March 10, 2025

Throw Back a Bottle of Beer: Zoot Suit Riots

Throw Back a Bottle of Beer: Zoot Suit Riots
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When a fashion trend becomes a target for violence, what does that reveal about a society? In wartime Los Angeles 1943, young Mexican-Americans who wore zoot suits—characterized by their distinctive wide-legged, tapered pants and long coats—found themselves hunted through the streets by uniformed servicemen, beaten, stripped naked, and left humiliated while police arrested the victims rather than the perpetrators.

The road to this explosion of violence begins with the story of José Diaz, a 22-year-old Mexican immigrant preparing to serve in the U.S. Army, found brutally murdered after his farewell party. What followed was a massive dragnet that saw over 600 Mexican-American youths arrested within 48 hours, leading to California's largest murder trial where Henry "Hank" Leyvas and 17 others faced charges based on virtually no evidence. Through brutal interrogation techniques and a blatantly prejudiced court proceeding, these young men received harsh sentences for a crime they didn't commit.

Against the backdrop of World War II hysteria following Pearl Harbor, the zoot suit—with its excess fabric during rationing—became branded as unpatriotic, and those who wore them as un-American troublemakers. We trace how five days of unchecked rioting only ended when military authorities declared Los Angeles off-limits to service personnel, and how activists including Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth fought for justice for the wrongfully convicted. Most remarkably, decades later, the truth about who really killed José Diaz would finally come to light through a deathbed confession, confirming what many had long suspected: the entire case had been a miscarriage of justice motivated by racial prejudice.

This forgotten chapter of American history forces us to confront uncomfortable questions about how easily fear can be weaponized against minority communities, even as those communities' members were serving their country in uniform. Subscribe now to dive deeper into these hidden historical moments that continue to resonate in our society today.



PBS American Experience
Enrique "Henry" Reyes Leyvas (1923-1971) By Eduardo Obregón Pagán
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/zoot-enrique-henry-reyes-leyvas/#:~:text=He%20remained%20embittered%2C%20however%2C%20and,members%20of%20his%20family%20worked


Zoot Suit Riots | Full Documentary | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | PBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzgZBH0oiwQ&t=524s

Mexican-Americans Risked Their Lives Wearing Zoot Suits | History Of | Racked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpQqfuxRxh8&t=8s

PBS American Experience
Lorena Encinas (1922-1991) By Eduardo Obregón Pagán
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/zoot-lorena-encinas/


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Chapters

00:16 - Episode Introduction

04:16 - Origins of the Zoot Suit

10:11 - The Sleepy Lagoon Murder Case

16:23 - Wartime Prejudice and Scapegoating

21:37 - The Zoot Suit Riots Erupt

29:23 - Justice and Historical Revelations

39:24 - Idioms Discussion and Beer Review

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:16.152 --> 00:00:17.233
Oh hey there.

00:00:17.233 --> 00:00:18.233
Oh hey there.

00:00:18.233 --> 00:00:19.474
How are you?

00:00:19.474 --> 00:00:20.155
I'm good.

00:00:20.155 --> 00:00:20.495
How are you?

00:00:20.495 --> 00:00:21.876
My ears are plugged.

00:00:22.216 --> 00:00:24.257
What, what, what, what.

00:00:25.221 --> 00:00:32.689
I'm sorry to hear that hear what yep yeah, um, still recovering from a cold, but it's a lot better.

00:00:32.689 --> 00:00:42.145
We're getting there, yeah, but my ears are still plugged and it's kind of weird yeah, that's the worst, because it just messes with like everything in your brain yeah, yeah, I get that.

00:00:42.145 --> 00:00:44.109
Yeah, anything new with you?

00:00:44.109 --> 00:00:48.960
Uh, not really same yeah, yeah, I do have a new beer though.

00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:49.862
Yeah, so do I.

00:00:50.182 --> 00:01:07.323
Yeah, well, we recently went to kentucky yeah and we brought back some beers with us yeah, so it's from country boy brewing, and this was you got the same brand I did I did, yeah, okay, yeah, I kind of did that on purpose georgetown, kentucky.

00:01:07.323 --> 00:01:24.528
So which I don't know where that is I'm not familiar, yeah same I don't know its proximity to louisville, but uh, then again, the first and only time I've ever been to kentucky was when we went to louisville for our friend's graduation.

00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:30.043
But yeah, so you got a.

00:01:30.043 --> 00:01:30.965
What is it?

00:01:30.986 --> 00:01:32.049
again I got cougar bait.

00:01:32.049 --> 00:01:33.656
Cougar bait, yep, scandalous Yep.

00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:41.412
And it's kind of an orange and white can and there's a guy on the front and he looks like he's fishing.

00:01:41.813 --> 00:01:42.414
Oh, there you go.

00:01:42.754 --> 00:01:47.783
Yeah, but it's an american blonde ale yeah it says.

00:01:47.783 --> 00:01:51.771
Any fisherman worth his salt will tell you it's all about the bait.

00:01:51.771 --> 00:01:55.042
Lucky for you, you're holding the good stuff.

00:01:55.042 --> 00:02:01.081
An american blonde ale, clean and crisp cougar bait is sure to help with your catch.

00:02:01.081 --> 00:02:04.945
Whatever you may be fishing for, that's cute.

00:02:05.626 --> 00:02:11.854
I have a halfway home American pale, ale Shall I read you what they put on my cat.

00:02:11.894 --> 00:02:12.294
Yeah.

00:02:12.314 --> 00:02:19.531
All right, this is the carrot on the string, the reminder that you are halfway home to that well-deserved reward.

00:02:19.531 --> 00:02:28.332
It's time to buckle down and get the job done, because our easy drinking, pale pale, pairs with well, with gumption.

00:02:28.332 --> 00:02:34.585
Oh, hard work and good old, stick to it If this stick to it if this.

00:02:34.585 --> 00:02:35.066
Yeah.

00:02:36.427 --> 00:02:39.454
Sure, yeah, okay, yeah, you're right, you have old mayonnaise.

00:02:39.979 --> 00:02:45.266
Well, I think I need to get my prescription updated, so you know either way.

00:02:45.266 --> 00:02:50.341
So cheers to a new beer, Cheers, We'd bring one back.

00:02:50.341 --> 00:02:54.688
So give it a go All right.

00:02:54.688 --> 00:02:55.711
What do you think?

00:02:56.050 --> 00:02:56.973
I like it yeah.

00:02:56.973 --> 00:02:58.055
Yeah.

00:02:58.600 --> 00:03:00.688
Yeah, mine is definitely just a pale ale.

00:03:01.760 --> 00:03:03.344
Mine is quite flavorful.

00:03:03.344 --> 00:03:04.688
Actually, I do like it.

00:03:05.229 --> 00:03:05.792
Mine's not bad.

00:03:05.792 --> 00:03:07.385
It's got some good flavor to it.

00:03:07.385 --> 00:03:10.867
I should stop turning my head towards the.

00:03:10.867 --> 00:03:11.730
Can I apologize?

00:03:11.730 --> 00:03:14.022
No, it's decent.

00:03:14.304 --> 00:03:15.026
Yeah yeah.

00:03:15.026 --> 00:03:16.912
I like it.

00:03:16.912 --> 00:03:18.406
I've got a question for you.

00:03:18.406 --> 00:03:19.866
What is your question for me.

00:03:19.866 --> 00:03:25.123
How do you like to express yourself in the way that you look?

00:03:26.427 --> 00:03:30.686
Oh boy, I guess my beard.

00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:33.044
Yeah, you have an epic beard, thank you.

00:03:33.325 --> 00:03:35.352
Yeah, I don't know.

00:03:35.352 --> 00:03:36.222
I don't really.

00:03:36.222 --> 00:03:39.750
I'm not like one to get all fancy dressed up.

00:03:39.750 --> 00:03:40.733
I guess I never have been.

