Mayoral Candidate William A. Garza Reported Kidnapping in 1998

William A. Garza

Here is what little I know about Mayoral candidate William A. Garza:  The personable Garza, a former City Commissioner, runs the Magnuson Inn for hotelier and Indian immigrant P.K. Patel.   Garza was Patel's campaign manager during his boss's run for City Commissioner in 2011.

Since a few people have shared with me an apocryphal version of an incident where Garza was found unclothed on a rural road outside Brownsville, I reprint the January 20, 1998 Brownsville Herald article detailing the incident:  

"A former Brownsville City Commissioner was kidnapped at knife point Sunday evening by two unidentified men, and later released in an isolated area without his clothes, police said.

According to Brownsville police, William Garza, currently a candidate for a seat on the Cameron County Commissioners Court, was roughed up but unhurt. Police gave the following account of the abduction:

Garza was campaigning near the 5600 block of Coffeeport Road and left his 1986 light yellow Chevrolet station wagon parked beside the road. When he returned to the car, he noticed two male Hispanics in their early 20s standing near the vehicle, and approached them. One man, who spoke English, asked him for a ride to Harlingen. When Garza refused to take the men anywhere, the second man pulled a long, skinny kitchen knife from his back pants pocket and pointed it at Garza's face. He grabbed Garza by the T­shirt he was wearing, and the first man then demanded the ride to Harlingen. After forcing Garza into the driver's seat, the two men got into the front seat and told him to start driving. While one man held the knife at Garza's upper right side, the other man directed him where to drive. At the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and East 14th Street, Garza was told to stop at the side of the road, allowing four more men to get into the back
seat of the car. The kidnappers then made Garza drive around some more until they ended up at a dirt road somewhere north of the Brownsville city limits. At this point, Garza was told to pull over and get out of the car. The men told him to take off his clothes, but Garza pleaded with them to let him go as he was. The group punched and kicked him to the ground, forced him to undress and left him at the side of the road wearing only his socks. The men took his watch and clothes and drove off, heading toward Los Fresnos.

Police said Garza stood in the bushes at the side of the road for an hour and a half. When he finally found a piece of cardboard to cover himself, Garza began waving to passing motorists to help him. Two female motorists who saw him later stopped at a gasoline station in Los Fresnos where they told a Cameron County deputy constable that a naked man had tried to wave them down on Paredes Line Road, two miles north of FM 511.
The deputy constable went to the site and found Garza, who reported the kidnapping to him.
The officer then notified the Brownsville Police Department, and they took over the investigation.

'The case is still under investigation,' said Police Lt. Orlando Rodriguez. 

'We are canvassing the area, but we have very few leads.'

The descriptions of the two Hispanic men are all that investigators have to work with, said Rodriguez. Garza was unable to get a good look at the four men in the back seat. Rodriguez said the car has not been found.

Garza, who is a candidate for the Precinct 2 seat on the Cameron County

Commissioner Court in the Democratic Party Primary election March 10, could not be reached for comment. He served one term on the Brownsville City Commission and was defeated in a reelection bid in 1991."