What's up, Chicago? I'm Erin Allen, and this is Curious City. In our last episode, we heard

about a little-known gang from the 1950s, the butcher smock mob. These were definitely criminals

who may have had some ties to the larger organized crime network of that era. But you probably

never heard of them because they weren't actually a big thing.

Today, we're going to bring you the story of a couple other Chicago gangs who loomed large

100 years ago, but also flew under the radar.

These were two violent gangs that killed each other over territory, drugs, and gambling.

Reporter gangs that killed each other over territory, drugs, and gambling. Reporter Monica Eng brings us the story of these rival gangs.

They weren't Italian. They weren't Irish. No, these were Chicago's Chinese gangs, also known as Tongs. Never heard of them? Well,

that's kind of how they wanted it. Warfare between the two Tong gangs was an insulated,

secretive affair. This is Richard Lindbergh. He wrote a big, fat book called Gangland Chicago,

and it's got extensive chapters on the history

of Irish and Italian gangs.

But on Chicago's Chinese gangs, you only get a few pages.

Asian crime in Chicago is not well documented, simply because it was conducted under the

veil of secrecy for most of its history.

But I decided to try and crack this veil of secrecy.

To answer a question, Curious City got from a listener who asked,

how did these gangs get started and what happened to him?

It turns out the answers actually reveal a lot about a mysterious 1936 murder in my own family,

and how many Chinese businessmen were forced to deal with the gangs or face the consequences.

But more about that later.

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