True Crime All The Time - Irene Garza

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

25-year-old Irene Garza was a Texas beauty queen and schoolteacher whose murder remained unsolved for more than 50 years. Irene was last seen going into confession at her church, leading police to question the priest who was the last person to see Irene alive.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the murder of Irene Garza. The priest, John Feit, was questioned by the police at the time, but nothing ever came from it. It wasn't until the 2000s that details began to emerge about the culprit, and there were some startling revelations. A cover-up was uncovered that spanned from the church to the authorities charged with solving Irene's murder.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 462 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in True Crime, Mike Gibson. Give me, how are you? Hey, I'm doing good. How about you? I am doing really well compared to the last two weeks with my back and stuff. I feel like I'm getting back to normal. That's good.

Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Michelle. Hey, Michelle. Sally Goodman. Goodman. I like that name. Shirley Catherine Zyce. Hey, Zikes.

Alyssa Metcalf. Hey, Matt Claph. Metclath. Yeah. Danielle Hill. What's going on, Daniel? Alicia Ramirez. Hey, Ramirez.

Bronwyn Evans jumped out of our highest level. Thanks, Bronwyn. Melissa Jansen. What's going on, Janssen? And last for not least, Jan and Moody. Well, thanks, Moody. And then if we go back into the vault. This week, we selected Cora Ryerson.

Thanks, Kora. You know, when you or I mess up somebody's name, I actually think they prefer that. They seem to like that more. You think? Yeah, it's like a badge of honor when you get your name messed up on TCAT, I think. You mess them up a lot. I do. You never do.

No, no, no. So we have a new Patreon episode that just dropped Saturday night. It's on 20-year-old Karina Mullen, who was brutally attacked and murdered in 1987 in Kentucky, they had a primary suspect. And it was Karina's boyfriend, but he was acquitted. Yeah. A year later. Then the case went cold for a long time until a confidential informant came forward

claiming to know exactly what happened. So if you're on Patreon, make sure you check that out. If you're not, now's a great time to sign up. We also have a brand new episode out right now on True Crime All the Time Unsolved, where we're discussing 17-year-old Randy Leach, who was reported. missing in 1988 after he failed to come home from a high school party. And there are a lot of rumors in this case. From, you know, drug deals gone wrong, satanic cult rituals.

We'll dive into all of it. All right, buddy, are you ready for this episode of true crime all the time? I am. We are talking about Irene Garza. 25-year-old Irene Garza was a Texas beauty queen and school teacher whose murder remained unsolved for more than 50 years. Irene was last seen going into confession at her church, leading police to question the priest, who was the last person to see Irene alive?

Wow. Did you ever go in confession, by the way? Are you asking me if I've been telling your secrets? No, I have not been. Irene Garza was born on November 15, 1934. She grew up in McCallin, Texas. She was well liked by her peers and was a distinguished. student at McCallin High, she was the school's first Hispanic twirler and head drum majorette.

And I've always been fascinated by these people who can do the twirling, you know, throwing it really high up in the air, catching it, doing all the intricate moves. It's pretty fun to watch. Irene was the first in her family to attend college and graduate school. At Pan American College, Irene was crowned Homecoming Queen. In 1958, she won Miss All South Texas sweetheart. Wow. Yeah.

So, I mean, you're talking some, you know, prestigious stuff there. Irene was a second grade teacher at Thigpin Elementary. She loved her job and was devoted to her students. She used part of her salary to buy supplies and clothes for the children. I know that doesn't fall too far from the tree for you. No. Over the years, which there have been many, my wife's been teaching for, you know, 20 plus years, we have spent a lot of our own money to buy supplies

and clothes for, you know, children in a number of her classes. You know, when you see a second grader, a fourth grader come to school in the middle of January with no coat, that's just something that you can't live with. No, it's hard to, hard to look at that. So she's going right out to whatever, Burlington Coat Factory and she's buying coats. That's just. just what she does. Irene was a devout Catholic. She went to confession every Saturday and attended Mass every Sunday. Irene was a beautiful young woman and it was said that young men went to church just so they could run into her. Wow. It says something right? Yeah, well, you know, she's winning beauty pageants. So it makes sense that she was a beautiful woman and, you know, men were drawn to her.

I never had anybody go to my church back in the day to run into me. Well, how many beauty pageants have you won? A zero. Well, maybe that has something to do with it. In the spring of 1960, Irene was in a good place. In April, she wrote to a friend that she was much happier than I've ever been. She wrote that she was seeing two men, but she wondered if she'd ever get over her ex-boyfriend. Some people just can't get over their exes.

for some, that's a hard thing to do. Irene also wrote that she was elected secretary of the PTA. In her words, this may 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. Irene also wrote about her faith. She said, remember the last time we talked, I told you I was afraid of death. Well, I think I'm cured. You see, I've been going to communion in mass daily.

And you can't imagine the courage and faith and happiness. It has given. Sounds like she's got some confidence. Yeah. And it really does. Sound like she is in a good place. She's a very happy person. On April 16th, 1960, the day before Easter, Irene visited Sacred Heart Catholic Church

and McCallin to go to confession. She left home in her family's car around 6.30 p.m., promising she, she'd be back soon. A parishioner saw Irene crossing herself as she entered church. Another saw her kneeling by herself in a pew. A third recalled Irene asking if she could step ahead of her in the confession line because she was running late. Others said she stepped out of line as if she was leaving. Irene's father reported her missing on Easter Sunday after she failed to come home. Her car was found parked down the street from the church. Irene's parents and investigators spoke to 27-year-old father John Fyte, a visiting priest.

