Episode 8: The Murder of José Gallardo Diaz

California Crime Stories

On August 2nd, 1942, José Gallardo Díaz was brutally beaten and stabbed on his way home from a neighbor’s birthday party in Los Angeles. After being rushed to the hospital, José was pronounced dead. The hunt for José’s killers became a proxy war on LA’s Mexican-American youth, and more than 600 Mexican-American men and women were taken into custody. 22 young men were charged with the murder, and after a three-month-long mass trial that was biased against them from the start, 17 were convicted. The trial and verdict contributed to ongoing unrest and racial antagonism playing out in the city of LA, which boiled over into what we know today as the Zoot Suit Riots. Within two years, the defendants’ convictions were overturned. José Diaz’s case was never reopened, and his murder remains unsolved.

Our recommendations for this episode:
-Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins bit.ly/3WAAYKm
-TaskMaster UK, available in the US on YouTube bit.ly/3Wuiueh

Send us an email at [e-mail]! And follow us on Twitter and Instagram, @theccspod!
Sources:

• "About - The Sleepy Lagoon Memorial." bit.ly/3Yt8DIi
• Carolina Miranda, "Goodbye, Guy on Horse. A New Wave of Monument Design is Changing How We Honor History." LA Times. 2020. bit.ly/3LN5VG1
• Catherine Ramirez, "The Other Southland: Missions, Monuments, and Memory in Tovaangar." BOOM California. 2021. bit.ly/3WrAd6a
• Cecilia Rasmussen, "Notorious Cases for a No-Nonsense Judge." LA Times. 2006. bit.ly/46vHt5v
• Eduardo Obregón Pagán, Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime LA. 2004. bit.ly/4dIJ5eP
• Elizabeth Escobedo, "The Pachuca Panic: Sexual and Cultural Battlegrounds in World War II Los Angeles." Western Historical Quarterly. 2007. bit.ly/3A56p7L
• Gerardo Licón, "Pachucos: Not Just Mexican-American Males or Juvenile Delinquents." PBS SoCal. 2017. bit.ly/4c6SHi6
• Gilberto Perez, "Pachuco - Subcultures and Sociology." bit.ly/3ypUTn1
• Hector Tobar, "Sleepy Lagoon Victims Laud Their Champion." LA Times. 1997. bit.ly/3Sw6sQh
• History.com, "Zoot Suit Riots." 2023. bit.ly/4fCZenM
• "Jose Diaz: 1919-1942." Find A Grave. bit.ly/3A58Bfv
• Library of Congress Research Guides, "1942: Bracero Program." bit.ly/4camFlo
• Livia Gershon, "Pachuca Rebels in 1940s Los Angeles." JSTOR Daily. 2023. bit.ly/3WMjpIv
• Lolita Lopez, "New Survey Shows LA Residents Concerned, Yet Supportive of LAPD." NBC Los Angeles. bit.ly/4fp63sX
• Online Archive of California. bit.ly/3LPGkw0
• PBS American Experience, Zoot Suit Riots (documentary transcript & accompanying articles). 2001. bit.ly/46wLKpy
• Sid Garcia, "80 Years Later, LA Apologizes for Zoot Suit Riots Committed Against Mexican Americans." ABC7. bit.ly/3YrBzk3
• Stephanie Hinnershitz, "The Zoot Suit Riots and Wartime Los Angeles." The National WWII Museum. bit.ly/3Wl4xiM
• Tessa: Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. bit.ly/3LN6waJ
• UCLA Library, "The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee and the Appeal." Via the Wayback Machine. bit.ly/3LNfTXV
• Victoria Bernal, "Proposed Monument Preserves the Memory of Sleepy Lagoon and Zoot Suit Riots." PBS SoCal. 2022. bit.ly/3A75vYs