Original subtitles

The Gits...they’re about addiction,

Downloaded from YTS.BZ

they’re about loss, they’re about love.

We became,

I think, a real band of the people.

People were indoctrinated.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ

They came and they saw this band,

and it opened some passageway up in them.

There has not been anything

like them since then.

What I was doing, what I loved doing,

and then we had to stop doing it.

When Mia was murdered,

that just destroyed us all.

Everybody was just blown away

and just stunned.

Like the world caved in.

The fucking walls came tumbling down.

Still makes me sad

that there's so much more

we could have done.

What the fuck happened?

(Crowd cheering)

And from all the way from Seattle...

The Gits!

Where's my jesters hat? Give it back.

You got to return return it you know.

(music)

“When I woke up today”

“was dizzy in my brain”

“It's not that I like to feel this way”

“The wagon’s shakin’”

“and I feel it start to tilt”

“and I just go tumbling”

“right back in a whirlwind”

“I find myself at the end”

The story of Mia and the Gits

it's not a story about a Seattle band.

It's not a story about a punk rock band.

It's not a story about a band

with a woman singer.

This is the story

of a great American rock-n-roll band.

I started playing music

when I was about 11.

I tried to be a jazz musician.

I really tried to.

I was kind of hated that fact

that I couldn't get into

jazz and couldn't really enjoy it,

because I knew it was a better art form.

It was a better music.

(Live music)

I grew up in Jersey.

I spent a lot of Sunday afternoons

at CBGB’s.

I started listening to bands

like the Minutemen,

the Descendents, Minor Threat.

That's when I was inspired

to start playing.

(Live music)

The neighborhood I grew up

in was way out in Brooklyn.

It's like a neighborhood

that time forgot.

My first guitar

was actually like a toy guitar.

It had really, really, light, cheap

nylon strings.

It was more like kind of like a ukulele.

(Live music)

I knew I wanted Mia to sing with us.

“All these people that use you for their own need”

I can remember literally crying

ftom the first times I heard her.

I was really happy

because I knew that she was good.

I didn't know how good.

“They've proved themselves to be”

“...very small, small, small minded...

“...do you ever think when you're dealing...”

“...with the worst...”

“...the outcome is the best thing for you..”

The story is that her father's family is

a distant descendant of Emiliano Zapata,

who was the big revolutionary,

and so she kind of had that in her blood, maybe,

that like kind of fighting spirit.

What I know of my daughter,

she was, very quiet, very reserved,

ultra, ultra shy,

the last person in the world

who would call attention to herself.

And yet put a microphone in her hand,

march her up on a stage,

and she was just magnetic.

(music)

Antioch College is in Ohio.

It's an old liberal arts school

that was regarded highly a long time ago.

The Gits were formed in the fall of 1986,

after Matt Dresdner came back

from a co-op in San Francisco.

I went back to Antioch

and I was really inspired

to start a band.

I knew this guy Andy looked punk rock.

I want you to be the guitarist.

So I just said, yeah,

sure, you know, whatever.

You know,

because I didn't take it seriously.

When I first met

the members of the Gits,

I was into the Kinks and 60’s Rock

and the Who, and I loved the Ramones

and some of those bands, but really,

I really didn't know much about punk

because

it just really didn't exist in

in Indiana, where I grew up.

You know, a week and a half later,

we actually

had a band

and we’re practicing for hours every night.

We started jamming, we jammed in this old

abandoned dorm room at Antioch.

And once Mia to start singing

everything just kind of came together,

and it was so much fun,

and it was this really soulful band.

The songs were really fast and furious.

“...I wanna have it inside my skin...”

“...even when I cry, the lies I break...”

“...c'mon need me, a little less harder...”

Yeah I was in class with Mia,

and I remember

I was kind of intimidated, like,

who is this woman?

I mean, she just commanded

respect and and interest immediately.

I was at this party

and it was pretty late

and everyone was drunk,

especially Mia.

She just like jumped up on a table

out of the blue,

started singing

like Bessie Smith blues or something,

and it was like blew everyone away.

It was really as if,

like somebody pulled the plug

out of the wall or something.

The room kind of stopped

(Live music)

I think it was at that moment

when Matt Dresner

heard her saying that he was like,

I'm gonna form a band with her.

Her natural performance

was just so beautiful.

I mean,

there was an awkwardness about her

because she would pull her knees together

and, you know, she looked like a chicken.

I mean, she did!

And it was awesome because you were like,

who is this lady

who sings like a heavy angel?

It was like, where is Ma Rainey

and Bessie Smith?

It was just like,

power, punch them and power packed them,

you know, inside this chicken woman

who's got a lot of heart.

You know what's going on here?

(Live music)

When we started the band,

we were called the

Sniveling Little Rat Faced Gits.

I wanted to change

the name of the fucking band.

But the other three people in the band

would not have it.

A Gits like a moron,

uh, crackpot.

A Git is a freak.

A Git is a dork. It Gits a nerd.

It's from a monty Python episode,

“darling, these, these these are the Gits”

“The Gits!”

Band names are inherently stupid

and they be they become what,

just a symbol of the band.

“This is Sniveling Little Rat Face Git.”

“An this is his wife, Dreary Fat Boring Old Git.”

It doesn't evoke anything.

The other three of them,

they were just like,

The Gits! We’re the Gits!

(Live music)

The Gits shows at Antioch were, like,

unparalleled

probably to anything that I've seen in

a certain sense.

(Live music)

“Each time you follow the pieces...”

“they're only falling farther between...”

“...and those pieces won't hold together...”

“with all the guilt built in your head”

“well, I see you shake, I see the paint”

“underneath your fingernails”

“scratching the wall...”

“scratching the moments that brought you here...”

“each time you thought you'd hold on...”

“trying to stay clean for someone...”

“maybe you should just...”

“take a look inside of yourself...”

“'cause you create your own hell”

It was time for all of us

to leave Antioch.

We hadn't all graduated,

but it was time to leave.

Andy and I knew

we wanted to get as far away

from the East Coast as we could.

So, Seattle felt natural.

And we there was a little bit

of a music scene burgeoning.

As soon as we arrived here,

it just felt like home.

(music)

We all lived various places

for a few months until December,

when a bunch of us moved

into a big old rundown house

that became the main center

of our activities

for the next several years.

We called it the Rat House.

This is 19th Street and the Rat House

is at 19th and Denny,

which is just right on Capitol Hill.

It was owned by this guy

who was a warlock,

and he told me that

that the crows used to all come

and land on top of the house.

And the neighbors

thought that he was a demon.

So they spray

painted a white cross on the front lawn.

He also said

that it used to have cockroaches,

but he made a cockroach stew.

And, this was the guy that rented to us

that he made a cockroach stew

and ate the stew.

And then from then on,

all the cockroaches left.

And let's see, I haven't

been here for a long time.

This Porsche wasn't here.

This was a beat up

76’ Dodge van that was falling apart.

And one time, the brakes gave way and it

like, drove down

and we found it in the bushes,

like, way down the street.