00:03:40.733 --> 00:03:47.467
That's not like I'm going to go wear a suit or anything out to dinner or whatnot, but I don't know.

00:03:47.467 --> 00:03:48.906
I wear polos a lot.

00:03:48.906 --> 00:03:50.145
I wear button-up shirts a lot.

00:03:50.145 --> 00:03:54.569
I don't really wear just t-shirts kind of thing, but I don't know.

00:03:54.931 --> 00:03:58.007
I guess that Comfortable, but not like.

00:03:58.961 --> 00:04:02.050
I'm not wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants kind of thing.

00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:08.550
But I like to be comfortable with just jeans and a you look, put together with your polos and well, thank you yeah how about you?

00:04:08.550 --> 00:04:12.703
Um well, my hair's a mess, so it's always up.

00:04:12.703 --> 00:04:14.687
It's a mess.

00:04:14.687 --> 00:04:21.146
I really don't know how to take care of it yet, and I'm still working on that yeah because I'm I'm still figuring out that my hair's wavy.

00:04:21.586 --> 00:04:22.108
Yeah right.

00:04:22.228 --> 00:04:30.629
Yeah, so my expression usually comes in my tattoos which I am overdue for one or two or five or five.

00:04:30.629 --> 00:04:32.112
Yes, fair enough.

00:04:32.112 --> 00:04:36.418
Yeah, so I want to take you to Hollywood in the 1930s.

00:04:36.418 --> 00:04:39.798
Okay, it's all glitz and glamour, right?

00:04:39.798 --> 00:04:45.088
Yeah, la was actually super conservative at this time and super segregated.

00:04:45.088 --> 00:04:48.406
Okay, la was actually super conservative at this time and super segregated.

00:04:48.406 --> 00:04:58.632
So Jim Crow laws weren't just a Southern thing, it was in California as well, sure, and it was discrimination against Mexican Americans specifically.

00:04:58.673 --> 00:05:06.862
Yeah, I suppose the population over there would be quite high, with its proximity to California used to be a part of mexico, correct?

00:05:06.862 --> 00:05:09.425
Yeah, so exactly so.

00:05:09.747 --> 00:05:17.988
Then jazz kind of makes a big wave, um, in the area and it's like a nice breath of fresh air, almost like a rebellion type of thing, sure.

00:05:17.988 --> 00:05:27.533
And then you had these clubs where there's blacks and whites and mexican kids and they could all hang out together, something that wasn't really happening anywhere else, sure.

00:05:27.533 --> 00:05:35.093
And these jazz artists kind of started this fashion trend of the zoot suit.

00:05:35.093 --> 00:05:40.488
The zoot suits- really yes yeah, so it's a very distinctive style.

00:05:40.649 --> 00:05:40.829
Okay.

00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:47.100
It's baggy pants, but they're like nice pants pants but they're baggy not like mc hammer baggy pants.

00:05:47.242 --> 00:05:47.762
Do you remember those?

00:05:47.762 --> 00:05:49.589
Yes, I do no, these are.

00:05:49.589 --> 00:05:54.466
These are a notch above did they call those parachute pants, something like that?

00:05:54.466 --> 00:05:56.353
Yeah, right, yeah um.

00:05:56.413 --> 00:06:00.824
So zoosuit pants were wide at the knees, and then they tapered at the ankle.

00:06:01.625 --> 00:06:04.271
Oh, yeah, that's, that's weird.

00:06:04.411 --> 00:06:04.992
It's different.

00:06:05.052 --> 00:06:05.372
Yeah.

00:06:06.439 --> 00:06:12.910
Um, and then it also was paired with a long coat, okay, usually, well, that was well.

00:06:12.910 --> 00:06:14.372
Okay, right on.

00:06:14.372 --> 00:06:23.464
Um, uh, you was usually paired with, like watch change chains, um, and so it's like a pocket watch.

00:06:23.485 --> 00:06:27.343
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah Is that chains, um, and so it's like a pocket watch.

00:06:27.343 --> 00:06:28.084
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, is it exactly so?

00:06:28.084 --> 00:06:38.898
Expressing yourself, pushing boundaries for these young mexican americans was a way to say we're here, we're proud, we're part of california, we're part of this, we're not going to conform, sure.

00:06:38.898 --> 00:06:47.341
So these kids were first generation mexican americans born in the us and they were kind of caught between two different worlds.

00:06:47.341 --> 00:06:50.269
Right, their parents were immigrants from mexico.

00:06:50.269 --> 00:06:59.240
They had traditional values, often tied to the catholic church, sure, and they wanted their kids close, yeah, and to follow in their footsteps.

00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:06.495
But these kids, they're americans, you know, and they wanted similar things as other american kids of this time.

00:07:06.495 --> 00:07:07.762
Yeah, makes sense.

00:07:07.762 --> 00:07:17.213
Um, they wanted to go downtown and shop and dance and just live like other kids do, yeah, but segregation was kind of a constant barrier for them, sure.

00:07:17.814 --> 00:07:38.865
So movie theaters, swimming pools, sidewalks, even everything bathrooms everything was divided, yeah, and it was really tough to navigate and it was kind of hard for them to figure out who they were in society okay and then pearl harbor happened yeah and you remember the date I do, do you tell us the date?

00:07:38.865 --> 00:07:55.807
Not waiting for you to get it no, I have it written down, so I can't get it wrong you do it december 7th 1941 correct what happened on december 6th so over 2 000 americans are killed.

00:07:56.449 --> 00:08:00.862
West coast is terrified now, because they don't think they're gonna get attacked, right?

00:08:00.862 --> 00:08:01.122
Yeah?

00:08:01.141 --> 00:08:01.382
they're.

00:08:01.382 --> 00:08:02.425
They're on the edge.

00:08:02.425 --> 00:08:05.130
The pacific fleet is stationed there.

00:08:05.130 --> 00:08:09.392
A lot of people had friends and families who were directly, in fact, impacted.

00:08:09.392 --> 00:08:22.086
Yeah, and the government, fueled by this fear and prejudice, starts rounding up japanese immigrants, thinking they're all spies which is wild they're japanese americans, yeah, yeah.

00:08:22.086 --> 00:08:30.790
And then there comes an executive order 120,000 Japanese Americans are first forced into internment camps.

00:08:30.831 --> 00:08:31.632
Yeah, which is wild.

00:08:32.059 --> 00:08:41.489
And I need to do an episode on that, because it's not just the Nazis that had concentration camps, we just called it internment camps, like right.

00:08:41.489 --> 00:08:43.225
I need to do research on that.

00:08:43.740 --> 00:08:49.847
But we also weren't then putting them into these camps and then experimenting on them and gassing them and all that stuff.

00:08:49.847 --> 00:08:52.525
No, but I, they did this for national security.

00:08:52.866 --> 00:08:53.106
Yes.

00:08:53.268 --> 00:09:01.249
Not saying it's right, but it was clearly different motivation to put them in these camps than what the Nazis were doing during the world war two.

00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:06.653
But I still would like to like what kind of conditions they went through and that kind of thing.

00:09:06.653 --> 00:09:08.639
I'm sure it wasn't fine living.

00:09:09.166 --> 00:09:17.206
Yeah, no, that'd be interesting to learn because, yeah, I couldn't imagine having to be put in that because of your heritage, nationality, whatever you want to call it.

00:09:18.783 --> 00:09:28.830
So the potential of invasion on the West Coast feels pretty possible and the fear of that on the West coast feels pretty possible and the fear of that is super contagious.

00:09:28.830 --> 00:09:33.051
And people start targeting some, some people.

00:09:33.051 --> 00:09:35.940
They start targeting young Mexican Americans.

00:09:35.940 --> 00:09:38.448
They become a scapegoat, really.

00:09:38.448 --> 00:09:47.663
So the suit suit which was just a fashion statement, suddenly becomes a symbol of delinquency, of being un-american.

