In one of the most fearful cities in Texas, a
legend about a beauty queen who went to confession
and disappeared haunted many for generations.
But a fateful coincidence revealed that
it was, in fact, a case that went cold.
All because of a conspiracy
between the church and authorities.
In the 1960s, 25-year-old Irene Garza
was considered one in a million.
Growing up in McAllen, Texas, the Mexican-American
achieved, for the times, the unachievable.
She was well-educated, a schoolteacher,
and a former Miss South Texas.
But like any other person, she had her fears.
“Remember the last time we talked, I told you I was
afraid of death?” she once wrote in a letter to a friend.
“Well, I think I’m cured … I’ve been going to
communion and Mass daily, and you can’t imagine
the courage, faith, and happiness it has given me.”
Long before Irene sent the letter, she was known as a
devout Catholic who had a bright future ahead of her.
So many would be surprised to hear that she had such a fear.
And could have never imagined that less than two
weeks later, her worst fear became a reality.
On a Saturday evening, Irene told her family she
was going to Sacred Heart Church for confession.
It was part of her weekly routine.
Every weekend she would go — whether she needed to or not.
She promised her mother that she wouldn’t
take long as she headed out the door.
Still, several hours went by, and Irene had yet to come home.
Many recalled seeing her at the church.
Putting on a lace veil.
Kneeling in a pew.
And standing in a confession line.
But not a single person could recall seeing her leave.
The only clue to her whereabouts was her car.
It was still parked down the street
from her church, where she confessed.
Few people dared to question if the church knew more.
In fact, parishioners were warned not to bear
false witness against any member of the church.
Five days after Irene went missing,
her family received devastating news.
Irene’s body was found dumped in a canal.
Her blouse was unbuttoned, and her underwear was missing.
Her autopsy revealed that she was be—n, r—d
while in a coma, and died from asphyxiation.
There were no eyewitnesses, fingerprints, or physical
evidence that could point towards the murderer.
Any hair, blood, or semen that could
have helped was washed away in the canal.
The only clue the police had was a muddy shoe
print that contained a strand of Irene’s hair.
It appeared to belong to a man, who could
have been anywhere between a size 8 or 11.
Two weeks later, the police discovered another clue.
After draining the canal, they found
a photo slide viewer at the bottom.
Desperate to find Irene’s murderer, they turned
to the public for help in finding the owner.
Only two days later, they received an unexpected letter.
A 27-year-old visiting priest named John Feit
simply wrote, “That slide viewer belongs to me.”
When the police questioned him, they discovered
he worked at the same church that Irene attended.
And that he was helping to take
confessions the night she disappeared.
The police became more suspicious of him after hearing
different accounts of what happened that night.
At first, he denied hearing her confession at all.
Then, he admitted to hearing her confession.
Not in the booth, but in the rectory — which was
viewed as highly inappropriate by other priests.
The police later discovered it wasn’t the first time.
One of Irene's friends, Ana Maria Hollingsworth,
revealed that the devout Catholic told her
going to confession wasn't the same anymore.
She was no longer allowed to confess in the booth.
Father Feit would pull her out, insist she was too
good to confess there, and take her to the rectory.
The police grew even more suspicious of
him after discovering other peculiarities.
Father Feit was temporarily staying at the rectory
to help with the busy Easter holiday, but kept
going back to the Pastoral House where he lived.
Exactly six times within 24-hours.
He came up with a handful of excuses each time,
including breaking his glasses and needing clean clothes.
Later, Father Joseph O'Brien, the assistant
pastor, noticed fingernail scratches on his hands.
Father Feit claimed he was locked out of the
Pastoral House and scratched his hands while
climbing up to the second-floor balcony.
I guess this gentleman climbs the wall, like this.
But he said he got them climbing a wall.
What was even more alarming was that just three weeks
earlier, another woman almost met the same fate as Irene.
In March, a 22-year-old college student
named Maria America Guerra was attacked at
the Sacred Heart Church in Edinburg, Texas.
While praying, a man grabbed her from behind
and tried to stuff a rag in her mouth.
Fortunately, she managed to escape by biting
his fingers before running towards a side door.
Her attacker?
Father Feit.
Maria told the police that she saw him earlier that day when
she noticed someone watching her from a blue-and-white sedan.
"The thought that it was the same man that I saw earlier
entered my mind, but being in the house of God, I dismissed
any thoughts of fear of foul play," she later told detectives.
Rumours started to spread far and wide.
And priests from other churches
badgered parishioners for taking part.
"It is impossible that a priest would commit
a crime like this," one priest insisted.
"Don't speak of it.
Don't even let yourselves think it.”
But investigators weren't convinced and brought in the most
elite polygraph team in the country to question Father Feit.
In a report, examiners noted that he was
evasive and seemed to enjoy baiting them.
Once, he encouraged them to ask if he believed he may have done something to cause Irene's death.
