Murder With My Husband - 175. Irene Garza - The Church Murder Cover Up

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

On this episode of MWMH, we discuss the murder of Irene Garza and the blasphemous search for her killer.  https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Sources: 48 Hours - https://www.amazon.com/48-Hours-Season-30/dp/B077921R34 Texas Monthly - https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/unholy-act/ CNN.com - https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/justice/garza-cold-case-timeline/ McAllen Chamber of Commerce - https://mcallenchamber.com/news/a-look-into-our-past-tells-us-of-our-future/ CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irene-garza-murder-former-priest-john-feit-arrested-in-beauty-queens-1960-murder/, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irene-garza-murder-john-feit-former-priest-dies/ The Sydney Morning Herald - https://www.smh.com.au/world/break-in-cold-case-police-arrest-former-beauty-queens-priest-in-her-1960-killing-20160211-gmrhii.html Courthouse News Service - https://www.courthousenews.com/former-priest-convicted-of-1960-murder-dies-in-prison/ My San Antonio - https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Ex-priest-coming-back-to-Texas-to-sta nd-trial-in-6853963.php The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/12/08/in-1960-she-went-to-confession-and-vanished-now-we-know-the-priest-murdered-her/ My NYC Geneology - https://mcnygenealogy.com/book/kodak/kodaslide-viewer.pdf BishopAccountability.org - https://www.bishop-accountability.org/ Phoenix New Times- https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/altar-ego-priest-john-feit-irene-garza-beauty-queen-6430571?storyPage=3 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody welcome back to our podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Hayden Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's husband. I'm the husband. Okay, I think I'm having like out of body experiences every time I say it now. Like you just auto pilot. Maybe it's just time to change the intro. No. How's everyone filled? Did I just give everyone a panic attack? Never do that. Was this like the consistency they needed? Reminder if you want ad free content, no ads in just to hear my voice and Payton's wonderful voice, then you can subscribe on Apple or on Patreon and you'll get ad free

and bonus free content. And that's for all of Ono Media, so you get access to Binge and Rising Crime as well. For those on Apple, there was some ads recently on a couple of episodes that is fixed now. I'm sorry about that. Sometimes there are some glitches, but we are good to go. For this baby. What's up, are we going to? The meme, right? Or a TikTok? I'm just a baby. Just a baby, yeah. Okay, before we get into here, 10 seconds, I'd like to say something I was thinking about last night when I was having anxiety and couldn't sleep. I think I would like to start a petition to have my own 10 seconds. Okay.

I think my voice is valuable and I think that I have things I could say. I'll tell you what, babe. We can start, we can give you a 10 seconds when I'm the one telling stories. Or when I'm the one telling stories. It'll never happen. I guess there's the answer to your question then, huh?

I just, I have stuff, I want to talk about this on murder sometimes. I agree with it. Maybe we need to do another podcast and just, you know, riff the raft with each other. Okay, whatever. Go to Garrett's 10 seconds. Not sure if anyone listened to a riffed raft podcast, Peyton and I, but you never know. All right, my wonderful, extraordinary, perfect, very exciting 10 seconds. Are you going to say, why? Oh, what?

Is that I'm going to get a haircut after we record this episode. Oh, yeah. My hair's not very long, but you know, just going to go clean it up a little bit. Also, Peyton and I may or may not be going to a Taylor Swift concert next week. Yep. So we will-

Already next week. I know, not crazy. Yeah. So we will update everyone on that. Also, would like to say, sometimes I wonder if the world is trying to kill me. And I know that was kind of abrupt. But what I mean by that is every time I swear, every time we were driving, something crazy happens to me. Am I right? Well, not something crazy. It's just you almost die. That's pretty crazy.

That's pretty insane. I just mean like a car cuts you off or like. And I swear it's not my fault. Like people just merge right into me, people try to hit me, it just happens to me. And maybe maybe at some point I need to internalize a little bit, maybe it is my fault. But I swear every time we're driving,

I am always on the defensive. Well, you did get run off the road. Yes, yeah. Anyways, luckily I'm a good driver. We're still live, everything's okay, but I don't know, maybe the CIA, maybe someone's behind it. Why would they want you, God?