00:09:47.663 --> 00:10:09.629
Okay, because, um, at this time people are being rounded up into like factories and they're going, they're working for the war effort, right, and here they are, like wearing all this extra clothing and so basically, if they had these on, they could almost target them, because they're like oh, that's one it was basically a target on their back.

00:10:09.649 --> 00:10:19.316
Yeah, okay, yes, and so everyone was fueled by hysteria and xenophobia, and the newspapers were not helping anything.

00:10:19.556 --> 00:10:21.581
Well, good old media.

00:10:22.022 --> 00:10:31.846
Yes, so they printed sensational tall tales, often completely made up, and they created like this big toxic atmosphere.

00:10:31.846 --> 00:10:47.581
On one side of the headline you'll see um the japanese and pearl harbor on, and then right next to it'll be mexican americans, and then then just that close proximity was enough to like cause, like additional prejudice.

00:10:47.743 --> 00:11:15.774
Sure that's, wild yeah so if we think about what's happening in America at the time it was wartime everyone was expected to conform to be patriotic and with these Mexican Americans expressing themselves to their styles and music, they didn't fit that mold okay, that other people were putting on themselves I guess that makes sense yeah, so they people kind of questioned their contribution, with the zoosie being its loose, fit extra fabric.

00:11:15.774 --> 00:11:19.663
It's basically what they considered unpatriotic.

00:11:19.663 --> 00:11:21.687
Unfortunately, it's just weird yeah, yeah.

00:11:22.708 --> 00:11:25.153
So we have this young man.

00:11:25.153 --> 00:11:34.591
His name is Jose Diaz, he's 22 years old, he is a Mexican immigrant and he was a responsible young adult.

00:11:34.591 --> 00:11:47.120
He was not a citizen, okay, but he still joined the army, the US Army to fight, army to fight.

00:11:47.120 --> 00:12:04.128
So he lived with his family at williams ranch was, which was a diverse community of chinese, italian and mexican families, okay and on august 1st 1942 they all threw him a farewell party because he was about to report for duty oh, wow yeah, it's supposed to be a celebration sure so the party did actually take a dark turn oh, oh dear.

00:12:04.729 --> 00:12:07.894
In the early morning hours, uninvited guests arrived.

00:12:07.894 --> 00:12:09.764
Okay, they were looking for trouble.

00:12:09.764 --> 00:12:12.187
They were there for a purpose.

00:12:12.187 --> 00:12:17.890
A fight broke out and Jose Diaz was found nearby, unconscious and brutally attacked.

00:12:18.072 --> 00:12:18.692
Oh Jesus.

00:12:19.541 --> 00:12:21.125
He had been stabbed and beaten.

00:12:21.407 --> 00:12:22.009
Holy crap.

00:12:22.009 --> 00:12:24.548
Yeah, just like a lot of stabs or just.

00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:26.427
He never regained consciousness and he Holy crap, yeah, just like a lot of stabs or just.

00:12:26.427 --> 00:12:28.085
He never regained consciousness and he ended up dying.

00:12:28.085 --> 00:12:34.386
It wasn't said how many stab wounds he had, but it was enough to make him not wake up.

00:12:34.687 --> 00:12:36.591
It's irrelevant, it's just it's irrelevant yeah.

00:12:36.591 --> 00:12:46.268
It sucks that there's people that think they need to do that and when this person is literally going to go fight for the United states in the war.

00:12:46.268 --> 00:12:53.172
They're gonna fuck his shit up and, well, kill him, which is sad yeah so.

00:12:53.432 --> 00:13:06.851
at any other time, a tragedy like this might have been just a local story, sure, but with a climate of like fear and prejudice that existed around 1942, it became much bigger.

00:13:06.851 --> 00:13:20.193
And now, all of a sudden, it became a symbol of a narrative of a Mexican-American crime wave, and it was perfect timing for the LA officials and police officers.

00:13:20.193 --> 00:13:22.427
They were pretty unpopular at this time.

00:13:22.427 --> 00:13:24.464
Many of them were corrupt.

00:13:24.625 --> 00:13:24.985
Oh yeah.

00:13:25.125 --> 00:13:28.140
Kind of all the way up to the top kind of a thing, yep.

00:13:28.140 --> 00:13:37.711
So they might have looked glamorous, the LA officials, but it was just a mess of vice and bribes, yep.

00:13:37.711 --> 00:13:51.211
So the police saw Diaz's death as kind of an opportunity to kind of clean up their image, okay, as kind of an opportunity to kind of clean up their image and show everyone that they were quote unquote doing something about this supposed crime problem.

00:13:51.231 --> 00:13:54.548
Right which they really were perpetuating.

00:13:54.928 --> 00:13:57.596
So they all went into like full crackdown mode.

00:13:57.596 --> 00:14:08.033
Okay, they raided neighborhoods, arresting over 600 Mexican American kids in just 48 hours, over one murder.

00:14:08.374 --> 00:14:08.714
Wow.

00:14:09.754 --> 00:14:09.975
Yeah.

00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:13.009
So why were they arresting them?

00:14:14.740 --> 00:14:20.153
Because it was a Mexican-American kid surrounded by Mexican-Americans at this party.

00:14:20.153 --> 00:14:22.405
They knew it was a Mexican-American crime problem.

00:14:22.405 --> 00:14:26.485
Quote unquote crime problem, Right, and they wanted to look good.

00:14:26.485 --> 00:14:29.011
So they arrested all these people to take action.

00:14:29.340 --> 00:14:30.684
And is that who actually killed I?

00:14:31.366 --> 00:14:31.928
will get to that.

00:14:31.928 --> 00:14:41.629
Okay, so they targeted kids from the 38th Street neighborhood and they were kind of labeled as the 38th Street Gang.

00:14:41.629 --> 00:14:42.711
Oh, okay.

00:14:42.711 --> 00:14:47.464
And the media just kind of ran with that, painting them all as like these dangerous criminals.

00:14:47.604 --> 00:15:09.028
Right, and it was a huge media circus and it set the stage for the, for the biggest murder trial california had ever seen oh really I did try to like look up facts to see if anything like that has happened, since I couldn't quite pinpoint it okay, so it's possible that it's still the biggest murder trial in california.

00:15:09.048 --> 00:15:12.039
That's wild yeah, and this was in 1942 42.

00:15:13.903 --> 00:15:20.922
So instead of things calming down, it just made that fear and hysteria in the population even worse.

00:15:20.922 --> 00:15:28.082
And in wartime, la, it was like there were two, these two enemies the the axis powers and then the mexican american youth.

00:15:28.082 --> 00:15:34.383
This is wild, yeah, and diaz's murder was just fuel for this massive fire.

00:15:34.383 --> 00:15:42.703
After all those arrests, the cops focused on this 38th street group, saying that they were the ones who crashed the party where diaz was killed.

00:15:42.703 --> 00:15:50.816
Right, and the cops ended up pinning everything on Henry Hank Levis.

00:15:51.500 --> 00:15:52.947
Henry Hank Levis Okay.

00:15:53.581 --> 00:15:55.268
They called him the ringleader.

00:15:57.644 --> 00:15:59.229
Do we learn a little more about Henry here?

00:15:59.880 --> 00:16:00.865
So they called him Hank.

00:16:00.865 --> 00:16:03.669
Hank Levis wasn't just a random kid.

00:16:03.669 --> 00:16:05.046
He was born in Arizona.

00:16:05.046 --> 00:16:08.450
His parents escaped the Mexican Revolution.

00:16:08.450 --> 00:16:17.099
They settled in the 38th Street neighborhood in LA and, unfortunately, hank did have a short history with the cops before all this, of course.

00:16:17.099 --> 00:16:23.664
At one time he and his brother got arrested for stealing a car Whoops, but it was their dad's car.

00:16:23.664 --> 00:16:29.965
Oh, so, they spent three days in jail until the dad could prove that it was his car.

00:16:30.725 --> 00:16:33.692
Oh yeah, like come on, that's ridiculous.

