Latest / DISGRACELAND / Selena: Tejano, Deception, and the Death of the Madonna of Mexico

Transcript

Selena: Tejano, Deception, and the Death of the Madonna of Mexico · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Selena are insane. She was only ten years old when
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: she began to sing professionally. At sixteen, she was crowned
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Female Vocalist of the Year at the TANO Music Awards.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: She was the first Tano artist on the Billboard two
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: hundred and nineteen ninety four and was second only to
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Janet Jackson when it came to album sales by a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: female artist. And she was also the victim and one
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of the most shocking and high profile murder cases in
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: music history. Selena was the poster child for Latin pop
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: in the late twentieth century, at a time when Latin
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: pop was entering its renaissance and finding a larger, more
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: mainstream audience. If Latin pop was the question, Selena was
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the answer. And just as quick as she ascended, she
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: was silenced. But during her brief shining moment in the spotlight,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: she made great music. And that music you heard at
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the top of the show that wasn't great music. That
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: was a preset loop from my mellotron called Buried with
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: My Boots on MK one. I played you that loop
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: because I can't afford the Rights to Take a Bow
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: by Madonna? And why would I play you that specific
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: slice of bedtime story gold? Could I afford it? Because
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that was the number one song in America on March
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: thirty first, nineteen ninety five, And that was the day
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: that the queen of Tejano music was shot dead in
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: a cheap motel. On this episode a child Prodigy, the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Rise of Tejano a motel murder in Latin pop legend Selena,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Trinidad Espinoza heard
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: it first. The sound was loud, muffled, short, thunderous. Trinidad
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't tell if it came from the inside or outside
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: of the hotel. It sounded like an engine misfiring or
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: blown tire. Whatever it was, it wasn't an everyday sound.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Of all people, Trinidad would know. He was one of
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the maintenance guys at the day's inn in Corpus Christi.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: He knew every sound that place made, the clanks and
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: hiss of ac units, the water and the pipes, the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: grumble of the furnace. He could feel its vibration's course
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: throughout the walls in every small room in the motel,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: probably better than anyone. He was intimate with the sound
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: of the traffic speeding past on nearby in yours date
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: thirty seven. He could tell what time of day it
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: was just by how the traffic sounded at any given moment.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: But this, this was different. This sound wasn't like any
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: of those sounds, those sounds that Trinidad knew by heart.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Trinidad was in the middle of repairing one of the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: dryers in the laundry room. The thing had been on
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the fritz for days, and finally it had just conked out,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: probably a fuse. He had pulled it out from the wall.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: It was crouched behind it, taking out screws with this
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: cordless drill that desperately needed a new battery, cursing every
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: time the drill lost its torque. He was sandwiched between
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the back of the dryer and the lint covered wall.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: When he heard it, Trinidad stopped what he was doing
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: and waited for the loud noise to repeat, or for
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: another noise to follow. But he heard nothing, just the distant,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: moderate hum of traffic on I thirty seven. Based on
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the amount of hum, he guessed it was just about lunchtime.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: If that sound did come from the inside of them,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: it could have been anything. Something that could have stopped working,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: died out, broke, busted, something that would either need fixing
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: or need retiring. Things that needed fixing needed Trinidad. Things
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that needed retiring, Well, that was someone else's problem. What now,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: he thought, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: of his hand that held the drill. He had the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: dryer to fix. And then there were the faulty fluorescence
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: in room one twenty one in the AC unit. In
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: one fifty two, TVs weren't working in a few of
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the other rooms. In one of the outlets in the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: lobby was quote unquote temperamental had a mind of its own.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: The front desk clerk said Trinidad had too much on
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: his plate. He couldn't handle another problem today. He was
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: too old for this shit. He stepped outside the laundry
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: room to the exterior corridor of the motel to see
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: if he could figure out where the bang had come from,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: And as soon as he walked outside, he heard it. Screams, shouts,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: two women's printing down the corridor. The one in front
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: was the one screaming her long, dark hair flailed chaotically
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: behind her. Her shirt was bloody, her eyes wide, teary, panicked.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: He couldn't make out what she was saying, if she
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: was saying anything. Her incoherence screamed to the sounds of
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a desperate person. The woman chasing her was yelling at
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: her to stop. She was shorter, older soccer mom, haircut,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and determined stride. As she ran, her arms pumped up