Maybe someone's in like the podcast. Wait, are we just gonna like like not talk about the UFO thing? Like they literally said they found aliens. Okay, well we can't make this intro too long. So we'll have to talk about it on another episode. I'm telling you, we need to start a riff-rack podcast. Like that, I just feel like that's right up our alley, but also like, you believe it?

Maybe we'll do a bonus episode for everybody just on all the alien stuff. I don't know if I got that much to say. Oh, okay. Well, we'll think about it and maybe we'll do an episode on that. Okay, our case sources are 48hourscn.com. Texas Monthly, McAllen Chamber of Commerce, CBS News, the Sydney Morning Harold, Courthouse News Service,

my San Antonio, the Washington Post, my New York City Genealogy, Bishopaccountability.org, and Phoenix News Times. So, for many people in America, going to church is a major cornerstone of their lives. It offers them a sense of community, a feeling of belonging, a sherdness, and most of all a feeling of safety. This was especially true in small towns in the south, particularly back in the 1950s and 60s. But what happens when your safe place, your church, is infiltrated by a predator, even worse,

what happens when the hierarchy of that church works to protect the predator, leading to a cover-up that allows a case to run cold for decades. Today's story begins in the small town of McGowan, Texas, on the southernmost tip of the state, right on the border of Mexico. Nowadays it's a busier area as it's the third largest border crossing in Texas. But back in the 1960s, when our story takes place, MacGallon was still a small town

where the white population and the growing Hispanic population didn't always mix well. For example, the town's one public swimming pool was off limits to the Hispanic people living in MacGallon, who were instead forced to spend the scorching summers dipping in the town's irrigation canals. This was the world Irene Garza knew and grew up in. It was also the world she'd come to love deeply. Irene herself was part of this growing Hispanic population in MacGalen, but Irene also broke a lot of barriers, particularly at McGowan High School. There, she became the school's first Hispanic twerler and head drum majorette.

When Irene was 15, her parents' dry cleaning business had seen so much success that they were actually able to move to a more affluent neighborhood in McGowan. One north of the train tracks where other Hispanic doctors, lawyers, and businessmen lived with their families. Irene also became the first woman in her family to attend college, where her popularity continued to skyrocket. At Pan American College, Irene was crowned homecoming queen. Then in 1958, the 24-year-old won the Miss All South Texas Sweetheart contest, which was practically unheard of at the time for a Mexican-American woman. After she graduated from school, Irene continued

to live with her parents in their new neighborhood in McAllen, Texas, but she decided to return to her old neighborhood below the tracks for work. She taught second grade at the elementary school there and even used her first paycheck to help buy her students school supplies, clothes, and books. Plus, she'd been nominated as the Secretary of the Parent Teachers Association, which was about to be a huge challenge for Irene. She wrote to a friend in early April 1960 saying, quote, this might not sound like much, but to me it means a great deal.

It means I'm overcoming my terrible shyness and becoming sure of myself. So while Irene's been doing all of these pageants and campaigning for homecoming queen, it seems she does have some insecurities she's been hiding, like any young woman her age who's still trying to find herself. But in that same letter, Irene also spoke about her old fear of death and told her friend, she thought she might be cured. She said she'd been going to a communion and mass daily, and it was giving her immense courage and faith. Irene wrote she was happier than she'd ever been before. So two weeks after Irene penned that letter, it's Easter weekend. On the Holy Saturday,

April 16, 1960, the church is packed with people from all over McAllen looking to cleanse their souls through confession. At around 6.30 pm that night, Irene asks if she can borrow the family car to go do the same. She tells her mother she won't be long and makes the 12th block drive over to the Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. Now Irene is not someone people miss. She's strikingly beautiful, elegant even, and catches the eye of nearly everyone as soon as she walks into the church that night.

There are rumors that some of the young men in town go to church just to spot a glimpse of Irene. I mean, she's this beauty pageant, she's beautiful. So you know she's something special. Some take notice that night of her making the sign of the cross as she enters the church. Then she takes some time to herself kneeling and praying in the fifth row of pews. Next, she gets in line for confession, pulling a white veil down over her face. She even lets one parishioner cut in front of her because they're running late for the next event.

