Introduction

When Jose Diaz was found dead in August 1942, the country was ripe for internal conflict. While in the midst of the Second World War, conflicts were heating up on the home front as well. The combination of racial segregation, an influx of Mexican immigration, and the rising popularity of a new fashion fad gave way to rising tensions surrounding Diaz’s death, which culminated in an explosive trial. The trial was named “Sleepy Lagoon,” after the place in which Diaz’s unconscious body was found. The Sleepy Lagoon case ended with a murder conviction for 17 teenage boys. All convicted were of Mexican descent, and all wore the zoot suit style. The results of this case were shaped by a combination of racial profiling and targeting the zoot suit as a style of dress.

In studying the historical context of the Sleepy Lagoon case, it is clear that racial profiling played a role in the roundup and conviction of the Mexican-American¹youth. But if we look deeper, we can see that deep prejudices were held not only against Mexican-Americans, but also specifically against Mexican-American wearers of zoot suits. Based on the treatment of zoot-suit-wearers on trial, one can see how much of the case rested just as much on race as on the accused’s manner of dress. It was the precise combination of these two phenomena – race and dress - that led to the trial and conviction of 17 boys and three girls for the murder at Sleepy Lagoon.

This report is divided into three main sections. The first section, “historical context,” will focus on the context in which the trial took place, focusing on racial prejudice against Mexican-Americans. The second section, “The zoot suit and pachuco subculture,” examines the role of the zoot suit in Mexican-American culture, and how stereotypes of criminality were linked with the fashion trend. The last section, “The case,” goes over the events of the Sleepy Lagoon case, and demonstrates how race and dress together affected the Sleepy Lagoon case.

Historical context

The Sleepy Lagoon case took place during World War II. This meant a lot of things for the trial, including attitudes of xenophobia and the practice of segregation based on race. Additionally, Sleepy Lagoon took place in the midst of a so-called “crime wave,” which was blamed almost entirely on Mexican-Americans (Dr. Colin Gunkel, 2013).

Xenophobia

In the years of 1942 and 1943, during which the Sleepy Lagoon case takes place, there was a prominent xenophobic attitude, especially toward Japanese and Mexican-Americans. Although this report focuses primarily on those of Mexican descent, it is interesting to note that 1942 was both the year that the Sleepy Lagoon case began, and the year that the government ordered the internment of all people of Japanese descent. If nothing else, this demonstrates high xenophobic tensions present in the United States. Additionally, as Gunkel pointed out in lecture, once the Japanese were placed in internment camps, more attention was given to other racial groups, especially Mexican-Americans (2013).

These xenophobic tensions were especially strong in the U.S. west, where the largest population of Mexican-Americans resided. As Longmore and Hitt, authors of “A Demographic Analysis of First and Second Generation Mexican Population,” point out, “Mexicans are not evenly distributed over the United States… Generally they cluster in a belt approximately 150 miles wide extending from San Francisco south along the Pacific Coast, then inland along the Mexican Border through the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to the Gulf of Mexico” (141). The main population of Mexican-Americans, according to these authors, was in the U.S. west. This population of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans was relatively new in the region. Many Mexicans had moved to the U.S. because of the Mexican civil war, which took place between 1910-1930 (Gunkel, 2013). In addition to escaping the civil war, the United States offered employment incentives for Mexicans to work in the United States. As Longmore and Hitt explain, “In August, 1942 the Governments [sic] of Mexico and the United States signed an agreement setting forth provisions whereby Mexicans could enter the United States to serve as agricultural laborers” (138). Because of these economic incentives and the war in Mexico, many Mexican immigrants entered the western United States to work in the farming industry and live in urban spaces. Longmore and Hitt point out that “Los Angeles contained the largest urban aggregate of Mexicans in the United States” (143). Indeed, because of the economic and political incentives, the population of Mexican-Americans boomed during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Longmore and Hitt’s report, which served to supplement the U.S. Census, notes that in 1910, Mexicans made up around one percent of the U.S. foreign-born population, but by 1930, they were ranked as the third largest racial group in the country, “exceeded only by whites and Negroes” (140). Within twenty years, the Mexican population of the U.S. went from almost nothing to the third-largest racial group.

