552 - She Was Such A Cat

This week, Georgia covers the unsolved Lane Bryant murders and Karen tells the story of Houston’s Chicano Squad. For our sources, please visit https://www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g. Head to social media to share your favorite moments from this episode. Instagram: instagram.com/myfavoritemurder http://instagram.com/myfavoritemurder Facebook: facebook.com/myfavoritemurder http://facebook.com/myfavoritemurder TikTok: tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder http://tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder Send your hometown stories to [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. Join the Fan Cult to access ad-free episodes of My Favorite Murder. Members also receive merch store discounts, exclusive audio and video content and more! Visit www.fancult.supercast.com http://www.fancult.supercast.com/ to join. Shop for My Favorite Murder and other Exactly Right merchandise here: www.exactlyrightstore.com http://www.exactlyrightstore.com/. Rate, review and follow My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to listen. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This is Exactly Right.

• 0:07Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency?

• 0:09Speaker 01

  Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets. 911 Nashville returns.

• 0:17Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here.

• 0:19Speaker 03

  Three bodies on the ground.

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  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

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  Hell, sin swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 0:26Speaker 02

  That's one of the plagues of the Bible.

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  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

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• 1:49Georgia Hardstark?

  Hello.

• 1:50Karen Kilgariff?

  And welcome.

• 1:51Georgia Hardstark?

  To my favorite murder.

• 1:53Karen Kilgariff?

  That's Georgia Hardstark?

• 1:53Georgia Hardstark?

  That's Karen Kilgariff, real deep for some reason.

• 1:56Karen Kilgariff?

  I went all the way down to the basement.

• 1:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 1:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Because I'm going to bring up a case of good times in podcasting. Are you ready?

• 2:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Yes, crack me a cold one.

• 2:05Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm going to put on my bathing suit, and we're going to have a party in the basement.

• 2:09Georgia Hardstark?

  A bathing suit in the basement? That sounds dirty.

• 2:12Karen Kilgariff?

  It is. I'm not trying to be dirty.

• 2:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Like, just gross, not like dirty.

• 2:16Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, dirty in the basement?

• 2:17Georgia Hardstark?

  Like dusty.

• 2:18Karen Kilgariff?

  Someone needs to clean down here?

• 2:19Georgia Hardstark?

  Like, put more clothes on.

• 2:21Karen Kilgariff?

  That's what you think. But once the bathing suit's on, and the party begins, you don't care.

• 2:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Is there, like, a pool in the basement?

• 2:28Karen Kilgariff?

  Um, not in mine.

• 2:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 2:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Have you ever seen that viral picture of the people of the above-ground pool in a basement?

• 2:36Georgia Hardstark?

  No.

• 2:37Karen Kilgariff?

  It's so funny. They have a light hanging directly over the top.

• 2:40Georgia Hardstark?

  I guess you could do that.

• 2:41Karen Kilgariff?

  You can, but you could easily be electrocuted terribly.

• 2:44Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, that, right.

• 2:45Karen Kilgariff?

  Or have any number of... Like, there's a reason they have those rules, I think.

• 2:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Indoor pools have always kind of creeped me out, because I'm from the... Where am I from?

• 2:55Karen Kilgariff?

  Southern California.

• 2:57Georgia Hardstark?

  That... I was like, east-west, that we don't have them?

• 3:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Right.

• 3:00Georgia Hardstark?

  So you go to, like, a hotel in the Midwest, or someone's house even that has an indoor pool. It's like, this is weird. Why is their carpet so close to fucking water?

• 3:09Karen Kilgariff?

  What are you swingers up to? Yeah, that's what it all is about. Is this is swingers casserole time.

• 3:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 3:14Karen Kilgariff?

  There was a lot of those in Northern California, because we're a lot colder up there. But also, there's a lot of hippie geodesic domes.

• 3:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Sure.

• 3:23Karen Kilgariff?

  That would just be out in, like, a field.

• 3:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 3:25Karen Kilgariff?

  And then, I remember finding out that my friend, to this day, Craig Machado, his family had an indoor, in-ground pool.

• 3:33Georgia Hardstark?

  Richie rich.

• 3:34Karen Kilgariff?

  Inside this geodesic dome that I just...

• 3:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Who... What kind of family owns a geodesic dome?

• 3:40Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, it looked much more like people had it there for farm reasons, or for, like, building reasons.

• 3:46Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay, it's like a weather situation.

• 3:49Karen Kilgariff?

  It was like, half dome, like, on the ground.

• 3:53Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 3:53Karen Kilgariff?

  As opposed to, like, I think you're thinking of, like, it wasn't, like, up in the air.

• 3:56Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay, like Joshua Tree, like, sound bath style. No, that's what I'm thinking.

• 4:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Did you go to that thing?

• 4:01Georgia Hardstark?

  I've never been to the Integrotron.

• 4:03Karen Kilgariff?

  The Integrotron.

• 4:04Georgia Hardstark?

  Somehow I've skipped it.

• 4:05Karen Kilgariff?

  We went.

• 4:06Georgia Hardstark?

  How was it?

• 4:07Karen Kilgariff?

  Amazing.

• 4:07Georgia Hardstark?

  Tell people what it is. It's like, this geodesic fucking dome.

• 4:10Karen Kilgariff?

  It's finally I get to talk about geodesic domes the way I've been trying to. That's why I said...

• 4:14Georgia Hardstark?

  It's your new podcast.

• 4:16Karen Kilgariff?

  What if that's a... I have a weird thing where I'm trying to flex by knowing what geodesic domes are.

• 4:21Georgia Hardstark?

  And knowing, like, a lot about them. And 1929 was their big year for...

• 4:26Karen Kilgariff?

  They built this one in Joshua Tree. There's one in Joshua Tree that a man built. I think I was going to cover it.

• 4:32Georgia Hardstark?

  Of course, a man built.

• 4:32Karen Kilgariff?

  A man built it. What else are they doing? Besides building geodesic domes and sound bathing people?

• 4:38Georgia Hardstark?

  Fucking crazy.

• 4:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Against their will. So he built it because he had a feeling he maybe would be able to communicate with, maybe, outer space.

• 4:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 4:48Karen Kilgariff?

  And he disappeared. And all of his studies and writings disappeared.

• 4:53Georgia Hardstark?

  Stop it.

• 4:53Karen Kilgariff?

  Along with him disappearing. And I was going to cover it when we did Pasadena.

• 4:57Georgia Hardstark?

  No.

• 4:58Karen Kilgariff?

  On our tour. But that's kind of the whole story I just told.

• 5:01Georgia Hardstark?

  Like, there's nothing more to it.

• 5:02Karen Kilgariff?

  There's a little more to it, but...

• 5:04Georgia Hardstark?

  Not enough. Wow.

• 5:05Karen Kilgariff?

  And you can go there now and get wonderful sound bathing done.

• 5:10Georgia Hardstark?

  I've never done sound bathing as a sensory gal. Everything's a little too loud for me. I don't care how loud it is. It's just fucking a little too loud. I don't think I want to do it.

• 5:20Karen Kilgariff?

  So this past 10 years has been living hell for you.

• 5:22Georgia Hardstark?

  This has been really bad.

• 5:23Karen Kilgariff?

  It's so loud.

• 5:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Hold on.

• 5:25Karen Kilgariff?

  What are you doing?

• 5:26Georgia Hardstark?

  I need a tissue! My nose is running just from the thought of it. Do you have one over there? They got lost in the remodel.

• 5:31Karen Kilgariff?

  In the rebrand?

• 5:32Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, they're way up there in the corner here.

• 5:33Karen Kilgariff?

  Keep them close, I've got a spill coming on.

• 5:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Back to geodesic domes. And sound bathing.

• 5:38Karen Kilgariff?

  And we're back.

• 5:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Murderinos, are you into sound bathing?

• 5:43Karen Kilgariff?

  Write our Gmail at soundbath.net. Here's the experience I had with the sound bathing. I knew I had tension to release, and, like, this will help me. The first, I would say, seven minutes, pure torture, because everyone else is into it. And I'm like, why can't I just be into things the way other people are in things?

• 6:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 6:03Karen Kilgariff?

  Zzzzzzz.

• 6:04Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 6:04Karen Kilgariff?

  20 minutes later, I don't know where I am.

• 6:07Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 6:07Karen Kilgariff?

  Like, it takes over you, because it's sound waves, and it's like, doing something to you.

• 6:13Georgia Hardstark?

  It really, like, bathes your brain.

• 6:14Karen Kilgariff?

  I found that it did.

• 6:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 6:16Karen Kilgariff?

  I really liked it.

• 6:17Georgia Hardstark?

  I'll try it with earplugs.

• 6:20Karen Kilgariff?

  And on your Kindle.

• 6:22Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right.

• 6:22Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 6:23Georgia Hardstark?

  Cool. What were we talking about?

• 6:25Karen Kilgariff?

  We were talking about bathing suits in the basement.

• 6:27Georgia Hardstark?

  That's where it started. What else?

• 6:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Rewatching The Sopranos.

• 6:31Georgia Hardstark?

  No, that was you.

• 6:32Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm saying.

