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The San Francisco CallVOLUME LXXXI.-NO. 55. SAX FRANCISCO, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 24, 1897-THIRTY PAGES. FIVE CENTS.

"LITTLE PETE" MURDERED BY HIS ENEMIESChinese Highbinders Assassinate the

Most Famous of LocalMongolians.

THE GREAT JURY-BRIBER SHOT DOWNBY SEE YUP ASSASSINS.

x'i\ing Owyang, the Chinese Vice-Consul, Is Said toBe the Next on the List of the

Doomed Sam Yups.

THE GREAT LEADER KILLED IN A BARBER-SHOPFOR A PRICE SET ON HIS HEAD.

The Notorious Victim Was Once Millionaire, Race-Jobber, Importer ofSlaves and the Man Who Gave Chris Buckley the

Title of "Blind White Devil."

"LittlePete." long noted as r.the wisestand meanest of local Chinese, was mur-d.red by rivalhighbinders last night. Hehad ventured to a barber-shop without bisbodyguard and his vigilant pursuers didtheir deadly worK. The police at onceai rested two suspects.

The famous Mongolian, whose realname was Fong Ching. had lately madehimself very unpopular with the See Yupsociety of highbinders. A price of $3000was placed on his head and the murdererscatigbt him off his guard at y:10 p. m.in a br.rb^-sbop at 817 Washington street.

".\u25a0 .-.- i.i.-iins bprunj; into the shop und |

the brainiest of the Sam Yup men had"saluted his ancestors" in true Chinesefashion.

"Lit Pete" had two distinct sides tobis nature, as much bo as Dr. Jekyll andMr.Hyde. As a Chinese merchant andmillionaire manufacturer he was a powerin commerce.

owed with unusual intellectualpowers, fearless and unscrupulous, he be-came a leader at once respected andfeared. As a shrewd Mongolian, edu-cated in the English language, he enteredthe battle for money without any re-straints of conscience, though he bore thereputation of being steadfast to hisfriends. He instigated Chinese murders,imported women, ran gambling games,swindled people at the races and bribedjuries in a way that white men wouldnever undertake.

The murJered man lived over his shoe-factory, in the third story of the buildingat 819^ Washington street. About 9o'clock last ni^ht he sent his Chinesebodyguard on an erranS, and a little laterdispatched one Murray, a white body-guard, to get him a newspaper."Iwill go downstairs and get shaved

while you are gone," he said.The guard advised him not to be so rash

as to venture out alone, but "LittlePete"said, "That's all right, I'll take care ofmyself." Inless than ten minutes the re-markable man was a corpse.

After he left his home he walked downtnroagh his shoe factory to tne barber-shop at 817 Washington street, conductedby Chung Ching, Won;; Chung and WongKuw.

He sat about four feet from the door of

!the barber-shop, facing Ross alley. Ini the shop were two barbers and a man who!had just been shaved. Suddenly two men:entered with a rush, waiting rapidly

toward "Little Pete," who was sittingdown in an ordinary chair to be shaved.

Before anybody conld comprehend \\\hat\u25a0 the visitors meant one of them drew a re-!volver and tired four times with greatIrapidity. One sliot penetrated the righteye and one entered the brain just above

Iit. Death was instantaneous.Two bi.o;s did no; strike "LittlePete"'at ail, but went Into the wall?, one pass-

ing into the partition ana almost strikingLee Kam, a barber, inan adjolninc room.

IBoth bullets were recovered and held asevidence.

The assassins ran away, both drocpinetheir revolvers. One, an eld-fashioned

'\u25a0\u25a0 smooth-bore, was recovered by the police,Iand the other was spirited out of the way

Dy accessories.One of the men ran rapidly toward

Waverly place. Sergeant Mooney and hisposse were soon on the scene and Officer

, Myler arrested one of the barbers as a> witness.

In a few minutes Sergeant Wollweber!and fourteen officers were upon the scene.j The streets were crowded with excited!Chinese and ail who came within reach\ were searched for weapons, but none were: found.

Little Pete conducted his shoe business!under the name of F. C. Peters <fc Co., but!the firm consisted of LittlePete, his uncle,iFong Yuen, and bis brother Fong Shun.

They employed about forty men.The dead man came here in 1878 and

i was 34 years of age. He was born ten

imiles from Canton and arriving here at an' early age acquired a good English educa-| tioa.

He passed through the Grammar andHigh schools of this City, married, andleaves three boys and a girl. He leaves awidow also, in China.Itis sanl that the murdered man was to!get $40,000 for destroying the See

IYup Society of highbinders, and itIis supposed that the Chinese Vice-Consul,

KingOwyang, was back of "Little Pete"jand the Sam Yupmen in their efforts to

Idestroy the See Yups and demolish theiri joishouses., The See Yup men say he got $10,000 for

his efforts, and was to get $30,000 more oncompletion of the work.

THE SUSPECTS' STORIES..Those Who Took Flight Pretend

Innocenc .Wong Sing and Chin Poy, the two men

suspected of the murder, were broughtfrom the California-street station by Po-liceman Murty Cullinan, who arrestedthem in tlieir lodging-house on Waverleyplace.

They were interrogated by LieutenantBirdsall. but they denied any complicityinthe affair, ?+\d they were in their roomat the time and did not even hear theshots.

Chin Poy, who is a cook, and came hereabout two weeks ago from Portland, didthe talking.

He said he was cook in the service therej of Herbert Folger, an insurance agent,| and came here with him and his family.Mr. Folger was now living in a hotel, but

j as soon as he got a house Poy said he wasgoing with him again as cook.

The other suspect, Wong Sing, pretendedthat he could not understand English.Poy said he came here about a month agofrom Alaska, where he had been workingin a cannery. He is a well dressedChinese and does not have the appearanceof a man who was used to working, in acannery.

Wong Lune, a laundryman, who hap-pened to bo in tne barber-shqp when"LittlePete" was shot, was also broughtto the City Prison by P liceman Callinan,and is being detained as a witness. Hepretended to be entirely ignorant of whothe men were that did the shooting.

Special Officer George We.cli said hesaw the two men running out of the bar-ber-shop. Ke chased them, and saw orueof them droD the revolver, which hepicked up. He saw them enter the lodg-inz-houseon \Vaverly place, and notifiedPoliceman Callinan. He identified :\VongSing and Chin Poy as the two men he sawrunning out of the snap and followed.

WHY HE WAS MURDERED.Suspected of Having Employed the

Men Who Demolished the SeeYup Headquarters.

For several months past death has fol-

lowed the footsteps of tbe murdered Chi-nese, the peer among his fellow-country-men. The first cloud of trouble that lastevening culminated in LittlePete's assas-sination obscured the horizon of peaceabout two years ago.

Atthat time the See Yuri and Sam Yupsocieties, between which there had alwaysexisted an unfriendly feeling, declared amutual boycott. This Jed to no end oftrouble and murder upon murder was theresult.

The-fcud finally.rear, bed tL. -»"f theCliin»«j Eaapero?, and an e^tct ssuedby him, threatening vengeance. unless anamicable settlement was reached.

Up to this time Little Pete's name wasseldom used in connection with the trou-ble. The See Yups appeared tobe the most aggressive in thecontroversy and the Sam YupCompany finally decided to crush thani;

to shatter their society if possible andscatter them over the face of the globe.Little Pete being the genius of the SamYup Society was selected to general thebattle against the enemy.

Allwent quietly for a while, but finallyChinatown was shocked to the core by thedemolition of ihe Lee Yup headquarters,corner of Clay street and Waverly place.Ferdinand Callundan, a private detective,and his associates entered the headquar-ters, sacred to the See Yups, and withkeen-edged axes smasned, cut and broketbe furnishings and paraphernalia intosplinters.

The joss pictures and carvings werewrenched from their fastenings and addedto the scene of chaos. The detective*then left, but as a Cninese society's de-cree or an Emperor's edict are not re-SDected by the courts, Callundan was ar-rested and enjoined from committingfurther demolition.Itwas reported that Little Pete, co-

operating with Kin« Owyansr, ViceConsul, were behind Callundan and that

Little Pete received $10,000 for having thejob committed.It was also reported that he was to re-

ceive $30,000 more, or $40,000 in all, whenthe See Yuns were an extinct people.

