order agency in Chinatown, the system of Chinese intelligence officers or informers, Rogers said that there were eight or ten. “They are rather independent of the companies. There is one on Bush Street, kept by Sam Kee. He has been letting out a lot of thieves lately but I told him he would have to quit or find the thieves. He did find them. I took steps to have his license revoked and he then found the thieves.”

  The clerk of the police department, Alfred Clarke, was heard on the 17th of April, and produced a bill of sale for a Chinese trollop, Ah Ho, and testified about the singsong girls. Clarke was followed by President Leung Cook of the Ning Yeung Company, who testified through interpreter Charles Jamison. He elicited laughter from his audience when he was asked “Do you know that there are Chinese prostitutes in this city?” His answer was, “There are Chinese prostitutes here. How many I don’t know because I am not in that line of business. You can find that out by inquiring of the officers on the beat.”

  Clarke, recalled, was asked, “Have you heard of the bribery of officers by the Chinese?”

  “I have heard of such things, but investigation always has failed to fasten the crime on anybody. The special-police system has its evils, but it does much good. It would be impossible to keep down crime and secure the partial administration of justice in the Chinese quarter if we had to depend upon our regular force… The specials make a great many arrests, but our best reliance would be on regulars if we could spare them from other parts of the city…” He finished by saying, “The effect of this large criminal population is very injurious to the morals of the community. There is ten percent of the Chinese population that makes up the gamblers, prostitutes and thieves.”

  President Lee Ming Hown of the Sam Yup Company was asked by Frank McCoppin, “What does the Sam Yup Company do with one of its members that commits a crime?”

  “If they found it out, they would deliver him to the authorities at the city hall. We don’t deliver him up ourselves, but get an officer to take possession of him.”

  McCoppin followed up with another question, “If one of that company steals from another, or whips another, don’t they settle it with money—make him pay for the injury?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Do any gamblers belong to your company?”

  “I don’t know. Very likely there may be some.”

  “Do you know of Chinamen paying anything to Americans to be allowed to gamble?”

  “I don’t know. That kind of gambling business the people don’t dare to let the company know anything about. They belong to the inferior classes and will not let the company know. If they told us, we would advise them to discontinue.”

  When Ah You was called, he—like Lee Ming Hown—made use of Jamison’s interpretation. McCoppin quizzed him closely on Rogers’ claim that he made payoffs. “Did you tell Rogers that you paid ______ five hundred dollars a month?” (The name was again deleted.)

  “No, sir. I told Mr. Rogers that if I had any trouble I would get Mr_________to attend to it.”

  Haymond took over. “What did you expect to have trouble about?”

  “Gambling houses.”

  “What would the Sam Yup Company do if they found a Sam Yup man conducting gambling?”

  “Tell him to quit.”

  “Suppose that he wouldn’t quit?”

  “The company has no power to stop it. But the company has posted notices on the street, telling gamblers to stop, and it was stopped.”

  Creed Haymond returned to the matter of bribes. “Did you ever tell Officer [Thomas] Kennedy that you were paying Officer Duffield money for guarding his house and could not pay him any?”

  “No, sir.”

  “You never told Officer Rogers that you paid somebody five hundred dollars, or any amount of money, to protect gambling houses?”

  “No, sir. Sometimes Mr. Rogers was collecting money for this kind of business, but he was not going to attend to it. Some parties paid him three hundred dollars. Three Chinese persons gave it to him. Two gave it and three were present—Ah Hung, Ah Chune and myself... It was given to him in the rear of Gum Wo’s store. I was not there as owner of gambling houses or whorehouses, but as a witness to see that money paid. Mr. Rogers himself came to me and wanted me to be a witness that the money was paid. He told me to tell the Chinamen to subscribe a few dollars for his benefit and he would stop arresting.”

  The committee had inadvertently cracked the shell of Chinatown, in asking the Chinese about the protection racket which the specials as well as the highbinders had organized. The festering rottenness below the surface was beginning to show.

  Senator Donovan asked Ah You, “Do you know Mr. ________?”

  “Yes, he is my counsel.” “Did you ever give him five hundred dollars?” “Yes, to work up murder cases for the Yu Chuy Lung. They employed him to convict the murderers. Four men are under arrest for murdering one man, and these men are the ones they want convicted. Deceased belonged to the Kwo Yee tong, or shoemakers. Three of the murderers are .bailed out on fifteen thousand dollars, but one is in jail.”

  Special Thomas Kennedy was next sworn in. “Do you know the Chinaman who last testified?” he was asked.

  “Yes, sir. I always took him to be the boss of a house of prostitution… There was a small house of prostitution started on the north side of the Globe Hotel. I went there to secure my pay and met this man. He told me he paid George Duffield and could not pay me. He claimed to be the proprietor of this house. He was always around there. There were three women in that house.”

  Donovan asked, “He claimed he was not running that house; did you hear him? Is that a specimen of Chinese swearing?”

  “Yes, sir. When it is to his interest a Chinaman will swear to anything.”

 
When Rogers was recalled, he testified under oath, “Ah You offered me three hundred dollars as he says, but I refused to accept it. I pronounce his statements an utter falsity.”

  David Supple, who had been defending Chinese from hoodlums a few years earlier, proved to be anything but friendly to them on the stand. Asked, “How do the people live?” he replied, “They live in small places, more like hogs than human beings.”

  “What proportion of the people belong to the criminal classes—engaged in prostitution, gambling, violating city ordinances and laws relating to health?” (Haymond was casting as big a net as he could.)

  “About all of them,” said Supple. “I have never seen a decent, respectable Chinawoman in my life.”

  Ex-District Attorney D. J. Murphy testified also on the 18th of April, noting that of 700 cases before the Grand Jury one year, 120 involved Chinese—usually burglaries. ‘They are very adroit thieves,” he said. “In capital cases, particularly, we were met with perjury. I have no doubt but that they act under the direction of superiors and swear as ordered. In many cases witnesses are spirited away or alibis are proven. They can produce so many witnesses as to create a doubt in the minds of jurymen and thus escape justice. In cases where I have four or five witnesses for the prosecution, they will bring in ten or fifteen on the part of the defense. They seem to think that numbers must succeed, and it very frequently so happens. It frequently occurs that before the Grand Jury, or on some preliminary examination, witnesses swear as to convict, but on the trial they turn square around and swear the other way. I have heard it said that they have secret tribunals where they settle all these things but I know nothing of that… I have had to appeal to executive clemency for pardon for Chinamen sent to the State prison by false swearing, under circumstances which led me to believe them to have been the victims of some organization of that kind.”