Release weighed for convict in 1983 Seattle massacre

Lin Yee Wong listened as the interpreter read a letter, handwritten in Chinese, that detailed memories of her husband, who was slain more than 26 years ago in the worst mass killing in Seattle’s history.

Gim Lun Wong was among 13 people hogtied, robbed and fatally shot by three men at the Wah Mee social club in the Chinatown district on Feb. 19, 1983. A 14th victim survived.

FOR THE RECORD:
Seattle massacre: An article in Monday’s Section A, about an upcoming parole hearing for a man convicted of robbery and assault at a Seattle social club during a 1983 attack in which 13 were killed, was credited to McClatchy Newspapers. It should have been credited to the Seattle Times. Two codefendants are serving life sentences without possibility of parole. —

In the years since, Lin Yee Wong said, she has been able to conceal her grief -- until now, with prison time possibly nearing an end for one of those convicted in her husband’s killing.

“I want to cry, but I’m all out of tears,” the interpreter read from the widow’s letter. “Sadness that has been hidden in me has all of a sudden come up.”

The state’s parole board is weighing whether to let Wai-Chiu “Tony” Ng begin serving the final stage of his prison sentence, which would mean he could be released as early as 2014.

But the board also has the leeway to require Ng to spend up to life in prison.

Inside a meeting room at the Beacon Hill Library, Lin Yee Wong, other relatives of the victims and community members recently were offered a chance to tell board members how they felt about Ng possibly moving closer to freedom.

He was convicted of 13 counts of first-degree robbery and one count of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison apiece for most of the robbery counts.

Ng was ordered to serve time for some of the counts concurrently and some consecutively.

Co-defendants Kwan Fai “Willie” Mak and Benjamin Ng (no relation to Tony Ng) were convicted of multiple counts of murder and are serving life sentences without possibility of parole.

Doris Wong-Estridge, whose father’s third cousin was killed in the massacre, said Ng should spend the rest of his life in prison.

“What could be more heinous than the slaughter of 13 people?” she asked the board members. “Tony made his choice.”

Wong-Estridge said “the only kindness” that Ng and the others showed her relative was killing him first, sparing him from witnessing his friends being murdered.

A state Department of Corrections spokesman said that since his conviction, Ng has been in trouble with prison staff only once, for possession of a weapon in 1995. He is expected to speak to board members Jan. 13 at the McNeil Island Corrections Center, where he is imprisoned.