Buried Bones - a historical true crime podcast with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes · Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

The Wash-House Murder

March 25, 2026·1 hr 1 min·2 clips

What happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that.

Buried Bones examines the 1886 murder of Lee Ding Chong, owner of a Chinatown laundromat in Boston. The victim suffered extreme brutal injuries including 12-15 stab wounds, throat laceration severing the spinal cord, and eye stabbings - all suggesting an offender sending a deliberate message. The removal of Ding's queue, a culturally significant Chinese hairstyle, adds another layer of meaning. Paul Holes and Kate Winkler-Dawson analyze the forensic evidence alongside the historical context of racial tension, police payoffs, and possible organized crime protection rackets in late 1800s Boston's Chinese immigrant community.

As heard by us

A ransacked laundromat and a ruled-out knife turn a forgotten killing into careful reconstruction.

A shocking public murder at City Hall becomes less a spectacle than a study in what a room keeps and what it gives away. The episode follows the body, the injuries, and the ransacked laundromat until the scene begins to sort itself into a readable case.

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Why you'd press play

You want a shocking public murder in New York City politics, with a mystery that may have been political or about sex.

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