Miraculously,

it didn't hit any other cars,

but just sort of drove itself

and crashed down at the bottom.

And this fence wasn't there,

there's a porch there

in front of the door.

And that's where we used to sit

and, you know, talk about projects

and drink and hang out.

Out of all of us

Mia had been the first one of us

to become gainfully employed,

and she got a job

as a waitress at the Frontier Room.

And she made about $4.25 an hour.

But it used to be the toughest dive bar

and nastiest greasy

spoon restaurant in town.

We were here every day

because she would feed us,

she would feed us,

and we didn't have much money.

So I think we spent

probably every day for about a year, year

and a half, at this waterfront dive.

See, that's where Mia used to live.

In that room back there.

I used to live up there

in that top floor there.

Actually, I had the best room,

and, uh

Carla and Julian lived in that bottom area,

which used to be a church chapel,

I guess.

And there was an altar in there

where the church is to be.

They had their bed on the altar,

which is kind of risque.

So beautiful.

I mean, it was just so nice

to meet people.

I just kind of had the same mind.

That's the way we want to live our life, you know?

We had beer

dripping off the wall, you know,

because people were rowdy.

I mean, it was punk rock,

you know, what do you expect?

So people would, like,

break through windows,

you know, break things, fall over,

dump their beer, throw their beer.

I mean, it was just incredible.

It was just totally insane.

Here we are in front of this hair salon

that used to be the foremost

live music venue in Seattle.

A club called The Vogue.

We were trying to get a gig there

for like months, and that no one would,

the guy wouldn't bok us at all.

But we actually,

we actually bribed him with a dollar.

The first night at the Vogue

was our foot in the door in Seattle.

(applause)

“Hey Jules,

“Less vocals in this monitor”

“and more guitar.”

(Live music)

“Well I don't need your social love, no”

“I feel misread enough”

“And what ails me is the fact that you're smiling”

“Walking on by, walking on by”

“keep on walking”

“Yeah, when it hits me, see it, still gets kinda heavy”

You know, how many times you go

see a band. It's like, oh, okay,

start playing

and, you know, something happens.

With them. It was like.

And oh, fuck!

“Is your pretentious stare, you never look me in the eye”

“Or feel the truth”

“Yeah, when it hits me, see it, still gets kinda heavy”

“Yeah, when it's laying there over”

“It's wide open and read”

They’re bringing something else to the table

that no one else around here has.

(Live music)

I remember

I brought some friends to see their show,

and everybody

just got along really instantly,

you know?

Yeah. Instantaneous.

They were just, like,

immersed into this kind of whole punk

rock scene there.

A lot of people became very

it was on the same....

Everybody was kind of on the same level,

coming from the same place.

Down there is where we had

our rehearsal studio and

Seven Year Bitch, DC Beggars,

The Gits, Big Brown House,

and all the bands rehearse down there.

And I can remember one

Seven Year Bitch got started.

There was, Valerie Agnew,

who at the time was Steve's girlfriend.

And Selene

and Stephanie Sergeant

and Liz Davis,

and they were all huge fans

of music and huge fans of the Gits.

We so, you know, respected

and admired and looked up to them and,

you know, just thought

they were the shit.

So when we first started playing,

it was like we had to borrow their gear.

I mean, we didn't know shit.

We didn't know

what the hell we were doing.

So they just totally helped us

and then listen to us

thrash and way banging around down there.

I mean, I can’t even imagine

but it was like...

We would have to go and get like

a half rack of beer.

To loosen up and get comfortable

to just start playing.

So we were like,

you guys go away like go somewhere.

Screw it.

Don't listen to us.

“Oh, get that fucking camera”

“out of my face.”

“God. Jesus! Just lighten up would you?”

There was, you know, some

I think encouragement probably

specifically for Mia to say,

you guys can do this.

You don't need to just

stand in the audience.

She's like, “no, you should be the singer.”

And I'm like, okay.

And I was like, I’ll play drums.

My boyfriend plays drums.

Steve just starts

showing her how to play drums.

We made this other girl,

Elizabeth, who also worked in the market.

Oh, she's playing bass with, you know,

let's have her come out there

and jam with us.

Mia would always come up to be like,

what you're doing is good.

It's real true.

You guys sound really good.

And she paid attention.

She, like, would pick out certain things.

Like, you knew she wasn’t just

giving it lip service.

And I knew that her bedroom was right

above, our practice space.

And, it's like, whoa.

That was really, like, intimidating, you know.

(Live music)

I realized that sort of our ethic,

the reason we were doing it,

fit more into the category of punk

than anything else.

We were bored. We were young.

We're a little bit drunk,

a little bit angry, and,

we had a lot of energy.

What we considered punk was the whole

do it yourself ethic.

If you need to make something happen,

you decided you were going to do it

and you started from scratch

and you just did it.

And that's how we put out

our first record.

I mean, we'd have these

haphazard meetings every or whatever.

You're going to get serious.

So we're going to put out this,

this compilation

and we're going to do this.

So we pulled all the different people

that were in bands and said, hey,

you want to put a cut on this record?

Give us a tape at a time,

Give us a tape.

At the time, which we didn't even realize

there was such a huge thing

about to happen in that city.

We had no other family here,

so our family was...us.

The Comet was like the bar

they went to most time,

and the Comet knew that

if there was a party at the Rat House,

everybody was basically invited,

you know?

So it was many times

that it's like

people would just show up

And there was going to be the big

Rat House party,

you know, the Gits would play and the Beggars

and Seven Year Bitch, you know?

Let's go!

New Year's.

New Year's Eve show

that we did at the Rat House

was all like, you know?

You see it with Mia

and everybody like, “no fucking war!”

And we were all just like, really?

There was all that going on

that was affecting everybody's

whole psyche and just whatever.

“No fucking war!”

Before there was a band

or before there was a show or before

there was a rehearsal.

There was our friendship

and our loyalty to one another.

And I think that was kind of the spirit

of the of the Rat House.

And like the thing

that was going on there,

it was just easy and free and fun.

“I tend to drink too much sometimes”

“fall a little drunk on my face”

“I get up I brush up I head to the bar for”

“another round with all of my friends”

“here's to 'em, here’s to all of my friends”

“ here's to 'em, here’s to all of my friends,”

“ here's to 'em, here’s to all of my friends,”

“it’s all I got left in the end are my friends”

From the get go

this chemical thing where

where things would just sort

of organically materialize

and and

and songs would happen

more than be written.

A few times I just messed around

with some shit on guitar, and um,

the other guys were like,

oh, is that a new song?

And I'd be like,

yeah, it is, even though it wasn't.

But I would tell them that

because the thing is,

when you're in a band,

you get bored pretty easily.

You constantly get bored of your shit,

and you want to do something new.

And that's how bands get better and better

from doing this.

You know, a lot of songs too

I would just bring the entire song

fully formed and show the band,

and they would arrange it.

