Enter the Dragon Head

Some say he should have never been released and believe Chow is partly to blame for a flare-up of Chinatown criminal activity not long after he got out of prison. "He's the worst of the worst," California Department of Justice Special Agent Ignatius Chinn told local CBS affiliate KPIX last year. "They made a deal with the devil and now the devil's out."

Allen Leung played many roles in the community. He was a businessman who founded a martial arts studio with his brothers, as well as a travel agency that later became an import-export business. He sat on city commissions and task forces.

He was also a leader in both Hung Moon Ghee Kong Tong and Hop Sing Tong. Whereas the criminal behavior of triads is quite clear, there's a bit more mystery around the activities in tongs. Tongs are generally fraternal organizations established for social and business purposes. Some (like the Hop Sing Tong) have been placed on the FBI's list of criminally influenced tongs, while others are seen as benevolent organizations devoted to promoting Chinese culture.

Despite Leung's apparent power and respect, he also had enemies. In February 2006, a masked gunman entered Leung's Chinatown import-export business and repeatedly shot him in the head in front of his wife. The murder remains unsolved — a mystery with Chow at the center of it.

In 2005, about a year before his execution-style killing, Leung went to the San Francisco Police Department and the FBI and told them he feared for his life, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. He also informed the FBI of an alleged extortion plot. He told a federal agent that Chow had shown up at Hop Sing Tong in late 2004, demanding $100,000, the Chronicle reported. At the time, Chow was also Leung's second in command at Hung Moon Ghee Kong Tong.

In February 2005, several tongs and a restaurant were tagged with red paint, seen as a threat that danger was coming. Leung and other Hop Sing Tong board members called an emergency meeting, but voted to not provide the money. Soon after, Hop Sing's doorway was sprayed with bullets. The tong then received an anonymous letter, which had a New York return address but had been postmarked in San Francisco. The note, addressed to Leung and two other men, read: "Someone open fire at your front door, but you're just chicken shit, no response to it, just keeping your mouth quiet. Having this kind of leader makes all the tongs lose face. I have a poem to dedicate to you. It says you should be embarrassed for a thousand years and your reputation stink for ten thousand years," according to the Chronicle.

Chow denies demanding money from Hop Sing Tong, and says most of what he knows about all of these allegations he learned in the newspapers. He adds that he's "not the problem" and can't control some gang members trying to use his name in their own extortion plots.

But Chow has once again found himself under fire. "We have a suspicion," Special Agent Chinn told KPIX last year after Leung's death. "We don't have proof. That's the test. We've never been able to get enough evidence against him or his gang to prosecute him for a couple of unsolved homicides in San Francisco."

Chow isn't the only one under suspicion. The day after Leung's murder, an anonymous caller to the worldwide Sound of Hope radio station said, "You want to know who killed Allen Leung? Call Chinese Consulate and Chinese Chamber of Commerce," according to the conservative John Birch Society publication, The New American. Leung was an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party. He was also involved in a lawsuit with tong members in New York.

Hundreds gathered at Leung's funeral in Chinatown. One mourner in particular stood out: Raymond Chow. Chow showed up wearing a crisp white suit surrounded by black-clad mourners. He was one of the few called by name to bow in front of Leung's casket, a sign of honor, and spoke briefly before he and the other members of the Hung Moon Ghee Kung Tong bowed in unison.

Chow says wearing the white suit wasn't a power play, but rather a sign of "the highest respect." He adds that family members, those closest to the deceased, often wear white to the memorial service or funeral to show respect. "At that time, I'm representing my tong," he says.