480 - Listener Favorites

This week, Karen and Georgia are taking a break for Mental Health Awareness Month, so we're celebrating your favorite stories! 

On this quilt episode, we revisit Karen and Georgia's coverage of the Zoot Suit Riots from July 30, 2020 and Cleveland's infamous 1974 Ten Cent Beer Night from February 9, 2023.  

In honor of #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth, Karen and Georgia are donating $10,000 to The Trevor Project. For more information, please visit https://www.thetrevorproject.org/. 

For our sources and show notes, visit www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes.

Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello, and welcome to My Favorite Murder. I'm Georgia hard
Stark and Karen and I are taking a short recording
break this week in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month.
So today we're bringing you a listener's Favorites Quilt episode.
We'll revisit the Zutsu Riots, originally aired in July twenty twenty,
and then Karen will tell the story of Cleveland's legendary

(00:37):
ten cent beer Night from February twenty twenty three that
is absolutely a favorite of yours. Just to top it off,
in support of Mental Health Awareness Month, we're going to
donate ten thousand dollars to the Trevor Project. Among other
amazing things. The Trevor Project provides counseling support for LGBTQ
plus young people twenty four to seven all year round.
Go to the Trevor Project dot org to get more information,

(01:00):
to donate yourself, or to get any help you need.
And we hope you all take a little bit of
time for yourself this month. Get a little self care
in there. We all need it. It's a rough moment
in time and we'll see you real soon. Okay, bye,
So this week I'm going to do what were you

(01:23):
reading something, can you hear it?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:27):
No reading?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh yeah, like you just said, that's so slowly and
steering straight ahead where I'm like, what's this.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Going to be? Karen, So I am doing those suit riots?
Oh shit, yes, I don't know how this has never
crossed my mind to do it, Like it's always just
kind of been an afterthought. And then I start looking
into it and it's bananas. Yes, And there's so much
to know. It's our city here, Los Angeles, that we

(01:55):
know and love. So this is uh when Los Angeles
experienced one of the most historically significant episodes of racial
violence in the twentieth century, known as the Zootsuit Riots.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
So, there's so much good information out there on the
Internet and podcasts and books. Some of them I got
from the hundreds. An article by Brandon Diaz Smithsonian dot com,
an article by Alice Gregory La Daily Mirror dot com.
They have a bunch of old articles that you can
read up there. There's an article by actual friend of

(02:28):
the podcast, Alena Shatkin, who who's a friend of mine.
She's a really great food writer, but she wrote an
article on last about it. Cool scholar historian Eduardo o
o'bragen Pagan who wrote Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon, the
book about it. And then there's a podcast called Latino

(02:49):
Rebels Radio and they posted an episode called from Latino
Media Collective where they interviewed Professor Girardo Lacone and he's
it's an incredible interview. Mercury News dot Com History Channel
has a documentary thought co article by Robert Longley, curbed
la article by Elijah Chiland. I mean, there's just so

(03:11):
much out there.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
So did you now, may I ask please? Did you
watch the film zoot Suit starring Edward James Almost?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
I did it? Really? It's so good. Yeah, I mentioned
I mentioned at the end of the end of this.
It's like I saw that in the theater, you did.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I know it came out eighty one eighty one, yeah,
and all I remember is yeah, but it was like
if it was playing downtown, we'd just.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Go see it. We saw everything.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, and he I just remembered Edward Jane James almost
in those zoot suits or whatever, and that leaned back
thing that I think it just was the stylistic, fascinating
kind of thing that I'd never seen or heard of before.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
It was like did they invent something new?

Speaker 2 (03:55):
And no, no, no, no, this is this is Latino history,
this is like, this is origin shit.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
This is and I just had no fucking clue and
there's okay, and it goes, it goes so deep, and
I'm obviously not going to do a great job in
ten pages of getting to everything. So please do read
about it and look it up because it's there's so
many connotations that come along with this. Anyways. Yeah, so
let's first start with a little history. The Mexican Revolution,

(04:25):
which lasted roughly from nineteen ten to nineteen twenty, caused
many Mexican families to immigrate to Los Angeles, so much
so that by the nineteen thirties, new immigration from Mexico,
migration from other states, and the longtime presence of multi
generational residents dating back to the Rancheros had made Los
Angeles home to the largest concentration of Mexicans and Mexican

(04:46):
Americans living in the US, the working class communities, most
of which were concentrated to the diverse East Side of
Los Angeles. Everyone here knows that that's the East side,
you know, was historically Mexican and Mexican American families like
Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights were traditional conservative and self

(05:07):
contained and actually so my family immigrated here from Eastern
Europe to Los Angeles in the twenties as well or
late teens, early twenties, and Boyle Heights was kind of
the only place where anyone who wasn't white could live.
So yeah, there was a big Jewish population there was well,
and that's where my family's from, So from Boyle Heights,
Uh huh oh nice, so that those houses are rare amazing. Yeah,

(05:31):
but it was like a lot of farmland too. I
have old photos of my grandma and like the farmland there.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
It reminds me of something else. And this could actually
be in another Edward James almost film Stand and Deliver
at one of the great so other great eighties movie
that as a teen, I was like, oh, I'm so inspired.
Maybe I ha going to take calculus. There's no fucking way.
But and I can't remember. It might be from that,
it might just be you know, other stuff I read.
But it was some kind of thing where somebody yelling

(06:00):
like go back to your country to Mexicans and Mexicans
being like, bitch, this is our We were here long
before you. This is this is part of Mexico. Like,
what are you talking about? You're in our country.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's that's part of the story, right. So the Mexican
American communities in Los Angeles had phaced decades of discrimination,
you know, including not being allowed to patronize or even
work in many of the businesses. So like even waiting
tables at a restaurant they weren't allowed to do. They
could be the bus boy at the most and even

(06:32):
they were expected to step off the sidewalk when white
pedestrians passed them. So it was just incredible discrimination. By
the nineteen forties, LA had a Mexican American population of
over two hundred and fifty thousand, and many of those
families now had teenagers that had grown up in Los Angeles,
you know, so they this, this is where they're from.

(06:53):
While their parents had been immigrants or you know, had
lived there for generations. This is their hometown, this is
where they're from, and they felt like the city was
theirs as well. And what do teenagers do, They fucking
rebel And these teenagers were no different. So known as pachucos.
So pachucos are the youth of this counterculture and they're

(07:15):
experiencing this huge cultural and generational gap between themselves and
their parents. It kind of reminded me of like rubble
without a cause, the way they were like, we don't
want the norms that you're used to. We need to
break out of what's going on, you know, and pave
our own way. Yeah, they were. They were fucking over
discrimination that their parents and grandparents had experienced, and they

(07:36):
wanted to create their own identities. Enter the zoot suit.
So the fashion trend I didn't fucking know this at
all had first been popularized during the nineteen thirties in
Harlem's jazz dance hall scene and predominantly worn by black teenagers,
so that's where it started. I didn't know that at
all with black teenagers super you know, the jazz scene.

