Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-29
GEORGE LEM
MARKED MAN
CHINATOWN'S KING RECEIVES
DEATH WARRANT
FINDS MYSTERIOUS NOTICE ON
HIS DESK
Blow Expected to Fall After Tuesday
Noon-Has Incurred Enmity of
Rival Tong by Recent
Actions

The death warrant Of George Lem.
king of Chinatown and one of the rich
est and most influential Chinese on the
Pacific coast has been signed, sealed and
delivered.
For the part George Lem took in the
tong differences growing out Of the shoot
ing of Chan Nun it has been decreed by
his enemies in the Bow Dong tong that
he shall die.
When the blow will fall no one knows.
That it is certain and sure that he is TO
die no one knows better than does George
Lem himself, and while he is guarded
by white policemen and Mongolian guards
nothing can save him from the deadly
vengeance of the highbinders whom ne
has offended by the part he took In at
tempting to run to the ground the three
men who shot and wounded his friend,
Chan Nun.
Yesterday afternoon in the same mys-
terious manner in which all Chinese at
fairs of the kind are conducted the red
warning was conveyed to him.
Finds Death Warrant
George Lem was in an upper room OF
his home.
He had passed from the room in which
the shooting of Chan Nun he has used
for an office, to his dining room.
There he sat down and ate his Sunday
dinner.
When he returned to his Office twenty
minutes later it was with difficulty that
he could restrain a cry of fear and hor-
ror, as he saw lying upon his desk a Dill
of oblong red paper covered with Chinese
hieroglyphics which to white man would
mean nothing.
To George Lem this slip of paper con-
veyed the information that his death mad
been decreed and with the usual courtesy
extended in such cases, he was told to SO
arrange his business affairs that his sud
den taking off would not complicate the
settlement of his estate or put to the
poignancy of sudden grief his relatives and
family at his going away forever. How
the paper came there is an unsolvable
tong mystery.
George Lem is no coward.
AS a man of affairs and as member OF
a. powerful tong, he has seen too many
like cases to realize that personal lear
would do aught to ward off the blow.
His knowledge of Chinese character ano
of the ways of the ongs led him to realize
however, that there propaply Is ho escape
fol- him.
lie is Just as dear to George Lem as
to any human being, and he took such
steps as all would take to escape the
consequences of the death sentence.
Calls Bodyeuards
He at once called in additional body
guards and sent for Sergeant Sebastian
in charge of the Chinatown squad OF
police ---''' '''--
To the sergeant he told of the warning
and asked that he be protected.
Two of the best men on the squad,
Patrolmen Henderson and Harrison, were
detailed to keep an especial outlook for
the merchants welfare, and every men,
ber of the squad was directed to look out
for and arrest any suspicious characters
found in the vicinity.
1t is believed by the friends of George
Lem that the men who are to put him out
of the way have been selected in the per-
sons of Jew Chan, highbinder who is
wanted now in Stockton for murder OF a
Chinese woman, and who has been tried
for murder in San Francisco on three
different occasions; Lem Suey, natchet
man of notorious reputation, and Fong
Ling, a renegade hatchet man of the Hop
Sing tong, the order to which George Lem
belongs.
Desperate Men Chosen
This information came in roundabout
way from San Francisco, and, if true, 1t
means that three of the coolest and most
desperate and resourceful professional
murderers in the Chinese ranks have been
assigned to the job of killing this man
for revenge.
The time in which George Lem has to
fix up his worldly affairs is short.
By Tuesday noon the blow may be eX-
pected to fall and at any time after that
the death sentence is in force and will be
executed at the first opportunity offered.
The police are straining every resource
to not only protect this man, but to pre-
vent any and all other crimes of like
nature from further disgracng the local
Chinese colony, but that they can sue
cessfully cope with the willy Chinese is a
question in their minds. and 1t is the
opinion of George Lems friends, both
white and Mongolian, that he is doomed
beyond all question.