Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast.
More what you hear Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Rick Jervis is a prize winning poetry, prize winning journalists
with more than two decades of experience working with the
Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal Europe, and Chicago Tribune in
USA Today and many many more. He's telling the gripping
story of some murders that rocked the town of Laredo,
Texas in his new book, The Devil Behind the Bandge
The Horrifying twelve Days of the Border Patrol serial Killer.
(00:35):
I bet Rick, not a lot of people have heard
this story.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, probably not. I think it basically grabbed a lot
of attention early on when it first happened in twenty eighteen,
and it made like national news briefly, but then it
came and went and that was you know, that was
six years ago. So I think people don't really know
all of the ins and outs and all the detail.
Was this this actual story?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, there have been so many other things too that
deal with the border. I'm wondering if there's a lot
of people just kind of, oh, ever, go another story
about the border.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Oh, this is definitely a very different story about the
border any story. This is unlike any story that I've
ever covered in my twenty plus years as a journalist,
and it is it is by far one of the
one of the most surprising, craziest stories that I've done.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, let's talk about the three I'm sorry that Yeah,
the three women that are involved, and they are Melissa Ramirez,
Claudine and Luira Gusell de Hernandez and JANEA Ortiz I'm sorry,
four women that are involved in this particular story.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah. These these are all marginalized women. They were all
sex workers, all of them, all of them, all of
them US citizens. By the way, I wanted to make
that clear. These these were migrants coming over. These were
all women who were born in the US, but they
had really debilitating drug addictions and to help finance these
(02:11):
substance abuse disorders, they took to the streets and became
sex workers. And that's what and that's what kind of
made them easy prey for someone like this quorterer patrol
agent to meet them, pick them up, drive them off,
and ended up killing them.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
About what time did this happen? Was this before things
really started to heat up? On the border.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So this happened in September of twenty eighteen, so it
was right around the same time that there was a
lot of controversy happening on the border. There were a
lot of migage coming over at that time. Things were
like really ramping up, and there were a lot of
controversial tactics being done also by by Border Patrol, Like
(02:58):
if you remember the zero Tolerance days and the family separations,
this is all happening around around that same time.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
The Devil behind the Badge, the horrifying Twelve Days of
the Border Patrol, serial killer Rick Jervis is with us
and that is the book what brought this to your attention.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
So in twenty eighteen, I actually covered this story for
USA Today, I'm based in Austin, Texas. I often cover
the border, and I got a phone call, like on
a random Saturday afternoon from one of my editors saying
that a Border Patrol agent had been arrested for killing
for women and that I needed to get down to
(03:43):
Laredo to cover it. So I did. I basically went
down covered his his actual arrest. I learned about the
story a little bit, but Lee the one thing which
really drove me to expand this into a bigger project
is meeting all of the victims' families. I really started
(04:04):
to learn about the victims, more realized that they had
these really incredible stories behind them, that all of them
were actually beloved by all their families, and that their
families were really trying hard to get them off the
streets when all this occurred.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
For those who don't know, Laredo, Texas is right there
on the border. I mean you can climb up to
the second store of a two story house and see
over in New Mexico.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
That's right. So it's right on the border, right across
the river from Mexico. And for a long time, both
of those sides interacted quite a bit, and I still
do obviously, So there's a lot of back and forth there.
People coming over into Laredo to work every day, folks
going back. It's a really interesting place, excellent.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I'm not ben, but I've read a lot about how
interesting it is. Now. Where the girls doing most of
their work on the other side of the border, or
were they doing it on the United States side?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Now they were all on the US side of the
actual border. There's this one street in central Laredo called
San Bernardo Avenue Andando is like their sort of red
light district, and that's where a lot of this activity occurs.
And so this is where where they would apply their trade.
This is where they would get a lot of their
(05:26):
their drugs. Most of them were was was black tar heroin,
which which a lot of them were strongly addicted to,
and so a lot of this occurred there. And on
David Ortiz, this Poto patrol agent would would would just
cruise down this avenue, pick them up, drive them off
(05:48):
and to meet his crimes.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Was he in a regular was he a regular john
to these women? I mean did they know him?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
So two of them he actually did know well, so
he knew his first victim, elis A Lamides, and there
was a would be fifth victim, which is how they
caught him, called Ericapana, And he actually pulled the gun
on Ericapana and looked and looked about to shoot her also,
(06:24):
but she managed to basically escape his clutches, kick out
of his truck and run off alert police, and that's
how they finally got him. And he actually did have
a sort of repeat relationship with eric Opania.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And Rick Jervis is with this Pulletry Prize winning journalist
and author the book is the Devil behind the Badge
of the horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol serial Killer.
