A retired Los Angeles police captain who led the Sharon Tate murder probe made his home on a McAllen ranch. Capt. Hugh Brown retired in 1970 after 25 years in Los Angeles law enforcement. He and his wife bought 20 acres along North Ware Road. MyRGV.com republished the original 1970 interview with Brown on July 18, 2026. The story was first written by Harlan Woods for The Monitor on July 19, 1970.

Brown spent his last nine years on the force as commander of the LAPD's Homicide and Robbery Division. That unit took on the hardest homicide cases in Los Angeles. It also handled abortion deaths, officer-involved shootings, bombings, and bank holdups. Brown said Los Angeles averaged one bank holdup a day.

The LAPD cleared 88 to 89 percent of its roughly 400 homicides a year, Brown said. "Those other 10 or 11 per cent are very frustrating," Brown said. "Sometimes you think your on the right track and you know who's responsible but you can't prove it in court." He pointed to one case then eight or nine months old. "A man was killed getting into his car by a gunman, and we know who did it, but can't prove it," he said. "The guilty person is still running loose."

Brown headed the investigation into the August 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and several friends in Hollywood. He called the case his "baby." He was vacationing in McAllen when the killings happened. "We were vacationing in McAllen a year ago this August when the Sharon Tate thing broke and I really walked into a turmoil when I returned," Brown said. "Seven people were brutally murdered in a two-day period and citizens were near panic. We had to get moving to keep it from reaching the panic stage."

The day after the Tate murders, the LaBianca family was killed nearby in a similar way. Brown's unit worked both cases at once and suspected narcotics involvement. A Los Angeles judge barred investigators from talking to reporters under a gag order. Brown said the rule did not stop the pressure from the press. "The news media was fighting for interviews with anyone who could shed any light on the case and it made it rough on us," he said. Two of his investigators once arranged to meet possible witnesses who never showed. A reporter for the London Times had hidden them for six days to get an exclusive story.

Brown sent investigators to Canada, New York, New Jersey, and Louisiana chasing leads. Most leads turned out false. He also sent men to McKinney, Texas. They worked the case against Charles "Tex" Watson. Watson was fighting extradition to California at the time. "We have the strongest case on that boy of any of them," Brown said. He described Manson and his followers as filthy when arrested, with matted hair full of lice. Their bodies were a mass of swollen sores and blisters. Brown said the case changed how people viewed hippies. "A lot of people changed their opinion of hippies and as a result are more afraid of them now," he said.

Before the Tate case, Brown led the Special Unit Senator task force formed after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot on June 5, 1968. He commanded 23 investigators. "This was a completely different matter from the Tate murders in that it was solved from the start," Brown said. "We knew who the killer was and had him in custody, but it was more of a grinding out process." Over the following year, his unit interviewed more than 5,000 people and filled four filing cabinets with notes. The final report ran eight volumes. Brown said most of the work involved checking out rumors pushed by "book writers and publicity seekers" claiming a conspiracy. One tip involved a woman in a polka-dot dress. It took three or four days to check out. It turned out to be a publicity stunt.

Brown also worked the case of a nurse who was strangled with a silk stocking and raped. Her fiance, a doctor, was a prime suspect. Fingerprints at the scene led investigators to check about 25,000 prints. Two years later, a man arrested for attempted rape was matched to the prints. He was convicted. Brown also worked the L. Ewing Scott case. Scott was convicted of murder even though his wife's body was never found.

Brown was asked about the Pete Scamardo trial in the Rio Grande Valley. He said the sentence Scamardo got would have been illegal in California. State law there does not allow probation for a murder conviction.

Brown and his family had vacationed in the Valley for several years before deciding to retire in McAllen. "We were familiar with the country and the people before making up our mind to settle here," he said. They bought a home with 10 acres of grove on North Ware Road. They also bought 10 more acres of grove near the Texan Gardens area. They planned to raise cattle. Brown golfed at McAllen Municipal Golf Course with friend and fellow retired LAPD officer Tom Dawson. Brown said several LAPD men were considering the Valley for retirement.

A search of El Tejano's archives found no earlier story on Brown's LAPD career or his move to McAllen.