A reward for Pete's and King Ow-yang's assassination was promptlyoffered. First $1000 was offered by un-known Chinese, but as the amount wastoo small to benefit the lighting men,when it came to killing the most influen-tial Chinese in America, the price wasraised to $2000.

Even these did not have the desired ef-fect and Little Pete lived on. Fridaynight the reward was raised to $3000 andthe high binders began to stalk the streets,looking for the man who was doomedto die.

Last night they found him alune, hisguard was absent, and in an instant two

bullets had pierced his brain and he fell tothe floor dead.

LITTLE PETE'S CAREER.

First a Poor Boy, Then a Manu-facturer, Next a Capitalist.

Fong Ching, or "LittlePete," as he wasbetter known, was one of the prominentbusiness men of San Francisco, though aChinaman. He was shrewd, tactful and*successful, and was probably as noted aChinese character as there is in ike UnitedStates.

Atthe time of his death be was posi-tively known to be worth not less than$100,000, and the total value of his estatein San Francisco is estimated by variouswhite men connected with him in a lepaland representative character to be any-where from $100,000 to $.500,000.

The fact has always been notic d duringthe last fifteen yeara that if Fong Chinshad occasion to use anywhere from $1000

to $25,000 in cash he had itnmoney ready,Fonj; Chinp, or "Little Pete," was not

born in San Francisco, as has been com-monly supposed.

He came to this shore when 5 yearsold, and was between 32 and 33 years ofage at the time of hisdeath. He was bornin Kow Kong, China. He first started into made his fortune in America as an er-rand-boy in a shoe factory on Sacramentostreet. Ha was a very quick and apt "Chi-nese kid."

While an errand-boy he ghowed tbe

mettle of ambition by going to an Englishschool at night. Itis a singular fact thatwhile he spoke his native tougue fluentlyhe could not read or write a word of

!Chinese except his own name.His aptitude and affability mode him

jfriends. He was probably the best knownJ Chinaman in San Francisco. He seemedj to have a peculiar faculty for making

Ifriends among while people.Having graduated from the errand-boy

J stage be next became a broker in theicustoms business. He landed a large

amount of for ihe Chinese raer-Ichants and also accelerated the landing of|Chinese inSau Francisco, thereby consid-!erably swelling the population of China-!town. "\Vh !e yet only a boy he wasIlooked to for legal and general advice byj the Chinese.

Later, having made considerable moneyi in the brokerage business, he went intoj the business of shoe manufacturing onIhis own account, and at the time of hisj death was one o! the largest shoe manu--1 facturers inSan Francisco. The Englishiname of the shoe firm is F. C. Peters &

Co., the Chinese name, Hung, Yuen &Co.His first escapade which brought him

j prominently to public notice was when heiwas arrested for bribery in connection\ with the killing of Lee ChurtK, some

years ago, as a result of a feud between the'. Boe Sin Say and Guy Sin Say (societies,"Little Pete" being a member of thelatter.

Burr Love and another pfclicemanclaimed that "LittlePee" tried to bribethem for $400 for testifying to certainthings, while "Little Pete" claimed that'the policemen had heard that $2000 had

Ibeen raised to acquit Lee Chunk, and thatthey wanted $400 of the awag. "LittlePee" was convicted and served a few daysinprison, but the case was reversed by theSuDreme Court, and on the second trialhe

\u25a0 \va;t acquitted.About this time LittlePete wrote a let-'

ter which became public, in which he re-! ferred to Chris Buckley as the "blindiwhite devil," a name which has stuck tohim inChinatown and out ever since.

He was interested inseveral gambling-houses and other resorts inChinatown, outof which he made considerable money.

"Little Pete" had about $100,000 worthof property in Canton, China. This prop-

; erty consists of fish-ponds and silkworm1 industries, which netted him from 6 to 8per cent, which is a big interest for theCelestial kingdom.

Five Months ago there was $23,000 onIbis shoe factory boats owing him by

\u25a0 white shoe firms. Ue had a white travet-'ing salesman on the road and a white

Ibookkeeper.He leaves a widow and three children

and a brother in Chinatown. The grief ofIthe widow and children last night wasj pititul. Under the Chinese law and cus-I torn tue property goes to his oldest son;

lacking an oldest son it goes to his oldestbrother.

