Sleepy Lagoon murder
Encyclopedia
Sleepy Lagoon murder was the name that newspapers and radio commentators used to describe the alleged murder of Jose Diaz, whose body was found on the Williams Ranch near a lagoon (later named "Sleepy Lagoon" by the media) in southeast Los Angeles, California
, on August 2, 1942. The murder led to the Los Angeles, California
, criminal trial of 21 Latino
young men; the convictions were reversed on appeal in 1944. The case is considered a precursor to the Zoot Suit Riots
of 1943.
Sleepy Lagoon was a reservoir beside the Los Angeles River
that was frequented by Mexican-Americans. Its name came from the popular song "Sleepy Lagoon,"
by big band leader and trumpeter Harry James
. The reservoir was located near the city of Maywood
at approximately 5500 Slauson Avenue
.
On August 1, 1942, two groups of pachuco
s fought each other at the Williams Ranch near a lagoon. The following morning, a man named José Díaz was found unconscious on a road nearby but later died in hospital. The autopsy revealed that Díaz was intoxicated and that death was the result of blunt head trauma. Despite one medical examiner stating that the injuries were consistent with being hit by a car, 20 year old Henry Leyvas and 24 members of what the media termed "the 38th Street gang" were arrested for the murder.
In response to the murder, the media began a campaign calling for action against zoot suiters which led police on August 10, to conduct a roundup of 600 Latinos who were charged with suspicion of assault, armed robbery etc, 175 eventually being held for various crimes.
. Twenty-two Chicano
youths were indicted on the murder charges and placed on trial. 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 zoot suit
s that were "obviously" only worn by "hoodlums". Every time a name was mentioned by a witness or the district attorney, regardless of how damning the statement may be, the named defendant was required to stand up. Judge Fricke also permitted the chief of the Foreign Relations Bureau of the Los Angeles sheriff's office, E. Duran Ayres, to testify as an "expert witness" that Mexicans as a community had a "blood thirst" and a "biological predisposition" to crime and killing, citing the culture of human sacrifice
practiced by their Aztec
ancestors.
Twenty-two defendants were charged with murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit murder. A jury acquitted 5 defendants on all 3 counts, convicted 5 of minor offenses, and convicted 12 on all 3 counts, with 3 found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, and 9 of second degree murder and sentenced to "five-to-life". The five convicted of minor offenses (assault) were released for time served. All of the jurors in each case were white. The defendants began serving their sentences in January 1943.
community came to the support of the defendants. They created the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, composed of leftists including historian Carey McWilliams
and Alice McGrath
, African-Americans, and Mexican-American community leaders. McWilliams noted that a few months earlier over 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained and interned in detention camps, and later argued that there were common links between the Japanese-American internment and the anti-Mexican response in the Sleepy Lagoon case. http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/center/events/Sleepy_Lagoon/SleepyLagoon.htm From 1943 through 1944, the state anti-Communist Tenney Committee subpoenaed and investigated the members of the Defense Committee in an attempt to uncover Communist ties.
and the 1981 movie Zoot Suit are loosely based on events surrounding the murder trial.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, on August 2, 1942. The murder led to the Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, criminal trial of 21 Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
young men; the convictions were reversed on appeal in 1944. The case is considered a precursor to the Zoot Suit Riots
Zoot Suit Riots
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that erupted in Los Angeles, California between white sailors and Marines stationed throughout thehi c mlc city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored...
of 1943.
Sleepy Lagoon was a reservoir beside the Los Angeles River
Los Angeles River
The Los Angeles River is a river that starts in the San Fernando Valley, in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and flows through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the western end of the San Fernando Valley, nearly southeast to its mouth in Long Beach...
that was frequented by Mexican-Americans. Its name came from the popular song "Sleepy Lagoon,"
Sleepy Lagoon (song)
By the Sleepy Lagoon is a light orchestral "valse serenade" by British composer Eric Coates composed in 1930. In 1940, lyrics were added with Coates' approval by Jack Lawrence, and the resultant song "Sleepy Lagoon" became a popular music standard of the 1940s.Coates had originally been inspired to...
by big band leader and trumpeter Harry James
Harry James
Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...
. The reservoir was located near the city of Maywood
Maywood, California
Maywood is a small city in southeast Los Angeles County, California. At , Maywood is the third-smallest incorporated city in Los Angeles County....
at approximately 5500 Slauson Avenue
Slauson Avenue
Slauson Avenue is a major east-west thoroughfare for southern Los Angeles County, California, named for the land developer and Los Angeles Board of Education member J. S. Slauson. It passes through Culver City, Ladera Heights, View Park-Windsor Hills, Baldwin Hills, Inglewood, South Los Angeles,...
.
The murder
With the internment of Japanese Americans, racial paranoia in California turned to the Mexican American community and, spurred by the media, a grand jury headed by E. Duran Ayres was appointed by the City of Los Angeles to investigate an alleged "Mexican Crime Wave."On August 1, 1942, two groups of pachuco
Pachuco
Pachucos are Chicano youths who developed their own subculture during the 1930s and 1940s in the Southwestern United States. They wore distinctive clothing and spoke their own dialect of Mexican Spanish, called Caló or Pachuco...
s fought each other at the Williams Ranch near a lagoon. The following morning, a man named José Díaz was found unconscious on a road nearby but later died in hospital. The autopsy revealed that Díaz was intoxicated and that death was the result of blunt head trauma. Despite one medical examiner stating that the injuries were consistent with being hit by a car, 20 year old Henry Leyvas and 24 members of what the media termed "the 38th Street gang" were arrested for the murder.
