Friday - Murder Mystery
Dec. 2nd, 2005 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermoreToday on the drive into work, I was thinking about a murder that my brother in law told me about. Some stories get stuck in your mind, slip into the depths of your subconscious, only to resurface at the oddest moments, like when you pass a police car on your commute into the office.
The murder took place in Houston about 30 years ago and the case is as cold and as dead as the victim. The cold case squad in Houston won't be looking into this one; the police are the ones who murdered this man.
My brother in law (lets call him Robert) likes his beer. He has always liked his beer. Best of all, he is one of those functional alcoholics who tells great stories when he has a few in him (and he always has a few in him).
We were talking about the police one evening. The topic came up that back in the 1970's, when my brother in law first moved to Texas with his wife and daughter, the Houston Police Department was a very corrupt and scary organization. A couple of scandals involving throw-down guns and drugs in the late 70's were the catalysts for reform and it's much better today. But when this story took place, HPD was like a hostile occupying army in the city of Houston.
"When we lived in Washington state," Robert said, "I always told my wife that if she had any problem, she could call the police or ask a cop to help her. When we moved down here and I found out how it was, I told that whatever she did, don't ask a cop for help. I told her to stay away from them. HPD was bad news."
Robert and his family moved in an apartment in Houston when they first arrived in the city. One night he was sitting outside of his apartment in a lawn chair drinking beer. One of his neighbors was drinking beer with him. The neighbor was an older man who had retired from HPD. As the neighbor got more inebriated, he told Robert a story about his days on the police force.
One night, a hispanic man (name lost to time) got into an altercation in a bar. He didn't know that the man he got in a fight with was a Houston cop, but he wound up getting arrested. The man was drunk and cocky, and he made a bargain with the two arresting officers. He bet then that if they pulled over somewhere and let him fight them, that he could kick both of their asses. He said that if they could kick his ass, then, fine, they could take him to jail. But if he kicked their asses, then they should let him go.
The cops agreed, and took him to a wooded area off of the banks of Buffalo Bayou, which runs through Houston. They took off their guns and un-cuffed the man. They did not know that he had a blackbelt in Karate. He proceeded to kick both of their asses, just like he said he could.
The two cops turned out to be poor losers, and they did not keep their part of the bargain. They called for backup. Other police showed up and subdued the victorious blackbelt. They re-cuffed him and proceeded to beat him.
Robert's neighbor pulled into the scene just as the other cops were pushing the man into Buffalo Bayou, still handcuffed.
He drowned.
His body, still in handcuffs, was later found. The story made the headlines for a few days, but was dropped when police could find no leads as to how this poor son of a bitch wound up in the bayou with handcuffs binding his wrists.
Robert's neighbor was still shaken up about it, though not so shaken up that he would tell his story to the newspapers or to Internal Affairs at HPD. Instead, he drowned his guilt with alcohol. His conscious stubbornly did not die as easily as the man in the handcuffs. He advised Robert and his family to avoid any contact with HPD if they could avoid it. There were good people in the police department; there were also a lot who were not so good.
The men involved are getting older now and no doubt dying of natural causes as time goes by. Most, if not all, of them are probably retired. Maybe a few of them still get drunk and talk about it to strangers who shrug it off as a dark story that, while interesting, really has no impact on anything and doesn't matter anymore.
I wonder the the drowned man still has family in Houston? I bet it might matter to them, whoever they are.
The murder took place in Houston about 30 years ago and the case is as cold and as dead as the victim. The cold case squad in Houston won't be looking into this one; the police are the ones who murdered this man.
My brother in law (lets call him Robert) likes his beer. He has always liked his beer. Best of all, he is one of those functional alcoholics who tells great stories when he has a few in him (and he always has a few in him).
We were talking about the police one evening. The topic came up that back in the 1970's, when my brother in law first moved to Texas with his wife and daughter, the Houston Police Department was a very corrupt and scary organization. A couple of scandals involving throw-down guns and drugs in the late 70's were the catalysts for reform and it's much better today. But when this story took place, HPD was like a hostile occupying army in the city of Houston.
"When we lived in Washington state," Robert said, "I always told my wife that if she had any problem, she could call the police or ask a cop to help her. When we moved down here and I found out how it was, I told that whatever she did, don't ask a cop for help. I told her to stay away from them. HPD was bad news."
Robert and his family moved in an apartment in Houston when they first arrived in the city. One night he was sitting outside of his apartment in a lawn chair drinking beer. One of his neighbors was drinking beer with him. The neighbor was an older man who had retired from HPD. As the neighbor got more inebriated, he told Robert a story about his days on the police force.
One night, a hispanic man (name lost to time) got into an altercation in a bar. He didn't know that the man he got in a fight with was a Houston cop, but he wound up getting arrested. The man was drunk and cocky, and he made a bargain with the two arresting officers. He bet then that if they pulled over somewhere and let him fight them, that he could kick both of their asses. He said that if they could kick his ass, then, fine, they could take him to jail. But if he kicked their asses, then they should let him go.
The cops agreed, and took him to a wooded area off of the banks of Buffalo Bayou, which runs through Houston. They took off their guns and un-cuffed the man. They did not know that he had a blackbelt in Karate. He proceeded to kick both of their asses, just like he said he could.
The two cops turned out to be poor losers, and they did not keep their part of the bargain. They called for backup. Other police showed up and subdued the victorious blackbelt. They re-cuffed him and proceeded to beat him.
Robert's neighbor pulled into the scene just as the other cops were pushing the man into Buffalo Bayou, still handcuffed.
He drowned.
His body, still in handcuffs, was later found. The story made the headlines for a few days, but was dropped when police could find no leads as to how this poor son of a bitch wound up in the bayou with handcuffs binding his wrists.
Robert's neighbor was still shaken up about it, though not so shaken up that he would tell his story to the newspapers or to Internal Affairs at HPD. Instead, he drowned his guilt with alcohol. His conscious stubbornly did not die as easily as the man in the handcuffs. He advised Robert and his family to avoid any contact with HPD if they could avoid it. There were good people in the police department; there were also a lot who were not so good.
The men involved are getting older now and no doubt dying of natural causes as time goes by. Most, if not all, of them are probably retired. Maybe a few of them still get drunk and talk about it to strangers who shrug it off as a dark story that, while interesting, really has no impact on anything and doesn't matter anymore.
I wonder the the drowned man still has family in Houston? I bet it might matter to them, whoever they are.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 07:37 pm (UTC)Doesn't help my opinion of cops much though (grr!)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 07:58 pm (UTC)I wish I knew how to look up some of this to see if I could find out how much of this is true (it was told to me as true, that's all I can say). It would be a bit more compelling if the victim had a name, rather than just an ethnicity and a decade that he died in.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 09:38 pm (UTC)