Exclusive video trailer for true crime podcast The Estate

Tenderfoot TV and Sonoro’s podcast The Estate tells the unsettling true crime story of Rosalio “Rosie” Estrada and his best friend Calvin Jones, both charged with the murder of their business partner Tony Virgilio in 1973.

Rosie’s son Alex Estrada discovered that shocking news as a teenager, and later set out to unravel the mystery of why Jones was sent to prison, while Estrada was released.

This much he knew: At some point after the trial began, charges against Rosie were dropped by the DA. The all-white jury later convicted Jones, a Black man, sentencing him to life in prison.

When Alex asked his father about the case, all he would say is that everything about it was both politically and racially motivated. Jones was paroled in 2013, and has always agreed with that assessment.

Although Rosie died in 2012, Alex and his siblings still wondered whether their father was actually involved in the murder, or if he and his friend were set up by the police. When they took a deeper dive into the story, they realized there was a lot more to it than they even suspected.

The killing took place on New Year’s Eve 1973 in Stockton, California. Police found 34-year-old Tony Virgilio lying in the street and bleeding to death from multiple bullet wounds to his leg, stomach and chest. Before he died, Tony told police that he was downtown due to a meeting with Calvin Jones, who was his former business partner.

Jones was then arrested, and ended up serving 30 years in prison for the murder, frequently calling his friend Rosalio Estrada from the prison phone. It was these overheard conversations that caused Alex to wonder about the story throughout his life.

The Estate is described as “equal parts murder mystery, political conspiracy and family memoir”, and as an investigation into issues affecting the Black and Latinx communities in the US. Alex exposes injustices while still trying to get to the truth behind it all.

Says Alex:

"“My dream is for ‘The Estate’ to push others, particularly the federal government, to scrutinize police and prosecutorial practices from the 1970s and 1980s and revisit convictions from that era.”"

The first two episodes of The Estate premiere September 13.

The podcast is available on all platforms, with the remaining five episodes releasing each week on Wednesdays. If you want early access and an ad-free listening experience, listen on Tenderfoot+. See the exclusive video trailer below: