Yellow Peril. Patrizia Barrera

badly wounded and on his knees, cried for help. The rest of the group backtracked. Even for highly trained men it was not wise to come face to face with any Tong warrior, especially in their own turf. -That was the official version brought to the trial, and the only one to which the Judges gave credit, although many witnesses -all respectable citizens- have repeatedly disavowed it.

      However, he claimed that Thompson played the hero. Holding his gun, he marched bravely into the alley. All by himself. Then, he opened the door and almost immediately got shot in the chest. Two hours later, he was dead.

      After, officers Celis and Kerren pulled Thompson's lifeless body out of the alley and tried to tend to him. The news of his death made the crowd even madder. The rest is well known.

       Horace Bell, reporter and lawyer, almost instantly gave his testimony about it. And it was rejected. He did not surrender and wrote several articles, supporting his version. He focused especially on the relationship between Baker and the Triad, exposing the Law Enforcement rotten core. Only more than a century later, all the documentation finally confirmed his evidence.

       The Official Reports conveniently excused the fishy work of the Police, and the murderous behaviour of the crowd, under the chilling discharge of Collective-Madness-And-Let’s-Be-Honest-Chinese-Had-It-Coming-With-All-Their-Smug.

      More than a century to prove something that it was easy to verify instants after it occurred.

      Figure 17 - Horace Bell, 1880. Such An Interesting Character, It Would Need A Book On Its Own.

       First, the witnesses. Absolute protagonist and public hero was Bilderrain, who declared he saw Thompson bullet riddled. False. He was at the entrance of the alley when he called for help, while Yuen's house -where the fight happened- was right inside Negro Alley. More precisely, in an area not visible from the street. Not only because of the walls but also because of the lack of electricity. Officers - real ones - when and if intervened, they did it equipped with lights.

      The most bizarre scenario, however, was the one involved Celis and Deck. They had been ordered to not leave Coronel Building. Sure, they excused a breach of orders with the heart-breaking motivation of saving a friend . The smallest violins all over Negro Alley were playing just for the two of them. It was, actually, common routine to abandon wounded officers on the ground. Moreover, Thompson was not one of them. He was a Vigilante and there has always been bad blood between Law Enforcement and wannabes. It is preposterous to think that two legit cops would risk their lives to save a scoundrel. The logic explanation is that they were the ones who killed him. Or that they pushed him into the tiger’s den and shot first, just to provoke the wanted reaction. Some witnesses also mentioned a third cop, one Richard Kerren, who was lurking in the alley in front of Yuen's shop. Later -when the trial was over- many others remembered seeing him jump out of there, after the first blast. “ They killed Thompson!” he yelled. A few moments later, Celis and Deck appeared carrying a wounded man. The two were already in Negro Alley. They did not rush in after, as they stated. Besides, in the area there were also two other officers -Harris and Gard- who were in charge of the building. How is it possible that five of them were unable to defend Thompson, who was shot twice and at point-blank range?

      Everything suggests that his murder was a pretentious event to validate a planned and organized massacre. It involved a crowd, who acted under the conscious eyes of Almighty Police. All for a grudge against foreigners who had it better than them.

      It is estimated that about five hundred people took part in the lynching. The 1% of the entire city. They were not exalted citizens with pitchforks. It was a conscious organized execution. And, contrary to what Commander Baker stated during the trial, it could be easily sedated by the forces of law and order.

      Immediately after the death of Thompson -who was not rescued- a squad breached into Negro Alley, shooting to get the attention of the Mobsters. At a safe distance. That allowed others to climb onto the roof of Coronel Building and open fire directly at the people inside. It lasted about ten minutes. Someone yelled, “ That's it, we're going in!” And that was all it took, for the crowd to start the bloodbath.

      It stopped, eventually. But at what cost.