(08:00):
The extravagantly styled two piece suit so just people who
don't know it, typically included the bright color fabric knee
length suit coats, so it almost looked like a like
an overcoat. But yeah, it was a suitcoat down in
the knees. They had excessively wide shoulders. It was very
flamboyant and extravagant. The flowing pants that ballooned out at

(08:21):
the knee and tapered really tight at the ankle. I
read a thing that sometimes they were so tight that
you had to put lubricant on your feet to get
it over your feet. It was just like it was
just this like it was. It was purposely ostentatious. Yeah,
you know what I mean. And part of the reason
that it was so tight it was also like function
because they were jitterbugging. They were doing these amazing dances,

(08:42):
and so having flowing pants at the ankle would get
in the way. So that's pretty cool. That's where that
came from. These weren't suits you could buy at the store.
Either you had to go to a specialty tailor, or
you could take a regular suit that was two sizes
too large and have that tailored the right way. So
what I didn't realize about the style of dress is

(09:03):
that the ostentatiousness and the flamboyant of the suit itself
was a way of refusing to be ignored and dismissed
as a minority. Hell yes, right, so, and this is
such a use culture thing of fuck you, I'm not
fitting in and I'm going to look, you know, loud
and get attention. I'm not going to fade into the background.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Right, I'm not going to step off the sidewalk because
you're walking by. I get to be like It's like
I get to take up space, and I get to
be here as I am.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Exactly exactly, So, minorities and people of color have always
been expected to blend in and kind of be behind
the scenes, you know, like they were menial workers. They
were making everything comfortable for white people. But the rebellious
youth refused to fade into the background. And that's where
the zoo. What the zoot suit represented, plus the amount
of material and tailoring required to make them made them

(09:57):
a luxury item. So it was like a defiance against
their association as a second class citizen. You know, they'd
save up all their money and they'd have these luxury
tailor made suits. They were essentially I wrote, they were
essentially balling, shot calling.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
One could say, if you're having a hard time relating
to what this means, that truly the definition of bawling
and shot calling.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Right, And so the zootsuit becomes a symbol of counterculture
and empowers young Black and Mexican youth to express their
individualistic identity within their culture and society. Fucking both Caesar
Chavez and Malcolm X were zoot suit wears. Nice right now.
The female members of this counterculture are called Pachucas and

(10:46):
they wear tight sweaters and short for the time skirts
that are like flared out. You can see them in
the movie zoot Suit. They have fishnets. They have high
hairdows and big earrings and heavy makeup. It was rumored
that some of the chukas would hide knives in their
like bouffonts. Yees big. I've heard that, so red knives
and razor blades sometimes, I mean love it. I hate violence.

(11:09):
I'm against violence.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
That's badass, really well, because if you need it right,
if you need it, throw it up in that air,
that's right, do it.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Other Patchukas would actually wear zootsuits themselves, and that was
a weighted to rebel against gender norms, which is so
ahead of its time and incredible bad I know, I
know so. Catherine Ramirez, she wrote the book Woman in
a zoot Suit, wrote quote, these youths refused to accept
the racialized norms of segregated America with their flashy ensembles,

(11:40):
distinct slang, extra cash generated by a booming war economy
and rebellious attitude. Pachuca's and Pachuca's participated in a spectacular
subculture and threaten the social order by visibly occupying spaces
public spaces. Hell yeah, So in Los angelesu Goes adopt

(12:01):
the zoot suit in order to brand themselves as rebels.
But white people see zoot suits as unpatriotic, and zuters,
as they're called, quickly become branded as a negative thing.
So this is partly due to the fact so it's
early nineteen forties, we get into World War two. US
enters World War two in nineteen forty one, and the

(12:22):
rationing of resources and the commercial manufacture of civilian clothing
becomes strictly regulated because both fabric and the time and
energy is focused on the war effort. So zuters become
a public enemy because of the amount of fabric it
took to make the zoot suits, because of racism, because

(12:46):
that's an excuse for you to be racist, yep. So
bootleg tailors continue to make the zoot suits, which uses
a lot of ration fabrics, and so white people view
the zoot suit itself is harmful to the war effort
and the young people who wear them are seen as
Unamerican and unpatriotic, which is just just an excuse for
the racism.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
It's always that, yeah, it's unpatriotic, you're against the military, exactly,
It's all this.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
It's yeah, right, yes, one hundred percent, especially because by
World War Two, migration had peaked, so there was a
lot of tension going on in Los Angeles. And don't
forget that this was also a time when Japanese Americans
were forcibly sent to internment camps. Japanese Americans who lived
and thrived in Los Angeles were forcibly removed from their

(13:33):
homes and businesses and sent to internment camps for the
duration of the war. So obviously racism is rampant and
blanket society.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
And that this is just a I think we've talked
about this before, but when the Japanese were sent to
those interurnment camps, many Japanese people lived in southern California
because they were here to grow the citrus groves, which
used to be everywhere down here, just everywhere, and like
in Burbank, every other street has like a lemon tree
or an o.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
My Orange County is called Orange County.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
It was mile mile after mile, and when they in
turned the Japanese, they stole their land, they stole their property,
and people like Bob Hope went in and bought up
all of this stolen land. And then it was just
when those American citizens who happened to be Japanese got
released from those internment camps, they just didn't have anything

(14:23):
because it was it's so ugly.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's one of the most disgusting historical times in our well,
they all are. Okay, there's so many. There's so many
to pick from. We'll talk about all of them on
this podcast today. Okay, So, throwing lighter fluid onto this
fire is the fact that a naval school for the
Naval Reserve Armory was built in Chavez Ravine. It's a

(14:48):
primarily Hispanic neighborhood. It's named after Julian Chavez, a rancher
who eventually served as assistant mayor, city councilman and became
one of La County's first supervisors. So that you guys
will know, it's where Dodger Stadium is, which I'll get
to later. But Dodger Stadium was built in Chavez Ravine.
The area had been home and it's kind of these

(15:10):
beautiful rolling hills. It's this really lush, lovely place in
Los Angeles. It's right above Echo Park if you've ever
been here. And the area had been home to generations
of Mexican American families, and this city used imminent domain,
that motherfucking bitch to clear out some of those homes
and then sailors that had so they put the sailors

(15:32):
in this Mexican American neighborhood of Chavez Ravine, and then
sailors had to cut through those neighborhoods to get downtown.
So they'd be going downtown to drink, they'd come back
through those neighborhoods. So of course there's going to be tension,
and there'd be cat calling. There'd be all kinds of
you know, tussles and that sort of thing happening. Stuff

(15:54):
to start fights with exactly. I think those buildings are
still there too. If you're driving off the five to
get into Dodger Stadium to get tested for COVID, now
is what it's for. Yeah, you'll see these old buildings
and I think that's where it's from. Wow, pretty Andrew.
Thank you. Sean Penn.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
By the way, you know, Sean Penn's the reason that
all that COVID testing is set up at Dodger State.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
You're kidding.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
I swear to God, I don't know that. I don't
know if he's financing it, if he organized it, or what.
But that's his thing.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
And I know a couple people who have done it,
and they say, you pull up and the line looks
insanely long. It's you're done like that. I've heard that too.
That's great. Yeah, yeah, everyone be careful. This is not
a joke. Wear a mask, okay. By the summer of
nineteen forty three, tensions between the thousands of white US
servicemen station in and around Los Angeles and the Pachucos

(16:45):
are running high because we also have ports here. There
was station you know, in stationed in San Diego, all
along the coast up through LA There's a lot of
service men here, right, So many of the LA area
servicemen view the Zuters as draft dodger, despite the fact
that nearly half a million Mexican Americans are serving in
the military at the time, and a lot of the

(17:06):
Zoot suited Pachucos are teenagers, so like twelve through sixteen,
So they're actually too young to even be eligible, so
it's false. Yeah, okay, So before we get to the
zootsuit rights, we have to go over it's the Sleepy
Lagoon murder trial, which happens a year before the riots
and is considered a precursor to them. So Sleepy Lagoon

(17:28):
was a rural reservoir. And this is another thing, is
a lot of Los Angeles, which is now over developed
and crazy was rural, so like even Chapez Ravine was rural, rural, hate, rural, rural, rural, rural, real.
So it's a rural reservoir. And the East said of
Los Angeles and what is now commerce and that it's

(17:50):
a popular swimming hole, hangout spot, Lover's Lane for Mexican Americans,
partly because they're banned from segregated public pools, so that's
where they swim. In the early hours of the morning,
on August second, nineteen forty two, a brawl breaks out
at a birthday party near that near Sleepy Lagoon. When
police arrive, they find an unconscious and mortally injured twenty

(18:12):
two year old name Jose Diaz on a nearby dirt road.
He died shortly after being taken to the hospital. His
cause of death is inconclusive, although he has severe blunt
force trauma to the back of his head. They think
it's from being jumped or hit, or it could be
from a car accident. They actually he might have gotten
thrown off a motorcycle. They don't know for sure, but

(18:36):
authorities blame his death and the big fight that had
happened on the at the party on the so called
quote Mexican youth gang problem in Los Angeles. So in
the following days and there's amazing pictures from this, and
I'm sure we'll post one on Instagram. In the episode post,
the LAPD arrests seventeen Mexican American teens that are associated

(18:58):
with the so called thirty eighth Street gang. And the
word gang is really different back then, you know, it's
it's not what you think of now. So these kids
who lived around thirty eighth Street that hung out together
are called a gang when really it's just teenagers hanging
out together.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, there's no they're not getting jumped in. There's not
like you have to go now do violence or whatever.
It's just like kids that are all from the same neighborhood.
I mean that's exactly my dad grew up in San Francisco.
It's just like you're you kind of represented your neighborhood, right,
and then on the weekends you'd get drunken street fight people.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
My dad used to love to say that. He goes, oh,
if we couldn't find other people to fight, we just
all fight ourselves, because he had four brothers. So yeah, man, yeah, exactly.
So thirty eight string gang quote. And despite lack of
sufficient evidence, the young men are collectively charged with the
murder of Diaz. They're denied bail, and they're held in prison,
and they become known as the Sleepy Lagoon defendants, and

(19:57):
they're paraded in front of the press. And part of
the reason is because the LAPD there's been a lot
of false newspaper articles about this Mexican youth gang problem,
and so LAPD is like, look what we're doing about it,
and they prayed them in front of the press to
make it seem like they're actually taking care of it.
But really all it does is make people even more afraid.