Would he then take them across the border? Was there
any was there any desire to try to make this
look like it was happening only in Mexico or was
it all only in the United States?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
It was all only like in the US. He would
he would pick them up and drive them off to
like rural areas in h Webb County, in different areas,
and so there was never any tension to go across
the border. In fact, Ladedo is is actually a pretty
dangerous place right now. Laredo, It's so Laredo, Texas is
(07:26):
actually pretty safe. It's like extremely safe, actually, But once
you crossed the border into like Meldedo, there are there
are cartel operatives working there, and so people tend to
stay away from from that side of the border.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
That's what my next question was, Was he involved with
one of these at all or he was strictly working
on his own.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
As far as I can tell, he was not involved
with any with any cartel activity. There was nothing in
the in the sort of investigative files, pointing to that
there's nothing that I found during my research talking to
people who actually knew him growing up and then and
then later, there was nothing at all, like there was
(08:08):
no real connection at all to any cartel activities that
I could find.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Many municipalities have red light districts and prostitution areas, and
it's not that it's legal, but it's just that the
authorities look the other way or have so many other
more important things to deal with. Is Laredo like that,
and it's sort of like.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That, you know, somebody other avenue has been active for
decades really, and I kind of detail in my book
how it has this sort of history of like being
where some of the prostitutes used to hang out, even
getting back to like the nineteenth century, so it has
this history of kind of being the sort of red
(08:55):
light district. Loreda does what it can, but you know,
it's it's kind of like whack them all, like you'll
you'll pick up sex workers, you'll put them in jail,
you'll you'll try to get them off the streets, and
then a couple of days later they're they're back at it,
and it's just really challenging for them to do much
about it.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
And the rest of the story is being told in
The Devil Behind the Badge, The horrifying twelve days of
Border Patrol serial killer written by Rick Jervis. I look
forward to reading it and thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee
Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live
weekday afternoons from five to seven and Iheartsmedia Presentation
This is Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast.
More what you hear Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Rick Jervis is a prize winning poetry, prize winning journalists
with more than two decades of experience working with the
Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal Europe, and Chicago Tribune in
USA Today and many many more. He's telling the gripping
story of some murders that rocked the town of Laredo,
Texas in his new book, The Devil Behind the Bandge
The Horrifying twelve Days of the Border Patrol serial Killer.
(00:35):
I bet Rick, not a lot of people have heard
this story.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, probably not. I think it basically grabbed a lot
of attention early on when it first happened in twenty eighteen,
and it made like national news briefly, but then it
came and went and that was you know, that was
six years ago. So I think people don't really know
all of the ins and outs and all the detail.
Was this this actual story?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, there have been so many other things too that
deal with the border. I'm wondering if there's a lot
of people just kind of, oh, ever, go another story
about the border.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Oh, this is definitely a very different story about the
border any story. This is unlike any story that I've
ever covered in my twenty plus years as a journalist,
and it is it is by far one of the
one of the most surprising, craziest stories that I've done.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, let's talk about the three I'm sorry that Yeah,
the three women that are involved, and they are Melissa Ramirez,
Claudine and Luira Gusell de Hernandez and JANEA Ortiz I'm sorry,
four women that are involved in this particular story.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah. These these are all marginalized women. They were all
sex workers, all of them, all of them, all of
them US citizens. By the way, I wanted to make
that clear. These these were migrants coming over. These were
all women who were born in the US, but they
had really debilitating drug addictions and to help finance these
(02:11):
substance abuse disorders, they took to the streets and became
sex workers. And that's what and that's what kind of
made them easy prey for someone like this quorterer patrol
agent to meet them, pick them up, drive them off,
and ended up killing them.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
About what time did this happen? Was this before things
really started to heat up? On the border.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So this happened in September of twenty eighteen, so it
was right around the same time that there was a
lot of controversy happening on the border. There were a
lot of migage coming over at that time. Things were
like really ramping up, and there were a lot of
controversial tactics being done also by by Border Patrol, Like
(02:58):
if you remember the zero Tolerance days and the family separations,
this is all happening around around that same time.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
The Devil behind the Badge, the horrifying Twelve Days of
the Border Patrol, serial killer Rick Jervis is with us
and that is the book what brought this to your attention.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
So in twenty eighteen, I actually covered this story for
USA Today, I'm based in Austin, Texas. I often cover
the border, and I got a phone call, like on
a random Saturday afternoon from one of my editors saying
that a Border Patrol agent had been arrested for killing
for women and that I needed to get down to
(03:43):
Laredo to cover it. So I did. I basically went
down covered his his actual arrest. I learned about the
story a little bit, but Lee the one thing which
really drove me to expand this into a bigger project
is meeting all of the victims' families. I really started
(04:04):
to learn about the victims, more realized that they had
these really incredible stories behind them, that all of them
were actually beloved by all their families, and that their
families were really trying hard to get them off the
streets when all this occurred.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
For those who don't know, Laredo, Texas is right there
on the border. I mean you can climb up to
the second store of a two story house and see
over in New Mexico.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
That's right. So it's right on the border, right across
the river from Mexico. And for a long time, both
of those sides interacted quite a bit, and I still
do obviously, So there's a lot of back and forth there.
