The Last Street Boss of Chinatown: Ghost Shadows Peter Chin
01:02:20 Share

What is... Dax, are you... Tracking all our cars on Carvana Value Tracker? On all our devices? Yes, Kristen, yes I am. Well, I've been looking for my phone for... In Dax's domain, we see all. So we always know what our cars are worth. All of them? All of them. Value surge! Truck's up 3.9%! That's a great offer. I know. Sell? Sell. Track your car's value with Carvana Value Tracker today.

Hey, do you have trouble sleeping? Then maybe you should check out the Sleepy Podcast. It's a show where I read old books in the public domain to help you get to sleep. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Classic stories like A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, Winnie the Pooh. Stories that are great for adults and kids alike.

For years now, Sleepy has helped millions of people catch some much-needed Zs, start their next day off fresh, and discover old books that they didn't know they loved. So, whether you have a tough time snoozing or you just like a good bedtime story, fluff up the cool side of your pillow and tune into Sleepy. Unless you're driving, then please don't listen to Sleepy. Find Sleepy on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes each week. Sweet dreams.

August 1978, New York City. Nicky Louie might be the first gangster to really scare New York City's Chinatown in some time. He's wild, quick to shoot, and he's the boss of the Ghost Shadows, who despite being a bunch of low-rent burglars only a few years earlier, have now become the dominant gang in the neighborhood.

Most of that is thanks to Nicky's sheer determination and fearlessness. Now, the ghost shadows are in control of Mod Street, and that means hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in protection money from all the illegal casinos operating there. On this night, he's playing mahjong in the back of a barbershop with some friends. Nicky's actually not been seen around too much lately.

There's a war going on in the narrow, crowded streets of Chinatown. But it's not other gangs like the White Eagles or the Flying Dragons that are gunning for Nicky. It's his own gang. See, Nicky's made some mistakes lately. First, he puts a hit out on a prominent activist in Chinatown, someone who spoke out against the gangs. The hit fails, and it's all over the news, leading to the police ramping up their efforts to target the ghost shadows.

They do the unthinkable and shut down all the casinos on Mott Street. And with that, dry up a major part of the Ghost Shadows' income. Less money to go around makes for pissed off soldiers. Some of those soldiers press Nicky on what was going on with the gang's finances. Nicky doesn't like that, and he has one of the guys more loyal to him put a gun to the other guy's head. The Ghost Shadows then split into two factions and start gunning for each other.

Shootouts all up and down Mott Street. A standoff leads to a ceasefire, but now the street is split in two. And the anti-Nikki faction realizes they need to kill him before he kills them. Nikki's the boss man, the die low, the big brother. But underneath him, in the gang's hierarchy, are five generals. One of them, Peter Chin, volunteers for the job. But when Nikki is spotted at this Mahjong game, another soldier tells Chin he's going to be the one to do it.

Nicky's sitting in the barbershop with his back to the door. A mistake. One that's going to cost him. The 17-year-old sneaks into the barbershop and pulls out a .38, puts it up to Nicky's head, and pulls the trigger.

Nicky's shot in the face, but he runs from the barbershop with the kid following, shooting him a few more times. He catches him and starts beating his head in with a gun when he's out of bullets. But Nicky is tough. He wrestles the kid off him, staggers a few blocks trailing blood the whole way, and finally collapses outside the NYPD's fifth precinct. He survives. When he regains consciousness two days later, he declines to comment on the crime.

Says a NYPD detective investigating it, quote, But pretty soon, those five generals are going to split and turn on each other.

And only one of them is going to claim the throne as the new Dai Lo. And that's Peter Chin. This is The Underworld Podcast. Welcome back to The Underworld Podcast, a radio program, nay, an audio experience that takes you, the listener, on a journey through the international criminal underworld. Hence the title.

It is brought to you by myself, Danny Gold, as well as my co-host, Sean Williams. And every week, we trade off leading these episodes. And as always, you can get bonus episodes and ad-free ones by signing up at patreon.com slash the underworld podcast or right here on Spotify or Apple. Somebody actually complained about the amount of ads for the first time in a while last week. So let me just reiterate our point that, you know, we're doing this, we do this for the money.

Not for the love. So it's either ad-free on Patreon or we're going to bombard you with ads. Anyway, I am still in Puerto Escondido on the Oaxacan coast. Full recommend. So if you hear tropical birds or whatever, it's that. But there's this one that sounds like a car alarm and it goes off every morning at 6.45 a.m.

I'm not going to lie to you, Sean. I just want to destroy that little bastard's habitat. I like nature. I support the environment. But I will chop down every tree that dude nests in with no regards. Certainly makes for a vivid image. Like the George Washington of spring break with your little axe. It's going to look really cool. Hey, thanks for asking how I am. Yeah, I'm good. I'm stuffed to an exhumation in Manila after this. I've got a few...

More days of drug war madness and then I'm home. So, yeah, I think we're going to put together a show on all of this stuff for next week because it's pretty crazy. Some of the information I'm picking up over here. I mean, some people that might be following it could see that Rodrigo Duterte, the former president, is himself implicated in the drug industry. And, yeah, I've met some people around the country the last week or so who have said

I've confirmed some of that. So, yeah, we'll put together some first-hand reporting, which is exciting. But anyway, back to your bird. Yeah, how's that going? Yeah, it's pretty good you're going to get out of there by the time this episode airs, huh? I feel like Duterte is not the kind of guy you want knowing that you're going to reveal that he is heavily involved in the drug trade, though I guess it's been in the news before.

But yeah, no, no, I think I'll be fine. But it is an interesting trip. It never is a boring one when I'm here. And yeah, this one is always like such an experience coming. It's nuts. But yeah, we'll do some stuff on that next week. Speaking of doing stuff, I was able to write this episode super easily because I've been drinking this drink, these magic mind little kind of tinctures every morning.

And it's really helped zero in my ability to focus and concentrate and be productive. Have you heard about these? They call it like a mental performance shot. It's got time-release caffeine and a whole bunch of other nootropics, organic mushrooms, matcha straight from Japan, all these herbs that help you with stress and lift your mood. It actually tastes pretty good too. I've had it every morning for seven days and you can really feel a difference.

Magic Mind, look it up. They had like doctors and medical researchers on board. They worked on it for something like 10 years. I mean, this stuff legitimately works. I was able to sit still for like, I don't know, three times as long as I normally can. Didn't have the usual brain fog that I normally do in the morning.

