‘Blood streaming down the concubine’s face’: the Hong Kong murder case that had thousands swarming court, and ended with wife’s execution
- ‘The sensational West Point chopper affair’, the Post called the killing of man’s mother, concubine and son. Charged with two of the murders was his second wife
- Crowds swarmed around the court as it heard how the man’s daughter-in-law had witnessed the bloody attack. Found guilty, the wife was executed weeks later
“A crowd estimated at over 2,000 swarmed around the Central Magistrate yesterday when a charge of murder against a 31-year-old married woman, Kwan Lai-chun, was heard,” reported the South China Morning Post on June 4, 1940.
“So dense was the crowd that it became necessary to call out the Emergency Unit to clear the compound and the streets approaching the Court [following] the sensational West Point chopper affair on the night of May 12, when two women and a boy died as a result of injuries.
“Kwan was charged with the murder of Lam Lin-kwai, one of the women killed in the incident.
“Mr. J. P. Murphy said that the accused was the tin-fong wife [second wife under Chinese customary law] of Chu Chuck, and lived with him at 33, See Wong Terrace, West Point. ‘In the same place lived Chu’s mother, his concubine, his two children by the concubine and his daughter-in-law […] As a result of the events […] Chu’s mother, his concubine and his son are dead,’ said Mr. Murphy.
“‘On the night of May 12, Chu left the house at 7.45 p.m. His daughter-in-law went to bed at 8 p.m [and] at 10 p.m, the daughter-in-law […] saw the accused attacking the concubine with a chopper.’