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and down in the air. She was desperate, but controlled,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and Trinidad saw something in her right hand, something that
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: was in and out of view as her arms pumped
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: up and down. It took him a few seconds, but
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: as soon as he made out what it was, he
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: went for the nearest phone. She had a gun. By
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the time the bloody, panicked woman made it inside the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: front lobby of the motel, the shorter woman who had
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: been chasing her had given up, turned around, walked away, calmly, cool, collected,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: like it had never happened. She went back to the room.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: The room they came came from, Room one fifty eight.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Shanavello was working the front desk of the day's in
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: lobby when the bloody woman came rushing through the glass door.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Shauna jumped, gasped, hand over her mouth. She couldn't believe it.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just the blood that shocked her. The blood
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: was everywhere, all over this woman's tracksuit, smeared in a
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: path that ran from outside all the way to where
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: she stood, pulling at her feet on the lobby floor.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Blood was one thing, But what had Shauna really shook
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: was that she was pretty sure that this bloody woman
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: was Selena. Selena Kitania Perez, the undisputed queen of Tejano music,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Corpus Christie's pride and Joy, a local celebrity with a
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: massive audience and a real down to Earth's head on
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: her strong shoulders, lead singer of the group Lostinos, Grammy
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: winner the Teuhano Music Awards Female Entertainer of the Year
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: eight years running. Now, she was the unlikeliest of superstars,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: just a regular person, a next door neighbor type, humble, kind, proud,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the kind of celebrity you felt you could just trust instinctively,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: no questions asked, and she was only twenty three, and
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: not one iota of her fame had gone to her head.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Everyone loved her, especially here in Corpus Christi Texas, her hometown.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Shanna recognized Selena underneath the blood and the sweat and
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the panic, recognized her voice as she shouted wildly into
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the room. Locked the door, Someone locked the door. She's
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: gonna kill me. Goosebumps ran down Shawna's spine. She went
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: from hero worship to chaos control real quick. Then Selena
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: collapsed on the floor of the lobby. It had taken
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: all of her energy to get her there, get her
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: to safety. Her body crumbled so suddenly, it was like
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: every bone in her body had disappeared, and she went
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: limp and the lively superstar was lifeless. Another motel employee
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the lobby, Reuben de Leon, kneeled over her as her
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: eyelids fluttered and her eyes started to roll around in
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: her head. Who Ruben asked her, Who's gonna kill you?
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: The blood kept coming, and there was more of it
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: than any of them realized. Yolanda Selena muttered with some
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: of her last labored breaths Room one fifty eight. Outside,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: it was getting loud. Cars came rushing from all directions. Cops, locals,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: rubberneckers tuned into police skin her action, and of course
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the press. The woman who had chased Selena outside had
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: left Room one fifty eight. It was sitting behind the
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: wheel of her blue Chevy pickup in the motel parking lot.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: It idled, the sky darkened. She could feel the storm
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: about to roll in. She was frozen, couldn't decide what
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: to do, to back up, to pull forward, to move
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: or not to move. She held the thirty eight on
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: her lap and sat still suicide As painless crackled from
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the truck shitty am radio. Yolanda started to shake cars
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the kind of uniform cops drove with big V eight's
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and Ratiley pickups. Off duty specials rumbled down the I
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: thirty seven off ramp alongside the SWAT team in m
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: v's helmets, guns drawn, hands fixed and ready. Position on
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the seat of her Chevy. Yolanda's cell phone buzzed. She
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: let it go off for a few and then answered it.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: It was the police. They had her surrounded. They knew
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: she was Yolanda Saldivar, and they knew she had just
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: shot Selena. Yolanda went full hysteria. She raised the thirty
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: eight to her head. She wasn't going anywhere. You hear
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: that she'd die in that truck, she assured them, and
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the courage faded quick and then fear tears, the fast,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: hyperventilating kind. I don't want to live anymore, she sobbed
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: into the phone. I don't think I can forgive myself.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: The cops training kicked in full hostage negotiation. It was
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: a seesaw. They took her down, then she blowed back.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: She'd raise that revolver to her temple and then lower
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: it and then raise it again. The cops would wrap sympathy,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: they'd rap stern, they'd rap responsibility of obligation, and then
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: fraddle back with empathy. For nine tens hours, Yolanda sat
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: in the driver's seat of that blue Chevy pickup, her
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: snub nose thirty eight pressed to her temple, on again,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: off again. The clouds rolled in, the rains came the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: weather beat against the truck's windshield and scattershot rhythm, hard