•'Little Pete'

carried an accident policyof ?10,000 and a iifepolicy of $15,000. Ow-

!ing to this insurance the estate will inallprobability go in the probate court.

lie imported the Chinese show at theMidwinter Fair.

Among the property and other posses-sions he is said io have left in this City isthe Jackson-street Theater, three fantangames, a retail shoestore at 314 Montgom-

|cry avenue, a retail Rrocry-store on Du-| pont street.

He made but one visit to China since hecame here.

Captain Lees said last night that Font;

Ching, or "Little Pete," was arrestedabout eight years ago for jury-bribing and

| forgery. Stewart Menzies was foreman| of the Grand Jury at the time, and it was

Mpnzies who secured the warrants fromJudge Coffey ior "LittlePete's" arrest.

The warrants were given to CaptainLees, and he detailed Detective Hogan toaccompany Menzies and serve the war-rants on "Little Pete." They had searchwarrants aiso with them, and they broke

| oren "Little Pete's" safe and found docu-ments incriminating him and exposing

i Chris Buckley's methods. Itwas through

WONG SING and CHIN FOY, the Two Men Under Suspicionof Having Murdered Little Pete.

[Sketched from life in the City Prison last night by a "Call" arlitt.\LITTLE PETE Lying Dead Upon the Floor of the Shop in Which He Was Murdered,

FONG CHING, Alias Little Pete, the Famous Chinaman Who Was AssassinatedLast Night.

TO FORECLOSE ONFEDERAL LIENS

Suit Filed in the CircuitCourt Against the Union

Pacific Railroad.

Millions Due Uncle Sam WillNow Be Collected Without

Any Further Delay.

Russell Sage#Says That thz Chief

Sufferers Will Be the Sm-.1lStockholders.

OMAHA, Xf.br., Jan. 23.—The Govern-ment of the United States at noon to-daytiled a suit in the Uni.ed Slates Circuit •

Court, asking that the Government's lienon the property of tho Union Paciiic Kail-way be foreclosed. The papers presentedcomprise the bill of complaint, the ap-pearaDce of Attorney-General Harmon inthe case, the petition asking leave to makethe receivers defendants and the order ofJudge Sanborn granting tho petition.

The billhas reference to the Union Pa-cific alone, the Central Pacific not beingincluded. The bill of the Government iito be $57,581,771 79; the bill for balancedue tne Government for interent paid onbonds, 129,964,668 28; matured bonds paidin February, I*.»'>, in the amount of $4,---320,000; matured bonds paid in 1897, mthe amount of $3,740,000; bond 3to comodue in 1898, 115,919 512, and the bonds tocome due in1899, $3,157,0C0.

The defendants are the Union PacificRailway and us receivers, F. Gordon Dex-ter and Oliver Ames as nm- mortgagetrustees; the Union Trust Company ufNew York as trustee for bonds issued ia1873; J. Pierpont Morgan, Edwin F. At-kins and the Central Trust Company aatrustees for bridge bonds.

The bill, which covers about fortyprinted pa^es, describes the organizationof the Union Pacific Railroad, and recitesthe various acts of Congress in relationthereto, with the issues of bonds.

Exhibits are attached showing the state-ment of accounts between the roads andthe Government. It asks that judgmentbe had on the priority of all liens; thatthe Hen of the United States be adjudgedto be in its proper order a lawful iucum-brance on ah the premises, property andfranchises of the Bystem; that through amaster-in-chancery orotherwiss a aesenp-ti'm- ol all the property of the rail-road be made that is subject tothe lien and liable to be sold,that ihs value of the sinking fundbe determined and provision made forturning it into money , also ita applicationas a credit on the debt to the Government ;that on non-payment ina reasonable timeto be fixed by the court, the mortgage beforecioaed and the proceeds turned intothe treasury of the United States; thatthe present receivers be extended for tn issuit or others appointed for tna preserva-tion of the interests of all parties con-cerned.

The bill willalso be filed in the d!strict3of lowa, Wyoming and Colorado. Thebillfor foreclosure on the Kansas Pacificdivision of the Union Pacific will be tiledin Missouri and Kansas.

The officials of the Union Pacific heroare reticent, stating that they are not in a

Continued on Eighth Page.

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