He is famous for being the only person to have been legally executed in Pacific County, Washington, and for his death row prison break supposedly arranged by the very jailers charged with his captivity.

[3] In 1894 You approached the South Bend police chief, Marion Egbert, complaining that a fellow Chinese resident by the name of Ging had threatened him.

While playing cards on August 6 of that year, he was assaulted, threatened, and robbed by Oscar Bloom, a White man with a reputation as a bully.

[1][4] This time You did not approach the police, but instead immediately took matters into his own hands: he went to his room to retrieve his gun, sought out and shot Bloom in the abdomen, and then fled the scene.

[1][2] You eventually did escape, early in the morning of January 14: one news report claimed the improvised lock to his cell door had been picked with the aid of a confederate.

[1][2] You's hanging proceeded as planned inside the courthouse of the county seat, South Bend, on the morning of January 31, 1902.

[1] Lum You's trial and execution attracted a great deal of contemporary publicity in Pacific County, and has since passed into the realm of folk legend.

His story has been researched and recounted by local historians Ruth Dixon, Willard R. Espy, and Sydney Stevens.