BY NORMAN ROZEFF

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the next installment in an ongoing series on San Benito’s Sam Robertson. The previous parts can be found at www.valleystar.com.

In the Mercedes Tribune, 9/17/37, Robertson wrote an article titled Opening the Last Frontier. From this account we learn in greater detail the events preceding his sugar ventures.

“I came to the Valley in 1903 to take a contract for the construction of bridges and track laying on the new St. L. B. & M. Railroad which was being promoted by Colonel Uriah Lott and financed by Mr. B. F. Yoakum, Johnston Bros. and the St. Louis Union Trust Company, group of financiers

Plunge On A Shoestring

Charles Hobbs, Lewis Mims, Captain Bill Lewis and myself organized the Southern Contracting Company to take the sub-contract under Johnston Bros. to build the track and bridges from Robstown to Brownsville and Harlingen to Sam Fordyce. I had been interested in irrigation in East Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, so decided to take a plunge in the Lower Valley on a shoe string, I knew rice was a failure, but I felt sure the soil and climate was fine for other crops. I was somewhat handicapped on account of having sustained a compound fracture of my right leg and fractured three ribs in a railroad wreck at Kingsville, and it was difficult to get around and look the country over. I had a white horse which would lie down and allow me to climb on his back and at odd times I scouted over hundreds of miles of the country between Raymondville and Brownsville on the east and Sam Fordyce on the west. I was practically broke but felt sure I could interest the necessary capital.

“Bessie” Later San Benito

“In May, 1904, we reached Bessie (now San Benito) with the track. I met Messrs. James L. Landrum and Oliver Hicks whose families owned several thousand acres around Bessie. I was on crutches so they rode with me on our construction train. I discussed my plans for the irrigation of their lands and the building of a town at San Benito, then a narrow place in the jungle. They gave me a verbal option on their lands including the present town site of San Benito.

It took me almost three years to finance the project, but Hicks and Landrum’s verbal contract was better than a United States Government Bond. About this time I made a verbal contract with about twenty-five Mexicans for canal rights of way to be deeded when the canal was built. All verbal contracts were kept to the letter.

Irrigation, railroads, schools and civilization does not seem to have improved the honesty and reliability of people in the Rio Grande Valley since 1904. It was my plan to interest Messrs. Yoakum, Johnson Bros., Sam Fordyce, and others associated with them in building and land development.

I only wanted the contract for canal construction. Mr. Yoakum told me to hop to it and he would give me a reasonable amount of help. The railroad civil engineers were all friends of mine and I got a tremendous amount of engineering data from them. Capt. Mindola, a Mexican engineer, gave me river data. Jim Malaby, of the Mexican National Lines and Mr. Follett of International Boundary Commission gave me valuable maps and data. I “mooched” at least $50,000 worth of engineering information from friends.

“Old Man River” On Rampage

On the 16th of September, 1904 while laying track near Havana, just east of Sam Fordyce, “Old Man River” rose twelve feet in two hours and I knew we were in for it. I got a hand car and six big (men) and started for Harlingen Junction where we had just finished a bridge across the Arroyo Colorado.

I had driven piles for sub-foundations and knew piling furnished by the Railroad Company were forty feet too short to stand a major flood because it did not penetrate the quicksand. I had built false work to erect steel super structure and knew the drift would accumulate above the false work and carry out the bridge and cause my friends, the Johnston Bros. a big loss.

So, I rushed the bridge with my hand car and (men) and picked up some more men in Harlingen and sawed false work down and let it drop into the Arroyo Colorado. The flood started down the Arroyo within the hour after I had destroyed the false work obstruction.

Bridge, Tracks, Go With Flood

But the channel span was too narrow and the steel span and concrete abutments were swept out quickly. We lost eighteen miles of track and roadbed between Harlingen and Havana and about twelve miles between Harlingen and Raymondville.

This flood showed us that we would need flood protection as well as irrigation. So, in preparing my data to aid in promotion, I traced out high water marks all over the entire delta and during the flood we had engineers take approximate heights of the Rio Grande at Sam Fordyce through the Arroyo Colorado, through the Rio Tigre on the Mexican side and a gaugeing station at Los Rucios (sic) near San Benito pump. Mr. Jim Malaby of the Mexican National Railroad lines furnished me with much flood data.