Anyway, definitely get some Magic Mind if you want to be more productive. They ship to 65 countries and offer a 100% refund after 100 days. No questions asked if you don't feel a difference. You have a limited offer you can use now that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% on a one-time purchase with code UNDERWORLD at checkout. You can claim it at magicmind.com slash underworld. That's magicmind.com slash underworld.

Anyway, Peter Chin and the Ghost Shadows and the New York City Chinatown gang wars of the 1970s and 1980s. If you guys are longtime listeners, you may recall we did an early episode on the battle between the Ghost Shadows and the Flying Dragons, which really went into detail on the history of Chinatown and the Tongs and everything. We're going to go over that a bit here, but I want to keep to mainly telling the story of Peter Chin, who became the boss after the infamous Nicky Louie, who we talk about in the

pulled open. And the reason we're focusing on Chin is because he has a new book out, an autobiography co-written called In the Ghost Shadows, The Untold Story of Chinatown's Most Powerful Crime Boss.

Most of this episode is based on that book, though I am going to use a bit of the stuff we did in the previous episode based on Mark Jacobson's work in The Village Voice and some other really good work from newspapers in the 70s and 80s. It's also important to note, this is Chin's telling, right? Keep that in mind. It's his story with his viewpoint for things he was at. So the truth, well, you know, it's his truth. It doesn't mean it's the truth.

It's his lived experience, actually, Danny. Please update your vocabulary for the listeners. Oh, yeah. Is that what they're calling it right now? Yeah. Peter Chin's lived experience. In fact, after I went through this book, I went through the previous episode from a couple years ago, and the only thing I say about him is that he's a violent psycho whose only claim to fame was his penchant for violence. So, you know, that's obviously how some other media have covered him. Not so much in this book, but he doesn't shy away from talking about some of the gnarly stuff he did. Now...

Chinatown gangs, let's get into Chinese immigration and how New York City's Chinatown built up. It really starts in the mid 19th century as immigrants came into work as laborers and miners, often working in seriously bad conditions and facing horrible racism. The first Tong was established in 1816, California. The Tongs are like these civic organizations like, you know, the Rotary Club or Merchant Organization. They're set up so that they can all look out for each other, but also serve as like protectors and as courts and

Because the Chinese didn't really trust the official American ones. The official American ones didn't really have anything to do with them. They were modeled after the triads, which are these ancient Chinese societies that became massive organized crime groups that are still around today. Some of the Tongs were triad affiliated, but they were at first like legitimate, you know, like kind of mutual aid societies. And they drew their memberships from the railway workers and the gold miners, some of whom had been triads who had fled crackdowns and famines back in China.

Yeah, I mean, just a random fact at this point, but the world's oldest Chinatown is actually right here in Manila. It's a place called Binondo. It's absolutely amazing. It's one of my favorite places in the world. And I'll put some stuff up in the IG because there's plenty of

So weird crime shit going down here as well. But yeah, just a little pub trivia for you. Thanks. Thanks, Sean. Of course, as the amount of Chinese immigrants continues to grow in Chinatown's form in other cities, like any insular ethnic community, during that time, from the Italians to the Jews to the Irish, someone needs to control the vice rackets and the Tongs step up to do that. We're talking gambling houses, prostitution, opium, loan sharking. There was money to be made there, like a lot of money.

Mark Jacobson, who I mentioned before, I actually got coffee with him after that episode came out. Great guy. He wrote some incredible articles for the Village Boys in the 70s about the gangs of Chinatown that I use a lot here. He said this, quote,

Determined to survive, they built an extralegal society based on furtive alliances, police bribes, creative bookkeeping, and immigration scams. The aim was to remain invisible and separate. To this day, few people in Chinatown are known by their real names. Most receive new identities, such as the Li's, Chin's, and Wong's from the family associations, who declare them cousins to get them into the country.

So, so actually we should be telling overweight people that they've got more chins than an American phone box in that case. Oh, wait, wait, wait. It's awful. Terrible stuff here. Terrible stuff. The tongs fight these vicious wars in the late 19th century and first decades of the 20th century for control of those rackets.

but eventually make peace in like the 1930s. And the U.S. had passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was like this deeply racist immigration policy that severely restricted Chinese immigrants. This was followed by the 1924 National Origins Act, which also restricted Asian immigration heavily.

All of that changes in 1965 with the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which let the Chinese come into the country again. All of a sudden, immigrants jump from like sometimes as low as 100 a year to 20,000.

And many of the new Chinese immigrants are from Hong Kong, and they're different. They aren't the previous kind of rural types or farmers. These guys are, they're from the slums. They're tough kids, poor families. And there was almost this sort of culture clash when they come in because you have the old guard of Chinese immigrants and their kids, you know, they were very kind of work hard, keep your head down, respect the elders.

But these new Hong Kong kids, they took a look around and they don't like what they see. The American born Chinese kids give them a hard time. The only jobs available to them when they get older are like working as waiters in Chinese restaurants or garment workers or in laundry. Something like 30 to 40% of the men in Chinatown are waiters.

And maybe if they bust their ass for 20, 25 years, six, seven days a week, long work days, they could eventually open up a business. But these kids don't want to wait. And they said, you know what? Screw this. And that's where the gangs come in. So these youth gangs develop in this time period. We're talking like

1960s, late 1960s, but they really get going in the 1970s. And soon enough, you know, they're in New York City, right? It's a very violent place in the 70s. They see other gangs. They've got guns. They're extorting. They're fighting. They're stealing. They're robbing the gambling halls. And that's not good, yeah, because the Tongs run that racket.

These wild Hong Kong teenagers are shaking up the natural order of how things work in Chinatown that had been there for decades, just as the population is booming. 75,000 people now in Chinatown. So that means even more money on the table.

It wasn't like there wasn't crime there, right? The tanks still ran those massive gambling halls and still did the protection racket extortion plays. But there wasn't a Wild West atmosphere before the Hong Kong kids came in like there had been. The Tongs used to be the so-called hatchet man because, you know, they kill people with hatchets, right? But in that 1930s, you know, they started to put on suits. They weren't looking to get their hands dirty and they needed to rein in these kids that start rising up in the 70s.