While many people noticed Irene inside the church, no one reports seeing Irene exit or go out to the parking lot after her confession. Now it's starting to get late and back home Irene's parents wonder why her quick trip to church is taking her so long. At first they imagine maybe she'd stayed for the Easter vigil mass that's happening later that evening. But when Irene doesn't return home by 3am her parents know something was wrong and they immediately contact the McAllen Police Department. The next morning, Easter Sunday, police find Irene's car. It's parked down the street from the church. But for the rest of the day, there's still no sign of Irene. Still, her family is holding out hope. They know Irene has been talking to a

few potential suitors and figure, maybe, while it's unlike her, she just ran off with one of them for a day or two. But on Monday, April 18th, new clues change that theory. On the side of an empty stretch of road in McAllen, a passer by spots a small beige shoe. It's scuffed up and part of the hill seems to be missing. It doesn't take long for Irene's parents to confirm. It was the same one Irene was wearing when she left the house that Saturday night. Just a few hundred yards away, police locate another sign that Irene might be in great danger. It's hard to because you think, oh, I mean, my daughter's going to church should be safe. Nothing bad's going to happen. Yada, yada, yada, and then now she's gone. No one sees her leave the

church. Then she goes missing and now her shoe is found. And then they find her black pat and leather purse with her driver's license still inside. And just a little further north and just a little farther north, a piece of white lace crumpled and tossed in the brush similar to the veil Irene was last spotted in a church. Only there's no Irene. So for the next several days, members of the local police spread out on horseback, combing the area for any sign of the young women. They

scanned the 32 block radius surrounding the Sacred Heart Church where Irene was last seen. They even go knocking door to door around the area. By day three, they've put together one of the most extensive manhunts in the history of the Rio Grande Valley area, complete with 70 members of the Hildoggo County Sheriff's Office, 65 National Guardsmen, two border patrol airplanes, and a team of divers combing the canals. Along the way, there are some alarming and strange leads. For example, one woman calls the Garza home claiming to be Irene. She says she's been kidnapped and brought to a

hotel in another town over. Well, the freak. Why would someone do that? And this is the second case. We've seen that kind of happening. Yeah, we're the except the other case that really probably was. Yeah. And I don't know if it's them this time, but it doesn't sound like it is. Well, detectives quickly do realize the call is a hoax. Then there's a man who tells a local waitress that he killed Irene and threatens to kill her next. After investigators look into the man, they find he's just overly intoxicated and not someone worth considering as an actual suspect. So they have a few leads that amount to absolutely nothing. That is until Thursday, April 21st.

At 7.40 a.m., the McGowan PD received a call saying a woman's body had been spotted in the second street canal, which is several miles away from where the other evidence like Irene Shoe and Purse were discovered. By the time police arrived, an entire crowd had gathered to watch them remove the body from the water. The woman is still fully clothed aside from her shoes and her underwear. And her blouse appears to be unbuttoned. Her face is horribly bruised, including two black eyes. Still, it's clear enough to make out this is the body of Irene Garza, and the autopsy

reveals even more about what may have happened to her in those missing hours. By the state of her decomposition, the pathologist believes she'd been dead for a little less than four days before she was discovered. And since she's been missing for almost six days, this implies she might have been held captive for a day or two before she was killed. They also determined her cause of death was suffocation and that she'd been beaten by a hard object just before. There's also evidence that she was sexually assaulted at some point during her captivity.

But the problem is, the autopsy is really the only clue they have to go off of. Well that, and a partial men's shoe print that was left on the canal bank for blocks south of where Irene's body was discovered. For blocks, I mean, that could be, could be a little kid running around, right? Right. Well, it's hardly a smoking gun. Yeah. But police think maybe the culprit dropped her body off at the location of the footprint and she floated downstream. However, any other evidence that might have been left behind, like blood or hair, would

have been washed away by the time they pulled her from the water. But one thing is 100% clear. Detectives have a homicide on their hands. There's a killer loose in the McAllen area. And the Hildalgo County Sheriff promises they are going to leave no stone unturned. Which oh, it's so hard because there's a killer to lose. But the last place she was seen was at church. Yeah. That's that's pretty disturbing. Could possibly be someone at the church. Now, this is practically unheard of nowadays, but the mayor of

McAllen seems so committing to finding Irene's killer that he offers the police a blank check for the investigation. This way they have, quote, whatever money necessary to help solve the crime. Even the locals lends resources to solve Irene's crime. Small businesses around town offer reward money to anyone who might have any valuable information. And over the next few weeks, detectives interview about 500 people from Irene's family and friends to anyone who saw her at church that final evening.