• 6:33Georgia Hardstark?

  What?

• 6:33Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm answering my own question.

• 6:34Georgia Hardstark?

  I thought you said...

• 6:35Karen Kilgariff?

  You went like this?

• 6:36Georgia Hardstark?

  I thought you said, "Were you watching The Sopranos?"

• 6:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, we...

• 6:39Georgia Hardstark?

  And I was like, "No."

• 6:40Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm like, "Dash, re-watching The Sopranos."

• 6:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Rewatching The Sopranos makes more sense than, "Were you watching The Sopranos?"

• 6:46Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. When I know for a fact I did and you didn't. That's like what a true narcissist would do in conversation.

• 6:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Well, so we're all watching The Sopranos. Right?

• 6:55Karen Kilgariff?

  Everybody... Right? Oh, you're not, anyway.

• 6:57Georgia Hardstark?

  Are you going to do the Lizzie Borden biopic, do you think?

• 7:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Sure.

• 7:00Georgia Hardstark?

  I'll do it too.

• 7:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay.

• 7:01Georgia Hardstark?

  Let's do it together.

• 7:02Karen Kilgariff?

  Uh, team.

• 7:05Karen Kilgariff?

  That was placed for half an hour before this recording started. Is it a movie or TV?

• 7:10Georgia Hardstark?

  It's TV, it's, you know, Ryan Murphy, monster, kind of a thing.

• 7:13Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 7:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Like that.

• 7:15Karen Kilgariff?

  Some sort of a watch-along?

• 7:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, like Dahmer, the Dahmer one.

• 7:18Karen Kilgariff?

  Right, right, but I'm saying, should we do a watch-along?

• 7:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Will we? I think by the time this episode comes out, there's going to be... Do they all come out at once?

• 7:25Karen Kilgariff?

  No, I don't think they let Ryan Murphy do that.

• 7:27Georgia Hardstark?

  By the time we come back next week, let's have watch both of the episodes.

• 7:31Karen Kilgariff?

  But let's not talk about it.

• 7:32Georgia Hardstark?

  Let's do not talk about it.

• 7:35Georgia Hardstark?

  That's the rule of our watch game, is...

• 7:36Karen Kilgariff?

  Is drop it.

• 7:37Georgia Hardstark?

  It's just like, a series of winks and nods.

• 7:40Karen Kilgariff?

  But ix-nay on the...

• 7:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Fucking day.

• 7:43Karen Kilgariff?

  E-watch ray.

• 7:44Georgia Hardstark?

  Hey, Georgia, all episodes of Lizzie Borden are out. So, a lot of homework for you two. Okay, this just in. Thanks, Molly. All the episodes... Ryan Murphy has gotten the green light to release all the episodes of Lizzie Borden, whatever it's called.

• 8:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Molly, has it been going, or did they do a mass release?

• 8:04Georgia Hardstark?

  I think a big release. Yeah. So we'll watch it.

• 8:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Next week.

• 8:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Should we get to business?

• 8:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Sure.

• 8:11Karen Kilgariff?

  Because I have nothing else. Oh, I got a manicure. But I'm not trying to brag.

• 8:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Clearly you are. I have that horrible thing where when you get a gel manicure, but like, can't bring yourself to go back to the place, so you just have...

• 8:23Karen Kilgariff?

  You're peeling it slowly?

• 8:24Georgia Hardstark?

  No, it just looks terrible.

• 8:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:26Georgia Hardstark?

  What are you going to do?

• 8:26Karen Kilgariff?

  But let's see how long it lasts.

• 8:28Georgia Hardstark?

  How long?

• 8:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Could go months.

• 8:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Well, listen, while the world is still turning, we have a podcast network out there.

• 8:34Karen Kilgariff?

  Let's focus on the fundamentals.

• 8:35Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right, it's called Exactly Right Media. Here are some highlights.

• 8:39Karen Kilgariff?

  So this is very exciting. Our own Roz Hernandez, host of Ghosted by Roz Hernandez, is hitting the road and bringing the paranormal straight to a city near you. So head to rozhernandeztour.com for dates and tickets.

• 8:53Georgia Hardstark?

  And if you think that's exciting, grow up. Because last week Roz was the guest host on The Bald and the Beautiful with Trixie Mattel. You can watch it on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Such a gem, all of them.

• 9:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Truly love that show. Love Trixie, love Katya so much.

• 9:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Truly.

• 9:13Karen Kilgariff?

  And this just popped into my head. But one day, after I figured out and learned who Trixie and Katya were, however many years ago, I was still on Twitter, it was that long ago. I remember looking on my phone and looking it up, and Katya was already following me.

• 9:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 9:29Karen Kilgariff?

  That's one of those, like, you step into a world where you're like, I didn't know what this world was.

• 9:34Georgia Hardstark?

  This whole time, I've been popular, and I didn't even know it.

• 9:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Popular to the one person who matters. Now, here's more exciting news. Two of our hottest podcasts, Buried Bones and Disgrace Land, will be heading out to see this March for Virgin Voyages' True Crime Voyage.

• 9:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Have fun.

• 9:51Karen Kilgariff?

  They're taking it out onto a cruise ship. Have you ever wanted to talk to Paul Holes over a big plate of shrimp at the buffet? Well, now's your chance. Booking is open at virginvoyages.com.

• 10:01Georgia Hardstark?

  That's gonna be a riot.

• 10:03Karen Kilgariff?

  That's gonna be nutso, just like a ton of true crime devotees.

• 10:07Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 10:07Karen Kilgariff?

  On a very fancy boat.

• 10:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Who's gonna know the most about true crime?

• 10:10Karen Kilgariff?

  Baholes.

• 10:12Georgia Hardstark?

  And tomorrow on My Favorite Murder, we've got a special cars.com bonus advice episode where we just fucking give you guys advice.

• 10:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Just give advice.

• 10:20Georgia Hardstark?

  It's coming to your audio feeds and the fan cult members can watch the exclusive video at fancult.supercast.com.

• 10:27Karen Kilgariff?

  I mean, we're sincerely trying to help people.

• 10:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, we would never steer you wrong on purpose.

• 10:32Karen Kilgariff?

  We're really earnest, so you're gonna love it.

• 10:35Georgia Hardstark?

  We are.

• 10:36Karen Kilgariff?

  Then over in merch corner, we just premiered our brand new, you're gonna love it, MFM animated merch. Check this out. Nick Terry has made us this beautiful design, which is the lineup design of all the characters you've ever loved from a Nick Terry animated video. They're in a lineup. Me and Georgia are bookending everybody.

• 10:58Georgia Hardstark?

  It's so good.

• 10:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Just looking at it, it's just so delightful. So there's this tote, there is a mug, of course, a beautiful, large mug for people who really drink coffee like myself.

• 11:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Wrap around, which I like it because you don't have to decide which way you're gonna drink it from.

• 11:12Karen Kilgariff?

  No, and you can just hold it up and stare at it. I actually, Nicole, I would love to steal this at the end of this record. And then, of course, there's one of them slap koozies.

• 11:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay, this is so cool. Someone gave us one of these when we were on tour. I didn't know they existed yet because of my small cans of rosé that I don't drink anymore. But you can just put it on any size can.

• 11:32Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 11:33Georgia Hardstark?

  Which is so genius.

• 11:34Karen Kilgariff?

  And you get to slap it around.

• 11:36Georgia Hardstark?

  I'm just gonna fucking wear this.

• 11:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. Yeah, Wonder Woman. So go to theexactlyrightstore.com to get any and all of these wonderful pieces of merch and check out the newest MFM animated episode and the entire catalog of MFM animated clips over at myfavoritemurder.com/mfmanimated.

• 11:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Smash.

• 12:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Incredible. Rip that slap koozie in half.

• 12:05Georgia Hardstark?

  I'm Wonder Woman. All right, that's it.

• 12:07Karen Kilgariff?

  We've done it.

• 12:11Georgia Hardstark?

  I know I'm first because mine is a rough one.

• 12:16Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay.

• 12:16Georgia Hardstark?

  And it's one I feel like I've been waiting to do for a long time because, well, let's get into it.

• 12:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay. Here, I'm gonna just tell you this.

• 12:26Georgia Hardstark?

  What?

• 12:26Karen Kilgariff?

  One of our clips came up organically on my TikTok. Very jarring. Don't love it. Don't love.

• 12:33Georgia Hardstark?

  You can block yours, you can block us.

• 12:35Karen Kilgariff?

  That's my world.

• 12:36Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 12:36Karen Kilgariff?

  And all of a sudden, we're coming into it. But you were the first person in the clip and you had your glasses on and I was like, those do look cute on her.

• 12:44Georgia Hardstark?

  Really?

• 12:45Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes, they're super cute.

• 12:46Georgia Hardstark?

  You doubted my adorableness in glasses?

• 12:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, it's hard to see sometimes from inside the machine.

• 12:52Georgia Hardstark?

  Sure.

• 12:52Karen Kilgariff?

  But I was out there, Joe Lunchpail, watching TikTok like anybody. And I was like, who's this bespectacled gal?

• 13:01Georgia Hardstark?

