ARIZONA/TEXAS
Arizona Republic
[with video]
Megan Cassidy and Garrett Mitchell, The Republic
A connection to a slain beauty queen was John Feit’s worst-kept secret in the decade leading up to his arrest.
The 1960 killing of Irene Garza, a young schoolteacher, continued to dog the otherwise quiet life of Feit, an elderly Scottsdale resident and former priest known for helping the poor and the homeless in metro Phoenix for more than a quarter-century.
Since nearly a lifetime ago, Feit, 83, had been the sole occupant on detectives’ list of suspects, although he never had been arrested or charged.
Garza’s grisly slaying in the Rio Grande Valley in the southern tip of Texas inspired national crime documentaries and haunted investigators. It served as a political platform for the recent campaign of Hidalgo County Prosecutor Ricardo Rodriguez, who was asked by Garza’s family to examine the case once again.
No charges were brought after the initial investigation in 1960, conducted after Garza was found face down in an irrigation canal, five days after she was last seen heading to confession at a Catholic Church where Feit was a priest. A grand jury re-examined the case in 2004 but did not indict him. Last week, another grand jury did.
In a brief and unexpected 2014 interview with “48 Hours’ “Richard Schlesinger, Feit expressed disgust with the allegations. For the umpteenth time, Feit denied killing Garza.
“Get lost, brother!” he snarled, before slamming the door in the reporter’s face.
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