Other things

I didn't have fully formed,

I just had these parts,

but I knew sort of the order and then,

you know, we would arrange it together

as a group,

you know, most mostly me

and Matt or me, Matt and Steve.

Matt, he would come up with great basslines.

He had a really good ear

and you could sort of

describe what he wanted,

and Matt would turn it into something

that was unique.

Both Steve

and Andy were just amazing players

and trying to keep up

with their musicianship forced me to

to learn very quickly.

If the three of us were working on stuff

or whatever,

Mia would come down with a tape recorder

and listen to it for a while,

and then eventually,

after she heard it a couple times,

she'd tape it and then bring it upstairs.

Then we wouldn't hear from her

about it for a while,

and then we'd have a period where it was

just the three of us

pretty much working on stuff,

and then we'd start hassling her,

you know? So, Zapata, where's our lyrics?

Yeah, you'll get it eventually.

You'll get it when I'm ready.

Well a lot of times

she had these journal,

these little journal books

and a lot of times at the

at the bar

or wherever she was hanging out,

she was by herself.

A lot of times

she would just sit around

and write in them,

“Hey, you walk in with another headache”

“I can tell by the lines in your face...”

“You seem to think”

“if you just move the problem,”

“the answers, what will come next”

“Another shot of whiskey”

“and maybe I’ll be ready”

“For what's still crowded in your head”

“Never thinking that all the good times”

“Are what walked in with the bad”

“I don't know why we compromise ourselves”

“I thought it was a common understanding”

“when I tried to help with”

“Tell me, why do I end up empty handed?”

“Another couple of beers while I'm safe here at the bar”

“And maybe I'll give you some rest”

“Don't know why all the good times”

“Have to turn-up with the bad”

And I thought she was.

She was a great lyricist.

I thought she had some great words.

Andy’s unusual mind was greatly, like,

enhanced by his support

that Mia would give him.

And there's just this emotional link.

They were not lovers, you know.

They weren't a romantic duo.

They were an artistic duo.

Their depth of their connection

was really in the music.

It's a lyricist

and a music writer

who understand each other's rhythms.

Her and Andy,

they brought the best out in each other.

He kind of understood

what he could saying

and would push her to her limits.

The two just really created

something that was bigger

than the both of them as individuals.

She was really like my my soulmate.

As far as my music soulmate,

it's kind of a miracle to meet someone

like that in this life.

(Crowd cheering)

(Live music)

“When I'm going into the bar”

“I'm there trying to ignore”

“this terror in me,”

“It won’t let me free”

Wingo Lamo - that was always one of my favorites.

When I wrote the music to that,

I was in the Rat House basement,

and it it just came together

really quickly,

and I just knew

I just had a really good feeling

about it.

It's funny because the chorus,

Mia says, immobilized by the torment.

I didn't know what the words were

because I hadn't read them.

I thought she was saying

just like my father told me.

One time.

I asked, I was so, Mia,

what are you saying about your father

in that one song?

Like, I'm not saying it

like my father told me, you idiot.

But we always laughed about,

you know,

when we play it live,

sometimes you just say,

“just like my father told me”

“Just like my father told me”

“it hits so hard,”

“there's nothing more I can take”

“there's nothing worse than hating yourself”

“parading around like you're somebody else”

(Live music)

(Crowd cheering)

Oooooh doggy!

I say I say, Seafish Louisville.

The stuff

that was getting all the publicity

was basically the Sub Pop bands.

And this grunge thing, which,

you know, which was fine

for whatever it was,

but we had nothing to do with it.

(Live music)

“Shove your lies up your ass,”

“I hope you choke on his cock”

“yeah when I found out honey, I'll tell ya it wasn't a shock”

“you're full of shit”

“sure know how to suck

“here's to it baby, here's to your fuck”

Here’s to your fuck,

You know,

obviously I stole the title

from David Lynch from Blue Velvet,

you know, Fuck!

Fuck this shit!

and fuck my my health sucks or whatever,

you know? Here's to your fuck!

Here's to your fuck, Frank,

“Yeah, you didn't mean to hurt me,”

“it's touching your sympathy”

“well, have fun with prick-face 'cause you”

“sure fucking blew it with me”

“you're full of shit, you sure know how to suck”

“here's to it, baby, here's to your fuck”

“Now, baby, this is the fucking end”

“you know, you sure got a fucked up way of making friends”

“you're full of shit”

“you sure know how to suck”

“here's to you, here's to him, and here's to your fuck!”

Thank you’ve all been very kind

and patient

smile for the cameras.

Mia was doing something

that was unique in 1993.

And it's unique today.

This raw,

pitch, brilliant blues singer

is singing as this charismatic front

to this whirlwind of a punk rock band.

I'm so lucky to have seen it.

She could have really sang in

any type of band

and and she would have always been

the spotlight, the the point of focus.

Hi, we’re the Gits.

(Crowd cheering)

All right man, I'd like to thank all these people

and bands that came out tonight for helping

make us feel good

coming back here.

She didn't give a shit.

And it totally came out

because she wasn't

afraid of abrasiveness.

How sloppy you are in life.

There's a beauty to it.

“Well I tear myself apart”

“and throw it on the ground in front of you”

“can't hide that I'm a social wreck”

There was a soulfullness

that came out of Mia.

And there was a rawness.

“And as far as I can see it”

“hell, I ain't got nothing else”

“and with all that you've taken from me,”

“well, go ahead and answer that yourself”

The intensity within her

was like something that was like

both punk rock and blues.

And because it had that depth,

I mean, you'd have to be a fucking zombie

to not be affected.

“Sometimes it makes it worse to know”

“I ever trusted you”

“and as far as I can see it,”

“hell, I ain't got nothing else”

“and with all that you've taken from me,”

“well, go ahead and answer that yourself”

“Oooo don't try it with me”

“no don't, don't give me no lies”

“and then call it some kind of truth”

“go ahead and walk me walk closer,”

“escort me righ to the edge”

“push me, push me I don't care”

“I'll keep coming back”

“slightly stronger, despite the words”

“you've left and unbled and said”

“well just keep your twisting, keep your twisting”

“ but I'll keep breathing, I keep breathing”

It never really sunk in that

there was this tremendous following of fans and,

not to sound melodramatic,

but even people who worship the ground

she walked.

I never thought of her as a star.

It's just my daughter,

you know, my daughter, Mia Zapata,

27 years old and double jointed.

You know, that's who she was.

Who when we were on camping trips

as a young kid,

would get mosquitoes

in her hair, flies in her hair,

was always sitting around

trying to figure out

how to get all these flies

out of the knots in her hair.

My mother has this great idea

that we're going to go to the local bar

in Sandpoint, Idaho,

and we go to this open mic night

and I'm scared to death.

And of course, you walk in

and everybody's singing country songs,

and of course, everybody's

kind of looking at Mia.

You know, and Mia beelines

right for the guy handling the thing and says,

“Would you mind if I borrow your guitar?”

“Oh, yeah. What are you going to do?”