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to haunt, O bop. Yolanda tried hanging on to her
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: freedom to the madness of the moment, incessant cop talk
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: and arsenal of guns pointed at her, guilt and shame
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: bearing down on her, and the san Antone standoff the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: longest day of her life. Eventually it became too much.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: She gave herself up. Yolanda was going to jail and
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Selena Selena was dead. Selena has been shot and killed
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: in Texas. Millions of Americans were learning Selena's name for
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the first time when they caught the eleven o'clock news
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: in the night of March thirty first. But for millions
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: of others, For the fans of Tejano, tex mex and
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Latin music, whose numbers had grown exponentially over the last
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: five years, each mention of her murder on the radio
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: or a television was an emotional blow. Selena's death put
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: a hole deep in the heart of Texas, Texas, San Antonio, Monterey,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the entire Tehano community. They had lost one of their own,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: a twenty three year old Fena, an icon, a queen,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: a sister, the madonna of Mexico. Selena was family to them.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: They were family to her. The Tehano community, her fans,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: named and friends. She was their greatest ambassador, and she
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: had been taken from them suddenly, violently. Selena's rise to
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the top of the Latin pop world happened in tandem
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: with Teano's Golden Age. Tehano music was huge because of Selena,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Beginning in the nineteen eighties and continuing into the nineties.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Internationally minded Anne Hrman from America's major labels descended upon
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: South Texas to exploit the fast rising popular style of
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: La Nda, an offshoot of Teano, and they signed every
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: band they could find. The same thing was happening in
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Seattle at the time with grunge music. Different genre, same idea.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: From the perspective of the music industry, suits locate the
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: lightning in the bottle and signed the lightning on the
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: dotted line. Selena was a special kind of lightning. By
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the time she released The More Prohibito in nineteen ninety four,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the last album she'd make, Tehano music was a fifty
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: million dollar industry. When her first English language album, Dreaming
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: of You was released just months after her death, It
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: debuted at number one on the Billboard two hundred and
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: sold one hundred and seventy five thousand copies in the
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: US on its first day. That sales achievement was a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: first for a female artist of any genre. Decades later,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: it remains the best selling Latin album of all time.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Certified platinum fifty nine times over. That's fifty nine million
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: albums sold. Suddenly, Selena wasn't just competing with other piano
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: artists on the charts. She was competing with Madonna, Whitney,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and Janet. In fact, her album sales after her death
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: were so huge that she sold upwards of three hundred
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: thousand units in one week. The only female singer who
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: had her beat on those numbers was none other than
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Janet Jackson herself. Selena rested peacefully at the top, and
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: she got there by honoring tradition, respecting culture, and above all,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: trusting in family. In return, her family had her back.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Tejano music that was a family affair. Tejano's roots go
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: all the way back to the mid nineteenth century, when
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: German immigrants came to the Lone Star State with accordions
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: in tow. The squeeze box took center stage in the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: music of Southern Texas. Backed by guitars and later drums
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and horns, it powered Waltz's Pocas Cajuntos, and by the eighties,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: synthesizers had replaced the accordions and horns, and Tejano was
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: modernized and timely. Like zydeco music in Louisiana. Tejana was
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: working class music, regional music, and San Antonio was the
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Tejano capital of the world. The music was an extension
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: of culture and extension of family, and Abraham Ketania was
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: above all a family man. He knew that his kids
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: were a musical talented it was in their blood. He
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: himself had sang with the Corpus Christi Duov group in
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the sixties Lostinos, and though he had to put the
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: dream behind him in order to hold down a steady
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: job and raise a family, he reminisced fondly about his
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: days snapping fingers and singing in three part harmony. So
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: when he recognized the raw musical talent in his own children,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Los Dinos wrote again, Abraham resurrected the name. The name
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: meant something to the lifers in Corpus Christi. It gave
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: them a leg up, not that they needed it. With
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Abraham's son ab on bass and his daughter Susette on drums,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: they were a force. Abraham fashioned stage lights from household
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: bulbs stuck inside aluminum cans. He commandeered a bus, Big Bertha,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: that took the family band around the state to house parties,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: vacant street corners and bars. They literally sang for their supper,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: a supper which their mother Marcella cooked. Best of all