(20:20):
So the by the end of the week, police have
used the excuse of Diez's death to further arrest hundreds
of Mexican Americans and nightly sweeps for offenses that are
just trumped up, like even possessing a draft card with
an incorrect address. You can get arrested for unlawful assemblage

(20:42):
like all these you know, they're just arresting people. Yeah,
and they single out youths in zoot suits in particular,
Cops line up outside of dance halls and they have
like pokers that they with razor sharp blades that they
use to rip the peg top trousers of the zoot
suits of the boys as they come out. So there's
a lot of there's a lot of like photos from

(21:04):
back then of kids that have clearly been in fights
and the trouser of their legs are ripped. So the
media doesn't help matters and prints incredibly racist headlines that
history has shown were not supported by either facts or statistics,
and in fact, the government statistics from that time found
no increase in youth crime or delinquency. So talking about

(21:26):
it now, it's completely trumped up, and it's basically just
how dare you wear these outfits and say that you
belong stay in that it's your city, Stay in your
fucking lane, essentially is what they're saying, so in order
to scare people, the press referred to the zuitters as
a quote Mexican goon squad, and they called them delinquents

(21:48):
and hoodlums. And they also distribute false stories of Mexican
boys prowling in wolf packs armed with clubs and knives
and tire irons. They say they're invading homes, peaceful homes.
It's all it's all nonsense. So, after months of racist
media coverage that goes nationwide, including a Fucking Disney cartoon
in which Donald Duck beats up another Duck dressed as

(22:11):
in a zoot suit for being unpatriotic Fucking Disney, the
Sleepy Lagoon defendants go on trial in October of nineteen
forty two. There's never any testimony that anyone saw one
of the defendants strike the vict like. No one can
put any of these defendants with or near the victim,

(22:33):
and some of the defendants can't even be placed at
the murder scene. And yet Judge Frick permits the chief
of the Foreign Relations Bureau of the Los Angeles Sheriff's
Office to testify as a quote expert witness. He says
that Mexicans as a community. He testifies us in court
have a bloodthirst and a biological predisposition to crime and

(22:54):
killing because of the culture of human sacrifice practiced by
their Aztec fucking ancestor, Jesus Christ. That's a stretch, because
the Aztecs haven't been around for a while. A and B.
Have you ever heard of vikings? Have you ever heard
of racial profile heals?

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Have you have you ever heard of every single human
clan has always had exactly Okay.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
The trial ends on January thirteenth, nineteen forty three, when
three of the seventeen defendants are convicted of first degree
murder and sentenced to life in prison, nine others are
convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to five years
to life, and the other five defendants are convicted of assault. So,
following the Sleepy Lagoon case, there's a lot of hate

(23:42):
towards the Mexican American community and US servicemen, most of whom,
by the way, grew up in other states, so they
had had very little contact with people of Mexican and
LATINX descent. They're now streaming into southern California to prepare
for war and are getting into violent altercations with young
Mexican American zuitors. And you also got to think they're

(24:03):
fresh out of boot camp. They're also fucking young men,
you know, and they have this they have what they
think is this patriotism that allows them to fight for
their country, and they see these, you know, others as
not American and it's just I mean, it's a what's

(24:24):
it called tinder box, you know?

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah so, but also but it is that thing of
there's people from small towns all over this country where
they show up and instead of going I'm new to
the big city, right, they start looking at people who
whose parents have lived there for generations and say, hey,

(24:46):
get hey, foreigner. I mean, like, that's just that American ignorance.
That's so tragic because this entire country is made up
of foreigners.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah. I hate to tell you. I hate to tell you.
I love to tell you, to tell me about it.
I hate, I love have to do you listen New Zealand,
can you get me and Karen and Stephen can we
get in there, plase? Okay, they're like, hail no. Only
a week prior to the outbreak of what would become
the suit Riots, a number of Mexican Americans dancing at

(25:18):
the Aragon Ballroom in Santa Monica and Venice are attacked
by a mob of American servicemen and bystanders after rumors
spread that a sailor had been stabbed, which there's no
police report to corroborate that. An LAPD officer later says
that quote, the only thing we could do to break
it up was arrest the Mexican kids. So that's that.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
It sounds like a setup. Yeah, that almost sounds like
a burning car at three pm on on Labra and Fairfestes, or.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
A guy with an umbrella breaking a fucking window at
a hocken What was it? What was the place?

Speaker 2 (25:53):
An auto party that was in Minneapolis. Yeah, the big
tall guy with the that covered himself elf entirely and
completely got caught because everyone's now onto that ship. Yeah, okay,
so modern times.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Modern times, it's the worst. I want to make clear
that these are normal teen teenagers who are rebelling, so
of course they get into trouble. There's some escalated issues.
They there are some that are you know, looking to
fights there as you know, it's it's the normal teenage
thing that both you and I and everyone we know
who's cool went through as teenagers, so you know there

(26:30):
were these there were cases of shit going down, but
it was normal teenage stuff.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
But that's the same thing as like in these in
the protest, there will be right person here and there
that's going to be like I'm going to loot that store,
and then that is what's manipulated and turned into this
whole life people are yet and it's.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, right, So I don't want to seem like I
want to make clear that I understand that. And it's
partly from the fact that there's it's there's a wartime
effort now that's growing. It includes women being able to
work in these labor in the labor force, So women
and like mothers and grandmothers are now working in the

(27:11):
labor force, so they're away from home. The fathers are
either at war or they're working as well. The demands
of the war effort made it so both parents were
working and out of the house for the first time,
and they're also working through the night. So kids are
you know, they have a freedom they didn't have before
and they're not being looked after the same way because

(27:32):
of that. But then they're also being watched in a
different way probably than they and police records at the
time though show that there wasn't there's no escalation from
regular juvenile delinquency, so it's not there is no proof
that it was worse at the time, it was normal
juvenile delinquency. Government statistics reported at the time found no

(27:55):
increase in youth crime. And also the other thing that
scared people is that the police office, a lot of
them are away at war as well, so people are
already primed and ready to be scared of, you know,
this fictitious mob that's going to come after them because
they're not protected by the police. So it's the crazy
story and that so many little things had to add

(28:17):
up to what happened, right, and they fucking did. So
all this tension is simmering, rumors are flying, and just
the sight of a zoot suit at this point is
enough to fucking piss people off. Until one night in
early June, an altercation between a sailor and a pachuko
escalates into a brawl outside a bar in downtown LA

(28:37):
and this sailor gets maybe gets knocked unconscious. We don't
really know. There's a rumor that a sailor gets stabbed.
That's never corroborated. And so the following day, the following
night of June third, around fifty sailors leave the armory
flanked with makeshift weapons and they want to get revenge

(28:58):
for the fight from the night before. At the Carmon
Theater downtown in downtown LA. They get the house lights
turned on and like fifty sailors, they roam the aisles
looking for zooters. They find two boys. Their ages are
twelve and thirteen. They yank them out of their seats
and it says ignoring the protests of the patrons. So

(29:18):
you know, the people there were not fucking cool with it.
The sailors drag them on stage. They rip the zoot
suits off these kids, and they beat the boys up
and they set the zootsuits on fire. Jesus Christ, and
this is the start of the zoot suit riots. And
so this becomes a kind of a theme of humiliation
and violence. The next night, over two hundred sailors grab

(29:42):
a fleet of twenty taxi cabs, which the taxi cabs
waive the fare to transport them, and decide to take
the fight into the Mexican American neighborhoods of East Los
Angeles and Boyle Heights, and the sailors cruise the neighborhoods.
They storm into bars and cafes and theaters. There's no
where that it's safe, and you know, violence continues. On

(30:03):
the night of June fourth and fifth, confrontations between servicemen
and zuters occurring all over the city, and some military
person I'll start targeting anyone who looks to be of
Mexican descent, Like they don't even care about zoot suits anymore.
They're berserking.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
On June fifth, a group of Mexican musicians from al
Paso are assaulted as the exit the Aztec Recording company,
even though they're not wearing zoot suits at all. The
racist press encourages a serviceman. The Hearst's own Herald and
Express publishes inflammatory stories, including one that warned of five
hundred zuitters planning to kill every cop they came across.