00:16:33.913 --> 00:16:42.827
But then there was another time that they got arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, and they spent three months in jail waiting for a court, only to be cleared completely.

00:16:46.580 --> 00:16:47.845
Oh, wow, waiting for a court only to be cleared completely.

00:16:47.845 --> 00:16:48.928
Oh wow, so the cops kind of already had a nose for him.

00:16:48.948 --> 00:16:52.644
You know, I had a thing for him and hank was kind of a natural leader, and that's exactly why they kind of went after him.

00:16:52.644 --> 00:16:58.363
Okay, they needed another scapegoat, sure, of course, and someone to pin it on, and he was the perfect target.

00:16:58.363 --> 00:17:05.973
So when he said he was innocent, they beat him so badly that his own sister couldn't recognize him.

00:17:06.134 --> 00:17:06.855
Holy crap.

00:17:07.560 --> 00:17:08.544
She said quote.

00:17:08.544 --> 00:17:19.910
They had him handcuffed, the hands were behind the chairs, he had his head down, his lip was hanging all below his chin and I called to him but he didn't lift his head up.

00:17:19.910 --> 00:17:25.306
He just was knocked out and the police said well, now you've seen him.

00:17:25.306 --> 00:17:26.288
End quote.

00:17:26.709 --> 00:17:27.390
What a dick.

00:17:27.589 --> 00:17:28.672
Yeah, isn't that awful.

00:17:28.893 --> 00:17:37.912
That's terrible Because, like, apparently you just beat the guy for no reason, because he wasn't like convicted at this point.

00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.469
That kind of police brutality was pretty common.

00:17:41.469 --> 00:17:47.527
Especially towards Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.

00:17:47.527 --> 00:17:52.169
Back then it was common for cops to beat confessions out of people.

00:17:53.181 --> 00:17:57.929
That's why it's funny that they get confessions only because they're beating the shit out of these people.

00:17:58.160 --> 00:17:59.085
They needed to stop.

00:17:59.861 --> 00:18:05.242
They wanted them to stop beating the shit out of them so they would confess to these things that they never did.

00:18:05.242 --> 00:18:09.791
It's just wild that that was like oh yep, he confessed, we got him.

00:18:09.791 --> 00:18:10.579
It's like, did he?

00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:10.881
though.

00:18:10.881 --> 00:18:12.805
Yep, but hank did not.

00:18:12.805 --> 00:18:14.587
Good, he did not confess.

00:18:14.587 --> 00:18:21.925
In october 1942 he and 17 other guys went on trial for killing jose diaz.

00:18:21.925 --> 00:18:22.185
17.

00:18:22.185 --> 00:18:28.987
So this is, this was the number that makes it the biggest murder trial in california 18 total people were on trial.

00:18:28.987 --> 00:18:33.183
Yeah, okay so during the trial, hank lavis tells his side of the story.

00:18:33.183 --> 00:18:39.599
He and his girlfriend, um, they called it the sleepy lagoon, this area, okay, um.

00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:44.803
So it was a popular spot for mex-American youth to hang out at.

00:18:44.803 --> 00:18:46.923
It was like a lake of sorts, sure.

00:18:46.963 --> 00:18:50.546
Because, they weren't allowed in regular city pools, right With everybody else.

00:18:50.546 --> 00:18:51.145
That makes sense.

00:18:51.145 --> 00:18:57.269
So they were kind of on a date, essentially, and they were hanging out at the Sleepy Lagoon.

00:18:57.269 --> 00:19:01.852
So as they were leaving they both actually got jumped by a gang.

00:19:02.392 --> 00:19:04.032
Oh, so Hank did.

00:19:04.032 --> 00:19:06.034
Yes, Hank and his girlfriend Okay.

00:19:06.840 --> 00:19:15.128
So Hank goes back to his neighborhood, rounds up some friends and then goes back to Sleepy Lagoon for revenge.

00:19:15.128 --> 00:19:17.663
Sure, they mess with his girl right, oh, right yeah.

00:19:17.663 --> 00:19:23.766
But it was kind of a case of mistaken identity that that gang wasn't even there.

00:19:24.647 --> 00:19:24.768
Oh.

00:19:25.976 --> 00:19:29.961
So a fight breaks out anyway, okay, and Jose Diaz ends up dead.

00:19:29.961 --> 00:19:35.726
Oh, so Levis and his friends admit that they were involved in the fight.

00:19:36.047 --> 00:19:36.307
Right.

00:19:36.615 --> 00:19:43.167
But they also say and other people do back up their story that Diaz wasn't even there when they arrived.

00:19:43.388 --> 00:19:43.709
Okay.

00:19:44.695 --> 00:19:47.685
So Diaz's murder was never officially solved.

00:19:47.685 --> 00:19:49.181
There were no witnesses.

00:19:49.181 --> 00:19:53.084
His body was possibly robbed, yeah.

00:19:53.084 --> 00:19:58.673
So his body was found by some of the girls from the 38th Street neighborhood.

00:19:58.673 --> 00:20:02.493
Okay, and one of those girls was Hank Leavis' girlfriend, girlfriend.

00:20:02.554 --> 00:20:02.714
Gotcha.

00:20:02.755 --> 00:20:07.122
Yeah, just to kind of put it into perspective, right, so the evidence was weak.

00:20:07.122 --> 00:20:14.996
There was no weapon, no witnesses and the trial, of course, was a sham, right?

00:20:14.996 --> 00:20:17.885
Many of the girls from the 38th street neighborhood were called to the stand.

00:20:17.885 --> 00:20:20.615
Okay, one after another, they refused to cooperate.

00:20:20.615 --> 00:20:32.766
Okay, um, one of them was a woman named lorena encinas lorena and she knew who killed jose diaz supposedly, but she would never reveal her secret.

00:20:33.415 --> 00:20:37.366
I feel like she should have just to end all this farce.

00:20:38.036 --> 00:20:38.538
You would think.

00:20:38.538 --> 00:20:40.584
But I'll get to that later.

00:20:40.584 --> 00:20:47.048
All right, the LA legal system was pretty biased against the American, the Mexican Americans.

00:20:47.048 --> 00:20:49.303
The judge was prejudiced.

00:20:49.894 --> 00:20:50.940
Everybody was back then.

00:20:50.980 --> 00:20:56.861
Yeah, they allowed racist testimony in the court, which is wild, someone would say.

00:20:56.861 --> 00:21:13.169
Like mexicans were natural criminals because of their aztec heritage, jesus um so lavis and two others got life in prison for first degree murder and nine other guys got second degree murder With no witnesses.

00:21:14.298 --> 00:21:15.522
That's just terrible yeah.

00:21:16.576 --> 00:21:21.426
So these boys were imprisoned at San Quentin, which is about 400 miles from their families.

00:21:21.426 --> 00:21:29.029
Right, and the girls from the 38th Street neighborhood were also separated from their families, becoming wards of the state.

00:21:29.550 --> 00:21:30.413
Really yes, how come?

00:21:31.916 --> 00:21:35.487
It was just another way to imprison them really.

00:21:35.487 --> 00:21:42.073
So, without a trial or jury, they were sent to Ventura School for Girls.

00:21:42.073 --> 00:21:52.942
Okay, it was an institution known for its harsh prison-like condition, oh Lord, With disciplinary measures comparable to like state prisons.

00:21:52.942 --> 00:22:07.973
Oh God, yeah, the Ventura School had such a terrible reputation that young women facing sentencing there took desperate measures to avoid going there, including someone swallowing safety pins.

00:22:07.973 --> 00:22:10.761
Oh, to avoid going to this institution.

00:22:12.115 --> 00:22:12.701
That's just how bad it was.

00:22:12.701 --> 00:22:13.673
Yeah, wow, that's just how bad it was.

00:22:14.797 --> 00:22:16.502
That's how bad their reputation was.

00:22:16.815 --> 00:22:18.643
I would not want to swallow safety pins.