Fyte had recently finished seminary training in San Antonio and was completing a year of pastoral training with his order. The missionary obelates of Mary Immaculate. Preritioners thought Fyte was polite, but aloof and a bit of a loner. Fyte said he took Irene's confession in the rectory of Sacred Heart the night before. at the time a face-to-face confession would be highly unusual. You always thought they were side by side in those little boxes. Yeah, there's a reason for the boxes and the kind of obscuring of the faces and all that. I always thought you needed to have like a little voice box thing though too, right?

Because if you go to the same church. Somebody's going to recognize your voice. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. But what this meant was that father fight was one of the last people to see Irene before she went missing. Two days after Irene went missing, one of her shoes was found by the side of the road. Her purse was found up the road. And then on April 21st, Irene's body was found face down in an irrigation canal in McCallin. She was fully dressed except for her shoes and underwear. Her blouse had been unbuttoned.

Irene's autopsy revealed that she was raped while unconscious, beaten and suffocated. Her face was badly bruised and she had two black eyes. The state of decomposition suggested she'd been dead for a little less than four days, raising the possibility that she was held captive for up to a day. According to CNN, detectives drained the canal a couple of weeks later and found a green Kodak slide view and a candelabra from Sacred Heart. So no doubt, I mean, we're painting a very disturbing scene here. And it was, right?

This was a vicious murder. On top of that, Irene was sexually assaulted. You have this father, John Fyte, who was, you know, most likely the last person to have seen her alive. But then they find this Kodak slide viewer and a candelabra that was said to be from the church. There could be some potentially valuable clues in that. Possibly. Authorities turned to the public, asking for help and identifying the owner of the slide viewer. Two days later, Father John Fyke wrote a note admitting it was his.

But he didn't explain how it wound up in the canal. Okay. Hey, hey, that's mine. Give it back. Well, and here's a guy who was already on police radar. But he became a stronger suspect. When police learned, he was suspected of attacking another woman three weeks before Irene was killed. On March 23rd, 1960, 20-year-old Maria America Guerra was attacked inside Sacred Heart Church in Edinburgh,

about 12 miles from Sacred Heart in McCowne. In the late afternoon, Maria noticed a man in a blue and white car, watching her outside the church. Once inside, she saw a young man with dark hair and horn-rimmed glasses sitting alone in one of the pews. She told police, as quoted by Texas Monthly, the thought that it was the same man I saw earlier entered my mind. But being in the house of God, I dismissed any thoughts of fear of fallow. play. I went to the altar and knelt at the communion rail to pray my rosary. And that's when the man grabbed her from behind and tried to put a rag over her mouth. She bit down on his fingers until she drew blood. He threw her to the wall and she ran outside. And Maria picked John Fyte out of a

police lineup. Wow. Father Fyte had visible scratches on the backs of his hands when he was photographed. Father Joseph O'Brien, the assistant pastor of Sacred Heart Church, had also noticed the scratches shortly after Irene Garza disappeared. But Fight said he was locked out of his home and scratched his hands while trying to climb in through a window. So, you know, things aren't looking good for Father Fight. Not at all. Last one to see Irene alive. You have him admitting this Kodak slide viewer was.

his. And then they learn he had attacked another woman just weeks before Irene went missing. Kind of setting up a little bit of an M.O. for him. Yeah. But you really can't say enough about Maria, right? She's attacked. She fights back. She draws blood. She's able to get away. Now, my question is how much did father fight if he was involved in Irene's disobey? appearance, learn from this failed attempt. Hey, I'm going to do things differently because this didn't work out. Yeah. And maybe there was other attempts in between. Yeah, because that's a common question that comes up. We just happened to know about this one. How many others were there? Fai had his first formal interview with police in May 1960. At first, he gave different stories

about where Irene gave her confession, but he eventually said he heard it in the rectory, next to the church. He and Irene left the rectory between 7.15 and 7.20 p.m. Afterwards, he heard more confessions for several hours in the sanctuary and returned to the rectory twice for a smokebark. He said he accidentally broke his glasses because he had a nervous habit of playing around with them

while hearing confession. At 10 p.m. he drove to his residence in the pastoral house in San Juan. About five miles away to get his spare glasses. He was locked out of the house. Father Fyte said, because of this, I had to make my entrance through a second floor balcony, propping up a wooden roadblock or barricade against the side of the house and climbing it in this fashion. While entering the house in this way, I scraped the back of my right hand slightly. in the index finger and middle finger of my left hand more severely on the brick wall.

Well, either that happened or he rehearsed exactly what he wanted to say to cover himself. Or he sustained these injuries and then had to come up with something, right, to explain them away. Faiat said he was troubled when he learned the woman he talked to in the rectory. He'd gone missing. He was busy on Easter Sunday. He did two morning masses, a late afternoon. noon mass and two baptisms. In the evening, he returned to church to pick up his suit and collar. A priest asked him if he would speak to Irene's parents, who had arrived at the church.

According to fight, they wanted to know if I had perhaps said anything, which might have upset or disturbed their daughter. I replied in the negative. My talk with the girl's parents had disturbed me. Perhaps I had said something unintentionally that might have upset this girl. At any, At any rate, it seemed that no one had seen or heard from her since she left the rectory that Saturday night. Since she talked to me, I was worried and drove around aimlessly for a while. But Fight never did explain how his slide view got in the canal where Irene's body was found. Yeah, I think you would want to tell the police.

Well, it was here, and then I came in and it was gone. or I lent it to her so she had it in her possession or one day I was driving around and I tossed it into that area. But it's not just a slide viewer, right? This candelabra is pretty interesting as well. It is. If I was brought in again the next day for questioning, regarding the Maria Aguera case,

he acknowledged stopping by Sacred Heart in Edinburgh on March 23rd to talk to a priest. He said he entered the sanctuary and knelt in a back pew to say the rosary. He also admitted he was driving a blue and white car, but insisted he left Edinburgh at least an hour before the attack. He went to the pastoral house in San Juan in time to ring the 5.30 p.m. bell. However, several priests later said, fight didn't return in time to ring the bell and that his finger was not injured until the night of the attack. Fight had said the day before he went to Edinburgh, he got his finger caught in a mimiochre machine. Oh, a mimelograph.

Something you don't hear about at all, right, anymore. Do you want to explain for the folks, Gibbs, what a mimeograph machine was back in the day? I don't know if we have time for me to go into the details of that. Too technical. Too technical. It would take too long. Yes. I mean, basically it was an early copy.

machine. Yeah, right before the Ditto machine. Do you remember Dittos? I don't know if you're saying it correctly, but no, I don't. I'm pretty sure. I mean, this was before my time, but I thought a mimeograph was like an early device to copy something. Yeah. The priest recalled that Fight was wearing the same clothes. Maria said her attacker was wearing. I mean, there was just nothing looking good for this guy. No, it looks from the surface, he's guilty. Well, other than the fact that he's a priest, and I think by and large, priests are going to get the benefit of the doubt more so than many other people. Yeah, that's true, especially back in 1960.

Yeah. On June 9th, 1960, Fight underwent a lie detector test. The police report noted per CNN. In their opinion, Fight was responding in a manner that would, indicate beyond doubt that he was concealing facts and had guilty knowledge. On August 5th, 1960, authorities filed assault with intent to rape charges against John Fyte in the Maria Guerra case. A warrant was issued on August 6th, but fight was nowhere to be found. He surrendered a week later. He issued a statement at the time saying is quoted by CBS, I am innocent of the charge for which I

have been indicted. I'm not a fugitive, nor have I been a fugitive. I'm hiding from nobody because I have nothing to hide. Well, that says that. Does it? That says that. Okay. That's one of the more profound things, I think you've ever said. I'll put that on a bumper sticker. Faii claimed he checked into an out-of-state hospital because his nervous system was affected by the stress of his legal troubles. He said, I wanted to try and get some rest and peace of mind, I felt that I could not take it anymore. Fight later told police he developed a fear of women around that time. Church records show that in August 1960, fight spent two weeks in the Alexian Brothers Hospital and dispensary,

a church-run medical center in St. Louis. The church soon made a second request to send Fight back to Alexian Brothers in a later dated September 15, 1960, missionary obelates of Mary Immaculate, official Reverend John A. Haley, wrote, We are sincerely grateful for your past gracious handling of our good father fight, and we assure you that taking him in on the same conditions, as previously will in no way jeopardize the good name of your institution or bring it any detrimental publicity.

I think the mere fact that you have to say that means that there's something going on with this guy. I mean, that's the way I look at it. You know, anytime you get a letter from somebody saying, hey, good luck with this person. I'm sure they're do you a fantastic job. They're just the best. They're thinking, I don't know. Seems a little over the top. A year later, fight was back in court, standing trial for the assault and attempting.

rape of Maria Guerra. On September 15th, 1961, the case ended in a hung jury. And I just wonder, Gibbs, how much of that had to do with the fact that this guy was a priest. I'm sure it had something to do with it for sure. Because like you said, in 1960, I think people would have placed a lot of faith in that position. And there could have been, jury members who thought, there's no way this guy could have done this. He's a man of the claw. And they might have felt guilty if they would go against him. As though they might anger the man upstairs.

Yes. In February 1962, five months after trial, Fyte was sent to Dubuque, Iowa to stay in the new Meloray Abbey, a monastery. In a February 8th, 1962 letter from John Fyke, to Father Seidel, his superior with the OMI. Fight wrote, I'm happy to be here and know in my heart that the atmosphere of peace and quiet will be most conducive to both spiritual growth and rest. New Mel Ray is mostly isolated and the monks don't spend much time speaking, so it would be a good

place for fight to avoid gossip about his legal troubles and his suspected involvement in the murder of Irene Garza. And that was my first thought. It was like, we got to ship this guy somewhere where he's not going to be talking to anybody. Yeah. Get him out of the spotlight. Unfortunately, it has come out over the years that some churches have done the exact

same thing with some of their priests who have turned out to be predators. Yeah. Shipped them off. According to Thomas Doyle, a priest who served. as an expert witness and clergy abuse cases, he would be there, have no access to the outside world. They're like maximum security monasteries. And it was not uncommon.

If a priest was going to be punished, they'd send them there. And why would that be? Right. The church doesn't like to have their name solid. They don't. And I think a lot of what went on over the years was because of that. Terry McKearinen, founder of Bishop Accountability, an archive and research organization that monitors abuse within the Catholic Church, told 48 hours, when a priest gets into trouble, then the moving

begins. Some people call it the geographic solution. It was for many years, the standard way for abuse allegations to be handled. And that's kind of what we were talking about, right? And these moves were usually documented via letters. However, Reverend Stephen Verbest, vocation director at New Melray, for over 60 years, told 48 hours he had no memory of fight being there

or any records reflecting his stay. Verbest also said that visiting priests with troubles such as alcoholism would sometimes stay for extended periods at the monastery guest house where no records were kept. Well, it's interesting to have. conflicting information then?

