Part Two – The Gold Bar Murder Case – Shanghai 1947 – “Drag him out the car”

Posted: November 24th, 2015 | No Comments »

(see Part One -  “It was a foreigner who shot me”)

On Tuesday September 2nd a United States Army general court martial convened in Shanghai to try Corporal Thomas Malloy for the murder of Yu Shen-pao on August 1st 1947. Malloy was a member of the Shanghai Detachment Hospital of the US Army Advisory Group in Shanghai at the time of the alleged murder. This, it seems, was the confused and contradictory sequence of events that led to the killing of Yu:

On August 1st (a Friday) Malloy went to a cafe in Shanghai to meet Charles (Charlie) Anderson, a Hong Kong-born Briton, to discuss the plan that he would meet Yu to talk about the opportunity of purchasing the five ten-ounce gold bars in the Chinese man’s possession. Charlie Archer asserted that Malloy was broke and had no money at all and so Charlie went to see if he could set up a prospective sale. Charlie said that Malloy would buy the bars from Yu for US$585 each and they arranged to all meet at 5pm that evening to do the “deal”. Yu then went to get the bars, Malloy to change into civilian clothing and Charlie to rent a car.After that the only people left alive who knew what really happened were Malloy and Archer….

Malloy then told the following story….

At 5pm he and Anderson arrived at Yu’s house in a rented car; Archer introduced Yu to him and Yu and himself sat in the rear seat of the car while Charlie Archer drove.

Charlie drove out along the Great Western Road (now Yan’an Road) towards the Columbia Country Club on Columbia Road (now Panyu Road). Malloy then claimed that just after the Country Club Charlie stopped the car, turned in his seat, pointed a gun at Yu and demanded the gold bars. Yu refused and so Charlie Archer shot him and then clubbed him on the head with the gun butt before driving on, further out of the city. He stopped in a remote and quiet area, told Malloy to get Yu out of the car. Malloy, claiming to be shocked and scared of Archer, complied and dragged Yu out of the back seat of the car by his feet and dumped him by the side of the road leaving him to die. The two men then drove back to Shanghai to Archer’s residence, washed their clothes of blood and separated.

Malloy then told the court martial that Archer attempted to sell the gold bars in Shanghai. The next day Malloy saw Archer who gave him US$150 – not as part of the proceeds of the sale of the gold but as recompense for a former debt. Malloy claimed that only Archer had had a gun and that he was afraid of the Englishman. He had asked Archer for the gun and Archer had given it to him, now without any bullets, to be disposed off. Malloy had hidden it behind some books on a bookcase in the army hospital where he worked.

But Archer had a different version of events….

Charlie said he decided to go for a drive on the outskirts of Shanghai that evening of August 1st and was cruising along when he heard a shot and stopped the car to see what was happening. He said that Malloy appeared, waving a gun at him so he stopped. Then he heard the sound of “blows” and Malloy putting Yu into Archer’s car. Malloy ordered him to drive on, then to stop and drag Yu’s body from the car. That Malloy then ordered him at gunpoint to drive back to Malloy’s car and then both went, in their separate cars, to Archer’s house so he could clean up.

Which version was correct? Both had flaws…what were the chances of Archer coming across the man he knew as Malloy at just that place at just that time; what was the chance that Archer would hand the gun to Malloy so readily? Why would Archer set up a meeting for Malloy to buy the gold bars when he knew Malloy was stone cold broke? Did Malloy have a car that night as well as Archer?

Either way Yu was found by some Chinese farmers who claimed that he told them he had been attacked by a “foreigner” and an American and that the “foreigner” was called Charlie.

The court adjourned…needing more evidence….

The Columbia Country Club on Columbia Road in 1939

 

---