00:22:18.643 --> 00:22:20.521
That doesn't sound like a good outcome.

00:22:21.355 --> 00:22:25.544
So this Lorena Encinas, who had knowledge of Jose.

00:22:25.544 --> 00:22:33.458
She could have used that information to kind of bargain her way out of trouble, but she didn't.

00:22:35.058 --> 00:22:37.902
Did it ever say as to why she kept on to it?

00:22:37.902 --> 00:22:38.482
Yes, okay.

00:22:39.644 --> 00:22:47.011
So later her son explained that she was in prison for refusing to cooperate with the court.

00:22:47.011 --> 00:22:48.988
Go ahead.

00:22:48.988 --> 00:22:51.318
Thank you, head, thank you.

00:22:51.318 --> 00:23:08.696
And throughout her time at ventura, lorena remained silent the entire time about jose diaz's murder okay so now the convictions of these, these men yeah didn't calm things down in la at all I can't imagine.

00:23:08.737 --> 00:23:09.057
It didn't.

00:23:09.196 --> 00:23:13.863
In fact, the city was getting even more tense I say it probably made things worse it did so.

00:23:13.863 --> 00:23:22.281
Since the war started, there had been a huge influx of sailors oh sure, and soldiers like in the vicinity.

00:23:22.281 --> 00:23:33.933
Yes, and workers turning la into like this big, booming metropolis like this is where their, their base was essentially yeah, because they're getting ready to ship out.

00:23:33.933 --> 00:23:41.874
Yes, so all these new people made the already strained situation even worse, especially for the Mexican-American community.

00:23:41.874 --> 00:23:45.646
Yeah, and they were already facing such massive discrimination Right.

00:23:45.994 --> 00:24:13.938
So they built this new like Navy training center in Chavez Ravine, which was um, a historically segregated neighborhood, which only added to the tensions that's where they built the dodger stadium oh yeah yeah, I've been there oh, maybe they took out the naval training facility they, if I I don't quote me on this by any stretch, but I believe they like went in there because this one, they built it, because I think it was in the 50s.

00:24:13.938 --> 00:24:22.383
I want to say they went into like those neighborhoods and basically said, yeah, get out, oh nice, yeah cool.

00:24:22.383 --> 00:24:23.125
I could be wrong.

00:24:23.125 --> 00:24:29.695
I thought I heard a story like that once, where it's like they just went in there and we want to build something here and they kind of like forced people out.

00:24:29.695 --> 00:24:33.016
Kind of shit, if I'm, if I'm right yeah, but either way.

00:24:33.036 --> 00:24:35.943
Well, let's continue on with this depressing story with this debacle.

00:24:35.943 --> 00:24:44.952
Yeah, hey, uh request next story uplifting were you not here for my annie oakley story I was.

00:24:45.032 --> 00:24:45.734
That was uplifting.

00:24:45.734 --> 00:24:48.079
Okay, let's just go up and up.

00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:49.000
You want a roller coaster?

00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:50.044
Yeah, let let's do that.

00:24:50.044 --> 00:24:51.826
Any more requests?

00:24:51.826 --> 00:24:52.468
Come on.

00:24:54.237 --> 00:24:55.141
Another beer please.

00:24:57.317 --> 00:25:09.563
So, with this huge increase in military presence, it meant that the media's attacks on the zoot suit wearing Mexican American youth now had a much bigger audience.

00:25:09.563 --> 00:25:19.986
Sure, and these young recruits, many of them fresh from other parts of the country, were primed to see these young Mexican-Americans as the enemy.

00:25:19.986 --> 00:25:22.121
They came to LA to fight.

00:25:22.121 --> 00:25:24.380
Yeah, they didn't really care who they were fighting.

00:25:24.440 --> 00:25:25.483
No, they just wanted to fight.

00:25:25.483 --> 00:25:36.515
Yes, because they were getting prepared to go fight way worse people in Europe or Japan or any of the Pacific any blah, blah, blah, yeah yeah.

00:25:36.515 --> 00:25:38.060
So they were just raring to go.

00:25:38.855 --> 00:25:42.144
And these servicemen were not familiar with local customs.

00:25:42.144 --> 00:25:44.079
Of course not the Spanish language.

00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:44.742
No, of course.

00:25:44.742 --> 00:25:47.624
There were some, absolutely, who were respectful.

00:25:47.924 --> 00:25:50.482
Sure, you're always going to get the other side.

00:25:50.563 --> 00:25:52.448
Yes For sure impactful um, you're always gonna get the other side, yes, for sure.

00:25:52.448 --> 00:25:59.667
Um, but others, especially those who harass mexican american women, stirred up a lot of anger and a lot of resentment, right.

00:25:59.667 --> 00:26:05.214
So things were already pretty tense between these sailors and the mexican american community.

00:26:05.214 --> 00:26:13.442
It started with verbal fights, name calling, that kind of thing, yeah, and then escalated of course to physical, I would would assume, right.

00:26:13.442 --> 00:26:16.001
And many of these guys are just teenagers.

00:26:16.001 --> 00:26:18.682
Sure, like they're young, they are the youth.

00:26:18.984 --> 00:26:19.146
Yeah.

00:26:19.355 --> 00:26:24.426
And they're coming back to their barracks in Chavez Ravine, beaten up because of these brawls.

00:26:24.426 --> 00:26:25.087
Wow, Right.

00:26:25.087 --> 00:26:32.915
So sailors are being instructed to see these young mexican americans as the enemy.

00:26:32.915 --> 00:26:38.672
They were told to carry socks filled with coins as weapons doesn't that seem weird?

00:26:38.712 --> 00:26:42.670
because, like, that's your money, couldn't you put some rocks in there instead?

00:26:43.972 --> 00:26:47.759
but yeah, that's wild but any little thing could set them off.

00:26:47.859 --> 00:26:54.701
A look, a word, a phrase, there doesn't matter yeah, I was just gonna try and quote like a phrase from that.

00:26:54.701 --> 00:27:03.644
I'm drawing a blank on it, of course, but they literally would use any excuse to oh man, the wind blew towards me yeah, fuck that guy.

00:27:03.644 --> 00:27:11.040
Yeah, kind of shit, exactly something that stupid right they were looking for any reason he sneezed and didn't apologize yeah, he didn't say I sneezed.

00:27:11.060 --> 00:27:18.058
He didn't say bless you or something stupid yeah, so these guys were training for hand-to-hand combat in the pacific, right?

00:27:18.058 --> 00:27:23.880
Yeah, when they were using these street fights as practice, essentially, sure it was like a game to these soldiers.

00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:30.662
Yeah, and by may 1943 everybody in la knew something was was a bruin yeah um.

00:27:30.662 --> 00:27:34.413
So even the newspapers were starting to warn that the city did.

00:27:34.413 --> 00:27:38.922
If the city didn't do something to ease the tension, there were going to be riots.

00:27:38.922 --> 00:27:39.983
They knew it was coming.

00:27:40.652 --> 00:27:43.776
It's amazing because they even knew they couldn't really do anything about it.

00:27:43.776 --> 00:27:46.057
They just let it happen, basically.

00:27:46.137 --> 00:27:53.900
Yeah, so there were rumors that were starting to fly Whispers about Mexican men assaulting white women.

00:27:54.161 --> 00:27:54.480
Oh dear.

00:27:54.730 --> 00:27:57.718
And white servicemen harassing Mexican women, oh, dear, and white servicemen harassing Mexican women.

00:27:57.718 --> 00:27:59.385
Sure, it was pretty toxic, yeah.

00:27:59.385 --> 00:28:05.778
And finally, on May 8th 1943, things reached a boiling point, okay.

00:28:05.778 --> 00:28:13.076
So someone spread a rumor that a sailor had been stabbed by a zoot suitor in Santa Monica.

00:28:13.397 --> 00:28:13.759
Oh dear.

00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:23.163
And within hours, hundreds of servicemen were out on the pier, attacking anyone they saw in a zoot suit.