  How do you feel about being on a Lunchpail?

• 13:03Karen Kilgariff?

  I couldn't be prouder.

• 13:04Georgia Hardstark?

  So let's get all the, all that out of the way.

• 13:07Karen Kilgariff?

  Yep, it's out.

• 13:08Georgia Hardstark?

  This story can be grouped in with some of the stories that we have covered in the past, including the 1991 yogurt shop murders in Austin, Texas, and the 1993 Browns chicken murders in Palatine, Illinois. Those are episodes 70 and 263, respectively. In both those cases, and the one I'm gonna tell you today, employees and customers were shot and killed by an unknown gunman and the cases went cold. And while both of those cold cases were finally solved, giving some modicum of relief for the victims' families, the one I'm gonna tell you today is still waiting for answers. And that's one of the reasons I haven't covered it is because it totally, I've been expecting it to be solved since we started this podcast.

• 13:50Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 13:51Georgia Hardstark?

  This is the story of the Lane Bryant murders.

• 13:54Karen Kilgariff?

  I've never heard of that.

• 13:55Georgia Hardstark?

  The main source for the story is reporting from the Chicago Tribune and the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. There's also a documentary about it called Who Killed These Women? So it's February 2nd, 2008, and we're in Tinley Park, which is a Chicago suburb southwest of the city, like 30 miles out of the city. Have you heard of it?

• 14:12Karen Kilgariff?

  No.

• 14:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Tinley Park. So I know when we say like, it's a suburb of some city, we always kind of imagine like, if it's a suburb of Detroit or Chicago or Los Angeles, you think to yourself, well, there's gotta be a little bit of rough and tumble going on because those can be dangerous cities, big cities like that, right? That's not this. That's like if we went to the valley in Encino and it's like, it's a suburb of Los Angeles, but it's really completely different from Los Angeles.

• 14:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Just like a nice little town.

• 14:39Georgia Hardstark?

  A nice little town. And it's considered extremely safe. And in fact, a short time after the story takes place, Tinley Park will be named as the best place in America to raise a family by Business Week.

• 14:51Karen Kilgariff?

  Wow.

• 14:51Georgia Hardstark?

  So that's how safe it is, how unbelievable it was to everyone who lived there that this happened there. So it's about 10:40 a.m. on a chilly Saturday morning, when a 911 dispatcher takes a call. The caller whispers into the phone and says, quote, Lane Bryant. And the dispatcher asks, quote, where at? And the caller whispers, quote, Tinley Park, hurry. And you can listen to the 911.

• 15:16Karen Kilgariff?

  No, I cannot.

• 15:17Georgia Hardstark?

  I know.

• 15:17Karen Kilgariff?

  911 dispatch operators are some of the bravest people there are.

• 15:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 15:22Karen Kilgariff?

  Because you are first there for a person in a horrible situation.

• 15:27Georgia Hardstark?

  And every word matters. Like, you have to pick up on every single thing that's going on immediately. So the Tinley Park Lane Bryant store is in a shopping center called the Brookside Marketplace. It's a pretty typical, like newer suburban neighborhood shopping center populated by an anchor store, it's the Target Superstore, and then some chain businesses. It's like when you're going up to Five and you stop for coffee at one of the like.

• 15:51Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:52Georgia Hardstark?

  You know what I mean? Just beige.

• 15:54Karen Kilgariff?

  Like a big fancy strip mall, kind of.

• 15:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 15:56Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 15:56Georgia Hardstark?

  In fact, Lane Bryant is next door to a Sally's Beauty. Like, it's just so normal. And so it just so happens that a police officer is at the Target when the 911 call comes in. So within two minutes, police arrive at the store.

• 16:11Karen Kilgariff?

  Wow.

• 16:12Georgia Hardstark?

  That's how quick it is. What he finds is horrifying, six women, all bound and gagged and all shot, execution style. Miraculously, one woman turned her head as she was shot and then played dead as the perp fled. So her identity has never been made public to protect her safety and her privacy. What we know is she is a 33-year-old employee of the store. And from her account, we get a full timeline of what happened. So the 911 caller turns out to have been the store manager. She is a 42-year-old woman named Rhoda McFarland. And so Rhoda and the survivor opened the store together that day at 10 a.m. And Rhoda,

• 16:53Georgia Hardstark?

  the manager, wasn't supposed to be working that day, but she had come in to help because another employee, it was her birthday and she gave her the day off. And that was the kind of person she was. So she came in to help because she knew it would be busy. They were running a clearance sale. Rhoda had been a nurse practitioner in the Air Force and a minister and ran a self-esteem program for girls called Princess Unveiled. She had recently gotten engaged. She had initially started working at the store to make ends meet while she was between jobs, but she loved the job so much she stayed. And I mean, every single person who talks about her talks about what an incredible, you know, light up the room woman, take the shirt off her back for anyone, kind of person she was. So shortly after Rhoda and the other employee opened the store, one or two of the other

• 17:38Georgia Hardstark?

  women came into the store as well. They're shopping. It's not totally clear on which women came in what order, but at some point, a man enters the store and starts talking to Rhoda and the woman who's the survivor. And it seems as though both women had the impression that he was a delivery man. He had come in with some paperwork and said he had a delivery for them, but Rhoda was like, there's no delivery scheduled today. And also, they knew the delivery people. They were pretty much the same people every time. So that was strange. But it sounds like Rhoda wasn't particularly concerned about this man and really believed he was who he said he was, because she called a few other nearby Lane Bryant stores to see if their store had received their delivery by mistake.

• 18:22Georgia Hardstark?

  And so who knows what's going on in her mind at the time. It's, you know, we only have one person's panicked retelling of the story.

• 18:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Right.

• 18:30Georgia Hardstark?

  You know?

• 18:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 18:31Georgia Hardstark?

  So after about 15 minutes of this, the man suddenly pulls out a 40 caliber Glock handgun and says that he's robbing the store. He empties the register, which probably only had a couple hundred bucks in it.

• 18:43Karen Kilgariff?

  They just opened.

• 18:44Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. And also, it's 2008. No one's using cash anymore, really.

• 18:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 18:49Georgia Hardstark?

  And has the two employees and the two customers hand over all their jewelry to him. And then he brings the four women to the back of the store and has them lie down on the floor, binds their hands together with duct tape that I believe he brought in. He also gropes at least one of the women at this point. He also gets underwear from inside the store and puts it over their heads to prevent them being able to see, which he had been there already for like 15 minutes talking to them. It's just such an odd thing to do. At this point, two more customers come in the store. And the man robs each of them at gunpoint, demanding that they hand over their money and valuables. And according to the survivor, the man just became more and more agitated as time went on.

• 19:32Georgia Hardstark?

  And it's such an odd case, and we can get into it, that it doesn't seem like a typical robbery in any way. He didn't lock the door. There's only a couple hundred bucks. He took the money and jewelry from the victims and then didn't leave. It just doesn't make sense as to why. And then why a Lane Bryant, to begin with? There's like so many other shops in the area.

• 19:52Karen Kilgariff?

  But also, if he's groping women, if he's putting underwear on people, there's a fetish aspect, potentially. I don't know. But that, to me, feels like part of it, where it's disorganized because it's maybe like inspired by something that he isn't totally in control of.

• 20:11Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. It's like misleading.

• 20:13Karen Kilgariff?

  And he probably was never there to rob anybody.

• 20:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally, totally. So according to the survivor, the man becomes more and more agitated as time goes on. And it seems like his plan had been just to rob customers as they came in the store. But he was becoming frustrated when he realized that this was not going to get him a lot of money and valuables. So after about 40 minutes of watching the man become more and more erratic, Rhoda makes that 911 phone call that we heard about in the beginning.

• 20:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Wow.

• 20:38Georgia Hardstark?

  So brave of her to do that. And I think that just speaks to her personality so much, is that she put herself at peril to try to help these girls. And it sounds like she could have run out the exit, but she wouldn't have left them behind. So she stayed to call 911. The line goes dead abruptly, leaving investigators to believe that the man had then discovered her making the call, panicked, and then he shoots all the women. So in addition to Rhoda, the other victims are Sarah Zofransky, who is just 22 years old. She had just graduated from Northern Illinois University. She had been shopping for work clothes, having recently started her first full-time job. Sarah worked at an insurance company where her dad Ted also worked, and the two would

• 21:23Georgia Hardstark?

  commute together on the train every day. She loved board games like Cranium and the Bears trivia contests. There's also Carrie Hudekchuzo, who's 33, and she's a social worker. Her family and husband describe her as bubbly and opinionated, and she had been looking forward excitedly to becoming an aunt. At every opportunity, she would bug her brother and sister-in-law, who she was best friends with, to name the baby after her. Carrie's career was dedicated to working with at-risk children and teenagers, and she volunteered with additional programs in her spare time.

• 21:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Wow.

• 21:59Georgia Hardstark?

  Connie Wolfke is 37 and works as a mortgage lender. She had founded an organization called the Unity Coalition, meant to celebrate diversity and fight prejudice in Chicago's southern suburbs. She had been the president of the Illinois chapter of the National Coalition Building Institute, and she had two sons, one who's 16 and one who's 10, who had spina bifida and depended on his mom for a lot of daily care. She was going to meet friends for a rare girls' night out and wanted to find a new outfit to wear, and that's what she was doing at Lane Bryant.