Well, he said he has no records, but that, you know, if a priest was in there for, let's say, alcoholism, maybe a record wouldn't be kept. We don't know what pretense Father Fyte was sent in there on. Well, that's true. Fight returned to Texas in March 1962. On March 28th, he pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of aggravated assault. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine. His defense team at the time stressed that his no contest plea was not an admission of guilt.

So I have a couple of problems here. First of all, reducing the charge to aggravate assault. Now, maybe that was because they didn't think they could get a conviction. But he essentially walked away from this having only to pay a fine. That just doesn't seem right to. me. That's disturbing, actually. Darrell Davis, a TV reporter covering the case for Channel 5 News, would later testify that he and other journalists were called to an off-the-record meeting with DA Robert

Latimore. According to Davis's testimony, Latimore said prosecutors and church officials. New fight killed Irene Garza. But in exchange for a plea in the Maria Guerra case, he would not be prosecuted for murder. Davis told him, 48 hours, he said verbatim. We know that Father Fyke killed Irene Garza. And the church knows that he killed Irene Garza. So we have made some arrangements. He said the church is going to put him in a monastery and he'll be kept there for the rest of his life. It's like they had so much power back then. And too much people would say. Yeah, that they could make these type of negotiations and arrangements.

And make what were really heinous acts essentially go away. Yeah. After the plea, Fight returned to the monastery in Iowa. Now, it's unclear exactly how long he stayed there, but his writing suggests he was still there in June 1962. And a letter typed on New Melray Letterhead.

On June 19th, 1962, Fight wrote, the time has come to make some definite decisions, enabling me to begin a regular and ordered life with definite goals and a definite aim in life. By the beginning of 1963, the church had moved fight to the Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri. This was where John Fight met Dale Tackney, who was serving as novice master at the monastery training New Perspective Monks. According to a 2002 interview transcript with Tachanee, his superior told him to counsel fight. He said that Father Fyte had murdered a young woman.

There were no other details given. And apparently Tackany counseled Fight for over six months. During that time, Fyt admitted to attacking a young woman after her confession, keeping her captive overnight and leaving her to suffocate. She was eventually dumped in a canal. Now. Fight also spoke of a proclivity for wanting to attack women from behind, which was triggered by the sound of their high heels clicking. Interesting. Very. And I don't know if that speaks to a high heel fetish. If it goes back to his childhood, mother issues, I have no idea. But if this is true, what, you know, this guy, Tackney said, it seems like. everyone was aware that he had killed Irene Garza. By late 1963, Tacheney and his superior

determined fight wasn't suited to be a monk and could go back out into the world. Fight enrolled as a graduate student in philosophy at Loyola College in Chicago. He attended school from September 63 to January 1964. Now, why would they determine that this guy was not suited to be a monk. Because he wasn't a good guy. Possibly because he had killed a woman and had a proclivity for attacking women from behind. He didn't have the temperament to be a monk.

He didn't have the temperament to be a member of society. Well, that's true. That's true. Let alone a monk. And why do they get to decide that he can go back with general population? Well, my only thought is that they're still trying to, to protect the church. It does seem to me that that was a pretty, you know, high goal for the church back in the day.

Almost at all costs. Yeah. I think, you know, in some examples we've seen, you know, that movie spotlight, which is a great movie. It was. Kind of really drills down. It did. On the links that were gone to to hide some abuse. By the end of 1964,

fight moved west to Jimenez Springs, New Mexico, to a facility run by a Catholic religious order called the Servants of the Paraclyte. It was founded in 1947 by Father Gerald Fitzgerald's as a monastery for troubled priests. Fitzgerald was soon overloaded with priests who had, quote, unquote,

sexual problems. Yikes. According to AW Richard Sipe, a former monk, priest, and expert in sexual abuse behavior of priests, it eventually came out that children were involved. Sipe later testified for the prosecution in Fights case. Former priest and victim advocate Patrick J. Wall described the facility as a supermax because it was a last resort for troubled priests. Fight spent seven years at Hymez Springs and later,

joined the servants of the pericles. By late 1968, fight had risen to the position of Superior at the facility called Via Coeli, meaning way to heaven in Latin. Gibbs, he was supervising more than 80 priests, one of whom was James Porter from Massachusetts. Porter arrived in 1967,

after multiple complaints of child abuse in Massachusetts. Is this the guy that should be in that position? well what happened to them saying he should just go out into the world he shouldn't even be part of this anymore it sounds to me like he wasn't ready to give up on on being a priest he goes to you know this place that is kind of deemed the last resort for troubled priest and now he's in charge of a whole mess of troubled priests yeah he's uh kind of running a sector that there at the Supermax. Mike Rack, an attorney representing over a dozen of Porter's victims, told 48 hours,

Porter was one of the most dangerous and depraved sexually offensive priests ever. And to be honest with you, that's saying something. Rack added the reality that Mr. Fyke, himself a criminal, was placed in a position of power, supervision and direction of other criminal priests, is a public safety. nightmare. And I would have to agree with that statement. It's like, you know, you had somebody in supermax for multiple murders who somehow, for whatever reason, got let out of prison. And the next day, they hired him to be in charge of the corrections facility. Yeah. Hey, you're the new warden here or junior warden or whatever. Or given some position of power, it just wouldn't happen. Fight worked with

