Sai Wing Mock

Mock was born in the Chinatown area of San Francisco, to Chinese immigrants from Guangdong. Mock's birthyear is typically given as 1878, while his gravestone gives the year 1879. His family's clan, described as "small but influential", was not part of the Six Companies, the largest of the overseas Chinese associations in North America at the time, and as a result, the Mock family were reportedly ostracized by them. Criminologist Jeffrey McIllwain suggested that Mock was possibly related to Mock Wah, a merchant tong leader of the early immigration influx in 1854 during the California gold rush, and Mock Wing, who led the San Francisco Hip Sing Association, which was a communal organization at the time, in 1871. In accordance with Chinese naming, Mock was originally known as Mock Sai Wing, and as a child, he attended a mission school to learn how to read and write English. == Criminal career ==

In the spring of 1899, Mock, aged 18 Tom Lee, a close associate of the Tammany Hall, In summer 1904, Mock Duck demanded half of Tom Lee's revenue from the On Leong Tong's illegal gambling operations. Lee and other high-ranking members rebuffed Mock and two weeks later, the On Leong Tong boarding house on Pell Street was set on fire, resulting in the deaths of two men. War was subsequently declared by both tongs. On 21 July of the same year, the Society for the Prevention of Crime launched a raid on six policy houses in On Leong territory, reportedly after being tipped off by a man named Wong, who was most likely Mock Duck's associate Wong Get. On 16 August, Tom Lee was arrested alongside William A. Hangs and Charles Foon Foos on counts of voting despite not being U.S. citizens. In fall of 1904, the Hip Sing Tong arranged for the transfer of Sing Dock, also known as "The Scientific Killer", to lead a group of gunmen to challenge the On Leong Tong in a pre-arranged gunfight, but no On Leong Tong members showed up to the agreed site. On 3 November 1904, after Sing Dock returned to San Francisco, Mock Duck was shot twice by On Leong gunman Lee Sing. One shot pierced Mock's stomach, while the second was deflected by his belt buckle. Mock Duck was considered socially conservative even by contemporary standards, choosing to keep his queue hairstyle even after the 1911 Revolution that ended the Qing dynasty, though this was ultimately rooted in pragmatism, as Mock maintained that braided hair "encouraged the Occidental illusion that all Chinese look alike", thus confusing police in identifying individuals, noting that the braid could also be easily hidden under a hat if needed. and wore a chain mail vest. He was named by the press the "Clay Pigeon of Chinatown" and the "Mayor of Chinatown". During several attempts on his life, Mock Duck reportedly squatted down in the street and fired at his attackers with two handguns with his eyes closed. The warring Tongs signed a truce in 1906, but the Hip Sings and the On Leongs were again at war the following year. Mock Duck finally defeated Lee in the "Bow Kum" Tong war of 1909–1910. He was arrested several times during the next decade, during which time a number of attempts were made on his life. But he was convicted only once in 1912, for operating a policy game, and served two years of imprisonment in Sing Sing Prison. ==Retirement and death==

Following his release, Mock Duck returned to using his original name, Mock Sai Wing. In 1932, Mock Duck agreed to an arrangement with the US and Chinese governments to declare a peace among the Tongs of Chinatown, and he retired to Brooklyn where he lived until his death on 23 July 1941. ==Footnotes==