“I'd like to sing a few songs.”

And, you know,

she gets up there in a fur coat

and their dreads and bleached out roots,

and she looks nuts.

She looks like she doesn't belong there.

She blew this room away.

The shots were being sent

to the table, shaking hands.

And it was the introduction to Mia’s

talent that I never knew.

She didn't your typical

sense of humor

and she couldn't

tell a joke worth her life.

But somehow everything

she said

had a sort of dry wit and bite to it.

We’d be driving along hour upon hour,

and there'd be some cows

out in the pastures,

and every time we saw cows,

she would just go, “those cows,

they're out standing in their field!”

The worst part, though, was

when she tried to relate

that humor on stage.

Mia would try to fill the gap

by saying something funny.

“Boat! To the boat!”

“We must go to the boat!”

And no one ever got what she was saying.

She didn't know how to drive it all

and she loved the idea of driving.

She convinced someone else

who didn't know, who just assumed

that she had a license,

and she was like,

“Can, can I drive us back to the Rat House”

“from the Comet?”

And he was like, “yeah, sure.”

“You have your car, right?”

She’s like, “yeah, okay!”

Hey, Mia,

you know,

I don't really remember

all these tall buildings near your house.

She just turn around.

She's like, “shut up.”

“I'm taking you the scenic route.”

She would've been great

if she was singing

with an acoustic guitar.

She would've been great

if she was singing in a techno band.

As it happened,

she was singing in a punk rock band.

Second Skin,

I was like, I don't know,

I still

maybe I have a prejudice

because I put the single out,

but I thought it was their best song

and I couldn't believe

they picked me to put it out.

We were just kind of

playing around and all of a sudden

this song

evolved, I imagine specifically,

Andy probably came up with a riff.

When we were doing

Second Skin

and recording that in the studio,

everyone left and Mia

did the vocals by herself,

and I was the first one to come back,

and I thought her vocal performance

was just just really wonderful

and Mia just looked at me and

she said, “Yeah, it's it's real desperate.”

“It's more desperate sounding”

“than what we've been coming up with”

“up until this point.”

I mean, it had everything

that we liked about music,

the driving force,

the emotions of Mia's lyrics

and for the first time, it

was kind of catchy to.

(Live music)

“I've thought about it, hell,”

“about a million times”

“It takes all my breath just to keep it calm”

“Well, I have to tell myself”

“it's better just to breathe”

“Holding it inside”

“only helped to do me in!”

“Each time I close my eyes,”

“I see another chain”

“It's one I can't forget,”

“something I can not break out of”

“I need a second skin,”

“something to hold me tough”

“Can't seem to get out of this hole”

“I've dug myself right back in.”

“Just to wake up tells me”

“hell, I must be brave”

“It hits me like a drug”

“shot into my vein”

“But it's not as delightful,”

“delightful of a pain”

“Immobilizing me,”

“almost makes me think I'm dead”

“Well, I need a second skin,”

“something to hold me tough”

“Can't do it on my own”

“sometimes, I need just a little more help well,”

“Well, I've got that chance to give”

“every drop that's left in me”

“I need that second skin,”

“something I can not break free of”

“Well, I just tell myself”

“Girl, just let it breathe”

“It's a calmness I'm always searching for”

“But the dirt it gets so heavy,”

“it falls above my head”

“Seeping from under my feet,”

“it just keeps on getting deeper”

“I need a second skin”

“something to hold me tough”

“Can't do it on my own”

“sometimes I need just a little more help, well”

“I've got that chance to give”

“every drop that's left in me”

“I need a second skin”

“something I can not break free of”

“Though no one ever said it'd be easy”

“Still one's left to deny”

“the choice that comes between”

“Your willingness to survive”

“Though you know what you stand up against”

“A world set to deceive”

“It takes a special strength”

“Yeah, I've got that second skin”

“Yeah, I've got that chance to give

“I've got the only way that I know how to live with it”

“I need a second skin,”

“something to hold me tough”

“I need a second skin,”

“something I can not break free of”

Tomorrow all ages

we're playing tomorrow night

at the Off Ramp.

The OK Hotel.

We get into the parking lot,

and she makes me promise

that I will not make a scene

in Tower Records.

And then of course, I immediately

go to this local section.

And there it is, a Gits CD.

And so I'm. “Hey, Mia, come over here.”

“Come over here.”

“Dad, vour voice is too loud.”

“Your voice is too loud.”

“Dad you’re making a scene!”

“You're making a scene.”

“I'm getting out of here.”

“No, you come here.”

“Let me show you.”

She's pulling on my sleeve

and I'm pointing at the CD.

So finally I acquiesced

and we leave the store.

She said, you know, “why did you do that?”

You know what I didn't do anything.

All I did was hold up your CD.

She said, “It embarrasses me.”

I said, why would it embarrass you?

This is what you do for a living.

You don't think of it like that, dad.

It must have been stunning

to feel

that you are a part of a scene

that the whole world

was looking at,

because everyone's eyes were on Seattle

right then.

When Seven Year Bitch got rolling

totally out of the basement

of the Rat House

with so much help from them.

And when we started to get popular,

and then even to the point where,

you know,

we were getting signed and stuff,

it was really weird.

(Live music)

“You you kissed me once”

“and you kissed me twice”

“With your mess of slobbering lips”

“With dribble in my brow”

“I wait until you turned around”

“And wiped it on my pant leg”

We were a little envious, you know

we’re like, fuck, these guys are going to New York

and playing these shows.

We taught them how to play their instruments

and they’re playing in New York before us!

They got to be on the cover of

The Rocket and we barely

ever got a mention in that rag.

“And now I won’t know...”

“where you are”

“And now I won’t know...”

“where you are”

“And now I won’t know where the hell you are”

This is what happens,

I suppose, in an intense rock scene,

you either become rivals

or you become friends.

And there were clearly friends.

There was a documentary filmmaker in town

and he was working on a movie called Hype!

that was about the Seattle scene.

Seven Year Bitch

was asked to be a part of it,

and I think they asked

Doug Pray, the filmmaker,

Have you guys talked to the Gits yet?

because like, if you haven't, get on it.

You know?

And eventually he contacted us

and we were always a bit

wary of film people.

We were always kind of like,

yeah, I don't know about you.

We're going to have to think about this,

if we’re going to talk to you, society people.

(Live Music)

“Awaken in a state”

“it's not my own”

“The only thing that's real”

“Is that amongst these walls”

“I whisper to a fear that sleeps in my soul”

“waiting on my conscience”

“but I think I know”

“It hurts me to be angry”

“kills me to be kind”

“But my only torment”

“Is my own disguise”

“Waiting on the favors”

“they only come to show”

“There's not much in them”

“for you to hold”

I heard about Mia Zapata

kind of just through the scene.

I knew Seven Year Bitch

and Tad and, you know, Soundgarden.

And it was sort of like,

oh, there's this really great singer

you have to see her,

There's this really great singer.

You have to see her.