It's actually, it's really interesting to this dynamic that emerges in Chinatown, New York City, but also in others in the 60s and 70s, because you have these community leader groups, the tongs that have been around for generations, they had controlled all those rackets, but they're moving into an era of respectability at the time. I mean, they're meeting with the mayor, high ranking politicians, city business leaders, they were business leaders themselves, they were respectable.

But they decide to link up with these newly formed brutal street gangs. Kids these days. Didn't you mention that generational Sicilian mob thing on the last Stash House? That was pretty incredible.

Yeah, I mean, that's just the old story you see with all organized crime now, what they're talking about, how young people just play on their phones and don't want to put the time in and refuse to go to prison for 15 years and give everyone up. But I feel like that's been a story since the 80s and 90s. That was a major plot point on The Sopranos, right? With Christopher just being like a schmuck and Tony just being frustrated all the time because the younger generation were not good at being mobsters. By the way, so just to get this straight, the Tongs are...

So they're kind of like business associations, but they're kind of, I don't know, they're like sort of local business pressure groups kind of thing, and they're just starting to get into crime? No, they've been in crime. They were the crime leaders for decades, and then in the 1930s, they made peace.

And when they made peace, they kind of realized, you know, we want to put on suits and be like respectable community leaders while controlling the gambling rackets on the side. They kind of got smart enough and decided violence wasn't worth it. We make more money when we're not violent, you know, but they're still, they're one foot in, one foot out. You know, they're the community leaders, the businessman, all that in Chinatown, but they're also the ones who control the gambling halls, which is like where a lot of the money comes in there.

It's similar to the Yakuza then in many ways, right? The way that they were sort of intermeshed with regular business as well. Yeah, I think they played things better than the Yakuza. They weren't out there trying to intimidate everyone, I think, for the most part. I think they were more slick, I would say, in terms of presenting a facade of respectability.

Now, Chin Chit Chui, who later goes by Peter Chin, is actually born in a rural part of Hong Kong in 1959. His parents are from mainland China, but they had recently fled to Hong Kong, which a lot of people did after 1945. His dad eventually runs off to Brazil when he's young. Chin's grandfather helps support the family and eventually gets them the money and means to immigrate to New York City's Chinatown.

Chin's about eight, nine years old when his family finally gets to New York City. I mean, you know, it must've been pretty crazy coming from like rural China to East Broadway, but his mom is tough. She's no nonsense, but it turns out his dad also happens to be in New York City and the big family, you know, he had a bunch of sisters. They reunite and they live the New York City immigrant slum life in Chinatown.

His dad, though, happens to be a dick, a violent one who was quick with his fists to his family. And also he's a member of a local Tong. His mom has the requisite factory job and his dad is a cook. He's in the New York City public schools as a preteen, even though he doesn't even speak English.

The Chinatown gangs, they all hang out outside the entrance and they try to find the sort of wayward youth and bring them into the gang. And, you know, these gangs, when we talk about, they keep getting described as youth gangs. They were really like teenagers, you know, like 17, 18. You'll see Peter's doing stuff when he's like 15 and 16. Anyway, he doesn't speak English. He's incredibly poor. He's basically a prime recruit for them.

His sister is also kind of flirting and seeing a gangster whose name is Spare Ribs, which is, you know, it's a dope name for a Chinese gangster.

Peter takes a beating or two from some of the other gangsters who rob him at one point, and you can kind of see his frustration growing. At 13, his dad, for the first time, beats one of Peter's sisters, hits her in the head with a frying pan, and Peter, for the first time, curses at the man who pulls a knife on him. And this causes Peter to run away from home. He's 13. He's on his own. He's sleeping on the streets where he can, eating where he can, completely out of school.

Jesus, man, this is pretty bad. But also, this is during the Cultural Revolution back home in China, right? So I guess a dad putting a knife on his kids is way down the list of bad things Chinese families are going through at the time.

There's like entire classrooms just rising up and lynching their teachers. It's insane. Did you also know, I found this out like just a couple of days ago, that when Mao's terrible policies were like starving millions of people, he told them it was the fault of sparrows eating all the food. So he had a campaign where people would go out and kill millions of sparrows and then sparrows died out in China, which made the food ecosystem even worse.

So then he had to go and beg the Russians to import sparrows back to China. Like the whole thing. I can't even get my head around how sort of clownish it was in many ways. You truly are the king of pop trivia. I got to say. Yeah. I used to write them. It was one of my jobs as a teenager.

Destined for greatness.

And Mr. Rib gives Peter a gun so he can go bust one off at them. Peter rolls up to them and just starts letting off shots. He gets into a full-on shootout. He's 13. Terrible shot, though. No one's hit on either side. But, you know, you kind of see. Kid was wild. Kid was wild off the bat. Spare Rib likes what he sees. He takes him in as a new recruit. He moves Peter into a ghost shadows apartment, which is, you know, a flop house on 2nd and B, where one bedroom right now will cost you $4,500 a month.

These are basically crash pads for the teenage gang members. Peter's not a full-fledged member. He's just one of the youngest guys there, and he gets dubbed the kid. I guess head across to Avenue D, and you might still see some pretty crazy stuff, or is that also now full of, like, fusion restaurants and cocktail bars? No, I mean, look, there's still projects there, and, you know, there's still, like, Puerto Rican gangs on the Lower East Side and whatever else, but for the most part, like...

You're paying like $4,000 a month to live in that area. You know, it still maintains a little bit of grittiness, but it's definitely for the fancy boys these days. The fancy boys. All right, guys. Let's talk factor meals.

I've told you guys I've used them before. They were even a sponsor. That's how good they are. We're talking chef-made gourmet meals that make eating well easy, and they're all ready to go in like two minutes. They've got great macros. You've got 40 options across eight dietary preferences. You can up your protein. You can go low calorie. They're going to help you feel your best all day long with wholesome smoothies, breakfasts, grab-and-go snacks, and more add-ons. You can reach your goals this year with ingredients you can trust and convenience that can't be beat.

Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com slash factorpodcast and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. That's code FACTORPODCAST at factormeals.com slash FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. You're not going to find a better deal than that.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Who do you guys turn to when you need support or help changing your mindset or your life? I know...

Both Sean and I have dealt with pretty topsy-turvy careers that have been rollercoaster rides, you know, with the added anxiety of covering wars and violence and the PTSD that results from that. And I personally, you know, when things have gotten too much, found it helpful to speak to a therapist. It really helped calm me down, deal with pressure, and move past things when I was stuck.

