SAN ANTONIO – People who lived on West French Place in August 1997 probably had no idea about the war inside the Texas Mexican Mafia.
They likely had no idea that a small duplex in the street's 1100 block would become the scene of one of San Antonio's bloodiest massacres.
"It was so many people -- five people -- and a couple of them (were) really at the wrong place at the wrong time," said Marilyn Moritz, a KSAT-12 reporter who covered the crime. "Cliché, but that's what it was, just the brutality of it, the bloodiness of it -- the savage attack of five people in this little duplex on the West Side."
The Texas Mexican Mafia's president, Herb Huerta, had elevated a woman named Diana Diaz (also known as La Princessa) to a leadership position some time in 1993. The move split the gang, with members choosing between Huerta and Luis "Blue" Adames as their leader. The decision led to bloodshed on the streets of San Antonio.
Robert "Beaver" Perez was a general of the Texas Mexican Mafia. A federal indictment says he "continued the ‘business'" of the gang after Adames' "ambitious attempt to control the criminal enterprise that is the Texas Mexican Mafia abruptly and permanently ended in a hail of bullets" Nov. 23, 1994.
His death would not be the last.
From January 1994 through October 1994, 17 people would be killed as the gang targeted members who had fallen out of line with the Mexican Mafia's constitution or drug dealers the gang believed were not paying the street tax.
On Aug. 8, 1997, seven members of the gang went to 1138 West French Place.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE INDICTMENT
"They went in, supposedly to find some cocaine and a large amount of cash," Moritz said. "They had information that there was some major drug-dealing going on there and the mafia was supposed to control the drug-dealing. So they went in there to make their point, collect their piece of the pie, and there was a lot of commotion going on.
"And it was (Rodolfo Vara) I think they were mainly talking to and roughing up. And his daughter (Elbira) was there. They had them bound and duct-taped, some of them on their knees at the couch. The daughter mouthed off to one of them about hurting her dad because he was insisting there's nothing here. Because she mouthed off, they shot her and then they just went nuts."
Mortiz said the ensuing violence wasn't originally part of their plan.
"It really wasn't supposed to turn into that -- go there and kill someone. It was go there, get the drugs and the money," Moritz said.
Vara and his daughter were killed, as were three others: Elbira Vara's boyfriend Edward Medel, Ricardo Gonzalez and Christopher Tobias.
"It was thought (Tobias) and his buddy (Gonzalez) and another young man who escaped the whole thing got away that night," Moritz said. "There were three of these just-out-of high school boys. Initially it was said that they were going to a movie or something."
Later, it was revealed the three had gone to the home to buy some marijuana.
"They were just going to score a little pot and then ended up (at the) wrong place," Moritz said.
While some may have heard of the Mexican Mafia, this killing was more than just another news story to West French Place residents.
"It wasn't just a prison gang. It is here in your community," Moritz said. "It would maybe feel a little bit closer to home because it was in this neighborhood."
Two members of the gang were murdered a short time after that massacre: Robert De Los Santos and Adam Tenorio.
"Apparently they had talked about it and the general, Beaver, Robert Perez, didn't like that they were talking about it," Moritz said. "One of them was found slashed, stabbed, rolled up in a blanket on the side of the road, Mexican Mafia-style. And then the next day or a few days later, another one, because these two had snitched on it, they were killed.
"So another one, at least one, became scared that they would be next, so they ran to the police," Moritz said.
By November 1998, authorities would name Santos and the following as suspects in the murders: Jesse "Chango" Gomez Jr.; Daniel "Fuzzy" Perez; Remigio "Tito" Gomez; Juan "Jon Jon" Johns; Victor Pena, and Daniel Angel Tavitas.
It was a series of coordinated arrests that included eight others, Perez among them.
"The ones I saw seemed resigned, like they knew this would happen. Eventually, you're either going to be caught, you're going to be killed. It was just the lifestyle they were in," Moritz said. "Some of them led, other than that, almost normal lives -- (with) families, wives (and) children -- but their job was drugs and killing."
She said Perez seemed likable.
"To look at (Perez), if you passed him on the street, you wouldn't think this guy's killed 10 people or however many," Moritz said.
While she covered the killings, the arrests and the trials and convictions of the gang members, Moritz said she never feared for her own safety.
"I wasn't revealing anything that the police didn't already know," Moritz said. "I wasn't their enemy."