Porter for a year and a half, sometimes releasing him. temporarily to churches in need of staffing, including at least four locations around New Mexico and Texas. And again, here's a guy who was said to be one of the most dangerous and sexually depraved offensive priests ever. And now you're just sending him into places where nobody knows him. What do you think he's going to do? Fight also sent him to a periclese facility in Nevis, Minnesota, where he worked at a neighboring

parish. Fight wrote about Porter, he's a willing worker and gets along well with pastors and people wherever he goes. Thus far, there's been no occurrence of the problem, which plagued Father Porter in the past. Fight later claimed he was unaware of Porter's abuse of children until Porter was already gone. However, you know, to me, him writing that kind of says the opposite. I was thinking the same thing. Porter was arrested over 20 years later and pleaded guilty to molesting 28 children. But he told a reporter Gibbs that he had abused upwards of 100 children. Of course. In 1993, Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison.

He died in 2005. Got off easy. Yeah, and Porter's case and others, right, garnered national attention and investigations, particularly the one by the Boston Globe, which exposed widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. And again, I think that movie spotlight is probably kind of based on that. I think they were at the Boston Globe. They were definitely in Boston.

They were. By 1971, Father Fight requested lacization and dispensation from his obligations as a priest. Okay. That is a word I have never heard of. Laisization. By 1972, he had married a woman from New Mexico and started a family. He worked multiple jobs, including as an insurance salesman. So he is out of the religious order. He's no longer a priest. He's married, starting a family, working a regular job. A productive citizen now.

Allegedly. Yeah. He settled in Phoenix in 1979. where his older brother, Matthias, was living and working as a priest. Fight remained in Arizona, raised his family, even became a grandfather. He eventually got a job at a food bank. The community viewed him as a compassionate person with love for those less fortunate. So, you know, either he was putting on one heck of a show, or it's possible that as he grew older, he changed. He did turn his life around, which is a good thing.

It is. But it doesn't absolve you of something that you did in your past. So as we go back to Irene Garza's case, it had been unsolved for years. Many and her family suspected there was an agreement between the church and authorities, but there was no proof of this. Milo Ponce, a member of Irene's extended family, was a member of. a deputy sheriff signed to the investigation. One day he was taken off the case and asked to turn in his records. His superior said they would handle the investigation. Okay. I think if you're the family

who is already distrustful of the investigation, that is not going to help alleviate any of your concerns. Not at all. Actually, he's going to raise them. According to Texas monthly reporter Pam Cullough, Father Joseph O'Brien, the assistant pastor at Sacred Heart, visited Irene's parents and told them that if the church found father fight guilty, he would face a greater punishment from the church than the courts could ever give. So I'll ask you this, Gibbs, if you're the father of a murdered daughter, and, you know, someone from the church comes and tells you that, what's your thoughts?

Not good. Yeah, for me, that would be, it would be pretty hard to believe. I don't know what punishment you're talking about, but it can't be as serious as what he would get from a court of law. Yeah. What are you going to banish him to another monastery or, you know, something like that? Because that's worked out so well. You're going to defrock him. He's already not even a priest at this point.

In 2002, McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez decided to reopen the investigation. He brought in the cold case unit of the Texas Rangers. Ranger Rudy Jermillo was assigned to Irene's case. I don't know why, but I like the Texas Rangers. I guess it's the mystique. Is it? How long they've been around, all of that. There's nothing to do with all those years you watched Walker.

I never have seen an episode of Walker, Texas. I swear to you, I have not ever. What's to deal with all the posters? Never seen an episode. But yet you have Chuck Norris stuff everywhere. And I think I've walked in here once before when you had your cowboy boots on in your hat, trying to do like kung fu karate,

some type of spin, kick moves. Yeah. Does that sound like something I could get away with? I can barely get out of this chair sometimes. I actually would be worried if I tried that. Yeah, he's like, oh man, you get the squad here now. I know, you might as well call the squad ahead of time if I'm going to attempt something like that. Jeromillo ordered DNA testing on Irene's clothing, but no DNA was found because her body had been in the water for too long.

In the fall of 2002, former monk Dale Takini decided it was time to come forward to report John Fyte's confession. he had kept the secret for almost 40 years. Man, that's, uh, it'd be hard to do, that type of secret. It's a long time. And I can only imagine how much that kind of, you know,

aided him day and day out. He initially spoke to Detective George Seidler from the San Antonio PD. Tackney said in his call, and later in a letter that he had information about a murder, he believed took place around Easter in the early 1960s in San Antonio. He wrote that former priest John Fyke, confess to him during counseling. Although the victim wasn't named, Tackney's letter was very detailed. So Detective Sadler hoped he could link it to a specific case.

He looked at somewhere between 200 to 300 cases, but couldn't find a match. When a Texas Ranger visited Sadler and viewed his list of cases, he noticed one labeled priest case. The Ranger mentioned that his partner was also working on a priest's case and connected him to Ranger Rudy Garumillo. The two men compared notes and concluded that the monk had the wrong city. The victim he was talking about was most likely Irene Garza from McCall. Years later, Tackney would read excerpts of the letter. He wrote to investigators to 48 hours.

