Dark History - 169: The Headlines called it “Justice,” In Reality it was a MASSACRE

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Hi friends, happy Wednesday! You know, after living in Los Angeles for a few years, I’ve learned a lot. Like, for example, if you tell people you live in LA, the first thing they ask about is celebrities.  Who have I seen? What were they like? Am I friends with Kris Jenner? It’s always the same question. LA is huge and a lot of people don’t realize it has a *crazy* history. Hollywood and celebrity culture is just one small part of it.  We’ve covered some LA history here on Dark History a couple of times. We did an episode on the Chicano Movement, and we even did one the Zoot Suit Riots.  During my research for those episodes, I came across an event I had never heard of… the Chinese Massacre of 1871. You might think by the name, this massacre happened in China.  But turns out, it happened right here in Los Angeles. It was essentially a mass murder killing spree, targeting Chinese American communities.  I wanted to do this episode because it’s one of those stories where I thought to myself: why aren’t they teaching this in school? Why has it gotten brushed under the rug and lost to history? Well, today we’re going to find out.  Welcome to the Dark History of the Chinese Massacre of 1871.  I appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more Dark History. I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in the show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian* RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail] Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail: Bailey Sarian 4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300 Burbank, CA 91505 ________ Credits: This podcast is Executive Produced by: Bailey Sarian & Kevin Grosch and Joey Scavuzzo from Made In Network Head Writer: Allyson Philobos Writer: Katie Burris Additional Writing: Jessica Charles Research provided by: DH Research Team Special thank you to our Historical Consultant: Scott Zesch, historian and author of "The Chinatown War." Director: Brian Jaggers Additional Editing: Julien Perez & Maria Norris  Post Supervisor: Kelly Hardin  Production Management: Ross Woodruff Hair: Angel Gonzalez Makeup: Roni Herrera ________ Right now, listeners of this show can get an extended 30-day free trial! Just go to https://dipseastories.com/darkhistory to start your free trial.  Calm the chaos of order fulfillment with the shipping software that delivers. Switch to ShipStation today. Go to https://www.shipstation.com and use code DARKHISTORY to sign up for your FREE trial.  Check out the SKIMS Ultimate Bra Collection and more at https://www.skims.com/darkhistory #skimspartner Personal styling for everyone—get started today at https://www.stitchfix.com/darkhistory. 

You know, after living in Los Angeles for a few years, I've learned a lot. Like, for example, if you tell people you live in LA, the first thing they ask you is usually something about like, have you seen a celebrity before? What are they like? Am I friends with Kris Jenner? You know, it's always like the same questions. As if there's celebrities just walking around everywhere and you're like, oh hey, it's crazy to see you Ronald McDonald, I didn't know you were here. LA is huge and a lot of people don't realize

it actually has a very crazy history. Hollywood and celebrity culture is really just a very small part of it. We've covered some LA history here on Dark History a couple of times. We did an episode on the Chicano movement and we even did the Zoot Suit riots. Remember, that was like episode two, throwback.

During my research for those episodes, I came across an event that I had never heard of, the Chinese Massacre of 1871. You might think by the name, this massacre, maybe it happened in China. But it turns out, it actually happened right here in Los Angeles. It was essentially a mass murder killing spree

targeting Chinese American communities. I wanted to do this episode because it was one of those stories where I thought to myself, why aren't they teaching this in school? How come I never heard about this? You know, why has it gotten a brush under the rug and lost to history? Well, today we're gonna find out. Welcome to the dark history of the Chinese Mass massacre of 1871. Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Here we believe history does not have to be boring.

It might be tragic. Yeah. Sometimes it's happy. But either way, it's our dark history. Before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe. I'm always posting new content. And let me know what you think because I love hearing from you in the comments section. Now let's get into today's situation.

Huh? Let's go back in time. That was my back in time music. To Los Angeles. In the 1800s. Listen, it looked nothing like it does today. It's not some big booming city. No, no.