The sudden influx of a new racial group, especially during World War II, resulted in increased feelings of xenophobia. Not only were Americans afraid that Mexican-Americans might be communists, but they also maintained segregated spaces from Mexican-Americans. Longmore and Hitt’s report digresses from the “strict demographic analysis…to suggest some of the implications divulged by the data.” The authors write how “our democratic ideal implies freedom from limitations imposed on the individual solely because of race, sex, or creed and assures to all freedom of occupational choice and educational opportunity” (148), and they imply that Mexicans are not receiving all of these freedoms. The authors point out that only 52% of Mexican children were attending school, compared with a national average of 70%. Without explicitly naming that the root of this inequality was segregated schools, Longmore and Hitt tactfully call for better educational and occupational equality for all races. In doing so, they imply that unequal systems are in place for those of Mexican descent compared to those of Anglo descent. Indeed, as Gunkel points out, conditions for Mexicans in L.A. were as bad as the Jim Crow south (2013). Anti-Mexican sentiment was high in Los Angeles, especially surrounding the zoot suit youth subculture.

The Crime Wave

The influx of Mexican Americans in the US combined with the segregation of this population from the white population contributed directly to the rise in racial prejudices against Mexican Americans in the 1940s. Key to these prejudices was the simultaneous rise in juvenile delinquency. Although the rise in delinquency, called “the crime wave” in many newspapers, affected all racial identities, it was blamed almost exclusively on Mexican-American youth. For example, in the article “The Juvenile Problem,” published in the L.A. Times, the author, Chester Hanson, argues that Mexican-American youth is to blame for the crime wave. Although the title implies that the problem applies to all young people, Hanson writes, “I believe in a thorough airing of this problem with the hope that in time the better people among Spanish-speaking Americans of Mexican forebears will wake up to the necessity of bearing down on that small percentage of their people who are responsible for whatever prejudice is developing against them.” Although the article purports to examine the rise in all juvenile delinquency, Hanson explicitly calls for Mexican-Americans to control their youth. He claims that the prejudices developing against Mexican-American youth are valid, even if only a small percentage is responsible for them. Mexican-American youth are made out to be solely responsible for juvenile delinquency.

Part of the logic behind blaming Mexican-American youth for the crime wave is that these teenagers were descended from Mexicans, who, according to the science of the times, were descended from Aztecs. This line of descent is considered significant because Aztecs, as explained by several lawyers during the Sleepy Lagoon trial, were inherently bloodthirsty, violent, and enjoyed human sacrifice. Mexican-American youth, the logic follows, are related to their Aztec ancestors, and have a biological predisposition toward crime. In other words, because these youth supposedly descended from Aztecs, they are inassimilable and violent. This logic allows the police and criminal justice system feel more justified in their harsh actions against Mexican-American youth (Gunkel, 2013), and was used as evidence against the 17 boys convicted in the Sleepy Lagoon case. In the trial, Sheriff’s Captain Duran Ayres gave “a long report to the grand jury in which he attributed the antics of these youngsters to the “biological” predisposition of the Mexican to “criminal tendencies”” (“Los Angeles’ Pachuco Gangs” 76). This report drew on the belief that Mexicans, as descended from Aztecs, were likelier to be violent criminals than other racial groups.

These prejudiced beliefs about Mexican’s criminal disposition are further demonstrated in “The Juvenile Problem.” Hanson, quoting the superintendent of a school district in Los Angeles, writes that there are “Mexican youth who are not salvageable” (A4). These unsalvageable Mexican teenagers will never be assimilated, according to Lane, because of their utter disregard for the law and moral codes. Lane goes on to argue that people should stop trying to sympathize with these youth. He says that crimes will continue to “occur and reoccur until we admit that such aggressors are criminals and should be permanently removed from circulation because they are a menace to the general welfare” (A4). Rather than trying to work with these youths and figure out which aspects of society are so undesirable to them, the author argues that they be “removed from circulation” by deportation to Mexico. The article concludes, “There are a group of Mexican youths, male and female, who find our culture or society so alien and distasteful that they are unhappy, rebellious and usually subversive to other young people. They should be returned to the native country under some working agreement with Mexico, he said. They cannot be assimilated” (A4).

Because of its historical situation in the midst World War II and the rise in juvenile delinquency, the Sleepy Lagoon case was deeply influenced by racial prejudice and oppression of those of Mexican descent. Because of increased xenophobia, and the assumption that the crime wave was connected an Aztec thirst for blood, racial stereotypes and discrimination deeply affected perceptions of the boys and girls on trial for the murder of José Diaz at Sleepy Lagoon.