He wrote, I covered up the evidence. I'm sorry for what I did. Fight described the victim as a woman in her early 20s. Takeney told 48 hours, after confession, he took her blouse off, he fondled her breasts. And then after that, he took her down to the basement and somehow she remained in the basement. I assume that he tied her up down there. Hours or days later. Takenie didn't recall exactly.

fight moved her from the rectory to another location. The next day when he had to go back to the church for masses, Easter Sunday, I believe it was. And he put her in the bathroom, put her in the tub, put her in a bag or something over her head. But when he was leaving, he heard her say, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. And with that, he shut the door and left. When he came back, he opened the bathroom door and she was dead. And then with the body, he dumped the body. along the road by a canal.

So Gibbs, I know I've said it before, but I have a number of phobias, right? Heights, enclosed spaces. Running out of air is one of those. Yeah, I'm in the same way with that one. I tried to watch a movie with Ryan Reynolds in it. Yeah. And the whole movie takes place with him buried underground in like a casket.

Okay, I heard about that one. Um, it's interesting, but it really brought out some, uh, whew, anxiety. Yeah. In me. And to think that this priest put something over her head knowing that she couldn't breathe and was so callous that he just turned around and closed the door and left. Yeah. Didn't care.

That really tells you a lot or really everything you need to know about. about this guy. Forty eight hours asked Tachney, if he ever wondered why Fyte ended up in the monastery and not in jail, Tachany said he asked Father Fyte this question. And Fyte said, individuals in the church protected him to avoid scandal. He also explained his reasoning for coming forward after so many years. In 2001, an author asked Tachnini if he could write about his life in the priesthood. Takeney realized he shouldn't tell his story to a writer.

He should go to the police. He felt guilty that he could have helped solve the murder years earlier. He said in his 2002 police interview, while I knew that Father Fight had committed the murder, I felt that my primary function with Father Fight was to see if perhaps he ultimately might not have a vocation to become a monk in the monastery. That same year, Father Joseph O'Brien also came for, back in 2000, O'Brien went on a local TV show to talk about the case.

He said the only thing I can think of, looking back, I think maybe we focused too much on the church and her friends. That's all I can think of because I'm telling you, that investigation was thorough. Now he was ready to reveal what he knew. O'Brien told Ranger Yarramillo that he suspected John Fight was involved from the beginning. He thought the scratches on fight's hands were fingernail scratches. He was so suspicious that he and another priest searched the rectory for Irene on Easter Sunday, but they found no sign of her. And apparently during a confrontation in 1960, Fight admitted he killed Irene. Just straight out said, I did it.

But it is a little troubling, right, Gibbs, that so many people seem to know that he killed this woman. And yet they failed to come forward for decades and decades. Because they were protecting the church. Ranger Yarmillow asked Dale Tacheney to call John Fyke in January 2003. Tachanee told Fidey wanted to clear his conscience about the death of a young woman. Fight claimed he didn't remember any of their discussion, saying at the time I was in the monastery. I was pretty much a broken man. Psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, I had.

have no recollection what I may have told you at the time. He maintained that he didn't kill Irene Garza. And what's he going to say? This guy calls you out of the blue many, many years later and just all of a sudden wants to talk about this. I don't know how many people would be like, oh yeah, I remember that. I told you this and this and this. Because you don't know what's being recorded. Well, that's true. I'm sure he was, you know, had his guard up. Renee Guerra, the DA at the time, decided against bringing the case before a grand jury because he didn't think the witnesses were credible. According to 48 hours, Guerra believed it was an untriable case and questioned Tachanee's integrity. He also thought Tachany was unintentionally fed

details by Ranger Yaramillo. Yerimillo denied this and said Tachany gave details to the San Antonio detective months before he ever spoke to him. But Yarr-Mello did later tell Tackney the correct location and date. And I get this, right? You've got some individuals who have what appears to be really good information. But Gibbs, they waited like four decades to come forward. Yeah. I think as the DA, you got to weigh that. You have to at least try to figure out what the jury's going to make of it. Are they going to think these people are credible because they waited so long? After much pushing from Irene's family in March 2004, Guerrera assigned two prosecutors to handle the case.

It was brought before a grand jury, but John Fyte, Joseph O'Brien, and Dale Takeney were never subpoenaed to testify. Grand jurors only saw audio tapes and transcripts. Interesting approach. Well, I don't think it's anywhere near as powerful. And in June 2004, the grand jury declined to indict John Fyke. Key witness, Joseph O'Brien, died in September 2005 at the age of 77. And, you know, that's one of the things, one of the big problems, right? You have in a case that's this old, you have these people who say they have information.

Right. But they're coming forward very late in the game. and some of them die before they're ever able to get up on a stand and testify. In 2014, Ricardo Rodriguez won the election for DA and promised to look into Irene's case. 48 hours covered the case that same year. Correspondent Richard Schlesinger found John Fite in Arizona and confronted him with Dale Tachan's admission. Fight denied killing Irene and said, Dale is full of shit.