There's only about 6,000 people living there. And LA at this time had a reputation for being a crime pit. For the entire population, there were six police officers. Six. People were doing whatever the hell they wanted to do because they knew no one was gonna stop them. They were busy. Los Angeles at this time had a higher murder rate

than places like New York and Chicago. In just 15 months, Los Angeles had 44 murders. That is the highest murder rate ever recorded in the United States for that population of people. In 1848, the California Gold Rush happened. So the city became a magnet for young men with mining experience who wanted to strike it rich. So this brought in immigrants and migrants

from all over the country and the world, including people from China. And most of the Chinese people who made it to California ended up settling in a place that became known as Old Chinatown. Old Chinatown was concentrated on one specific street that we'll refer to as The Alley. It had a much worse name at different times in history,

so we're calling it The Alley. From the beginning, the community wanted to make Old Chinatown feel like home. They set up offices, shops, local businesses, restaurants, and they even had their own temples and churches. I mean, this one little street was basically just a city within a city. Even though the alley was like a safe haven for some Chinese immigrants, it was also known for its crime.

That's because officials, aka those six police officers, they basically decided to look the other way whenever a crime happened there. Look, in their minds, they're not going gonna protect this old Chinatown area instead they the six of them need to focus on keeping the wealthier areas safe. Because the police and all that were looking the other way you can kind of get away with every wanted to in the alley. For example gambling illegal at this time but not you know in the alley. It was also a place where you could smoke freely. And I'm not talking about cigarettes. People would

come to the alley to smoke straight up opium. Everyone got dressed up for ads today huh? You look fabulous Paul. Hey um listen, do you ever have those days where you know you just like you don't want to do anything? Like you just spent, you know you don don't wanna make eye contact with anyone. You don't wanna do your to-do list, the dishes. They're always there. Mm-hmm, the dishes are always there. I mean, Paul, don't even look at me like that, okay?

When was the last time you did the dishes? Look, life sometimes, a lot of times, overwhelming. So when I feel like I'm one email away from losing it, you know what I do? I avoid. And I teleport myself into another world. Just me, my headphones, and Dipsy. Ah, Dipsy, Joan knows what's up.

Listen, Dipsy is this amazing female-founded audio app that's full of spicy stories. Dipsy has over 1,000 spicy audiobooks, all crafted by a team of professional writers and top-tier narrators. So whether I'm in the mood to escape the grind or just want to get lost in some steamy daydreams, Dipsy has me covered. It's like self-care, but with no pants on, you know? Yeah.

Their app makes it so easy to listen and explore different genres. You can even search for your favorite romance themes like contemporary, historical, dark, western, and so many more. The best part, new chapters are released every week, so you'll always have something to look forward to. So light a candle, okay?

Lock your door and tell your roommates to get lost. And let Dipsy transport you to your wildest fantasies. Trust me, you deserve it. Right now listeners of this show can get an extended 30 day free trial. Just go to dipsystories.com slash dark history to start your free trial. That's dipsy, D-I-P-S-E-A, stories.com slash dark history

for 30 days of full access for free. Visit dipsystories.com slash dark history. So we've got the gambling, we've got opium, cherry on top, brothels. The alley was known for being a place where you can come to, you know, spend some quality time with a lady of the night with some supple breasts.

But the sad truth was the alley was just an extremely unsafe place for sex workers. In 1870, old Chinatown's population was over 80% men. That's because a lot of men left their wives and children at home to come to California for work opportunities, you know? And then if they'd make money they would usually send it back home. And because this was a city made up of all men, they were definitely keeping the brothels busy. I kept reading about how small old Chinatown was,

and I was like, what does that mean? How small? Well, what? Turns out there were only 172 Chinese immigrants living in Los Angeles. Only 34 of those people were women. Sadly, most of the sex workers in old Chinatown were actually sex trafficked from China to Los Angeles.

Some young girls were sold by their families, some were lied to and told that husbands and jobs were waiting for them, and many of them were just honestly straight up kidnapped. Once these girls were in America, it was basically impossible to get out. If one of the girls managed to run away, her kidnapper or the owner of the brothel would report her to the authorities as a thief.

