The murder of Ovida “Cricket” Coogler in Las Cruces in 1949 rocked New Mexico’s political machine and sent reverberations throughout the country. Coogler was an 18-year-old waitress whose body was found in a field south of Las Cruces by some rabbit hunters.

She had been raped and run over repeatedly by a car. As the press, particularly Walt Finley, working for the El Paso Herald Post, started digging into the murder, corruption from the local sheriff “Happy” Apodaca all the way to the State House was uncovered as was the infiltration by the mob, ostensibly to set up illicit gambling throughout the state. The murderer of Coogler, however, was not uncovered and the crime remains one of the state’s great cold cases.

“The Silence of Cricket Coogler” is a straight-forward if not very sophisticated telling of the murder that focuses on the Grand Jury through interviews. John Ehrlichman of Watergate infamy is the narrator. Tony HIllerman, who worked as journalist for United Press International (UPI) and covered the story, is one of the interviewees as was Alice Gruver a former Las Cruces reporter and Jack Flynn, a former publisher. Perhaps because of a journalist’s training to be concise, precise and specific, the interviews and the movie itself can be rather dry and the accompanying black and white video clips that appear to be filmed so as to replicate the times do little to add to the film.

The story remains compelling, however, even though it glosses over Cricket the person and why she should be so involved. Her looks and promiscuity are hinted at as reasons that she was cavorting with such high-ranking officials, but Cricket the person is largely cast-off in favor of the political fall-out that occurred after her death.

Recently several books have come out about Cricket Coogler, reviving the mystery but, like the movie, do not purport to solve the case but, rather, serve as reminders of machinations and the hubris of those in power in New Mexico of the past. As such, documentaries such as “The Silence of Cricket Coogler” can also serve as another type of warning of how far some people will go individually and as a group to protect one of their own and the necessity of the press to persist in following their trails.