Not really what you expect a priest or a former priest to say. Right. 83-year-old John Fyte was arrested in charge with murder on February 9th, 2016. The case was presented to a grand jury a week earlier. Fight was taken for questioning at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Phoenix. He was questioned by a Texas Ranger and a detective from the McAllen Police Department. When presented with the arrest warrant, Fyte said, I've been questioned extensively about this dating back to 1960,

so I'm disappointed but not surprised. John Fyte's trial started on November 30th, 2017. The prosecution argued that after hearing Irene's confession, Fight lured her into the rectory, assaulted, and killed her. ADA Mike Garza, no relation to Irene, told the jury that a deal was made between police and Catholic church officials to protect John Fyte from prosecution and allow the church hierarchy

to discipline the priest under its own terms. According to CBS, most elected officials in Hidalgo County at the time were Catholic and Senator John F. Kennedy, also Catholic, was running for president that year. Garza said in court, the institution who is in the business

of seeking salvation for others was complicit in covering up this murder. And that just seems like bad business. It does, but it seems like it was pretty common throughout the years. I know. And that's part of the problem, right? Whether in this case, it had something to do with a murder. You know, more often we're talking about sexual abuse, right, by the hands of a priest or something like that that's covered up. That's like, you know, the place that you work at, the place I used to work at,

okay, you're working for me. Right. You kill somebody in the parking lot. Yeah. I see it. But I work out somehow, a deal with the police that the organization is going to discipline you. Yeah. Rather than you make your way through the courts. That makes no sense to me at all. But yet, that's how the podcast started. It is. It is. And I, regret some of it. Fight was later allowed to rise to a position of authority overseeing troubled priests who were released to the public. I think that's a mistake too.

Yeah, I think it was, and we talked about it. In the lead up to the trial, prosecutor's subpoenaed records from Fyte's former religious order, the missionary obelets of Mary Immaculate, inside the file was a typed letter from Father J.F. Pollacky to the head of the southern region of the, the OMI, Father Lawrence Seidel. The letter was dated August 1st, 1960. The letter didn't mention fight by name, but Father Policki wrote of advice. He received from the sheriff. He wrote Father Seidel. Last week, I had the opportunity of speaking with the sheriff about the case. His observations are not only keen and based upon much experience in such matters, but seemed to

be the course we should follow. I gave this same set of observations. The bishop, Riker, and he too is impressed with the sameness and the practicality of the sheriff's conclusions. He wrote, what to do of all this. First, the sheriff said that we should follow the idea of not hiring a lawyer for the reasons given by Father Nash. Second, we should not put a detective on the case hired by us, since that would mean he would be snooping around, re-questioning witnesses, and stirring up things again. However, he does feel that we, we should hire a person, something like a first-class private detective who would be able to sit down with Father Nash to get all the information on this case, then let him write it up and present it on

paper in such a way as to highlight the loopholes that are so numerous in this case. Once this is done, arrange a meeting with the police chief of McCown, the prosecuting attorney, and the sheriff, plus four priests. At this meeting, the whole situation is brought out. And the prosecutor, will be able to see how strong the opposition is to their charges. They can also be brought to realize in a nice way that the church will not take this sitting down. I mean, they are really conspiring behind the scene. They are. But also in cooperation with the sheriff somehow.

Like he's giving them advice on how to handle this. And it just seems so wrong. And dirty. Yeah. The whole thing seems dirty to me. And the letter was a lot longer than that. I couldn't read the whole thing. But the prosecution called this letter a smoking gun in the theory of a conspiracy between the church and authorities. And I mean, how could you not? Thomas Doyle, an expert witness and clergy abuse testified at trial. If it became known that this priest had murdered someone, it would be bad publicity for the church. Where in fact, the truth. scandal in my professional estimation is engineering the cover up or not allowing or permitting or insisting that this man follow the course of justice. That's the scandal. Oh, absolutely. Because let's face it, you can have rogue elements of any organization that may do something illegal. You acknowledge it. You move on. That person gets dealt with by

the courts and the authorities. But to cover something like that up, I think it is scandalous. The jury also heard from Irene's friend Beatrice Garcia, who testified that in the weeks before Irene was murdered, John Fyde asked to photograph her at a cemetery. Okay, it seems creepy. It does.

Irene's friend Maria Hollingsworth testified that Irene visited her in April 1960 and spoke about a new priest at church whom she thought was handsome. The priest pulled Irene out of confession. According to Hollingsworth, she said, it's not the same going to confession anymore. Because I don't get to stay in the confessional. He comes to pull me out and says, oh, this place isn't good enough for you. Let's go to the rectory where you'll be more comfortable.

And then they walk off and go to the rectory. He's a predator. Yeah, and there's no doubt. He was infatuated with Irene Garza. Now, at the same time, she told her friend, you know, she thought he was handsome. But she also knew he was a priest. So she probably thought there was very little danger there. Yeah, I could see that.

Former reporter Darrell Davis testified about the off-the-record meeting between reporters in the DA in 1962, where the DA said they knew fight had killed Irene. And he would be sent to a monastery. Dale Tackney testified that his superiors at the monastery told him Father Fide had killed someone and asked him to determine whether he was fit for life as a monk. I would say, it's not even a possibility. How can you be a monk and represent what monks represent if you killed somebody? But the cover up, right? The links and all of the people that were involved from the. the sheriff to the DA and it seems like all these people knew about it, but they were either

okay or were pressured by the church to the point where they, they let them take care of it. Fight told Tachany that he had a penchant for attacking young women in heels. Fight said, I get anxious when I hear click, click, click, click, when I hear the heels on a hard concrete floor. But Fight expressed no remorse. when he confessed to killing Irene, according to Tachanee, Fight said three things,

helped him avoid prison, the church, law enforcement, and the rules of sealed confession. Whenever they get close to anything, he would say confessional secrecy. Tackany testified that he didn't initially report the crime because it wasn't my place to make a judgment.

