Answer Man: The interest in your story on activity at 1025 W. Sunshine Street (where a Dodge dealership once was) leads me to request a little history on one of KY3’s neighboring properties. I heard that a business at a nearby site exploded and it was determined to be arson. It supposedly was caused by someone opening the gas lines and then lighting a candle. Is that true and when did this happen?
— Etta Armstrong, Springfield
At first, I thought I immediately knew the answer, which doesn't happen often, but I then realized I was thinking of the wrong explosion and arson case.
Believe it or not, Etta, over the years there have been two suspected arson cases within one block of the former Dodge dealership at 1025 W. Sunshine St.
One was in 1963 and the other in 1980. The one you're talking about was Sunday, Dec. 28, 1980.
In both instances, no one was injured or killed and no one was ever arrested or charged.
I should note that arson is a difficult crime for investigators to solve.
Outlaws Restaurant blast rattled windows blocks away
Someone blew up Outlaws Restaurant, 1023 W. Sunshine St., in 1980. That address no longer exists; I believe it's where the KY3 building — 999 W. Sunshine St. — now stands. The KY3 building was constructed in 1997.
I wrote about the Outlaws Restaurant arson for the News-Leader on March 5, 2021, in an Answer Man column.
The 11:30 p.m. blast had the force of 10 sticks of dynamite; it rattled windows several blocks away and leveled the building.
Someone had entered the restaurant without setting off the alarm system and disconnected a natural-gas valve. Although three candles apparently were lit to cause the explosion, fire investigators concluded, instead, that the explosion happened when furnaces on top of the building kicked on.
Two weeks earlier, someone had tried unsuccessfully to blow up the same building. An unknown person entered through a hole in the back wall, turned on the gas jets on a stove and left a candle behind to ignite the gas. The gas did not ignite.
Gary Ebeck owned the business and had opened it earlier in 1980. According News-Leader stories, he told police he locked up at 5 p.m. the day of the explosion and turned on the alarm system. He told fire authorities that a key, or keys, to the alarm system had been stolen.
Ebeck told investigators he had many enemies, including former employees who were recently fired.
Ebeck did not own the building. It was owned by Founders of America Investment Corp., 1031 E. Battlefield Road.
1963 blast was directed at David Leong
The other explosion was across West Sunshine, on the south side of the street, 1036 W. Sunshine.
At about midnight on Sunday, Nov. 17, 1963, (or early the next morning) someone tried unsuccessfully to blow up a new building that was part of a development by Lee McLean.
This building still stands; it subsequently became home to Journey Church, which is no longer there although the church's roadside sign still stands.
The building is still owned by the Leong family.
The structure is part of Springfield history because it is part of David Leong history.
In 2018, while I was at the News-Leader, I wrote a two-part profile on Leong, one of Springfield's most well known residents. He invented cashew chicken and — what many people don't know — he was a U.S. Army veteran who fought on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
More:The life of David Leong: From an arranged marriage in China to a place called Missouri
More:The life of David Leong: From the bombing of his restaurant to success with cashew chicken
I'm proud that my two stories are on display when you enter Leong's Asian Diner, 1540 W. Republic Road, Springfield.
Someone tried to blow up the building that soon afterward became home to Leong's Tea House, which was operated by David and his brother, Gee.
David Leong died July 21, 2020, a month before he would have turned 100.
Dynamite was used — an estimated 10 sticks — and although the blast rattled windows throughout the neighborhood, it did surprisingly little damage ($2,500) to the building.
The explosion delayed the opening of the restaurant by about a week; the business made its debut a few days after the Nov. 22 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Here are the circumstances
David Leong was born in China and came to Springfield in 1955. He eventually ended up working as a cook at the Grove Supper Club, 1326 N. Glenstone Ave., across National Avenue from Evangel University.
Owner Bill Grove hired David to expand the club's American-style menu, featuring steak, to include Chinese cuisine.
At around this time, David helped bring his younger brother Gee Yuen Leong to Springfield. Gee was his only sibling. Gee also worked at Grove's.
The two brothers would later part ways in a bitter business dispute and Gee opened his own restaurant, Gee's East Wind at 2951 E. Sunshine, to compete with his brother. They both offered cashew chicken.
Prior to their falling out, David and Gee for about six years worked for Bill Grove at the supper club. Business flourished with the Leongs there.
Club owner puts squeeze on brothers
A Chinese man convinced Grove he could do the same work as the brothers; cook the same food with the same quality; and cost Grove one salary, not two. In turn, according to Wing Yee, a son of David Leong, Grove gave the brothers an ultimatum: He would replace them if they did not accept 50-percent pay cuts.
At the time, David Leong and his wife had seven children living at home.
Instead of taking the cuts, the brothers quit. With $60,000 David Leong had saved, they started their own business.
After they left, business at the Grove fizzled and Bill Grove tried to hire them back at their same salaries. They declined.
Soon after, someone used dynamite to try to blow up the building.
David Leong told me in 2018 that FBI agents investigated the bombing and that his lawyer at the time (1963) — whose name he could not recall — seemed to have inside knowledge. The lawyer told David that he need not worry because no one would ever again try to harm the restaurant. No one did.
Back then, West Sunshine was a two-lane
The location of Leong's Tea House in 1963 was not as bustling as it is today. Sunshine was a two-lane road at the city's western front.
Nevertheless, the restaurant took off and business thrived.
It was later in 1963, David Leong told me, that he came up with his footnote in culinary history — his recipe for cashew chicken.
Years after the bombing, Grove sold the supper club. It was destroyed in an Aug. 6, 1979, fire that authorities determined was also the work of an arsonist. No one was ever charged.
A news account years later states that Grove died “shortly after the fire.”
This is Answer Man column No. 49.
