In the mid-1970s, actor Bryan Cranston, now best known for his roles on television shows Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad, was at the top of a police suspect list in a 1970s Florida murder case. The body of Daytona Beach resident Peter Wong was found in the trunk of a car after he had been clubbed in the head and robbed. As it turns out, Cranston and his brother were working as servers at the same Polynesian restaurant, the Hawaiian Inn, where Wong worked as the head chef. Their quick departure from the area at the same time as Wong’s death made them look awfully suspicious.
Cranston and others casually discussed killing Wong
Cranston and his brother were in Daytona Beach because they were traveling across the country in search of theater work. While there, Cranston volunteered to fill a role in a production of “Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad” at the Daytona Playhouse in 1976. In order to supplement their income, he also worked in a local restaurant.
As Cranston later described, Wong “was a miserable human being, just a despicable man. He hated everyone and everyone hated him.” As such, it became common among his coworkers to casually discuss how each would hypothetically kill Wong. Jokingly, Cranston said if he were to do it, he’d chop the chef into pieces and stir-fry him.
Little did the employees of the Hawaiian Inn know that Wong would turn up dead and the police would come looking for the murderer right there in the restaurant.
Police were on the lookout for the Cranston motorcycles
Right around the time Peter Wong was murdered, the Cranston brothers’ time at Daytona Beach had come to an end. With the season slowing down and not much theater work left, the brothers hopped on their motorcycles to head to their next destination. As you can imagine, this put quite a target on their backs when the police came asking questions.
The police investigated and interviewed employees of the Hawaiian Inn following Wong’s death, asking whether there was anyone there that disliked him, whether anyone had openly mentioned that they wanted to harm Wong, and whether had anyone recently left their job and the area.
The answers to these questions were that no one there liked him, they had all openly discussed killing Wong, and the Cranston brothers had promptly left right around the time Wong’s body was discovered. Naturally, this placed the Cranston brothers at the top of the suspect list, and the police put out an APB on their motorcycles.
What actually happened to Wong
During the two-week investigation carried out by the police, Wong’s cause of death and those responsible for it were determined. It turns out that Wong, who was known for carrying large amounts of money on him, was picked up by an escort. She had lured him back to where she was staying. When they got there, her associates clubbed Wong on the head and robbed him. With Wong dead, they tucked his body in the trunk of a car.
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Billy Wayne Waughtel was arrested for the murder of Peter Wong, along with two accomplices. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sent to prison, where he would later be killed. As it did not take long to determine who the real killers were, the police never caught up with Cranston or his brother.