One of the guys from Sub Pop

knew Mia from the Frontier Room

and I had seen us at one of our

very first shows,

and he asked us

if we would be interested in playing

opening for Tad and Nirvana.

Nirvana was just breaking

and Soundgarden

and all these bands

were becoming really trendy

and hip in the, in the, in the US.

But we were like,

fuck it, let's go to Europe.

(Live music)

We were completely unknown at the time

to the Europeans.

They treated us

like royalty

and we made many great friends

and played some spectacular shows.

And we played

this place called The Ecstasy.

And I was this huge club,

and we ended up going on at three

in the morning,

and the place was packed with people.

But at that point in time,

like Seattle

bands were considered so hip.

I remember one show in Denmark

we were playing with this band

called Life...But How To Live It

from Oslo, Norway,

and the singer from that band

she was singing

all the words to our songs.

She just totally dug Mia's lyrics.

It was probably one of the best things

that we did as a band.

We became,

I think, a real band of the people,

you know, actually,

if someone said that to me

and it was really true.

“Is my own disguise”

“Waiting on these favors”

“they only come to show”

“There's not much in them for you to hold”

(crowd cheering)

We got back home,

Seven Year Bitch

had just played a real big show,

I think, opening for the Chili Peppers.

The sort of fast success

of Seven Year Bitch

at that time,

the momentum became too much

for a Stephanie Sergeant.

And uh, she had

had been fighting a heroin addiction.

It snuck up and bit her in the ass.

Mia was especially crushed

by Stephanie's death.

“There is a silence that paces us all”

“It's sensitive to the peace that we've known”

“And if I could take that crevice in me”

“I'd fill it up with all that you bleed”

“I was walking into the water”

“and I was trying not to breathe”

“I could feel the current pulling me”

“and I just kept in deeper”

“I'm sick of the pain that you're feeling”

“It's weighing you down”

“If I could erase it all within just one dive”

“I wrap you precious around my soul”

“and now I'm letting you go”

“as I drown these evil spirits and”

“penetrate the obstacles”

“I feel the seaweed creeping up my skin”

“It's like a monster that's reaching for me”

“with the passion of life I've got left”

“I'm gonna use it to sacrifice myself”

One time

I think it was Mia, Stephanie, and maybe Maria

I remember seeing them all in the lake.

They were tangled up in a lot of seaweed

and they were all, like,

screaming and squawking and like,

wrestling

and all this stuff in the water.

And it was just so funny

because although there were these total,

you know, like insane punk rock

women and stuff,

they look like little girls,

you know, they were like

ahhhhhhhh!

swimming in the water.

You could tell when that one of them

would get caught in the seaweed

because they were totally like, go,

ahhhhhhhh!

even more than the other, and

try to pull the others in it and stuff.

And Mia told me,

that's from going into the seaweed

like that,

you know, that's

where she came up with the

the lyrics to Seaweed.

“I dove down into the seaweed”

“Scared once before, but not anymore”

“As it twists and turns me away from the surface”

“Here's my chance of letting you go”

“I'm sick of the pain that I'm feelin”

“It's weighing me down”

“If I could erase it all”

“within just one fuckin' dive”

“I wrap you precious around my soul”

“and now I'm letting you go”

“as I drown these evil spirits”

“and penetrate the obstacles”

(Live music)

(Crowd cheering)

We have CDs,

tape, records.

Got a compilation over there

with all Seattle bands and

San Francisco bands.

Steel Pole Bath Tub, Seven Year Bitch.

And then,

fuckin’

DC Beggars, Gits, a lot of people.

It's all for sale back there.

That just seemed to keep

building and building,

and we had all kinds of tours

that were being set up, national tours.

Our first gig in New York was set up,

and we were really looking forward

to that.

Hey, dad, this is Mia.

Well, I met down here in LA,

and I'm in this fancy restaurant.

We're sitting there

with these,

executives from this

recording company, and, well, they were,

you know, making an awful lot of,

promises to us of what what can happen

and how they can help us and all of that.

And I sat with them,

and at that moment, I

committed myself to the idea

that I was going to sign this band,

that they were going

to be on Atlantic Records.

One of the executives was asking the the,

the group,

what they

what their aspirations,

what their goals were.

And, when they got to Mia,

she said, well,

all I really want is,

is a cabin in the woods,

an English sheepdog and a jeep

and to be able to sit and write music.

And one of the executives said,

we can give you that right now.

I don't know whether they

they had committed themselves

to that idea.

But I decided that

I was going to make them a firm

offer to be on Atlantic.

And in fact, this was, June 1993.

This was the beginning,

you know, of so much great stuff to come.

It was just a real,

just totally creative group.

It was just so spontaneous that way.

(music)

“When I”

“woke up today, dizzy in my brain.”

“It's not that I like to feel this way”

“The wagon's shaking”

“and I feel it start to tilt”

“and I just go tumbling right back”

“in a whirlwind”

“Where I find myself again”

“Where I find myself again”

“Well I cannot seem to hold on to a fucking thought”

“this whirlwind's got me and I'm racing”

“out the door”

“It's nice for a while”

“but when I try to focus”

“all of my convictions come”

“crashing down around me”

“again”

“Sneaking up behind me when I ain’t looking”

We were sitting at the corner

end of the bar

nearest the door,

and Mia was in a really good mood

because she had just

played, a solo show in LA

and gotten paid for it,

and she was really psyched about it.

She was very loving

and really, like,

hugged us deeply

and licked my face

and did a Mia maneuver, you know?

And she left the bar.

It was about midnight,

maybe a little after,

and I got the call from Steve saying

that Mia was missing, and he

was hoping that

it wasn't a repeat of Stephanie,

which made me think drug related,

which didn't make sense.

She said she was going to take a cab.

She was doing this, she was doing that.

And we were just having

like a regular night at the Comet

where, like, we would normally have.

Two of her roommates

finally broke down and called the morgue,

where she

where she was as she was unidentified.

An unidentified victim

in the morgue at that time.

27 year old Mia Zapata

was a singer on

the brink of making it big.

The band

The Gits had recently released

a full length CD.

National tour dates

had just been finalized,

but it's all over now.

Zapata’s body was found early Wednesday

morning on a remote street

in the Central district.

Zapata had been strangled.

Police are investigating,

but so far they have

no suspects or motives.

You can imagine that

how devastated

I was when I learned about that

and how angry I was,

you know, that that

that that could happen.

And I just remember feeling like,

holy shit.

Like the world caved in.

The fucking walls came tumbling down,

you know?

It's just, it's hard.

Out of all of us,

we were all so devastated.

But I think it was really

most difficult for my mother because,

you know, and.

And my father, too.

I mean, that was their little girl,

you know?

And they were so proud of her

because she really paved her own road.

You think things are bad

and they get so much worse.

And and you

you have to you have to handle it.

You have to,

you have to deal with it.

And you have to persevere.

And you have to carry on,

and you have to hold each other up

and keep each other up.

But it was so hard.

It was like

it was really a devastating thing.