They even map out the entire confession line, who was standing in front of who and so forth. So they're basically putting together her last night at church. On top of that, they interrogate a variety of sex offenders in the area, spanning as far as 700 miles west to El Paso, Texas. So needless to say, the investigation seems incredibly thorough at the beginning. But rumors about the culprit are spreading like wildfire throughout the town. Some wonder if Irene's murderer might have been a heartbroken suitor, seeing as many

men around town were very interested in her. Others suspect that it was this prominent McAllen citizen who had died just a few days after Irene's disappearance of a heart attack. But the one theory many people are thinking, but no one is saying out in the open is, what if Irene's killer was a holy man? So several days after Irene's body is found, investigators drain the canal along Second Street looking for any further clues. Lying only a few feet away from where they discovered the man's shoe print, they find

a light green, codos slide viewer with a long cord. This is basically one of those old-fashioned projector systems that you could put two-by-two photos in and display bigger on a wall for people to see your family vacation or wedding photos or whatever. It's so hard because I think nowadays nothing surprises us. Right. Anybody can kill someone. But I feel like it didn't used to be like that. Like anybody can kill someone. But I feel like it didn't used to be like that. Especially in the 60s.

Yeah, it was like, oh, they are a priest or they go to church or they are a cop or they are, you know, someone in a respectable whatever you want to consider a respectable position. You're like, oh, they would never do that. And nowadays, it's like nothing surprises us. It could be anybody. We looked at them first.

They could be the president of the United States. It's like it's like nothing surprises us these days. So police believe the murderer might have used the cord from this machine to bind Irene's hands or to keep her body submerged. So this becomes a critical clue. Problem is, they don't have any idea who this thing belongs to. So they ask the public for their help

in finding the owner and shockingly, one man comes forward saying, yeah, that's mine. He's a 27 year old priest named John Fight. Now, father fight was new to the McAllen area. He had just finished his seminary school in San Antonio, Texas. And he was only supposed

to be in MacGalen for a year of pastor training. Many of the locals liked him because he gave his sermons in Spanish and did it well. But others said the dark haired priest with horn-rimmed glasses was also kind of a bit aloof. Even worse, he almost seemed unsure about his commitment to his faith. When one parishioner asked him why he wanted to become a priest, fight said, I just wanted to give it a try. Ironically enough, father fight also happened to be one of the priests hearing confessions at the sacred heart the night Irene disappeared. It seemed interesting that it came forward.

It doesn't make me very suspicious of him. I agree. I agree. And several parishioners who waited in his line that evening claimed the queue moved slowly and that fights seemed to disappear from the church several times that night. Well in May 1960, please call Father Fight in for questioning and his story changes a few times. At first he says Irene approached him in the rectory that evening, which is like the private housing section of the church meant only for the clergy. He claims there Irene wanted to discuss a question of conscience. After this he sent her to the sanctuary to make her confession, which is the more appropriate

place for these matters. But later, he changes his story. He says he did hear Irene's confession in the rectory, which would have been considered a really inappropriate thing for him to do. And that's why he kept it to himself originally. Still, he claims after he heard her confession, Irene left around 7.15 or 7.20 pm. Then fight returned to the sanctuary of the church and continued hearing other parishioners' confessions for the next several hours with a few cigarette breaks. At some time during the confessions, father fight said he broke his glasses while

he was playing around with them, which now he broke his glasses the same night she disappeared. It's just... Yeah, no good. It's suspicious. I was watching something yesterday and it was like, is there really coincidences? Yeah. Yeah, sure. How many things can actually be a coincidence? So at about 10 p.m., he drove to where he was staying to grab another pair of glasses,

about five miles away in San Juan at the pastoral house. But when he got there, he found that he had forgotten his keys and the doors were locked. So he had to scale the building to the second floor balcony to let himself in. Now he's a rock climber. And during this process, he says he scraped the back of his hands. That's why they're scraped on them. Getting creative. Now this detail is actually later cooperated by another priest at the Sacred Heart, Father O'Brien.