In response to the murder, the media began a campaign calling for action against zoot suiters which led police on August 10, to conduct a roundup of 600 Latinos who were charged with suspicion of assault, armed robbery etc, 175 eventually being held for various crimes.
Criminal trial
The resulting criminal trial is now generally viewed as lacking in the fundamental requirements of due processDue process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
. Twenty-two Chicano
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
youths were indicted on the murder charges and placed on trial. 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 zoot suit
Zoot suit
A zoot suit is a suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing was popularized by African Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Italian Americans during the late 1930s and the 1940s...
s that were "obviously" only worn by "hoodlums". Every time a name was mentioned by a witness or the district attorney, regardless of how damning the statement may be, the named defendant was required to stand up. Judge Fricke also permitted the chief of the Foreign Relations Bureau of the Los Angeles sheriff's office, E. Duran Ayres, to testify as an "expert witness" that Mexicans as a community had a "blood thirst" and a "biological predisposition" to crime and killing, citing the culture of human sacrifice
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
Human sacrifice was a religious practice characteristic of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization, as well as of other mesoamerican civilizations such as the Maya and the Zapotec. The extent of the practice is debated by modern scholars...
practiced by their Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
ancestors.
Twenty-two defendants were charged with murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit murder. A jury acquitted 5 defendants on all 3 counts, convicted 5 of minor offenses, and convicted 12 on all 3 counts, with 3 found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, and 9 of second degree murder and sentenced to "five-to-life". The five convicted of minor offenses (assault) were released for time served. All of the jurors in each case were white. The defendants began serving their sentences in January 1943.
Activist involvement
The East Los Angeles, CaliforniaEast Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
community came to the support of the defendants. They created the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, composed of leftists including historian Carey McWilliams
Carey McWilliams (journalist)
Carey McWilliams was an American author, editor, and lawyer. He is best known for his writings about social issues in California, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II...
and Alice McGrath
Alice McGrath
Alice Greenfield McGrath , also known as Alice Greenfield, was an American activist who first gained fame in connection with the 1942 case of the Sleepy Lagoon Murder. She was the executive secretary of the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee from 1942–1944...
, African-Americans, and Mexican-American community leaders. McWilliams noted that a few months earlier over 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained and interned in detention camps, and later argued that there were common links between the Japanese-American internment and the anti-Mexican response in the Sleepy Lagoon case. http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/center/events/Sleepy_Lagoon/SleepyLagoon.htm From 1943 through 1944, the state anti-Communist Tenney Committee subpoenaed and investigated the members of the Defense Committee in an attempt to uncover Communist ties.
Convictions reversed on appeal
In October, 1944, the Court of Appeal of the State of California reversed the 12 defendants' convictions, in the case of People v Zamora 66 Cal.App.2d 166.Play and movie
The 1979 play Zoot SuitZoot Suit (play)
Zoot Suit is a play written by Luis Valdez, featuring incidental music by Daniel Valdez and Lalo Guerrero, the "father of Chicano music." Zoot Suit is a fictionalized version of the real-life Sleepy Lagoon murder trial – when a group of Chicano youths were charged with a murder that they did...
and the 1981 movie Zoot Suit are loosely based on events surrounding the murder trial.
See also
- Zoot Suit RiotsZoot Suit RiotsThe Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that erupted in Los Angeles, California between white sailors and Marines stationed throughout thehi c mlc city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored...
- 38th street gang38th street gangThe 38th Street gang is a Chicano street gang from South Central, Los Angeles. The 38th Street gang is one of the oldest street gangs in Los Angeles.- History :...
- East Los Angeles, CaliforniaEast Los Angeles, CaliforniaEast Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
- PachucoPachucoPachucos are Chicano youths who developed their own subculture during the 1930s and 1940s in the Southwestern United States. They wore distinctive clothing and spoke their own dialect of Mexican Spanish, called Caló or Pachuco...
Further reading
- McWilliams, CareyCarey McWilliams (journalist)Carey McWilliams was an American author, editor, and lawyer. He is best known for his writings about social issues in California, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II...
, "Second Thoughts," The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
(April 7, 1979) - Servin, Manuel, The Mexican-Americans: An Awakening Minority. (1970) ISBN 0-02-477940-7
- Dimitroff, James S. The 1942 Sleepy Lagoon Murder - Catalyst for Mexican-American Militancy in Los Angeles.
- Endore, S. Guy. The Sleepy Lagoon Mystery (1972) ASIN B0006X9OYO
- Greenfield, AliceAlice McGrathAlice Greenfield McGrath , also known as Alice Greenfield, was an American activist who first gained fame in connection with the 1942 case of the Sleepy Lagoon Murder. She was the executive secretary of the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee from 1942–1944...
. The Sleepy Lagoon Case - A Pageant of Prejudice ASIN B0007F4WKM
External links
- 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)
- USC Los Angeles History: The Sleepy Lagoon Mystery
- Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee. (1944). This is the story of a crime. The Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA, via Calisphere.
- 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