EDINBURG (TX)
San Antonio Express-News
November 30, 2017
By Aaron Nelsen
EDINBURG — A deal struck between the Hidalgo County district attorney and the Catholic Church allowed a priest who was a suspect in the 1960 murder of a South Texas beauty queen to walk free, former reporter Darrell Davis testified Thursday.
It was the first day of the trial of John Feit, now 85, accused of murder in the death of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old second-grade teacher who had gone to him for the sacrament of confession.
Robert Lattimore, then Hidalgo County district attorney, agreed to steer investigators away from Feit, and in return the 27-year old priest would be sent to a monastery to live out the remainder of his days, Davis told the jury. He was a television reporter at the time, assigned to cover the case.
Lattimore “knew that John Feit had killed Irene Garza and the church knew it,” said Davis, 77. Lattimore “had reached an agreement with the church that John Feit would be placed in a monastery for disturbed priests and remain there for the rest of his life.”
It was April 16, 1960, the evening before Easter Sunday and Garza had gone to confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen. Her lifeless body was pulled from a canal five days later. An autopsy found that she had been beaten, raped while unconscious and then asphyxiated.
Two weeks before, Feit had attacked America Guerra at a church in Edinburg. It wasn’t long before Feit became a suspect in Garza’s murder.
Davis was covering the Guerra case and the Garza death for a local television station.
Testifying in the 92nd district court Thursday, the same courtroom where Feit faced charges of assault and attempted rape of Guerra, Davis recalled his off-the-record meeting with Lattimore.
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