Chinese-American activist, husband killed

[achtungbaby]

NEW YORK - A Chinese-American activist who tapped new sources of money and votes for New York Republicans was found bound with duct tape and suffocated along with her husband in their apartment, officials said.

Josephine Lin, 65, and her husband Shan Lin, 70, were discovered Tuesday night in their Brooklyn apartment, which Josephine Lin also used as an office. The apartment did not appear to have been broken into or ransacked, police said.

The couple, devout Christians who emigrated from Taiwan in the 1970s, had been suffocated with plastic bags and strangled, according to the medical examiner's office. Shan Lin was found with duct tape over his nose and mouth.

The bags had been taped over the heads of the victims, who were lying on the floor in the kitchen and living room, police said.

The apartment was jumbled with the Lins' possessions and it was not immediately known if anything had been taken.

full story (http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/5065307.htm)

[SunWuKong]

this has "triad" written all over it...

[achtungbaby]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Jan 30 2003, 11:26 AM
this has "triad" written all over it...
Because of the way they were executed?

[rakovlam]

There's... only like... 8 or 12 Chinese republicans left in America?

[Chris]

I am suspecting triad as well.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by achtungbaby@Jan 30 2003, 02:29 PM
Because of the way they were executed?
yeah

[achtungbaby]

Why would the Triad execute them though, just cuz they were Republicans?!? :ph34r:

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by achtungbaby@Jan 30 2003, 03:19 PM
Why would the Triad execute them though, just cuz they were Republicans?!? :ph34r:
who knows. they probably either had some shady dealings, or the triad wanted something from them and they resisted, etc etc etc. i mean they had political power, they lived in NYC, they were very involved in the chinese community there, and now they're found murdered by suffocation with plastic bags. more likely than not it's the triad.

[achtungbaby]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Jan 30 2003, 12:31 PM
who knows. they probably either had some shady dealings, or the triad wanted something from them and they resisted, etc etc etc. i mean they had political power, they lived in NYC, they were very involved in the chinese community there, and now they're found murdered by suffocation with plastic bags. more likely than not it's the triad.
Maybe it was a bunch of pissed off Democrats:P

[Andrew]

Maybe it was someone who wanted it to look like a Triad murder?

[achtungbaby]

Originally posted by Andrew@Jan 30 2003, 12:44 PM
Maybe it was someone who wanted it to look like a Triad murder?
A Democrat, perhaps :lol:

[Andrew]

Or maybe it was someone who wanted it to look like a Democrat did it? <_<

Anyway, I'm a Democrat and I find this very sad.

[loserbutt]

or maybe just some random crook who wanted some money for crack

[eyespooge]

what does their political stance have anything to do with anything?

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by eyespooge@Jan 30 2003, 04:24 PM
what does their political stance have anything to do with anything?
if it was the triad, i doubt their political stance had anything to do with it. but they did have political influence so it's possible that the triad wanted something from them. who knows. i just think the murder looks like an act of the triad.

[achtungbaby]

Originally posted by Andrew@Jan 30 2003, 12:55 PM
Or maybe it was someone who wanted it to look like a Democrat did it? <_<

I was joking. Bad joke.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

yeah, the triads wouldn't give three damns whether she supported or opposed, say, rent control reform or a relaxation of rules about firing civil service employees ... they just wanted to intimidate someone in the government who can steer money (e.g. government contracts) towards them and steer police away from them.

Rest in Peace.

[Green_Circle]

There's a new book entitled 'Chinatown Gangs' that detailed an account of AA activists who were trying to get rid of the tour buses that brought bunches of white tourists thru NYC Chinatown. The activists aborted after warning came down that the triads were involved or had a financial stake in the tourism buses.

:unsure:

[DaBestSpooner]

Originally posted by achtungbaby@Jan 30 2003, 03:19 PM
Why would the Triad execute them though, just cuz they were Republicans?!? :ph34r:
If you're wealthy and chinese in ny, and have your own business, you have triad connections. The Hip Sing, On Leung business associations and forgot what the third one is called, are the triad.

[DaBestSpooner]

Originally posted by rakovlam@Jan 30 2003, 03:04 PM
There's... only like... 8 or 12 Chinese republicans left in America?
Chinese people usually vote republican because of their economic views. We dont believe in handouts

[eyespooge]

Originally posted by DaBestSpooner@Jan 30 2003, 02:10 PM
Chinese people usually vote republican because of their economic views. We dont believe in handouts
yeah, handouts are for losers, not newly immigrated people who don't speak the language, don't know the culture, and face institutionalized appearance/language/cultural prejudice at every executive, judicial, and legislative branch of the government...

oh wait, i think that stinging sensation on my leg... it's... could it be... sarcasm? :Þ

[SunWuKong]

to the best of my knowledge, most immigrants do not take government money. do i think they need it? yeah probably. personally i think many would refuse it.