He claims that when the clergymen gathered after their midnight mass, he noticed Father fight had these strange markings on the back of his hands, but if he got them from climbing a brick wall, then why were there scrapes on the back of his hands and not the palms? Well police also clocked this as suspicious, but they let fight continue with his account. He says on Easter Sunday, he gave two morning masses and an afternoon mass. But later in the day, he was approached by Irene's parents who heard he was one of the last people to see her. They asked whether he might have said something to Irene that could have upset her and he told them there wasn't anything he could think of. He also tells police that this conversation with her parents was so upsetting that he drove

aimlessly around town after and couldn't return immediately back to the pastoral house. Now the police are obviously considering fight as a potential suspect at this point, but they are also keeping this pretty hush hush. Because in a town like McGowan, you don't just talk about the church or priests in this way, especially in the 60s. It's blasphemy to infer that a man of God would have done something as sinful and unholy as murdering one of his parishioners. So until they have more information, the fact that fight is a suspect is not made public. However, it's around this time they learn of a similar attack. One that happened just a few weeks before Irene Garza went missing. So back on March 23rd, 1960, a woman

named Maria America Guera visited another sacred heart church just 12 miles away in Edinburgh, Texas. When she entered the church, she noticed a young priest with dark hair and horn-rimmed glasses, sitting in one of the back pews all by himself. Maria was at the altar praying when a man snuck up behind her, grabbed her, and tried to smother her with a rag. She bit down on the man's fingers, drawing blood, which ultimately helped her escape. She bolted out of the church screaming and yelling for help. She never got a look at the man's face, but she did see he was wearing black pants just like a clergyman. Maria felt certain the person who attacked her was the same priest who'd been sitting in the back pew when she arrived. The father in the horn ramed glasses.

After police learn about Maria's attack, they call father fight back in for questioning. I mean, things are just not looking good for him. The interesting, because... And why did he say that? Cordless his. Right. Like, why would you do that?

They get him to admit that he was in fact at the Sacred Heart in Edinburgh on March 23rd for a meeting with another priest. So now he's admitting that he was at the same Sacred Heart in Edinburgh on March 23rd for meeting with another priest. So now he's admitting that he was at the same Sacred Heart where the the girl before was attacked. However, he claims he left before the time of the attack and was back at his house in San Juan by that point. When his fellow priests are questioned, they admit they saw the bite mark on his finger

right after the attack. But fight says he got it stuck in a mymograph machine just a few days before March 23. Oh, okay. Now I'm done with these coincidences. This was despite the fact that the rest of the clergymen said they didn't see the injury until the night of the attack. His fellow priests also insist fight wasn't back at the house before the time of the attack like he had claimed so they don't hold up Zalabai. But ultimately, father fight denies having anything to do with Maria or Irene's attacks. Still, things don't go exactly fights way.

In August 1960, he's indicted for assault with attempted rape against Maria. Though it takes another two years for John Fight to have his day in court, and inevitably Fight finds himself facing a hung jury. Instead of going on to a second trial, he pleads no contest, which means he's not admitting he's guilty, but he accepts whatever the conviction is. This helped him reduce his charges and Fight is only slapped with a $500 fine for that attempted attack.

It isn't surprised me though one because of his position too. It was just an attempt. It was, which is so messed up because what do you have killed there? Right. I just, the attempts are so hard to me with the justice system because... They just got unlucky. Yeah. Like, he probably would just got unlucky. Yeah. Like he probably would have killed there. Yeah. It's insane. Keep in mind, this is just for Maria's case, the attempted attack. She

got away. She bit him and got away. Uh-huh. There's still no movement. Nor are police getting any closer to charging fight in Irene's death, though they think he's responsible. And over time, Irene's case stalls out. Detectives move on to other cases and newspapers onto other stories. Many begin to wonder, was there some sort of backdoor deal that's been made between the church and the state? Like, how have they not charged him? Or are detectives just afraid to harshly prosecute a man of God? Either way, it seems like fight is getting off easy and he kind of is. The Catholic Church ships fight off to a monastery in Iowa, then Missouri as part of a rehabilitation program.