00:28:23.163 --> 00:28:30.866
Oh man, and the craziest part is the cops arrested the victims of the attacks.

00:28:30.866 --> 00:28:31.789
See, isn't that wild.

00:28:31.789 --> 00:28:33.214
For their own safety.

00:28:33.214 --> 00:28:34.238
No, it wasn't.

00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:36.925
I know they're saying that to you at the time, but that's not clearly what it was for their own safety.

00:28:36.925 --> 00:28:36.996
No, it wasn't.

00:28:36.939 --> 00:28:39.336
I know they're saying that to you at the time, but that's not clearly what it was.

00:28:39.336 --> 00:28:44.799
But this thing on the pier was just a little taste of what was to come.

00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:48.179
It was just that very first incident.

00:28:48.179 --> 00:28:49.462
It was the tip of the iceberg.

00:28:49.462 --> 00:28:56.659
On June 3rd, a group of sailors were walking back to base when two guys in zoot suits taunted them.

00:28:57.221 --> 00:28:57.280
Wow.

00:28:57.770 --> 00:28:59.778
And one gave a Nazi salute.

00:28:59.778 --> 00:29:02.036
What, that seems like a poor choice.

00:29:02.036 --> 00:29:04.938
It was a poor choice, but that was it.

00:29:04.938 --> 00:29:09.361
Sure, soldiers went back to base, got reinforcements, armed themselves.

00:29:09.361 --> 00:29:10.913
They were out for blood.

00:29:10.913 --> 00:29:11.698
Wow.

00:29:11.698 --> 00:29:15.320
They marched downtown saying they were going to clean up the streets.

00:29:15.853 --> 00:29:26.117
They had bats, chains, their little money bags or whatever sock bag yeah and they were hunting for anyone wearing a zoot suit, right, like that was their calling card.

00:29:26.117 --> 00:29:29.346
So they went to a corner.

00:29:29.346 --> 00:29:34.296
They went to the corner where they had originally been taunted, but the guys weren't there the mexican americans weren't there, of course.

00:29:34.296 --> 00:29:42.410
So they found out across the city looking for zoot suiters, um, or really anyone who looked different.

00:29:42.410 --> 00:30:01.490
Yeah, and they raided cafes, they stormed the movie theaters, they pulled out all these young kids, some as young as 13, beating them, stripping them naked and leaving them in the streets wow, that's really shitty thing to do it was absolute brutality yeah, do you know what movie we were watching?

00:30:02.673 --> 00:30:06.182
for the love of god, that was not in my research just curious.

00:30:07.046 --> 00:30:09.874
That's wild, though, that they would pull out these young kids even.

00:30:09.874 --> 00:30:12.380
It's like clearly they have nothing to do with this.

00:30:12.380 --> 00:30:19.752
But yeah, let's be a complete, total douchebag and beat them up, strip them naked, leave them there.

00:30:19.752 --> 00:30:21.897
It's like what the fuck on main?

00:30:21.938 --> 00:30:24.321
street brutality.

00:30:24.321 --> 00:30:27.595
It became their main goal, yeah, humiliating these kids.

00:30:27.595 --> 00:30:36.777
So they literally burned these zoot suits in the streets so that's why they were like stripping them yeah of their zoot suits and like making a show of it.

00:30:36.896 --> 00:30:39.621
It was a public display of power.

00:30:39.621 --> 00:30:42.003
Yeah, we're in charge, yep right.

00:30:42.003 --> 00:30:48.153
A lot of people at the time thought, or they bought into the idea, that these kids were just troublemakers avoiding the war.

00:30:48.153 --> 00:30:54.815
Sure, but the truth was many of these victims were too young to even enlist yeah, I mean 13 year olds and all that.

00:30:55.757 --> 00:30:56.238
they can't.

00:30:56.238 --> 00:30:57.200
What are they supposed to do?

00:30:57.200 --> 00:30:58.603
Yeah, I mean, come on.

00:30:59.450 --> 00:31:04.419
And the LAPD finally stopped that particular group of soldiers on June 3rd.

00:31:04.419 --> 00:31:08.045
But the violence didn't stop, of course, because it kept spreading Right.

00:31:08.045 --> 00:31:10.517
So the next night it was even worse.

00:31:10.517 --> 00:31:17.148
Hundreds of servicemen were back on the streets, turning downtown LA into a practical war zone.

00:31:17.148 --> 00:31:23.884
Right, they were armed, they were angry and they were targeting anyone who looked like they might be a zoot-sitter.

00:31:23.884 --> 00:31:28.576
And this time the cops fucking didn't care.

00:31:30.221 --> 00:31:30.722
Sounds like it.

00:31:31.309 --> 00:31:38.103
The police basically waited until the servicemen were done, beating up and stripping those kids before they even bothered to show up.

00:31:38.103 --> 00:31:41.757
Wow, yeah, and again they arrested the victims.

00:31:42.318 --> 00:31:43.201
For their safety.

00:31:43.450 --> 00:31:45.435
For disturbing the peace.

00:31:45.536 --> 00:31:46.720
This time, oh, come on.

00:31:46.779 --> 00:31:53.743
Yeah, and there were rumors that the cops were even helping the servicemen, pointing out who to target.

00:31:53.743 --> 00:31:59.428
Right, it's possible they were in on it because of all the corruption in the LAPD at the time Wow.

00:31:59.428 --> 00:32:07.943
But the riots went on for several nights and the lack of any response from the city was truly horrific.

00:32:07.943 --> 00:32:21.977
Right Over 150 Latinos were injured and 500 were arrested, jesus Christ, and it kind of looked like the city was actually sanctioning these attacks Because they weren't doing anything to stop them.

00:32:22.210 --> 00:32:29.532
And with the news of all of this, it's literally a propaganda goldmine for the enemy.

00:32:29.532 --> 00:32:40.299
Germany, Japan used it to show the world how divided and messed up America was Right, which was a huge international embarrassment.

00:32:40.549 --> 00:32:41.977
Well, I can imagine yeah.

00:32:42.730 --> 00:32:53.304
So finally, after five days of writing, on June 8th the military stepped in and declared LA off limits to all military personnel.

00:32:53.304 --> 00:32:55.196
They're like get the fuck out of this city.

00:32:55.196 --> 00:32:59.693
Yes, washington was finally breathing down their necks.

00:32:59.693 --> 00:33:06.232
Worried about the propaganda, they canceled all leave and confined everyone to base.

00:33:06.232 --> 00:33:17.450
And just like that, the ride stopped isn't that amazing amazing what you can do when you just I don't know, don't be a dick yeah, it's just fucking crazy how quickly it ended.

00:33:17.450 --> 00:33:21.477
Once something was once something was actually done.

00:33:21.617 --> 00:33:22.138
Done about it?

00:33:22.179 --> 00:33:36.221
yeah, no, for sure by mid-june similar riots targeting suit suitors, both american excuse me, mexican-american and african-american yeah broke out in other cities like new york and detroit.

00:33:36.221 --> 00:33:42.332
Oh sure, but back in la, after everything calmed down, everyone was kind of left warning or like what the hell just happened?

00:33:42.332 --> 00:33:54.431
Right, the city was pretty much condemned, but nobody here wanted to take responsibility yeah sure so eleanor roosevelt actually suggested in a speech that it was about race.

00:33:54.672 --> 00:34:22.329
The rights were about race well, I mean, that's what it was about, because clearly they were but, okay but to save face, the la press attacked her called her a communist and said, no, it's not about race well, it's because they're just trying to save their own ass because they didn't fucking do anything about it when it's clearly about race, because they're they're going after one certain race, I mean, and maybe collectively some others in the vicinity, right, but they were targeting the one.

00:34:22.449 --> 00:34:33.157
So it's a hundred percent about race, you fucking idiots so eventually there were two communi, nope, two committees that were created to handle this kind of attack.

00:34:33.157 --> 00:34:41.255
Okay, a state committee which concluded that race was the central factor, duh, and then a mayor's committee.

