Little Pete (c. 1864 – January 23, 1897) was a prominent leader of the

Som Yop Tong Som, SOM or Søm may refer to: Computing * System Object Model (file format), of the HP-UX operating system * Simulation Object Model, in computer High-level architecture (simulation)#HLA rules, high-level architecture (simulation) * System on m ...

during the Tong wars of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

in the 1890s. Born ''Fung Jing Toy'' () in

Kow Kong Jiujiang Town () is a town in Nanhai District, Foshan, Guangdong, Southern China. It covers an area of with a registered population of 99,600 and a migrant population of 55,000. It is an important production base for clothing, electronics, packa ...

, Foshan city,

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

, China, around 1864, Little Pete emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five in 1870. As a child he was said to have witnessed a battle between the Suey Sings and the

Kwong Docks Tong Kuang () is a Chinese surname that originated from central China. Although Kuang is not amongst the 100 most common Chinese surnames, it is common amongst the Chinese diaspora in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Uni ...

s in 1875 and studied how the outcome of the battle could have been saved. Becoming involved in San Francisco's underworld by 1885, Little Pete had become a well known Tong hatchetman involved in

prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...

illegal gambling Gambling law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law ...

, and

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

peddling. On one occasion, he was attacked by members of the rival Suey On Tong. Little Pete, wearing a steel-reinforced hat and

chain mail Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common milita ...

, managed to fight the men armed with hatchets and clubs, driving them off and soon throughout Chinatown he was considered invincible. By 1890, at the age of twenty-five, Little Pete was the leader of the

and quickly became involved in a gang war with rival

Sue Yop Tong Sue or SUE may refer to: Music * Sue Records, an American record label * ''Sue'' (album), an album by Frazier Chorus * "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)", a song by David Bowie Places * Sue Islet (Queensland), one of the Torres Straits island ...

during which Little Pete was said to have killed over fifty Tong members. During this time the local press first began to take notice of him and dubbing him "Little Pete". Little Pete regularly began to walk around Chinatown in his chain mail armor, accompanied by three bodyguards, as his regular payoffs to city officials, particularly

Christopher Augustine Buckley Christopher Augustine Buckley Sr. (December 25, 1845 – April 20, 1922), commonly referred to as Blind Boss Buckley, was a saloonkeeper and Democratic Party political boss in San Francisco, California. Though he never held public office, Buc ...

, convinced rivals of Little Pete's influence in San Francisco. This fear of Little Pete using his influence to eliminate his rivals may have been the cause of hired Tong assassins

Lem Jung Lem may refer to: Places * 3836 Lem, an asteroid named after Stanisław Lem * Lem, Denmark, a municipality in Jutland People Given name or nickname (Alphabetical by surname) * Lemuel Lem Barney (born 1945), American football player * Lem Billin ...

and

Chew Tin Gop Chewing or mastication is the process by which food is crushed and ground by the teeth. It is the first step in the process of digestion, allowing a greater surface area for digestive enzymes to break down the foods. During the mastication proc ...

who attacked Little Pete in a

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse ...

shop with one of the assassins grabbing him by the hair and shooting him five times in the spine under his chainmail on January 23, 1897. Lem Jung and Chew Tin Gop later returned to China as wealthy men as a result of Little Pete's murder.

References

* Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Encyclopedia of American Crime''. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001.

External links

WebRoots Library U.S. History: Chapter 8 Barbary Coast - Slaves of Chinatown
{{Authority control 1860s births 1897 deaths Murdered American gangsters American gangsters People from Nanhai District Chinese emigrants to the United States Murdered Triad members Triad members People murdered in San Francisco Deaths by firearm in San Francisco People murdered in 1897