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: was their not so secret weapon, Selena. In nineteen eighty one,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: when Abraham re christened his old duop group as Selena
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I Loostinos, the lead singer was all but ten years
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: years old. She surprised the crowds, shocked them even as
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: she commanded stage after stage, an audience after audience, with
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a voice that was breathtaking and wise beyond its years,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: truly something to behold. And though English was Selena's first language,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: she sang in Spanish a nod to tradition, to culture,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: to family. The Kitanias were all about family, honor, respect, tradition,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: family above all. Throughout the nineteen eighties, Selena Ilostinos rode
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the surging wave of Tehano music. In a way, they
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: were the wave sometimes called Tehano Hodo or Texas Wave,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the latest incarnation of Tejano music melted pop, country and
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: tex mex Selena Yilostinos had the goods. They tipped their
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: hat to generations past and to their own generation, but
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: ultimately they had the best voice in Southern Texas on
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: their side. A voice that melted, hearts, that captivated, compelled,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: a voice that some would kill for. Selena Elostinos were
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: signed to some local indie labels, and at the nineteen
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: eighty seven to Hanno Music Awards, Selena took home the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: trophy for Female Entertainer of the Year. She would go
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: on to win the award for the next eight years.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Selena was the pride and joy of Corpus Christi and
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of Southern Texas. She sang sweetly, smiled sweetly, the kind
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: of homegrown celebrity who could enthrall thousands of fans from
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the stage, but was just as at home out on
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the streets with the locals and the Molina barrio of
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Corpus Christie, where she came from and continued to live
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: after she became famous. Selena's rise and pressed the Latin
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: music industry even more, and in nineteen eighty nine, Emi
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Latin Records signed her as a solo artist. Around the
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: same time, Chris Perez joined her band as a guitarist.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: The two would soon become romantically involved, and not long
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: after they loped. Abraham was the wherry type, the doubting type,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and he was less than thrilled, but Selena's decision to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: tie the knots so quickly and at such a young age.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: But despite what he thought, Chris wasn't just the guitar
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: player anymore. Chris was family now. Selena's solo albums were
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: big business. Nineteen ninety one's ven Conmigo made her the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: first female Tejano singer to go gold. Nineteen ninety two's
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Andre al Mimundo pre sold fifty thousand copies before it
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: even hit shelves and sold over one hundred thousand copies
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: before that end of the year. Nineteen ninety three, Selena
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Alive earned her a Grammy Award for Best Mexican American Album,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and as such, she was the first Tejano musician to
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: win a Grammy. She was untouchable and she was infallible.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Her clean cut image was a product of the family
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: environment she came from, and it was key to the
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: legions of fans who felt like they were part of
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: her family, felt like they were her sisters and her brothers.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: But her new husband, Chris will put a strain on
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: that clean cut fan dynamic. One night on tour, Chris
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: partied hard with the crew and the band a real
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Fiesta Loca. When Selena found him the next morning, he
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: was standing in the doorway to a trash hotel room.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: He knew he had fucked up. He saw it in
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: her eyes. Selena didn't play the fuck up game. Chris
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: had to come correct, not just with Selena, but with
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: her father Abraham too, and that was like telling Vido
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Corleoni that he just knocked over his daughter's wedding cake.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Then there was the night Chris left the bar in
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: San Antono, slightly buzzed after a few drinks and got
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: behind the wheel of his mom's osmobile. His cousin sat
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: in the passenger seat, his friends spread out in the back,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and they hit the highway in search of Baron Roaldos.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Chris floored it. He was so far ahead of the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: patrol car that he figured there was no way in
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: hell the blue lights were meant for him. He knew
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: he was dead wrong. When the cop cars multiplied around him,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: he pulled over. Officers hit the street, shotguns were drawn cocked.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Chris stared down the barrow of a long neck standard
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: issue and felt like he was back in the doorway
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of that hotel room, looking into Selena's disapproving eyes playing
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: that fuck up game. One of the cops pulled Chris's
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: cousin from the car and held him on the ground.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was the couple of beers Chris already had
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: in him. Maybe it was the pitiful sound his cousin
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: was making outside his mouth, tasting gravel with an officer's
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: boot on his neck. But Chris was out of the car, enraged, empowered,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: ready to throw down. As soon as he put his
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: hands on the one cop. Another standing nearby raised his
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: shotgun point blank. Chris and his cousin were cuffed, brought
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: down town. Chris's first instinct was to keep his mouth
