"""Fong """"Little Pete"""" Ching (second from right) was the king of Chinatown in 1897. As leader of the Sam Yup Tong, the 32-year-old was rumored to have killed 50 men, and was worth more than $150,000 - a fortune in those days - in gains from his empire built on prostitution, gambling and opium. Little Pete never went anywhere without a bodyguard, plus two German shepherds, two pistols, a chain-mail armor vest, and a hat reinforced with metal to function as a helmet. But on Jan. 23, Little Pete let down his guard. He was getting the finishing touches on a shave at the Wong Lung barbershop at 819 Washington St. when two gunmen burst in and held him down. They shoved a .45-caliber revolver under the chain mail and pumped five bullets into his spine, then two more into his head.  By the time the police came, The Chronicle wrote, """"Little Pete's face, clean shaven, powder-marked and bloody, was setting into the fixed stare that marks death."""" Nobody was ever convicted."""
{}