The zoot suit and pachuco subculture

Pachucos and Pachucas

While the historical phenomena surrounding the Sleepy Lagoon trial affected perceptions of the youth on trial, the fact that they wore zoot suits was equally important. Attitudes toward zoot suits, and the label “pachuco,” were particular manifestations of anti-Mexican sentiment targeting a subculture of Mexican teenagers. Although at one point, the word “pachuco” referred to people from a specific region in Mexico, it evolved to refer to all youth of Mexican or Mexican-American descent who wore zoot suits². The term “pachuco” specifically was linked with gang involvement. Newspapers sometimes used “pachuco” interchangeably with “gangster” or “hoodlum,” contributing to the idea that all Mexican-Americans were involved in violent gangs, although most Mexican-American youths were not in gangs (Gunkel, 2013). However, the press used words like “zoot suiter,” “Mexican-American,” and “pachuco” synonymously, contributing to the belief that all youth who wore zoot suits were in gangs or were criminals. These words were liberally applied in newspapers to the teenagers on trial for the murder of José Diaz, which deeply affected the public’s perception of them. Because they wore zoot suits, they were already associated with criminality before the trial even began.

While all zoot suit wearers were definitely not criminals, many of them participated in the pachuco subculture. As Kathy Peiss writes, “Pachuco culture was a product of combined Mexican and Anglo-American practices in the Southwest” (48). The subculture involved going to dance halls and social clubs and speaking in “caló,” a slang variation of Spanish. However, the most important feature of this subculture was wearing the zoot suit. The suit, which was popularized by jazz culture, differed based on race and gender. According to Gunkel, African Americans, who introduced the style, wore zoot suits in bright colors, while Mexican-Americans, who adopted the style soon after, wore more subdued colors. Mexican-American women wore short skirts that fell at the knee, bouffant hair-dos, high socks, and heavy makeup (Gunkel, 2013). This style of dress challenged conventional ideas of feminine style and behavior by seeming overly sexualized and less modest.

Men wore pants with high waistlines that ballooned out at the knee and came in tightly at the ankle. Men who wore zoot suits often sported ducktail haircuts and carried pocket watches with long chains. An article in the 1943 New Republicbest describes men’s style of zoot suit:

The pachuco boys affect drape coats that fall to their knees, pants hitched up almost to their armpits, with peg-top bottoms. So tight are their pants at the bottom, that some of them have to be slit and zipped up. Going in for broad-brimmed hats, the boys let their hair grow long and comb it straight back in two black wings that meet at the back of the head in a little topknot. Dolled up in these fancy zoot suits and racing around in cut-down and hopped-up jalopies, the pachuco gangs have occasioned much sensational publicity. (“Los Angeles’ Pachuco Gangs” 76)

Zoot suits were a distinguishing factor for youth of color. They stood out, highlighting difference. Gunkel describes the suits as seeming to represent the emergence of a collective identity that both defied the Mexican-American’s parent’s culture and also U.S. dominant culture (2013). This idea is supported by several primary sources, including an article from the New York Amsterdam News, a prominent African-American newspaper. The journalist writes, “The suit itself is probably a reaction to the conventional-dressed and is a desire of the younger generation to show that they do not care what the older people wear” (“Interesting Comment”). On top of distinguishing generational differences, the zoot suits were a rebellion against the conventional styles of dress. They looked extravagant, especially during wartime, when fabric was rationed and restraint was praised. The rhetoric of sacrifice was part of the dominant wartime narrative, and zoot suit wearers, with their specially tailored suits, were seen as abnormal and unpatriotic. To police, city officials, and the press, the zoot suit seemed to symbolize conspicuous consumption and excess during wartime (Gunkel, 2013). It stood out from the crowd, and challenged both whites’ and Mexicans’ expectations of “proper” behavior for Mexican-Americans, especially Mexican-American women, such as being submissive and humble. As the Amsterdam News continues, “The zoot suit is a way for the otherwise poorly equipped people in life to get some notice for we note that the well known people do not wear them at all” (“Interesting Comment”). By referring to zoot suit wearers as “poorly equipped,” the author notes that only marginalized groups wear zoot suits. Zoot suits were a way for youth of color –in this case of this report, Mexican-American youth in Los Angeles - to make a statement. This statement had many implications in the Sleepy Lagoon case. As the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee notes, ““Zoot suits’ and “Pachuco” hair cuts were crimes” (The Sleepy Lagoon Case 10). The styles of dress contributed to negative stereotypes and assumptions of the teens on trial.

