Vox launches New Podcast About All-Latino Homicide Squad

 Vox Media Podcast Network launched today, Chicano Squad, a new narrative series that tells the story of an all-Latino homicide squad in the 1970s Houston.

 The podcast painstakingly details the dangerous and corruption-ridden times in Houston throughout the 1970s. Many homicides in the city's Latino community went unsolved — casualties to the department's mostly white corps of detectives, few of whom spoke Spanish.

 In 1977, the Houston Police Department became ensnared in a scandal after several officers killed José Campos Torres, a young Latino Vietnam War veteran.

Torres had been arrested at a Houston bar for disorderly conduct on May 5. Six police officers took Torres to a spot called "The Hole" next to Buffalo Bayou and beat him. They then took Torres to the city jail, which refused to process him due to his injuries. They were ordered to take him to the hospital, but instead the officers brought him back to the banks of Buffalo Bayou and pushed him into the water. Torres's body was found two days later.

It was not Houston Police's only scandal at the time. Two other killings by officers had stained the department's reputation, and in 1979 the former chief, Carroll Lynn, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for bribery.  

In an effort to build trust, the Houston Police Department plucked a few young Latino officers from patrol cars in 1979 and told them to spend 90 days solving as many murders as they could. The officers — who had no experience solving murders — cracked so many cases that the department formalized the unit, which would work for 30 years before it was finally disbanded.

 These five young officers were placed in an audacious experiment: A new all-Latino homicide squad, with little training and few resources, assigned to solve the city’s most vicious crimes. 

After a bloody weekend that year that ended with 17 killings, homicide Capt. Bobby Adams created the unit, which was led by Detective Sgt. Jim Montero and the late homicide Lt. Chuck Lofland.

The results were "immediate and astounding," one former commander told the Chronicle in a 2004 story noting the squad's 25th anniversary. The division's clearance rates soared, and by the end of the year, the Chicano Squad helped solve 40 homicides. The unit is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the nation, though many others followed.

"They were outstanding," recalled now-retired police chief Charles A. McClelland, then a rookie with the force. "Their language and cultural skills put them in position to be successful. They would work day and night. Whatever hours they felt were necessary to be successful in solving those cases."

Hosted by Cristela Alonzo, this show offers an in-depth account of a squad formed to address a surge of crimes in a time when discrimination plagued Houston's Latino communities. The officers plucked out from a small group with little to no training were faced with enormous obstacles, and in this series, they share their true stories. 

The Latino community stories are often untold, but Chicano Squad reveals a history of over 11 episodes. The host Cristela Alonzo is a writer, producer, political activist, and first-generation Mexican-American from Texas. Her narrative stems from a passionate and personal place that allows readers to feel her connection to the Latino community.

You can listen to the first episode here. Episodes drop weekly on Tuesdays.

 

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Thanks to Charmaine Crutchfield

 

 

 

by

Frank Racioppi