[achtungbaby]

Cops Eye Finances as Motive

By Rocco Parascandola
NEWSDA STAFF WRITER

January 31, 2003


Detectives investigating the murder of a prominent couple inside their Brooklyn high-rise are now focusing on whether the pair was killed over finances, police sources said yesterday.

Shan Lin, 70, and his wife, Josephine, 65, an insurance sales agent, were found by their son, Samuel Lin, inside their apartment Tuesday night.

The couple - highly regarded and influential in the Asian-American community and known as big fund-raisers for Gov. George Pataki, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and ex-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato - were strangled, their heads covered in plastic.

The son, who lives in the same building, was no longer being questioned yesterday but has not been ruled out as a suspect.

For now, though, detectives are focusing on the Lindsay Park apartments - a seven-building Mitchell Lama complex - where the Lins lived.

Members of the complex's board will be interviewed, sources said, but detectives also are taking a look at the Boon Church of Overseas Chinese Mission, which the Lins helped found 17 years ago. Sources said the Lins have made several large donations to the church, the origins of which detectives want to determine.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday said whoever killed the Lins did not take $1,000 that was inside what appeared to be a hidden drawer in a cabinet.

The apartment where the Lins were killed served as their business office. Josephine Lin is a retired insurance agent who may have still been selling policies from her home. Her husband wrote for religious publications, and both he and his wife were well-liked in their complex, where they helped other immigrants with language or immigration problems and where they regularly organized a Lunar New Year party.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, said Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), who knew the Lins. He said the murders have stunned the Asian-American community. "The community is definitely suffering this loss," he said.

[deez nuts]

The husband was my mom's junior high school teacher in Taiwan. His mother was my mom's high school teacher. They've bumped into each other a few times in Chinatown when we immigrated here.

[Rogmok]

F/u article from NY times

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/01/nyregion/01DOUB.html

Co-op Where 2 Were Slain Had Been Audited for Bias
By DIANE CARDWELL


Brooklyn co-op complex where an Asian-American couple were found murdered on Tuesday was the subject of an official audit in 2001 into complaints about how the much-coveted apartments in the complex were awarded to applicants.

The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development conducted the audit at the Lindsay Park complex after receiving complaints that Asian applicants were getting preferential treatment, according to the building's managing agent.

After the audit, the agency recommended changes to the application process, among them a directive that a stock certificate for shares in the co-op be issued only to people whose names had appeared on the original waiting lists, a spokeswoman for the agency said. The change was intended to eliminate the possibility of putting place-holder names on the waiting lists, and then using the spots for others.

Although officials would not say whether the charges that led to the audit had centered on Josephine Lin, 66, whose bound, smothered body was found Tuesday night along with that of her husband, Shan, 70, she was considered a main contact for Asians in the complex.

At her death, said Jay Silverberg, the managing agent for the complex, Ms. Lin sat on a committee that screened thousands of applicants, some of them on the waiting lists for a decade.

Detectives investigating the killings are likely to review the audit's findings to determine whether it touched on the Lins because one theory in the case focuses on accusations that Ms. Lin took payments to help prospective shareholders get apartments, a police official said. Several people have told the police that the Lins took such payments, and investigators have theorized that the couple may have been killed by someone who made a payment and was unhappy with the outcome.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly declined to discuss possible motives or suspects yesterday. "All I can tell you is forensic evidence is being analyzed and the investigation is going forward aggressively," he said.

The apartments are subsidized under the Mitchell Lama Housing Program, a state program for middle-income residents. Given the program's complex rules, housing experts said it would have been difficult for any one person to secure an apartment for someone not already on the waiting lists, which at Lindsay Park were set by lottery and then closed. Carol Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said the role of the co-op in screening applicants was limited to making sure they met certain credit and income requirements.

Still, there had been complaints about Ms. Lin over the years, particularly from black and Latino residents of Lindsay Park, that Asians whose names had never appeared on the lists were getting apartments ahead of applicants, according to police officials and residents.

One Chinese-speaking detective and two Chinese-speaking police officers have been assigned to the investigation into the murders because tips were being called in to the Chinese-language newspaper Sing Tao, the police said. The department has arranged for a special phone line that will be answered by the Chinese-speaking detective and officers, the police said.