The story of Vessie Sagatto is a complex one, involving betrayal, bungled murder plots, and a decades-long feud inside the Mexican Mafia. It is a story that Rene Enriquez, a former member of the organization, has thought about for a long time because of the many moving pieces involved.
Vessie Sagatto, whose real name was Vevessie Sagatto, was a well-known member of the 18th Street gang before becoming a Mexican Mafia member. He is credited with creating the taxation system in downtown Los Angeles. His homeboys had a blind loyalty to him, and every time he got out of prison, they took care of him.
Enriquez first met Vessie in Folsom State Prison after being released to the mainline from Shoe Two. In 1985 and 1986, they were both released to the general population after Nico Velasquez negotiated a peace treaty between the Black Guerilla Family and the Mexican Mafia. This came after Joe Morgan, who was adamantly opposed to any peace with Black inmates, was transferred out of the prison.
Enriquez and Vessie got along well during this period. A photograph from that time shows them in front of the old armory at Folsom, where the prison used to keep its guns. In the picture, Vessie stands in the center while Enriquez squats in the lower left with a beanie cap. Also in the photo are Spider Galbadon from Cantaranas, Weto Cahuaya from 18th Street, and Vincent Hurtado, known as Chente from Pomona. They were all brand new carnales at the time, part of what Enriquez calls the Pepsi generation.
It was a time when politics were just emerging between Bebito and Kilroy, who opposed anyone that got along with Joe Morgan. But for Enriquez, it was still a honeymoon period in his induction into the Mexican Mafia. He had no political worries. He and the other younger brothers ran together and got along great.
The veteranos on the yard included Weto Shai Shai Alpi, Sosa, Kilroy Roybal, Bebito Alvarez, Gil Santistevan, and Nico Velasquez. They were the titans, the veterans of the group. The younger members learned how to function by watching them. Once you get made, Enriquez explained, you are just thrust out there. There is no protocol to teach you. You sink or swim.
Years later, Enriquez ended up in Palm Hall with Vessie. Both were doing violations. They went through a plot to eliminate Bebito Alvarez, who was Vessie's road dog. Vessie was road dogs with Bebito and Kilroy and was part of their crew. When it was discovered that they were going to do the hit, Enriquez, Dottie, and Pee Wee were transferred to Corcoran.
The transfer was a midnight express. They were not even told to pack up. The CDC arranged it so they would be taken in the middle of the night. Enriquez disappeared one night without notification.
Vessie started a rumor that Enriquez had locked up and gone into protective custody. He based this on mere speculation. Vessie had gotten into the habit of talking bad about people. Because Bebito and Kilroy had previously spoken bad about Enriquez, Vessie continued that thread in Palm Hall.
After Enriquez left Palm Hall, David Bias, known as Puppet from Florencia, arrived. Vessie told Puppet the rumor. Puppet was a true hog, a killer for the organization who had been around for years and had a lot of juice. Both he and Vessie ran with the rumor. It got around the organization.
Puppet had a lot of influence. He was a doer, not just a talker. He was a heroin addict who died of an overdose after his release. A photograph from San Quentin State Prison shows Puppet lying in front of a group photo. In that picture are Chuy from Venice, Fernando Bermudez, Turtle Bayas, and a very young Daryl Baca.
Bernie Bermudez was a humble, quiet guy, but he was the real power in that picture. He was the elder statesman, never involved in politics, very dignified. He was one of the people that schooled Daryl Baca. That is one reason Baca is so dignified, quiet, respectful, and non-political. He learned from the very best.
Puppet, on the other hand, was a straight thug killer. He was smart and had magnetism, but he was a thug.
The story shifts to Men's Central Jail. Puppet arrived there while Enriquez was fighting a double homicide charge. Someone told Enriquez that Puppet was calling him a PC. That is when Enriquez found out about what had happened with Vessie and Chino in Palm Hall a couple of years earlier.
Turtle from Colton, who was Enriquez's buddy, told him that the rumor had gone down. Enriquez asked to deal with it, and everybody said yes. He got the green light to whack out Puppet at Men's Central County Jail.
Enriquez was nervous. Puppet was a big man, much larger in real life than in photographs. He was no pushover. It was going to be a death match. Enriquez talked to a couple of camaradas. Musky from Flores told him he would need about two guys to hold Puppet. Chango from San Fernando Valley said the same thing.
The plan was to do it on the visiting chain. They would come out of their cuffs and whack Puppet right there in 1750 after being processed for visiting. The first thing Enriquez did was secure a shank. He cut it out of the side of his bunk using a hacksaw blade about two inches long. He worked every night, and you could hear the scraping and cutting. He made a shank ready to go for Puppet.
