Golden Dragon massacre
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Golden Dragon massacre | |
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Location | San Francisco, California, United States |
Date | September 4, 1977 2:30 AM |
Attack type | mass murder, massacre |
Deaths | 5 |
Injured | 11 |
Perpetrator | Members of the Joe Boys |
The Golden Dragon massacre[1] took place in San Francisco, California on September 4, 1977 inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant. At 2:30 AM a longstanding feud between two rival Chinese gangs, the Joe Boys and Wah Ching, came to head when a botched assassination attempt by the Joe Boys at the Golden Dragon Restaurant led to five people, including two tourists, being killed, and 11 people being injured, none of them were gang members. The assassination attempt came about after members of Wah Ching vandalized the graves of Joe Boys' members, breaking a taboo of disrespecting the dead.
The Golden Dragon Massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force.[2]
Five men from the Joe Boys were arrested and convicted for the crime, with three of them still serving prison sentences. An ex-Joe Boys member, Bill Lee, wrote about the incident and his life as Joe Boys gangster in his book, Chinese Playground: A Memoir.