https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-28-2025
"On August 29, 1970, journalist Rubén Salazar died instantly when Los Angeles
County Sheriff’s deputy Thomas Wilson fired an 8-inch bullet-shaped tear gas
projectile into the back of his head. Salazar and his colleague Guillermo
Restrepo had ducked into the Silver Dollar bar after fighting had broken out
between marchers and police officers during the massive National Chicano
Moratorium March against the Vietnam War that drew more than 20,000 people into
the streets of East Los Angeles.
Restrepo later recalled that Salazar told him they were being followed, so they
slipped into the bar to lose their trackers and use the restroom. The bar had a
curtain over the door. An eyewitness recalled that when two sheriffs came to
the door, one held back the curtain and the other—Wilson—shot the projectile.
Restrepo recalled the gun was aimed directly at their heads.
When homicide detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
interviewed Wilson hours later, he said a bystander had thought he saw armed
men enter the bar and had fired his weapon to get the men to come out.
Witnesses told the detectives there had been no gunmen at the bar. A coroner’s
inquest determined Salazar’s death was accidental. Wilson resigned from the
Sheriff’s Department and left Los Angeles. The county admitted no wrongdoing
but paid Salazar’s widow and three young children at least $700,000, worth
close to $6 million today.
At the time of his death, Salazar was the most famous and influential Latino
journalist in the United States. Born in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in 1928,
Salazar grew up in El Paso, Texas. After graduating from high school, he served
in the U.S. Army and became a U.S. citizen after his service. He graduated from
Texas Western College in 1954 with a degree in journalism and went to work at
the
El Paso Herald-Post, where his deep investigative work caught the
attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation almost immediately as Salazar
exposed corruption and violence in the El Paso City Jail."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