• 22:29Karen Kilgariff?

  God.

• 22:30Georgia Hardstark?

  I know. And it's believed Connie fought back because she had defensive wounds, which is one of the ways that they got DNA from the attacker.

• 22:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Wow.

• 22:39Georgia Hardstark?

  I know. Jenny Bishop is 34. She had been an ICU nurse at South Bend Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana, and had only been in town with her husband, who had been attending a conference nearby. The two have three children. The youngest is a baby, about six months old, and the other two are five and seven. And so here's a photo of the five victims.

• 23:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Hmm.

• 23:02Georgia Hardstark?

  I mean, it's just so hard to imagine the wrong place at the wrong time, but that's not enough of an explanation to like make me be able to fall asleep at night, you know?

• 23:13Karen Kilgariff?

  Right.

• 23:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Like, these wonderful women who had so much to give just senselessly murdered.

• 23:19Karen Kilgariff?

  And held captive before. 40 minutes is such a long time to be like, have your life threatened with a gun.

• 23:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 23:27Karen Kilgariff?

  And, you know.

• 23:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Just be in fear. Yeah.

• 23:30Karen Kilgariff?

  And such an odd, that idea that he was keeping the store open and letting people come in is such a sign of a damaged mind.

• 23:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. I mean, for the investigators, it's to them said that this isn't an experienced robber. It maybe had more to do with drugs.

• 23:45Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 23:46Georgia Hardstark?

  Or something like that.

• 23:47Karen Kilgariff?

  Right.

• 23:48Georgia Hardstark?

  You know, and they looked into every single person who was there or who was supposed to be there, you know, other employees, and they could just find no ties to this person whatsoever. And a lot of the theories are like, this person had this in their background, that person. But I don't even want to get into them because it's, there's no leads that are correct. And that's just speculation and victim blaming, and we don't want to do that.

• 24:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Right, right.

• 24:09Georgia Hardstark?

  You know?

• 24:10Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 24:11Georgia Hardstark?

  And then here's the Lane Bryant crime scene from outside. It reminds me so much of the yogurt shop murders, where it's just such a normal fucking place that you just go after work or whenever.

• 24:21Karen Kilgariff?

  Yep.

• 24:22Georgia Hardstark?

  And it becomes this just horrible scene. 911, what's your emergency? Please help us.

• 24:31Speaker 02

  They're everywhere.

• 24:33Georgia Hardstark?

  We think they're murder hornets.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  911 Nashville returns.

• 24:37Speaker 02

  There's a homicide detective down here.

• 24:39Speaker 03

  Three bodies on the ground.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 24:43Speaker 03

  All sins swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues for a Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  Whether you're buying, renting, or selling, Zillow can help make your someday today to help find a home that fits where you are in life, or that apartment that's a little closer to where you want to be. Zillow has the right information, tools, and support to help turn your future home into a reality. Because someday starts today. Visit zillow.com/today to get started.

• 25:22Speaker 01

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• 25:50Georgia Hardstark?

  So the first officer on the scene, right after the line went dead, as I said, he had been at the target. And then more officers show up quickly after. But the shooter is gone. So he was there within a minute or two, let's say. And there's no trace of the shooter. And it's a Saturday morning, so it's really not that crowded there. Just gone. So actually, we have this incredible resource of our Gmail, of people writing us in throughout the years. We got an email in 2017 from a woman named Dana, who it turns out worked at the Sally next door.

• 26:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, wow.

• 26:25Georgia Hardstark?

  To Lane Bryant and was there that morning and emailed us and said, "I work at a retail chain in Tinley Park, Illinois. It's a newer plaza with very little stores on the strip of the side we were on. Just us, two, one other store, a few vacancies, and past that, a couple more. One Saturday morning, I was in the back working at my desk when I heard a few quick clinking noises. Sounded like someone dropped a metal display next door. It made me look up from my papers. I looked behind me to see if my boss heard it, but she was on the phone and did not. I looked back down, not thinking anything of it. Five minutes later, coming from the front of the store, hello, hello, anybody here? Sometimes customers get cranky when they don't see a sales associate immediately. Assuming it was just that, I walked to the front and said, be right there.

• 27:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Much to my surprise, it was a frazzled police officer. He immediately yells at me to lock the doors and asks if I had seen anyone. I told him, no, we just opened, and it's just me and my boss here. He runs out yelling, lock the door. A minute later, still frazzled, he comes back and starts asking me questions. Who came into the store today? Did you notice anything strange? And then said, all caps, it's a bloodbath over there.

• 27:34Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 27:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Pointing next door. Stay inside and do not go anywhere. And that's from Dana. That's just part of the email, but there's a lot more about what happened and how, you know, horrifying it was, I'm sure, for Dana.

• 27:46Karen Kilgariff?

  Dana was like on the scene, like witnessing without realizing it.

• 27:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 27:52Karen Kilgariff?

  That's so scary.

• 27:53Georgia Hardstark?

  And if you chose one store over, that's where she was. I mean, it's incredible. And she was in the documentary. It's called Who Killed These Women: The Tinley Park Five? Got a little bit of a corny reenactment opening, but then there's some good interviews in it. So police lock down the shopping center and go through every store and stop cars on the way out, but this turns up zero leads. Investigators believe the shooter might have managed to get to the I-80, which is right by, it's so close, meaning you could get on it and get out of town very quickly. And there's no surveillance in the area at the time. It's like 2008, so it's kind of seems like on the cusp of that. I know a lot of stores had like security cameras that weren't hooked up to anything

• 28:36Georgia Hardstark?

  just to scare people off shoplifting.

• 28:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Right.

• 28:40Georgia Hardstark?

  But Lane Bryant didn't have any security cameras. There was a camera pointed at the shopping center from across the busy road, and this footage captured one SUV and one sedan, which both pulled in front of the store while the assailant was already inside and left at around 10:47, right around when the shooter would have fled, which leads investigators to think there's an accomplice, but that might just be a red herring. So the footage of those vehicles did not capture license plate and the exact vehicles have never been tracked down. So it's just, he could have gone out the back door and just ran into the fields or actually had a car back there.

• 29:15Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 29:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Because we don't know which way he fled.

• 29:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Of all the disorganization of the rest of the attack.

• 29:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 29:21Karen Kilgariff?

  Then he just gets away clean and scot-free. Like, why can't that part also be screwed up?

• 29:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, they have everything they need, including DNA and just no suspects.

• 29:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Right.

• 29:31Georgia Hardstark?

  So frustrating. So investigators also have DNA from a coffee cup that he may have left behind and samples from the crime scene, but it has either not matched any profiles in any database or the sample was not good enough to use. I think they have it. The killer also left shell casings at the scene. So the survivor is actually able to give police a detailed description of what this man looked like. And you imagine if she hadn't made it, how much less you'd have to go on.

• 29:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 29:58Georgia Hardstark?

  And the fact that she was able to do this and it still didn't lead anything has to just feel so awful for her. The description is used to make a sketch, which is widely shown on the news. The survivor says he was between 5'9" and 6'2". He looked to be in his mid-20s to mid-30s and had a broad, solid build. She says he was black with a medium dark skin tone and his hair was styled in wide cornrows, about five braids total, which came to about his chin. And most of the braids were straight back towards his neck, but one was loose, hanging by his cheek with four light green beads at the end. Like, she was able to remember to that level.

• 30:34Karen Kilgariff?

  Amazing.

• 30:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. He also wore a gray beanie and he was wearing dark jeans with an embroidered letter G on the back, which was a brand insignia. And he was well groomed and his fingernails appeared to be manicured. So here's a photo of the 3D sketch that later came out, based on the regular sketch. It's pretty generic.

• 30:52Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 30:53Georgia Hardstark?

  But you've got to imagine someone would recognize their brother or their friend or, you know. In addition to the sketch, the audio from the 911 call is released. Because in it, you can faintly hear the shooter's voice in the background as he gets more and more agitated. And he's yelling at the women or something, you know, he's yelling at someone. It's really hard to make out exactly what he's saying, but they think it includes the words, "I'm losing it" and foolishness. I heard the word bullshit. They also think there's something about, like, you want to be a hero, like, but it's really, really hard to tell what the voice is saying. But it's clear there's someone yelling in it and maybe someone will recognize his voice and that's why they released it. And remember, the Brown's Chicken massacre, that was solved because the ex-girlfriend

• 31:37Georgia Hardstark?

  of one of the killers came forward.

• 31:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 31:39Georgia Hardstark?

  So why not in this one, too?

• 31:41Karen Kilgariff?

  The people who maybe at the time of the crime felt like they didn't have the power or the ability to say anything.

• 31:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 31:51Karen Kilgariff?

  And then with a little time.

• 31:53Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 31:53Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 31:54Georgia Hardstark?

  Distance.

• 31:54Karen Kilgariff?

  Changes.