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: shut and not shame Selena and her family with the
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: news of his arrest. But everyone knew who he was,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: how he was connected to Selena. He'd have to tell her,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: have to tell Abraham. The family trusted him to do
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the right thing, to make the right decisions, and he
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: clearly had betrayed that trust. Little did he know, Little
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: did anyone know that Selena was also busy betraying the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: family's trust, her husband's trust, and she was doing it
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: on the regular. She was spending more and more time
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: in Monterey, Mexico, where she was looking to expand her
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: clothing boutique business, Selena et cetera. It was there that
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: she met doctor Ricardo Martinez, a plastic surgeon who would
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: quickly become more than just a friend. Selena confided in Ricardo,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: told him about Chris's arrest and trashed hotel rooms in
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the ways in which she was unsatisfied with her marriage.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Ricardo became her financial advisor and showed her a place
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: in Monterey where she could live, where they could live together,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: start over, take things to the next level. Selena wasn't
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: so sure she trusted Ricardo, but she wasn't sure that
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: she trusted herself. Maybe it was all just fantasy, something
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: she could daydream about for a hot minute while she
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: cooled down about whatever stressing her out at the moment.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Few knew about what she was doing in Monterey, who
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: she was talking to, and the plans she was entertaining.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: There was one woman in particular who knew all about it,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and the whole thing made her antsy, suspicious, jealous because
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: she wanted Selena for herself. She wasn't going to compete
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: with the plastic surgeon who was five hours away from
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: their corpus Christie Bass. She was family, and she'd do
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: whatever she needed to do to keep Selena close. We'll
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: be right back after this word. We're We're Yolanda Saldovar
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: asked to see the thirty eight caliber Taurus revolver. It
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: was right there under the glass, Compact, snub nosed, lightweight,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: easy to conceal, cheap as fuck, and it would get
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the job done. It would do what needed doing. The
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: clerk gave Yolanda a funny look. Wasn't she just here?
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Hadn't she just returned the same revolver a few days before,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and now she wanted it back? Which is it, lady?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Do you want the gun or not? Yolanda definitely wanted
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the gun. She knew she'd get that funny look, knew
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: she'd get the question. The clerk wasn't wrong. She had
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: bought it once already, then she returned it. But that
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: was a mistake. Returning it was definitely a mistake. She
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: needed the gun honor in her pocket, in her clutch.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: The thought of spending another day without the weight of
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: that little thirty eight made her shake, sweat panic. She
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: told the clerk she worked as a nurse for the
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: terminally ill, and she needed protection from family members who
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: had made threats on her life. He didn't know that
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Yolanda hadn't worked as a nurse for years, but he
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: knew she was full of shit. Regardless, he didn't care.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: She passed the background test, and honestly he couldn't give
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: a rats ask what she needed the gun for. As
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: long as she had cash, he'd take her money again.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: She wanted bullets too hollow points to kind of hit fast,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: open fast, did as much damage as possible fast. She
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: wanted twenty of them, transaction complete. Yolanda walked outside, sunglasses
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: on revolver, nestled inside her jacket pocket. The wind rustled
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: her short haircut, gave it the most tender of tossils,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: but she imagined that her hair was long and luxurious
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: hair that the wind could really grab onto and twirl
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: around in slow mow ecstasy, she rocked her most badass
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: stroll through the parking lot, big confident strides, her darting,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: uncertain eyes hidden behind her dark shades. She didn't care
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: what anyone else thought, didn't care what any random pass
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: or by thought when they saw her walking or walk.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: She was walking hard, walking with a little piece snuggled
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: next to her. She was a badass, and she would
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: do what badasses had to do. It was the morning
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: of March thirty first, nineteen ninety five. She wondered if
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: she would have to eat used the gun that day.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Yolanda had been a faithful servant to Selena for the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: last four years, her friend, confidant employee. What Yolanda wanted
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: more than all that was to belong, to be a
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: part of the family, be indispensable, and from the moment
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: she saw Selena perform in nineteen ninety one, she knew
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: she wanted to get closer, be a part. Yolanda couldn't
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: believe that they weren't hawking Selena merch in the lobby
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: after the concert in San Antono in nineteen ninety one,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: so she brazenly offered to set up the Selena Fan Club.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Yolanda would be its president. Yolanda hustled. Yolanda preached the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: word of Tajhannah's Queen Gilanda spread the gospel of Corpus