Rehabilitation. Now you killed someone to let's just move you around a little bit. Yeah. He's later moved to a treatment center for troubled priests in New Mexico. For context, this is the same treatment center where the infamous Father James Porter was sent after he abused as many as 100 children during his time with the church. Holy crap. However, in 1972, fight leaves the priesthood altogether. He moves to Phoenix, Arizona, gets married and has three children. For the next 30 years, John Fight gets to live an ordinary quiet life as an insurance salesman.

But in April 2002, the San Antonio Police Department receives a call that changes everything. The caller claims to be a former priest who's now living in Oklahoma City, and they have information about a murder that occurred in the Texas area in the 1960s. The man says, in 1963, he was living at a monastery in Missouri where he canceled a young priest from San Antonio. The priest confessed to this man that he had attacked

and killed a woman over Easter weekend. Now, the timing of this call is interesting because 2002 was the same year the Boston Globe exposed several Roman Catholic priests for sexually abusing minors. a huge national scandal that proved their recover ups happening in Catholic churches across the country and inevitably led to 249 criminal cases. I think it's interesting that they would confess that probably because of their beliefs, but at the same time, it's like you killed someone. I don't know, you know what I'm saying? So the San Antonio police are cautious about this phone call because maybe this person just has something

against the Catholic church and thinks now is a time to come out because so many people are. Or maybe this person has been harboring this secret for some time and with the current climate, they feel okay, it's time I can finally come forward. What they don't realize is that over in the Texas Rangers new cold case unit, one detective named Rudy Harameo has also just re-opened Irene Garza's case. Problem is, Harameo doesn't have a lot to work with since there wasn't any DNA collected during the initial investigation. And many of the detectives who originally investigated the case are now either deceased

or retired. Still, Heramio's suspicions are firmly locked on the original suspect, John Fight. But he is also looking to answer some of the other lingering questions, like, where was Irene killed? And how long before her body was dumped in that canal? For months, Heramio has no idea that some of those answers are hiding in a file owned by the San Antonio Police Department.

Then in November 2002, word finally reaches him. The San Antonio PD is working on the same case. They need to now compare notes. Heramio meets with the San Antonio detective named George Sadler. And they find that while that former priest from Oklahoma doesn't know the name of the victim, he did know the name of the man he'd canceled. It was John fight. So Herameo and his team begin building a new case against fight. And their first stop

is tracking down the Oklahoma priest who called in, a man named Del Tecni who is now their star witness. Tecni makes a drive to San Antonio to meet with Hera Mio to tell him the entire story, and it goes something like this. In the summer of 1963, a superior of his at the hour lady of Assumption Abbey in Ava Missouri told him a new troubled priest was joining their ranks. Takenie began counseling John Fight and over the next six months, Fight opened up to him slowly about the crimes he'd committed.

Fight told Takenie that a young woman had come to him on Easter weekend to give her confession. Instead of hearing her confession in the booth, however, Fight convinced her to come to the rectory instead. After hearing her confession there, he moved Irene to the rectory basement because he knew it had thick walls and no one would hear her scream from down there. There, he restrained her, removed her blouse, and fondled her. Then he took a break to return to the church to hear more confessions to try to establish an alibi, leaving Irene in the basement tied up and just hurt.

Later that evening, after all of the parishioners had left, he moved Irene to the pastoral house where he was staying just a few miles away. Then fights told Takenny on Easter Sunday he placed her just a few miles away. Then, fights told Takenie on Easter Sunday he placed her in a bathtub and put a bag over her head before leaving for a church to give mass. He claimed to hear Irene crying out as he left, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. By the time fight returned from church that afternoon, Irene was dead. Later that night, on Easter Sunday, fight placed Irene's body in his car and moved her to the canals where he left her.