00:34:41.255 --> 00:34:42.077
What?

00:34:42.619 --> 00:34:43.161
A mayor.

00:34:43.161 --> 00:34:44.996
What does a mayor's committee all entail?

00:34:45.630 --> 00:34:51.659
Just people in the mayoral office created a committee and denied that it was a race problem completely.

00:34:51.889 --> 00:34:53.938
Again, they're just trying to save their own ass.

00:34:55.235 --> 00:34:57.373
Yes, they didn't want to admit that it was a race riot.

00:34:57.413 --> 00:35:23.922
They blamed it on delinquent kids and downplayed the military's role when clearly it just escalated really fast when they were involved, so their role was quite large but while la was trying to sweep it all under the rug, yeah, there was another story unfolding the sleepy lagoon murder, murder, yep and um, we're talking about, like, the defense committee which was formed back in 1942.

00:35:23.983 --> 00:35:43.443
It was still fighting to clear the names of the 38th street guys who were wrongly convicted right they actually had a lot of activists and celebrities on their side orson wells, oh really, and rita hayworth, oh wow the actress yeah, I know who she is yeah, so they, they were advocates for these mexican, american youth.

00:35:43.530 --> 00:35:54.019
Oh wow, nice and in 1944 they finally won their appeal oh cool the court agreed that the original trial was biased and overturned all the convictions.

00:35:54.019 --> 00:35:54.561
That's wild.

00:35:54.561 --> 00:36:00.557
Hank lavis and the others were finally released from san quentin that's fantastic, did those?

00:36:01.039 --> 00:36:03.231
what happened to the girls that were wards of the state then?

00:36:03.954 --> 00:36:08.545
I, I think they were there until, like, they were 18 or something.

00:36:09.007 --> 00:36:17.168
Oh, I think I wrote it down later and I don't remember, I think, because I wrote this like two weeks ago, sure, but it was a huge victory, right?

00:36:17.168 --> 00:36:27.385
Right, these ordinary citizens, activists, showed what a small group of people can actually do in the big realm of things, right?

00:36:27.385 --> 00:36:35.460
So Hank Lavis had spent about two years in prison before he was released, but unfortunately that wasn't the end of his brushes with the law.

00:36:35.460 --> 00:36:36.800
Of course was released, but unfortunately that wasn't the end of his brushes with the law.

00:36:36.708 --> 00:36:54.393
Of course hank lavis got right back to work after his release and started seeing his old girlfriend again okay um, but he was pretty bitter and it wasn't long before he was back in bars, in the bar, back behind bars there it is uh, for selling drugs um right, which he did like a 10 to 12 year stretch.

00:36:54.753 --> 00:36:56.800
Yeah, I mean, I can understand why it'd be pretty bitter, though.

00:36:56.800 --> 00:36:59.077
Yeah, but that doesn't mean, you should go sell trucks.

00:36:59.811 --> 00:37:02.739
But later on Hank finally did get a little bit more settled.

00:37:02.739 --> 00:37:07.659
He opened a restaurant oh really it was called Hank's on Whittier Boulevard in East LA.

00:37:07.659 --> 00:37:09.615
Okay, and it's where his family worked.

00:37:09.615 --> 00:37:13.432
So, he had some girlfriends over the years, but he never got married.

00:37:13.713 --> 00:37:14.793
Is it still open today?

00:37:15.634 --> 00:37:16.335
I didn't look.

00:37:16.534 --> 00:37:17.335
Oh, okay, yeah.

00:37:18.155 --> 00:37:24.079
On July 6, 1971, Hank left a bar in East LA to call home from a payphone.

00:37:24.219 --> 00:37:24.501
Yeah.

00:37:24.780 --> 00:37:26.621
Telling his family that he'd be there soon.

00:37:26.621 --> 00:37:30.704
He went back inside and not long after he actually died of a heart attack.

00:37:30.704 --> 00:37:31.405
Oh wow.

00:37:31.786 --> 00:37:32.867
Yeah, he was 48.

00:37:33.367 --> 00:37:33.806
Pretty young.

00:37:33.987 --> 00:37:34.248
Yeah.

00:37:34.730 --> 00:37:58.806
Yeah, oh, wow, yeah, he was 48, pretty young, yeah, yeah, so towards the end of her life, on january 5th 1991, lorena and sinis yes the one with the knowledge about jose diaz's killer, yeah she finally confessed about what really happened at sleepy lagoon okay her daughter said that Lorena kept quiet all that time because her brother, louis, was mixed up in the murder.

00:38:00.150 --> 00:38:03.027
Lorena wasn't a snitch and she was trying to protect her brother.

00:38:03.027 --> 00:38:09.907
Sure, she said that Louis was at the party before the 38th Street gang showed up and he got tossed out for starting trouble.

00:38:10.168 --> 00:38:10.389
Okay.

00:38:10.730 --> 00:38:18.541
Later that night, when Jose Diaz and a couple of other guys left the party, louie and his buddies, looking for revenge, jumped them.

00:38:18.541 --> 00:38:20.684
A fight broke out.

00:38:20.684 --> 00:38:23.719
Diaz got stabbed and was left for dead Sure.

00:38:23.719 --> 00:38:27.601
And then, right after that, hank Leavis and his crew showed up.

00:38:27.949 --> 00:38:30.057
So that's why they got put in court, yeah.

00:38:30.809 --> 00:38:40.664
So Louie and Sinus was picked up in the whole like dragnet of everything following the Sleepy Lagoon murder, but he was let go by the police.

00:38:40.664 --> 00:38:51.405
Oh wow, years later he did commit suicide while holding up a Los Angeles branch of the Bank of America in 1972.

00:38:51.425 --> 00:38:51.905
Okay.

00:38:53.210 --> 00:38:55.697
To this day, jose Diaz's murder is still considered unsolved.

00:38:55.697 --> 00:38:58.927
Yeah, okay, To this day, jose Diaz's murder is still Considered Considered unsolved.

00:38:58.967 --> 00:38:59.849
Yeah, wow.

00:39:00.831 --> 00:39:05.922
But that is the story of the Zoot Suit riots and the death of Jose Diaz.

00:39:06.650 --> 00:39:10.880
So is that where the Cherry Poppin' Daddies got their song from yes, it is yes.

00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:11.300
Nice.

00:39:12.503 --> 00:39:12.744
It is.

00:39:12.909 --> 00:39:14.255
They gonna throw back a bottle of beer.

00:39:16.990 --> 00:39:18.496
It's actually a pretty catchy song.

00:39:18.597 --> 00:39:23.762
I love that song I remember when it I mean I've listened to it the majority of my life, so yeah.

00:39:23.762 --> 00:39:25.132
I enjoy it very much.

00:39:25.494 --> 00:39:25.753
Good.

00:39:26.074 --> 00:39:26.896
Take us to beer beer.

00:39:26.956 --> 00:39:27.960
What did you think of the story?

00:39:28.360 --> 00:39:28.722
I liked it.

00:39:28.722 --> 00:39:41.677
It's different, kind of not something you normally would would normally learn about, basically, so not something you normally would would normally learn about, basically.

00:39:41.677 --> 00:39:47.353
So yeah, yeah, I mean, I'd be, to be honest, the only thing I knew about the zoot suit riots was the song by the cherry poppin daddies, so I didn't know.

00:39:47.393 --> 00:39:49.318
The outfit is super cool.

00:39:49.318 --> 00:39:52.152
I actually really like the outfits yeah, you're gonna get one.

00:39:52.934 --> 00:40:04.070
No, get a purple, one, oh oh, can they be pinstripes too, because that's cool oh, can it be purple with like different, like a darker shade of purple as the pinstripes.

00:40:04.070 --> 00:40:16.876
Now we're talking contrast um, but no, I, I had no idea that was even a thing, basically.

00:40:16.876 --> 00:40:25.862
But yeah, no, that was interesting and way to go, police to basically shit the bed on that.