Then Double Peters came along and asked Enriquez to let Puppet apologize. Enriquez was ready to go, but Double Peters said he could do it if he really wanted to, but asked him to talk to Puppet first and find out what happened. Enriquez still did not know that Vessie was the one who started the rumor.
One day Enriquez went out to visit, and Puppet was right next to him. Puppet told him, "The spenza," which means I'm sorry. He said he said it and owned it, but he did not originate it. He said Vessie was the one who started the story after Enriquez transferred out of Palm Hall. Vessie was the only one there. He said they came and got Enriquez, he disappeared at midnight, and he PC'd.
Enriquez thought about it. He still was not convinced he was going to give Puppet a pass. He could have pushed it hard, and Puppet would have been on the list no matter what. If Enriquez did not do it while Puppet was in the county jail, they probably would have whacked Enriquez for saying he wanted Puppet on the list and not doing it.
Enriquez went back and talked to Double Peters, who told him that Puppet had apologized like a man and owned it. He told Enriquez who started it, and that was who to focus on. That guy was Vessie. So Enriquez decided to give Puppet a pass.
Puppet was transferred out, and then Vessie Sagato arrived in the county jail. He had been calling Enriquez's mom at the house while he was out, apologizing. But Enriquez knew somebody had to pay for this. It was too little, too late.
Some of the Granadas in the county jail told Vessie that Puppet had apologized to Enriquez and owned it, and Enriquez said it was done. Enriquez had proven his point in the county jail. He was facing Puppet, ready to whack him, and Puppet apologized. Puppet did not bow down. He was a hog, and Enriquez was just a kid, around 27 or 28 years old. Puppet was an old 40 or 50-year-old guy who had been killing for the organization. He was not about to bow down. He apologized like a man, and Enriquez accepted it.
Vessie arrived in the county jail after having called Enriquez's mom multiple times to apologize. He offered Enriquez drugs and other things. He was in high power with them. By this time, Enriquez had participated in the attorney room pit. He knew they had to get something to do this, and he wanted it to be big. He wanted to make a statement.
Enriquez had somebody bring in something they could use. It was a relative of Little Moe Reese. They were going to turn themselves into the county jail for two or three days for a weekend. Enriquez talked to somebody on the streets and had them get him a zip gun. It was a .22 with six rounds of rimfire ammunition. He also had hacksaw blades and balloons of heroin sent in.
The main thing to Enriquez was the zip gun. He wanted to use it on Vessie Sagato. He wanted to shoot him in the head and make national news. The headline he envisioned was "Inmate slain, executed with a firearm in Los Angeles County Jail." It had never been done before. He wanted the grandiosity of it, to send shock waves everywhere. He wanted people to think that these guys had guns and would blow your brains out right in the county.
The man turned himself into the county jail. Enriquez set up with inmates who worked at the Inmate Reception Center, where you get processed when you are initially arrested. He had two or three trustees waiting. He gave them a code word, which was "sports." They were going to ask for him. His name was Dodo.
Dodo came in with his Yahoo packed full of stuff: the .22, the six rounds, the two hacksaw blades, and a bundle of heroin balloons. A trustee walked up to him and asked if he was Dodo. He said yes. The trustee said, "Hey, Renee sent me, and I'm supposed to tell you sports." The guy pulled it out and gave it to him. The package made it to Enriquez that day.
Enriquez knew who was down there in high power. It was Little Moe Ruiz and Night Owl Castro, Ruben Castro from 18th Street. Ruben Castro had been in contact with Enriquez. He had been sending him glavo and a .223 round. He was sending all kinds of stuff. He was the one who acquired the .22 longs for Enriquez weeks before he even got busted.
Ruben got there, and Vessie was on the tier with him. He was in place to do what Enriquez wanted. Enriquez sent the zip gun from 2904, where he was housed, down to 1750 with three rounds of ammunition. He sent a kite and talked to some people, and sent it through visiting. It got to Ruben.
Ruben set it up. He put the thing together and put a round in the chamber. Vessie played chess. He was an avid chess player, a master who could play without a chessboard and with no pieces, memorizing and playing. He had played Enriquez that way and beat him in Palm Hall.
Vessie was sitting at his desk, and Ruben came up with the zip gun behind him. He put his hand through the bars and fired. It clicked. Vessie turned around and looked at him. Ruben pulled his hand away. Vessie asked, "Are you trying to shoot me?" Ruben said, "No, brother," and walked away.
It misfired. Ruben had set it up wrong. He did not put the firing mechanism in correctly. It was just a simple pin on a spring. He bungled it. Vessie was on point now, but he did not lock up. He did not really see the gun, but the attempt was made. Ruben Castro attempted to shoot him in the back of the head while he was playing chess on Baker Row in 1700.
