The mangled body of a young woman was discovered in some bushes near an office building in Southwest Los Angeles. LAPD Detective Sergeant Carlos Aguilar was sent to investigate. The victim turned out to be the accountant at a nearby housing complex that was the sole remaining structure in an area that once contained a neighborhood. Witnesses described two men who carried the victim away from a nearby nightclub parking lot after a barroom fight, but there was no forensic evidence and very few clues for Aguilar to proceed with. Looking at the broader picture, he ruled out gangs, robbers, rapists, and most other common street criminals, as the crime appeared to be a professional hit. A gang contact that he used as a tipster told him that a very evil person, referred to as “El Puma”, from deep in Mexico was in the area terrorizing his and other gangs. Aguilar met the victim’s next of kin at the morgue, where he also met a young reporter from the L.A. Daily Journal, a daily newspaper, who was working his first crime story. Aguilar’s partner didn’t take Jay, the young reporter, seriously; but Aguilar thought that since this case had overtones of a cover up, Jay might actually be of use for them.
Jay discovered that the housing complex where the victim worked was primarily Section Eight and supported by the Federal Government. The assistant manager there explained that some rent money went missing and the government came in to audit. The audit did not determine what happened with the missing money, but it did point to managerial problems leading to the ouster of the owner as manager and the hiring of a consultant to straighten things out. The owner complained to the HUD loan manager that she was being framed for actions taken by others outside her control. She requested to send in her own auditor which the loan manager reluctantly agreed to. The second audit also did not find out about the money, but it did report on a number of financial irregularities, particularly pointing to a certain vendor, the South Bay Neighborhood Association. This discovery gave Aguilar what he needed to pursue officers and managers of the South Bay Neighborhood Association in what he believed was a cover up that the victim knew something about. Then a resident of the complex, a retired gentleman who was helping the owner manage the business, was suddenly murdered in what appeared to be a carjacking gone bad. Witnesses identified the killers as very similar to the ones tacitly involved in the first victim’s murder. This meant to Aguilar that the crimes had to be the work of a serial killer who had some connection to the housing complex.
Aguilar got a break in the case when one of the perpetrators of the barroom fight was arrested for shoplifting. The nightclub’s security videos had this person directly engaged with the first victim in a brawl, but they did not show what transpired in the parking lot where the victim was “rescued” and carried away. The perpetrator was in an auto accident recently and needed roughly $5,000 to get her car fixed. More interrogation got her to give up who it was that gave her the money, and that she was paid to start the fight with the victim. This information lead to the arrest of a key player, the money man, at the South Bay Neighborhood Association, who subsequently made bail and was himself nearly killed as he fled the country. But the killer and his handler were not finished. The tipster inside the complex, the consultant manager of the complex, and one of the partners of South Bay Neighborhood Association were all killed in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to cover up the reason behind all the criminal activity and protect someone at the top. Aguilar knew that to unravel a cover up he must begin on the outside and work his way in with each suspect pointing to the next one. The case drew the attention of the FBI and the California Attorney General, as the money man was wanted for other crimes of fraud. Aguilar knew that he was not the boss at the top of the heap, however. The trail finally led Aguilar to the killer’s handler, who reluctantly tells him where he can find “El Puma”. The money man was tricked into leaving his Bahamian safe house, was apprehended in Mexico, and returned to Los Angeles. He became state’s evidence and explained who it was behind it all. For their efforts, Aguilar was promoted to Lieutenant, and Jay published a book detailing the entire saga.
Targeted Age Group:: Adult
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
It’s drawn from images and experiences I achieved when I first moved to Los Angeles. In addition to my career, I helped out a friend who had some problems with his Section Eight Housing complex.
