While the death of Anna Nicole Smith was getting all the headlines, 26-year-old Emmy Torres was found dead on a West Side corner on Feb. 7. She was a prostitute, mother of five children, who reportedly had a herion habit. Some have speculated a jealous John murdered her.
It's just another West Side story to some. But for me, maybe I'll keep digging. The area where she was murdered is known for prostitution. Some of the other prostitutes have said someone is preying on them. The West Side is probably the poorest part of SA. The Alazan-Apache Courts are on the West Side. At one time, SA's West Side was one of the most notorious slums in the nation:
"In the 1930s the West Side of San Antonio was home for the majority of the city's 82,000 Mexican Americans.qv Most worked as unskilled laborers for area companies, particularly the local pecan-shelling industry. Working conditions and wages were poor, and the living environment consisted of dilapidated housing and disease-infested neighborhoods."
(From the Texas Handbook online)
I spent a day in November going around the West Side with the Edgewood Class of 1967, delivering about a dozen turkey dinners to needy families. I remember one family, there were four kids living in a squalid apartment with a grandmother who was old and blind. The grandmother looked worn out. They were so poor. I wonder what the future holds for them.
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