The Case

These two factors – racial discrimination exacerbated by historical situation, and the stereotypes and assumptions connected to wearing zoot suits - deeply influenced the Sleepy Lagoon case. In this section, the case is reviewed and we will examine how racial prejudice and discrimination based on clothing influenced the outcome.

The case surrounded the murder of José Diaz, a Mexican-American teenage boy. Diaz was found unconscious from a head injury in Sleepy Lagoon, a reservoir in southern Los Angeles, in August of 1942, after rumors of a gang fight. He died in an L.A. hospital. His injuries were consistent with that of being hit by a car (PBS). However, newspapers seem to agree that “gangsters,” “zoot-suiters,” or “hoodlums” were the culprits – terminology which, as demonstrated in the previous section, referred to Mexican-Americans. For example, one article in the Los Angeles Timesreported, “Diaz was beaten and stabbed fatally Aug. 2 when the young hoodlums raided a birthday party” (“Showup of 200”). Another read, “Diaz was stabbed fatally and beaten when a gang of “zoot-suiters” invaded a picnic on the Williams ranch” (“Jury Finds 12 in Slaying”). In both articles, Mexican-American youths are called by other titles – hoodlums and zoot-suiters. However, these words, along with simply “Mexican-Americans,” connote violence and crime.

The police’s next actions support the fact that the case was built on racial profiling and discrimination based on clothing style. In order to find Diaz’s “murderer,” the L.A. police participated in a roundup of between 200-600 Mexican-American boys and girls, all of whom wore zoot suits. In the arrests, fashion was used as evidence of the teenager’s criminality. As the New Republic describes, “Following this incident, the police launched a systematic round-up of Mexican youngsters…more than three hundred Mexican youngsters were grabbed in one mass raid” (“Los Angeles’ Pachuco Gangs” 76). Other newspaper articles claim that 200 youths were rounded up, such as the article entitled “Showup of 200 Boy Gangster Suspects Held,” in the L.A. Times, although studies now show that it was closer to 600 Mexican youths (Gunkel, 2013). All but one of these youths had Spanish surnames, and all of them were wearing zoot suits. As the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee writes, “On August 3^rdevery Mexican kid in Los Angeles was under suspicion as a “zoot-suit” killer” (The Sleepy Lagoon Case, 10). Because of their racial identity as Mexican-American and their fashion choice of wearing zoot suits, these teenagers were assumed to be involved in gangs, and they were detained and questioned regarding José Diaz’s murder. There was no concrete evidence tying zoot-suit-wearers to the crime scene, but as PBS notes, California’s governor was growing increasingly concerned about juvenile delinquency, and he used José Diaz’s death as a call to action. The police automatically equated the combination of zoot suits and being Mexican with criminality.

After some screening, 22 boys and three girls out of the hundreds of youths arrested were indicted, and 17 of the boys went on trial for the single murder³. The girls were sent to a reform school without a trial. During the Sleepy Lagoon trial, also known as People v. Zammora, “the boys were forbidden to get hair-cuts during the course of the trial, or to receive clean clothing from home” (The Sleepy Lagoon Case 21). Their fashion was used as evidence of their criminality. The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee went on to write, “Defense lawyer George Shibley charged that District Attorney Shoemaker “is purposefully trying to have these boys look like mobsters, like disreputable persons, and is trying to exploit the fact that they are foreign in appearance” (The Sleepy Lagoon Case 21). By foreign in appearance, Shibley is referring to the boy’s racial identity in conjunction with their zoot suit style. The combination of being Mexican-American and wearing a zoot suit made the boys look like “others,” like non-Americans, or even like monsters, in Shibley’s words. But Shoemaker replied that “their style of hair-cut, the thick heavy heads of hair, the duck-tail comb, the pachuco pants and things of that kind” were important evidence (The Sleepy Lagoon Case21), because it linked the youths with gang activity and violence. The connection between zoot suits and gang activity was faulty and prejudiced. As Gunkel noted, 60-70% of Mexican-American youth in L.A. wore some form of the zoot suit, but only 1-3% of Mexican youth were involved in gangs (2013). Using the Mexican-American boys’ wearing of zoot suits as evidence of their criminality was wrong, because most wearers of zoot suits were not involved in gangs.

