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Sleepy Lagoon murder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sleepy Lagoon murder refers to a 1942 Los Angeles, California criminal trial of 22 Mexican-American young men; the convictions were reversed on appeal in 1944. The case is considered a precursor to the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943.
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The case arose from the homicide of Jose Diaz, whose body was found at the Sleepy Lagoon reservoir in southeast Los Angeles, California on August 2, 1942. Racial prejudice and press hysteria, primarily in the Herald-Express and The Los Angeles Times, resulted in the arrest of 600 Mexican-American youths in connection to the murder.
California historian Carey McWilliams noted that a few months earlier that over 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained and interned in detention camps. McWilliams later argued that there were common links between the Japanese-American internment and the anti-Mexican response in the Sleepy Lagoon case.
The resulting criminal trial is now generally viewed as lacking in the fundamental requirements of due process. 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 sit near or to communicate with their attorneys. Over defense objection, evidence of gang affiliation was introduced.
Three of the defendants were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison; nine were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to five-to-life, five were convicted of assault and released for time served, and five were acquitted. All of the jurors in each case were white. The defendants began serving their sentences in January 1943.
The East Los Angeles, California community came to the support of the defendants. They created the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, composed of Leftists, African-Americans, and Mexican-American community leaders.
In October, 1944, the Court of Appeal of the State of California reversed the convictions, in the case of People v Zamora 66 Cal.App.2d 166.
Louie Encinas was eventually, decades later, identified by his sister as the true killer; stabbing him moments before the defendants arrived. He later committed suicide. Officially the murder remains unsolved.
- 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
- 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
- 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, Alice. The Sleepy Lagoon Case - A Pageant of Prejudice ASIN B0007F4WKM
- McWilliams, Carey, "Second Thoughts," The Nation (April 7, 1979)
- Servin, Manuel, The Mexican-Americans: An Awakening Minority. (1970) ISBN 0-02-477940-7