• 31:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. Shortly after the murders, a $55,000 reward, primarily sponsored by Elaine Bryant's parent company, is offered for information leading to the gunman's arrest. And Elaine Bryant also offered to pay for the victims' funerals. There aren't really many major theories, aside from like a botched robbery and just random speculation, as I said, about this having something to do with someone's private life, which I'm just not even going to get into. A few days after the murders, the survivor, can you imagine? And they've never given out her name. I think there's a first name, but I don't know if it's real or not. I mean, investigators weren't going to say that there was a survivor, but someone leaked that there was a sixth woman who survived. So they had to just keep her identity under wraps. A few days after the murders, the survivor issues a statement addressed to the victim's

• 32:40Georgia Hardstark?

  loved ones, calling the women who died, quote, "five of the bravest women I have ever met", end quote. She also says, quote, "Please know that during the unfathomable events of that day, their thoughts were focused on you and coming home. My heart aches that they were unable to do so," end quote. In the 18 years since the murders, there have been several renewed efforts to solve the case. All of the victims' families still deeply believe that it can be solved. The Tinley Police maintains a multi-agency task force working the case and say they've investigated over 7,000 tips over the years.

• 33:15Karen Kilgariff?

  Wow, that's a huge number.

• 33:17Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. And it's such a small town, too. I'm sure people are so wanting to help, but.

• 33:22Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 33:23Georgia Hardstark?

  They also took the step of consulting the VDOC Society in 2016, which is the nonprofit, Philadelphia-based organization of forensic experts, profilers and criminologists that help law enforcement solve difficult cold case homicides. But nothing yet has come out of that. And the reward money has been raised to $100,000. This past February, Carrie Hudak Chuzo's brother, Mike Hudak, said, quote, "This individual is not going to be caught until someone speaks up or identifies who he is," end quote. Carrie was the one who had been lobbying for her brother and sister-in-law to name their new baby after her. The baby was born, I think, a day or two after the shooting and she's named Carrie after her auntie.

• 34:06Karen Kilgariff?

  God.

• 34:06Georgia Hardstark?

  And that is the story of the eminently solvable Elaine Bryant murders.

• 34:11Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm so glad you did that. I've never heard of it.

• 34:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Really?

• 34:14Karen Kilgariff?

  And it's almost 20 years old.

• 34:17Georgia Hardstark?

  I know, yeah.

• 34:18Karen Kilgariff?

  That's crazy. That should be, I mean.

• 34:21Georgia Hardstark?

  It's got to be so frustrating for the investigators.

• 34:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 34:23Georgia Hardstark?

  I think they did and are doing as much as they can.

• 34:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, and I think you're right in that with the yogurt shop murders and watching these other ones, watching people talk about it, watching it keep coming up, watching, I'll call it like the directive toward solution. Where it's like, people want to talk about that, like, oh, this is, you're bad for having this interest. And it's like, there's people who truly want these things solved.

• 34:47Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 34:47Karen Kilgariff?

  Whether it's because they worked in that business, they knew somebody, they have it in their past, like the VDOC Society, for example. Those are all people that like, I'll work overtime, I'm retired, I don't care, I want to get this done.

• 35:00Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 35:00Karen Kilgariff?

  And something like that should be solved. It should be, it should get solved.

• 35:06Georgia Hardstark?

  I know, I know. Those poor women.

• 35:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, great job.

• 35:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Thank you.

• 35:11Karen Kilgariff?

  I mean, those ones are always like that.

• 35:13Georgia Hardstark?

  I know. And we had a bunch of emails from listeners that were involved, like, knew someone who was involved somehow or, you know, lived in that town and just talked about how terrifying that was. I mean.

• 35:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 35:25Georgia Hardstark?

  It's just crazy.

• 35:26Karen Kilgariff?

  It's so many people to be affected, too, when it's like a group of people like that.

• 35:31Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 35:34Speaker 01

  911, what's your emergency? Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder warrants. 911 Nashville returns.

• 35:44Speaker 02

  There's a homicide detective down here.

• 35:45Speaker 03

  Three bodies on the ground.

• 35:47Speaker 01

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  All sins swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 35:52Speaker 02

  That's one of the plagues of the Bible.

• 35:54Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  Bryant-Philippi joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 36:03Speaker 00

  Whether you're buying, renting or selling, Zillow can help make your someday today to help find a home that fits where you are in life or that apartment that's a little closer to where you want to be. Zillow has the right information, tools and support to help turn your future home into a reality because someday starts today. Visit zillow.com/today to get started.

• 36:28Speaker 01

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 37:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, good job. I'm going to change the tone here.

• 37:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Great.

• 37:04Karen Kilgariff?

  As we always do.

• 37:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 37:05Karen Kilgariff?

  And this one is, it'll be more satisfying.

• 37:07Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 37:08Karen Kilgariff?

  So I don't know if you knew, but it's Hispanic Heritage Month and it started September 15th and goes to October 15th.

• 37:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, great.

• 37:16Karen Kilgariff?

  So in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I'm going to bring you to Houston, Texas in the late 1970s.

• 37:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 37:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Mexican-American Detective Sergeant Jim Montero is sitting at his desk in the robbery division of the Houston Police Department. Jim is in his early 40s. He's been a detective for almost 20 years. And along with his own caseload, he is starting to realize that he's constantly being asked by his white colleagues to translate for all of the witnesses and the victims and the suspects that they have to interact with that don't speak English. Jim is just one of a handful of bilingual officers working for the Houston Police. And this is a time when most of the crimes reported in Houston's Hispanic neighborhoods go unsolved.

• 38:04Karen Kilgariff?

  In 1979 alone, 664 homicides are reported in Houston and one in four of those victims is Hispanic.

• 38:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 38:15Karen Kilgariff?

  If that feels high to you, it is because in 2025, they reported 270 homicides.

• 38:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God, like one-third the amount, basically.

• 38:24Karen Kilgariff?

  I was going to say a third, but I can't do math, so.

• 38:27Georgia Hardstark?

  Approximately.

• 38:28Karen Kilgariff?

  We're approximate statisticians here. And yet, the clearance rate for those crimes at the time is around 20%, whereas murders involving white or black victims have clearance rates of around 70%.

• 38:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 38:43Karen Kilgariff?

  So it's obvious to Jim that the language barrier is what's driving this disparity. So he goes to his police chief and convinces him that they need more Spanish-language interpreters. Jim's given the green light to assemble a small, temporary bilingual task force made up of himself and other Spanish-speaking patrol officers, anyone he can find. He's told it'll be a 90-day pilot program. And once they're done, he'll go back to the robbery division and the others will go back on patrol. Turns out, in those 90 days, the task force Jim puts together will not only make history, but it'll change the Houston Police Department forever. This is the story of the Houston Police Department's Chicano Squad.

• 39:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 39:27Karen Kilgariff?

  Have you ever heard of this?

• 39:29Georgia Hardstark?

  No, me either. Not even when we were in Texas doing stories.

• 39:32Karen Kilgariff?

  I know. So, the main sources used today are articles from the Houston Chronicle and a two-part A and E documentary called The Chicano Squad. And the rest of the sources are in our show notes. So, of course, since it's 1979, when Detective Jim Montero starts putting this Spanish-speaking task force of, hey, let us be in this conversation and enable people to actually speak when they're interacting with the police, this is a time when the Houston Police Department's reputation is, simply put, by Marin, who's very careful with her words, in the gutter. Many people who live in Houston see the Police Department as a corrupt racist boys' club, notorious not only for regularly harassing Hispanic and Latino residents on the streets,

• 40:16Karen Kilgariff?

  but for discriminating against Black and Brown Department applicants to basically ensure that they maintain mostly a white police force. As one Black Houstonian told a reporter in 1980, quote, "Beatings and shootings of minority group people by the police here are common. This may be the most brutal and feared Police Department in the country."

• 40:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow, that's terrifying.

• 40:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, so Jim Montero is especially qualified to understand the problem in front of him. There's the language barrier, but there's also such a deep mistrust of the police that many Black and Brown people just simply will not talk to police officers at all. Jim knows this lack of communication is a giant roadblock to the investigative work that they want to do. And he believes it's vital his fellow translators aren't just bilingual, but that they were either raised in or now live in these Spanish-speaking neighborhoods where these crimes were taking place, so that some sort of trust can finally be established where there's never been any before. So, he recruits six patrol officers who fit this criteria, and they are 26-year-old Cecil

• 41:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Mosqueta, 28-year-old Joe Salvera Jr., 33-year-old U.P. Hernandez, 29-year-old Robert Gatewood, 38-year-old Jose De Leon, and then, of course, Jim Montero, who is the leader.

• 41:37Georgia Hardstark?

  That is the most 70s photo I've ever seen.

• 41:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Was it that you had to speak Spanish to be in this, or that you had to have or be able to grow a really nice mustache?

• 41:44Georgia Hardstark?

  Absolutely.

• 41:45Karen Kilgariff?

  Because that seems to be highly required.

• 41:48Georgia Hardstark?

  We're gonna need a wide-stripe tie, please.

• 41:50Karen Kilgariff?

  And here's what's really funny, this is a point that comes up later, but when they first put this task force together, they give them a tiny office with one desk and one typewriter.

