Sleepy Lagoon murder
Sleepy Lagoon murder | |
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![]() Defendants in the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial are reunited with family following their acquittal. | |
Location | 5400 Lindbergh Lane Bell, California, U.S. |
Coordinates | 33°59′44.1″N 118°10′22.7″W / 33.995583°N 118.172972°W |
Date | August 2, 1942 |
Deaths | 1 |
Victims | José Gallardo Díaz |
Accused | Jack Melendez Victor Thompson Angel Padilla John Y. Matuz Ysmael Parra (Smiles) Victor Segobia Henry Leyvas Gus Zamora Manuel Reyes Robert Telles Manuel Delgado Jose Ruiz (Chepe) Henry Ynostroza |
This article is part of a series on the |
History of Chicanos and Mexican Americans |
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The "Sleepy Lagoon murder" was the name that Los Angeles newspapers used to describe the death of José Gallardo Díaz, who was discovered unconscious and dying near a reservoir (dubbed the Sleepy Lagoon) with two stab wounds and a broken finger in Commerce, California, United States, on the morning of August 2, 1942. Earlier, Díaz was seen at a party for Eleanor Delgadillo Coronado where he left afterwards with two friends, Luis "Cito" Vargas and Andrew Torres. He was then confronted by a group of young men from the 38th Street neighborhood, who came to the party seeking revenge for an earlier beating of some of their friends.[1]
Díaz was taken by ambulance to
The trial ended on January 13, 1943, under the supervision of Judge Charles W. Fricke. Twelve of the defendants were convicted of
Sleepy Lagoon was a reservoir beside the
Background
Beginning in the early 1930s and exacerbated by the
Death
The morning of August 2, 1942, José Gallardo Díaz was found unconscious and later died in the hospital. The autopsy revealed that Díaz was intoxicated and had blunt head trauma as well as multiple stab wounds, but ultimately they could not determine a cause of death.[11] Despite the unclear cause of death, 20-year-old Henry Leyvas and 24 members of what the media termed "the 38th Street gang" were arrested for allegedly murdering Díaz. They suspected that rival Pachuco gang fights were the cause of Díaz's death.
In response to the alleged murder, the media began a campaign calling for action against "zoot suiters".[12] On August 10, police conducted a roundup of 600 Latinos who were charged with suspicion of assault, armed robbery, and related offenses; 175 were eventually held for various crimes.[8] Due to this round-up of "Zoot Suiters", many families in the community began putting curfews in place to protect those that they cared about from the increasing police presence.[10]
Criminal trial
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Group_portrait_of_eight_Mexican_American_males_taken_in_for_questioning_in_the_1942_Sleepy_Lagoon_murder_investigation%2C_Los_Angeles%2C_Calif.png/220px-Group_portrait_of_eight_Mexican_American_males_taken_in_for_questioning_in_the_1942_Sleepy_Lagoon_murder_investigation%2C_Los_Angeles%2C_Calif.png)
The resulting criminal trial is now generally viewed as lacking in the fundamental requirements of due process. Seventeen Latino youths were indicted on the murder charges and placed on trial.[13] The seventeen defendants were to be subject to a verdict regarding the death of Jose Diaz. Twelve of these people were declared guilty for the murder of Diaz and the other five were found guilty of assault.[14] Ysmael Parra was one of the seventeen people who were convicted for the death of Jose Diaz. Parra was sentenced to serve five years to life in prison and was convicted with intent to commit murder. Along with Parra, Henry Ynostroza, Gus Zammora, Jack Melendez, Victor Thompson, Manuel Reyes, Angel Padilla, Robert Telles, Manuel Delgado and John Matuz all received a five to life in prison after their conviction.[14] Ruiz, Leyvas, and Telles were immediately sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder. Many people fought against these convictions on the basis that there was a racial motivation behind the decisions made for their convictions as the media had been portraying, not only the defendants as criminals, but people of color and Latinos as well.[citation needed]
The courtroom was small and, during the trial, the defendants were not allowed to sit near, or to communicate with, their attorneys. None of those charged were permitted to change their clothes during the trial by order of Judge Fricke at the request of the district attorney on the grounds that the jury should see the defendants in the
Activist involvement
The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee (SLDC) was a community organization made up of Los Angeles community members and activists who came together to support the defendants. The SLDC was also known as The Citizens' Committee for the Defense of Mexican-American Youth. During the time of the trials many activists criticized the way that Judge Fricke went about the case as a result of the manner in which the case was handled, thus many supported the defendants. Many of the supporters of the defendants turned and created/joined the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee.
