04/25/2011

Tong boss "Little Pete" assassinated in a Chinatown barbershop

 

little pete chinatown tong boss

The "tong" secret societies are as American as Chop Suey -- which is to say, invented in San Francisco and completely unknown in China.

The first tong was organized by Gold-Rush era immigrants as a means of mutual support and defense against a mostly-hostile white dominated world, and before long, tongs had popped up in most every city with a Chinese population.

It didn't take long, though, for the money to be made from drugs, gambling and prostitution to attract a criminal element, especially in chaotic Barbary Coast-era San Francisco. The world of tongs devolved into a near-constant state of bloody gang warfare over control of Chinatown's underworld.

"Little Pete"

In the 1880s, a young man by the name of Fung Jing Toy rose to the top of this wild-west gangster scene, and created his very own tong -- a personal army of hand-picked hatchetmen. He was nicknamed "Little Pete", and with this army of boo how doy began violently pushing the other tongs off of their hard-won turf, moving inexorably towards complete control of Chinatown.

After an attempt to bribe one of his soldiers out of a murder rap landed him temporarily in San Quentin -- and made him famous throughout San Francisco -- Little Pete learned to buy protection in the white world.

chinatown gamblers gentheBy forging a cash-based alliance with "Blind" Buckley, the Democrat boss who controlled San Francisco's hopelessly corrupt City Hall, Little Pete became the undisputed king of Chinatown.

Not only was he new immune from the pesky annoyances of the law, but if a brothel or gambling dive failed to pay him their percentage, a "coincidental" raid by the police would shut them down, and Little Pete's boys would take over.

Gambling. Blackmail. Opium. Prostitution. Murder. For a solid decade Little Pete was the most powerful and feared Chinese on the Pacific Coast.

A price on his head

Little Pete had pushed the other tongs too far. They finally set their mutual enmity aside and put a price on the King's head: one thousand dollars.

Read more at sfist

Apr 25, 2011 10:35:55 AM | Crime, Culture, History

2 Comments

online gambling

First Church is the Gold Rush era by immigrants as a mutual support and against white rule in the most hostile world, in the immediate defense.

Posted by: online gambling | 05/19/2011 at 05:02 AM

W.D.Box

First Church? Please explain or send a reference.

Posted by: W.D.Box | 05/19/2011 at 09:40 AM

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