Fred carrasco

The standoff was one of the longest hostage-taking sieges in United States history. Fred Carrasco was a powerful heroin kingpin in South Texas who was serving a life sentence for the attempted murder of a police officer. Having smuggled pistols and ammunition into the prison, he and two other convicts took eleven prison workers and four inmates hostage.

More than rounds of ammunition were also smuggled inside cans of peaches. When the one o'clock work bell sounded, Carrasco walked up a ramp to the third-story library and forced several prisoners out at gunpoint. When two guards tried to go up the ramp, Carrasco fired at them. His two accomplices, who were also armed, immediately joined him in the library.

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The prison warden and the director of the Texas Department of Corrections immediately began negotiations with the convicts. Over the next several days the convicts made a number of demands, including tailored suits, dress shoes, toothpaste, cologne, walkie-talkies and bulletproof helmets, all of which were provided promptly. With the approval of Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe , an armored getaway car was provided and rolled into the prison courtyard.

Carrasco claimed that they were planning to flee to Cuba and appeal to Fidel Castro. After a grueling eleven-day standoff, the convicts finally made their escape attempt just before 10 p.

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They moved out of the library toward the waiting vehicle in a makeshift shield consisting of legal books taped to mobile blackboards that were later dubbed by the press the "Trojan Taco". Inside the shield were the three convicts and four hostages, while eight other hostages ringed the exterior of the "taco". Acting on a prearranged plan, prison guards and Texas Rangers blasted the group with fire hoses.

However, a rupture in the hose gave the convicts time to fatally shoot the two female hostages who had volunteered to join the convicts in the armored car.