During the trial, emphasis placed on how the boys were dangerous; several L.A. Times articles mentioned that the court was heavily guarded (“Jury Convicts 12”). The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee summarized the trial well, writing:

The prosecution based its case of this theory: That the defendants were all members of an organized group known as the “38^thStreet Gang”; that one of its members, Henry Leyvas, was beaten by members of a rival gang at the reservoir…nicknamed ‘Sleepy Lagoon’; that Leyvas gathered his gang and returned armed and organized, for the purpose of revenge” (“The Sleepy Lagoon Case” 25)

However, evidence for this theory was weak. Since there was little to no evidence supporting the prosecution’s theory, they had to look elsewhere for support. The prosecutor followed the logic that “when the Spaniards conquered Mexico they found an organized society composed of many tribes of Indians ruled over by the Aztecs who were given over to human sacrifice. Historians record that as many as 30,000 Indians were sacrificed on their heathen altars in one day…this total disregard for human life has always been universal throughout the Americas among the Indian population” (The Sleepy Lagoon Case15). Since the accused were Mexican-American, and therefore descended from Aztecs, it was implied that they had a natural disposition toward human sacrifice and bloodthirstiness. This, combined with the fact that they were wearing zoot suits, a connection to gang activity and criminality, was used as evidence for the accusation that this group of teenagers murdered Jose Diaz at Sleepy Lagoon.

In the end, the 17 boys were convicted for Jose Diaz’s murder. Some of the boys were convicted of second-degree murder, and some were given lesser chargers, but all of them were found guilty. As the L.A. Times reported, “17 youths convicted of various charges in the “Sleepy Lagoon” murder case yesterday were given sentences ranging from six months in the County Jail to life imprisonment” (“Sentence Passed on 17”). However, as the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, a group formed to defend the boys’ rights, writes, “The lawyers say there is good reason to believe the seventeen boys were innocent, and no evidence at all to show even that they were present at the time that Diaz was involved in a brawl, assuming that he actually was in a brawl, let alone that they “conspired” to murder Jose Diaz” (The Sleepy Lagoon Case 7). The evidence for the conviction was based on racial prejudice against Mexican-Americans and the assumption that all zoot-suit-wearers participated in pachuco gangs.

Results

After the 17 boys were convicted of murder, there was an outpouring of civil rights activism. The newly formed Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee produced The Sleepy Lagoon Case, a short book about the why the trial was unjust and biased. The Sleepy Lagoon case gained national attention. As the African-American newspaper, The Pittsburgh Courier, pointed out,

Out in California noted for…its discriminatory acts against Orientals and its exploitation of Oakies, the Sleepy Lagoon case has become a cause celebre. Without the slightest evidence against them, 17 youths, 16 of them Mexicans, are serving sentences from six months to life imprisonment for alleged assault and for the supposed murder of one man. They were convicted on the assumption that there is a biological basis for crime, and that these Mexicans should be punished collectively. It is the rawest case of injustice since the Scottsboro atrocity and is a logical follow-up of the anti-Mexican “zoot suit” riots that disgraced Los Angeles a few months ago. In view of the growing tension between white and colored on the Pacific Coast, Negroes everywhere should interest themselves in this case which establishes the pattern for future prosecution of the growing colored population in that area. (“Frame-Up in California”)

This article condemns the unjust conviction of the Mexican-American youth, pointing out the problematic idea of a biological basis for crime, and naming the case as one of the “rawest” cases of injustices against Mexicans in the United States. The author of the article asks African-Americans to pay attention to the case, because the outcomes would affect people of color across the country.

Another result of the Sleepy Lagoon case, also mentioned in the piece by the Pittsburgh Courier,was the zoot suit riots. Riots based on the wearing of zoot suits ensued in 1943 on the streets of Los Angeles. U.S. navy personnel were stationed at a base near Los Angeles, and there was a constant tension between soldiers and Mexican-American boys. There were rumors in the press that Mexican-American boys were targeting soldiers (such as in the L.A. Times article “Zoot Suiters Learn Lesson in Fights with Servicemen.”) Fights between the groups escalated into a week-long riot. Soldiers came down from the base at night looking for zoot-suit-wearing men. They stripped these men naked and burned the zoot suits, and many held down Mexican-American men to cut their hair. Civilians participated by transporting soldiers by car from the naval base to Mexican neighborhoods. The riots continued to escalate, and went from targeting zoot suit wearers to targeting all Mexicans. Police looked the other way, and army leaders ignored or condoned the soldier’s behavior (Gunkel, 2013). In fact, the police would become involved with the riots in order to arrest Mexican men after they were stripped naked and left on the street. The riots were based on the same combination of factors as those that contributed to the outcome of Sleepy Lagoon – race and fashion.

