Chapter 15

July 23, 1997, 6:00 p.m.

Excerpts from the Channel 2, 4, and 7 News at 6:00 p.m:

“I am standing in a neighborhood bordering Echo Park and Boyle Heights,” the pretty young Asian woman was broadcasting as the late afternoon sun cast rays of gold from behind the frayed houses behind her. “This is a neighborhood that has seen much fear and unrest in the past few weeks. All at the hands of a faceless serial killer that police are calling the Eastside Butcher."

A pre-taped segment appeared showing a pan of the gully in Echo Park where the first two victims were found. Yellow police tape and police officers could be seen at the bottom of the gully. “Ever since the discovery of two murdered gang members in September of 1995, residents have been up in arms over the police reaction to the killings, which occur randomly and without warning."

Channel Four was showing a close up of a young Hispanic man, the subject of a news interview in another neighborhood that could have been an exact carbon copy of the rival channel. The young man was gesturing with his hands as he spoke. “This guy that is doing this, killing all the homeboys and homegirls, the cops don't care about finding him.

Because this guy is only killing Mexicans and stuff, they don't care. If he was killing white people he would have been caught by now."

A voice-over as a male newscaster feeds into the broadcast. “This is the most common reaction when the residents are asked to describe their feelings about the serial killings that have plagued this area for almost two years. While most of the gang members we spoke to insisted that the killings were the work of rival gangs, we spoke to one young gang member who had a different opinion. He would only go on camera with his face obscured by a bandana."

The camera cut to a young Hispanic gang member crouching in an alley. Behind him, the wall was stained with graffiti. The gang member was wearing baggy shorts, black shoes, and a white baggy t-shirt. He had a blue bandana pulled over his mouth and nose like a bandit from the old west. His face was conveniently blurred for the broadcast.

“It ain't a gang thing,” he said, his voice muffled. “At least I don't think so. The homey's that are sayin’ it's a rival gang doin’ it are like, jumping to conclusions. Because it's different gangs that are getting killed, you know what I'm saying?"

The voice over of the newscaster came back on. “When we asked him who he thought was responsible, he had this to say."

Focus back on the gang member. “It's probably the cops. They're doing it to like, make us fight each other more. It's their way of BLEEP with us. We're poor, we're Hispanic and BLEEP and they're white and cops and they're just doing it to BLEEP with us."

Channel 7: A voice-over of yet another male newscaster as the camera zeroed in on yet another Los Angeles neighborhood. A middle-aged Hispanic couple was standing on the porch of a small home. “...the residents of this predominately Hispanic community are afraid, and they are up in arms."

The man was a little on the portly-side with graying hair. He spoke with a thick Mexican accent. “We have gang activity down here all the time and the police will come in and not do anything. Then when they do come in, they'll come in to harass the young men, anybody that looks like they might be a gang member. They promise that they'll protect us, but when the gangs start shooting and bullets are flying in your windows, they don't do anything!” He threw up his hands in exasperation.

His wife, equally portly, her black hair with strands of gray pulled back in a bun echoed her husband's sentiments. “And then when these murders start happening, they don't do anything. They just come and knock on the doors and ask us a lot of questions and take people in who haven't even done anything."

The newscaster cut in with a voice-over: “One neighbor, who didn't want to go on camera, said he was taken to Parker Center and almost arrested for the crimes until he was able to prove he had an alibi."

Focus on a dark silhouette of a slim man. The man's voice had a thick barrio accent. “The police took me in and were like going, ‘come on man, we know you did it'.

Because I got a record for assault and other BLEEP. And I said, ‘no, man, I didn't do it'.

But they kept, you know, at me, and they had me there for like twelve hours."

The voice over of the newscaster came back on: “It wasn't until the man placed a call to his wife that he was able to provide an alibi and clear his name. But the affect hasn't been lost on the residents in the East Los Angeles area."

The camera panned a busy neighborhood, cut over to a strip mall and once again focused on a lower class neighborhood. It finally came to rest at the middle of the street where the newscaster was surrounded by the residents of the street, many of them children. “The residents of this neighborhood, and others in the East Los Angeles area where the killer has struck, are on a heightened edge these days. Feeling the fear of the gangs that control these neighborhoods, to the scrutinizing of the police who they feel look on them with suspicion, to the unknown killer himself who preys on their ranks, the citizens of these neighborhoods often feel that the police aren't doing enough to catch the man responsible for these horrible killings. It has turned into an uneasy wheel of distrust and suspicion that feeds on itself as the weeks go by and the killer goes uncaught. From East Los Angeles, this is Joel Petraca, Channel 7 News."

Daryl Garcia sat on his living room sofa, remote control in hand, TV turned to the news. The last of the coverage from the streets of East Los Angeles on the local communities’ reaction to the Butcher case had just ended, and it made Daryl sick. Fuck them, he thought, turning the TV off with a click. They don't trust us, don't want to help us catch this psycho, they can sit there like sitting ducks until this guy decides he's bored with gangsters and decides to try crawling through windows and slaughtering entire families. I've fucking had it! This guy's doing the city a goddamned favor, if that's the way they're going to react.

He was too upset and angry about the newscast, and the case, to call Rachael that night.

Five miles away, Rachael Pearce was watching the news, eating a fresh garden salad she had just prepared. She had gotten off work early, had just come home from a martial arts session, and was still sweaty. She watched the newscast, feeling worse about it as it went on. No wonder this case was eating at Daryl. She would be upset if she got this kind of treatment from the people she was trying to help as well. It only made her more determined to stay by Daryl's side during this especially rough time in his life.

In East Los Angeles several people turned in to the news. One of them was Danny Hernandez, who sat on his sofa, fidgeting. The minute the newscast came on he started getting nervous. He kept looking out the windows, toward his front door, as if he was expecting the cops to come busting in anytime. He turned back to the television just as a gang member was offering his opinion on what the killings were all about. Danny changed the channel.

In his spacious West Side apartment, Bernie Haskins watched the news with a growing sense of despair and anguish. This case was getting to be like the Green River case in Seattle, which he worked on over a decade ago. Like that one, the local news media raised the hysteria level among the community, feeding a never-ending cycle of distrust and suspicion to the police. It also didn't help to have a killer who was always one step ahead of those who were trying to catch him. Bernie turned off the TV in disgust with a flick of the remote. His job, as well as that of the local FBI agents on the case and the LAPD Homicide detectives, had just become harder.

Father John Glowacz caught the segment on the Eastside Butcher halfway through. He was just returning home after spending the latter part of the afternoon hearing confessions and meeting with a few of the local community leaders to discuss ways on how they might help curb the gang related violence that had risen since the arrival of the Butcher. They had to do something; the situation was getting more out of hand as the killer claimed more victims. Father Glowacz paused in front of the television as a Hispanic couple railed against the police for not taking action in protecting them. He shook his head in dismay. It was such a pathetic statement to make, and as Father John Glowacz articulated those thoughts he regretted it and felt a tinge of guilt. After all, he was supposed to help the people in his community overcome those feelings. Seeing the news made him realize he had his work cut out for him. He sat down on the sofa in front of the TV, feeling a growing sense of despair.

In another part of the city, Charley sat on the sofa in his room, the wide screen TV

turned to the news. He usually liked to watch the news in the evening. He liked to be well informed. In fact, he caught the Butcher coverage on all three stations. It didn't hurt to be informed.

While elsewhere, in a darkened living room, the subject of the feature stories that were being run watched the local communities reactions to his work, and he smiled.