(30:43):
You know. The Los Angeles Time applauds rioters for teaching
suitors a lesson, but the media just happens to suppress
any mention of the white mobs that are actually you know,
the fucking rioters. They're the rioters and one Los Angeles paper,
Prince a guide on how to de zoot a suit,
a zoot suitor, so like Jesus Christ. However, a reporter

(31:07):
for the city's black weekly newspaper, the California Eagle, named
Charlotta Spears Bass. She writes a piece blasting mainstream newspapers
for race baiting and calls for black readers to stand
with Latinos. And there is a camaraderie there with the
zoot suits and these teenage rebellion, like they understand that

(31:28):
they're borrowing this culture, this jazz culture, from another culture,
and they all kind of stand together, which is good, incredible,
and also another thing that could fucking scare racists is
you know, camaraderie.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
You know what I mean is is yes, is marginalized
people laying down any kind of biases or banding together
and banding together, I mean yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
On the night of June seventh, a crowd of five
thousand civilians and gather downtown. So it's civilians, it's soldiers, marines,
sailors from other stations as far away as Las Vegas.
They fucking get on board and come down to fight
this fight. Witness of the attacks, a journalist named Carrie

(32:17):
McWilliams writes, quote, marching through the streets of downtown Los Angeles,
a mob of several thousand soldiers, sailors and civilians proceeded
to beat up every Zoot suitor they could find. Jesus,
and there's photos of this. There's these two young boys
sitting one is clearly been beaten and unconscious, the other

(32:37):
ones like hunching over him, naked, and there's a crowd
circling them. It's pure humiliation and violence. A man named
Vincente Morales and his girlfriend were at a show at
the Ortheum Theater, which is a friend of the podcast,
where sailors drag him out of the building, strip him

(32:58):
of his clothing, and beat him conscious, and when he
comes to lap the officers arrest him for distorting the peace.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
It's so oppressive, it's so it's so upseting, it's expressive.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
And if you think it's that much different from the
way it is today, you're reading the wrong fucking newspaper.
Yeah you know, yep. As writing spreads into predominantly black
neighborhoods like Watts, Latinos join with black residents to mount
a resistance with hundreds gathering. There's a Coca Cola plant
on Central Avenue, I guess. Years later, participant Rudy Leevos

(33:38):
tells the La Times Reporter quote, toward evening, we started
hiding an alleys. Then we sent about twenty guys right
out into the middle of the street as decoys. They
started coming after the decoys, then we came out. They
were surprised. It was just the first time anybody was
organized to fight back nice. So they fucking joined forces

(34:00):
like the fucking X men. The police arrests dozens of
young Mexican Americans and one of them asks. When one
of them asks, why am I being arrested, the response
is that they get savagely fucking beat with a nightstick
for asking that. When the boy falls to the sidewalk unconscious,
he's kicked in the face by police. Please remember these
are thirteen, fourteen, fifteen year old children.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Junior high students, yep, getting the shit kicked out of
them by adults who have been trained in military combat.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Exactly. So, at midnight on June eighth, my birthday, Happy
breath again, happy breath, Thank you, the Navy and Marine
Corps finally intervene and declared downtown. So all you know,
they intervene, all this shit happens that they're like trying
to restore order, so they say, but the fucking the

(34:52):
riot last until June tenth. Essentially, their official position is
that there men were acting in self fence. On June ninth,
the La City Council passes an emergency resolution that makes
it illegal. Ready for this makes it illegal to wear
a zoot suit on city streets, not to beat the
fucking shit out of someone for their outfit. And actually,

(35:16):
what's really fucking interesting is that the War Production Board,
which is a government agency that oversees industrial manufacturing, they
put in all these guidelines. They make it required that
manufacturers use twenty six percent less fabric when they're making suits,
which effectively criminalizes the manufacture of zoot suits, which is

(35:37):
the first time any piece of clothing has ever been criminalized. WHOA, yeah,
So you know it keeps happening and other cities as well.
There's no reported deaths, but more than one hundred and
fifty people are injured in the La riots, and police
end up arresting more than six hundred Mexican Americans on
charges ranging from rioting to vagrancy. Only a few servicemen

(35:59):
are rested. Overall. In total, the riots last ten days
from June third to June tenth. Shit and no, so
no one died. Wait, that's not ten days. The riots
lasted ten days from June thirty Nope to June thirteenth.
That's not ten days. I'm gonna say June first to
June tenth, or it lasted seven days, but it's early June.

(36:22):
Is like the no, you know they ended. Who knows
what the last day was, is what I'm trying to say.
Got you what did you say?

Speaker 2 (36:29):
What were you saying that no one died? You said,
there's no reported deaths reported? Like officially, got it right.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
So afterward, in response to a formal protest from the
Mexican embassy, who were like, I'm sorry, what the fuck,
a special committee is appointed to determine the cause of
the riots, and the committee concludes that racism is the
root cause of the violence, and also places the blame
on the press for associating Zudors with a supposed crime wave.

(36:57):
Good yeah, but Mayor Fletcher Bauron is intent on preserving
the city's public image and declares that Mexican juvenile delinquents
and racist white Southerners are the ones who cause the riots,
so they're fal we didn't do any wrong. He claims
that racial prejudice is not and would not become an

(37:19):
issue in Los Angeles. No, guys, come, yeah, we got
some news for you from the future. Yeah, it's not
a friend of your podcast. You admit it now, admit
it now. The Unamerican Activities Committee attempts to prove that
the Zootsuit riots were sponsored by a Nazi agencies attempting

(37:43):
to spread you know, their Nazi propaganda between the United
States and Latin American countries. But of course, not surprising,
nothing comes out of that.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Yeah, but let's bookmark that for another time because I
feel like couldn't be more relevant today.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
Right in the after Okay, so that's the Zootsuit Riots.
In the aftermath the Sleepy Lagoon Trial, remember that, yeah,
sucking thing. The community organizes the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee SLDC,
and by nineteen forty four they raise enough money to
bring the case to the Second District Court of Appeals,

(38:22):
wherein the Judge Clement Nye overturns the vert exciting insufficient evidence.
The denial of the defendant's right to counsel and the
overt bias of Judge Frick in the courtroom. Nice All
seventeen defendants are released in nineteen forty four from prison
with their criminal records expunged. So that's posts Zootsuit Riots. Officially.

