On August 22, 1928, a mass murder took place at the Bryan ranch near Fairfield, California, United States. Eleven people, including seven members of the Wong family, were killed in a shooting and axe attack.
The perpetrator, Leung Ying, fled the scene in a car, but was caught a day later during a manhunt. Following his confession, Leung's actions were attributed to mental instability caused by long-term narcotic addiction. He was sentenced to death the same month in a one-day trial. About three weeks before his scheduled execution date, Leung committed suicide by hanging while on death row.
The Bryan ranch killings were the worst case of mass murder in California history at that time, surpassing the McGlincy murders in Campbell in 1896, and the spree shooting of John Goins in Stockton and Galt in 1926, which each had six victims.Dope was cause of sad deed, San Jose News (August 23, 1928)
Background
Location Solano County had previously gained local notoriety for a different murder, also committed with an axe and with a suspected Chinese perpetrator. On October 17, 1927, 88-year-old Margaret Coghan Shelly, an Irish-born widow, was found dead in her home, having been bludgeoned to death two days earlier. Shelly's Chinese tenant, Sam Wong, was initially suspected before witness testimony implicated Choy Kim, who had fled the area for San Francisco before escaping back to China. Although Solano County police and the Bureau of Immigration had tracked down Choy Kim's location in China, extradition was not approved by Chinese authorities due to a law requiring eyewitnesses to crimes.
Ranch The Bryan ranch, also known as the Wong Gee ranch, was a property, located in unincorporated Solano County at the Suisun Slough, southwest of Fairfield and from the state highway between Mankas Corner and Vallejo. The ranch, operated as a pear and peach orchard, was run by Wong Gee (), also known as Wong Fook Hong (), who had obtained the land under a forty-year lease prior to the 1913 Alien Land Law. Wong was a prominent leader of nearby Rockville's Chinatown community, most of whom hailed from Dachong and Shaxi, and had previously been a foreman at the A.T. Hatch ranch in Suisun Valley. The Bryan ranch mainly employed fellow Chinese labourers from the Hatch colony as farm hands.Leung, Peter C.Y. and Waters, Tony "Chinese Pioneer Farming Families in the Suisun Valley of California," in 150 Year of Chinese Presence in California, published by the Sacramento Chinese Cultural Foundation and Asian-American Studies, University of California, Davis 2001.
Prior incidents On September 17, 1927, eleven months prior to the murders, 38-year-old Jung Lee Fong (also named as Chung Fu Gee), a Chinese worker from the nearby S.C. Armstrong ranch, ran amok at the Bryan ranch, reportedly following a dispute over fruit deliveries with Wong Gee. Jung set fire to the living quarters of the workers and their families using a five gallon barrel of coal oil and armed with an iron bar (later misreported as an axe), he injured five laborers who tried to intervene. Jung was seen dancing around the fire when Wong Gee appeared. Jung attacked Wong with a still-burning torch, at which point Wong fatally shot Jung in the windpipe. Wong was arrested by responding officer Ernest Lockie and jailed, but released the next day. On September 20, the killing was declared a justifiable homicide via self-defense by the superior court. One of those wounded in the attack was Young Foon, who became one of the fatal victims in the 1928 shooting.
In the spring of 1928, Leung Ying was employed for about three months as a cook and fruit picker. Leung was eventually dismissed in June for attacking and attempting to rape Wong Gee's daughter Nellie, though he would later claim that it was a consensual affair. Leung repeatedly tried to reapply for a job at the ranch, but was turned down each time.Love and drugs cause murders, The Pittsburgh Press (August 24, 1928) Although Leung admitted in interrogation that he had physically assaulted Nellie Wong, relatives of the Wong family stated that Leung was instead dismissed for his inability to work due to his regular narcotics use.
Bryan ranch murders The murders took place in the morning hours of August 22, 1928, beginning either around 6:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m., or just after 9:00 a.m. Leung was armed with a stockless .25-35 rifle (also described as a sawn-off shotgun), and under the influence of "dope", either opium or cocaine.
According to a police reconstruction, Leung first entered what was variously identified as an underground gambling room, or a dugout, where Wong Gee was reportedly smoking an opium pipe. At least one worker was also present, either playing a card game with Wong Gee, or looking to get the day's work orders. Leung opened fire, killing Wong Gee with a shot through the heart and fatally wounding worker Cheung Yueng, who crawled for the main door before succumbing to his wounds. The Oakland Tribune gave a different account, stating that Wong Gee (misspelled as "Ge Tong") was in the dugout to wake two sleeping workers, Cheung (named as "Chan Yim") and Wa Wey (named as "Wah Toy"). Per this version, Wong Gee was killed while standing and Cheung was killed fully dressed on a bed, while Wa was shot in the back as he fled. Another recollection of the dugout shooting by the county sheriff, Jack Thornton, claimed that only two people, Wong Gee and Wong Wing Hong, were killed with shots to the torso.
