My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 8: Chinatown.
The Imperial Palace Restuarant at 816 Washington Street was the site of the Golden Dragon Restaurant, famous for the Golden Dragon massacre.
The Golden Dragon massacre 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 the death of five people, including two tourists, and injury to 11 people, none of whom were gang members. The assassination attempt happened 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.
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.