River Reverses Tactics

In February, 1905, we had a norther when temperatures dropped to 16 degrees above zero and the water tank at Catherine burst a hoop with the freezing water. The Rio Grande looked like it was going dry. It got down to about 3000 second feet at Los Rucios in February, 1905 and by May of 1905 it shriveled to 1100 cubic feet per second at Los Rucios. So we knew that if all the country in the delta on both sides of the Rio Grande were to be irrigated, it meant vast storage dams on the Rio Grande and its tributaries on both the Mexican and Texas side of the river. I reported the bad features to Mr. Yoakum and submitted a rough plan to take care of it all.

About that time the United States Agricultural Department reported that with proper seed, irrigation and cultivation, forty tons of sugar cane per-acre could be produced and the juices in the cane contained 18 per cent of saccharine matter. This fine report made the flood and irrigation difficulties look small. But the Government report proved to be about 90 percent bunk. However, a real research chemist could have cured a multitude of our sugar cane troubles.

Financiers Visit Frontier

In February, 1905, while I was building a Railroad Loop near Sarita, Mr. Yoakum came by with a train load of investors to look into land and irrigation possibilities. He picked me up. I was on crutches, unshaven and looked like a tramp. He introduced me to his crowd of “Brass Hat” investors as his irrigation engineer.

On the train was Mr. John Hays Hammond, an internationally known civil and mining engineer, Col. Sam Fordyce, W. K. Vanderbilt, Judge Morgan O’Bryan, Mr. Bixby, Mr. Brookings, Mr. Tom Carter, Mr. Tom West and dozens of other financiers of St. Louis and New York.

Mr. Hammond proceeded to put me under cross examination for about three hours with a dozen others butting in. They had me scared stiff, but I never concealed any of the difficulties but offered what I thought was a solution. I never visualized twenty-five years of revolution, communism, socialism and atheism in Mexico or I would have been less “cock-sure.”

Mr. Hammond said, “Yoakum, Robertson seems to have a good scheme and he does not try to conceal defects. I think the irrigation should proceed in a big way, and I will come in on it.” That was the real beginning of the American Rio Grande project. But court decisions in regard to water rights coming out of the Texas Supreme Court caused them to reduce tremendously the contemplated acreage.

Sometimes talking is an incredible challenge for some children with autism (ASD). That can be equally true for a child who is intellectually delayed (ID) and certainly for those individuals who have both disabilities.

That was the case for Archie who was ASD and ID. Archie was just beginning to learn how to communicate through pictures and was doing quite well. Computers, however, was another story. Technology can be amazing for many children to help improve their communication and academics. For Archie, that was about to begin. His teacher wanted him to benefit from technology just like so many of his peers. How to get Archie to follow through was going to be the challenge.

The problem was Archie had such a limited attention span. It was difficult to get the child to sit down and focus. The Smart board was a great tool. However, when the boy came up to it, he had no idea what to do. His touch was all over the board.

So the teacher pulled up a very old program she had used many years before. She had not had a student like Archie for quite a while. Would the old program work for Archie?

The teacher knew that the Smart board could be paired with the old program “Teach Me to Talk”. However, the teacher wanted Archie to learn how to use a smaller computer screen.

Unfortunately, her touch screen on the Hatch computer was not working.

She knew where another touch screen was from a class that didn’t need it. After changing out the screens, the computer was all ready to try. The teacher loaded the old program and out “Teach Me to Talk” came right up on the screen. It is such a simple program that has automatic puzzle placement for a huge choice of words.

When Archie came to the computer, the teacher placed his hand on the screen. His hand motion immediately activated the screen and a puzzle piece slid across. Then after a few examples, Archie began to bang on the screen. Eventually a full slice of pizza bounced across the computer.

Over time, the teacher had the program changed to drag and place two puzzle pieces of a pizza. Archie gradually learned to put the two pieces into the puzzle correctly. Then the screen would announce “pizza.” Soda, hamburger, cake and lots of other food words were gradually introduced on the screen for Archie. He loved the food pictures and responded well to the picture icons.

The plan was to move the boy from the picture icons on the computer program to a portable communication board. Archie was on his way.

Another boy, Saul, was watching Archie. Like Archie, Saul had trouble using a mouse too. The teacher decided to start Saul with two puzzle pieces on the “Teach Me to Talk Program.” Over just a few sessions, Saul grasped how to use the mouse. This helped enable Saul to work with some other reading programs on the computer.

