The Brothers Ortiz, Episode 3: "The Family Man"

Podcast: The Brothers Ortiz
Host/Reporter: Sean Flynn
Date: December 24, 2025
Production: Campside Media & iHeart Podcasts

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the complex and divergent paths of Gabe and Larry Ortiz—two brothers from Brazoria County, Texas, who ended up as opposites in the justice system. Gabe became a ranking state officer, while Larry found a life in the notorious prison gang Puro Tango Blast. When Larry is killed in a violent home invasion, the fractured Ortiz family is forced to confront their shared past, hard choices, and the realities that led Larry into a life of crime.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Family Breakdown and Upbringing

• Gabe leaves a “Rockwellian” family for the Air Force in 1992; within three years, their mother moves out, shattering the household’s stability.
• Alicia Ortiz (sister) recalls unchecked freedom after their mother departs—with minimal parental supervision, she moves in with her boyfriend at age 14 ([04:48]).
• Gabe tries to save Alicia from instability, offering her a place in Abilene, but she ultimately stays for her boyfriend and becomes a teen mother.

Quote:

• Alicia on her adolescence:

  "I had a lot of freedom that kids that age normally would not have...that apartment was mine and I could have my friends come and go..." ([04:35])

2. Gabe’s Path to Law Enforcement

• Gabe completes his Air Force service, meets his wife Melinda, and after a brief, disliked stint at a youth detention facility, becomes a county jailer in Taylor County ([08:51]).
• He confronts offers of bribery from inmates and resists gang influence even while earning little ([10:02]).

Quote:

• Gabe, on being targeted for corruption:

  "How would you like for an envelope full of money just to show up in your mailbox every month?" ([10:29])

3. Larry’s Descent into Gang Life

• While Gabe tries to go straight, Larry is pulled into the emerging crack epidemic in Brazoria County during the ‘90s ([18:19]).
• Friends Antonio and Wade describe the neighborhood as awash in drugs and violence, and the easy money—and cool—of gang life as seductive to young men ([19:11]).
• Contrast between Gabe’s resistance and Larry’s embrace of illegal opportunity ([11:45]).

Quotes:

• Wade on the lure of dealing:

  "It was all about being cool...the girls liked the cool, thuggish bad boys, so that's what we became." ([19:11])

• Antonio reflecting:

  "You feel bulletproof. You know, at 18 and 19, I thought I was grown and I knew what I was doing. I had no clue." ([19:31])

4. Turning Points for Friends, Not for Larry

• Both Antonio and Wade eventually leave the life due to family intervention and fear of causing more pain, a contrast to Larry who remains embroiled ([20:40]).
• Grandma’s disappointment catalyzes Wade’s decision to stop, while Antonio’s week in jail prompts self-examination ([21:02]).

5. Larry: The Family Provider, Despite It All

• Larry moves up in the drug world—manufacturing, not just selling, crack—and evades the worst legal consequences for a time ([22:43]).
• Family members discuss Larry’s dependability and loyalty:

  "Larry was good at taking care of things. You know, he was going to make it happen regardless...He was gonna get by and he was gonna make sure that everybody that rode with him was gonna be okay." ([23:05])

• Larry becomes family patriarch in a broken household, caring for daughters and a partner’s child ([24:09], [24:31]), and mentoring his sister Alicia—however illicitly.

6. Alicia's Entry into “The Game”

• With no support from their absent parents, Larry brings Alicia and her boyfriend into dealing, teaching them how to make and sell crack so they can provide for her young family ([25:52], [26:17]).
• Alicia’s matter-of-fact retelling is both chilling and oddly tender, highlighting Larry’s fierce but misguided love ([30:26]).

Quote:

• Alicia:

  "Larry kind of took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it. And he was like, okay. He's like, I'm gonna put you on. And so, sure enough, we started selling crack." ([25:59])

7. Gabe’s Career Advancement and Conflict

• A conversation with a seasoned jailer, JC, points Gabe toward the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), where he becomes a state trooper—doubling his pay and climbing above correctional work ([33:55]).
• Gabe is posted back in Lake Jackson, in his home county—a symbolic homecoming fraught with emotional and ethical challenges as he must confront his past and the people he once knew, including family ([36:03]).

Quote:

• On returning home:

  "I've been gone for a number of years, so yes, it was a homecoming. Things changed. I knew that at some point I was gonna encounter a lot of people that I knew, you know, family members, people I grew up with. And how was I going to deal with that?" ([36:16])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Alicia’s early freedom ([04:35]):
  "I had a lot of freedom that kids that age normally would not have..."

• Gabe confronted by gang corruption ([10:29]):
  "How would you like for an envelope full of money just to show up in your mailbox every month?"

• Wade’s wakeup call ([19:39]):
  "Your brother on his way out and you on your way in, huh?"

• Antonio’s epiphany in jail ([21:02]):
  "He looked me in my eyes, and he told me, he said, do you think you're some of the problem? Sat in there a week, the city jail in Freeport. Thinking about it...that was enough for me."

• Alicia on Larry teaching her to deal ([25:59]):
  "Larry kind of took us under his wing and showed us the game, as they call it...we started selling crack."

• Gabe’s homecoming ([36:16]):
  "I knew that at some point I was gonna encounter a lot of people that I knew, you know, family members, people I grew up with. And how was I going to deal with that?"

Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment | Description | |---------|--------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:54 | Family fractures | Family changes after Gabe leaves for Air Force | | 05:26 | Alicia’s teen struggles | Alicia moves in with boyfriend, becomes pregnant | | 07:11 | Gabe’s career path begins | Work in security, then youth corrections, jailer | | 10:29 | Gang bribe attempt | Texas Syndicate attempts to recruit Gabe | | 15:25 | Larry’s old neighborhood | Friends Antonio & Wade discuss the drug's grip on their youth | | 19:39 | Wade’s turning point | Realizing the pain caused to his family | | 21:03 | Antonio’s jail reflection | Police challenge his self-identity, leading to quitting the life | | 22:43 | Larry’s “business” acumen | Larry succeeds in the drug trade, stays out of jail for a time | | 24:09 | Larry as family man | Larry raises two daughters, supports Alicia | | 25:59 | Alicia’s entry into crime | Larry shows Alicia how to make and sell crack | | 33:55 | Gabe applies to DPS | Gabe gets guidance to become a state trooper | | 36:16 | Gabe returns home | Gabe is posted in his home county as a DPS trooper |

Tone & Language

• Reflective and conversational; anecdotes and shame mix with gentle humor and family warmth.
• Direct and unembellished; participants speak frankly about their mistakes, regrets, and the circumstances that drove them.

Example:
Alicia on seeing Gabe’s reaction to criminal past revelations:

"And I expect him to be shocked, maybe even a little hurt because what she's saying is appalling...And yet he seems amused because it's also kind of sweet."

Summary

This episode traces how two brothers, shaped by the same broken environment, took different but equally hard paths—one toward the law, the other toward lawbreaking. "The Family Man" frames Larry’s criminality less as simple villainy than as a flawed form of love and responsibility in the face of poverty and familial abandonment. Meanwhile, Gabe’s journey is marked by integrity, ambition, and the eventual challenge of returning home both as a lawman and a brother. The episode captures the emotional complexity of familial bonds tainted by crime, loyalty, disappointment, and the longing for redemption.

End of summary.