12. Retrospective

with the movie. It's time to take everything we've learned in our last six months of digging in our hours and hours of interviews and wiki holls and YouTube videos with two views to try to put together some sort of complete picture. Who is the real Edward James almost, why did he make American Meat, who actually got killed because of this movie? And most importantly, was it all worth it. Let's start where we always start on this podcast, the one big interview, the guy we wanted to talk

to but didn't want to talk to us. By now you should know who I'm talking about, Mr Edward James. Almost none of this happens without him, not the good stuff like a Latino director getting a major movie made thirty years ago, and maybe none of the bad stuff. More on that later, but first, that voice you heard at the top, that's Danny Trejo. He's probably the second most important person in this story. He wouldn't talk to

us either. Maybe it's because we found out that a lot of what he wrote in his twenty nineteen memoir might have been embellished, misremembered, or just playing wrong. But we probably wouldn't have done this podcast where it not for Trejo and his attempts to sell his memoir off the back of American me stories like the one about when almost showed up to a Jewish Deli method acting in Prison Blues, or when a Mexican mafia leader supposedly called him from prison and to warn him not to

act in the movie. From what we've heard, those stories probably didn't happen, or if they did, they happened very differently than how Trejo told them. But maybe he has an explanation for the discrepancies, like how Joe Morgan managed to call him from the Pelican based Special Housing unit where he was in solitary confinement for twenty two point five hours a day with more or less zero access to the outside world. If he calls us back, we'll

do another episode. Phone lines are open, Danny. But Trejo had a lot to say about Edward James Almost while he was promoting his book. He's still pretty mad about the whole thing. Okay, the leader of Mexican Mafia would never raped Hey, at least that's one thing we agree on. But enough about Danny Trejo. After all, whether you believe his story or not, he wasn't the guy who made American Me, and what transpired after the release of that movie probably plays out the exact same way no matter

what Trejo's involvement may have been. Throughout this season, I've been trying to get inside the head of one Edward James Almost, particularly the almost of the early nine nineties. Obviously, understanding the director of American Me would help us understand the movie itself, but could it also help us understand the version of America that the movie was made in, and, by extension, explain why Edward James Almost would make such

a dangerous piece of art in the first place. Remember, this isn't Admiral Adama, this is Edward James Almost circa one, the rising Hollywood star, the recent Academy Award nominee, the household name from five seasons on Miami Vice. But also a family man with kids at home, an active community leader with a vision, a spokesperson. If you will, one clue into Edward James, almost as Psyche might lie in a story that we heard about him early in our process.

It's the kind of story you think was made up or that's being taken out of context, if not for the fact that it's right on his website. It's about the civil rights uprising in Los Angeles, sometimes better known as the l A Riots, the culmination of a decade of reaganam X and militarizing police forces reaching a fever pitch, an event looking back that shows us Rodney King was

just the straw that broke the camel's back. Uh. In our review or, we find that the officers struck him with batons of between fifty three and fifty six times. I was scared. I was scared. I was scared for my life. The inaction of the seventeen officers may now be investigated by the U. S. Attorney's Office for possible civil rights violations. That's right. Seventeen officers were involved. Four took turns beating up Rodney King while the others just

looked on. All were caught on tape, and the tape was broadcast by every major news outlet. This was thirty years ago, when not everybody owned a cam quorder. In fact, this is so long ago, simme, y'all don't know what the cam quorder is. And just a couple of months after the event, those four officers were acquitted and the city of Angels just erupted for five days. There were riots. Even Sublime wrote a song about it. Where were you

at this point? American Me has been out only six weeks and then all hell breaks loose on the same streets. Edward James almost is trying to keep clean. He made a movie to stop violence in Los Angeles, but how does he deal with the most violent period the city had ever seen. I'm gonna read you what he wrote about just that, though my voice is nowhere as cool as his, So just imagine Edward James almost talking to you.

