---
category: "Victims & Witnesses"
tags:
  - Person
  - PROMIS
  - CIA
summary: "Alvarez had been chosen to manage the Cabazon Casino shortly before his murder."
updated: 2026-10-09
relations:
  - type: employed_by
    with: "[[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Band of Mission Indians]]"
    role: "tribal vice chairman and security chief at the cardroom"
    end: 1981-07
    fn: 4
---
[[Fred Alvarez]] was the former vice-chairman of the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation]]. He was a victim of an execution-style triple homicide in Rancho Mirage, [[California]], that [[Cheri Seymour]] dates to June 29, 1981, along with his friends [[Ralph Boger]] and [[Patricia Castro]]. His murder occurred just six months before the murder of [[Paul Morasca]].[^1]

The Cabazon Indian Casino cardroom had been managed since September 1980 by [[Rocco Zangari]], under an agreement that the appellate panel described as appearing to be between Zangari and [[PN Associates, Inc.]], and that [[Arthur Welmas]] also signed. Zangari was discharged on November 5, 1981, according to the appellate panel, or on November 15, 1981, according to a March 20, 1988 Press-Enterprise article.[^2][^3]

A paper submitted by the California Attorney General's office to the Senate Special Committee on Investigations on February 8, 1989 states that in approximately May 1981 Alvarez, as tribal vice chairman and security chief at the Cabazon cardroom, began to doubt and publicly criticized the Cabazon management; that, according to his sister, he believed money was being skimmed from the cardroom and told local newspapers his life was in danger; that he was removed as vice chairman; and that he and two others decided to consult a lawyer about a suit to open the casino's books. It states that on July 2, 1981 Alvarez and two non-Indians were found dead, shot in the head with a .38 caliber revolver the evening before, and that the case was never solved.[^4]

Alvarez had been chosen to manage the Cabazon Indian Reservation shortly before his murder. Reports related to the Alvarez triple-homicide, including those concerning "[[The Octopus]]", were later found in the "Paul Morasca Homicide Investigation File" in San Francisco, as the original Riverside files were missing.[^1]

[[Sam Cross]], the Indio police chief in 1981, told the FBI on October 6, 1992 that he first met [[Michael Riconosciuto]] in mid to late 1984 at the home of [[Peter Zokosky]], that Riconosciuto then talked about the murder of Alvarez, and that Riconosciuto believed [[Dr. John Philip Nichols|John Nichols Sr.]] was involved in it and that there would be additional murders in the future.[^5]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
[^2]: *Zangari v. Cabazon Indian Casino (In re Cabazon Indian Casino)*, 35 B.R. 124 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. December 29, 1983), BAP No. CC-82-1578-GVAb. https://static.case.law/br/35/cases/0124-01.json
[^3]: *The Press-Enterprise* (Riverside, California), March 20, 1988, p. B-1 with jump page, "Manager proposes plush Indian casino, club," by Mike Kataoka. Reprinted in FBI Los Angeles file 183A-LA-1746, Section 1, https://archive.org/details/JohnPhilipNichols
[^4]: *Federal Government's Relationship with American Indians*, Hearings before the Special Committee on Investigations of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, S. Hrg. 101-126, Part 2 (February 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1989), Robert Morehouse, "High Stakes Bingo on Indian Reservations in California," pp. 417 to 419. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152832_0182
[^5]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles, FD-302 of the interview of Sam Cross, file 74-86438, interview October 6, 1992 (transcribed December 10, 1992). https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-CabazonWackenhunt