Her, her death was there was no rhyme

or reason to it.

It was so....definitely

she was there and she was gone.

She was missing in action.

It was just like she was just

taken out, right? Like, so,

so violently.

You know, there's no closure for that.

“Cut my skin”

“It makes me human”

“Scorn your mind”

“Just feel the pain”

“Cuz it's what makes us human”

“Yeah it keeps us all the same”

That was a heavy time.

That was, that was a heavy...

Was a few people like that

in your immediate life.

That’s a big one.

(music) “We’re all the same...”

I think we were really hitting

some strides musically

and in our writing when Mia was killed.

So...

So it's really a shame

because we had so much lined up.

I mean, Mia had started

writing music again,

and she had played me

this piece on piano

during a lunch break at her

at the pizza place where she worked.

And to me, I just felt like this was

this was the beginning,

you know, of of so much

great stuff to come.

And it's just a real shame,

you know, the obviously

that it never got to be so.

Everybody was just blown

away and just stunned

and just grasping at anything

and trying to figure it out.

And it was a mystery.

It was a grand mystery.

And I think that the main thing

for me at that time was

that she was gone and that she was dead,

and that she had suffered,

that she had suffered.

And that was the hit

that I kept getting was like,

what did she go through?

What were her last moments like?

What the fuck happened?

We've got her whereabouts

till about 2:15 in the morning,

and there's probably about a one hour,

15 minute time

frame from the time she's last seen

till the time her body's found.

And we have no idea

what happened at that time.

This is 24th and Yesler.

This is were Mia's body was found.

At that time it was nothing

like the way it is today.

It's kind of a field areas.

Somewhat isolated.

And it was a young lady who's out,

she came across Mia's body

and she ran across the street.

There's a fire station there,

and she took out the the firefighters.

They came out here and called paramedics.

And then, like I said,

they try to do the best they could,

but it was too late at that point.

Me was already dead.

I remember that night

when we were with her,

but then I don't remember anything

until the funeral.

And, you know,

being at the funeral home

with everybody sticks in my head

so vividly.

On the day of the wake,

I happened to look outside

and the line kept getting longer,

and now it was like a half a block long.

And all you can come up with is,

well these are fans and friends of Mia's.

It blew my mind how many people

knew Mia, but Mia also knew them back.

We went over to the casket

and laying in the casket around Mia,

there were snips of hair.

There were rings,

neck chains,

labels and postcards, cards, poems,

all weighing

very respectfully,

laying around her head and shoulders

and on her chest.

And I mean, it was just

absolutely unbelievable.

There was a wake that

her friends, her fans

was then holding that evening.

There were posters

scattered all over Seattle

announcing where this wake was going to be held.

The only admission was one yellow rose.

That's all you had to bring.

And the significance of that

was that Mia loved yellow roses.

We as a family were in my car,

and we were driving to the street

that the wake

was going to be held on in the building.

I made a couple of wrong turns

and at a certain point

I said, wait a minute.

Look,

I don't know exactly where we're going,

but if you'll notice,

on the streets

there are people carrying yellow roses

and they are walking to

where they the location of this wake,

and we'll just follow them.

She touched a lot of people

and a lot of people considered

Mia their best friend,

because she probably was

the best friend to a lot of people.

Because she was a great friend.

People who never knew Mia often

have a lot of misconceptions

of what she was like.

They often

imagine that she was a real tough girl,

or that she was some type of selfless

martyr or saint.

I would say that

those two things

are distortions of qualities

which she did in fact possess.

But in reality

she was a very modest person.

She was extremely affectionate

and sincere.

Very, very intelligent and really funny.

She was very private and very gentle.

Mia and I were

just had at a beautiful relationship.

She was my best friend

and just musically, it was just

just amazing, amazing partnership.

I really felt like she was, you know, part of me.

This is a painting.

It's on, the albums that I did of Mia.

It’s actually probably one of the most...

It probably is the most difficult

painting I've ever done.

I did it the day that she died.

I don't know how many years ago

it was today,

but it still makes me really emotional

inside to talk about it.

But, I mean, I can't

I don't know,

that's why I paint pictures.

She was on loan to me,

and and, she now belongs to all of you,

and it's,

it's neat.

I like it.

I’m proud of her.

(soft accoustic guitar)

“There are these things that”

“I want most”

“usually one step”

“furthest from my reach”

“but they always stand close enough”

“to take me to the next drink”

“Cause when it cuts,”

“it really does”

“my soul, it spills the blood”

“Don't know how long it's gonna take”

“but I'm gonna need, need, need”

“a little more one day”

“Sometimes, I just wanna know”

“Faster than any train is gonna roll”

“Is it real or, tell me, is it wrong?”

“Me to keep these dreams?”

“the strongest in my mind?”

Or office was involved with the Seattle

Police Department

from the inception of the case.

We knew that

we had a tough case on our hands.

There were things about the case that

led to one scenario

that is always bothersome

from law enforcement perspective,

which is if it's a relatively random,

type of crime,

there's just

there's going to be less clues,

less evidence to, glean, to collect.

The theory is,

and for the most part, it works.

A female is going to be killed

by someone she knows.

When someone's murdered,

there are other victims.

There's collateral damage,

and it's the family

and close friends and associates.

Because everybody assumes it's one of us.

And who is it?

It broke it apart.

It was never the same again.

A whole like dark cloud came over everything

and stayed there.

When Mia was murdered,

you know,

that just destroyed us all.

All our friends bands,

just everyone just broke up.

We just pretty much lost it.

At the time,

a lot of our friends

were being questioned

and being taken in to give, samples

and stuff.

Close friends of ours,

you know, male friends and stuff in that

we're coming up to us and saying,

you know,

God, I had to go down

to the police station and be questioned

and give them a,

you know, a

sample and stuff

and how harsh it was for them and,

and how we were feeling.

It was like,

because we didn't at the time.

Now we're back there at the time

and it was bringing up

all those feelings is like,

yeah, you didn't know if it was the guy

that was sitting across the bar from you

every night.

We decided

two weeks after she was killed

that the police weren't doing enough,

and that we had to hire

a private investigator.

By end of August,

we had started the investigation.

Then we started a campaign

to raise money for it,

and we called on our friends

that played in different bands to

to play

a benefit shows at

different clubs around town.

(music)

Guys and in the Gits

called to see if, I would be interested.

They were doing some benefit stuff

to raise money for a private eye.

It somehow came up in the studio

with Joan and she's just like,

we got to do something.

We got to be involved.

I think somehow we got around

to talking about

playing some of the Gits songs.

Next thing you know, she's like singing

the Gits songs

with the surviving members of the Gits.

The band that we created

with the remaining Gits and myself

we called Evil Stig,

which means “Gits Live” backwards.

Hey, we’d like to thank you all

right here real quick for coming out to

Viva Zapata.

Thank you for supporting.

“Awaken in a state”

“it's not my own”

“the only thing that's real”

“Is that amongst these walls,”

Andy, Matt and Steve were nothing but

beautiful souls to me.