(38:46):
The death of jose Diaz from the Sleepy Lagoon murder
remains unsolved, but before her death in nineteen ninety one,
a former patchuka named Loraina and Sinas confides to her
chill and that her brother Lewis, who's dead, was the
one who beat and killed jose A Bis that night,
which we don't know if it's true or not, but

(39:07):
that was her confession. There's so much more. Please look
into the chop As ravine and see about imminent domain
and what ended up happening that they fucking forcibly removed
the remaining Mexican American homeowners who lived there for generations.
They rip them out of their homes, They bulldoze THEMS home.
They gave them fucking pennies on the dollar what their
homes were worth, and they for because they were going

(39:29):
to redevelop the land and high end homes, which didn't happen.
And they ended up the city ends up fucking selling
that very fucking crucial land at a huge profit is
sold to the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Walter O'Malley,
who starts building the Dodger Stadium in nineteen fifty nine.
That is a fucking light on our fucking city, Dodger Stadium,

(39:50):
and I really suggest people look into that. I mean,
it's a great fucking I love love the Dodgers, love
the stadium, love going to it. It is an ugly
time and history of what happened there horrifying.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yeah, and it also hasn't changed too much in that
And I won't get into because I actually I've only
very recently been reading about it, but is this is
like kind of the spine of gentrification in that way
where people that are from an area, especially in Los Angeles,
and the way people migrate to this town and then

(40:23):
the actual families and the people that have lived there
for a long time, yeah, are forced out, and then
they treat and because then those rents go up, and
you've got all the people that are like, I'm going
to be on a pilot this year.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Well, it's urban sprawl, and so when you put when
you put entire cultures in a certain neighborhood and segregate
them to that neighborhood, then when you want that neighborhood back,
it's not like, you know, the city is naturally growing.
You fucking steal that land back, even though you told
them that's the only place they could live. You build
freeways through their fucking homes so that the houses are

(40:57):
worthless or they're divided from, you know, quote better parts
of town. You know, the whole La freeway system. There
was a recent La Times article about it, how fucking
racist and how race played into us building, Like the
freeways make no sense here, you're on the four or
five and you want to get to fucking Hollywood, it's
going to take you forever. It's because of those those neighborhoods.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Because they were building them through They certainly weren't building
them through Hancock Park, No, they were not sure.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
No, they were building them through Englewood. So it's ugly.
As for the zootsuit itself, although it did fall out
of fashion eventually, the part it played in challenging the
entrenched roles of race, gender, and class identities of mainstream
America during World War Two, has not been forgotten. In
nineteen seventy eight, actor and playwright Louis Valdez wrote the
play zoot Suit. It's the first play on Broadway made

(41:48):
by somewhat of Mexican descent, and I know, and that
got turned into a movie nineteen eighty one, starring Danielle Valdez,
who's so cute and sweet, and Edward James almost and actually,
in twenty sixteen, Los Angeles County Museum of Art searched
out as zootsuits to display as part of their like
they had a men's history of men's fashion, and it

(42:08):
cost them nearly eighty grand to acquire a legit old.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
School suitsuit because they had been destroyed and kind of
targeted that way where it was so impossible to find them.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Probably. Wow, there's been a push from historians to change
the name from zoot Suit Riots, which fucking implies that
it was the Zooters who were writing to the Sala Riots.
But that hasn't stuck yet. And yeah, that's the story
of the zoot Suit Rights and the Sleepy Lagoon Murder. Wow.
The book that you can read if you want to

(42:41):
know more, is Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon zoot Suits,
Race and Riot in Wartime La by Eduardo A. Bring
on Pagan Paga n is the last name.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Wow, that's amazing. That's such a good history lesson and
living in the city. It's really embarrassing. Yeah, that I
don't know anything about. It's just that feeling time. It's
the same feeling of watching that OJ special and learning
all about the Watts riots. We're just like, how come
I I, you know, we don't know these things because.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
They don't because it's because it makes us look bad, right,
and like that's somehow not okay to be like we
did a really horrible thing, and but we're learning from it,
you know.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Because I think a lot of people aren't there yet,
and a lot of people in charge aren't there yet.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
And yeah or whatever, great job, Thank you. That was
really gook. That was a really thank you to Lily
for all her research notes. That was a really that
was That was an interesting one. I definitely spend a
lot of time researching that, and I could have spent
a lot fucking more time, Like there's so many good
articles from every different angle. Cool.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
I definitely want to look up did you say the
Getty is the is the museum that got because they
were doing the fashion storry.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
No no. In twenty sixteen, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
they had a thing called raining Men Raining gether? Are
she and I training men fashion in men's wear from
seventeen fifteen to twenty fifteen? Oh shit, sounds fucking cool.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
I was going to say one thing really quickly. I
texted my grandma to confirm, because my mom's out of
my family has been here, I mean for generations. And
my grandma's brother was actually a Zoot suitor, but he
entered the army, So I wonder if he And now
I want to like call my grandma and ask her, like,
I wonder if maybe he avoided this because and.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
They were an Orange County They were in LA and
Orange County right yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, Well my grandma specifically grew up here. My mom
grew up in Atwater Village, so wow, we grew up Yeah.
So I really Now next time I see my grandma,
I like, I want to learn more of this because
I want to.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Know even please ask your grandma if she has a picture. Yes,
I would love to see an actual legit and yeah,
Morris family, what would that be what's your.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Mom's My mom's main name is Valdez. Raymond Valdez was
my grandm father, and then my grandma. Her maiden name
was Flores, So Sarah Flores.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Oh my god. If she has a story, please get
it on video or record it. Incredible. I'm still summed.
I can't ask my grandma. It was very old, but
I'm so bummed. I can't ask her if she remembers it,
although I know she would have just said, yeah, that
was scary, Yeah, that's incredible. Steven, Well, Georgie, you know

(45:26):
how much I love TikTok.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
And one of the main reasons I love TikTok is
because it either educates me about things I absolutely knew
nothing about, like you just did, or it reminds me
of things I adore.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
So that's what happened.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
When I was scrolling through TikTok, I saw a video
by an account called at the feed Ski feed Ski,
and they reminded me of a story that I long
ago heard on the Dollop about the legendary nineteen seventy
four Cleveland ten cent beer night.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Remember this, no, but it.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Sounds like a mistake right from Joe. Oh my god, Yeah,
if you want to do the three minute version of
the story, you can go on TikTok follow the feed
ski they will tell you about it. But you can
also listen to the twenty fourteen episode of The Dollup.
It was the fifteenth episode of that podcast. Yeah, early
early days of the Dollup.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yeah, but I.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Will tell you about it now. You can also, of course,
you can go on YouTube and watch footage from the
game night about what I'm about to tell you about,
which is kind of amazing.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Why am I picturing it in like the nineteen twenties.
It's not right. It's not seventy four. Oh, seventy four, Okay,
that's a cozy place I can meet you. You should
meet me there because you'll be happy you did.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
But compared to twenty twenty three, which every once in
a while that number gets into my head and I'm like, wow,
because I started in the seventies, seventy four is like
so much more familiar to me than where we be
and where we are now, and all of the things
in this are It's just the delight of the way

(47:10):
things used to be, which at this point, sometimes when
you talk about it feels like you're lying, or like
it's a movie you watched. So here's a little slice
of the seventies that really will drive it home. And
it's the seventies in Cleveland, Ohio. Wow, which is a
very specific vibe.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
So. The main sources for this story today are at
two thousand and eight ESPN article by a writer named
Paul Jackson, a nineteen seventy four Associated Press article by
the writer Richard Bollotti, and the book Crazy with the
Papers to Prove It by sportswriter Dan Coughlin. And the
rest of the sources are in our show notes. So

(47:50):
what I'm about to regale you with is considered one
of arguably one of the most chaotic nights in sports history.
June fourth, nineteen seventy four takes place in Cleveland, Ohio
in the seventies. I think it is safe to say
that at this time Cleveland was not flourishing. They had

(48:10):
several large problems. One is the pollution. They're so polluted there.
In fact that just five years earlier, in nineteen sixty nine,
the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. That's right, oh God.
And as alarming as that sounds, that actually eventually led

(48:31):
the way for the government to start the Environmental Protections
Agency because pollution had just gotten so bad.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
It was so bad, you guys.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Not just like littering and stuff, but industrial pollution, where
like companies that were making you know, glue were just
dumping everything into the nearby river and that's what was happening.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
And the carfumes and the gasoline we used was like toxic.
Like there were days when the weather would be don't
leave the house because the air is toxic, right, I
mean I wasn't there, but my mom told me that.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
No, it's true. So there's the pollution issue. The city's
also dealing with serious economic downturn. Over the past decade
in the area, there's been a mass exodus of factories
and industrial plants, meaning total loss of jobs and also
loss of population. Between nineteen seventy and nineteen eighty, Cleveland

