The Ghost Shadows or GSS () was a
Chinese American
Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...
street gang that was prominent in New York City's
Chinatown
Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
from the early 1970s to the mid 1990s.
History
Formed in 1971 by immigrants from
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
and
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
, the gang was affiliated with the
On Leong Tong. They adopted the colors black and white as their clothing to match the name of the set. Throughout the 1980s, the gang was often engaged in bloody turf wars with other Chinatown gangs such as the older
Flying Dragons, affiliated with
Hip Sing Tong and the Division Street Boys affiliated with Tung On Association.
Their activities included
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...
,
kidnapping
Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...
,
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
,
racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...
,
drug trafficking
A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...
and
illegal gambling. The Ghost Shadows' influence was widespread, having links to Chinatowns in other cities, as well as links to Sicilian-American Mafia families. The organization is defunct due to Federal RICO crackdowns during the 1990s.
Members
Wing Yeung Chan
Wing Yeung Chan (born Jan 6, 1945) was president of On Leong Tong and for a decade the leader of the Ghost Shadows. Charged with murder and racketeering, he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
Applehead
Shui Ping Wu (born 1956), also known as Applehead (pronounced Apo with silent-L), was one of the original founders of Ghost Shadows and a leader of breakaway factions of Ghost Shadows
["Youth gang leader isn't smiling anymore" ]
1978, Peter Arnett, AP Bayard Boys during the late 1970s, up to his indictments on
RICO
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
RICO was ...
statutes in the mid-1980s.
In 1977, Wu was charged with four others for extorting money from a restaurant employee in Montgomery County, MD. He pled guilty in a re-trial in 1983, suspending the final few years of his original 5 year sentence.
China Mac
Raymond Yu (born 1981), a rapper known professionally as China Mac, joined the Ghost Shadows gang at age 12. He was born in Brooklyn to Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong, and lived in a group home from age 8. As a gang member he says he dealt drugs, committed robberies, and served as a lookout at gambling houses. He served 3 years in jail for his gang crimes starting in 2000 at age 18. In 2003, shortly after release, he shot another rapper in an altercation and was imprisoned for 11 years.
Yu later built a career as an entertainer. He became an activist against anti-Asian racism, notably in response to the 2020
COVID-19 pandemic racist incidents in the U.S.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost Shadows
Chinese-American organized crime groups
Chinese-American culture in New York City
Former gangs in New York City
Street gangs
Triad groups