William Lee (born October 8, 1954) is an American writer. He is the author of three books. He is a former member of the San Francisco Chinatown gang that was responsible for the 1977

Golden Dragon massacre The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related shooting attack that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California. The five perpetrators, members of the Joe ...

Biography

Lee grew up in San Francisco's Chinatown, and went to Marina Middle School,

Galileo High School , motto_translation = And yet it moves , type = Public High school , established = , faculty = , district = San Francisco Unified School District , grades ...

and was a student majoring in psychology at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

when he joined the

Chung Ching Yee The Joe Boys, or JBS (also known as Chung Ching Yee, ), was a Chinese American youth gang founded in the 1960s in San Francisco's Chinatown. The Joe Boys were originally known as Joe Fong Boys, after its founder Joe Fong, a former member of th ...

, also known as the Joe Boys. Although not

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...

, he was questioned by homicide investigators about the 1977

. The massacre was one of the deadliest in San Francisco History, for which five other Joe Boys were jailed after injuring 15 people and killing 5 others. In 1988, Lee was an employee at

ESL English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...

when former employee Richard Farley fatally shot seven people and wounded four others in a mass shooting at its headquarters. Lee recalled the tragedy in detail and his role in rescuing coworkers in his first book, ''Chinese Playground: A Memoir''.Notes from the Underworld
Announcement of the book's publication was featured on the front page of ''

The San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'' and as the cover story in ''AsianWeek.'' Shortly after ''Chinese Playground'' was released, the author and Sergeant Dan Foley of the SFPD's Asian Gang Task Force appeared on KPIX's Bay Sunday (

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate) where they discussed the book and the Golden Dragon massacre.

Career

Lee is the author of three books. His first, ''Chinese Playground: A Memoir'' (1999) is a memoir of gang life in 1960s and 1970s San Francisco Chinatown which caused him to be approached and threatened by former gang associates who told him he should not have written the book and made veiled threats against him and his family. He is also the author of ''Born to Lose: Memoirs of a Compulsive Gambler,'' (2005) which details his 40-year gambling addiction and recovery. Lee's latest book is ''Born-Again Buddhist.'' He has written numerous articles for the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' and ''

AsianWeek ''AsianWeek'' was America's first and largest English language print and on-line publication serving Asian Americans. The news organization played an important role nationally and in the San Francisco Bay Area as the “Voice of Asian America”. ...

'' and has been featured on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

, A&E,

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

FOX network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

Radio Television Hong Kong Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econo ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, and in national print publications. Lee is the principal of Bill Lee and Associates, a senior management and technical search firm based in California. He has also counseled serious offenders at the Juvenile Justice Center (YGC) and

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

Juvenile Hall.

Works

* ''Chinese Playground: a Memoir'', 1999 * ''Born to Lose: Memoirs of a Compulsive Gambler'', 2005 * ''Born-Again Buddhist: My Path to Living Mindfully and Compassionately with Mood Disorders'', 2014

References

External links

Facebook Author Page
*
''Inside Chinatown's gangs''
a

article {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Bill 1954 births Living people American computer businesspeople American memoirists American technology company founders American technology chief executives American writers of Chinese descent Former gang members Organized crime memoirists Triad members San Francisco State University alumni Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area