Then if that didn't work, they would report the woman as missing and offer the police officers a hefty reward to bring her back. Once she was arrested, the brothel owners would post her bail and she would be returned to her life in the brothel. And the cycle would just continue over and over and over again. So there's no real sense of law and order going on. It's just chaos.

And this chaos paved the way for gangs to come in and take over Los Angeles, especially Old Chinatown. Now we could do an entire episode dedicated to the different gangs and how they overlapped at this time, but like a very short version, the TLDR, let me tell you this. There were tons of Chinese gangs known as tongs.

Allegedly, those tongs would hang out around Old Chinatown to quote unquote, offer some structure and authority to the area. Since obviously the six police officers weren't doing shit. So basically the tongs were there to act as an authority over all the craziness and also allegedly were supposed to help protect the Chinese American community from the police. But of course this wasn't out of the goodness of their hearts.

All this protection came at a price. People were forced to pay fees to the Tongs for this protection. But the Tongs weren't alone. Other gangs popped up and started taking advantage of the community as well. And during the 1870s, there were gunfights and street fights over who had control of old Chinatown. The gangs were constantly fighting each other. And the people most affected by all this fighting weren't like the gang-related people,

it was the innocent people who lived there and were just trying to get by. On top of all this gang drama, old Chinatown was also experiencing a ton of racial tension. The media made it their job to demonize Chinese immigrants at this time. The media described how Chinese immigrants dressed differently, ate differently, they acted differently. It was all about making them seem aggressive, strange. You know, they don't belong here. Thanks to the press, a big belief in the community was that Chinese immigrants had come to America to take American jobs. This wasn't true, but this propaganda made everyone dislike Chinese people and assume they're here to take what's ours. There was this one paper called Los Angeles News,

and they would regularly publish articles specifically about Chinese immigrants, calling them, quote, an alien, an inferior and idolatrous race, and a curse to our country and a foul blot upon our civilization. End quote. The media also published exaggerated

and even made up stories about these violent acts committed by Chinese immigrants. And listen, there were violent acts being committed, but it was because of the gangs and tongs and that, but the media was lumping everyone in together and saying, they're all like that, bad. Now people are reading this, right? And they're getting all worked up, all angry, you know,

about these violent immigrants. And people are like, you know, we gotta teach them a lesson. So there ended up being like a wave of hate crimes against the Chinese. There are multiple accounts of people violently assaulting Chinese men in broad daylight for no reason at all, you know,

just because they felt like it. People took this moment to vandalize Chinese businesses, their properties, anything related to them. Tensions were at like an all time high. Everyone was on high alert and all six of those officers were busy. And by 1871, things had fully come to a boil. So I was just doing a murder mystery makeup episode

about this, you know, unsolved mystery, okay? And my desk, my room, my whole setup. You know, it's like, just papers and scribbles and notes and everything everywhere, okay? And then it's just a lot. It's kind of chaotic. It's chaotic. It's chaotic.

And sometimes that's what running a small business can feel like. Chaotic, you know? But it doesn't have to. With ShipStation. With ShipStation, it kind of feels like the organization fairy has visited you and helped you out. Everything is in one place.

You can manage all your orders with just one login. You can print shipping labels at just the click of a button. It's so fast, it's almost... Suspense, you know what I'm saying? Plus the rates, oh man, don't even get me started. I'm talking like they got up to 90% off FedEx and massive discounts with USPS and more. You can save so much on shipping,

which means more budget for better packaging, for just other things, right? For help, you can hire people, you know? ShipStation scales with you. So no matter how big your business gets, you never need to upgrade. It just works. So if you want to save time, money, and your sanity, join the 130,000 plus businesses already shipping smarter. So let's make ship happen, huh?

