Beheading Averted: Opium Smuggler Dodges ‘Headman’s Ax’ in San Francisco

In a bizarre twist of fate, a Chinese woman, Mrs. Ying Kao, narrowly escaped the chopping block thanks to a peculiar legal loophole. The beautiful 25-year-old was found with a large quantity of opium in her luggage upon arrival in San Francisco, July 10, 1929. As a result, the San Francisco Nationalists demanded her extradition to China for punishment. In her homeland, smugglers and opium dealers often meet a gruesome end at the hands of the ‘Headman,’ a notorious executioner.