• 42:00Georgia Hardstark?

  For all of them?

• 42:01Karen Kilgariff?

  For everybody, and that's it. I like to think that's the office where they just had to stand around like shoulder to shoulder, talk about crimes. So, the officers that Jim Montero pulls from patrol, they have between three years' experience and 10 years' experience. Many people would call a lot of them rookies, just because they're still patrol officers. Some of them are at the top of their game of being patrol officers, they're not yet detectives. Some of them, basically, after three years, it's like they just joined.

• 42:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Those are probably not given a lot of chances to advance because of the racism, too.

• 42:35Karen Kilgariff?

  Right, the roadblocks are everywhere. The first issue that the team deals with together is what to wear, because everybody but Jim just wears a uniform every day. So, Jim tells them, quote, "You're gonna wear the best clothes you've got: suit, sport coats, shine shoes, and comb your hair. Look good, because when you're coming down the hall, they're gonna be looking at you and they'll want to find something wrong."

• 42:59Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 43:00Karen Kilgariff?

  End quote.

• 43:01Georgia Hardstark?

  I also imagine that the people they're speaking to, the victims and the perpetrators, don't want to see you in a cop uniform. They don't trust that to begin with.

• 43:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes, exactly. But they want to know they're talking to a professional, someone that's got their act together, that is going to help them.

• 43:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 43:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, I just love that, because it's like, when you're coming down the hall, they're gonna look for something to find wrong. It's like, isn't that always the way for the marginalized?

• 43:25Georgia Hardstark?

  Everything has to be perfect.

• 43:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Yep, over time.

• 43:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 43:29Karen Kilgariff?

  So, from day one of this task force, these guys roll in, wearing their crisp suits and their beautiful coiffed hair, and of course, their majestic mustaches. They're in a 10 by 15-foot office. That's how big that office is.

• 43:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 43:43Karen Kilgariff?

  It's like, it's an office like the studio, but seven guys. It's at police headquarters. They have one desk, one chair, one typewriter, and that's it for resources. So, they spend their first couple of days in the field, responding to robberies, sex crimes, and homicides. And so, when they arrive on the scene, they meet up with the white detectives assigned to each case, and then essentially shadow them while they work, translating when needed. Then they go back to the tiny office, and they wait their turn to type up their notes on the one typewriter that they have. And they work, of course, long, nonstop hours. Cecil Mosqueta, who was a member of the original task force, will later say, quote, "We were

• 44:24Karen Kilgariff?

  confused, we were lost, but we ran with it." So, as they move from crime scene to crime scene, they can now see firsthand how much the language barrier is hampering Houston PD's investigations. In one case involving the murder of a Hispanic security guard in a Houston warehouse, the assigned white detective notes that there's a potential witness out there named, quote, "Flaco." The detective has been going door to door near the crime scene, hoping to find someone who can connect him with this person, Flaco. No one ever seems to know who he's talking about, the case goes nowhere. When this task force is finally looped in, they figure out the detective has misheard the Spanish word "flaco," which means skinny.

• 45:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, wow.

• 45:11Karen Kilgariff?

  This almost certainly is both a nickname and the physical description of the guy he's looking for. And when they finally find Flaco, they get the information they needed, this single small correction breaks the case wide open. Consequential fixes like this start immediately. The task force is off to such a good start, that just a few days into its existence, the men arrive back to their tiny office to find a stack of 52 cold murder cases waiting for them. Each involves Spanish-speaking victims or neighborhoods with many Hispanic and Latino residents. So, the men divide up the files and start looking through them. Cecil Mosqueta will later say, quote, "We're sitting there on the floor, we're reading," in their suits.

• 45:56Georgia Hardstark?

  My God.

• 45:57Karen Kilgariff?

  "We're reading, and the reports are nothing. There was nothing done, no follow-ups done, a lot of whodunnits and unsolved cases." End quote. As he puts it, the white homicide detectives assigned to those cases, quote, "Really just didn't care." End quote. The men realize now that the expectations have shifted. Instead of following detectives out in the field and acting as basic translators, the task force has now been assigned to these 52 cases to investigate themselves. As Jim puts it later, quote, "We started out as interpreters, that lasted about a week." End quote.

• 46:34Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 46:35Karen Kilgariff?

  So, here's the big problem. Of the six men on this task force, none of them have ever conducted a homicide investigation except for Jim Montero. Now, it's clear that no formal training will be offered, and Jim realizes it will be up to him to give the rest of them a crash course on solving murders. So, he goes and gets some index cards, and on them, he writes things like, quote, "Describe scene of offense," or "Collect and label evidence," or "Interrogate suspects." Each member of the task force is given an index card, and then with those cards, they just hit the streets, and that's their thing they have to do.

• 47:11Georgia Hardstark?

  Just directions of what the steps to take. Wow.

• 47:14Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. Early on, they have a hard time finding anyone willing to talk to them. Some people assume the officers have come to start trouble, like so many police have done before. Others consider them sellouts for joining such a notoriously horrible police force. Cecil will later say, quote, "I knew why people felt that way. Policemen were always coming around my neighborhood, we thought they were bad." End quote. And with good reason, of course. At the time, Houston's Mexican-American population is still reeling from the May, two years before, the May 1977 murder of 23-year-old Vietnam War veteran Jose Campos Torres by white Houston police officers. So, here's Jose, we have a picture of him from the Army.

• 47:57Karen Kilgariff?

  He'd been arrested for drunken disorderly outside of a cantina, but instead of taking him to jail, the officers drove him out to a remote area near a bayou, beat him to death, and then threw his body in the water.

• 48:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 48:11Karen Kilgariff?

  It's kind of like the Starlight Tours.

• 48:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, Starlight Express Tours, yeah.

• 48:15Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 48:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Starlight Tours.

• 48:17Karen Kilgariff?

  The Starlight Tours up in Canada, where it's just like, it's a thing that's done, that police have done historically. So, Jose Torres's body is found days later.

• 48:27Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 48:28Karen Kilgariff?

  One officer came forward and told the truth about what happened that night, and he implicated his colleagues, and those officers were fired and charged with murder. Some of them received immunity in exchange for their testimony, while others were ultimately handed misdemeanors by an all-white jury with no jail time and a fine of $1.

• 48:50Georgia Hardstark?

  That's almost more insulting.

• 48:51Karen Kilgariff?

  It is. It's directly fucking insulting.

• 48:54Georgia Hardstark?

  That is so horrific.

• 48:55Karen Kilgariff?

  It's a fuck you. Absolutely.

• 48:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow, that's just awful.

• 49:00Karen Kilgariff?

  In the aftermath, some of Houston's Mexican-American activists and probably just people, they start pinning dollar bills to their shirts, reminding the rest of the city, this is what the Houston PD believes our lives are worth.

• 49:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 49:16Karen Kilgariff?

  Walking around with a dollar pinned to their shirt.

• 49:17Georgia Hardstark?

  That is so powerful.

• 49:19Karen Kilgariff?

  So, knowing this is the history they're up against, this task force does everything they can to cultivate genuine trust. They approach people with warmth and kindness. Jim remembers, quote, "We put the word out. We're not in the deportation business. We're there to help. You've got to talk to them, get them to trust you," end quote. Then Cecil also says, quote, "We did a lot of foot investigation, a lot of knock and talks. We didn't just sit there. It was hands-on. We did whatever it took," end quote. So, they're going door to door, they're introducing themselves, they're handing out business cards with their contact information, and they're letting people know help really is one phone call away, and they're the people that are answering the phone.

• 50:01Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 50:01Karen Kilgariff?

  And it ends up working. Slowly, people open up to these officers, sometimes literally inviting them into their home for meals. These connections pay off almost immediately. Joe will later say, quote, "Somewhere in those houses, there was a señora that's always out there watering the plants or sitting on that porch that saw something."

• 50:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 50:22Karen Kilgariff?

  You get an Anglo investigator, he's not going to get that information.

• 50:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 50:27Karen Kilgariff?

  End quote. I mean, it's just so obvious and true to us today, but this is our real history in this country. This is the very recent past of the white boys are in charge, they'll do it how they want, and if people of color and marginalized people are hurt or killed in the process, well, that's just the way it is.

• 50:49Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 50:49Karen Kilgariff?

  And we've all lived that way for a long time.

• 50:52Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 50:53Karen Kilgariff?

  And it's really fascinating to think of, there were first people who got in there to stop, to stop it and change it.

• 51:00Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 51:01Karen Kilgariff?

  And thank God, it was someone like Jim Montero and all the rest of the people on this task force who were going to actually do it. They weren't just going to phone it in.

• 51:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 51:10Karen Kilgariff?

  So, this approach begins to foster mutual respect, and it becomes crucial in many cases. Cecil Mosqueta works a homicide where witnesses refuse to talk to the white detectives. He finds out it's because the officers openly mocked the murder victim for being shot to death while holding a case of beer.

• 51:29Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 51:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Why in God's name would you be talking to that person? Why would you help that person do their job ever?

• 51:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Clearly, they don't care.

• 51:36Karen Kilgariff?