I can't imagine

what they were going through.

I mean, I really can't

I cannot imagine that happening.

And when you see the footage

and you see how close

they were

and you see Andy and Mia joking on stage,

and you see this rapport

and how close they were, I mean.

It really had to be

devastating,

you know?

So, I really think

it's admirable what they did.

And,

I think Mia would be proud of them what they did.

The amount of bands

that got involved,

which was the Posies

Presidents of the United States,

Nirvana,

when Kurt was alive,

Eddie Vedder, Soundgarden.

And they all brought things.

And I think Soundgarden lent us the,

some of the equipment,

like the drums and whatnot.

I wanted to do the music proud.

I wanted to do a good job.

I wanted to raise a lot of money,

you know, to make sure,

you know,

we were able to give the private eye

some something good and helpful.

So, you know,

you just wanted to do everything

justice, I suppose.

To actually get a huge group of

people like that together to

to come up with the money to

hire a private investigator, you know,

because we didn't know

what the Seattle police was,

you know, how far they really take it.

You have to do something to, you know.

“Matter fact”

“Will there be hundreds mourning for you?”

“Will they talk of the talent and inspiration you gave?”

“No”

“Who besides your mother”

“will stand in sorrow at your grave?”

“Mother may I?”

“Momma mia?”

“Some things don't come full circle”

“Society did this to you?”

“Does society have justice for you?”

“Well if not I do”

I think we raised close to $50,000

for the investigation

and and didn't come to anything.

We found out a lot of dirt

about a lot of people.

But in the end, we

we didn't find out who killed her.

And we still haven’t.

Looking back on all that stuff, there's

really

creepy foreshadowing in their songs.

“Never ceases to amaze me the shit you try to pull”

“anything to get me in and then get me killed”

“go ahead and slice me up, spread me all across this town”

“Cause you know you're the one that won't be found”

After she was killed,

It was very, very difficult

to listen to that song.

Go ahead and slash me up

and spread me all across this town,

because you're the one

that won't be found.

I mean, gosh,

how could you not equate that

with what happened to her?

“Then you raped her”

“You left her in the alleyway”

“I know I have to see you”

“And all I think of you is right Could've gone on after you”

I'd like to let her lyrics

speak for themselves.

And you know,

I have my own interpretation

of what that was.

And I do know

some of the stuff she was going through

personally at the time,

but I think lyrics should be, taken

in by everyone that that hears

them individually and, and

looked at on a personal level for

from the listener.

My personal opinion

is that she was trying

to make a serious song

about violence against women.

The cops were telling us, don't,

don't tell anyone that Mia was raped.

And we were like, fuck that.

It could have been me.

It could have been anybody.

And but it was Mia, and she was so

fierce and so street smart.

There was an incredible sense

of disempowerment.

After Mia was killed,

we didn't feel safe.

We were freaked out.

The whole city was pretty freaked out,

like the community was freaked out.

The anger started kicking in really hard.

But such intense anger

and just fucking rage.

Valerie called me from the road and said,

we have to get together.

As soon as I get back,

we've got to do something.

She was just all like, freaked out.

We were just like,

thinking in the modes

of self-defense, like,

you know,

wishing that we were all fucking

ninja bitches.

I didn't like feeling afraid.

We felt we're not,

we don't want to change the way we live.

I mean, we want to be able to go out,

see shows, play shows, drink,

have it be

2:00 in the morning and get home.

We just want to get home

without being fucked with.

And that's

kind of the inception of Home Alive.

And it's still around,

it's still doing it.

And I think we've accomplished our goals

and beyond.

There was a sense of

we're all taking care of ourselves

and each other.

We're looking

we're watching each other's backs

at the same time.

It seemed like from Home Alive,

people are trying to make something

positive happen

from something really horrible.

And I remember thinking they like

getting a lot of inspiration

and hope from that.

Definitely, for me,

made it a little easier to deal with.

With the violence that she suffered

After the Gits ended,

we started the

Dancing French Liberals of 48’.

It was really therapeutic

because it was a hardcore band

and we played hard and we played fast

“They never say who calls the shots”

“But I know it ain’t me”

We rehearsed a lot,

and our goal was to be able to play at,

the record release party

for our second album,

which would be released posthumously.

That was the record

release party for

Entering The Conquering Chicken,

and it was also really cool

finishing that album up

after Mia had passed away,

because, we felt close to her

because we were able to hear her

sing and listen to her,

her, really doing her thing.

“Nothing like pain to make you all the same”

God, I'm not a guitar player.

Wow.

(Cheering audience)

All right,

one more and we’re gonna get on to this night

This is mine

Adrian!

I can tell you yell anyway, you dog.

Matt!

You scum.

(Accoustic guitar playing)

“But I don't need your social love”

“No”

“I feel misread enough”

“And what ails me is your smiling”

“Walking on by and walking on by”

“Yeah when it hits me”

“See it still gets kinda heavy”

“Yeah when it's laying there over”

“It's wide open and read”

(Live music)

“Well, I don't need your social love,”

“no I already feel misread enough”

“And what ails me is the fact that you”

“smile when you're walking on by”

“just keep on walkin”

“yeah, when it hits me, you see”

“It still gets a little heavy”

“And yeah, when it's laying there open”

“It's fucking wide open and read”

“Well, I don't need your social crap”

“You were asleep, as far as I can see”

“what hails me, is your pretentious stare ”

In the ten years that have have passed

since that, the crime,

her true

goodness has come out

After the tragedy of Mia’s death,

I think it's it's really amazing

that we have,

you know, all of these recordings.

And so many people took photographs

and there's film

that you guys have compiled,

and it's all there,

and it's I'm glad that's there.

But it still makes me sad

that there's so much more

we could have done.

If anything, I like to

to discuss more things

that are positive about the Gits

and the musical legacy and the the

the artistic legacy that Mia left.

Probably if the Gits some kind of

mission or quest or something,

it was to kind of put

some soul back into that kind of music.

And I think we did.

And that's why I still,

I think people respond to it

and, and, and care about it

and why it continues to matter to people.

Oftentimes in the history

of popular music,

women artists take a while

for really their influence to be felt.

And I think it's a ripe time

for the Gits influence

to be felt in Mia’s influence,

because a new generation

of artists like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

and The Distillers are taking from Mia

without even knowing

they're taking from Mia.

What she was about

and that type of life force

that seemed unique.

And to think that that was,

just strangled away from all of us is

just very sad.

Every hour that goes by after a crime,

it gets it's harder to solve.

But it doesn't mean it won't be.

It's always,

it's always going to be,

always will be the back of your head.

I tried to keep those guys hopes up that

we would find

a killer, but it was

terribly disheartening.

In any case, we never saw the files,

so we don't know if there's any evidence.

Basically, we don't know anything.

And that's how it's been

and that's how it still is.

So just short of somebody

turning someone else in

or somebody confessing, we're fucked.

