People v. Vacarella

RICHARDS, J.

The appellants were tried for the murder of one Lam Gee, also known as Ah Lum, the trial resulting in a conviction of murder in the first degree, with a recommendation of life imprisonment. From said conviction defendants appeal.

At the time of the homicide there was a tong war between two Chinese tongs, known as the Hip Sing Tong and the Bing Kong Tong. The Hip Sing Tong was numerically superior in San Jose and the Bing Kong Tong was numerically superior in Watsonville. The strength of the rival tong was such that the members of the Bing Kong Tong

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left San Jose and the members of the Hip Sing Tong left Watsonville. This was the situation in the latter part of February, 1922, Chinatown in each city being akin to an armed camp. In San Jose it developed that twenty-two or twenty-three guards were on duty to protect the members of its tong. The defendant, Munoz, had been a guard, and the brother of Vaearella was also employed as a guard in San Jose. It required guns and ammunition to equip these men, who acted as watchmen, day and night, and a great quantity of these guns and ammunition was supplied by Hommrich’s gun-store of San Jose. A record was kept of the number of the various firearms and also the quantity and size of cartridges furnished. Among the firearms sold on February 15, 1922, was a Police Positive Special, No. 243,458, Colt revolver, the money for the purchase of which, as also for all the other arms and ammunition obtained on that date, was guaranteed by one Jew Chuck, known also as Sam Kee, one of the appellants and who was one of the principal leaders of the Hip Sing Tong.

On February 15, 1922, there was purchased by the Hip Sing Club, a subsidiary organization of the Hip Sing Tong, the address of which was used as the headquarters of the latter organization, from the Osen Motor Sales Company, a used Marmon automobile, six hundred dollars being paid in cash and a note signed by Jew Chuck for the remaining six hundred dollars. The defendants Vaearella and Munoz took this automobile and went to Watsonville, but it appears that the machine broke down en route and was towed to the Corner Garage in that city. These two defendants endeavored on a number of occasions to get a certain San Jose telephone number on the telephone. This number, San Jose 1367, it developed, was the number of the Hip Sing Tong, located at No. 7 Dupont Street, in the name of Jew Biek. The telephone calls it is conceded were made for the purpose of obtaining money to pay the garage bill at Watsonville for the repair of the Marmon ear. The phone calls were productive of results, as Louis Vaearella, under date of February 21st, telegraphed thirty dollars to Albert Munoz. The telegraph company’s receipt for this money was found upon the person of Sam Kee upon his arrest after the homicide.