(49:27):
will lose nearly two hundred thousand residents because of like
job loss and everything kind of. So in nineteen seventy four,
leaders in Cleveland are worried that the city is about
to go bankrupt. And on top of all that, Cleveland's
Major League baseball team is not doing well, so at

(49:48):
the time of the story in nineteen seventy four, they
were the Cleveland Indians. Indigenous groups have worked for years
and years, decades to get this name change. They just
in twenty two change the name to the Cleveland Guardians.
But for the sake of simplicity in talking about the story,
I'm just going to call them Cleveland so that you know, so.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
We can talk about it. Good idea. So, a year
before the.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Story takes place, Cleveland's baseball team has the lowest game
day turnout of any team in the league. They basically
are at about fifteen percent capacity at every game in
their stadium.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
It's rough.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
They're reporting losses of around one point four million dollars,
which is seven million in today's money. So the situation
is dire, and management knows they need to do something
to stay out of the red and to get butts
and seats. They know the easiest way to boost attendance
at games, so they basically suggest an idea that has

(50:45):
worked well for them in the past. Journalist Paul Jackson,
writing for ESPN, says it like this quote. Considering the
state of the city in nineteen seventy four, the team
decided that Cleveland probably could use a drink. And this
is the origin story for Cleveland's fam Miss nineteen seventy
four ten cent beer night.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
So the real.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Story actually starts the week before at Arlington Stadium in Texas.
It's late May nineteen seventy four. The Texas Rangers are
playing Cleveland in Texas.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
It's a shit show.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
So there's a lot of like and I think things
were a little obviously, a little less regulated, a little
less official, a little less like branded. Yeah right, slightly
more bad news bears. Yeah, I would say as everything
was back then. You know, a person that is a
baseball fishing and auto is not going to love my
recap here, But I'm just doing it for simplicity to

(51:38):
give you the sense.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Look, video games sports, we don't know anything.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Salami taking out the garbage. It's all boys stuff. So
but here's the basic recap for us for the purposes
of me telling you this. So in the fourth inning
of this game, Texas Rangers are at bat. There's two
men on and whoever it is at bat hit and
the guy on first base is a Rangers player named

(52:04):
Lenny Randall. So essentially there's a guy on first and
second and so somebody getting a single moves them both ahead.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Got it, but the.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Ball goes to Cleveland's third baseman, so he hits third base.
He tags third base, gets that guy out, and then
throws it over to second base. It should have been
a double play, which they needed because Cleveland didn't have
any hadn't gotten any runs so far, so essentially, the
third baseman catches the ball that gets hit, tags third base,

(52:34):
that guy's out, throws it over to second should be
an easy double play, but Lanny Randall slides into second
base and he hits the second baseman, so I guess
he's safe, and everyone gets super pissed off. He does
a hard slide and basically in a way that they
normally kind of aren't supposed to do. I think he
got kind of physical and made it so that it

(52:55):
was not a double play. Okay, Cleveland, the team and
the fans are pissed. In the eighth inning, Lenny Randall
is up again. The picture Milt Wilcox memorize all these names.
Milt Wilcox throws the ball behind him, which is, you know,
he's it's kind of threatening. It's basically like I'm gonna

(53:15):
hit you.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
With this.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Yeah, Lenny Randall ends up bunting and running to first base.
So the pitcher Milt Wilcox picks it up and tags him,
and as he does, Lenny Randall kind of hits him
with his forearm. Right, Cleveland's first baseman, John Ellis steps
up and punches Lenny Randall, and so the bench is
clear and here they go, and now everyone's fighting on

(53:38):
the field, right, All the boys run out to the field.
Dozens of men throw punches at each other in front
a stadium full of spectators, while the broadcasters call it
love it happens. It's not like rare in baseball. Yeah wow.
But essentially the fight's broken up. Everyone goes back to
their dugouts. The Texas fans are pissed. They start booing,

(53:59):
pouring beer on nearby players, throwing food, and then to
add insult to injury, Cleveland loses three to zero.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Ouch.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Now the drama seems guaranteed because the two teams have
to meet up again six days later in Cleveland, so
like to finish the series right. When a reporter from
the Cleveland Press newspaper asks the Rangers manager Billy Martin
if he's going to quote take his armor to Cleveland.
Billy Martin simply replies, quote, Nah, they won't have enough

(54:28):
fans there to worry about out boom. So that's going
to start some shit that's going to piss some people off.
That's basically like salt in the wound. As journalist Paul
Jackson puts it, quote the seventy four Indians, where a
s Morgsborg of mediocre and forgettable talent playing in an
open air mausoleum Jesus end quote end lives like it

(54:54):
rough times. The team's not good. You know, the stadium
is barely has anyone in it. You can't say, you
can probably like all of it is rough. So now
all of that is bad enough. But now this rematch
right in Cleveland is also on the same night as
the big brainchild idea ten cent beer Night. Everything's coming

(55:18):
together in a bad way. So on ten cent beer Night,
the twelve ounce pore of Genesee beer. Have you heard
of Genesee beer? Must be regional. My dad hadn't heard
of it either, So that beer normally costs sixty five cents.
Tonight's gonna cost it dying. Oh fuck, that's like getting
a four dollars beer for sixty cents.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
Wow, thank you that that's good. A four dollars year
for sixty cents for sixty cents.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
In hindsight, yes, this sounds like a horrible idea, but
amazingly Cleveland had already hosted. They hosted a nickel beer
night in nineteen seventy one that went great and with
no incidents.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
So they were like, this will work, this will be great.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Okay, so no one's really worried about tents and beer
night coinciding with the rematch game. The only precaution Cleveland
really takes in preparing for this is doubling security. Normally
they have twenty five security guards. Now they have fifty.
That was actually a smart move. Since the brawl in Texas.
The Cleveland like journalists, radio hosts, anybody that was like

(56:22):
publicly talking about this game is talking about it like
revenge rematch, like they're talking about it, hyping it up.
There's bitterness, there's vengeance. Cleveland sports fans are out for blood.
They want they want to rematch. So when the day arrives,
it's warm and human. In Cleveland. Temperatures are around eighty
five degrees, which is great weather. For a night game

(56:44):
at a stadium, over twenty five thousand people show up
to watch the game, which is almost double the normal attendance,
and the crowd also is decidedly young because in the
seventies the national drinking age was eighteen. Oh my god,

(57:05):
so essentially people in their late teens and early twenties
pack the stands. Aside from it being like, you know,
a hyped up rematch, you know whatever, a lot of
people are out of work, a lot of people don't
have too much money. They can't afford not to go
to ten cent Beer Night because for a dollar you
can get a ticket to get in, get a seat

(57:27):
in the bleachers, and get five beers.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
For one dollar, so each one a bigger mistake than
the last.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
As expected, they open the doors, everyone makes a bee
line for the cheap beer the second they enter the stadium.
There is a rule set for ten cent Beer Night.
People are supposed to be capped at six beers per transaction,
but as soon as the stadium opens, it's clear that
there is a massive staffing shortage for this promotion because

(57:57):
the cheap beer isn't at each like hot stand around
the stadium. It's one table with two teenage girls yep,
at the ten.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
Cent beer table. And these girls are.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Supposed to be keeping track of how many beers people
get per with no system, there's no way to do that.
They're just supposed to kind of be managing what is
an absolutely unmanageable situation, which just so hilarious and so typical.
So they're in charge of monitoring purchases, taking money, pouring

(58:32):
beer for thousands of increasingly and very quickly drunk customers.
They're immediately overwhelmed, and before long they realize their job
is impossible, and also they can't handle these drunk customers
who are rude, they're belligerent, they're beating them for having
to wait in such a long line, like it's bullshit.