00:40:25.862 --> 00:40:31.286
So you know, yeah, we're just going to let them do their thing, then we'll arrest the ones that got attacked.

00:40:31.306 --> 00:40:32.246
Yeah, exactly.

00:40:32.427 --> 00:40:33.068
Fucking idiots.

00:40:33.791 --> 00:40:37.119
So I'm going to do something that you don't know is coming.

00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:41.081
Oh, do you want to share an idiom with me?

00:40:43.673 --> 00:40:54.398
he's not prepared yes, yes, I do you can get one for me hold, please, all right.

00:40:54.398 --> 00:40:59.469
So the idiom I have, um is coming down the pike.

00:40:59.469 --> 00:41:01.414
You've heard that one before, right?

00:41:01.474 --> 00:41:04.943
yeah, I've actually used that recently and somebody was like what does that mean?

00:41:04.963 --> 00:41:08.539
yeah, I think this one came from you, oh okay, I was like.

00:41:08.599 --> 00:41:11.346
I literally like wrote it in an email to someone, right?

00:41:12.268 --> 00:41:18.242
and I believe that's why, yeah, you said, oh, we should do that one, because I just used it, or something like yeah you want to know a little more about it.

00:41:18.242 --> 00:41:24.027
So the phrase coming down the pike originates from the term turnpike.

00:41:24.728 --> 00:41:24.909
Yes.

00:41:25.536 --> 00:41:40.237
You know which that is, which refers to a type of road where a toll is paid to pass through, and a pike is simply a shortened version of that, essentially meaning coming down the road and signifying something approaching or expected in the near future.

00:41:41.059 --> 00:41:46.717
So, but it's uh, it means something is on the horizon or about to happen, like kind of like what I said before.

00:41:46.717 --> 00:41:56.003
Um, but it's kind of like they don't really know exactly where it the it originated from, kind of thing.

00:41:56.003 --> 00:42:09.079
Um, but basically the most common and except accepted explanation is that pike refers to the term pike, like I said, and that these roads were often privately owned and required a toll and so on.

00:42:09.079 --> 00:42:19.579
Um, but then coming down the road the phrase coming down the pike so it's kind of combined it would then have originally meant something literally approaching or appearing on the road.

00:42:19.579 --> 00:42:24.036
So it's basically just you know what's coming ahead of you, yeah, kind of thing.

00:42:24.036 --> 00:42:30.065
So, um, there's some different like theories on where it originated from.

00:42:30.065 --> 00:42:33.016
Um, I believe it's american.

00:42:33.016 --> 00:42:49.887
It came from originally america, basically, um, yeah, coming down the pike is mainly just something is coming down in the future and near future opportunities, whatever the fuck you want to call it like that.

00:42:49.887 --> 00:42:56.608
But um cause, you had said that one recently and then and people think it's pipe P I P?

00:42:56.956 --> 00:42:58.021
E coming down the pipe.

00:42:58.255 --> 00:43:03.286
I, when I was a kid, I always thought, I mean, I always thought people were saying I'm like what do you mean, pike?

00:43:03.286 --> 00:43:06.661
Yeah, it's because it sounds like it should be coming down a pipe.

00:43:06.983 --> 00:43:07.204
Yeah.

00:43:07.494 --> 00:43:11.606
Which I can get the confusion on it, but it's technically coming down the pike.

00:43:11.606 --> 00:43:23.297
Yes, um, since you gave me that one, I'll do another quick one, because this came from your husband which is limelight.

00:43:23.297 --> 00:43:31.764
Basically, before electricity, theaters would use heated calcium oxide, which is known as quicklime, to illuminate stages.

00:43:31.764 --> 00:43:36.849
This is where the phrase in the limelight comes from that's awesome yeah.

00:43:37.710 --> 00:43:37.771
It.

00:43:37.771 --> 00:43:46.579
Basically it came from the 19th century, basically, um, but the uh I I kind of found a different couple of different things.

00:43:46.579 --> 00:43:59.007
The one I gave you is the one he sent me, um, but it says the invention of limelight in the early 1800s, a type of stage lighting, like it said, was developed using calcium oxide, also known as quick lime, and that's what.

00:43:59.007 --> 00:44:08.181
When it was heated to a high temperature, it gave a bright white light okay because they didn't have a say, have electricity they needed to light up the stage.

00:44:08.302 --> 00:44:14.838
Yeah, it's crazy yeah, um, it says limelight was first used in theaters in the 1830s.

00:44:14.838 --> 00:44:26.034
It provided a much brighter and more focused light than the gas lights that they used were commonly used at the time, so allowed for more dramatic and effective stage lighting.

00:44:26.034 --> 00:44:30.625
Because obviously back then, without electricity, they just literally had gas lamps.

00:44:30.625 --> 00:44:39.349
Those gave off light but not a ton of it yeah so it was still really dim and this made it, so you can see yeah everything on the stage.

00:44:39.509 --> 00:44:41.978
So there's a a rush song.

00:44:41.978 --> 00:44:46.527
The band rush, who I'm a pretty big fan of, um called limelight.

00:44:46.527 --> 00:44:49.280
It's a really good song yeah but uh, but yeah.

00:44:49.340 --> 00:44:54.271
So you'll see like now is it lime, l y or l I?

00:44:54.472 --> 00:45:08.719
l, I m e okay, yeah, um, but yeah, so it's been around for a while and, uh, it basically like if you're in the limelight it's just referring to is like you're on you're on the spotlight you're on the stage, yeah, spotlights on you, kind of thing.

00:45:08.719 --> 00:45:09.722
Yeah, that's cool.

00:45:09.722 --> 00:45:13.978
Yeah, so I thought, since I did one that came from you, I should do one from your husband.

00:45:14.179 --> 00:45:24.280
Yeah, so thanks, nathan, but yeah, so well, what do you think about your uh country boy brewing beer?

00:45:24.280 --> 00:45:27.945
Uh, it's pretty good and I'll another one.

00:45:28.166 --> 00:45:33.360
Um no, I mean it's, it's just a regular american pale, ale it's pretty easy going.

00:45:33.360 --> 00:45:38.373
Only five and a half percent, so not too shabby though yeah, my uh, cougar bait.

00:45:38.432 --> 00:45:41.338
The american blonde ale is 4.9 percent.

00:45:41.338 --> 00:45:43.302
Um, I really liked it.

00:45:43.302 --> 00:45:47.429
I'm I actually finished mine oh good, I know that's.

00:45:47.610 --> 00:45:50.940
I mean that's, that's a rarity for you.

00:45:51.021 --> 00:45:58.503
It is yeah yeah, but you know you allowed me to like take a breath at the end and I could actually finish it while you were talking.

00:45:58.755 --> 00:45:59.679
I'm glad I could help.

00:45:59.679 --> 00:46:09.875
Yes, but well, yeah, so it's nice that we're able to bring some beers back so we could try something a little different, because that's what we like to do, and not always.

00:46:09.875 --> 00:46:17.481
I know we go to our Modelo's and our Summer Shandy's a lot, but it's nice to get some different type of beers out there.

00:46:17.641 --> 00:46:17.961
For sure.

00:46:18.161 --> 00:46:19.565
Try them and see what we like.

00:46:20.126 --> 00:46:20.967
Yeah Well.

00:46:21.547 --> 00:46:24.641
I suppose All right, buffoons, that's it for today's episode.

00:46:25.335 --> 00:46:28.503
Buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you.

00:46:28.503 --> 00:46:36.454
Next time Feeling hungry for more buffoonery, or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore.

00:46:36.775 --> 00:46:38.101
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00:46:38.101 --> 00:46:42.827
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00:46:42.827 --> 00:46:46.885
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00:46:46.885 --> 00:46:48.818
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00:46:48.818 --> 00:46:50.423
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00:46:55.815 --> 00:46:58.862
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00:46:59.282 --> 00:47:01.307
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