EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — FBI El Paso opened its new museum on Tuesday, Nov. 3 in West El Paso as a way to document its history and tell some behind-the-scenes stories dating back to the 1960s.
Shaun Felice/KTSM 9 News
The historical museum is located on the 3rd floor of the agency’s building located at 600 S. Mesa Hills Drive.
FBI El Paso Assistant Special Agent in Charge Britton Boyd says the idea for the historical museum came after watching a Netflix series that had portrayed FBI El Paso covering a specific case that was not entirely accurate.
Boyd says he wanted to build a display to inform and inspire FBI El Paso agents and guests regarding the previous work agents had covered.
Boyd says that with every picture and artifact, he was able to also get the story from previous agents who worked those cases.
“So it was really firsthand recollections from the agents themselves some as old as 90-years-old, sharing their experiences in El Paso,” Boyd said.
Boyd says one of the most significant cases that took place in El Paso was the very first plane that was hijacked back in 1960.
“I was able to talk to the retired agent who took that phone call that night and he thought it was a prank call and Pablo Acosta, the agent who led the operation to do that. I was actually able to interview most of the agents who were part of that and also get the pictures for that and the other cases that we’ve done in the office and led were the investigations against Vincente Carrillo Fuentes,” Boyd said.
Boyd says the most amazing aspect of the museum to him are the stories from the retired agents.
“It’s the people that make the organization, not necessarily the artifacts. The artifacts are cool but it’s the people who’ve done the work, who’ve contributed to the cases and have really helped build the organization the way it is which is so important and they’re members of the community just like everybody else, and so it’s interesting to hear their contributions and how they’ve made El Paso one of the safest cities in the United States,” Boyd said.
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