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Chinese Fugitive Wanted For Murder

This broadside seeks the arrest of Ah Fook, alias Ah Sling, who was accused of a murder on the Zuck Ranch in Gilroy, California in 1904.

On May 4, 1904, the San Francisco Examiner ran the following story:

CHINESE DISAGREE AND ONE IS KILLED

Slayer of Gilroy Mongolian Is Still at Large.

SAN JOSE, May 12. Because Chin Yong, a Chinese employed on the James Zuch ranch, four miles from Gilroy, refused to perform sthall duties about the cabin where he and Ah Fook lived, his body, hacked in a ghastly manner, is at the morgue here. Ah Fook is nowhere to be found.

The murder is supposed to have taken place last Monday, when Ah Fook disappeared. Late yesterday afternoon Paul Zuch, a son of the proprietor, found the body. A bloody ax lay near the body and there was evidence of a struggle.

An inquest was held this afternoon and a verdict of homicide rendered. Deputy Sheriffs are in search of Ah Fook. SUAVE,  

On June 22, 1910, the trial was reported by the Free Lance as follows:

Chinese Murderer Placed on Trial
Special to the Free Lance.

SAN JOSE, June 22. — Ah Fook, the laborer on the Zuck ranch, near Gilroy, who is on trial for the murder of a fellow workman, Chin Hong, on May 9th, 1904, sat during the session of the court Tuesday, showing a face that indicated only the slightest interest in the scene of which he is the central figure.

Witnesses have told of the finding of the body in the Chinaman's cabin and of the subsequent disappearance of the dead man's only companion. Tuesday, Chin Que and Chin Hong, coolies in the employ of the Braslan Co., testified that they had seen Ah Fook in Coyote the morning following the murder, and he had told them that he had quit his job and was looking for work. After a brief conversation, the two witnesses said they passed on, leaving Ah Fook on the steps of a grocery store at Coyote. They did not know which way he went.

Jack White, Constable of Gilroy township, identified the defendant as the man he had seen at the Zuck ranch and said that the description of the supposed murderer of Chin Hong had only partially been furnished by him. When the description sent out by the Sheriff at the time of the killing was introduced in evidence, it failed to tally with the measurements taken at the county jail when Ah Fook was taken into custody by White last September.

The defendant himself was the only witness called in his behalf. He told the jury, through means of an interpreter, that he never was in Gilroy and knows nothing of the affair except what he has learned since his arrest.

The Pajaronian of June 30, 1910 reported the conviction as follows:

Gilroy Chinese Guilty of Murder

San Jose, June 23. — After three hours of deliberation, a jury today found Ah Fook, a Gilroy Chinese, guilty of murder in the second degree. The verdict is said to have been a compromise. Ah Fook killed a fellow countryman named Chin Hong on the Zuck ranch at Gilroy six years ago and fled. An ax had been used on the body of the victim, and it was horribly mutilated. There was no direct evidence against the Chinese murderer, and he set forth the defense that he had never worked on the Zuck ranch and that the officers who arrested him were in error as to his identity. It is believed by the officers that Fook's friends have kept him in seclusion for practically six years here and in San Francisco.

Robert J. Langford was sheriff of Santa Clara County from about 1898 to about 1901 and from 1907 to 1919.

The full transcription reads as  follows:

No. 81.

Wanted for Murder

Ah Fook, alias Ah Sling, age about 35, weight about 150 pounds, height about 5 feet 10 or 11 inches Long fleshy face, slightly pock-marked, mostly around chin. Wears queue around head. Quarrelsome disposition; op- posed to use of opium. Member of 'See Yep Society. Murdered Chin Hung with an ax on the ranch of J. Zuck, HT 4 miles from Gilroy, on the night of May 9th. Arrest and wire all information to

ROBERT J. LANGFORD,

Sheriff of Santa Clara County, Cal.