  Cecil goes and speaks to the same witnesses and convinces them he wants to do right by the victim and right by the community. The people who know things start talking, and very soon Cecil is able to solve the case. Solve an old murder case that was just going to sit there. And it's the kind of thing where I started thinking about of like, how many police departments in how many cities across this country, that's what all the cold cases are.

• 52:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 52:02Karen Kilgariff?

  It's who cared about who and who didn't.

• 52:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 52:06Karen Kilgariff?

  So, another unsolved homicide the task force inherits involves a fatal shooting in a cantina from two years prior. There are no recorded leads, witnesses, or tips of any kind in the case file. It looks like the white detective assigned to the case just didn't do any work on it at all. So, the men drive over to this cantina, and they introduce themselves. Hey, we're the task force. We speak Spanish. We would like to solve these murders. They matter to us. They ask a few basic questions, and the bartenders immediately open up. It turns out the murder started as an argument between two men at the bar. The victim was shot in front of many horrified witnesses, but more importantly, the lack of any real investigation

• 52:49Karen Kilgariff?

  has left the killer emboldened. He regularly comes back into this cantina, putting his gun on the bar when he drinks as a show of power.

• 52:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Holy shit.

• 52:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Now, basically, the task force can be like, the next time he comes here, call us, and we will come. And that's exactly what happens. That man does come back. The bartenders have the task force number pinned behind the bar. They know who's answering the phone, so they call and say the killer's back, and the team rushes down and arrests him.

• 53:19Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow. It's almost like, it's so ridiculous, because it's not like they didn't want to give evidence, and they didn't want to talk. There was just nobody to do it, like, nobody to talk to.

• 53:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Right.

• 53:29Georgia Hardstark?

  Because nobody cared.

• 53:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Nobody cared, and it's, that's that kind of, then we have to solve problems within our own, well, we'll handle it, and like, just don't go near that guy next to, whatever it is. Yeah, then you have to start self-policing. And then, yeah. After just one month, the task force has closed 12 homicide cases.

• 53:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 53:49Karen Kilgariff?

  Joe Silveira Jr. will later say, quote, "When I did my first murder, being able to bring that closure, I felt good about that. That gave me purpose," end quote. Because this is, this is a street cop. This is a beat cop, and now he's a successful detective.

• 54:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 54:06Karen Kilgariff?

  The cases just keep coming, not always in good faith. Some white detectives, hoping to see the task force fail, try to overwhelm them with an impossible number of unsolved investigations. A Houston Police Department colleague will tell the Houston Chronicle that, quote, "They were thrown everything they had, anything that sounded like a Spanish surname, more in resentment of their existence. But these guys worked them all. They just became a trusted resource in the community."

• 54:32Georgia Hardstark?

  Amazing.

• 54:33Karen Kilgariff?

  So, they were like, it's the thing I love the most when people do it, and it's very hard to do. It's like the Bugs Bunny move, where you're like, oh, is that what you're doing? Sounds good. I'll, I'll make a day of it.

• 54:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 54:41Karen Kilgariff?

  I will succeed at you trying to make me fail.

• 54:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 54:45Karen Kilgariff?

  So, the task force is also getting very nice press for all of this success. The media is the one that actually dubs them the Chicanosquad, but of course, that brings the haters, as always. So, the white detectives are angrier than ever before. Some try to take credit for the cases the Chicanosquad clears. Others complain the only reason they became detectives is because they got unfair preferential treatment.

• 55:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God. Are you kidding me?

• 55:12Karen Kilgariff?

  Sounds familiar. Yeah, exactly.

• 55:13Georgia Hardstark?

  I've had to work twice as hard for half the respect, and you're telling.

• 55:17Karen Kilgariff?

  In a room, a little bit bigger than a broom closet, and yeah, you're right. This is because I'm special circumstances.

• 55:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 55:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Cecil remembers one white officer telling him, quote, "I know why y'all got in, because y'all are Hispanics. That's why," he said. We're still in the quote. He said, "You're not smart enough to be promoted to detective. Oh, man, did that hit me hard. That's what motivated me. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it and to shut them down."

• 55:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Hell, yeah.

• 55:46Karen Kilgariff?

  End quote. Yeah, go ahead and call me stupid.

• 55:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 55:49Karen Kilgariff?

  I'll tell you how stupid I am. Remember, this task force had 90 days to clear 52 cases. So, as the task force comes to its scheduled close, Joe remembers, quote, "We had, in 90 days, cleared 40 murder cases."

• 56:04Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 56:05Karen Kilgariff?

  That were sitting in the file. It was about an 80% clearance rate. It's unheard of.

• 56:11Georgia Hardstark?

  How, yeah. Holy shit.

• 56:12Karen Kilgariff?

  Unheard. So, they're, they're like, okay, fine, now, now we've got a grudge.

• 56:17Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 56:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Now, we were going to prove a point.

• 56:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 56:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Now, we're going to show not only that we're good at this, but that you're fucking terrible at it.

• 56:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Look how easy it was to solve 40.

• 56:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 56:27Georgia Hardstark?

  That you couldn't, that are cold cases because you couldn't figure them out.

• 56:30Karen Kilgariff?

  And it's like, they came in and they slapped down all those. You could tell, like, just put it on the desk.

• 56:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Put the hard ones, put the, yeah.

• 56:36Karen Kilgariff?

  Just whatever. And it's like, this is how bad you guys are.

• 56:39Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 56:40Karen Kilgariff?

  We're, we just took care of it in our wonderful mustaches. So, the Houston police decide they're going to turn the Chicanosquad into a permanent unit.

• 56:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Nice.

• 56:51Karen Kilgariff?

  Obviously, Houston, the Hispanic population is only growing. It's so necessary. And because of this, these six men are given more resources and more manpower.

• 57:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Nice.

• 57:03Karen Kilgariff?

  One more typewriter. Before long, there are a dozen Spanish-speaking investigators investigating every kind of case, murders, robberies, human trafficking, and kidnapping. So, this is the updated picture. In 1986, this is how big the Chicanosquad had gotten.

• 57:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 57:20Karen Kilgariff?

  But the case the Chicanosquad will say is the one they're most proud of is a kidnapping. It happens in October of 1987. A 14-month-old baby named Liliana Reyes is taken from her crib in the middle of the night by a woman who had hours before knocked on the Reyes family front door and asked for a place to sleep. The family let her in, and the next morning, the woman and their baby Liliana were both gone.

• 57:46Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 57:47Karen Kilgariff?

  Joe remembers getting the call from the juvenile division of the Houston Police that morning, and he says, quote, "They were saying they had a kidnapping. The victim was Hispanic, and they had no one to work the case. So, I called the FBI, and they said, no, we don't have anybody who speaks Spanish here either, so it's yours," end quote.

• 58:08Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 58:09Karen Kilgariff?

  So, this wasn't a local problem. This wasn't a Texas problem. This is governmental, national, American problem.

• 58:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Of course.

• 58:16Karen Kilgariff?

  So, luckily, it was these guys. So, Joe and fellow Chicanosquad member Raymond Gonzalez get to work. They get an early lead from a truck driver reporting giving a woman and a baby a ride to the US-Mexico border the night of the kidnapping. They spread the word of Liliana's kidnapping, and after only a few days, their phone rings. A tipster 1,000 miles away in Puebla, Mexico, tells Joe that her daughter, who is struggling with her mental health, recently came back into town with a baby that isn't hers.

• 58:49Georgia Hardstark?

  Holy shit.

• 58:51Karen Kilgariff?

  So, basically, they got the word out so well, especially among Spanish-speaking people, that the caller heard about Liliana's case in Texas, all the, 1,000 miles away.

• 59:01Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 59:01Karen Kilgariff?

  So, over the phone, Joe and Raymond ask this woman to check the baby for a very unique birthmark that she had. Turns out, it's Liliana. Unbelievably, though, the Houston Police Department won't pay for the detectives to go down to Mexico to get her.

• 59:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, hey, man.

• 59:19Karen Kilgariff?

  So, the Chicanosquad does what any good American would do when corruption stands in their way, or racism, or anything else.

• 59:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 59:27Karen Kilgariff?

  They call the local news.

• 59:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Nice.

• 59:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Houston News Channel, KPRC 2, steps in and fronts them the money to go on that trip.

• 59:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Damn.

• 59:35Karen Kilgariff?

  12 days after going missing from her crib, the Chicanosquad reunites an unharmed Liliana with her family. We have the picture of that.

• 59:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, wow. Oh, my God. Amazing.

• 59:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Look at that.

• 59:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh. Incredible.

• 59:51Karen Kilgariff?

  So this is, this is incredible. And I think this is probably when the story and the, the whole idea, this is like a People Magazine article waiting to happen of the Chicano Squad, right? And these amazing cases they've solved and these numbers.

• 1:00:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:06Karen Kilgariff?

  But we didn't hear about this or any of it because this all happens the same month that 18 month old baby Jessica falls down the well.

• 1:00:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Going to guess, baby Jessica.

• 1:00:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Were you? Because that's also in, it's in Midland, Texas.

• 1:00:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, right.

• 1:00:22Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow. So it's like, we only have room for one baby.