Because of the unjust treatment of Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles, the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee drew on the Los Angeles community, film industry, politicians, and labor unions to work to promote civil rights for the 17 boys convicted of murder. Finally, after a long civil rights battle, the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee raised enough money to bring the case to the court of appeals, where the verdict of Sleepy Lagoon was overturned (Zoot Suit Discovery Guide). L.A. Times articles insisted that the repeal of the verdict had nothing to do with racial profiling, but simply that “the District Court of Appeal…held that the original evidence introduced before Superior Judge Charles W. Fricke at the trial was insufficient to warrant their being found guilty” (“Sleepy Lagoon Death Figures Given Freedom”). Evidence against the boys was never found. The girls “remained wards of the state even after their male companions won their appeal and were released from prison in October 1944” (Ramirez 31).

However, even though the verdict was repealed, The Pittsburgh Courier article got it right after all. This case was important because it did establish a pattern of prosecution in communities of color.

Conclusion

The Sleepy Lagoon case is still relevant to this day because profiling based on race and dress is still commonly practiced. Although the official roundup of hundreds of teenagers that belong to the same racial group isn’t practiced in name, it is practiced nonetheless. As discussed in books like The New Jim Crow, it is clear that racial profiling plays a large role in the criminal justice system. For example, the prison industrial complex targets men of color, as do stop-and-frisk laws and mandatory minimums. And although the zoot suit has fallen out of fashion, certain styles are still associated with law breaking and delinquency. One must only have to think of stereotypes associated with baggy jeans, the “hip hop style,” gold chains, and the style of letting one’s pants sag to realize that many styles of fashion are associated with criminality. A notable current case that involves fashion and racial profiling is that of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who was shot while walking in a predominantly white neighborhood while wearing a hoodie and baggy jeans – a death resulting from the lethal combination of racial profiling and discrimination based on style of dress. Not much has changed since the times of Sleepy Lagoon. Just as The Pittsburgh Courier warned, the Sleepy Lagoon case was just the beginning of a long history of discrimination based on the combination of race and fashion.

Works Cited

Cornell, John. "Mexican Labor Vital Factor in Southland Agriculture: Consulate Has Special Problem in 'Braceros'" Los Angeles Times27 Sept. 1948: A1. Print.

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Longmore, Wilson T., and Homer L. Hitt. "Demographic Analysis of First and Second Generation Mexican Population of the United States: 1930." Southwestern Social Science Quarterly24 (1943): 138-50. Proquest. Web.

McWilliams, Carey. "Los Angeles' Pachuco Gangs." Ed. George Soule. New Republic[Los Angeles] 8 Jan. 1943, 3rd ed.: 76-80. Print.

Peiss, Kathy. "Going to Extremes." Zoot Suit: The Enigmatic Career of an Extreme Style. N.p.: University of Pennsylvania, n.d. N. pag. Print.

Peterson, Ed. "Interesting Comment On Zoot Suit Style." New York Amsterdam News26 June 1943: 10. Print.

Ramirez, Catherine S. "The Woman in the Zoot Suit." (2009): n. pag. Web.

"Sentence Passed on 17: Three Get Life Terms in Fatal Fight at Ranch in Montebello." The Los Angeles Times2 Feb. 1943: A2. Print.

"Showup of 200 Boy Gangster Suspects Held: Inquest Airs Ranch Killing." The Los Angeles Times12 Aug. 1942: A1. Print.

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"Sleepy Lagoon Trial: Zoot Suit Discovery Guide." Zoot Suit Discovery Guide RSS. Pomona University, 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.

Wells, Orson, and Guy Endore. The Sleepy Lagoon Case. Los Angeles: Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, 1942. Print.

"Zoot Suit Riots." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2013.

"Zoot Suiters Learn Lesson in Fights With Servicemen: Gangs Stay Off Streets After Dark." Los Angeles Times7 June 1943: A1. Web.