Eleven Days in Hell: The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege at Huntsville, Texas

Acknowledgments

This book came to life following a monthly meeting of the Brazos Writers group in College Station, Texas, in 2000 when—as President of that organization—I invited Dr. Donald Dahl, Curator of the Cushing Memorial Library at TexasA&M University, to speak to our group about the resources available from that special sections library. In his remarks, Dr. Dahl mentioned—as an example of those resources—the “Estelle Papers,” a large collection of private papers and documents donated to the Library by Ward James Estelle, Jr., former Director of the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC). It was, Dr. Dahl lamented, something no one at that time had ever visited. Feeling a sense of obligation and guilt that no one from our group had ever “visited the Estelle Papers,” I felt a duty to do just that. Several days later, Dr. Dahl (who has since moved on to Texas Tech University in Lubbock) graciously showed me around the magnificent library which, at the time, was featuring a collection of Mark Twain originals. He took me to its special sections room where a librarian told me there were fourteen huge storage boxes containing the Estelle Papers and asked which one I wanted to see first. Off the top of my head, I blurted out, “Box Four,” having no idea what would lie therein. As I fingered obligatorily through Box Four, I came across a large packet of newspaper clippings about a hostage-taking at the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections prison in Huntsville, Texas, which started on July 24, 1974. Being an old newspaperman (and I mean “old,” literally and figuratively), I was intrigued by the story. Back in July of 1974, I was in the natural gas business and I had no knowledge of that prison story. Acknowledgments xi Like most people, I was absorbed by the Watergate scandal that was mesmerizing the Nation. I did an internet search on “Carrasco,” the siege’s ringleader, and found information about “Joe King Carrasco,” an Hispanic rock and roller. But, I also came across references to two books written by Aline House and Ronald Robinson, two civilian employees taken hostage by prison inmate Federico Gomez Carrasco. Both authors mentioned an FBI agent on the scene, Robert (Bob) E. Wiatt, and in 2000, he was Director of the Texas A&M University Police Department. A visit with Bob Wiatt in my own Brazos Valley backyard revealed that other than the two aforementioned books—both of which were written exclusively from a hostage’s point of view—and one chapter in a book about the long history of the Texas Rangers (Just One Riot by Ben Proctor), nothing had been written from the viewpoint of the hostages, their captors, or the law enforcement officers. On that day, May 23, 2000, this book was born. My research took me from the convenience of my computer screen to a three-day visit to Sacramento, California (interviewing Mr. Estelle); to Burbank, California (interviewing NBC-TV correspondent George Lewis, a reporter at Huntsville at the time), and across the vast expanse of the Lone Star State (two 800 round-trip miles to Port Isabel, Texas; 600 roundtrip miles to Seymour, Texas, and several 250-mile trips to Gatesville, Texas, for instance). The long trips were compensated for in large measure by the warm reception I received from the participants in the siege. They couldn’t have been more gracious, accommodating, informative, and helpful. Mr. Estelle, who initially didn’t want to relive the tragedy, gave me three days of his undivided attention. Former Walls Unit Warden Howell Herbert Husbands fascinated me with his vivid recollections of the event. Hostage Linda Woodman opened her home and her fabulous memory on several occasions. Hostage priest Joseph O’Brien welcomed me to his sanctuary and hostage Ann Fleming invited me to her home. Bob Wiatt kept me captivated in hisA&M office for several days. Wayne Scott, former TDC Director provided opening day details. Former TDC Assistant Director Daniel V. McKaskle regaled me with insights into xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS the personalities involved. NBC’s George Lewis, Cal Thomas (currently a commentator on Fox-TV News), and Jim Barlow of the Associated Press and later the Houston Chronicle, all reporters on the scene in 1974, were unstinting in their efforts to help me tell this story. According to Lewis, because of the news coverage of the Watergate scandal, the story “never got the national...