I was out on the morning that the military were scheduled to start to shoot to kill anyone left on the streets. That's why I went out. I wanted to see if they would shoot me with a broom in my hand. Then people saw it and turned out by the tens of thousands. The riot had not stopped, not until the afternoon of the friday we went out. It's funny how people think we went out after the fact. We were the fact of why the riots stopped. One person with a broom in his hands. It just happened

to be me. And this is how his right hand man, Danny Harrow, explained that day. It was amazing. It was amazing. Um, you know, I remember coming we started, I think any myself and maybe three other people. Five o'clock in the morning. We got brooms. Okay, that's what we're getting. Just that's all right. As as as it got light, people were coming. Amazing. People would come grab your cleaning stuff it with the

little cleaning army would would rise in numbers. And I and I specifically remember we came to an intersection where there were rioters going on and they were the National Guarden and police, and they actually stopped for us because they were about to go at it. They stopped for us and were going across the intersection. Okay, you know, so so people like I remember Denzel Washington later in the day coming and spoke with Eddie, And you know, I'm not saying they weren't doing their thing, but I

just remember that. I can't remember anybody that thought of this and and and actually started implementing it in the middle of it. But I know that he reached out first to the African American community of leadership, and they were afraid. I don't blame him, like I was afraid too, but I thought, hey, we got you know what, at least if we get killed, we're doing something that's honorable and we're giving back. So Okay, he's in it, I'm in it, let's go. I think it says so much

about this guy. He genuinely wanted to do something good. He made what is ultimately a small but theatrical gesture, and even today, seemingly he stands by the idea that him and a broom stopped the violence. Doesn't it sound a lot like the same kind of thinking that could lead a man to believe that a movie criticizing a very dangerous gang would somehow stopped children from wanting to

be gangsters. I try to think of this bold claim by almost in the context of the Edward James almost that I met, Yes, I met the man years ago at a dinner for a magazine called Latino Leaders. The prize for being a Latino Leader was a dinner with almost, which frankly sounded pretty cool to me. The discussion at dinner became a big pep talk about how to navigate a Hollywood ecosystem that doesn't include you or even understand you most of the time. But two things surprised me

that night. Almost asked us what the most watched movie of all time? Was not the highest box office, but watched the most times. We shouted out things like Titanic, Star Wars, and Avatar. Wrong. He said Stand and Deliver was the most watched movie of all time because it is played to this day in every school in America. A bold statement, but you try and prove him wrong. And he asked us if he was better known for

his acting or his activism. I think we thought the point he was trying to make was that he was under appreciated for his activism. So every single person in the room shouted out acting, no activism. He shouted back. What became clear to me was that this was a guy who saw himself first and foremost as an activist, and that the work he did on screen followed that guiding light. And he believes he is someone who can

personally make huge changes in our society. I mean, he's the type of guy who thinks he in a broom single handedly ended the l a riots. That makes it a little easier to understand why he'd go to such lengths and take such great risks. In American meme, coming up More Than a Movie, We're going to hear some of Edward James almost his sixties rock band, and we'll recap what we learned about the murders. Here are some

of those commercials that you love so much. Welcome back to More Than a Movie, American MEA, Alex Fumeto, thank you for listening with us for the last twelve weeks. That's longer than my producer's marriage lasted. Unlike him, at least you know what commitment means. Let's talk about some fun ship we found while we were reporting this story. The man, the activist, the singer, Yes, Edward James almost his first performances on stage where as a rock and

roll front man. Let's rewind a bit from ninety two Back to sixty two. Edward James Almost grew up in East l A And taught himself to sing and play the piano. By the early sixties, he was good enough to join a band, the Pacific Ocean. The band's name was Eddie's Idea because it was the biggest thing on the West coast with waist long hair. Eddie was the band's lead vocalist. I was a terrible singer, says Almost, but boy could I scream and dance means bitting his