You see what I did there? Calm the chaos of order fulfillment with the shipping software that delivers. Switch to ShipStation today. Go to ShipStation.com and use code DARKHISTORY to sign up for your free trial. That's ShipStation.com code DARKHISTORY. On October 24, 1871, violence erupted in a place called the Coronel Block in downtown Los Angeles. This was right by old Chinatown. The Coronel was known for their bars, gambling houses, brothels, and it was considered extremely dangerous. Apparently, a local paper called the Los Angeles Herald wrote about the Coronel saying, quote,

the Coronel block serves a man for breakfast every morning. In other words, they were saying someone's killed there every day. Well it was around 530 p.m. when suddenly people in the Cornell block heard gunshots break out. Apparently the gunfire was between two rival Chinese gang members, most likely business owners. We don't know exactly what they were fighting about, but gunfights were, um, at this time were like kind of like a regular occurrence, you know? Usually you'd hear it, you'd just duck and cover, protect your beer, you know?

And then you'd get up and you'd move on. But on this day, these gunshots were heard by a man named Robert Thompson. You see, he was hanging out in a saloon near the main Cornell building. Now, I guess Robert was like a very popular person in town, and he decided on this day, he was not going to duck and cover when he heard those gunshots. He was going to confront whoever was causing this trouble. He walked over to the Cornell building, stood in the doorway, and cocked his gun. I don't know what kind of gun he had, but I imagine the drama. Nearby police officers were warning him to stop and to put his gun down. But Robert? He didn't listen. Many believe he had been drinking.

He started blindly shooting into the dark room, trying to hit anyone he saw. He didn't even bother asking, like, hey, who's in this room? All he knew was that it was filled with Chinese Americans. So one man who was inside the building, he just watched the whole thing go down and he saw people getting shot left and right, all around him. He's like, oh crap, you know? So he decides to defend himself and he shoots back at Robert. Eventually, this man shoots him and Robert went down hard.

Not long after he was shot, around 7.30 PM, Robert died. At this time, it was normal for there to be, you know, the gang gunfights happening and even deaths between gang members. But what made this situation different was that Robert, the man who was killed, he was white. And everyone knew the second that this white man hit the ground, things were about to get bad.

Now, to the outside world who had no idea what was going on, it looked like a Chinese man just shot and killed a white man for no reason. So they're already angry. The media is telling the people like, they're awful, the Chinese immigrants are awful, blah, blah, blah, so everyone's worked up. And now they're like, what?

They shot this man? So a crowd, you know, they show up and they started to gather around Robert's dead body. People were freaking out. And word started to spread throughout Los Angeles. Within minutes, Chinese immigrants were murdering white people. Within the hour, over 500 people gathered

around the Cornell building, which might not sound like a lot, but it was literally 10% of the population of Los Angeles at the time. So people were showing up. Some people started lighting things on fire and then throwing them at Chinese people. Anytime a Chinese person was hit, people started cheering. And it wasn't just like, you know, a small group of people cheering. This was hundreds of people cheering at this time. Now, by this point, when like everyone had showed up

and whatnot, the people who had originally started the gunfight in the beginning, they were long gone. They slipped away before the chaos started. So this had like nothing to do with killing the people who had actually started it. It had now turned into just a freaking hate crime really. It was just pure racist psychos wanting an excuse to kill everyone. So then people started to climb on top of the Cornell building

and when they were up there they were punching holes in the roof and then they would stick their guns in there and just like start shooting. So they're shooting and to them it was kind of like they were shooting fish in a barrel. Some of the people inside the building tried to make a break for it but if they made it outside then they would be confronted by hundreds of people who had knives, guns, hatchets, you name it, they were ready to murder, okay? Now many of the angry crowd members weren't satisfied with a quick death. They started to grab any Chinese person

they saw, put nooses around their necks, and dragged them to a place called Tomlinson Corral. This was a place where there were several hanging posts. Mobsters were actually known to lynch people there. Lynching is essentially the act of killing someone by hanging without a legal trial. In the past, when local authorities used hanging as a form of punishment, people would be sentenced to public execution in Tomlinson Corral. Within minutes, several of the Chinese people who were captured began to be tortured in front of a cheering mob.