We're still in the dark as far as...

and that person is still out there.

Obviously.

Number one, in Western Washington,

with coverage,

you can count on

King 5 News at five,

A local murder mystery

dating back a decade

maybe solved tonight.

Police in Florida arrest a suspect,

somebody they believe killed

Seattle grunge singer Mia Zapata.

It was a horrific, unsolved murder case

that shocked Seattle's music scene.

And now a documentary

is being made about the band,

the Gits, its success and its demise.

But this documentary will now

have a different ending.

I got a call on my cell phone from

King 5, the TV station, and they said,

we want to be the first

to interview you

about about this indictment.

And I said, okay, you can do that.

But first you got to show me proof.

Van pulls up, a woman, gets out

and gives me a piece of paper

and it's a fax

from the Miami Police Department

saying that they have

someone in custody.

I’ll still never forget the day

I got a phone call from Steve Moriarty.

No “Hello”. No nothing.

We got him.

(Hard rock music)

Is sort of

the next chapter in this awful story.

I'm glad they finally caught this guy.

It doesn't change

anything about the band,

anything about the music we've made.

The key to the break in this case,

after ten years, DNA evidence.

Ten years ago,

detective saves from DNA evidence

from the crime scene.

And that finally led

to an arrest in Florida.

Mia was, viciously raped.

There was no semen,

but there

her attacker, left saliva on her breast.

And so when we probably reopen the case,

we started looking at the evidence.

We said, hey, we've got saliva samples.

We sent the gause in,

and we were able to get a profile.

Just one month ago,

detectives finally got a computer hit.

It led them across the country

to marathon, Florida,

where last night,

officers arrested this man, 48 year

old Jesus Mezquia.

He's a recently convicted Florida felon

whose profile was newly

entered in a database.

The suspect -

was 39 years old when

Mia Zapata was murdered.

The investigation revealed

he lived in Seattle

at the time of the murder.

Last month,

a DNA

match was made

from a Florida felon database

from a newly entered profile.

Nobody knew this guy.

We are on the wrong track

the whole time.

She was in the wrong place

at the wrong time

and he was out

like a hunter trying to find game.

When it all came about,

it was really a shock

to everybody's system.

That was just like whirlwind

kind of up, down, like euphoric,

like fucking piece of shit

is caught.

Seein the man’s face

for for the first time was,

a truly evil experience.

Like the dam just broke,

you know, it was just like, oh my God,

this is the last person that she saw.

She was looking into this guy's eyes.

I felt disgust and hate

for the guy to the point

that I pitied him,

that I pitied him, that I hated him

so much.

When we got back from Florida

My sergeant called

and said, call Richard Zapata

tell him whats going on.

And I called them

and I talked to Richard for about a half hour.

And I'll tell you what,

through all this stuff,

he's thanking us,

he's telling me

that you guys are saints

from what you did.

And I couldn't believe I thought, Jesus.

I mean, you know, we did our job.

And I remember walking on the stairs,

and I was up in the bedroom talking to

walk down the stairs and,

my wife said, how’d it go?

and I just started crying and,

I said, jeez, the guy's incredible.

I can see why Mia was the way she was.

(Accoustic guitar music)

The time

that it took to solve this case,

to gather enough

evidence to support

charging and,

hopefully a conviction later on

is how it tracked

with the evolution of DNA itself.

Because in the early 90s,

DNA was just being ushered

into the courtrooms.

Evidence such as saliva

could not yield a result at that time.

But then some 9, 10 years later,

the lab

now is able to take a very small sample

and render

a reliable,

result and a genetic profile.

The discoverer of that process

received the Nobel Prize.

I think

I wanted to be there.

My sister wanted to be there.

My father, of course,

was definitely going to be there.

But my mother, she had a tough time.

She just really,

I think she wanted to be there,

but she just didn't

feel like she could be.

She felt like she was, you know,

it would just hurt too much.

She didn't want to have a face.

She didn't want to know details.

She didn't want to relive it.

The trial.

It was different things.

Different people saw it differently.

The people on Capitol Hill,

the music industry.

It was it was their day.

I mean, it was finally, redemption.

It had really shaken up the,

that community.

It really hit them hard.

And, to them

was almost like, the day of deliverance.

Good morning everyone.

Please be seated.

Has the jury reached a verdict?

Yes your honor, we have.

With the clerk

please read the verdict.

Verdict form A. We the jury find

the defendant Jesus Mezquia

guilty of the crime

of felony murder in the first degree

as alternatively charged...

as charged in count one.

Juror number one,

is this your individual verdict?

Yes.

And is it the verdict of the jury?

Yes.

Juror number two,

is this your individual verdict?

Yes.

And is it the verdict of the jury?

Yes.

Juror number three,

is this your individual verdict?

Yes.

And is it the verdict of the jury?

Yes.

Juror number four,

is this your individual verdict?

Yes.

And is it to verdict of the jury?

Yes.

Juror number five,

is this your individual verdict?

Yes.

And is it the verdict of the jury?

Yes.

Juror number six,

is this your individual verdict?

Yes.

And is it the verdict of the jury?

Yes.

Juror number seven,

is this your individual verdict?

Yes.

And is it the verdict of the jury?

Yes.

Juror number eight...

(music)

“Cut my skin and makes me human”

“Scorn the mind”

“Just feel the pain”

“Cuz it’s what makes us human”

“Yeah”

“it keeps us all the same”

“You lose your head on your chosen trip”

“the sight of your blood might will lose your spit”

“and a broken heart will turn to sin”

“but when the wound is open”

“we're all the same”

“Cut my skin, it makes me human”

“Scorn your mind just feel the pain”

“When you're lookin’ at pain”

“you're lookin’ at truth”

“Nothin’ like pain to make us all the same”

Just hearing the jury

pronounced him guilty of all charges

completely and totally satisfied me.

I've got my whole life ahead of me.

Because, essentially, I was here...

you know, living with that on my mind

for the last 12 years

and really not able to

find any peace until

until I saw this day.

And, you know,

I always held out hope

that I would see this day.

But sometimes I really didn't think so.

For a long time.

it's like

I haven't been able to listen to the Gits

because it was always so painful.

After this happened

and we were over there

just the other night and we put it on

and it was the first time

that I felt like, you know, happy again.

I still love listening to our music,

although it makes me sad.

It makes me miss Mia.

The legacy is what it is, and,

you know, it's

seen differently by different people.

But for me,

it's just my, my personal memories of

of the time I spent with those guys.

It matters to me very much

that people still care about,

about the Gits and, you know, the music

especially.

It, it's very it's very moving.

You know, when I hear that,

that people care and that they get,

they get something from it because,

I mean, after all, that's

why we did it to begin with, you know?

You know, we experienced

a really dramatic

intense lives together.

You know, we lost,

we lost our sister together.

We'll always be brothers,

you know, we'll live probably in

different parts of the country

or different parts of the world, but,

you know, we’ll still be Gits.

Just like Mia

still be a Git.

(music)

(music)