Of the hundreds of men and boys police arrested, a grand jury indicts 22 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and two charges of assault with a deadly weapon.
Seventeen men and boys are tried en masse, with prosecutors emphasizing racial stereotypes to explain Diaz’s killing.
The accused
The 17 tried together were Henry Leyvas, Ysmael “Smiles” Parra, Jose “Chepe” Ruíz, Manuel “Manny” Delgado, Manuel “Manny” Reyes Salazar, Victor “Bobby Levine” Rodman Thompson, Henry “Hank” Joseph Ynostroza, Andrew Acosta, Eugene Carpio, Benny Alvarez, Gustavo “Gus” Zamora, Victor Segobia, Joseph Valenzuela, Jack Melendez, Robert “Bobby” Telles, John Matuz and Angel Padilla.
Five others — Edward Grandpré, Ruben Peña, Daniel Verdugo, Joe Carpio and Richard Gastelum — request and are granted separate trials.
Above, Leyvas with some other defendants in the background.
The judge
The all-white jury hears the case under the supervision of Judge Charles W. Fricke.
In his obituary in 1958, The Times wrote that Fricke had “sentenced more killers to death than any other jurist in the history of California jurisprudence.” He also was known for sending minors to state prison rather than forestry camp.
Fricke refuses to let the defendants change their clothes, comb or cut their hair or sit next to their attorneys during the trial. The media begin writing about gang identifiers, including a popular hairstyle among Mexican youths known as the “ducktail haircut.”
Fricke also allows the jury to read newspapers everyday during the trial. The Times begins to call the defendants the “Zoot Suit Slayers.”
The witnesses
Over the 13-week trial, the prosecution presents multiple “expert” witnesses who give racist testimony on the Mexican community and its culture.
Sheriff’s Capt. Edward Duran Ayres, who prepared a report for the grand jury, wrote that Mexicans had a “desire to use a knife or some lethal weapon. In other words … desire is to kill, or at least, let blood.” He attributed this to the sacrificial practices of the Aztecs.
He also insinuated a link between Mexico and wartime foe Japan, saying the defendants’ ancestors “crossed the ice bridge between North America and Asia.” People from the two countries were “cousins,” he wrote.
“The Indian, from Alaska to Patagonia, is evidently Oriental in background — at least he shows many of the Oriental characteristics, especially so in his utter disregard for the value of life,” Ayres wrote.
Delgadillo Coronado identified three of the 17 defendants in her testimony as part of the group that crashed their party: Leyvas, Melendez, and Parra.
Manfredi also identified Leyvas and Parra as party crashers, along with Delgado, but did not identify any of the defendants as the person who stabbed him.
Multiple witnesses said they gave false statements during the grand jury inquiry because of police intimidation.