Saul was thrilled to learn how to use the mouse and loved the simplified puzzles. The smile on Saul’s face when he realized that he could use a computer like the other students was priceless. Saul was learning and having fun doing it, too.

Pamela Gross Downing, a special education teacher can be reached at [email protected].

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”

President Franklin Roosevelt,

Inaugural Speech, 1932

When President elect Roosevelt made this famous statement in 1932, our nation was in the throes of the Great Depression. The crash of the stock market and economic losses left everyone in a state of panic and despair; from the very rich to the very poor, and unlike anything that had ever been experienced in our society, and lasting for many years.

Unfortunately, it took a World War to get our nation out of the Great Depression; yet on the positive side it spawned a generation of great peoples, those that were able to overcome those harsh and terrible times, and made positive choices for their families, selves, and society; that’s why we call them the Greatest Generation…and a mentally healthy nation.

In contemporary society we face many, many problems spawned by new generations. Terroristic threats and actions in our schools and public facilities, abductions, our country’s economic debts, downsizing of our nation’s military in times of dire threats, rampant alcohol and other drug abuse, violence on our nations bordering country, our seemingly never ending war in the Middle East, etc.; all unhealthy contributors toward our nations mental health.

Yet we will overcome and continue to push forward with resiliency and determination…with faith and hope that things will indeed get better.

How does one maintain good mental health in the face of all the negative things going on in our society? How do we deal with, and overcome, our anxieties and fears? How do we overcome the anxious and depressive feelings incurred when watching the news on TV or reading about it in our daily newspapers and on the internet?

As I have often written about in my articles, life’s journey is not easy, for anyone. Life is demanding and we often grow weary and tired. The demands placed on us in contemporary society; family, work, personal aims and goals; and yes, even our nation’s woes; all have “speed bumps” along the way.

The speed bumps, or barriers, give us three choices: to climb over, go around, or become unwilling to attempt the first two choices. Unfortunately, in the work of my chosen profession of counseling, I have most often encountered individuals that were unwilling or unable to delve into the positive choices to exact change…they have lost hope and faith.

By the same token, there are many who take action to exact change.

We need only to read this newspaper to give us a picture of all the positive things going on with people in our community; pictures and articles of our youth and aged with their remarkable feats and stories, etc. They remain mentally healthy due to their activities of mind and body.

How do we, as individuals, help ourselves and our communities stay mentally healthy? Let me suggest the following steps to you:

Remain Politically Active

So often I encounter individuals who tell me, “I do not get involved with politics!” Or, “My vote doesn’t count any way!” Let me remind you that whether you like it or not, by the very nature of you being a citizen you are already in politics. Remember that once the election of a President was decided by just one vote. Although not mandatory, it is a citizen’s obligation to vote.

Don’t gripe and moan about your community, State, or nation’s elected officials if you do not vote and let them know your concerns. Yes, there is such a thing as a society’s mental health. Help our communities and our nation maintain good mental health by involving yourself…attend city council open meetings, write or call your elected officials, etc; they are there to hear your concerns.

Get Out of Yourself

For parents this means having the needs of your children come first before self, and we need to teach them to be responsible for their actions. It also means to help your other relatives and friends when they are in need. It also means to find ways that you can help your community.

Each of us have talents, treasure, and time that we can voluntarily share with others no matter what our station in life.

Take care of yourself

It is very difficult to take care or share with others when our own health is threatened. Be physically healthy by eating properly, exercising, etc. Exercise your mind by reading, doing puzzles, or through other means. If you need help with your physical or mental health insure you reach out for help.

Your Life’s Journey is determined by the choices you make

No matter what our station in life, no matter our creed or religious tenets, no matter our ancestry, no matter whether we are young or aged, no matter whether we are affluent or just making ends meet, whether we have a physical or mental disability; we all are capable of making choices…whether they be “good” or “bad” choices concerning our thoughts and actions; and above all are indeed responsible for our own thoughts and actions.

We begin learning this during early childhood, and are continually reminded of this by parental figures throughout our life. Don’t play the “blame game”…our choices are ours alone, and we need to “own” them.

Have a life journey of faith and hope

As with the Greatest Generation, we must have faith in a belief system that the journey will be met with confidence and trust in relationships, and faith that a higher power will provide guidance; and hope that the journey, even though there be hills and valleys to overcome, that everything will turn out okay.

Many have found solace in that…learning about the resiliency of the human spirit and a belief in a higher power. These values strike at the heart of our ability to get through even the direst problems we may encounter; they are being able to live in faith and hope, not just to see them as nice words; they are essential to our having good mental health.

No my friends, we need not live in fear. Each person’s life journey, the entire life journey, is most important. Our everyday life of compassion, sharing in work and rejoicing with others is what life is all about.

Thinking of “pie in the sky by and by” is inadequate. Even amid the speed bumps and the rough places in life, we need to look for life’s bright things. Until next time, Stay Healthy my Friends!

BY LORI MURRAY

Our Valley weather doesn’t get cold enough for roses to need winter protection, and the plants don’t really go dormant. As a result, many gardeners don’t want to cut back their roses.

Also, many of us find pruning rather intimidating and worry that we’ll kill our plants.

Just remember that cutting off old wood regularly produces new wood and that the energy that would have gone into keeping the old wood alive goes into producing new wood and flowers.

Saving the plant’s energy will reward you with a multitude of blooms. Finally, reassure yourself that it is very hard to kill a rose with bad pruning.

Most mistakes will grow out quickly, and cutting a plant back is better than letting it grow rampant.

Here are some points to keep in mind:

1. You are pruning to open the center of the bush to light and air circulation which helps the plant avoid disease and encourages new growth.

2. Make your cuts at a 45 degree angle, about ¼ inch above a stout bud that is facing out. The slant should be away from the bud so water and rain will not wash toward it.(see diagram)

3. Use clean, sanitized, and sharp bypass pruners to avoid spreading disease. (use Lysol wipes)

4. Remove all branches that look dry, or black. Remove branches thinner that a pencil. Remove branches that are growing horizontally and interfering with circulation.

5. Identify and remove sucker branches growing from the rootstock. Make the cut flush with the bud union found at the base of the plant. If a stub is left, it may die back into the union and allow disease to enter.

If cane borers are a problem, seal the cut with white glue such as Elmers.

Most rose pruning in the Valley is done around Valentine’s day (easy to remember). Watch for when the leaf buds begin to swell on your plant. Here is some information by rose variety:

Ever-Blooming Roses and Floribunda: These bloom best on the current season’s growth. Prune hard (1/3 to 2/3 the plant’s height) in the spring. Leave 3 – 5 healthy canes of various lengths from 18 – 24 inches evenly spaced around the plant.

Hybrid Teas and Grandiflora: These also bloom on new wood and should be pruned in early spring.

Remove the center stems and any branches crossing inwards. Then reduce the length of the remaining stems to 18 – 24 inches.

Ramblers: Prune to shape and keep size in check. Ramblers bloom only once and can be pruned to 2 – 3 inches right after flowering.

Shrub Roses: This group is repeat bloomers, blooming on mature, but not old, woody stems. Leave them unpruned to increase vigor for the first two years and then use the one-third method: each year remove one-third of the oldest canes.

Climbers: Climbers may repeat bloom. Prune after flowering to shape and keep their size in check.

Bourbons and Portlands: There will repeat bloom, blooming on both old and new wood. A hard pruning and shaping can be done after the first flowering.

Alba, Centifolia, Damasks, Gallica, and Mosses: This group blooms only once, producing flowers on old wood, and doesn’t require much pruning at all. Prune after flowering to shape the plant.

Miniature Roses: Prune only to shape. Cut back to an outward facing bud after bloomi ng.

Sources:

American Rose Society – All About Pruning

Aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/roses/care.html

gardening.about.com/od/rose1/a/RosePruning htm

ehow.com/how_4897938_prune-rose-bushes-winter.htm

Bonnie Garcia, How to Prune Roses

Audrey Paterson, Pruning Established Roses

SAN BENITO — After having met the state standard, Superintendent Dr. Adrian Vega says there is much to be celebrated and excited about in the school district.

According to the latest Texas Education Agency Texas Academic Performance Report, the district has passed, performing within the standards set by the state.

Over the past two years, the San Benito school district has met the standard defined by TEA’s accountability ratings.

“Overall, I think there is a lot of good there,” Vega said. “Like anything, I think there are some things that need to be improved.”

Vega toured the district in January and this was his first close look at test scores.

There are areas of praise that Vega said far outweigh the areas that need further review.