BetterHelp is a fully online, diverse network of 30,000 therapists that makes therapy easy and affordable, and it can help you get unstuck. And they've got 5 million clients they're working with worldwide.

Build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash underworld today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash underworld. So the backstory of the Ghost Shadows is that when they form up, they were the only serious Chinatown gang without a powerful Tong backing them.

They start off as just a bunch of thieves who do burglaries back in the day, and they went by the name Kwan Ying. A newspaper reporter, when writing up the gang's crimes, said they moved like shadows and dubbed them the ghost shadows. And kind of side note here, it's amazing how many gangs actually have their names coined by reporters, or if not reporters, police.

So from then on, they're the Ghost Shadows, which is a cool name. Like if someone dubbed me and my crew that, I would go with it. There's also the White Eagles and the Flying Dragons, and all three are always beefing over territory and the rackets. I mean, it's like...

this is nagging me a little bit but isn't that a tautology a bit like a ghost shadow like if you're a ghost you're invisible anyway and you don't have a shadow or if you're if you're a shadow you can't I don't know this is just bugging me does this make sense you're overthinking it man you're overthinking it it just sounds cool okay

Okay.

Okay, right. Did you get that? Yeah. Yeah, the Dilo is just like the local name for the capo, right? Yeah.

Yeah, but you got the whole thing like former member sets up current member, kills current member, moves back, becomes boss. Yeah, I got that. Although the way you just said it is like would be incredible if you went for a whole episode saying it like that. All right. So the big money in Chinatown back then isn't the extortion racket. It's gambling. And there are a ton of gambling houses and they bring in a ton of cash.

The Tongs run the gambling houses and they're making millions. NYPD mostly leaves them alone. They usually get paid off, but they still need protection. So the Tongs contract out to the youth gangs basically as security. In 1973, it's the White Eagles that run Mott Street for the Tong in charge. Mott Street's like this major street in Chinatown. That's where there are 11 gambling houses on that street alone. And they each pay $10,000 in protection fees a week to the White Eagles.

who are making, I mean, that's serious money, especially back then. They're protecting them for the Hip Sing Tong, which is run by the godfather of Chinatown at the time, Uncle Benny. Though I've actually seen reports now that say Eddie Chen, who ran the other major Tong, the On Leong, was more powerful.

Yeah, I think that wasn't the only on also the gang that Sister Ping, pod legend Sister Ping, the snakehead used when she was smuggling folks into Chinatown, like what the 80s and 90s? Yeah, I mean, the two big ones in New York were the only on and the hip saying they kind of traded power struggles. So it had to have to have been. But that's that's also like one of our first 20 episodes, I think. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. Quick intro to Uncle Benny. They call him Uncle Seven. And in 1991, a Senate subcommittee would describe him as the godfather of Chinatown.

He ran Hip Sing. He took a cut of nearly all the gambling rackets in Chinatown. He had done time for murder. He's the type of guy who was honored at community banquets and would get a new immigrant a job, get another one a loan. But, you know, he was also not to be messed with. Once, one of his Tong members tried to start his own thing in the early 80s called the Chinese Freemasons. The guy even hired some members of the Flying Dragons and starts up his own parallel street gang, Manchurian.

Mass gum and show up to his gang hideout, shoot it up and kill three and wound eight others. They couldn't pin anything on Benny. But when a reporter asked him, he told the press, quote, 60 years, I build up respect. And he think he knocked me down in one day, which, you know, power, power quote right there, especially if you can get away with it.

Now, remember, the ghost shadows don't have a Tong backing them in 73. They're on their own. They're operating sort of on the fringe of Chinatown, robbing gambling houses, and because of that, getting money put on their heads. Peter Chin is barely a teenager at this point, but he spends his days with them, learning how they do things, going to restaurants they extort and eating for free. You know, he's participating in robberies. He's helping them rough people up. He's getting the scraps with the other gangs. Wait, wait, wait. So Fly...

All dragons are flying. They've all got wings. They can all fly. All dragons are flying dragons. Calm it down. We're going to move on.

Okay, the boss of the ghost shadows. Yeah, the boss of the ghost shadows isn't Nicky Louie at this point. It's a guy named Nei Wong. Peter comes across Wong trying to collect cash from a guy, refuses to pay, and he helps another ghost shadow beat the crap out of the guy as Wong just kind of stands there watching. The guy, though, happens to be a former Hong Kong policeman, and these types, they're a rough bunch. They were corrupt, and they usually fled to the US after a crackdown.

Soon after this, April 1974, Peter and his boys are hanging out at a bar called the Mayflower Club. It's their usual spot. The whole crew decides they're going to go to a gambling house, except Peter can't go because he's only 15, which is funny because he was robbing them. But they're like, no, we're actually going to go gamble. You can't come with us. Wong stays behind, too. He's with a woman he's seeing. The other gang members take off, but Peter decides to hang around for a bit.

The Hong Kong cop that got beat up shows up, calmly walks over to Wong and the woman, and shoots them both dead in front of Peter. He looks at Peter and he tells him he's not there for him, and then he calmly waits for the police to show up. Now, this gets reported as being a love triangle gone wrong, and that's actually how I talked about it in the initial Ghost Shadows episode based on the research I had done

But according to Chin, I think revealing the truth here for the first time, it was about the beating and losing phase. So again, you know, we talk a lot about how lore is created and how these stories get told. It's important to remember that like, you know, a lot of times we don't actually know what the truth is. So the ghost shadows are in sort of shambles, right? They're still living hand to mouth, no serious backing. They've just lost their dialogue.

Peter catches a gun charge. He has to do a few months in juvie. When he gets out, he's finally made into a full member of the Ghost Shadows, and he has to take an oath under a statue of General Kwan, who was a general during the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. His life and exploits are famously written about in a classic Chinese novel called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and he's known to be like an incredibly loyal badass soldier.

swearing in front of his picture it comes from triad rituals and you know the oath is the usual like I will not rat on my brother I will not leave the gang under penalty of death all the normal stuff that all gangs and mafias and rituals make you swear to

Then in December of 1974, the ghost shadows get into a shootout with two drunken off-duty cops at a Chinatown bar. Once again, everyone gets arrested and Peter is sent to juvie. One person's killed. The state eventually drops the case after internal affairs gets involved. The same thing happens again shortly after when another shootout occurs with cops in a restaurant after words are exchanged. Once again, the state drops the case. And this is just like, this is how insane New York City was in the 1970s.