People coming over into Laredo to work every day, folks
going back. It's a really interesting place, excellent.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I'm not ben, but I've read a lot about how
interesting it is. Now. Where the girls doing most of
their work on the other side of the border, or
were they doing it on the United States side?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Now they were all on the US side of the
actual border. There's this one street in central Laredo called
San Bernardo Avenue Andando is like their sort of red
light district, and that's where a lot of this activity occurs.
And so this is where where they would apply their trade.
This is where they would get a lot of their
(05:26):
their drugs. Most of them were was was black tar heroin,
which which a lot of them were strongly addicted to,
and so a lot of this occurred there. And on
David Ortiz, this Poto patrol agent would would would just
cruise down this avenue, pick them up, drive them off
(05:48):
and to meet his crimes.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Was he in a regular was he a regular john
to these women? I mean did they know him?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
So two of them he actually did know well, so
he knew his first victim, elis A Lamides, and there
was a would be fifth victim, which is how they
caught him, called Ericapana, And he actually pulled the gun
on Ericapana and looked and looked about to shoot her also,
(06:24):
but she managed to basically escape his clutches, kick out
of his truck and run off alert police, and that's
how they finally got him. And he actually did have
a sort of repeat relationship with eric Opania.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And Rick Jervis is with this Pulletry Prize winning journalist
and author the book is the Devil behind the Badge
of the horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol serial Killer.
Would he then take them across the border? Was there
any was there any desire to try to make this
look like it was happening only in Mexico or was
it all only in the United States?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
It was all only like in the US. He would
he would pick them up and drive them off to
like rural areas in h Webb County, in different areas,
and so there was never any tension to go across
the border. In fact, Ladedo is is actually a pretty
dangerous place right now. Laredo, It's so Laredo, Texas is
(07:26):
actually pretty safe. It's like extremely safe, actually, But once
you crossed the border into like Meldedo, there are there
are cartel operatives working there, and so people tend to
stay away from from that side of the border.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
That's what my next question was, Was he involved with
one of these at all or he was strictly working
on his own.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
As far as I can tell, he was not involved
with any with any cartel activity. There was nothing in
the in the sort of investigative files, pointing to that
there's nothing that I found during my research talking to
people who actually knew him growing up and then and
then later, there was nothing at all, like there was
(08:08):
no real connection at all to any cartel activities that
I could find.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Many municipalities have red light districts and prostitution areas, and
it's not that it's legal, but it's just that the
authorities look the other way or have so many other
more important things to deal with. Is Laredo like that,
and it's sort of like.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That, you know, somebody other avenue has been active for
decades really, and I kind of detail in my book
how it has this sort of history of like being
where some of the prostitutes used to hang out, even
getting back to like the nineteenth century, so it has
this history of kind of being the sort of red
(08:55):
light district. Loreda does what it can, but you know,
it's it's kind of like whack them all, like you'll
you'll pick up sex workers, you'll put them in jail,
you'll you'll try to get them off the streets, and
then a couple of days later they're they're back at it,
and it's just really challenging for them to do much
about it.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
And the rest of the story is being told in
The Devil Behind the Badge, The horrifying twelve days of
Border Patrol serial killer written by Rick Jervis. I look
forward to reading it and thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee
Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live
weekday afternoons from five to seven and Iheartsmedia Presentation
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