Leung next went to the residence of Wong Hueng, Wong Gee's brother, which doubled as either a laundry house or office. Leung could not enter as the occupant had locked himself inside and attempted to hide under a bed, but Leung shot through a window, hitting Wong Hueng in the abdomen. Leung then made his way to the cutting shed, which was the home of the ranch's cook, Low Shek Way, who was wounded by a shot through the stomach. Low was later taken to Fairfield hospital, where he died a few hours later.Nine Chinese slain, six wounded when cook runs amuck, The Bakersfield Californian (August 22, 1928) While walking half a mile through towards the home of Wong Gee, Leung shot and killed worker Yeung Foon, who was standing in an orchard collecting pears. Another worker, named in early reports Lo Wa Way, was able to escape the shooting to the neighboring farm of Wong Gee's half-brother, Wong Quay a.k.a. Sam Wong, using a telephone there to call police, at around 9:00 a.m. The Thornton account claimed that Wong Hueng, as Wong Wing Hong, had already been killed at the dugout, identifying the man killed at the laundry house as "the boy of Low Chuck Way", who was shot twice, with the first gunshot breaking his left leg and the second striking him in the heart. Afterwards, Yeung, identified as "Yung Fong", was stated to have been shot to death in his bed in a shack from the laundry house before Low Chuck Way was killed after crossing paths with Leung in the orchard. A surviving witness stated that he saw an elderly worker, named as Yeung Soon, attempting to reason with Leung before the elderly worker was shot four times in the chest. Another account claimed that Leung encountered one of the victims in company of two white women, whom he asked to step aside before fatally shooting the man.
At the house's porch, Leung shot fifteen-year-old Nellie Wong in the abdomen as she was walking down some steps to go to school in Rockville. Shortly after he entered the home, Wong Gee's wife, cradling her ten-day old son, appeared in the doorway. Leung killed her with a shot between the eyes. Afterwards, Leung walked into the children's room, where Wong Gee's sons, four-year-old Johnnie and three-year-old Willie, were asleep in beds. Johnnie was shot through the head at close range while Willie died of cranial injuries when Leung crushed his skull with a hatchet he carried. It's presumed that Leung had run out of ammunition by then. Before leaving the house, Leung hacked open Mrs. Wong's abdomen with the blade, then turned her over to fatally slash the baby's throat, nearly decapitating him. Two of Wong Gee's other children, seven-year-old Ruth and nine-year-old Helen, escaped unharmed by hiding under a bed in a room located at the back of the Wong residence,10 killed as Chinese maniac spreads terror in Fairfield, Woodland Daily Democrat (August 22, 1928) though their hiding place has also been misreported as an attic or closet, shortly after awakening after hearing the sounds of their mother's murder. They reportedly fled the house as soon as Leung left and were then hidden by family friends.
Nellie was initially treated at Solano County Hospital in Fairfield before she was transferred to Vallejo General Hospital, where she died on August 27 despite a good prognosis from an infected wound, becoming the eleventh and final victim. She had regained consciousness before her death, but was unable to provide a spoken statement due to her weak state.Eleventh victim of Chinese dies, San Jose News (August 27, 1928) The attack had lasted less than twenty minutes.
Leung Ying eventually escaped in a Dodge sedan owned by Wong Gee. George and Mary Athanacio, a Spanish couple who lived just a few yards from the Wong residence, saw Leung rummaging through the pockets of Wong Gee, Cheung, and Wa before fleeing the scene from their window. George Athanacio, himself a worker on the Wong Gee ranch, also headed for Sam Wong's ranch to use the phone.
Manhunt
Misinformation The perpetrator's identity was disputed for several hours following the killings. Leung's identity was first identified by the name Sam Ying and as aged 35 by surviving workers. Former neighbors at the Hatch ranch provided his real name and that he was Chinese, though some earlier accounts described him as Filipino. The name of the manhunt's subject was frequently misspelled, leading to news reports misnaming Leung Ying as Leung Wing, Leung Ling, Ming Ying, and Loy Yeung, which became the most widespread name for Leung during the search. Initial examinations of Deputy Sheriff Charles Ogle reported that Leung was possibly the same man as a former resident of Walnut Creek, who had been expelled by the Bing Tong-led community two years earlier over an altercation. The weapon used in the attacks was first misidentified as a pistolTen Chinese dead when worker runs amok with pistol, The Palm Beach Post (August 23, 1928) Afterwards, he was erroneously described as having used a .30-30 Winchester rifle while also carrying a revolver and knife, the latter based on early police assumptions that Leung took a cleaver from the kitchen to kill Willie Wong.
Search and capture Immediately after police arrival at the ranch, Solano County Sheriff John R. Thornton ordered all remaining workers to be disarmed and the area checked for additional weapons due to initial suspicions of a gang-related matter and concerns over a potential retaliatory attack by the farmhands. Several firearms and knives, as well as one or two opium pipes were confiscated.
Beginning around 1:00 p.m. that same day, a manhunt, led by Sheriff Thornton, was conducted in Solano and Napa Counties, heavily patrolling the section of I-80 E between Fairfield and Sacramento. Law enforcement of four counties took part in the searches. Besides the police response, 450 tong members of the Bing Kong Tong were dispatched to find Leung. It was assumed that Leung would likely stay in California and remain hidden in the area in order to kill the surviving victims.