Lee Doon

Lee Doon was convicted of the murder of 34-year-old Sing Lee and sentenced to death.

He battered and strangled him to death at 231 Crookes, Sheffield on 9 September 1922 and put him in a trunk which he buried in the cellar.

Lee Doon had come to England from China in 1920. In August 1922 he went to work for Sing Lee at his laundry at 231 Crookes. Lee Doon was also known as Leong Lun.

Sing Lee had owned a number of laundry’s in Sheffield and other places. His English name was Sing Lee, but his Chinese name was Lee Won Ye.

On the night of Saturday 29 September 1922, Sing Lee, Lee Doon, and a young woman who helped in the shop had supper together about 8pm.

After supper the woman left, leaving Lee Doon and Sing Lee together.

When she returned the following morning, as she had arranged with Sing Lee to open the shop, she found only Lee Doon there and she asked him where Sing Lee was and Lee Doon told her that he had gone away.

Seh said that she asked whether Sing Lee had gone to Liverpool and Lee Doon replied:

Again on Monday she asked Lee Doon whether there was any news of Sing Lee and he replied:

Later that same say, Monday, Lee Doon employed two men to dig a hole in the floor of the cellar and also to build up again a hole which Lee Doon appeared to have begun to make in the wall of the cellar.

On the same day Lee Doon told a friend of Sing Lee who called that Sing Lee had returned to China in response to a telegram he had received on the Saturday and that Sing Lee had drawn £100 from the bank before leaving. The friend said that when he had the conversation with Lee Doon, that he had at the time been struggling with a trunk in the back yard.

The laundry woman that had been with Sing Lee and Lee Doon on the evening of Saturday 29 September 1922, said that she also noticed that Sing Lee's hat was still in the cupboard and that Lee Doon had been wearing Sing Lee's trousers.

She said that she also communicated with a friend of Sing Lee's in Sheffield and also went to Liverpool to see his relatives who knew nothing of him going back to China.

As such, as her suspicions were aroused she went to the police.

When the police arrived they found extensive bloodstains on the pillow and bedding in the bedroom upstairs.

Then, on searching the cellar, they found a tin truck buried in the floor, on top of which there was a pile of coal and coke, which contained the body of Sing Lee, trussed and tied up with one rope, whilst another rope formed into a noose was fastened tightly round his neck. The trunk had been buried some distance down in the cellar floor, which was comprised of earth, and then filled in after which a load of coal and coke had been placed on top. It was noted that it took the police some hours to to complete their work in excavating the trunk and that it wasn't until daylight that they finished their task.

His skull was also found to be extensively fractured on the left side, as if by many blows from a blunt instrument such as a hammer, and the bloodstains on the bed rendered it probable that he had been attacked as he had lain in bed on his right side.

The distortion of his face, with his tongue out between his teeth, indicated that the rope had been fastened round his neck whilst he had been still breathing, and it was further thought that he might have been put in the trunk whilst he was still alive.

When Lee Doon was searched he was found to have been wearing a sovereign attached to his watch that had belonged to Sing Lee, and a wallet that had belonged to Sing Lee was found in his bedroom with two £5 notes inside of it, one of which was thought probable had belonged to Sing Lee. It was thought that Lee Doon had taken about £30 from Sing Lee, along with his business and other items.

When Lee Doon was questioned, he said that after supper that he and Sing Lee had been left alone, and that Sing Lee told him that he wished he had an opium pipe and could have a smoke. He said that he protested with Sing Lee against his smoking or wanting to smoke, and told him that if the police got to know both of them could be arrested. He said that Sing Lee then called him a bastard and sodomite.

He said that he had been lying on the couch at the time and that Lee Doon raised his sleeves and wanted to fight and dealt him a blow which he avoided and that they then struggled.

He said that Sing Lee then fell and the side of his head struck the stove and that some flat irons on the stove also fell on him and struck him on the head.

Lee Doon then said:

However, the police report stated that Lee Doon's account of the way Sing Lee received his injuries was quite incredible, according to the medical evidence, unless indeed they were inflicted after, as he said, he lost his temper, seized him by the hair and banged his head.

It was also noted that according to Lee Doon, Sing Lee had been able to walk upstairs after his injuries, with his assistance, however, a doctor stated that that would not have been possible, having regard to the nature of his injuries.

As such, the police report concluded that there appeared little doubt Lee Doon, for the motives of robbery, attacked Sing Lee as he lay in bed, and, having battered his head, roped him up, put him in the trunk and then buried it.

At his trial, Lee Doon's defence stated that it was a very great insult to tell a Chinaman that he possessed no ancestry, and pleaded for the charge to be reduced to manslaughter.

Lee Doon was convicted at the Leeds Assizes on 2 December 1922 with no recommendation to mercy and sentenced to death. The police report to the Home Secretary stated that there were no possible grounds for interference in the sentence and he was executed at Leeds on 5 January 1923.