The Wah Mee massacre was a mass shooting that occurred during the night of February 18–19, 1983, in the Wah Mee gambling club at the Louisa Hotel in Seattle, Washington, United States. Fourteen people were bound, robbed and shot by three gunmen, 22-year-old Kwan Fai "Willie" Mak, 20-year old Keung Kin "Benjamin" Ng and 25-year-old Wai Chiu "Tony" Ng (no relation). Thirteen of the victims died, but 61-year-old Wai Yok Chin, a former U.S. Navy sailor and Pai Gow dealer at the Wah Mee, survived to testify against the three in the separate high-profile trials held between 1983 and 1985.
Mak and Benjamin Ng were both given life imprisonment, after Mak's initial death sentence was overturned in 1988 while Tony Ng received a 30-year sentence, serving 28 years before he was released and deported to his native Hong Kong in 2014. It remains the deadliest mass murder in the history of Washington State.
Background
Louisa Hotel and Wah Mee Club
thumb|right|S King St frontage of Louisa Hotel (2009); Maynard Alley is on the right side of the photograph.
The Louisa Hotel was built in 1909. Paul Woo purchased the building in 1963 for . Both before and after that purchase, it functioned as a single room occupancy hotel (SRO) with street-level spaces for shops and restaurants until 1970, when tightened building codes led to the closure of the SRO portion.
Planning and motive
Regulars at the Wah Mee included many wealthy restaurant owners, several of whom were among the victims. He eventually enlisted the help of Benjamin Ng; both Ng and Mak were born in Guangdong Province, had previously attended Cleveland High School, were members of the Hop Sing Tong, and worked at the same restaurant in Blaine in 1981. Both were also suspects in prior crimes, including the killing of two elderly Chinese women in Beacon Hill on July 16, 1982. Ng was also known to have shot and injured teenager Michael Chinn in 1981, after the victim had confronted Ng about him slashing the tires of his car.
Tony Ng (no relation to Benjamin Ng), who had also attended Cleveland High School with them, was brought into the group as a "last-minute recruit".
After all money had been stolen from the victims, Mak instructed Tony to take the bag and wait near the main entrance; he fled across the alley to the Hop Sing Club to wait for Mak and Benjamin. Four of the dead, 48-year-old John S. Loui, 54-year-old Hung Fat Gee, 52-year-old Henning G. Chinn, and 54-year-old Gim Lun Wong, were employees at the Wah Mee (manager, cook/waiter and doormen respectively). The remaining nine were patrons, identified as 52-year-old restaurateur Moo Min Mar, 47-year-old Jean Bick Chinn, 60-year-old retired postal worker Jack Mar, 68-year-old Kokusai Theater projectionist Dewey Mar, 59-year-old line cook and former U.S. Army sergeant Wing Wong, 60-year-old fisherman and cook Lung Wing Chin, 51-year-old car repair shop owner and part-time employee Chin Lee Law, 47-year-old chef George Mar, and 55-year-old cook and legionnaire of Cathay Post 186 Chong L. Chin. Besides Moo Min Mar and Jean Chinn, who were husband and wife, none of the victims were related. With the exception of Henning Chinn, all victims were members of the Bing Kung Tong. Shortly after his arrest, he confessed that he had "shot them all", a statement he later repudiated. Two men, including Mak's older brother, were accused of destroying evidence of the crime; Mak had borrowed a car from one of the men the night of the massacre.
Police identified Tony Ng as the third suspect and issued a federal warrant for his arrest on March 31, 1983. The Bing Kong Tong offered a reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction. After twenty months in hiding, he was arrested October 4, 1984, in Calgary, Alberta, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, acting on a tip made to Seattle police. At the time, Tony was working as an electronics assembly technician under the alias Jim Wong, living with a roommate who was unaware of his fugitive status; police suspected he had been partially supported by his family.