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Christie's greatest export, Selena. Under Yolanda, Selina's fan Club's membership
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: balloon to nearly half a million, so Yolanda continued to
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: climb the family ladder. From fan club president, Yolanda worked
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: her way up to be Selena's assistant and then to
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: helping manage the clothing line the Selna et Cetera boutique shops.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: She had access to the checkbooks, she held the purse strings.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Selena trusted Yolanda so much that she had her running
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: recon on Monterey in anticipation of Selena, etc. Breaking into
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the Mexican market. But there was a darker, more obsessive
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: side to Yolanda's devotion. She covered the walls of her
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: bedroom with posters of Selena, her boss. She kept a
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: stash with Selita VHS tapes at the ready. She'd break
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: them out when she had visitors. She thought about Selena,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: talked about Selena, dreamed about Selena. She laid in her
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: bed a Selena CD playing loud from the next room,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: and looked up at the poster on the wall, The
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: twenty four x thirty six inch spread a dominant force.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Stacks of cash hidden underneath her pillow. She imagined her
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: face next to Selena's face, big toothy smile, elegant dress,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: perfect hair. Her imagination went deeper, as if she could
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: sing like Selena could sing, like she too was the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Madonna of Mexico. She heard the applause, heard the screams
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: for her attention, for their attention. She needed his sunglasses
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: back on to shield her eyes from the explosive camera flashes.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: She Yolanda Saldivar and Selena Kee Denia Perez. They were
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the town of Queen's, an undeniable duo. The Selena CD
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: ended and the music stopped filling the house, and in
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the quiet stillness, she realized that, of course she wasn't
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: a town o queen. She was just Yolanda. She existed
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: somewhere in Selena's long shadow, needed but unseen, trusted but unknown.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: And then fans started to complain that they were sending
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: in their twenty dollars fan club fee, but weren't receiving
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: anything in return. That fan club money was supposed to
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: be funneled to charities, but the charities weren't seeing any dough.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: It was being funneled elsewhere. Soon the boutique shops started
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: failing as well. The bookkeeping discrepancies were rising. Selena et
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: cetera employees were complaining about Yolanda's management skills mostly about
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: her lack of sea skills. Period she had controlled the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: purse strings, but she was generally a mess when it
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: came to management, and people were noticing. Abraham, Selena's father
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: noticed pretty damn quick. He smelled a rat. The rat
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: had gotten close earned trusts, and then it did what
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: rats do. Abraham knew what a rat looked like, knew
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: where it lived. He could smell it a mile away.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: He knew the rat had committed a cardinal sin. The
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: rat betrayed the family. On the morning of March ninth,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, Abraham held an emergency meeting with Yolanda
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: and Selena. He was going to call Yolanda out, and
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: he wanted his daughter to see it all. The queen
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: would have a front row seat to her most loyal
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: subjects indiscretions. Abraham accused Yolanda of embezzlement. She was a thief.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: She was stealing from fans, taking money from Selena's pocket
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: from the family. He had proof, He had testimony of
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: employees at the San Antonio shop. In Abraham's eyes, there
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: was only one way descended. Yolanda had to go, and
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: if she didn't make right the wrong she had committed,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: He'd sue, he'd drain her. She'd be left with nothing,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: no job, no family. It would be like that time
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: she was accused of stealing nine grand from the doctor's
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: office she worked at in the early eighties. Yolanda had
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: no idea how Abraham knew about that shameful part of
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: her history, but he did. Abraham did his homework. Abraham
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: went deeper. He accused Yolanda of being a lesbian, of
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: having an unrequited crush on his daughter, and that she
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: was a spern jealous, bitter woman, a spern jealous, bitter rat.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Yolanda felt the panic bristle against the back of her neck.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: She wrung her hands, her long nails clicking against one another.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: She thought about being poor again, thought about being slandered,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: thought about being without her adopted family. A life without
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the close confidence of Selena was a life she didn't
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: want any part of. She looked across the table at Selena,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: who saw the anxiety in her eyes and knew what
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: she was thinking. Fell to her pan. Selena was experiencing
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: her own panic because Yolanda knew about Selena's visits to
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Ricardo and Monterey. Selena knew that Yolanda knew some of
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: her deepest, darkest secrets, and Selena was terrified that Abraham
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: would back Yolanda into her corner and Yolanda would squawk,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: would say something she shouldn't. The two watched each other
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: from across the table, equal parts trust, equal parts terror.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Yolanda was shaking. She kept her head down, but raised