To his own question, he answered yes. He also said there isn't enough evidence
to pin him to Maria or Irene's cases.
And that even a top defence
attorney could not tear holes in it.
Examiners concluded that the tests definitely
implicated him in both cases and that they were
convinced he attacked Maria and killed Irene.
Aside from the tests, Father Feit did, in fact,
own a blue-and-white sedan and eyewitnesses saw
him fleeing the church after Maria was attacked.
Still, he walked away a free man.
After two years, he was only brought to court
for Maria’s case and was merely fined $500.
Irene’s case remained open, but detectives moved
on to other cases and the media dropped the story.
The only assurance of justice that Irene’s
family ever received was from Father O’Brien.
“Father O’Brien promised the family that the church
would punish him if it found that he had done
wrong,” Irene’s aunt, Herlinda de la Viña, recalled.
“He told us that the church’s punishment was greater than
any sentence handed down by the courts, and we believed him.
Who were we to question a priest?”
Forty-two years later, in the same month that Irene was
murdered, a former priest made a chilling confession.
In a two-page letter sent to the San Antonio police, Dale
Tacheny recounted his days at a monastery in Ava, Missouri.
In 1963, he was asked by his superiors to counsel a new
priest that was coming after murdering a young woman.
That priest was Father Feit.
After months of counselling, Father Feit
confided in Dale about the details of his crime.
He told Dale that after hearing the woman’s confession
in the rectory, he as–d, b–d, and ga–d her.
He later moved her to another location and
left her in a bathtub with a bag over her head.
As he left to return to the church, he
could hear her saying, “I can’t breathe.
I can’t breathe.” Still, he shut the door and left.
When he returned, she was already dead.
So he carried her body into his
car and dumped her along a canal.
Shocked, Dale asked him why he was sent
to the monastery instead of prison.
He simply answered: the church protected me.
The timing of the letter turned
out to be a fateful coincidence.
The same year that Dale sent it, the
Texas Rangers reopened Irene’s case.
Ranger Rudy Jaramillo had been
working on it without much luck.
Until Dale and a second priest came forward.
Father O’Brien admitted that Father
Feit had confessed his crime to him.
Many of the details he shared matched Dale’s statement.
Still, both of their accounts never made it to court.
The Hidalgo County district attorney, Rene
Guerra, insisted the evidence was weak and that
he would not be presenting it to a grand jury.
When Irene’s family tried to push him to prosecute,
he simply told them: You will never get an indictment.
You'll get one when pigs fly.
Detectives and the public were outraged.
Even the media demanded to know why he refused to prosecute.
After months of backlash, he relented and asked his
prosecutors to present the evidence to a grand jury.
Still, Dale Tacheny and Father
O'Brien were never called to testify.
The jury refused to indict Father Feit,
and once again, he walked away a free man.
Eventually, he left the church, got married,
and started a family in Scottsdale, Arizona.
But a decade later, he was forced to face his sins.
After Ricardo Rodriguez replaced Rene Guerra as Hidalgo
County's new district attorney, he re-opened Irene's case.
Two years later, Father Feit was arrested on
murder charges and brought to Texas to stand trial.
During the trial, assistant district attorney, Mike
Garza, presented disturbing new evidence: a letter
written in 1960 from one church official to another.
The contents of the letter revealed that the
church and the Catholic sheriff at the time, E.E.
Vickers, conspired to undermine Irene's investigation. They were concerned that it would affect their reputation
and the campaign of Catholic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.
The conspiracy was later confirmed by
a local attorney named Darrell Davis.
Back in 1962, Darrell was a TV reporter who
covered Maria's case against Father Feit.
He revealed that at the time, he and several other
reporters were summoned to an off-the-record meeting
with the district attorney, Robert Lattimore.
He said, "We know," verbatim, "we know
that Father Feit killed Irene Garza."
…And I remember he said "and the church
knows that he killed Irene Garza.
So we have made some arrangements."
Darrell also revealed that in exchange for that
plea, Father Feit would not be prosecuted in Irene's
case, and that the church would send him away.
He said -- the church is going to put him in a
monastery for disturbed or troubled priests … and
he will be kept there for the rest of his life.
Many were shocked to their core, considering
Father Feit's history of predatory behaviour.
Weeks before Irene was murdered, Beatrice Garcia
revealed that she had a bizarre encounter with him.
She told the jury that while walking to work
one day, Father Feit approached her in his car.
When she asked if he needed help with anything,
he responded, "I would love to take a picture
of you dressed in black by the cemetery."
He liked a certain look in a woman.
You know, America Guerra, Beatrice Garcia,
Irene Garza -- they all look the same.
America Guerra was a violent attack and maybe he got a
little taste for it then and was looking for his next victim.
After a six-day trial, the jury’s verdict
came in: Father Feit was found guilty of
murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
After 57 years, we have found justice
for Irene and for today, pigs are flying.
This is the story of how the church and authorities failed
to protect an innocent young woman for nearly 60 years.