Unsolved case · 1922
Also known as Weslaco Affair
The short answer
Elias Villarael Zarate, a 22-year-old Mexican immigrant, was abducted from an unguarded temporary jail in Weslaco, Texas, by an armed mob on November 9, 1922, and found dead days later. The case was documented as one of dozens of lynchings recorded in the U. S. that year and prompted diplomatic protest from Mexico.
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Suggest coverage for Lynching of Elias ZarateElias Villarael Zarate was a 22-year-old Mexican immigrant working on a crew erecting a creamery in Weslaco, Hidalgo County, Texas, in November 1922. According to historian Lawrence A. Cardoso, Texas was extremely hostile toward Mexicans in the years following World War I, with reports of one Mexican national being lynched per week in the state shortly after the war ended.
On Thursday, November 9, 1922, a fight broke out between Zarate and a co-worker, J.L. Sullivan, after Sullivan complained about the quality of Zarate's work and got him fired. During the altercation, Sullivan's arm was broken. Weslaco police arrested Zarate and placed him in a building that was sometimes used as a temporary jail; the building was left unguarded.
At approximately 8:00 PM that same evening, a mob of 8 to 15 people broke the lock on the temporary jail, forced Zarate at gunpoint into a car, and abducted him. Police did not notice his absence for hours. Zarate was never seen alive again. His body was discovered on a road roughly five miles (8.0 km) from Weslaco on November 11, 1922.
The killing was recorded as the 15th lynching in Texas that year. According to a later United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary compilation, it was the 56th of 61 documented lynchings in the United States during 1922.
Following the lynching, anti-minority sentiment escalated in parts of Texas, with large white mobs reportedly roaming the streets of some cities and towns demanding that Black and Mexican residents leave. On November 16, 1922, hundreds of white residents marched through the streets of Breckenridge, Texas.
Mexican Consul General Eduardo Ruiz protested the lynching and the accompanying anti-Mexican demonstrations to Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff. After receiving no response from Neff, Ruiz escalated the complaint to U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. Hughes subsequently directed Governor Neff to act, and the Governor deployed additional police to Weslaco, which reportedly improved conditions for Mexican residents in the region.
No individuals were identified, charged, or convicted in connection with Zarate's killing according to the available record. The case remains formally unsolved.
Zarate is fired after a workplace dispute with co-worker J.L. Sullivan; a fight breaks out in which Sullivan's arm is broken, and Zarate is arrested by Weslaco police and placed in an unguarded temporary jail.
At approximately 8:00 PM, a mob of 8-15 people breaks into the jail and abducts Zarate at gunpoint.
Zarate's body is found on a road about five miles from Weslaco.
Mexican Consul General Eduardo Ruiz's protest over the lynching and anti-Mexican demonstrations is reported (contemporaneous coverage).
Hundreds of white residents march through the streets of Breckenridge, Texas, amid rising anti-minority sentiment; Governor Pat Morris Neff, after being pressed by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, sends additional police to Weslaco.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
22-year-old Mexican immigrant abducted from police custody and killed by a mob in Weslaco, Texas, in November 1922.[3]
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SOLVEDListenMcAllen, Texas · 1960s
Irene Garza, a McAllen, Texas schoolteacher and former beauty queen, was raped and killed by suffocation in April 1960 after going to confession. The priest who heard that confession, John Feit, was convicted of her murder in December 2017 — nearly 58 years later.
ONGOINGListenMatamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico · 2020s
Four African American residents of South Carolina were abducted by gunmen in Matamoros, Mexico on 3 March 2023 after crossing the border for a medical procedure; two were killed, and a Mexican bystander also died in the attack.
Image recordEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenMatamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico · 1980s
Mark Kilroy, a University of Texas at Austin student, was abducted during spring break in Matamoros, Mexico, in March 1989 and killed at a ranch used by a drug-trafficking cult led by Adolfo Constanzo; several cult members were convicted in 1993-1994 of homicide and other charges.
Credit: W.H. Whitehead per imagePublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenRosewood, Levy County, Florida, United States · 1923
In early January 1923, white mobs in rural Levy County, Florida, killed at least six Black residents and destroyed the predominantly Black community of Rosewood after a white woman in nearby Sumner alleged she had been assaulted by a Black man; two white men were also killed in the resulting violence, and no one was ever prosecuted.
Image recordPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListen1st Street and 2nd Avenue East, Duluth, Minnesota · 1920
On June 15, 1920, a white mob of thousands broke into the Duluth, Minnesota city jail and lynched three Black circus workers—Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie—who had been arrested on an unsubstantiated rape accusation. No one was ever convicted of the murders.
Credit: PCN02WPSCC BY-SA 4.0SourceUNSOLVEDListenClinton, South Carolina, United States · 1924
Norris Dendy, an African-American father of five, was taken from his jail cell in Clinton, South Carolina, by a mob of white men on the night of July 4–5, 1933, and beaten and hanged after a physical altercation with a white truck driver. Five men were later indicted but a grand jury declined to charge anyone.