Trials and sentencing
On February 24, 1983, Mak and Benjamin were charged with thirteen counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of first degree assault. The State was represented by William Downing and Robert Lasnik. On March 22, Judge Frank D. Howard set a preliminary trial date for both Benjamin and Mak for April 20, but they were tried separately because the defense believed Mak would blame Ng. and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the next day. During the sentencing phase, Benjamin's mother testified on his behalf, stating the family had emigrated from Hong Kong in 1975; while still in Hong Kong, Benjamin had been beaten on the head repeatedly with a piece of wood, resulting in brain damage, as corroborated by medical experts.
Jury selection for the trial began on August 9. Initially, Ng's defense claimed he did not shoot anyone, During the trial, Ng's attorney conceded that he had participated in the robbery and was guilty of first-degree murder, but not aggravated first-degree murder; the distinction, had he been convicted of first-degree murder without aggravation, would have made him ineligible for the death penalty and would have raised the possibility of parole. The defense had contended that although Benjamin Ng had participated in planning the robbery, he did not plan to murder the victims to silence potential witnesses.
Willie Mak
On October 6, 1983, Willie Mak was convicted of 13 counts of aggravated first degree murder and one count of first-degree assault and sentenced to death by hanging on October 22. On April 24, 1986, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the verdict and death sentence.
Jury selection for the trial began on September 12. The defense were expected to blame an unnamed individual who wished to gain control over illegal gambling operations in Chinatown. claimed he was directed to do so by Roy Chu, president of the Hop Sing, an allegation which Chu denied. According to Mak's testimony, Benjamin Ng and his companion were independently robbing the patrons and Mak left before any shooting occurred, but he heard "snapping sounds" as he left. During the trial, prosecutors and police used hypnosis to change the testimony of a defense witness.
On November 9, 1994, a King County Superior Court judge denied Mak's bid for a new trial but allowed prosecutors to hold a new sentencing hearing. On February 15, 2002, a King County Superior Court judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for September 2002. On April 29, 2002, a King County Superior Court judge ruled that Mak will not face execution since the 1983 jury wasn't asked to determine how much of a role he had in the crime. Mak was resentenced to life without parole.
Tony Ng
Tony Ng was acquitted on April 19, 1985, of murder, but convicted of 13 counts of first-degree robbery and a single count of assault with a deadly weapon. Each robbery charge brought a minimum sentence of five years, some to be served consecutively. On July 3, 1985, Tony Ng was sentenced to 13 life terms, one for each count of first-degree robbery, which would mean a term of 35 years in total.
The jury selection for Tony Ng's trial was completed on April 4 after four days of proceedings. Tony Ng was represented at his trial by Mark Mestel and John Muenster. At his trial, the defense argued that Ng "had no reason in the world to [participate in the robbery]" and drew a contrast between the "homicidal maniacs" Mak and Benjamin Ng and his client, characterized as quiet, shy, and passive. The prosecution countered by asking why Mak and Benjamin Ng would "drag an unwilling witness into a crime that had as a central facet the elimination of all witnesses".
On September 6, 2006, a parole board met to determine whether Tony Ng should receive parole on his 12th robbery term. If given parole, he would begin serving his 13th term, with the potential to be eligible for parole and freed in 2010. Both former King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng and former Seattle Police Chief Patrick Fitzsimons asked the parole board to deny parole on the 12th count. Relatives of the victims who came to the hearing expressed outrage that they were not made aware of previous parole hearings and that Tony Ng was so close to possible release because of it. Ng was denied parole in 2007, which meant he could not begin serving time on the final count.
In December 2009, the parole of Tony Ng again came before the state parole board; relatives of the victims again spoke before the board, urging against his release. In February 2010, a parole board unanimously decided "now is the time to parole Mr. [Tony] Ng to his final count." On October 24, 2013, Tony Ng was granted parole. Although the relatives of the victims continued to oppose the parole, he was released on October 25, 2013, from state prison directly to the Northwest detention center in Tacoma, into the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings. He was deported to Hong Kong on May 13, 2014.