The Sleepy Lagoon Murder and the "Zoot Suit Riots"
José Gallardo Díaz On this day in 1942, a man by the name of José Gallardo Díaz was found unconscious by the Sleepy Lagoon in Commerce, California. The lagoon was a reservoir beside the Los Angeles River popular with Mexican-Americans. After Díaz passed away at the Los Angeles County General Hospital, without ever regaining consciousness, it was determined that he had been intoxicated and suffered from blunt head trauma. Although a medical examiner stated that his injuries were consistent with being hit by a car, police decided that Díaz had been beaten. Two days after Díaz was found, police arrested 24 men, all of Mexican descent, for conspiring to beat him to death. The media claimed that they were all members of the "38th Street gang". The media also began calling for police to take action against so-called "zoot suiters". As a result, on August 10 police arrested 600 Latinos and charged them with suspicion of assault, armed robbery, and related offenses. O...