new dance. That was a song entitled Mickey's Monkey off the album Purgatory, the band's only album. It includes such classic tunes as the bluesy tracks of My Tears, Look at the Base, the seemingly James Brown inspired I Want to Testify, and even a funkified version of Bob Dylan's subterranean Homesick Blues Did. Why does it matter one because it's cool and it's a fun way to come back from commercial to the guy wasn't the bassist or the keys. He was the lead singer, the front man from day

one and three. Because almost is always looking to push the envelope. As we've covered before, this is white dominated l A. So this makes almost who played at legendary l A rock venues like Gazari's one of the first Chicano frontmen on the Sunset Strip. So fast forward back and Almost has hung up his microphone and picked up

a camera. Figuratively speaking, he's directing the story of the gang leader who created the Mexican Mafia, and once again he's leading the way, becoming one of, if not the first movie to shoot inside an active prison with real prisoners. I do remember on the yard, the big open yard um, there were uh, you know, people in towers with rifles and they were you know, they're they're on shoot to kill orders. These are the directors of the documentary Lives

and Hazard, which shot alongside American me. If if if anybody had messed with us, you know, they would have been in you know, lockdown for years. That's that was That was kind of what the guards told us. So everybody was, you know, trying to be pretty polite. I would suffice it to say, when Eddie asked you to do something, he's pretty convincing. So he's pulling out all the stops making a movie that's going to change society as we know it. Then the movie comes out and

people start getting killed. Here's one of the actors, Danny de la Pace. We were in France, um along the riviera at the con Film Festival with American me when we heard the news of Anna's assassination basically, and uh, I remember feeling a little bit scared. I was in a foreign country, I was far from home, and I was like, wow, what am I gonna be going back home to, you know, I it was an eye opener from me. I I I didn't know what to think. On the streets of Los Angeles, word was out about

the movie and the Mexican mafia was very unhappy. Eric Galindo remembers, I mean I had heard that, you know when they made it, that had you got special permission from the real game ings to tell the story. Um, you know, definitely had heard that he was on green light. Um you know, so green light what it basically means is that you're you've been marked for death. There are so many stories about that movie. This is this was happening.

There's these rumors, you know, like, but all I really did for for like my my little group of friends, was like it just added to the authenticity, Like it was more like, that's how fucking real this is, that there are real gangsters involved, that people are getting killed over this, and that's kind of the tragedy of this movie. Edward James almost wanted to make an anti gang movie instead. Well, I mean it's definitely not a movie that my parents

would go watch, you mean, to be honest with you. Um, but I remember watching it with like sold out crowd. Remember there was like line out the door. It was sold out, and people loved it, you know. And and the funny thing was, I remember walking out, you know, people were like, oh, that's cool. Man Santana was a badass. No, young Jacob Vargas. That's not what Edward James almost wanted. Even some folks in the gang life were fans from

the actor Sal Lopez. Well, uh, one of my brothers was, you know, it was a little bit involved in the life for a little bit of time. And uh, heat to this stage is loves that movie. He loves the movie, you know. Ship the former Lamb and member we spoke to even said members of the Mexican Mafia like the movie. Beef over the rape. Notwithstanding, I think they glorified and they wallowed in the attention, American Me actually put the

Mexican mafia on the national international stage. Coming up in the very last segment of our deep dive on American Me, what do we know now about the extortion and threats made after the movie premiered? And did people really die because of America? Can me? Welcome back to more than a movie. I'm Alex Flumeto, and this is it. Thank you for sticking with us all the way through it.