One of those people was a man named Dr. Chi Long Tong. Dr. Tong was a very successful doctor who worked in the area where the violence was breaking out. Now he was beloved by so many communities, not just the Chinese community. He was one of the only doctors in the area who was trained in herbal medicine, which was like a very valuable skill

in Los Angeles at this time. It's been said that the mob knew how beloved Dr. Tong was, which is why they targeted him. He was captured by a violent crowd member and immediately had a noose wrapped around his neck. He was pleading with his life, saying he could offer his captors gold, silver, anything if they let him go. They checked his pockets and they didn't find anything, so they assumed that he was just a liar. He told them that he had money back in his office but they didn't care. This wasn't about money for them. They wanted

to kill him because he was Chinese. So the captors took a gun shoved it in Dr. Tong's mouth and shot him. Oh my god I think kind of the worst part. Well, this is all really bad. But if you're going to shoot him in the mouth, you would hope that he would die. But he didn't die. So he survived the initial shot. So the captors decided to take him to the corral where he was then hanged. What guy? Not long after the hanging, someone had noticed that he had on a diamond wedding ring.

So they took a knife and literally cut off his finger so they could steal it. Dr. Tong was hanged in the corral alongside four other Chinese people. One was a teenage boy. The rest were innocent workers in old Chinatown who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do you guys ever have one of those moments when you go to put on a bra and you look in your underwear drawer and you think, okay, I don't like that. I don't like that. Like none of the bras fit.

None of my bras fit. Okay. None of my bras fit. And I don't know why I keep holding onto them, but I do because maybe they will fit. But shopping for a bra, not ideal. Am I right? Yeah, it's hard. And I personally never know where to start. You can measure and all that, but like, am I doing it right? I try.

How is this still wrong? I don't know. And then you can go to a store. Sometimes it's crowded. It's hard to get someone who actually like has an expertise in like bra fitting. And then the lighting in these stores, my gosh, it's like a personal attack. It's like, can we dim it a bit and I'll soften it?

But then I kept seeing the Skims Ultimate Push-Up Bra everywhere. And I decided, okay, I'll give it a whirl, okay? Get myself up there, lifted. And I tried it on and it was like, oh, okay, the hype. I get it. It's real. It's like the bra just understands me. It fits my body quite well.

It gives that perfect lift. The kind that makes your outfit, you know, hit a little different. And then I was feeling a little bold. So I tried the ultimate strapless push-up bra and was like, oh, this, you know, oh, this is secure. Because you know, strapless, it's like, yeah, right. It ends up at your ankles by the end of the day.

Hmm. Strapless means like it's either squeezing the life out of you or yeah, it's just like slipping all day and you're doing that adjustment all night, you know? But with this one, she stays put and it gives the same lifted look without having to adjust every five seconds. Skims, I don't know, they just get it. Their bras make me feel like I want to wear a bra. Yeah, which is, I think that says a lot. So treat yourself and shop the Skims Ultimate Bra Collection and more at skims.com. And when you check out, make sure to tell them I sent you.

Select podcast in the survey and pick dark history in the drop-down menu. You and your boobs deserve this. Another man who was hanged actually lived with Dr. Tong and his family. The mob dragged him out of Dr. Tong's house, brought him to the Tomlinson Corral, and put a noose around his neck. So rather than push him off the platform to die, they instead tortured him. They were taking the rope and pulling him up and down and up and down, basically bouncing him by the rope so they could crush his skull against the top of the wooden

hanging post. Eventually, he died. If the mob was mad that someone wasn't dying fast enough while hanging on the noose, they would climb up to the top of the hanging post and jump up and down on the person's shoulders until their neck was totally broken. These people are just fucking psychotic. Other people were hanged in different parts of town, like a place called Golar's Wagon Shop. Near the shop, a large wagon had flipped over

during all the chaos. The mob hanged two people by the wheels of the wagon because they didn't want to make their way all the way down to the corral. Regardless of where they were, each person who was captured experienced a different kind of torture. Sometimes, after some of the men were hanged,

they might be strong enough to reach up, slip their fingers under the noose, and actually stop the hanging. The mob would then reach up and crush their hands so they would have to let go of the rope, then leading to their death. Look, there were some good people trying to protect the Chinese community during this time.

