Written by Carrie Duncan, Gringo Gazette, April 10, 2000

The East Cape is a region along the Sea of Cortez just north of San Jose. For many years the only people living out there were a few hard scrabble ranchers who raised skinny cows of goats, but in recent years some scattered houses have been built by Gringos along the dirt road. There is no electricity, no telphone service except for cell phones, and most folks in the Gringo colony have to buy their water off the truck that bumps by every few days. Nevertheless, several hundred houses have sprouted up along the 30 miles or so of bad road. Houses, which range from modest, to inventive, to luxurious. Many of these North Americans don't live here fu1l time and they are 'dependent' upon others to look after their investment while they are up North.

Last month, Gene Crane set a new house that was under construction on fire. He was given the gasoline and driven to the site by Peter McGonagal, who stood and watched as Crane poured fuel on both the styrafoam panels used in construction, and on the chemical toilet used by the eight man construction crew. Crane has admitted this to the police and to this reporter. McGonagle has admitted his presence there to the police and to the construction boss at the house. Jose Torres and to a Gringo who works out there and is too frightened to be quoted here. He was also observed at the fire by the night watchman, Juan Martinez. McGonagal has since recanted his admission to those four parties and is denying his involvement.

McGonagal owns Oceana, a construction and property management company out on the East Cape. Crane works in construction, often as a sub contractor for Oceana. McGonagal and Crane are good friends. Oceana bid on building the house that was burned but lost the bid to Joe Nied of Baja Sur Construction Co., commonly known as Quick Build.

Crane states that he burned the house, not because he was trying to chase a business competitor off the East Cape, but because he was offended by the odor of the workmen's chemical toilet. Crane lives 200 yards from the site. The toilet is of common construction consisting of a pit and a tarp held up by poles for privacy. Lime is thrown into it several times a week. It is the same kind of toilet that is constructed for workmen at job sites such as in the Pedregal and on the hotel job sites in the corridor. Crane admits that he never called the authorities to complain about the odor before torching the house, nor did he talk to the men on the job. The house was about 75% finished when he set it on fire and the night watchman was asleep inside. He escaped unharmed.

Crane also poured oil into the water pila on the job site. He states he was concerned about mosquitos, although this was not standing water, it was used so frequently that a truck had to re-fill it two to three times each week When asked why he did not pour chlorine in the pila, which would destroy rnosquitos but not ruin the water, he shrugged.

Prior to setting the house on fire. Crane and McGonagal had harassed the Mexican workers, following them out to the job site in the mornings, and attempting to intimidate them. On a recent Sunday, Torres, the construction supervisor, was driving to the beach.with his family when McGonagal and Crane confronted them in their much larger truck. circling the terrified Mexican family rapidly, driving round and round, preventing them from going further. They then stopped and stared menacingly at the family. Suddenly they drove off in a cloud of dust. This pattern of intimidation has been going on for many years, as another construction company tried to establish his business in the Zacatitos area several years ago and was so frightened by Oceana's intimidation tactics, that he moved on. He is now living and working further out on the East Cape and refused to be interviewed for this article.

In another instance of McGonagal's intimidation tactics, he called this paper after David Flores wrote an article in which he (Flores) translated the police report on the torching of the house. When asked, Flores told McGonagal that this reporter, a Gringa. would be in town in a week. McGonagal then called back in a week and invited me out. to the East Cape to have a friendly chat about the matter. Silly me. I arrived at Buzzard's bar 20 minutes early and there was nobody there. Unusual. At precisely 5 PM, 38 people, neighbors of McGonagal's, drove up together in a dozen cars. Many of those people spoke about what a fine man Peter McGonagal is and swore that they believe he is now telling the truth when he has recanted his initial admission to four different parties that he was involved in setting the fire. 38 people worked on me for several hours to try and intimidate me into writing another article this time denying McGonagal's involvement in the fire. It is likely that Gazette editor David Flores, was not targeted because they wouldn't dare molest a Mexican journalist. Immediately following the meeting, as I was paying my tab three people came up to me and whispered a hurried apology, saying that they really didn't want to be there but "had to come. I could not get them to talk to me further and they scooted off without telling me why they were so frightened.

Athough I was unhappy with the confrontation, I decided to let the whole matter drop after first buying an officiul translation of the police report to satisfy myself that our report ing was accurate. I thought at the time that it was a strange situation out there, people were scared, but possibly you have to be a little nuts to live in such isolation. Anyhow, I would decided to do them a favor and not write anything more, since what I would write would be the truth and not to their liking. That was before the death threats against Joe Nied. This isn't funny any more folks. This isn't just a couple of crazies thinking they can run a small neighborhood. Somebody's going to get hurt. Undaunted by McGonagal's and. Crane's attempt to burn his job site to the ground, Joe Nied continued to supervise his crew until he realized the police were not going to help him against death" threats. He has fled the country along with his wife! His nine man construction crew is trying to complete the house by themselves and McGonagal and Crane and their accomplices are now harassing Nied's Mexican work crew by driving union organizers to the job site as well as health inspectors. (They have declined joining a union and have passed health inspections.)

Nied's construction boss, Jose Torres, has turned to the police for help, as had Nied before fleeing, but Torres has no money to pay the police and he believes McGonagal has paid them. Torres has talked to an attorney who says he can help fight off McGonagal, but requires $1,000 which Torres does not have. He says that if he did have that kind of money, he thinks he could outbid McGonagle for protection for the police. Sigh. The scope of the problem out there is unknown to us (.....missing words......) not get protection from the police so it is to dangerous, to drive out there again. Torres is also afraid of one of McGonagal's accomplices, Dr. Lynn Kramer, a retired Gringo dermatologist. Dr. Kramer led the meeting of the gang of 38 against this reporter, and he seems to have a racial bias against Mexicans, voicing racial epitaphs at them and trying to block them from using the local beaches on their day off.

How many more Gringos are trying to intimidate Mexicans we don't know. The Mexicans who live out there are simple people and I can't afford to compete with Gringos to buy police protection, and they are too frightened to talk to Gringos, as they don't know which ones to trust.

We do know, however, that these nine members of Joe Nied's construction crew will soon be out of work. They have been together as a team for three years, and thought they had some job security, as Nied had contracts to build three more houses on the East Cape. With Nied too frightened to return, it is unlikely the crew can build those houses, so they will have to return to their homes in Todos Santos, where there isn't any work for them. After much soul searching, I have decided not to publish the written death threat here because it is so inflammatory, filled with hate, obscenities, and boasting of alliances with the local police.

But before Nied fled, he left behind a letter in a last desperate attempt to secure help for himself, his family, and his crew. We print the letter here in its entirety.

Written by Carrie Duncan, The Gringo Gazette, April 10, 2000

The Gringo Gazette is published bi-weekly in Los Angeles, CA. and distributed in Mexico, Canada, & The United States by Perioidico Americano, S.A. de C.V. In Mexico: 114 3 08 65 Office in Cabo Maritime Center. In the U.S: Red Eye Printing P.O.Box 41009 St Long Beach; CA. 90803 Ph. (562) 856 8914. Fax (562) 856 8914. Subscriptions available. see page 15 or 16, maybe 17, sometimes 9. Publisher: Carrie Duncan, carrie@gringogazette.com Editor: David Flores. david@gringogazette.com Sales: David Flores. Maria Luisa Abaunza. Graphic Design Chipper Dreese