Chapter 3

Eddy now had a bodyguard! He knew about the off-duty deputy who followed him everywhere—he couldn't even visit the outhouse without having his bodyguard check it first! Eddy was amused, at first, but the whole thing was kind of ridiculous. The bodyguard tried to stay out of the way and be inconspicuous, but did you ever see an amateur TRY to be inconspicuous? Everybody in Sacramento knew that Eddy had a bodyguard and who it was, but almost everybody approved and cooperated. The few who didn't like the idea of Eddy being protected didn't dare show themselves, so their opinions didn't count.

However, Eddy had another, much more effective and efficient, bodyguard that he didn't know about. Mr. Wang Fu knew how to protect the interests of Chinatown (that's how he got to be the most important and respected resident), so he assigned a detail of his most trusted Chinese bodyguards to look after Eddy. These men knew how to melt into the crowd and look unimportant, yet how to stay close enough to Eddy to foil any assassination attempts.

As it turned out, on two occasions, a patrolling deputy marshal found the body of a dead Chinese man of uncertain, but young, age lying in an alley somewhere in downtown Sacramento. On both occasions, the victim had been killed by the expert application of a garotte. Upon inquiry, the Chinese community informed the investigators that these two individuals were strangers to Sacramento and no one knew anything about them. However, privately, Mr. Wang marked two more of the assassins from the San Francisco gang off his list.

This was a rather quiet three weeks in the annals of the Sacramento Marshal's office. Even the usual White troublemakers appeared to be walking on eggs for fear of being caught in a cross-fire. Of course, it couldn't last!

Somebody decided to take advantage of the situation by robbing one of the more prosperous banks in town. A certain Mr. Butch Udall thought that he and a few of his closest friends (well, the only two other people in town who were stupid enough to listen to his wild schemes) decided to relieve The Market Street Bank and Trust Co. of some of its assets late one night.

The plan was to kidnap the bank's owner and force him to open the vault for them late at night when there would be nobody around to see them having fun. Thus, Mr. Edward P. Smith was kidnapped by the Butch Udall gang one night after midnight. This was easily done, since Mr. Smith and his wife maintained separate bedrooms, as did most upper class and right-thinking married couples of the time (if they could afford the expense of the extra bedroom). Unfortunately, for the Butch Udall gang, Mrs. Upton, the housekeeper, was making a visit to the outhouse at the time of the kidnapping and saw them leaving the premises. She immediately woke the stable boy and sent him to alert the Marshal's office.

Sam Weatherly was working the desk that night, so he received the alert. Sam sent Tom Watson back to the Smith house with the stable boy to see what he could learn there and sent Joe Butterworth to fetch the off-duty deputies, while he went to fetch Eddy. They all met at the jail for Eddy's orders.

Eddy heard the reports of his deputies and correctly surmised the plans of the Udall gang. Eddy ordered a cancellation of the rest of the night's routine and had his six men and himself approach from different directions, but converge on Smith's bank. His plan was to have some men in position at the bank before the robbers arrived and to have others come in behind them. Eddy wanted to surround the would-be bank robbers and cower them into submission with his superior numbers. He hoped that would keep Mr. Smith from being hurt.

The bank was located on the corner of Market Street and Second Avenue, with an alley that ran behind the bank building for the length of the block. The alley was the most logical route for the robbers to follow, since it represented the shortest path from Smith's house to the bank. Since the robbers were last seen on foot, it was assumed that they would walk from the Smith house to the bank, and they would be in no great hurry. This gave time for 3 of Eddy's people to get into position on Second Avenue and wait for the robbers to walk down the alley. The other 3 deputies would follow them down the alley, once they were safely on their way. Eddy was with the deputies on Second Avenue.

Mr. Smith was not having an easy time of it. He was being buffeted on all sides by short punches as the group walked toward the bank and there was some loud talking by everybody. Butch was carrying a large sack which he hoped to fill with money, and his two henchmen were carrying cudgels which they were using to poke Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith was the stereotypical successful businessman of the era: he was greatly overweight and obviously uncomfortable at being forced to WALK for more than 2 miles. Needless to say, Mr. Smith was very unhappy, both from his physical discomfort at having to walk, and from his mental discomfort at having his money stolen. The whole affair was totally outrageous!

Eddy waited until Butch's group reached the back door of the bank; he stepped out far enough to be seen and said in his best Marshal's voice, "I'm the Marshal of Sacramento. You men are under arrest for kidnapping an' for attempted bank robbery. Surrender now an' you will not git hurt."

Butch Udall responded with, "You can't arrest us, Marshal. We're three to your one. We'll beat the shit out of you an' still rob the bank."

Just as Butch started to take a menacing step toward Eddy, the six deputies stepped out of the shadows, and Eddy said, "You can't count worth a damn, you idiot! There's seven of us an' we're armed with shotguns. Now, give up an' you won't git hurt."

Butch whined, "You better let us go. If you don't, we'll beat this here bank man 'til every one of his bones is busted!"

"The first what raises his cudgel gits a load of buckshot in his gut. I'll be the one shooting an' you know that the shot won't spread much at this range. You know my reputation as a dead shot with my shotgun; I ain't gonna miss. You doubt it, jus' try me!"

"OK! OK, Marshal. Point that thin' somewheres else. We surrender! Don't do nothing rash!"

At that statement, Edward P. Smith jerked a cudgel away from one of the henchmen and bopped all three of his captors smartly on the head! All three fell to the ground, unconscious.

Eddy frowned and said, "Mr. Smith, I wish you hadn't gone an' done that. Now we gotta carry 'em to jail, 'stead of them walking on their own."

"I'm sorry, Marshal Johnson, I must have lost my head! They jus' poked me with them damn cudgels too fuckin' much this evenin'."

"That's OK, Mr. Smith. We'll manage. Kin you git home by yourself, or do you need help?"

"No, I think that I've walked 'bout all I kin manage this night. Please use this dime to send somebody for my stable boy to bring my carriage around. I'll jus' sit here 'til he shows up."

"I'll do that, Mr. Smith. We'll now bid you a good night." Eddy signaled his men and they dragged the thugs to jail. Sam was stuck with the paperwork that night; everybody else went to bed, except for Eddy's bodyguard.

Meanwhile, the Chinese assassins were almost literally tearing their hair trying to figure out how Eddy could be so lucky. He had escaped three assassination attempts and killed three of the best assassins in San Francisco. This man's luck could not go on forever! They decided that they were being too subtle; this time they would go all out!

They decided to teach an unforgettable lesson to the authorities in Sacramento about the futility of trying to resist the powerful forces of the Ying Chu crime organization in San Francisco. When they got through with Eddy and his family, nobody would ever dare resist them, again!

Their plan was to invade Eddy's house at night after everyone was asleep and kill every adult in the house by the most obscene and gruesome torture they could devise. Any children (they knew of one child), would have its arms and legs cut off, but care would be taken not to kill it. This would serve as an object lesson as long as the child lived!