THE CHINATOWN TRUNK MYSTERY Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-Century New York City

Hardback. In the summer of 1909, the gruesome murder of 19yr. old Elsie Sigel sent shock waves through New York City and the nation at large. The young woman's strangled body was discovered inside a trunk in the midtown Manhattan apartment of her reputed former Sunday school student and lover, a Chinese named Leon Ling. The author offers a snapshot of social and sexual relations between Chinese and non-Chinese populations in turn-of-the-century New York City, and contends Elsie Sigel's murder was more than a notorious crime. It was a clear signal that attempts to maintain geographical and social boundaries between the city's Chinese male and white female population had failed. When police discovered Elsie Sigel and Leon Ling's love letters, giving rise to the theory that Leon Ling killed his lover in a fit of jealous rate, this idea became even more embedded in the public consciousness. New Yorkers condemned the work of Chinese missions and eagerly participated in the massive national and international manhunt to locate the vanished Leon Ling. Illus., + Maps and Figures, Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 298pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true-crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in F. dw.