This is an upsetting one.
Carlos Garver was a homeless man living in Albuquerque in the 1980s. People knew him as “Rags” or “Ragman.” He was known to be eccentric. He tended to hang out in the UNM area, panhandling.
On March 5, 1988, Garver was sleeping in a crude shelter he had constructed behind a UNM pharmacy in a Central Ave SE alley in Albuquerque. Someone sadistically set him on fire. Garver sustained severe burns and eventually died of smoke inhalation. He never called out for help – probably because he couldn’t.
A man going to work early in the morning of the 5th saw a fire in the alley and called it in. Responding officers discovered the poor 32-year-old’s body incinerated in the flames. The subsequent investigation discovered that Garver’s clothes had been doused in an accelerant. This was no accident – this was cold-blooded murder.
Garver had severe mental illness and substance abuse issues that started when he was 15. Not only was he homeless, but he also liked to stand on street corners and berate passersby. He was called “Ragman” or “Rags” due to this habit, not his ratty attire. Other homeless people remembered him as tough and funny, someone who liked to battle demons to keep everyone safe. Garver would stomp on newspaper machines because he believed they housed demons inside.
In 1976, Garver was arrested for hurling a Molotov cocktail at a car driven by Richard Padilla, who was 25. The bomb missed the car and splattered across the street. Padilla chased Garver through the halls of the Presbyterian Hospital building, joined by hospital guards. Hospital guards finally caught Garver. He was held at the hospital but guards had to release him due to having no authority to hold him. Police then arrested him on a third-degree felony charge, “dangerous use of explosives.” Garver told them that he was a “self-employed alchemist.”
Ultimately, the judge at his arraignment hearing sent him to district court for a competency evaluation and he was never sentenced. Though it is nice that Garver was spared jail, it is disturbing that he was allowed to slip through the cracks and he never received the mental healthcare he clearly needed.
Despite his problems, Garver was a talented artist with moments of lucidity. His mother, Alice M. Garver, was a Southwestern muralist; his father, Jack Garver, was a painter and sculptor. Garver inherited their talents. By the time Carlos Garver died, both his parents had already passed on.
Garver was survived by a sister named Grace McCoy in Albuquerque and a brother named Senlin Garver in Alameda, CA. Both his father and sister tried to help him get housing over the 15 years he struggled with homelessness, but he tended to destroy property, even destroying an apartment he got at one point. Grace McCoy felt he was too unpredictable and non-compliant to safely stay at her home with her children.
His father considered having him committed to an institution but he knew Carlos liked his freedom. Carlos Garver had been treated at the State Hospital in Las Vegas and the UNM Mental Retardation Center, but he always walked out on treatment.
He had been living in the UNM area since 1973, occasionally staying with his father or friends but mostly living on the streets. Restaurants would give him free food and he searched through trash for scraps. Though he received a monthly social security check, he was overly generous and would usually give his money away within two weeks.
When he was murdered, people thought his death should be classified as a hate crime. Suzanna Gurule expressed this public opinion in a March 22, 1988 letter to the Albuquerque Journal editor about how Garver’s death was a tragedy and he was a victim of a society that doesn’t care about transient or mentally ill people. The federal government does not distinguish the homeless as a protected class of citizens, so crimes that victimize them are not considered hate crimes. This is shameful because homeless individuals tend to be vulnerable due to a number of factors and crimes against them exploit that vulnerability. Therefore, these crimes should be considered hate crimes.
so who did this to this troubled but wonderful man? One of Garver’s oldest friends, a musician and former City Council member named Thomas “Cabin” Lance, said at his funeral that “they torched him” but did not want to share who “they” were. He seemed to know, however. Garver’s Find a Grave memorial page says that he was set on fire by a group of juveniles, but does not share any more details.
In September of 1988, police received a tip that a youth attending group therapy at Memorial Hospital confessed to participating in the slaying. They used a grand jury to subpoena records from the therapy group director and finally got the name of the juvenile amid much controversy. The teen’s identity has been withheld due to confidentiality laws. Investigators pursued the lead but no one has been charged, 4 decades later. Garver’s case was closed in 1991 but reopened in 1994 due to information provided by an inmate in Colorado, which also apparently didn’t lead anywhere.
Carlos Garver was a fixture of Albuquerque’s community and many people grieved his horrific murder. An Albuquerque band called A Murder of Crows wrote a song mentioning Garver before he died: Like Carlos on the corner/rock and roll is here to stay. They now consider it a tribute to him.
At a memorial held for Garver in Yale Park on March 12, 1988, many other people who were or who had been homeless came to pay respects to their fallen comrade. People remembered Garver being good to them and helping them. They also remembered him as an entertaining and funny man with a bright, creative mind. Some remembered him being subjected to police cruelty; for example, being sprayed with Lysol while being arrested for vagrancy. Over 150 people attended that memorial and many people also attended his funeral.
His sister, Grace McCoy, remembers him fondly and said she always worried about him dying on the streets, but she was never able to help him due to his “unpredictable behavior” and his staunch refusal to comply to treatment.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hate-crime-noel-breen
http://nmsoh.org/garver_carlos_us.htm