There was a businessman named William Slaney. He owned a boot and shoe store. On the night of the massacre, he packed his store with people from old Chinatown and locked them in so he could protect them from the violence outside. Another person who tried to help was a man named William H. Gray, who was actually a justice of the peace. Now he happened to be at a local vineyard about a mile out of town. People fleeing old Chinatown ran over a mile in the dark to this vineyard,

just praying whoever was there would take mercy on them. Thankfully William did, and he took in several men and women, hid them in the cellars of the vineyard. Now while all this is happening, it's mind you, the world is ending. At this point it feels like everything is on fire. People, crowds, everyone's angry, it's psychotic. Well it got worse because bigger crowds arrived to watch the show.

And it wasn't just people from like local communities. People that showed up were actually like from the government, wealthy people, Los Angeles police officers. They all joined in. Some of the police officers would stand guard in front of homes, not because, you know, they cared about protecting the people inside, but because they knew that these houses had a lot of valuables or money in them. And that's what's important.

Some believed they wanted to take these items for themselves. In one instance, while the police were guarding a house, they literally watched an innocent Chinese man get snatched and dragged to the gallows to be hanged. They were like, those Faberge eggs are still inside, right? Okay, great. While some people in the mob were focused on hanging as many Chinese people as they could, mob started to spread throughout the local businesses. Rumor has it one of the Chinese gangs had a huge stash of cash

hidden somewhere in town. So now it was turning into like searching for treasure, a treasure hunt. So these assholes just started robbing every business they saw. Over the course of this night, it's believed that somewhere between $30,000 and $70,000 was stolen by the mob. Now, may not sound like a lot, it does sound like a lot, but in today's money, that would be between $700,000 and $1.8 million. So these people, like, they did well, you know? I mean, it was really like a free-for-all and then finally at around 930 p.m Sheriff James Burns called an end to the massacre. Well, no one else was doing it So Sheriff Burns asked a group of 25 onlookers to join the mob and stop them

Thankfully, they were able to break it up So they essentially pretended to be mobsters and they were able to break it up. So they essentially pretended to be mobsters and they were able to stop people from doing more damage. Well, thankfully this really did actually slow everything down and it really kind of came, made everything come to a halt. And by 11 p.m., it was all over. Some people who participated in the murders

headed to local saloons and bars to celebrate. There was a report that said one man who was part of a violent mob announced to the bar, covered in blood, quote, well, I'm satisfied now, end quote. The next day on October 25th, the bodies of 17 victims of the lynchings were laid out in front of the jail. An 18th victim, who was the first man to be hanged the night before, had already by this point been buried. Some of the local LA newspapers ran their typical headlines about the Chinese blaming them for the violence that took place.

They described it as a glorious night filled with justice. Ugh. But there were some other local papers that did the opposite. Some papers ran articles calling the entire massacre an embarrassment to the city of Los Angeles. One paper read quote, "'Night of horrors' with a list of the names of those who were killed."

Horrors. It's so hard, huh? But the massacre was so much bigger than Los Angeles. The news of what had happened spread across the whole country. It was even on the front page of the New York Times. Most people believed LA was full of lawless men that were out to steal everything they could. And to them, many of those lawless men were Chinese immigrants.

So they're thinking like, yeah, of course this happened. They're losers over there in California. Many of the people who were in LA during the massacre actually came out just to be entertained. Like they didn't participate in the murders, let's say, but they watched. They literally got in like their horse and buggies and then they rode over, you know,

to the scene of the crime just to watch and see what happens. But of course, the major newspapers weren't going to publish that. At the time, there was a large push by the government encouraging people to move out West. There were jobs that needed doing, land to be settled, farms, gold to be found, pussy to be eaten, you know? Los Angeles was hoping for funding

to join the expanding rail system so that more people would be able to make their journey to California. So they were like, everyone, don't mention the lynchings. We want them to come here. So the whole thing was downplayed is what I'm getting at. The government wanted people to think that this horrific night was like, it was out of,

it's not normal. That never happens. It was a one-off thing. Not long after the massacre, authorities decided to prosecute some of the murderers. Not necessarily because it was the right thing to do, but essentially because California needed a rebrand so people would move there and feel safe.

