Brilliant Chang

Brilliant (Billy) Chang (real name Chan Nan; born c. 1886) was a Chinese restaurateur and drug dealer who was implicated in supplying the drugs that killed Freda Kempton in 1922. The British popular press portrayed him as an international drug mastermind and the "Dope King" of London.

Chang was born in Canton, part of a wealthy mercantile family with interests in Hong Kong and Shanghai. He was highly educated, spoke several languages and had studied chemistry. He travelled to England in 1913 as a student and opened a restaurant in Birmingham. He first came to police attention after a drug raid there in 1917 when his name was found in paperwork seized. He was not arrested. Soon after, he moved to London. where he helped to look after his uncle's business interests which included a restaurant at 107 Regent Street and contracts with the British Admiralty. Chang's Chinese name was loosely translated as Brilliant Chang and Brilliant was then shortened to Billy.

It is unclear exactly when Chang began to deal in drugs. It may have been in Birmingham but by the time he was in London he was dealing in cocaine, heroin and opium, and to a lesser extent hashish and other substances. The sale and use of these substances had been legal in Britain up to 1916 and there was an established market in London for them. According to Marek Kohn, Chang was introduced to the "dope scene" by Jamaican musician Edgar Manning who had arrived in London in 1916.

Newspaper reports mention that Chang dealt exclusively with young women. One of his methods was to have a waiter pass a note to pretty girls in his restaurants saying that he admired them and would like to have a quiet dinner with them sometime. Many then went on to become his customers, and some his lovers. His easy manners, charisma and exotic appeal meant that he was able to build up a large female clientele that was close to a fan club. In order to distance himself from the actual transaction, the goods and money were exchanged over a high wall so that the parties were invisible to each other.

Freda Eileen Kempton, age 21, was a "dance instructress" (hostess) who died of an overdose of cocaine about midday on 6 March 1922 at her rooms at Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, London. She danced with partners for money, helping to keep the bar where she worked busy, often working until the early morning and apparently with endless energy which was fuelled by the drugs she took.

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