Vessie was wary after that. He did not know what was going on. He knew something was up, but he thought he was okay because Enriquez was not there. He thought maybe because Puppet got a pass, he got a pass. But that was not the case. They were still plotting on him.
Enriquez told Ruben, "What the hell, dude?" Right after that, they did a raid. Enriquez thinks Vessie informed that there was a firearm on the tier. They found all the rounds and the zip gun itself. Enriquez remembers something about the rounds being kept in the coin slot of the telephone, but he is pulling from 30 or 40 years ago.
They did a raid and found the firearm and the rounds. Now they were stuck with how to get Vessie. Ruben was out of the picture. He transferred. Ruben Castro was later sentenced under the 1995 RICO indictment, United States of America versus Alex Aguirre, and got a life sentence. He is now an old man in federal prison.
Ruben transferred out of Los Angeles County Jail. Vessie was still there, and Little Moe was still there. Enriquez got out Little Moe and had a conversation with him. He asked if he could handle it, if he could whack Vessie. Moe agreed to do it.
Moe got a good shank and hid it in a chocolate bar, one of those big extra-long Three Musketeers bars they sell in the county jail. Moe arranged it so that they would come out to the visit together. He found out when Vessie was going to have a visit, and they went out together.
The image of inmates visiting on Jiro shows where the Mexican Mafia used to visit from High Power. They had installed handcuffs, a small length of chain welded to a metal partition with a handcuff, so inmates would have one hand cuffed and one hand free to use the phone.
Moe went out to the visiting room with Vessie next to him. He took the knife out of the candy bar and attempted to stab Vessie in the visiting room in front of everybody. Vessie moved away, and Moe barely cut him. That was the hit. Both hits were bungled. Vessie got away with his life.
Vessie locked up in the county jail right then and there. He was gone. He went to another row. They knew he locked up, but Enriquez waited. He was not going to be the guy to do the same thing that Vessie did to him. Vessie came out to the general population later on.
Enriquez waited and waited. Moe said, "Hey, let's tell all the carnales he locked up." Enriquez said, "Wait." They ended up getting transferred to Tehachapi, the shoe there, a 4B. That was the ad seg shoe and a processing center for Southern Central California.
They ended up there and saw Vessie on the non-affiliated PC yard. They saw him going out there. A couple other carnales were there: Prieto from Sinaloa, Chewy from Venice, Little Moe, Termite, and Enriquez. They saw him going out and said, "Hey, man, he's in PC. Let's tell all the brothers." Enriquez said, "Wait. Wait. Wait."
They waited. Enriquez never once said that Vessie locked up. He wanted everybody else to see that he locked up. That was the end of Vessie. He was done.
Vessie had skeletons in his closet from way back. He had a brother named Solo Sagatto. Solo was a rat. He told and testified in a murder case years before. Vessie knew this. Nobody else did. He hid the fact. Everybody was scared to talk about his brother Chino Solo Sagatto because Vessie was a carnal. Nobody wanted to be the one to say that his brother was a rat.
After this happened to Vessie, he was no good. He PC'd. He was persona non grata. But Solo and Vessie were still popping up in 18th Street. They were still there collecting money.
Alfred Gomez from 18th Street caught Solo in the hood. According to court facts from Gomez's appeal, during the afternoon of November 10th, 1993, Edgar Chavez, also a member of the 18th Street gang, drove the defendant to the corner of 11th Street and Westlake Avenue where Sagatto was walking with his girlfriend, Mary Granados. Granados was 26 weeks pregnant.
The defendant was wearing a hat and a bandana over the lower part of his face. He left the car, approached Sagatto and Granados from behind, and fired at least seven shots, first at Sagatto, then returned to Chavez's car and left the area. They executed both Solo, Vessie's brother, and his girlfriend, and the unborn baby right there in the middle of the street.
Solo was eliminated behind the Vessie thing and because he was a rat. They were still running around the hood collecting, and once Vessie lost his stripes, Solo lost his protection. The homeboys took action.
A picture of Vessie after he paroled shows him with his bulldog. Vessie was a Marine. After he paroled, he lived a normal life, but one of the things that plagued him was his addiction. He would go back to the hood collecting dope.
Puppet, Night Owl, and Wedo Caballo had already sent word that this guy was not welcome in the neighborhood. He was on the Mexican Mafia hit list. All his homeboys were very organized in that area. For a long time, even after he locked up and got hit, he was welcome there, until the carnales from 18th Street put their foot down and said he was not welcome there.
Ultimately, they caught up with Vessie. He was shot multiple times and passed away. According to his obituary, he was born on October 24th, 1956, and he was eliminated on January 21st, 2018.