The Mysterious Chinatown Robbery Trial
Local tensions rise as a merchant faces a suspicious prosecution, sparking a retaliatory street brawl.
The hearing of Lee Toy, mention of whose arrest on a charge of robbery was made yesterday morning, occupied all yesterday afternoon and evening before Judge Cann. The case is a most peculiar one, the local Chinese community seeming to urge the prosecution with a rancor that is inexplicable. Lee Toy claims that the whole affair is a put-up job, and the general opinion of those who have heard the evidence seems to be that he is about right. Lee Hing, a Portland friend of Lee Toy's, for whom the latter telegraphed immediately upon his arrest, was assaulted by a number of Chinese as soon as he landed from the Hayward last night. Ah Bing and Ah Bam, the only two of the assailants known, have been arrested on a charge of assault and battery, and they in turn have charged Lee Hing with assault with a deadly weapon. There really seems to be something behind all this, although just what the real cause of these actions may be, it is hard to tell.
“The local Chinese community seeming to urge the prosecution with a rancor that is inexplicable.”
This 1884 report captures the volatile atmosphere of Seattle’s early Chinatown, where internal disputes were often weaponized against individuals, and the legal system was frequently used as a tool for intra-community conflict. The episode underscores the dangerous precarity of Chinese residents in 19th-century Seattle, living under both external racism and internal power struggles.
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