Gan Fong Chin and the 1978 Warwick Restaurant Murders
Background
Gan Fong Chin was a Chinese-born cook who had worked at Lee’s Cathay Terrace, a Chinese restaurant on Post Road in Warwick, Rhode Island. Accounts later described him as harboring paranoid delusions about co-workers prior to the attack.
The Attack: June 17, 1978
On June 17, 1978, Chin entered Lee’s Cathay Terrace carrying a rifle concealed in a gift-wrapped box and opened fire on co-workers inside the restaurant. Four people were shot to death at the scene; another person suffered a fatal heart attack amid the chaos as the shooting began. Contemporary reporting identified the massacre location as the Cathay Terrace in Warwick.
Victims
- Dorothy Johnston, 38 — fatally shot at Lee’s Cathay Terrace, Warwick, Rhode Island, June 17, 1978.
- John O’Dell, 40 — fatally shot at Lee’s Cathay Terrace, Warwick, Rhode Island, June 17, 1978.
- Robert Lee, 51 — fatally shot at Lee’s Cathay Terrace, Warwick, Rhode Island, June 17, 1978. (Lee was part of the family that operated the restaurant.)
- Danny Linn — fatally shot at Lee’s Cathay Terrace, Warwick, Rhode Island, June 17, 1978.
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Account