Yeah, man, every show we do about this era in New York just blows my mind. I mean, I also don't want to stereotype Chinese people in any way. We've got, what, a gangster called Spare Rib, a corrupt cop who does a double murder to save face, and guys swearing oaths under what statues of ancient Chinese generals. This is very good stuff. It's a time period, man.

Speaking of Spare Rib, he's effectively leading the gang then. He gets locked up on an extortion charge, and then that's right around the time Nicky Louie gets released from prison from a different sentence and takes over as the Dilo. And he's got ideas. At this point, there's literally only 12 ghost shadows, and they're struggling hard. Nicky's idea, though, is to take some little side street territory from the bigger gangs in a show of force. He's betting they won't risk a war for side streets they don't care about.

They decide to take him over from the Flying Dragons, whose leader is in jail at the time.

The ghost shadows just grab the territory. They show up earlier and they stake out positions and the flying dragons don't realize what's happening until it's too late. By the time they spot them posted up, it's already done and they don't bother with a fight, which this whole thing is weird, right? Like they're probably going to go home tomorrow or like at night at some time. Just do the same thing. Maybe show up earlier tomorrow, you know, just 5 a.m. I don't know. I'm not a Chinatown youth gang boss and probably never will be like, what do I know? I'm just saying it's kind of weird the way they describe it.

Yeah, I mean, although being a Chinatown gang boss might be a way more achievable goal than anything you've done in crypto.

What if my goal was to lose a bunch of money stupidly? Then I, you know, what if that's my goal? This move though, yeah, thank you. This move though, it gets them some respect and catches Uncle Benny's eye. The boss, the king of Chinatown, connected the triads all over. Uncle Benny sees these wild ghost shadows and doesn't want them falling under the sway of his rivals at the On the Ongtong. So he brings in Nicky and inducts him as an affiliate. They're his gang now, backed and affiliated with the powerful Hip Sing.

Although there's some reporting, not this book, that says they were backed by the Ong Leong, which is very confusing. The Tongs, I guess, don't have these rigid relationships with the gangs, but still, I mean, the whole thing is like...

It's all out of whack. Now, the ghost shadows are playing at a whole new level, right? They've got money, they've got backing, they can get guns, businesses to extort. Then they take over Mott Street from the White Eagles, tooling up, chasing them out, firing at some, catching others, beating them badly. I mean, this makes more sense, right? Shooting at them and beating them up is a lot better than just showing up early.

Uncle Benny and the Hip Sinks sit back and they kind of let this one play out. I mean, I think both gangs are affiliated, but if one is more powerful, then the other, I guess, is thinking is that they deserve to be in charge.

Now, they're pulling all the protection money from the gambling houses. Peter's pulling in $5,500 a week. He's one of the five generals under Nicky, and the ghost shadows soon have over 70 members. They're forced to be reckoned with. But the eagles are pissed. They can't just take the street back. There's just too many ghost shadows. So they go hunting, trying to find them when they're by themselves and outnumbered. They try to kill as many as they can, and Chinatown is a mess of shootouts. Peter actually heads to San Francisco's Chinatown at this point, which...

I know, I know, we need to do a Shrimp Boy episode. Peter gets involved in a war there, but fails to help his homies retake territory from a different gang, and then heads back to New York City, kind of defeated. Things heat up, though, with the Flying Dragons back in New York, who are no joke. There's a shootout, a 39-year-old civilian ends up dead. One of the Flying Dragons, some guy Peter had roughed up before, gets shot in the leg, and here's where it gets interesting. He tells the cops that Peter's the one who did it, even though Peter wasn't there.

Peter ends up in Rikers. I think he's 16 at this point. Gets into some fights, but he eventually makes bail. And then boom, another shootout with the Flying Dragons. And that same guy, he snitches again. And this time, Peter's hit with an attempt to murder a witness charge because that guy, you know, in the shootout, he was the witness.

He gets arrested and sent back to Rikers. Keep in mind, he's still only 16. It's wild, right? But then it turns out the witness is found to be unreliable. Peter walks free. I mean, back then, dude, you could just get away with almost anything. Like no cameras, no DNA. Doesn't even seem like the cops care that much. It was just a whole different world. Yeah, I know. Was he getting charged as an adult too? Like it's crazy to not pin anything on him.

I think at 16, if you're being sent to Rikers, you are being charged as an adult. Because before it said Juby, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I can't believe they're not doing him. But while Peter's locked up, Nicky Louie makes a major mistake. There's an unofficial mayor of Chinatown dude, the kind of guy who helps new immigrants get jobs and language lessons, secures loans for businesses, counseling for the youth. And he's a big time anti-crime in Chinatown guy. He's really against the gangs. Louie wants him gone because he's been going after them.

And this, by the way, you know, the targeting the activist type, it's a constant thing in the organized crime world. It rarely works out with the intended effect. It usually just has the opposite effect, like a big backfire. And that's exactly what happens. A hitman stabs the guy five times, but he survives and the pressure on the ghost shadows ramps way up. The cops do the unthinkable.

They shut down the gambling houses. The ghost shadows are losing out on millions of dollars. Remember how they, you know, had gone from something like 12 guys to 70 guys by 1977, way up from, from their previous number.

Well, that's all well and good when there's plenty of money to go around. But when there's not, it's going to drive a lot of tension. So under Nicky, there had been five generals. He was the dialogue and there were five generals underneath him. Peter was one of those generals and the ghost shadow split into two factions and the guns come out. Peter's on the other side of Nicky and there's a shootout, an internal one in their own territory.

Nikki calls Peter during a moment of peace. He tries to lure him to his side. Peter says no, and eventually he meets up with the four other generals, and they decide there's a new Ghost Shadows. No more Dilo, no more boss. There's a council. It's the five of them. But before that, they need to take Nikki out, and Peter is going to be the one to do it.

I mean, I've got to say, like, if this is his own recounting of everything and he's trying to set the record straight, still comes off pretty psychopathic and mercenary. He's like a total survivor, this kid. He would just do anything to get by.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's generally what he was going for in the story, and it's true. It's nuts. The five generals with their 50 or so soldiers on one side of Mott Street, you know, Peter's one of them. Nicky's 20 or so guys on the other side. The whole neighborhood is holding their breath. No one thinks the peace is going to last, and these guys are literally on opposite sides of the street doing their thing. One tiny mistake has the potential to set off a bloodbath. Nicky's in the shadows. He's trying not to be out there too much. He knows what's coming.