You know, the other night I woke up at like 2 a.m. and I thought to myself, where did that black and white striped crop top go? I had it for years. Where'd it go? It just like, where did it go? So I was thinking about it, it's like someone's stealing my clothes. I know I didn't get rid of it. It's like where do you, where do my clothes go? Are they just evaporating? I don't know. Am I losing them in the wash with the socks?

And then I remembered, you know what? Someone's been borrowing my clothes and I don't wanna name names, but a close friend of mine, Paul, maybe has been borrowing some of my pieces and not returning them. So I was like, fine, you can keep it. It's yours now.

I don't want it. You know, now I just, I need some new clothes. I need new clothes, but listen, that's why I love Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix is an online personal styling service. So when you sign up, you get assigned a stylist. So I got a stylist who actually like understands my vibe, my budget, my size, and they do like all the shopping for you.

It's great, it's magic. It's like, oh, great. Cause I don't really like shopping. I know. If you do, that's great, but I don't. So when you have a stylist, you just tell them what you like, what you don't like, and then boom, a box shows up with personalized pieces

that will fit perfectly. Like I don't know how they do it, but they do it. They do it. Plus there's no pressure to sign up for a subscription either. You can order boxes when you want, how you want. Try everything on at home, you know, with your own lighting and your own mirror and your own pieces. Okay, and then you keep what you love and then you send back the rest. I mean, it's so easy.

There's no stores, no crowds, no stress, no bad lighting, just cute outfits that will make you feel like you've got your life together. Personal styling for everyone. Get started today at stitchfix.com slash dark history. That's stitchfix.com slash dark history. Despite the fact that 500 people participated in the massacre, only around 24 were indicted for murder.

None of the wealthy people who like drove out to watch the chaos were called to testify or anything like that give a statement. The men who were indicted were just like normal people, I guess, but they weren't, they're murderers. Somehow every single one of them managed to hire a big shot defense attorney, even though they didn't really have money to their name.

So it was like, how did you do that? Allegedly, these lawyers were paid for by the wealthier people who watched the show go down. Okay, so rumor has it that the lawyers told these men, hey, we'll represent you, but you're not allowed to mention any of like the wealthy people who were there that night. The trial took place in Los Angeles and rumor has it,

it was very chaotic and pretty corrupt from the beginning. So many people in LA were either involved in the mob, connected somehow to the mob, terrified of the mob. It was really hard to find honest and people willing to give like a neutral testimony, you know? Also, it was hard to find jury members who were unbiased. Even the fricking judge was present at the massacre.

Yeah, he was there. He was watching. Well, by the time that the trial was taking place, Robert must've like hired a PR team or something because all of a sudden the judge, he was being painted as like a hero that night. It was said that he saved several Chinese people by holding off the mob with a gun of his own.

There was no like, no one could back up that statement, but that's what he claimed. I'm gonna call it bullshit, but okay. Eventually 10 defendants were found guilty, not of murder, but manslaughter. They all received sentences that ranged from two to six years. Basically, the only reason Los Angeles had this trial

was to prove to everyone else, to the rest of the country, that Los Angeles was a perfectly safe and law-abiding city and if you misbehaved, you would be punished. It felt very performative. A year after the trial, the 10 convicted killers filed an appeal and shockingly, their convictions were overturned and they were released.

Allegedly, there was some kind of technicality. You see, apparently during the trial, it hadn't been established that someone was killed. The appeal stated that there was no concrete evidence that was introduced during trial, showing that Dr. Tong had actually been killed. Even though many people saw it happen and his body was literally laying in front of the jail the next day. But they didn't have proof. And the

prosecutor, for some mysterious reason, never retried any of the defendants. They just let them go. I mean the worst part of all this is that the law at the time did not allow a Chinese person to testify against a white person. All the first-hand witnesses to the massacre weren't allowed to even defend themselves. And the local papers who called this massacre the quote unquote night of horrors, they turned out to be um spineless. When they did their end of the year coverage on the major events that had happened in 1871, they accidentally left out the massacre. Wink, wink.