(58:53):
So eventually, thank god, the girls just say screw it
and fucking abandon shit. They're like bye, which is the
very least that they should have done. So someone from
Cleveland's promotions team decides they're going to solve that problem
by driving a beer truck with taps industrial taps on

(59:13):
it inside the stadium and then just allowing the fans
to go up and pour their own beers for themselves, unchecked.
And I think what seems like unpaying for the rest
of the night. So I don't know if that was
the best call. No one's exactly sure when that truck

(59:34):
was brought in, but it's pretty early in the game,
within the first few innings, and this game is not
going well. In the first inning, ranger Tom Greeve hits
a home run, and Cleveland fans are already drunk basically
by this time, you know what I mean, they're just
like they're pregaming, pre partying, they're getting it all done.
They immediately start throwing things at Texas first baseman Mike Hargrove,

(59:59):
who would later go to say, quote, I must have
had fifteen or twenty pounds of hot dogs thrown at me.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
In the second inning, a middle aged woman runs onto
the field and flashes the crowd and then tries to
kiss the head umpire nessa Shylac. Of course, this is
a major League baseball game, so Shylac's furious at this interruption,
but the crowd goes crazy. They of course love it.

(01:00:31):
This woman, there's pictures. She looks like a diner waitress.
She is kind of like she has big kind of
boof fonty done up hair. She's definitely on the older side,
does not look like the kind of woman that's just
going to show you her tips.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
She just doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
And she has this huge smile on her face like
she looks like it's just like, well, I'm finally living.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
All I can think about is her the next morning,
that asking your friend what you did last night? Did
I do anything embarrassed last night?

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
I have a bad feeling, but I don't know why.
Something It suddenly starts coming back in little individual slides
of like seeing Nestor Shylac yelling in her face, of
like why would there be the homeplate umpire screaming in
my face? Oh my god? Why would he be mad
at me? Nestor's furious. The crowd loves it. When security

(01:01:28):
finally removes this woman from the field, the stadium goes
crazy cheering for her.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
They're thrilled.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Before long, streakers start running across the field during play.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
This was a big trend in the early seventies.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
People love to get in it because it was like
kind of right after you know, the hippie era had
kind of come and gone, but that kind of crunchy,
granola nudity vibe was still there. Yeah, and streaking was
a thing. There was a ton at ten cent beer night.
But perhaps the most iconic, Maren writes, But perhaps the
most iconic is the man who, in the fourth inning,

(01:02:04):
fully naked, aside from a pair of black socks, so
you know he's a businessman, dramatically slides into second base
at the exact moment that Texas's Tom Greeve hits his
second homer.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Of the night.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
So the game is continuing on a naked slide.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Yeah, is that's painful?

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
It sounds yes, yes, it sounds horrible. But also imagine
that today where it's like you can't use an image
of Major League baseball without getting the shit suit out
of you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Sometimes a cat runs across and they stop everything, and
like you know, also there's a picture of him running
and he's smiling. He kind of looks like Robert Plant.
He has an amazing body. You're like, I get why
you're doing this. Yeah, he's feeling it. Okay, So now
the scores two no, Texas is leading. The beer drenched
stadium seems to care more about the streakers than the score,

(01:03:03):
so six security guards try to catch the black socked legend.
He gets up from second base, he runs basically climbs
over the back fence, and like Cinderella and her glass slipper,
he leaves a single black sock behind on the field.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
But now he's in the public I don't understand. Now
he just has to walk home.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Now he's stuck under the bleachers, kind of lost and
shit faced. Right, he's dealt with worse. I'm sure, I'm sure.
So now it's the fifth inning. The score is five
to one Rangers. The cheap beer continues to flow unmonitored
from that beer truck, much like the streakers and the flashers,
who continue to flow onto the field, including a father's

(01:03:47):
son duo who run onto the field and moon the fans.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Mooning was another big thing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Mooneying was very popular back then. It's a partial streak,
it's just a peep. Yeah, of course, the stadium goes crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
The crowd is really drunk.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
It looks like the team is losing, so now they're
just kind of into the display of whatever other people
feel like doing. So up until this point, the trashed
and largely teenage crowd has been rowdy, but they're harmless.
Everyone seems happy. They're laughing they're being silly. They're just
kind of like enjoying this goofy night.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
That's how it always starts.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Yeah, my next line is, but as all of us
true alcoholics know, that is about to change. The goofy
party atmosphere devolves into the realm of pure belligerents. So
at one point, the Rangers manager Billy Martin disputes a
call by the umpire a common thing that happens, not
that big of a deal, like a mean drug dad

(01:04:45):
at Christmas. The crowd decides it's deeply offended by this,
and cups of beer are sent flying onto the field
in Billy Martin's direction. He responds by blowing them a
kiss from the dugout. So drunk fans start throwing any
and everything that they can can onto the field. And
on top of that, because it is the seventies, multiple
people have brought fireworks to the game.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Yeah what okay?

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Yeah, fireworks was a pastime, like a hobby in the seventies.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Is something people did. You keep heightening this story and
it's I don't knowing, well history does.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
The people of Cleveland did. Yeah, yeah, full credit to them.
So groups of drunk teens are now shooting off fireworks
from their seats, and at this point, anyone who showed
up for an above board, normal baseball game is long gone,
and what's left is an entirely wasted and increasingly chaotic

(01:05:46):
crowd in a stadium that's starting to feel like a
war zone.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
So now it's the.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Sixth inning, and in an exciting turn of events, Cleveland
starts to rally. They score two runs, and then in
the seventh inning they score yet another, so now it's
five to four Rangers, and then Cleveland ties the score
and now it's five'. Five oh, Shit so the crowd
starts to focus on the game. Again they, remember, oh that's,

(01:06:11):
right we're at a major league baseball, game and this
is actually the point of all. This their, focus of,
course since they're so, drunk doesn't really, last and what
they end up doing is the kids with the fireworks
start trying to shoot the fireworks Into texas's, bullpen where
the other pitchers are warming, up and then, inexplicably they

(01:06:33):
shoot them Towards cleveland's.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
Bullpen all, right everyone gets.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Some so this forces the very fed Up Empire Nestor
shylack to direct both teams to move their athletes out
of the line of, fire but the game continues on
like this doesn't stop the, game so they're just kind
of managing the bad behavior at this. Point now we're
in the ninth, inning, right this is. It it's the last.

(01:06:58):
Inning things are looking great For. Cleveland the scores five to.
Five cleveland's at bat and the bases are. Loaded this
should have been the positive turning. Point, yeah the world
is full of. Potential anything can happen right. Now it
could be something. Magic, yeah but another fan runs onto
the field at this. Point this guy's fully. Dressed but

(01:07:18):
the difference here is up until this, point it's been fun.
Times it's, streakers people running by the playing to the
crowd and running away before security can catch. Them this,
time this fully dressed man runs towards A ranger's outfielder
Named Jeff. Burrows he Flicks burrow's hat off his head
and then tries to grab his, glove but because he's,

(01:07:40):
drunk he falls down in the process of trying to do.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
This of, Course jesus.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
So, burrows who of course never didn't expect that and
like wasn't didn't. Know he's visibly rattled by being bum
rushed by this drunk. Stranger so the man's, down he
goes over and kicks him in the thigh and then
indu that he ends up falling over.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Himself.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
No burrows would later tell The Associated press that, QUOTE
i tried to call, time but no one heard.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Me oh my. GOD i mean they're far. Away they're still.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
Playing they're still, playing and the outfielders are really far
away from each each other and everybody in the. Infield,
okay he, SAID i was getting scared BECAUSE i felt
the riot psychology of all the crazy shit those baseball
players are probably used to with. CROWDS i don't think
they've probably seen this.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Level, no you get one or two drunk, people it's
and usually it's like it's all takes place in the,
stands nothing spilling out onto the, FIELD i would.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Imagine so The rangers Manager Billy martin has been watching
this game yet repeatedly. Interrupted he's had countless beer cups
thrown at. Him now he's just had enough seeing. This
he Sees burrows fall, over and because it all happens so,
fast he Assumes burrow's been attacked by this drunk that's
why he fell. Over so he turns to the all

(01:09:04):
the rest of the players in the, dugout and he,
says let's go get them. Boys oh so The rangers
pull their bats off the bat racks and march out
onto the.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
Fields oh my, God martin will.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Later, say, QUOTE i knew it was silly for us
to do, that But jeff was out there all by.
Himself we couldn't just let our teammate get beat. Up
but as The rangers move with their, bats more people
from the stands start pouring onto the, field basically in.
Response and these are no longer the, happy go lucky
streakers of previous. Innings this is now a drunken. Mob

(01:09:37):
some of them are even carrying. Weapons according to the
Journalist Paul, jackson, Quote Billy martin spotted people wielding, chains,
knives and clubs fashioned from pieces of stadium.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
Seats oh.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
No the twenty Five texas players quickly found themselves surrounded
by two hundred angry, drunks and more were tumbling over
the wall on into the.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
Field end. Quote it's like a fucking zombie. MOVIE i
was just thinking that it's a zombie.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
Nightmare oh my, God it's one of those fast zombie,
movies but with more burping so over in The cleveland,
dugout Manager Ken aspermante is. Seething he is so close
to getting this legendary, win, Right how insane would that make?
You of all the work that you've done up until this,
point you're actually making a comeback like you're supposed to.