That's when we have the opening scene from the cold open and the soldier named potato which you know potatoes great goes after Nikki fails to do him in Nikki makes it the police station dimes out potato who eventually gets a 5 to 15 year sentence and then Nikki flees New York City. Yeah, I mean potato is yes potato but maybe in China a potato is a really respected food because it's so heavy or something I'm guessing I don't know. There's not many freedom fries going around back then in Beijing or maybe maybe it's just a fat guy with a big round head.

You're having a real hard time with the nicknames and the gang names. I am. Sorry, guys. Daredevil is born again on Disney+. My name is Matthew Murdoch. I'm a lawyer. Exactly what kind of a lawyer are you? A really good one. Everyone agrees it's the best Marvel television series. Gritty, intense, and elevated. It's Daredevil at his best. If you step out of line, I will be there. Ha ha ha!

Marvel Television's Daredevil, Born Again. Don't miss the two-episode premiere tonight, only on Disney+. The next time you fly, upgrade your comfort to Emirates' premium economy. Sink into soft leather seats with raised legrests and adjustable headrests. Elevate your dinner plans with delicious regional dining, all served with complimentary premium drinks.

Enjoy endless entertainment with up to 6,500 channels, including live sports. There's no other premium economy like it. Fly Emirates. Fly better. Still getting around to that fix on your car? You got this. On eBay, you'll find millions of parts guaranteed to fit. Doesn't matter if it's a major engine repair or your first time swapping your windshield wipers.

eBay has that part you need, ready to click perfectly into place. For changes big and small, loud or quiet, find all the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. But you already know that. eBay. Things. People. Love. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.

The gambling houses eventually reopen after a year or two in 78, 79. So the ghost shadows are back making money. Peter gets married in 1979 and also two of his generals get lengthy prison sentences for an extortion case in Baltimore. And another one goes on the run. Now it's only Peter and another general by the name of Stinky Bug as the bosses. Yes, you heard me, Sean. Deal with it, Stinky Bug.

No notes. No notes at all. By the way, there is some banging now. There's some guys doing construction in the hotel, so I'm sorry if anyone picks that up. Actually, it comes to one of my big recces for going away on trips in Asia, which is find a brand new Chinese-made hotel because...

They will give you a five-star hotel for about 30 bucks a night. But they will be working on it when you're in there, which is why I'm making a podcast. The ghost shadows decide to take a vote to elect a leader. Peter wins and Stinky Bug, he's feeling stinky. Oh. Thank you.

He says he's going to leave the group. He's disappointed. Real loser energy, to be honest. Peter tries to talk him out of it, but Stinky Bug won't be persuaded. Peter makes him promise not to start another gang, which he holds off on for about six months when he starts one called The White Tigers in Queens. There's actually a big New Yorker article on The White Tigers that comes out in 1992 where there's a massive sting against them and a mediocre movie based on the article called Revenge of the Green Dragons.

Okay, I mean, are all dragons green? Questionable. That's, yeah, I don't know. You gotta let it go, bro.

Yeah, I will. It's been a long week. For now, all you have to know is Stinky Bug sets them up and Peter Chin ain't happy. But for now, they're in Queens. Peter lets it go until the White Tigers shoot at some ghost shadows. Then it's on. There's a war. The White Tigers are also beefing with the Flying Dragons and the White Tigers are trying to expand to Manhattan. An incident happens when Peter's on Mott Street, his territory, and he sees the Flying Dragons chasing some kids.

The dragons tell Peter that the kids that they're chasing members of the white tigers. Peter tells them to get the hell out of his territory and that'll handle it. Some ghost shadows eventually catch the kids, beat them, take them somewhere and then shoot them in the head. It turns out though, it's bad info. The kids aren't gangsters at all. They're civilians or weren't gangsters. They're civilians. And it's just, it's too many murders. And the NYPD are really starting to focus on the ghost shadows and the other gangs and starting to build massive RICO cases.

Around this time, Peter buys a nightclub in Midtown called the Golden Taipei. The owner has been trying to unload it for cheap because there's a bunch of low-level Chinese hooligans who've made it home and have been causing problems. But at this point, Peter is a known quantity. People are scared of him and they do what he says. So these guys, they're getting drunk and scaring away customers. Peter shows up, has a talk with them real quick, makes it clear he's in charge now, and they back off real quick.

One day later, an older white guy starts hanging out at the club and some of the drunken Chinese guys are, they've been harassing him. But Peter notices something about his composure and he strikes up a friendship with a guy who turns out is a loan shark connected to the Genovese family. They hit it off. They start bonding. They work together.

Peter helps him get his money on the streets of Chinatown, where they can charge triple the usual interest. They're making millions. And now Peter is connected with the actual mafia, who, you know, back then, late 70s, early 80s, were still a major, major force to be reckoned with. But in the world of Chinese gangs, things are getting weird and convoluted.

At some point, the general from the Ghost Shadows who went on the run after the Baltimore extortion, remember, you know, there are five, including Peter, two get sentenced, one stinky bug, one goes on the run. Peter gets him a good lawyer and arranges for him to get bailed out. The guy's name is Taiwan, and he comes back to town, but he doesn't like how things have changed. He's not thrilled with Peter. The Ghost Shadows, they're much bigger now, and Peter's running things. He's got like all these like really loyal soldiers.

And Taiwan's jealous of Peter's power, the loyalty the soldiers have to him, and how much respect that he's built.

I mean, why would he expect anything else? He's been away. I don't get it. Dude, these guys are all 19 and 20, man. They're like, you know, I don't think they don't have adult emotions. They're also just like probably, you know, getting messed up all the time and carousing and staying up all night. I can't, you can't expect them to be like emotionally rational. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Fair enough. I'm sure like, when were you at university, dude? Like, yeah. Lunatic, I'm sure. Ouch. Meanwhile, it wasn't good. Yeah, me neither. Meanwhile,

Nikki Louie slightly comes back to town and starts working with the White Tigers and Stinky Bug. So now you've got the former Dilo and Stinky Bug, who's the former general who started the White Tigers. You got Peter leading the Ghost Shadows with Taiwan, another general who's with him, but also not happy with him.

