What a Creep: "The Zoot Suit Riots" & "The Sleepy Lagoon Murder"
What a Creep
Sonia Mansfield
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2022
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Season 14, Episode 8
The Murder of Jose Gallardo Diaz & the Zoot Suit Riots
On August 2, 1942, Jose Gallardo Diaz (22) was found unconscious in an area known as The Sleepy Lagoon. He had multiple head injuries, was stabbed at least twice, and had a broken finger. He died at Los Angeles Hospital, and a complete sweep of Mexican Americans by the LA cops captured the media's imagination. Though mostly from future Creep William Randolph Hearst) kids that were Zoot-suiters were seen as a dangerous element and causing a crime wave. The phrase De-Zoot the suit was often sed.
Diaz's murder remains unsolved, but it was the catalyst for the "Zoot Suit Riots" that happened the following summer. If you have heard of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies song—you will get no idea how horrible this incident indeed was for the Chicano and African American community.
This episode will talk about the Sleepy Lagoon Murders, the sham of a trial that happened afterward, and the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles of 1943.
Trigger Warnings: Racism and my terrible attempts at Spanish.
Sources:
Sleepy Lagoon Murders Wiki
PBS American Experience "The Sleepy Lagoon Defendants"
The Sleepy Lagoon website
LA Law Library
Sleepy Lagoon Mystery by Guy Endore
The Zoot Suit Riots by Mauricio Mazon
The Zoot Suit Riots by Charles Rivers Editors
Zoot Suit (1981) Starring Edward James Olmos
Zoot Suit Riot by the Cherry Poppin Daddies
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Darren Brown. I've made a career out of learning the inner workings of our brilliantly messed up brains. |
| 0:08.0 | So together with the help of powerful human stories, expert advice and the odd experiment will help you wrestle control over your life, fears and emotions. |
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| 0:25.0 | Subscription required see audible.co.uk for terms. |
| 0:51.0 | So come and check in. We'll give you welcome and shelter at the Halloween Hotel by Frutella. |
| 1:02.0 | Welcome to What a Creep. The show with Margaret Donnie and Sonia Mansfield talking about creeps from the past to the present. |
| 1:09.0 | This is your quick guide to the biggest creeps, jerks, assholes and losers, but best of the worst. |
| 1:15.0 | From two nice ladies who want the world to be a little less creepy. |
| 1:27.0 | Welcome back to What a Creep. This is Margot Donnie and my cohort in creepitude as always is the amazing Sonia Mansfield. |
| 1:33.0 | Hey Sonia. Hello my friend. Hello my friend and we have a riot of an episode today. |
| 1:41.0 | I don't get it. I don't get it. We're the podcast that talks about creeps from the past to the present. |
| 1:49.0 | Today we're talking about an event in history that you may not have heard about before. I'm excited to present this to you. |
| 1:55.0 | What we do is that we challenge the other person who's giving the story. |
| 1:59.0 | I give the story. Sonia this week is going to give you the non creep, but I'm really excited about what she's going to be presenting today. |
| 2:05.0 | If you follow us on social media, that would be our Facebook group. |
| 2:09.0 | The Facebook page is like a basic Facebook page. We rarely check in. |
| 2:13.0 | And it's a place where people go to complain about us either being racist or having bad salty language. |
| 2:19.0 | Yeah, we're so we're so racist against white people. |
| 2:27.0 | Yes, that's a thing. That's a thing. Sure. |
| 2:31.0 | We have a private Facebook group you can join. |
| 2:35.0 | You do have to answer a few questions and just not be a dick and you'll have a good time there. |
| 2:39.0 | We're very proud of that. We are on Twitter at Creep pod because somebody had what a creep for 10 years and never used it. |
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