Graduation rates are higher than the region and state average, the district out-performed the state and region in the area of grades three through 12 math and the district out-performed the state in English II and biology.

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.

HARLINGEN — The final day of the San Benito Invitational Golf Tournament went off without a hitch on Saturday.

Favorable temperatures accompanied by a slight southeastern breeze once again greeted golfers and spectators alike as competition heated up on the greens.

With tee off starting at 7:45 a.m. at Tony Butler Golf Course, focus quickly shifted to the girls’ group where Brownsville Hanna’s Julie Lucio, Los Fresnos’ Briana Garza and Harlingen’s Hannah Greer were battling for the top spot.

In the end, Hanna’s Lucio was the big winner of the two-day event. The sophomore shot a 74 on Friday and a 75 on Saturday for a top score of 149. It was just enough to edge out day-one leader Garza, who struggled a bit on day two.

After finishing the first day of the tournament with a 73, Garza shot a 77 on Saturday to finish one stroke behind Lucio at 150.

“We played good and very composed,” said Los Fresnos coach Luis Gonzalez. “We tried to do our best that we could and tried to get consistent because out here, consistency matters.

“Yesterday we had a really good day and today we were hoping to finish third even with our number two (golfer) out today. But even with that we had a pretty good showing.”

Full story at RGVSports.com

HARLINGEN — The eyes of the contenders for president will soon be turning to Texas.

But residents here have a lot more races to vote on than just their choice for president.

Texas voters get their first opportunity to make their voices heard in the 2016 campaigns beginning Tuesday. That’s when early voting begins for the March 1 state primary.

In Cameron County, voters will find contested races for the U.S. and state Houses, state Senate, county judge, district attorney, sheriff and many other races.

Enthusiasm for the candidates and a sense of frustration among voters are expected to drive up voter turnout in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.

“We’re very excited about it. We believe we’re going to have a higher turnout than usual for early voting as well as the overall election,” said Remi Garza, county elections administrator.

“When we look at who’s on the ballot and the races that are there, we really feel like we’re looking at possibly a very high turn-out.”

He said turnout this election year could match that of the 2008 primary, which he described as “a whopper.”

In the Democratic primary that year, about 50,000 Cameron County voters turned out — about 28 percent. Garza called that quite large for a primary election. Numbers were not immediately available for the Republican primary.