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: her eyes enough so that she could lock in on
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Selena's unwavering gaze. Abraham kept talking, his voice rising with
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: anger and disappointment, and the two women tuned him out.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Their minds raised, eyes unflinched. Each felt their other's cold stare.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Selena was shocked at what she had heard, was taken
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: aback by the accusations her father laid bare. She also
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: knew that Yolanda krook or No was prived to some
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: very private shit. Yolanda had Selena's number, knew what she
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: was capable of, knew her deception, knew that she was
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: more complicated than just another town I singer from San Antono. Yolanda,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: from her bowed head, raised eye's gaze translated what Selena's
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: eyes were saying that Selena was a little surprised, sure,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: but that Selena wasn't shocked that she knew Yolanda had
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: some crazy in her, had some desperation in her. Yolanda
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: would do what she needed to do to survive, to thrive,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: and that Selena would have to do what she had
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: to do to survive as well. And if that meant
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: turning a blind eye to whatever the fuck Yolanda was
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: cooking up, so be it. After the meeting, Yolanda couldn't
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: shake the feeling she was being followed. On her road
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: trips from San Antonio to Monterey and back again. She'd
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: watched the same black sedan in her rear view mirror.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: It lurked behind her, kept a distance of a few
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: car links, but it was always there, so she thought.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: One day, she walked to her car to find the
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: tires slack against the gravel. Someone had let the air out,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: all four of them. The rims pressed the ground. She
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: anxiously scanned the area to see if that black sedan
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: was nearby. She was scared, far from safe, and that's
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: when she bought the thirty eight. For the first time.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: She had lost Abraham's trust, and she was pretty confident
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: that she had lost Selena's trust too, and if she
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: was losing trust, she was losing family, losing protection. This
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: little thirty eight made her feel a little safer. Selena
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to believe that
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: the person who had set up her wildly successful fan club,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: who had been instrumental in making that Monterey connection, who
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: ran the day to day business of the boutiques. Selena
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: didn't want to believe that that person was stealing from her.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: But Abraham's proof was hard to deny. Cutting Yolanda from
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: her life wasn't going to be that easy. Yolanda also
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: knew the clandestine things Selena was up to over the border,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: her dates with the doctor, her plans to pick up
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: stakes and relocate to Mexa ago start a new life
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: with a new man. Whether those were concrete plans or
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: a fleeting fantasy, Yolanda knew all the details. Selena trusted
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: her to keep the details in the vault. If Selena
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: cut her loose, the vault could open up, and then
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: she'd really have problems. So partly to buy time, partly
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: to throw Abraham off the scent, and partly to wrap
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: up the expansion plans they had started together. Selena started
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: putting Yolanda up in motels, first at the Bayfront Inn,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: then the Budget In, then the days In. Selena moved
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: her around while she figured it out. Maybe she could
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: fix the pickle Yolanda found herself in and everyone would
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: wind up happy, and maybe Yolanda would fix it herself.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: When they were sitting in a Nidline car when Yolanda
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: told Selena just how worried she was. She was anxious,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: She was paranoid. She thought she was being followed. She
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: thought her life was in danger. She was worried that,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: for all intents and purposes, her life was over. But
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: she was taking necessary precautions. She'd be safe. She didn't
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: have anything to worry about. She pulled the Subnose thirty
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: eight from her pocketbook, and though the sun fought through
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: a cloudy haze that reflected out the revolver's barrel and
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: made a flicker a glint, Selena couldn't believe what she
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: was seeing. A gun. Why on earth did Yolanda need
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: a gun? Was she that worried, that paranoid? Was she
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: that crazy? It was March thirtieth, nineteen ninety five in
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the parking lot of the Days in nine oh one
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: navigation Boulevard Corpus Christi. Selena told Yolanda to check into
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the room, get some rest, and that she would see
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: her tomorrow. Yolanda didn't need all twenty hollow point bullets.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: She only needed one. One shot, fast, explosive, precise, maximum damage,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: minimal effort, dead shot. Her story about what happened in
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Room one fifty eight changed. It changed when she sat
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: in her truck in the parking lot of the Days
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: in the thirty eight, pressed to her pulsating temple. Then
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: it changed in the interrogation room after she was arrested,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: and again it changed in the courtroom when she went
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: up on trial for the murder of her former employer,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: friend and confidant. In one story, Yolanda bought the thirty