While we get to the bottom of what really happened in the fallout to American Me, Let's listen to one more anecdote from Almost and the l A Riots that illustrates an important part of his worldview. And now we're here to discuss some grimmer realities in the city of Los Angeles. Have you been out today? What have you seen? Yeah, you gotta understand that we've been uh understanding this problem for a long time. We tried for many years and we have been for many years trying to bring awareness

to it. Who exactly is the we he's talking about? It's hard to say. Could be he was just with a friend or his wife or a colleague, but I don't think that's it. Could also be the royal weed. But he doesn't strike me as that kind of guy either. No, for me, this is a kind of Freudian example of how almost Fuse himself always is a part of a larger movement. It's not him ending the l a riots. Actually we are doing it. It's not him ending gang violence. We are. It's as if he isn't deciding to do

any of the things he's doing. The movement is sort of carrying him there like it's inevitable. And at the same time he's clearly someone who wants to control the process. No matter how much Edward James almost thinks he's acting on behalf of a movement, he's really the one making

the decisions, and decisions have consequences. You could argue that his insistence on using the word we and always acting in the interests of the community is altruistic and selfless, but it also centers him as the leader of the action. He's the lead singer, he's the man, and as such he bears responsibility for the consequences of his actions or the actions of the people he chooses to represent. So what is Edward James almost ultimately responsible for when it

comes to American me. There's really just two elements of the fallout that we have to look at. One did he face any personal consequences for making the movie? And two did the people who got killed after the movie came out get killed because the movie came out. For the personal consequences part, we're really just talking about the supposed green light on almost and the potential ransom that

he paid. We've got two opposing stories to resolve, and both of the people were intimately involved in the fallout from the movie. The first is Danny Harrow, who was almost his assistant at the time, and his take on

whether the extortion ever took place. What's your experience of the threats and aftermath that came to him as a result of give you Eddie's response to something like that, do you think if if anybody gave money, if you gave me a hundred fifty dollars and I'll leave you alone, So somebody gives on you think they're going to stop? That's That's the simple answer. That if you say yes to any of that, it won't end. They can always go back, Well, we need another hundred fifty and we're

gonna do you see what I'm saying. So, so that's the answer right there. It's preposterous. I mean, I think

that's because I think that's a very viable, uh answer. However, I think from what we've learned from our source within Liama, they see themselves as a business, right, And so if I was running a business and my business revolved around me telling you better give me fifty dollars, you're gonna die, and then I asked for thy thar, and then I asked for another and another another, probably people are going to stop paying me. But if you give me fifty dollars and then I don't kill you, well then we've

completed a business transaction. Turned that around. Give me another fifty, I'm going to kill you. I mean you always have that as you're operating motive operandi. You know, I have your your life in my hands. So how value is fifty? Is fifty or is it more? I mean, think about it for you know. I mean, that's unfortunately the way these guys operate. So so without being specific to my answer, that's the end that gives you the the the idea of whether there's truth in that or not. Does that

make sense? It does? But then we have our source from the last episode, the former Mexican Mafia member. Was there ever a bounty on Edward James almost as far as you know, No, No, there was not a bounty. The Mexican Mafia never paid for a hit, and it doesn't pay for hits. You do a hit, it's for the honor and the glory and the privilege for killing for the organization. So I mean, he was a target,

but not really a viable target. I mean, would they have killed him if you walk into gang territory and they were shooters there, sure they would have killed him. But I think he was more valuable being the target of extortion. So I mean you have to look at it through the prism of the mob, all right. They guys don't pay money, and he was a valuable asset of the organization for the period that they used them. Do you know what he paid them? Yeah? Wow, Okay,

that's that's actually less than what we heard. But I guess fifty thirty years ago is a different story. So it wasn't a bounty in the sense that they'll pay for anyone who kills him. But what it would have happened if almost hadn't paid Oh yeah. I mean, if you wouldn't have paid, it would have got whacked. We'll let you decide which story you believe. And then there's the people who were killed. We've narrowed down from Danny Trejo's vague eight to ten really to three individuals. Their

names were Annalys Sa, Charlie Mandriquez, and Manuel Luna. Between all the rumors around the movie and the fact that Edward James almost was maybe extorted by the Mexican mafia, some people around and believe that the movie actually caused the murders, to the point that they're still afraid today that they'll get killed for talking about it. But as we know from our source from within the Mexican mafia at the time and from the federal indictment, these people

were already on green light. So why why did the street react to this movie more than people in prisons. Well, you know, a lot of the stuff, a lot of it was filmed in hazard So smile long Guiado. He was headstrong and it was an opportunistic for him to eliminate people. They used to call Rocky Luna the godfather of the projects, right, So it was opportunistic for a Guyardo to utilize, you know, what was happening in the political world of mafia to get them whacked. You know,