Takenie said that when fight described the crime to him, he showed no remorse, sorrow or grief over the act. Oh my God. That is insane. Also, it was planned. And also, like, he's literally leaving a girl in a basement tied up with her blouse open to go here your confessions. Which is so like the most hypocritical thing I've ever heard of.

And then leaving her in a bathtub walking out hearing her say, I can't breathe, I can't breathe for her to die while he goes and gives a mass. Also who knows how many other people he's done this to? Right. Maybe not killed them, but it's actually assaulted. So when Takenie asked how he had gotten away with his crime, fight admitted that higher ups in the church had protected him to safeguard their own reputation. No way. For decades, Takenny felt a religious obligation to keep the priests confession

as secret considering that other higher ups had as well. But in 2001, Takenny said things changed for him. He was approached by a writer who wanted to pen a book about his life. And Takeney realized that this information shouldn't be exposed through his memoir. It needed to be told to the police. Wow. Dale Takeney wasn't the only valuable witness. How Mario tracked down though. Would he get in trouble because he's kept it a secret so long? Or I assume he said, look, I'll tell you everything if

we come to a deal that. I'm sure. I mean, he could probably get charged with obstructing of justice, getting involved with the case, but I don't think he did. So the detective locates another priest who'd worked with fight at the Sacred Heart Church the weekend Irene went missing. His name was Father O'Brien. He was the same priest who had noticed a suspicious scratch marks on fight's hands,

the once he claimed he got by scaling the walls. Well, it turns out that Father O'Brien was so suspicious of fight that weekend that he and another priest actually searched the rectory for Irene once they heard she was missing. Only they found no sign of her. How did he get out of there with not one other person seeing him? It's kind of crazy. Yeah, that seems impossible. But like Del Takenny, O'Brien didn't go to the cops because of this unspoken protection that he was seemingly granted to anyone inside the church. O'Brien did, however, say that back in 1960,

he'd confronted fight to ask him what had happened to Irene. And fight confessed to father O'Brien. He had in fact killed Irene and that's when they sent fight off to the monastery. That's insane. That's insane. That's not okay. Right.

That is not okay. So with O'Brien's account confirming a lot of what Takne had said, Hama Rio thinks he's got a strong case on his hands. I think it's even pretty crazy as well that instead of we like releasing him completely, they sent him somewhere to continue to practice. Yes, like, yeah. Like, oh, we can quote unquote fix you,

whatever you want to call it. Yes. Like, did you just, killed one of the questioners? Yes, he just saved someone and killed them. Yeah. After attacking another. Like the worst thing you can do. So it's a very least they feel like they have enough to arrest on fight who is now 70 years old. Mind you. Only the Hadogeo County District Attorney, a man named Renee Gwera thinks the case

doesn't stand a chance in court. What? Yes. Guera doubts Takenese account, saying it's possible he made the whole thing up since Takenese himself was excommunicated from the church, forgetting married before he'd formally left the priesthood. Oh, so we'll excommunicate someone for getting married, but... Not for murder. If you kill someone, now you're good.

Guera also claims that O'Brien's case won't be admissible in court because the conversations he had with fight during his pre-stud was privileged. Okay, and I want to clarify here, Garrett and I aren't dissing the Catholic Church by any means or dissing these specific people who covered up a crime and made these choices. The truth is, it seems like not much has changed in Hedoggo County over the last four decades because they're still kind of like, and that was player-billage information. We're not going to use it against him. People like wearer are still hesitant to prosecute a man of God, especially without any physical evidence, and especially with

a case this old. Inevitably, Guera says he won't be presenting the case to the grand jury, which means Irene Garza's case goes cold again. At least until Guera leaves his post as DA and is replaced by a man named Rick Rodriguez in 2015. That year Rodriguez takes his seat as the new county DA. One of his first orders of business is to finally get justice for the Garza family. But time hasn't made that easy. Father O'Brien, one of their last

remaining witnesses died back in 2005. Just three years after the case had been reopened originally and Dell Takney is now 87 years old. John Fight is also still alive at 83 years old living in the Scottsdale, Arizona area. He's

now a grandfather. They've lived their life. Yes. He's lived his life. Still, this doesn't stop Rodriguez from moving forward with the case. He brings it before a grand jury in this time. Fight is indicted for his crimes. In February 2016, he's finally arrested in Arizona and extradited back to Texas for a trial. In March, the 83-year-old fight enters the courtroom using a walker and pleads not guilty to the murder of Irene Garza. By this point, fight is also riddled with stage 3 kidney and bladder cancer. So there's questions as to whether he'll even go on to see the verdict. Aside from Del Takne, one of the witnesses called to the stand is Irene's childhood friend,