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: eight to take her own life. In Room one fifty eight,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: she confessed to Selena that she was at a dead end.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: She had made mistakes, she had made some wrong decisions.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: She was selfish, greedy, lost sight of what was important,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: and now her actions were going to sink her once
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: and for all. She simply couldn't live with it, never
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: mind the guilt. She wasn't about to go back to
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: being a nobody. She brought the subnosed piece up to
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: her temple. Her hand shook rapidly and the hollow points
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: banged around inside the metal chamber. Her bracelets clicked together.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: It was all sound and vibration coming from the end
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: of Landa's hand in the side of her head. Selena
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: couldn't listen anymore, couldn't watch anymore. She had to get help.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: She left up from the edge of the bed where
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: she was sitting and went for the door. She pulled
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: it open, and there was the outdoor corridor an overcast sky.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Yolanda frantically motioned with her hand, the hand that was
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: holding the gun, and it just went off. In another story,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Yolanda was convinced that Selena was going to run away
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: to Monterey and live a new life with Ricardo Martinez,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: convinced that Selena was wearing disguises for herself of the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: bort to rendezvous. In fact, Selena had met Yolanda at
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the day's end with a suitcase packed for a couple
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: of days in the Mexican work permit. She was going
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: to leave behind her husband Chris and up end the
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: trust she had built within her family. Yolanda wouldn't let
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: that Happenanda couldn't let that happen, and so she pulled
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the revolver on her employer, on her business associate, on
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: her friend. She pleaded with Selena, begged her to reconsider,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: to not make her do it. Don't make her do
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: something drastic, something rash. She didn't want to pull the trigger,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: didn't want to hurt town. Was pride and joy. But
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: if Yolanda didn't stop her from ruining her life, who would.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: It was her duty, Yolanda reasoned. Selena tried reasoning with Yolanda,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: explaining what it was she wanted and how it ultimately
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: was none of Yolanda's business, and then she tried to
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: leave the hotel room. She figured there was no way
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Eolanda would actually pull the trigger. Selena was halfway out
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the door when she felt something hot and sharp blast
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: through her back. Then there was the most likely story,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the story. Selena's family and the public believed Yolanda was
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: face value. Yolanda was jealous. Yolanda was controlling, manipulative, obsessive, petty, bitter,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: a thief, and the bullet she put into Selena was
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent cold blooded. The court of public opinion
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: certainly thought so. Crowds formed outside the courthouse in Houston,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: where the trial had been relocated from Corpus Christi because
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: there was a lower Hispanic population and therefore less bias.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Several hundred Selina fans took to tanning Justicia. The signs
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: were at San Antonio wants a guilty verdict and hang
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the witch. There were drawings distributed of Yolanda firing range fodder.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Someone wrote kill Yolanda in white shoe polish on a
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Toyota's windshield. Meanwhile, gangs in Houston, Miami, and Los Angeles
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: led a bet to see who would get their hands
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: on Yolanda first. If she was found innocent, Street justice
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: had already been determined, no matter what the court rolled.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: On October twenty third, nineteen ninety five, the court found
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Yolanda Saldavar guilty and sentenced her to life in prison,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: with the possibility of parole in thirty years. That possibility
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: comes around in twenty twenty five. Time will tell soon
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: enough if street justice is lying in the cut. Selena
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: was a rarity. She was insanely talented, had a voice
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: like no other. She honored her culture, the legacy of
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: her family and other families like hers, and also brought
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: the music of her family into the present tense. She
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: was the face and the voice of modern Tahano, of
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Latin pop as it evolved into a chart topping phenomenon
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: in the late twentieth century. And she was beautiful, down
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: to earth, the best of both worlds, the real deal, honest, truthful.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Everyone wanted to be by her side. Some wanted to
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: be by her side more than others. Some would do
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: just about anything to stand there, and then would do
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the unthinkable to prevent anyone else from getting as close.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: And that is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: is Disgracelam. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly. It is
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: produced in partnership with Double Elvis, the Exactly Right Network.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. Credits for this episode can be found on
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and if not,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: you can become a member right now by going to
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: disgracelampod dot com. Slash Membership members can listen to every
• 40:50
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• 40:54
  Speaker 1: and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: disgraceland Pod rock a Rolla, He's a bad, bad man.