He tried to counsel fight to change his behavior towards women. And I get it, right? We're not supposed to judge people. But when a person comes out and admits to you that they killed a young woman, I don't think you're making a judgment as much as you are doing the right thing. And he was not remorseful. It goes back to your point of, you know, how many times maybe had he done this before that we don't know about or the church knew about and covered those up?

as well. Sure. And again, I don't want to bag on the church here, but there's no doubt that they were part of the cover up in this case. Oh, they stated in the letters. Yeah. Yeah. The defense argued Takenai was fed information and suggested he was upset at the church. They also noted that he was approached to write a book about his life. But Takenie said he rejected the offer because part of that story was my relationship with father fight. Defense attorney Renee Flores told 48 hours to sit here and believe that Dale Takney received this information from John at the time and according to his testimony was not moved in one way or another because he quote was not there to judge to believe that and then fast forward 40 some odd years when he came up and says

I was moved because I wanted to bring closure to the family we got a word for that in Texas bullshit yeah we have that same word here yeah we do that's not not just the Texas word, but I do get what the person is saying, right? You didn't do the right thing back then. So why are we now to believe that you're being truthful when you say you want to do the right thing now? Because part of the defense job is to poke holes in this man's character. That's true. Just make him look as bad as possible. Tachney later acknowledged some of the details he presented as fact were assumptions based on what Fight told him. McCallin police chief Victor Rodriguez testified about Fights's two signed statements from May

in June 1960. He denied ever meeting Irene in his first statement, but in the second, he acknowledged hearing her confession on the night she went missing. Rodriguez believed Fight was deceitful. He also found it disturbing that Fight made half a dozen trips from the pastoral house in San Juan to Sacred Heart on the day Irene went missing. His excuses included broken glasses, forgotten clothing, and soiled laundry. Hmm.

That's interesting. Which part, the part that he may or may not have shat himself? Exactly. On December 7, 2017, 85-year-old John Fy was found guilty of the murder of Irene Garza. He was sentenced to life in prison the following day. 85, how long is that going to be? Well, nowhere near as long as it should have been. Exactly.

Right? If he would have been charged, convicted back in the, in 60 or the early 60s, that would have been a more fitting sentence. On February 11, 2020, John Fight was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead at the hospital. The preliminary cause of death was cardiac. arrest. Fight was in the process of appealing his life sentence. Prosecutor said his death would not affect his conviction. Dale Takany died a month prior to fight. He was 90 years old. So, you know, getting back to

how long is that going to be, it was about three years. He served about three years before he died. Yeah, not very long. Not for, you know, killing a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. And, you know, for me, part of the travesty is that, you know, this man got to live out his life. However, that life played out. He was a free man, whereas Irene Garza lost her life. And her family lost out on, you know, watching her grow and being with her at holidays and all of that stuff. And I think that's what, you know, upsets me about this. case the most. Yes, there's the cover up. And it's not just the church, right? We're talking about

law enforcement being involved, the DA, really basically knowing that this guy killed her. There's a lot of hands in on this one. There was. Now, how much of that was due to pressure by the church? I'm sure a lot of it. Yeah. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do the right thing. And there were a number of people in this instance that chose not to do the right thing. So as we wrapped this one up, Gibbs, although investigators had identified their suspect within days of Irene Garza's murder, it took over 50 years to bring him to justice. Despite showing a history of violent behavior towards women, he continued working as a priest for many years. In this case is notable because investigators exposed a corrupt priest and an alleged cover-up involving the church and authorities. And I think that's what grabs a lot of people's attention about this case.

It's salacious enough that a priest would murder a young girl. But when you add in the cover-up, that just takes it to a whole other level. The fact that this guy got away with it for 50 years. He lived his life. He did. He was an old man. He was 85 years old by the time he was finally convicted. You know, we say it took 50 years for them to bring him the justice.

It took them 50 years to decide to overcome the church to bring him the justice. Yeah, but I look back and think, you know, the sheriff and the DA. They could have done the right thing. Absolutely. early on. Was there pressure from the church? I'm sure there was. And, you know, let's be honest, the church held a lot more power than let's say they do today. Yeah. In the 50s, the 60s. Very powerful. Very powerful. Money, votes, all kind of things. Connected. But it's just sad when the corruption can extend that far. But that's it for our episode on Irene Garvey.

We got a voicemail. You want to check that out? Yes, Sarah. Hi, guys. This is Sarah, again, from Delaware. I was just listening to the Matthew Owens episode, and I wanted to make a really important point that I think a lot of people don't know. When you guys talk about a woman being pulled over by a cop, you don't actually have to pull over. You have the full legal right to call dispatch and confirm that you are actually being pulled over, and you can request that they follow you to. souvenirs, gas station, door, whatever the situation may be, you don't have to pull over.

You can absolutely confirm that you're actually being pulled over by a legitimate cop and not someone pretending to be someone else. I just thought this was really important. I didn't learn this until I was in my 20s, and I hope that anyone listening will learn this and will also tell their kids this because it's an important way to stay safe. Keep your own time taking. All right. Great voicemail.

again, I don't know if that pertains to every state. Maybe it does. I don't know. I don't know. But I think people should research it. Absolutely. And find out because it is an important safeguard. Yes. That someone might want to use if they have any doubt that they're being pulled over by a legitimate police officer. But again, I would check your local statutes, state statutes and things like that. Yeah. I just don't pull over. Yeah. You just keep on. going. Yeah. And I'm getting pretty tired of bailing you out, to be honest with you. Well, because you don't always pay me back. That's the thing. I knew you're going to say, Wimpy. Yeah. You got the whole, I'll pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. Tuesday never comes.

Well, eventually I'll get here. And then there's another bail that has to be paid. I haven't been paid back for the first one. I don't think you've been paid back for more, more than probably like three or four. All right, buddy. That is it for another episode. of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.