PRIMARY CANDIDATES

LOCAL CONTESTED RACES

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE

DISTRICT 34

DEMOCRATIC

Filemon Vela — No Opponent

REPUBLICAN

Rey Gonzalez Jr., San Benito

William “Willie” Vaden, Ingleside

STATE SENATOR DISTRICT 27 DEMOCRATIC

Eddie Lucio Jr., Brownsville

O. Rodriguez Haro III, Brownsville

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 37

DEMOCRATIC

Don De Leon, Brownsville

Rene O. Oliveira, Brownsville

DISTRICT JUDGE 138th

DEMOCRATIC

Arturo Cisneros Nelson, Rio Hondo

Sonia Herrera, Harlingen

COUNTY JUDGE

DEMOCRATIC

Eddie Trevino Jr., Brownsville

Elizabeth “Liz” Garza, Brownsville

Dan Sanchez, Harlingen

DISTRICT ATTORNEY

DEMOCRATIC

Luis V. Saenz, Brownsville

Carlos R. Masso, Brownsville

REPUBLICAN

Jeremy SoRelle, Rancho Viejo — No Opponent

SHERIFF

DEMOCRATIC

Gregorio Puente III, Olmito

Omar Lucio, San Benito

REPUBLICAN

John Chambers, Indian Lake

Michael Watkins, San Benito

Robert Rodriguez, Laguna Vista

Victor Cortez, Bayview

COUNTY COMMISSIONER PCT. 1

DEMOCRATIC

Beatrice G. Rosenbaum, Brownsville

Sofia C. Benavidez, Brownsville

Fausto (Pato) Martinez, Brownsville

Joseph Cantu, South Padre Island

COUNTY COMMISSIONER PCT. 4

DEMOCRATIC

Gus Ruiz, Harlingen

Chino Sanchez, Harlingen

JUDGE COURT-AT-LAW No. 4

DEMOCRATIC

Sheila Garcia Bence, Harlingen

Rene Gomez, Brownsville

Daniel T. Robles, San Benito

Carlos Monarrez, Brownsville

JUDGE COURT-AT-LAW No. 5

DEMOCRATIC

Noe Robles, Harlingen

Estela Chavez Vasquez, Brownsville

Jesus T. “Chuy” Garcia Jr., Brownsville

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, PCT. 5, PLACE 3

DEMOCRATIC

Mike Trejo, Harlingen

Juan Vargas, Santa Maria

CONSTABLE PCT. 1

DEMOCRATIC

Manuel “Manny” Hinojosa III, Port Isabel — No Opponent

REPUBLICAN

Armando Mora, Laguna Vista

Ovidio “Woody” Cisneros Jr., Brownsville

Pedro “Pete” Delgadillo, Port Isabel

CONSTABLE PCT. 2

DEMOCRATIC

Juan S. Torres, Brownsville

Pete Avila Jr., Brownsville

Abelardo “Abel” Gomez Jr., Brownsville

Silverio “Silver” Cisneros Jr., Brownsville

CONSTABLE PCT. 5

DEMOCRATIC

Eddie Solis, La Feria

Cesar Rene Dias, La Feria

REPUBLICAN

Don Duncan, Harlingen —

No Opponent

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find any-where else.

EDINBURG — Noemi Sigler stood over her cousin Irene Garza’s grave Friday and felt the weight of a decades-long fight to bring the young woman’s killer to justice had finally been lifted from her shoulders, she later said.

“You can’t even imagine. I had so many doors closed in my face, and I would often get so discouraged,” said Sigler, who for the past 32 years tirelessly pressed law enforcement to get the man who killed her cousin.

“Many times I would try to stop and I’d try to leave it alone, but Irene would always bring me back,” she added.

But in a stunning development last week, Sigler’s efforts finally seemed to pay off as news broke that the man she believes killed her 25-year-old cousin the night before Easter in 1960 had been arrested in Arizona.

John Feit, 83, the man long suspected by many of killing Garza, a McAllen beauty queen, more than five decades ago remains in custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, where he could remain for several more months.

Feit stood before Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Paula Williams on Wednesday and was explained his options, ultimately deciding to contest his extradition from Arizona to McAllen.

Feit, who was arrested at his apartment in Scottsdale a day before, had lived in the Phoenix area since the early ‘80s, where he had started a new life after leaving the priesthood, but never quite shaking off the suspicions by law enforcement about his involvement in Garza’s death.

He told Williams that he did not understand why he was being arrested more than five decades after he was initially accused.

The commissioner said there is no statute of limitations on murder charges.

“It almost sounds as though waiving extradition is a better course. But this whole thing doesn’t make sense to me because the crime in question took place in 1960,” Feit said. “In 2003, the same gentlemen were here, and questioned me extensively, and (took) a DNA sample — that was 13 years ago. I’m totally puzzled why something is coming up now, after the fact.”

After his decision to fight extradition, Williams set a $750,000 cash-only bond and remanded Feit back to jail. Feit is scheduled back in a Phoenix courtroom Feb. 24 for his extradition hearing.

This was not the first time Feit went before a judge accused of attacking a young devout Catholic woman.

On the night of March 23, 1960, Maria America Guerra, a 19-year-old Pan American College student, was attacked from behind as she knelt praying the rosary inside Sacred Heart Church in Edinburg, where Feit was a visiting priest, according to court records.

“He grabbed me and tried to stuff a rag in my mouth, and I started fighting back,” Maria testified during a March 1962 trial. “He grabbed me down towards the floor and kept me down with his hands on my mouth.”

Maria, who pointed Feit out in court, said in an effort to escape the priest, she bit down on his finger and screamed.

The trial, which was held in Austin district court after Feit’s attorney asked for a location other than Hidalgo County due to the “unusual publicity and notoriety” the case had received, was the second trial after the first one the fall before resulted in a hung jury when it failed to reach a verdict.

The Austin district attorney recommended that a “substantial fine” be imposed because the attack occurred during “a most solemn moment.”

Feit, who was indicted on assault with intent to rape, pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of aggravated assault — then considered a misdemeanor — and was ordered to pay a $500 fine and $27.90 in court costs.

In a prepared statement after the trial, Feit’s attorney Fred Semaan said the trial had taken a toll on his client.

“The ordeal of the accusation itself, the ordeal of the first trial, and the fact that this matter has been pending for so long has had an unfavorable effect on Father Feit’s nervous system,” Semaan said in the statement.