Unbeknownst to Peter, though, Taiwan also decides to take out the White Tigers leader, Stinkybug. He sends a hitman after him, but the hitman fails. And because they don't know Taiwan's back in town, the White Tigers assume Peter is behind it. So they send a hitman after Peter. I mean, you know.

It's always the ones that you came up with and all that. But do we got it so far? There's like chihuahuas barking in the distance. I got birds screeching. But is this making sense, Sean? Is this confusing? No, no, no. I'm following it. There's just like a lot of names, but it's good. It's good because the names are brilliant. But yeah, I'm following it and I have not slept for a literal week. So yeah, that is high praise.

On that yabba. Anyway, mid-April 1980, Peter goes out to dinner with his crew and he gets a beep. Do I need to explain what beepers are for our younger listeners? Oh, they're in the news. Yeah, they know what they are. Oh, that's true. Yeah, they are. Peter steps out to take a call and as he's walking back, a hitman comes for him. He shoots Peter in the face, just grazes him, and then he shoots him in the back. Peter stumbles into the police precinct just like Nicky did. Apparently, it's the closest government building to Mott Street.

So he goes in to have the cops call an ambulance, but the cops, they try to make him ID the shooter from a book of mugshots before they call the ambulance. He's just kind of like sitting there bleeding out and they're refusing to do it until he points to a photo of the guy who shot him. They finally relents when one cop is like, hey, he's going to die here. And he gets to the hospital where he's in a coma for three days, but pulls through. When he wakes up, he gets a phone call in his hospital room threatening to finish the job.

Okay, that is utterly mad policing. But also, he's got a landline in his hospital room? Is that normal? I think they had them back then. I'm pretty sure, you know? Ah, okay.

Peter spends a couple of months recuperating. The doctors tell him that if the bullet had been just an inch in either direction, he would have died. And he uses that as motivation. He launches a big-time entertainment company called Oriental Arts with a triad boss from Toronto and a gang boss in Boston. And their plan is to bring over singers and entertainers from Hong Kong to tour those cities. Peter also really wants to visit Hong Kong. It's, you know, the 80s. The city is flush with cash.

It's corrupt. There's lots of money going around and he sees big opportunities. He's thinking bigger than Chinatown. So in 1981, he takes a months long trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong, meeting with triads, establishing connections. Meanwhile, with that touring company happening, a big star from Hong Kong is performing in Atlantic City when the Flying Dragons show up and just hold him for ransom with his family. I think like in the green room or something.

Peter gets the call from his new triad friends to handle it, and he rolls up to the Tropicana Casino with his guys, goes into the VIP suite where they're being held, you know, it's the Singer, his family, and ten Flying Dragons. Peter just handles the situation, and it's resolved. He doesn't even need to raise his voice. That's how much weight he carries at the moment, and all of this, by the way, when he's only 21. Yeah, I mean, I also had the ability to clear a bar at the age of 21, but for very, very different reasons. So...

Peter is diversifying. He's expanding. There's some bootleg Chinese videotapes becoming a huge thing. Peter's got a little bit of that going on. He's getting approached to move hundreds of pounds of heroin from a connect in Hong Kong, but he actually turns that down, even though he would have gotten 25 million per shipment. Peter wants to stay out of the drug game. He knows the money's huge, but he also knows it brings a lot of heat. He even gets an offer to get involved in counterfeiting US currency. There's the actual plates, like the plot of Rush Hour.

But he's smart enough to turn that down too, just recognizes how much heat and federal engagement both drugs and counterfeit bills would bring on him. But just when things are going well and he's making smart choices, he gets some new info.

He got into horse racing and he befriends a guy who was a business partner working in Chinatown. And the business partner is dating a cop. And the cop lets slip to his girlfriend, the business partner, that they have an informant inside the ghost shadows. Someone flipped and the guy's code name is Casper. Then there's an insanely brutal incident that turns into front page tabloid fodder, makes national news. And it really signals the downfall and the brutality of the ghost shadows.

Peter and his wife go to a restaurant in Chinatown. There's a group of younger ghost shadows drinking there. And there's just like a strangely, you know, it's one of these all Chinese bars, a young white woman at the bar. Peter and his wife leave. But later that night, the younger ghost shadows rape and murder the woman, strangling her with an electrical cord.

Her body is found in an alley. Peter's on tape saying he won't help them. You know, he won't get them lawyers or support that they can rot in prison. That's according to the book. So I don't really know Peter's involvement. But in the book, you know, he says he wasn't really involved, which could be true because I think those tapes were, you know, from the informants.

But this is front page news, front page New York Post, New York Times stuff, national news headlines, a gang kidnapping, raping, and murdering a woman, leaving her in an alley. That means the hammer is about to come down. And it turns out that Casper, the informant that had been wearing a wire, is Peter's driver. Peter actually had found out the informant's last name was Wong. He had a number of Wongs in the ghost shadows, I think four. So he brings them all together in a room, tells them what he heard, and watches their reactions.

And then right there, he realizes it's his driver, but the guy never comes back after that. The book doesn't really go into that part, which honestly sounds insane, and I kind of wish it did. Yeah. I mean, it's also pretty amazing that he knew the guy's actual name, and that didn't narrow it down a huge amount. I guess so.

Meanwhile, good old spare ribs, he gets out of prison. Remember him? Sort of like Peter's gang mentor. He hangs out with Taiwan, who's still envious and distrustful of Peter, and they start collaborating with Nicky Louie, and the three of them plan to take Peter out. You know, it's your own people, Sean. Be your own people.

In 1981, though, Spare Ribs is killed by the Flying Dragons in a Kung Fu movie theater, which is like, you know, John Yoo kind of sick scene, I bet. Definitely a Hong Kong action film scene. And then Peter has a run-in with Nicky Louie, shoots at him, and all this while the White Tigers are still putting money on Peter's head, which he finds out about, actually, from the police who warn him. The cops also have an informant in the White Tigers, too.

Weirdly, and again, not a lot of detail, all this beef kind of gets resolved. One of the old school gang members negotiates a peace between Peter and Taiwan. And as a co-author of the book writes, Peter is strangely good at not holding grudges, except against his father. The bullets are still flying though. And when we say youth gangs, we mean youth. Here's the Washington Post in 1982, quote,

Two weeks ago, in what's characterized as your typical incident between young gangsters, members of the rival Ghost Shadows and Flying Dragons crashed a party at New York University, given by the school's Oriental Culture Club. When the fighting stopped, 14-year-old Kim Fu Man, a member of the Ghost Shadows, lay dead, and 16-year-old James Lee, a member of the Dragons, suffered bullet wounds in his chest. That a 14-year-old had been carrying a pistol was no surprise to a Chinatown detective.