Anna Marie Hollingsworth. She recalls a conversation she had with Irene just before she disappeared that Easter weekend. Allegedly, Irene had told Anna Marie that she didn't like going to confession anymore because fight always pulled her out of the booth, saying the space wasn't good enough for her. Apparently, he had taken her to the factory a few times before that day to hear her confession,

which was something that made Irene uncomfortable. While Irene was confused about fights insistence on the matter, she always went, though, because it was his instruction. After all, this was a priest. She had no reason to feel unsafe or threatened by a man of God. During the trial, the prosecution also offers up evidence that proves a deal was struck between law enforcement, local officials, and the church to keep fights crime and secrets. The evidence comes in the form of a letter from October 1960, one that was sent between clergy officials.

It expresses concerns particularly over John F. Kennedy's presidential election that year. It basically says, if the church is found to be tied up in a murder, it could jeopardize Kennedy, a Catholic man, and his chances of becoming president. Wow, it's a Z. I just thought so ironic that at the beginning you said, yeah, you could even be our own president.

And now that's literally part of the reason they covered it up. So in order to protect Kennedy, as well as another local Catholic sheriff that was also up for re-election that year, the DA made a deal. If fight pled guilty to assaulting Maria America, Guarra, they would look the other way when it came to Irene Garza's death, which is exactly what happened. The church agreed, and as part of it, sent fight away to monastery for rehabilitation. That letter seemed to be all the evidence that Jury needed, because in December 2017, they found John Fight now 85 guilty of murder.

He was sentenced to life in prison. Fight was eligible for parole in 2024, but in February 2020, he was found unresponsive in his cell. John Fight's cause of death was said to be cardiac arrest. The most heartbreaking part is, Irene Garza went to church on that holy Saturday with her whole life still ahead of her. Her journey was cut off too soon, by a man she should have been able to trust in a place she should have felt safe.

Instead Irene Garza and the entire community of McAllen were betrayed, but her story was not in vain. Her case has helped to expose a dark corner of the Catholic Church, one that is often riddled in cover-ups, corruption, and its own personal agenda. Thanks to Irene, organizations like bishopsaccountability.org are continuing to fight for justice for those that have been wronged by the Catholic clergy abuse crisis.

And that is the case of Irene Garza. It's sad that you think you're sending, you know, you think your kids are going to somewhere safe and they aren't. Whether, you know, it's a church, whether it's a daycare school or all, you know, all these places where kids are supposed to be safe. Yeah. And they just, it's part of the reason we see people pretend to be cops and pull people over. And then that's how they attack them or pretend to be doctors.

I mean, there's just, there should be this level of trust. Or teachers getting in trouble. You know, there's this level of authority and trust that's so abused. And I also find it interesting that he got married, had kids and like lived a life without doing, I mean, who knows if he was sexually assaulting anyone, but you know what I'm saying?

He just like went on. Yeah, just went on. Like, which I tend to not believe. I think there is probably other stuff going on. Even if it wasn't like full killing somebody. Yeah, or sexual assaults. He was most likely making women fill uncomfortable. It's not a good person. It's a common thing we see. Yeah. And because he was, he was making Irene fill uncomfortable before even murdered her. She obviously confided in a friend saying, I'm really uncomfortable when I go in for a confession

because he always pulls me out. So it's just heartbreaking. And it's also completely unfair that he got to go on live his life. It's shit married, have kids, have grandchildren and she did. Yeah, I'm a great one. Alright you guys, that is our case for this week and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

And I hate it. Goodbye. you