By the time that the defendants began serving their convictions, there was already an uproar in how young Mexican Americans were being perceived. Rumors later began to circulate that gang members had attacked many US Navy men. As a result many went around raiding Latino communities and began attacking them in retribution. People who were attacked were people of color or people who wore
Reversal
In October 1944, the state Court of Appeals unanimously decided the evidence was not sufficient to sustain a guilty verdict. It reversed the 12 defendants' convictions in People v Zammora 66 Cal.App.2d 166. The appeals court also criticized the trial judge for his bias in and mishandling of the case.[22] After the Zoot Suit Riots, the convictions of the seventeen people were overturned. There was a lack of evidence to convict the defendants to begin with and it was Diaz's autopsy report that showed that he was highly inebriated and received trauma to the head, which likely could have been caused by his own doing.[23] However, the convictions did not immediately get overturned. It took the efforts of the SLDC and time in order for the government to finally reverse the initial convictions. The SLDC constantly pushed the idea that the government was an attack on young Mexican Americans and emphasized that these injustices could be fought.[23] Not only did they do this, but they also did what they could in order to try and reverse the views that people had on young Mexican Americans.
Cultural references
- The 1979 play Zoot Suit and the 1981 movie of the same name are loosely based on events surrounding the murder trial.
- In James Ellroy's novel The Big Nowhere, the Sleepy Lagoon murder plays a major role in the story.
See also
- East Los Angeles, California
- History of the Mexican Americans in Los Angeles
- List of unsolved deaths
References
- ^ "José Gallardo Díaz (1919-1942) | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org.
- ^ Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee Records (Collection 107). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
- ^ SLDC Publications, Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee Records (Collection 107). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
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(help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Romero, Lori (2012). "The Legal and Social Repercussions of the Media on the Sleepy Lagoon Trial and the Zoot Suit Riots". Scripps Senior Theses – via JSTOR.
- ^ Sleepy Lagoon Website
- ^ Chiland, Elijah (June 5, 2016). "Mapping LA's Notorious Zoot Suit Riots". Curbed. Los Angeles.
- ^ "Rumblings & Bumblings Responses: Piero II Rises & Sleepy Lagoon in Commerce". Curbed. Los Angeles. April 3, 2008. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
- ^ a b c Sleepy Laggon and the Sailor Riots of 1943 La Noche Triste
- ^ Gershon, Livia (6 March 2023). "Pachuca Rebels in 1940s Los Angeles". JSTOR Daily.
- ^ a b Andrews, Evan. "What Were the Zoot Suit Riots?". HISTORY.
- ^ Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee Records (Collection 107). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
- ^ Miranda, Carolina A. (2020-07-23). "Goodbye, guy on a horse. A new wave of monument design is changing how we honor history". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
- ^ People v. Zammora, vol. 66, 1944, p. 166, retrieved 2018-04-09
- ^ a b "Sleepy Lagoon Defendants | American Experience | PBS". 2021. PBS| American Experience. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/zoot-sleepy-lagoon-defendants/.
- ISBN 978-0-7614-7402-9.
- ^ Romero, Lori, "The Legal and Social Repercussions of the Media on the Sleepy Lagoon Trial and the Zoot Suit Riots" (2012). Scripps Senior Theses. Paper 85. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/85
- ^ One Man Tango, Anthony Quinn (c) 1995 Harper Collins, pg. 16-17.
- JSTOR 41172517.
- ^ "Conference: "The Sleepy Lagoon Case, Constitutional Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy"". ucla.edu. 8 January 2013.
- ^ Citizens' Committee for the Defense of Mexican-American Youth. 1942. "Sleepy Lagoon". Digital History. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=605.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Minorities in U.S.A Politics: Hispanic Americans and ... By Jeffrey D. Schultz page 518
- ^ Eduardo Obregón Pagán, Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime LA (Univ of North Carolina Press, 2003) p 207-8
- ^ a b Romero, Lori, "The Legal and Social Repercussions of the Media on the Sleepy Lagoon Trial and the Zoot Suit Riots" (2012). Scripps Senior Theses. Paper 85. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/85
Further reading
- McWilliams, Carey, "Second Thoughts", The Nation, April 7, 1979
- Servin, Manuel, The Mexican-Americans: An Awakening Minority. (1970) ISBN 0-02-477940-7
- McGrath (Alice Greenfield) Papers, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles, California
External links
- McGrath (Alice Greenfield) Papers, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles, California
- Sleepy Lagoon Website
- Pagán, Eduardo Obregón Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. University of North Carolina Press (2003)
- Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee. (1943). The Sleepy Lagoon Case. Online Archive of California.
- Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee. (1944). This is the story of a crime. The Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA, via Calisphere.
- Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee Records (Collection 107). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
- UCLA Sleepy Lagoon Symposium (2005)
- The Sleepy Lagoon Case: Constitutional Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy. A commemorative symposium, May 20–21, 2005, UCLA
- PBS special
- José Gallardo Díaz at Find a Grave Retrieved 02-06-2015