• 1:00:26Karen Kilgariff?

  We only have room for a white baby.

• 1:00:28Georgia Hardstark?

  A white baby in peril.

• 1:00:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, also just the amount of coverage that went to that where it was breaking news, all cameras were on the well, the whole thing.

• 1:00:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Liliana's case can't fight through that also because she's Tahana.

• 1:00:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 1:00:41Karen Kilgariff?

  If you would like to hear the story of baby Jessica, I did it in episode 221, Symbolic Violins. You remember, you remember. Four decades later, KPRC Two News interviewed Liliana in 2024, and she's asked about the Chicano Squad, and she says, quote, "My mom made sure that I remembered for the rest of my life. She was like, this is what happened to you when you were a baby. You were a miracle. If it wasn't for them, you would not be here. That meant the world to me, and they know this. They will forever and ever be in my heart."

• 1:01:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 1:01:17Karen Kilgariff?

  End quote. I love that mom. She's like, I don't care. This is what happened to you. You will remember. Yeah. So in 2010, after 30 years in operation and making history as the first bilingual police unit of its kind in the United States, the Chicano Squad is officially disbanded. But it's not for a bad reason. Thanks to the hard work and sacrifices of the Chicano Squad, of the original Chicano Squad, the Houston Police Department has many Hispanic and Latino officers now in its ranks, including the police chief. So because of this, they just don't need to have a specialized Spanish speaking unit anymore because a lot of their officers speak Spanish.

• 1:01:59Georgia Hardstark?

  Amazing.

• 1:02:00Karen Kilgariff?

  The original members of the Chicano Squad are now all retired, and they respond to most praise by stating that they were simply doing their jobs. One exception is this quote from Jim Montero, the founder, he's the man that kind of made it all happen. And he said, quote, "One thing I'm proud of is we never shot and killed anybody."

• 1:02:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow, that's powerful.

• 1:02:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Right? "We made a lot of arrests, but never had an officer involved shooting." End quote. Considering the culture at Houston PD when the task force first launched in the late 70s, this fact is incredible. Not only that, but the Chicano Squad's clearance rate, which averaged overall in the 70th percentile, overall, reached an astonishing high of 91% cases cleared in 1997.

• 1:02:53Georgia Hardstark?

  Holy shit.

• 1:02:55Karen Kilgariff?

  And then in 2020, the Chicano Squad receives a new wave of attention for their community-first approach to law enforcement after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of white Minneapolis police officers. There is a multi-part podcast about the Chicano Squad that Vox Media put out, and A and E has a documentary about them where one of the executive producers is original task force member Joe Silvera's son, Sergio.

• 1:03:23Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:03:24Karen Kilgariff?

  And he's quoted as saying, quote, "I think the lack of trust comes when people don't feel the police are there to help them. That was one of the keys of the Chicano Squad. The whole reason it worked was because they built a dialogue with the community and came in with the right attitude. Today, it seems that you're either pro-police or pro-community. The Chicano Squad is a great example of being both."

• 1:03:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God, that's amazing.

• 1:03:50Karen Kilgariff?

  And that's the story of Houston's trailblazing, history-making Chicano Squad.

• 1:03:54Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow, I'm so glad you did that. That was so good.

• 1:03:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Right?

• 1:03:58Georgia Hardstark?

  I did not know that. I want to listen to that podcast series.

• 1:04:02Karen Kilgariff?

  I know, me too.

• 1:04:03Georgia Hardstark?

  That's incredible.

• 1:04:04Karen Kilgariff?

  Very cool.

• 1:04:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Great job.

• 1:04:06Karen Kilgariff?

  Thank you.

• 1:04:07Georgia Hardstark?

  Can I do a fucking hooray?

• 1:04:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Absolutely.

• 1:04:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay, fucking hooray to 17 years of me being Mimi's person. We had to put her to sleep yesterday.

• 1:04:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 1:04:20Georgia Hardstark?

  I know. I know. I didn't want to tell you the beginning and bum the whole thing out.

• 1:04:25Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm so sorry.

• 1:04:27Georgia Hardstark?

  But no, she had the best fucking life.

• 1:04:29Karen Kilgariff?

  She really did.

• 1:04:30Georgia Hardstark?

  The funniest, sweetest cat, and.

• 1:04:33Karen Kilgariff?

  She was, yeah.

• 1:04:34Georgia Hardstark?

  It's so hard.

• 1:04:35Karen Kilgariff?

  We lost Mimi.

• 1:04:36Georgia Hardstark?

  We lost Mimi.

• 1:04:37Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm sorry.

• 1:04:37Georgia Hardstark?

  End of an era. It's so hard to lose a pet, but all I can think about is how lucky I was and we were to know her.

• 1:04:45Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes. Where did you get her? How did you get her?

• 1:04:47Georgia Hardstark?

  I actually, it's so weird. I got her at a Pasadena, I almost said flea market. That's absolutely not true.

• 1:04:54Karen Kilgariff?

  And she was covered in fleas.

• 1:04:55Georgia Hardstark?

  I got her at an animal shelter in Pasadena, and it doesn't exist anymore. And so I was going to donate, say, let's donate to the Pasadena Humane Society. And then they randomly messaged me on Instagram today because they were doing a fundraiser of badly drawn animals and sent me a badly drawn photo of Mo and Cookie. So if we want to donate.

• 1:05:15Karen Kilgariff?

  In honor of the murderinos who love Mimi.

• 1:05:17Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right. Princess Mimi.

• 1:05:20Karen Kilgariff?

  She was a classic.

• 1:05:21Georgia Hardstark?

  She was.

• 1:05:22Karen Kilgariff?

  She was such a cat.

• 1:05:23Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:24Karen Kilgariff?

  And a little mean, which I love.

• 1:05:26Georgia Hardstark?

  A little mean. I still have a scratch on my arm from her.

• 1:05:30Karen Kilgariff?

  May it never heal.

• 1:05:32Georgia Hardstark?

  Bite every now and then for no fucking reason.

• 1:05:34Karen Kilgariff?

  She was a little bit in a bad mood.

• 1:05:36Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:37Karen Kilgariff?

  And she was a good girl.

• 1:05:38Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right.

• 1:05:39Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm sorry.

• 1:05:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Thank you. No, it's, I'm lucky.

• 1:05:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:43Georgia Hardstark?

  So, okay, so we'll do $10,000 to the Pasadena Humane Society in honor of murderinos who loved Mimi.

• 1:05:50Karen Kilgariff?

  Beautiful. Go adopt a mean little cat with a tiny mouth.

• 1:05:53Georgia Hardstark?

  With a grumpy mouth. Oh. That's what was so great about her. She's just so angry and upset all the time, but she loved me. So it was like an honor.

• 1:06:02Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, you, you won over a withholder.

• 1:06:04Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 1:06:05Karen Kilgariff?

  That's the goal in life.

• 1:06:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, sad.

• 1:06:11Georgia Hardstark?

  Put it in our next towel, Elvis.

• 1:06:13Karen Kilgariff?

  Well.

• 1:06:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Well, great episode. Good job.

• 1:06:17Karen Kilgariff?

  This episode's for Mimi.

• 1:06:18Georgia Hardstark?

  This is for Mimi.

• 1:06:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Stay sexy.

• 1:06:20Georgia Hardstark?

  And don't get murdered. Bye.

• 1:06:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Elvis, do you want a cookie?

• 1:06:33Karen Kilgariff?

  This has been an Exactly Right Production.

• 1:06:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Our managing producer is Molly Smith.

• 1:06:36Karen Kilgariff?

  Our consulting producer is Kate Schellbach.

• 1:06:39Georgia Hardstark?

  Our creative lead is Allison Agosti.

• 1:06:41Karen Kilgariff?

  Our associate producer is Tessa Hughes, and our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

• 1:06:45Georgia Hardstark?

  This episode was mixed by Leona Scolacci.

• 1:06:47Karen Kilgariff?

  Our researchers are Maren McLaughlin and Ally Elkin.

• 1:06:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Email your hometowns to [email protected] and follow the show on Instagram at MyFavoriteMurder.

• 1:06:56Karen Kilgariff?

  Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:07:01Georgia Hardstark?

  Or watch new episodes every week on Netflix. Search for My Favorite Murder, add us to your list, and hit the double thumbs up button.

• 1:07:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye.

• 1:07:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Calling all amateur detectives and podcast obsessives.

• 1:07:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Virgin Voyages' second True Crime Voyage sets sail March 20th, 2027, for a five-night escape to Grand Turk and the Beach Club at Bimini.

• 1:07:29Karen Kilgariff?

  As part of the On Air at Sea collection, this immersive sailing brings together fan favorite podcasts, including Disgrace Land, Buried Bones, and Wisecrack, for live recordings, behind-the-scenes access, exclusive meet and greets, and crime-themed programming that you won't find anywhere else.

• 1:07:46Georgia Hardstark?

  All aboard our award-winning kid-free ships.

• 1:07:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Head over to virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot.

• 1:07:52Georgia Hardstark?

  Goodbye.

• 1:07:55Karen Kilgariff?

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• 1:08:32Speaker 07

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