“His only desire at this time is to regain his health and return to his duties as quickly as possible. Father Feit holds no malice toward anyone, and is glad that the matter is closed.”

Maria’s attack happened three weeks prior to Garza’s disappearance and, despite the similarities between both cases, Feit never faced a court in connection with Garza’s slaying, in which law enforcement also believed she had been raped.

Garza left her home for the last time about 6:45 p.m. April 16, 1960, the night before Easter.

The 25-year-old second-grade teacher and former beauty queen stood just over 5 feet tall with brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a lavender blouse, flowered skirt and tan heels when her parents, Nicolas and Josefina, saw her walk out the door of their home in the 900 block of North 15th Street. She said she was going to Sacred Heart Church in McAllen for confession.

A family member spoke to The Monitor after Garza’s disappearance and said, “She always calls home if she expects to be out until midnight or after, but when she didn’t come home at midnight Saturday we just thought she had gone to midnight mass and didn’t worry.”

About 3 a.m. Sunday, Garza’s parents walked into the McAllen police station and filed an offense report after they found their daughter’s car parked on 15th Street, about a block and half away from Sacred Heart Church and feared something may have happened to her, according to the report.

Dark clouds rolled in over the Rio Grande Valley that Sunday afternoon casting heavy rains. Nightfall came but there was still no sign of Garza.

The following morning, April 18, 1960, an Edinburg school teacher found Garza’s purse in a field near the intersection of North McColl Road and Farm-to-Market Road 495. The teacher opened the purse and after realizing it belonged to Garza he took it to her house, the report states.

Garza’s left shoe was found later that day by a passerby about 300 yards south near the intersection of North McColl Road and East Hackberry Avenue and her headscarf was found farther north, according to police reports.

Investigators determined the purse must have been dropped sometime after Sunday’s heavy rains because it only had evidence of some rain on it, the report states.

Garza’s disappearance sparked the largest search in the history of the Rio Grande Valley at that time. For about 72 hours, scores of officers, deputies, national guardsmen and volunteers searched farmlands, orchards and canals all across a more rural McAllen area, according to news reports.

The search by the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s mounted posse and the National Guard was called off the morning of April 21, 1960, when Garza’s body was found floating face down in a canal near the intersection of Second Street and Business 83, a few miles southwest from where Garza’s purse had been picked up.

According to the autopsy, Garza was wearing the same clothes she left her home in except her underwear and shoes which were missing. Her blouse was unbuttoned and medical examiners determined she had been raped and beaten before her death.

“Evidence of strangulation could not be found but suffocation could have been carried out by placing a cloth over the mouth and nose, especially if the subject was unconscious,” the report states.

Law enforcement quickly switched gears to find Garza’s killer and canvassed an area 32 square blocks around Sacred Heart Church. They checked every house, hotel, motel and taxicab in the area, reports at the time said.

A $2,500 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Garza’s slayer, the largest ever offered at that time in the Valley.

The Texas Department of Public Safety conducted 49 polygraph exams and authorities questioned more than 500 people in over a dozen towns and cities as far as El Paso and Austin and everywhere between Rio Grande City and Brownsville.

Feit was among those questioned after evidence linked him to Garza’s death.

It took six days to drain the canal where Garza’s body was found. On the morning of April 27, 1960, police recovered a light green Eastman Kodaslide 35 millimeter viewer with an electric cord plug-in attached. Police found the viewer a few feet from where they believed Garza’s body had been placed.

“It could have been inadvertently placed in the canal with the body, or could have been thrown away after having been stolen. We are seeking any information that may shed any light on the former ownership of this viewer,” McAllen Police Chief Clint Mussey told reporters. “We are doing everything possible to run down any lead which might be even remotely connected with the crime.”

Two days later Feit, the visiting priest of Sacred Heart Church, was brought in for questioning in Garza’s brutal death after a man came forward to say Feit had paid an unknown amount of cash in July 1959 at Freddie’s Professional Pharmacy in Port Isabel for the viewer.

The 27-year-old priest walked out of the police station and stayed in the Valley until 1962 after he pleaded no contest in the Maria Guerra case. That same year, Feit was moved to another church in San Antonio, according to the official Catholic Directory.

Garza’s family believes the church helped Feit avoid punishment and facilitated his moves to different churches.