Charlie Brown Mariquez, we had conspired to kill him. You know, I had volunteered to kill that guy years before. He wasn't even were killing though, right and the Lozarego was known as a rat through and through the hood, you know, because she went through Youth gang Services and she spoke to cops all the time, so she had smart on her. Charlie Brown Mariquez has smut on him for being a bum.

He was degrading the organization by living in cars and being a crackhead, and Mauel Luna became a crackhead, so you know, they were diminishing the statue of the organization. So Smiland used this opportunity to gain a foothold and hazard. It turns out Puppet and Little Puppet were right all along. My understanding that she she had a relationship with prior to the movie. Obviously she was our our technical advisor, and then she ended up in the movie. But she

was run in because she knew the world. And so my understanding was that there was some kind of thief that has something to do before the movie. I don't really know. I don't either, but I think American Me was, you know, maybe the straw that broke the camel's back. But there was more to it than just American as what you're trying to say, Like Rodney King, American Me was more of the straw that broke the camel's back,

not the reason itself. Liss, Saga, Manriquez, and Luna would have been killed eventually for their trespasses against Lamy, So putting that on almost isn't any more fair than saying the entire l a riots happened over court case. In fact, unlike the Rodney King case, American Me had almost nothing to do with why these people died. I wish I could tell Edward James almost that directly. Would it make

him feel better? I don't know. I think ultimately my quest to hear from almost or at the least to understand him, is really about the desire to understand the power of the artist himself. Is he right to believe that we can have that kind of impact, the kind that stops gang violence or riots through art and activism, or is that just a messianic complex? I'm not sure. What the answers to those questions are. But I have to think that was a humbling year for Edward James. Almost.

What we do know is that, well, maybe he didn't become the Chicano Martin Scorsese. He did find a more modest, if not painstaking way to make an impact in the lives of young Latinos. I mean, the chairman of the a Cinema Project how found it. It was an evolutionary process that started back and then kind of evolved, almost turned his attention to the classroom, perhaps inspired more by him Escalante than anything else. Film influences the human mind.

It's a very powerful medium. The way you address diversity is by going back to the drawing board and starting in fourth grade. The mission of the Youth Cinema Project

is very simple. It's about closing the achievement gap in the classroom for our most underprivileged children and to close the opportunity gap in the entertainment industry for our communities of color Fi cattic to The program involves two filmmaking mentors going into the classroom and they teach the entire process of film, so how to generate ideas, how to write the script, all the planning and pre production, filming itself,

in production as well as post that. They go through the process treating the students as colleagues rather than lecturing to them. It's inspired the community to the point of where kids are actually attending school mare. I mean, I wish I would have been had this class when I was in the fourth grade. My work would have been completely different. Our ultimate goal is to try to get the Youth Cinema Project inside every fourth grade class throughout

the United States. I am the founder and the creator of the Youth Cinema Project, and I'm very honor and proud of it more than a movie. American Me is a production of Exile Content Studios in partnership with My Hearts, michaela Podcast Network, and Trojan Horse Media. This show is produced by me Alex Fometo at Angry Yuk on the Internets and our senior producer is Nigel torm Rose Reed, Nando Viela and Cream Taps are executive producers. Are Supervising

producer is Sabine Jansen. Mixing and sound designed by Eduardo Albornos are executive for users at I Heart are just cl Bansas and Arlene Santana. For more podcasts, listen to the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H