Latin Station Disc Jockey Slain; Police Seek Cousin

Spanish-language disc jockey Rodolfo Garcia Cortez was found stabbed to death, his body stuffed into a trash container six blocks from his apartment, Los Angeles police said Wednesday.

Cortez’s 1979 Porsche, wallet and jewelry were missing, and Detective Charles Salazar said police are seeking his cousin, Gustavo Garcia, 22, for questioning. The cousin lived with Cortez at an apartment in the 700 block of South Hartford Avenue. Salazar said Garcia had been Cortez’s roommate since February and has been missing since the body was discovered.

A coroner’s spokesman said Cortez, 43, a popular announcer for AM radio station KWKW, apparently was slain on Monday, but his body was not identified until late Tuesday, because nothing was left in the pockets of his clothes.

Garbage collectors found the body in a dumpster near the downtown Convention Center Monday morning, the spokesman said, but it remained unidentified until KWKW programming director Alfredo Rodriguez reported Cortez missing, after he failed to appear for his regular 10 a.m.-to-2 p.m. show.

Autopsy Planned

Police said death appeared to be due to multiple stab wounds, but an autopsy was scheduled.

Cortez, who was born Sept. 11, 1942, in Guadalajara, Mexico, was an experienced and popular announcer in that country. He came to the United States six years ago, and was first employed by station KOFY in San Francisco. He moved to Los Angeles three years ago and had become a fixture at KWKW, becoming well known for his ability to imitate numerous Latino regional dialects and accents.

However, Rodriguez said Cortez was “more than just a funny man.”

“Once he was at the station,” Rodriguez said, “he was . . . well accepted by the listeners . . . involved in the community.”

This view was echoed by radio KALI news and public affairs director Alberto Aguilar, who called Cortez “one of the most sane of the funny men of Spanish radio in L.A.”

‘Celebrity Image’

“These guys,” Aguilar said, “have a reputation of being partygoers, of drinking a little bit too much. Basically, the old Hollywood celebrity image. But while (Cortez) had a large following, he did not suffer from that reputation . . . he was considered a pretty quiet guy.”

One reason for this reputation, Rodriguez said, may have been Cortez’s family responsibilities. He had a wife, Bertha; two daughters, Bertha, 22, and Claudia, 18, and a son, Rodolfo Jr., 14. They remained in Mexico while the children completed their education and he was establishing himself as a permanent, legal resident here.

“We hired him,” Rodriguez added, “because he was very talented, a good announcer, because of his talent and experience. . . . Everybody is sad here (at KWKW), deeply sad because of his loss.”