You know, they didn't want to acknowledge it. So after the massacre, Los Angeles started to take law enforcement a little more seriously. Allegedly, the Chinese Massacre of 1871 was the last ever lynching in Los Angeles. And I learned from the Chinese American Museum here in Los Angeles, the Chinese American community didn't let this event tear them apart.

It actually brought them closer. About 10 months after the massacre, Chinese communities all across California came together to raise $8,000 to have a proper Taoist funeral ceremony for those who were murdered. This was important for so many reasons. For one, the names of the Chinese immigrants who were killed were written down and translated into English.

People don't actually know the real birth names of those who were murdered during the massacre. In Chinese culture, it's very important to grieve and remember someone by name. So the fact that the victims names weren't known was devastating, but they were still able to have a ceremony honoring them in death thanks to the community coming together.

As we end this episode on the 1871 Chinese massacre, we're reminded that some of the darkest moments in history are the ones most often ignored. That night in Los Angeles, a violent mob murdered at least 18 Chinese men and boys. Some hanged in the streets, others shot and beaten, while the city just turned a blind eye. Justice was fleeting and accountability was nearly non-existent. I mean it was a massacre

fueled by racism, fear and greed. One that really echoes through time, really warning us of what happens when hatred goes unchecked. Ooh. But history isn't just about the past. It's about what we choose to remember and how we use it to shape the future. The 1871 massacre was meant to be forgotten. We were not supposed to know about this, you know, but today we bring it back into the light because silence is complicity and remembrance is resistance. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope I hope we've learned something new. If you come out to Los Angeles, come by, see the memorial plaque.

Let me know your thoughts. Next episode, we're gonna be talking about some of my favorite things. I'm talking ice cream, cereal, pizza, Taco Bell. That's because all of these foods have something in common. They're part of an industry that controls more of America than you ever could have imagined. I'm talking about dairy.

Yeah, dairy. Maw. I know a lot of you can't have it. I'm sorry you get diarrhea. But you know, it's actually probably for the better because dairy is way shadier than you think. From Marie Antoinette to drunk cows to secret caves filled with government cheese,

you will never guess where this episode is gonna go, okay? Tune in next episode as we talk about the dark history of big dairy. I'm coming for your cereal. Now, I'd love to hear you guys' reactions to today's story, so make sure to leave a comment down below so I can see what you guys are saying, and your comment might even be featured in a future episode. Now let's read a couple of comments you guys have left me. My favorite part. Tamsyn Gagney 7001 left me a comment saying, I'm absolutely loving Joan and Paul being an integral

part of the ad stories. Best co-stars ever. Thanks for making Mondays and Thursdays my favorite days of the week Bailey. Aww. Tamsen thank you so much. I figured Paul and Joe needed to start pitching in around here. So I'm putting them to work. I'm like hey don't you love Zoc Doc? Don't you love Zoc Doc? Thank you for your kind words, it means a lot. We're really trying over here. Sadie4399 left us an episode suggestion. Dark history of ballet dancers.

Sadie, you are reading my mind, Sadie. Great suggestion. Do you ever go down the rabbit hole of ballet dancers in Russia and how like psycho they are? Love? Personally, I've gone down like my own rabbit holes of the dark history of like ballet. I don't know why I haven't made an episode about it. It's pretty wild. You're onto something and I like it. Thank you.

Thank you guys so much for hanging out, watching and engaging. Keep on commenting because maybe you'll be featured in a future episode. Hey, did you know you can join me over on my YouTube where you can actually watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there,

you can also catch my murder mystery and makeup. Oh, and don't forget to subscribe because I'm here for you all the time, baby. And hey, if you don't know, Dark History is an Audioboom original. I wanna give a special thank you to our expert, Scott Zesch, historian and author of the Chinatown War.

And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. Hi. I hope you have a good day, you make good choices, and I'll be talking to you guys soon. Goodbye. Music