Those rumors appeared to be confirmed in 2004 when Sigler spoke with Father John O’Brien, who in 1960 was the assistant pastor of Sacred Heart Church in McAllen.

With O’Brien’s consent, in a taped conversation, Sigler asked if Feit had admitted killing the former beauty queen.

“Yes,” O’Brien told Sigler. “What happened is, we knew he was dangerous, okay? We shipped him off to [monasteries]. Stayed 10 years — then he got married.”

It wouldn’t be the last time Feit was moved from a church between 1961 to 1978, when he finally left the church after meeting a woman and getting married.

Feit moved four more times, with stops in San Antonio, St. Louis, Missouri, back to San Antonio and finally to the Servants of the Paraclete order in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.

According to a 2016 Arizona Republic article, Feit moved to Phoenix with his wife and in the early ‘80s, began volunteering at local churches and by 1987 he began working for St. Vincent de Paul’s support office, helping the church recruit volunteers for the food pantry.

Feit retired sometime in the early 2000s.

In 2002, Dale Tacheny, a former monk-priest who served at a Missouri monastery from 1960 to 1967 sent a letter to San Antonio police detailing the murder of a 23-year-old Texan woman around Easter of 1962 or 1963. In the letter, he writes that John Feit spoke to him during counseling sessions about assaulting and killing a woman about 23 years old and dumping her body.

“After hearing her confession he assaulted her, bound her, and gagged her. He removed her clothing from the waist up and fondled her,” reads a letter Tacheny wrote to authorities on April 25, 2002, a copy of which Tacheny shared with The Monitor last week.

Tachney’s letter came as officials in McAllen decided to re-open the Garza’s case, which was presented to a grand jury in 2004 by Hidalgo County District Attorney’s office.

For 15 weeks, prosecutors presented evidence in the case but never called Tachney, O’Brien or Feit to testify. The case was no billed and remained dormant for 12 years despite pleas to then-District Attorney Rene Guerra from Garza’s family to revive the case.

“I’m glad that the new DA has taken steps to act on the evidence that has been given to him,” said Tachney over the telephone last week following news of Feit’s new indictment and arrest.

For his part, Guerra said last week it would be unethical for him to comment on the latest development in the case.

Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez, sounding measured the day the news of the arrest broke, said he was looking forward to getting Feit back to Texas.

Rodriguez was asked about the Garza case during his campaign in 2014 and the issue into the woman’s homicide was seen largely as the reason he was able to beat Guerra who had been the DA for 32 years.

Rodriguez denies he ran his campaign promising anything other than to say he would look into the cold case.

“It came up during the campaign, and I said we would take a look at it,” Rodriguez said.

Guerra, who had been dogged for years in reference to how he handled the case when it was re-opened by authorities in late 2002, was unapologetic about his decision not to initially bring the case to a grand jury because of what he felt was a shoddy investigation by McAllen Police.

In 2002, when asked if he would pursue charges now that evidence seemed overwhelming in the old case, Guerra told the Brownsville Herald: “I reviewed the file some years back; there was nothing there. Can it be solved? Well, I guess if you believe that pigs fly, anything is possible.” He concluded, “Why would anyone be haunted by her death? She died. Her killer got away.”

Despite Guerra’s comments, Garza’s family never gave up. Still shaken by last week’s events, Sigler declined to comment, saying she feared it could jeopardize the case.

“I did dedicate many years in fighting for justice for Irene but I refuse to take credit as so many others joined the fight with me,” Sigler wrote in a text message Friday. “United we brought the suspected killer in.”

SAN BENITO — “The Ark.”

The very name of the new veterans center conveys a place of sanctuary in the midst of danger, refuge from loss, and shelter from disaster.

Veterans and their families attended The Ark’s grand opening yesterday afternoon, celebrating the creation of a place of comfort, support and understanding. Eventually it will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Veterans will be able to come in for a hot meal and even a warm bed.

Live Now Ministries, which is opening the new center at 951 S. Williams Road, also hopes to have doctors, nurses and counselors volunteer their time.

Cicely Ratliff, director of the local chapter of Live Now Ministries, said the center will be a place of love.

The Ark will be dedicated to Jose Mendoza Lopez, a native of Oaxaca, Mexico, and also a recipient of the Medal of Honor. Lopez earned the medal while fighting the Germans during World War II.

For more information, call Vega as 956-472-4588.

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find anywhere else.