Michael Chen

Michael Chen was a Chinese-born American gangster who was leader of the notorious the Flying Dragons gang from the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Michael Chen, a Cantonese, was born in the Canton region of China in 1950. During this period of time in Hong Kong, there was tension and conflict between the communists and the British government along with corruption in the Hong Kong police force. This, along with other economic and social problems, led Chen's father to immigrate to the United States when Chen's mother was still pregnant. When he was 13 years old, in 1963 he emigrated to the New York City from Hong Kong, with his mother and sister, where they joined his father, who worked as a taxi driver. Chen worked as a delivery boy for a Chinese restaurant in Upper Manhattan while attending Seward Park High School near Chinatown. He graduated from high school in 1968, and briefly attended college.

Chen's criminal career began in the mid-1970s and not long after he became the leader ('Dragon Head') of the Flying Dragons. He was arrested in Queens for homicide in 1976, but the charges were later dismissed. The following year, he was indicted in the slayings of two members of the rival Ghost Shadows during a brazen shoot-out in the crowded Pagoda Theater on East Broadway in Manhattan's Chinatown. However, he was acquitted of these crimes at trial. In a separate incident, he was arrested while carrying 12-gauge shotgun, and had 150 rounds of ammunition hidden in the ceiling of his apartment.

In 1976, Chen conspired with Nicky Louie of the Ghost Shadows and Paul Ma of the White Eagles, along with the Tongs, to fake a peace between themselves so that they would be able to win a Federal Grant from the government who had, that same year, promised the youth gangs of Harlem a substantial amount of money to reform the children.The deal, however, fell apart due to the deep animosity between the gang leaders, opposition from the Tongs and reluctance from the lower members of the gangs led the peace process to unravel. The truce lasted one month until September 10, 1976, when an attack left five people injured.

In 1983, Chen ordered the murder of Chi-ho Lau, who had convinced three members of the Flying Dragons to quit the gang. The three members changed their minds and wanted to return to the gang, but Chen would only let them return if they took out a contract on him. On March 5, 1983, Lau was murdered by Tat Li at the Riviera Diner on Astor Place after being shot three times in the back.

Chen was nicknamed "The Scientist" because of his patience, cool, calm demeanor and patient ways. He had a reputation for being polite and never seemed outrageous or rude; he did not drink, smoke, or gamble, and he was generous toward others. He did, however, have a weakness for women. He was considered to be extremely good to his parents and affectionate toward his grandmother. He owned three expensive sports cars and dressed only in designer clothes. Chen thought of himself as a businessman and had invested in nightclubs in a Flushing, Queens, a meat market and in a Manhattan paper supply house. Before his death, he allegedly told his friends he was contemplating completely disassociating himself from the gangland of Chinatown and conducting himself as a legitimate businessperson.

On March 13, 1983, Chen was woken in the middle of the night by a phone call, left his apartment (which was above the Hip Sing Tong Credit Union), and went to a coffee shop adjacent to the credit union. There, he was shot with a handgun fourteen times - four of which went through his eyes. The NYPD Spokesman Sgt. Edwin LeSchack identified Chen's body, which was found at 12:30 pm by an officer of the Hip Sing Association.

Although Michael Chen's murder has never been solved, initial speculation by police Captain Robert Larkin was that it was a revenge killing by the Freemasons Gang who accused the Flying Dragons of killing three of their members in a restaurant in Chinatown the previous December.However, after conducting further investigation, police theorized that the killing was carried out by people whom Chen knew, as he would not have gotten out of bed so late in the night to meet strangers.

In the early 1980s, there was a fight for the control of the Flying Dragons, with Chen holding the position that the gang should stick to traditional racketeering with the crimes of extortion and gambling. On the other side was Chen's underlying Johnny "Machine Gun" Eng. Eng wanted to expand into more lucrative crimes such as heroin trafficking. This led to division. A deeper investigation uncovered that Chen's murder was a power grab by Johnny Eng to take full control of the Flying Dragons. It was also thought that since the Flying Dragons were associated with the Hip Sing Tong and that the shooting happened across the street, that the assassination could not have occurred without the blessing of the leader of the Hip Sing Tong, Benny Ong. He was considered the Godfather of Chinatown and therefore must have sanctioned the murder. Chen's death was a clear message that there was new leadership and that Johnny Eng was now the undisputed leader of the Flying Dragons.

On May 8, 1998, Fun Biu Tok was extradited from Los Angeles to New York City to stand trial for Michael Chen's murder. At the time, Fun Biu Tok was a Lieutenant in the Flying Dragons and was instructed to kill Michael Chen by two other gangsters. The reason for the killing was believed to be that the Chen was suspected of skimming money from the gang's receipts.