(01:10:28):
Do his, team His Bad News bears, team is on
the verge of winning, basically and drunk fans are screwing
it up for. Them and he's also watching The rangers
become vastly outnumbered as more and more people come down
from the stands to like basically. Fight he's legitimately worried
that he's about to witness a bloodbath for These ranger,

(01:10:50):
players and, so in a moment of solidarity with the
team that seconds ago Was cleveland's bitter, Rival aspermante orders
his players to grab any and all of vail bats
and go help The.

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
Rangers let's have some fuel to this fire.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
Exactly, so now a full on war has broken out
between a couple dozen professional athletes with bats and hundreds
of belligerent mostly teenage fans with chains and armrest clubs
who are fucked. Up, yeah, there It's gnarley The cleveland
catcher pushes a man down and kicks him in the.

(01:11:28):
FACE a ranger tackles the guy that's trying to take
down his. TEAMMATE a Drunken cleveland fan Hits cleveland's pitcher
over the head with a. Chair oh, no It's Mayhem. Nestor,
shylac the head umpire also gets hit over the head
with a.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
Chair.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Oh after, that he stands up and sees a hunting
knife land at his, feet and he knows he has
to call the game, now but first they have to
get to. Safety So shylac will later tell ap the,
quote we were so scared out. There it was five
one hundred to one, odds and we could have gotten
killed very. Easily i'm sure the only other place you

(01:12:05):
would see something like this happen would be in a.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
Zoo end. Quote oh my.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
God they get both, teams stadium, staff the, umpires and
a couple. Reporters they're all able to fight their way
back to the, dugouts and then from there they go
into the tunnels that lead back to the locker. Rooms
like safely inside the, stadium they bolt the doors behind.
Them they're all soaked with, beer, blood, sweat and spit

(01:12:36):
and they're trying to process what's just. Happened one Of cleveland's,
announcers who's broadcasting live from the press, box captures the atmosphere.
Well he, says, Quote i've been in this business for
over twenty, years AND i have never seen anything as
disgusting as.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
This this is.

Speaker 2 (01:12:51):
Tragic, so now that the athletes and their staff are
safely off the, Field Nestor shylack calls the. Game he
calls it a forfeit due to the crowds bad, behavior
which means The rangers. Win Oh but out on the,
field the news incites a new wave of violence from
the drunken fans because there's still hundreds of people swarming the. Field,

(01:13:15):
now they just go. Crazy they start stealing anything that
isn't nailed. Down they're taking the, bases they're pulling up,
grass they even rip down pieces of the stadium's padded.
WALL a writer Named Dan coughlin is one of the
unlucky journalists who didn't escape into the clubhouse with the
teams when the game is. Forfeited he's out in the
stands trying to interview. Fans this would be an expected

(01:13:39):
thing for any sports journalist to. Do but As kaughlin
approaches spectators asking for their point of, view he gets
punched in the, face not, once but.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Twice oh my, god it's just like out of.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Control and, meanwhile sorry to laugh at, You Dan, Coughlin
it's not funny that you got, Punched but it is
all of a, sudden just all of society breaks down
in a stadium In cleveland one night in nineteen seventy,
four mob, mentality, right. Yes and, meanwhile in this Is maren's,
writing in a legendary failure to read the, Room cleveland's

(01:14:17):
organist starts playing Take Me out to The ballgame over the.
Loudspeaking it's JUST i, mean like that organist is pretty.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
Hilarious.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
Yeah The cleveland police arrive to clear the, stadium and
here's how they do. It they turn off the lights
and throw tear gas onto the. Field people, bolt except
for a dozen defiant teenagers standing on top of The rangers,
dugout calling for The texas players to come back out
and fight. Them, yeah that's definitely gonna. Happen that, vibe,

(01:14:51):
though is so familiar to. Me it's so, like AS
i read that sentence the first, TIME i was just, like.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah but you're ALSO i know. HIM i know.
Him i've met that guy, Before i've met that. Guy
i've loved that. Guy i've been that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
Guy all in, all nine people are arrested on ten
cent Beer, night and seven are sent to nearby, hospitals
where they're treated from minor injuries and. Released, amazingly no
one is seriously injured at ten cent Beer.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
Night all, right it's a.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
Miracle but the athletes and the stadium crew are shaken
up by this, experience. Understandably Billy martin tells The Associated
press that, quote it's the Closest i've ever seen anybody
come to getting killed in my more than twenty five
years in. Baseball And Nessor shylack is said to have
been so heated after his narrow escape from the field

(01:15:44):
that he when he got down into the locker room,
area you know those hallways in the, stadium he smashed
every light bulb in.

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
Sight the. Fuck nessor was.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
Pissed BUT i, mean like you can imagine that it's
just that's the adrenaline and the survival. Adrenaline, YEAH i
mean that must have been so scary and. Crazy and
you know he was upset because with a compress held
to his injured, Head he tells, reporters, quote fucking. Animals
you just can't pull back a pack of. Animals when
uncontrolled beasts are out, There you got to do. SOMETHING

(01:16:18):
i saw two guys with knives AND i got hit
by a. Chair if the fucking war is on, Tomorrow
i'm going to join the other side to get a
shot at.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
Them. Wow end. Quote he was. Pissed he was.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
Pissed so, really besides the arrests and the stolen property
in the general, mayhem the most interesting part about ten
Cent Beer knight is that strange moment of unity between
The cleveland and The texas players against the drunken. Mob
texas Ranger Rich billings would go on to tell the, press,
QUOTE i really don't know what would have happened if

(01:16:51):
The indians hadn't come.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Out they were the real peacemakers in the.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
Deal so, essentially if those players hadn't started defending, people,
yeah it would have been an attack. Totally and despite
the league's absolute fury at everything that went down that,
Night cleveland would go on to throw another ten Cent
Beer night just a few weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
Later, no have we learned Nothing oh my, god, no
but they did.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
Learn so this time they have a strict two beer
per person, limit and they use tickets to track the,
purchases and they have four times the usual security. Staff
and here's the good. News the evening goes off without a.
Hitch and that is the story Of cleveland's infamous nineteen
seventy four ten cent beer.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
Knight oh my, God, Mayhem Mayhem.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
Mayhem also who brought a hunting knife to a baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
Game, truly, Truly, yeah what were you? Doing you're not? Sucking?
WHO i don't? Know Bear? Grill thank. YOU i was,
LIKE i had so many names suddenly flooding my head
AND i couldn't have picked. One he's the best. One
he loves a. Knife, yeah, wow great, job great, Story.

Speaker 2 (01:18:11):
Thank, you thank. You, YEAH i like that. One i've
been waiting to do that one for a little.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
While.

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
Yeah the world contains, multitudes that's, right from the sisters
who essentially saved The Dominican republic to The cleveland fans
who ruined baseball for one night on, purpose for.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Fun and we're here to deliver all of it to.
You we want you to know about all of.

Speaker 2 (01:18:35):
It our valued listeners we love, You we, do stay
sexy and don't get.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Murdered Good, bye good, By. Elvis do you want a?

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Cookie this has been an Exactly right.

Speaker 1 (01:18:55):
Production our senior producers Are Alejandra heck And Molly. Smith
our editor Is Aristotle. Saveda this episode was mixed By Leona.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
Squalacci our researchers Are maaron McGlashan And Ali.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
Elkin email your homecounts To My Favorite murder at gmail dot.
Com follow the show On instagram at My Favorite. Murder
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