Los Angeles
Approximate Site of Tomlinson's Corral
At least a half dozen captured Chinese were taken to Tomlinson's Corral at the intersection of Temple and New High Streets. The high beams of the wagon shop there served as a make-shift gallows, and all of the Chinese in the hands of the mob were hanged, some after being tortured.
Among those who were killed was Dr. Chien Lee Tong, who had lived in America for more than ten years and who was well-known in the Los Angeles community. Before being hanged, he had been shot through the mouth and robbed.
At a later trial, a witnesses testified that one of the leaders of the lynchings told the crowd that "all of the cheap labor was done away with now."
While this was going on, looters began breaking into empty shops and residences in Chinatown. People were seen hauling away everything from bags of rice to bolts of silk. As much as $20,000 in gold was reported missing by those Chinese who survived the massacre.
Sources: DeFalla, Dorland, Mullen, Zesch
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About this site: The streets where Tomlinson's Corral was located were reorganized when the Hollywood Freeway was built in the late 1940's. I was able to determine the original location of the corral by overlaying an 1880 Sanborn Fire Map of the area with the current street grid. The U.S. District Courthouse, shown above, now sits directly on top of the corral site.