Quote, in our experience, it's the 14 and 13 year olds who carry the guns when they leave Chinatown, he said. They do that for two reasons. No one's going to think that sweet little 85 pound, four foot eight sunshine is carrying a weapon. And if he's caught, he's treated like a juvenile. Very, very typical incident between youngsters that pretty wild, right? Around that same time, a corrupt Hong Kong police officer arrives in Chinatown, hoping to transform himself from a businessman into a mafia boss.

He aligns himself with the Hip Sing Association, but Uncle Benny refuses to make a deal with him. This is when the guy strikes out and he starts his own Tong called the Freemasons and establishes ties with the White Tigers. Eventually, Uncle Benny decides this rogue operator needs to be dealt with. He hands a murder contract to the Flying Dragons. And on December 23rd, 1982, the hitman tracked down the businessman at a Chinese restaurant and just let off.

That's when they kill three people, including a 13-year-old, and injure eight others. And the massacre draws even more national and federal attention to Chinatown. Meanwhile, Stinky Bug and the White Tigers are aligned with the Freemasons. Stinky Bug reaches out to Peter to borrow his street, asking if he has permission to cross Mott Street in pursuit of the Flying Dragons. But when they reach their target, they fail to make a move. And in an unexpected turn...

The boss of the Flying Dragons, the very gang Uncle Benny had hired, has a falling out with Uncle Benny. The Dilo, who's known as the Scientist, feared his own gang was planning to kill him because of this, and in response he hires a new bodyguard. However, both he and the bodyguard are murdered within six hours. There's like a running theme in this episode of people really not doing their jobs very well at all. I mean, I know these guys, at least half of them are like 10 years old, but still. Yeah.

Your data is like gold to hackers. They're selling your passwords, bank details, and private messages. McAfee helps stop them. SecureVPN keeps your online activity private. AI-powered text scam detector spots phishing attempts instantly. And with award-winning antivirus, you get top-tier hacker protection. Plus, you'll get up to $2 million in identity theft coverage, all for just $39.99 for your first year. Visit McAfee.com. Cancel any time. Terms apply.

There she is. Founder and CEO. High five. Dave can't stop celebrating with every business owner in town. All right, Baker man. High five. He's sharing the excitement of big savings with the Comcast business five-year price lock guarantee. Up top, bike shop. Yeah. It's five years of gig speed internet. Quick, high five. Five years of advanced security. Five years.

and five years of a great rate that won't change. Yeah, law partners! Chamberlain, Messenthorpe, Dubois. All from the company with 99.9% network reliability. Switch today and get the five-year price lock guarantee. It's back, but only for a limited time. Powering five years of savings, powering possibilities. Comcast Business. Can't forget you, voiceover guy. Aw, thanks, Dave. High five!

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep Podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention, and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster.

Shockingly, it turns out that Uncle Benny orchestrated their deaths, despite the scientist being his own godson and the fact that he was merely carrying out Uncle Benny's original orders. And one major consequence of the scientist's murder, while I'm getting into it, is the NYPD's Chinatown task force, known as the Jade Squad, decides they're going to shift their focus entirely onto Peter and the ghost shadows instead of the flying dragons and the scientist.

Shortly after the scientist's death, Peter meets with the new boss of the Flying Dragons. They negotiate a peace, which is the first in 20 years, bringing an end to Chinatown's longstanding war, including the feud with the White Tigers. But, you know, you can't negotiate a peace with them Federales.

On Sunday, February 17th, 1985, Peter gets raided. 25 members of the Ghost Shadows are indicted on RICO charges. Peter thinks he's going to take a plea. He ends up in a cell with Nikki Louie and they both share a laugh, you know, because they're both facing their own RICO charges. 13 murders are tied to the case. A guy named Robin Chee takes over the Ghost Shadows. Everyone takes pleas. Nikki Louie gets 15 years. Peter gets 35 years.

He ends up in prison in Indiana. He's working in the kosher kitchen of all places. Another inmate teaches him to read, which he never could before. He's eventually transferred to Petersburg, Virginia, where he hangs out and plays handball with none other than Sonny Franzese, the father of famous podcaster Michael Franzese. Handball. That is random. It might be worth telling people what Rico actually means. Because it's a huge thing once you get cocked with one of those, right?

Yeah, RICO is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act that was passed, I believe, in the 70s, right? And it became the way to take down organized crime because basically any crime committed by your organization, they can throw at you. So it's very easy. It makes it very easy to throw, tie everything together with an enterprise, gang, organized crime, whatever, and you get a lot of years for it.

It was primarily, I think the primary intent was to deal with the mafia. And then they started applying it to street gangs as well and things of that nature. But yeah, Rico, serious. It's like, you know, once you get hit with the Rico, it's over.

From the book, it seems like Peter still maintains a level of respect and power. Even among other gangsters in prison, he gets treated pretty decently inside. He's able to connect with other known gangsters. He eventually gets released in June of 2005 after serving only 20 years, which seems like a short sentence for 35 with federal charges. But this is the crazy thing. He gets out.

2005, he's only 46 years old after serving 20 years and being this gang boss, which is crazy. He gets a job at a relative's construction company, takes over a karaoke club in Queens because of course, and also of course, what does he get into? None other than real estate development. He's probably making bank right now. And that is the story of Peter Chinn.

said to be one of the most powerful bosses of street gangs in Chinatown, the last real boss of the Ghost Shadows, though they do exist somewhat up until the early 2000s.

I really love these Chinatown episodes. They're fascinating. And also there's a Chinese noodle joint just down the street from here. And this convinced me to go get that for my breakfast. Good move. Yeah, I kind of want some too. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed. Yeah, until next week. Remember Spotify, Patreon.com, System of World Podcast. Support our sponsors, please. So they keep buying ads from us because, you know, when those budgets change over from December to January and you get that earnings back from January, you're going to be in trouble.

It ain't pretty, folks. No way. It makes you want to quit. Anyway, until next week. ... ... ... ...

you