A Man of True Courage: Angel Juarbe, Jr., of ‘Murder in Small Town X’

If you aren’t a longtime reality TV buff, you might not even remember Fox’s Murder in Small Town X, commonly abbreviated by fans as “MiSTX,” a show that aired in the summer of 2001. The premise was that the players, led and hosted by former police investigator Gary Fredo, had to follow clues to figure out who in the small town of Sunrise, Maine, was killing off the other citizens.

In this scenario, the players were brought in as outside detectives and the murderer informed them through a videotape he sent that he would play a game with them. He identified himself as one of 15 possible suspects. Every few days, he sent a red envelope containing a question about the investigation. If the group answered it correctly, one of the 15 suspects was cleared. But he also sent a black envelope listing two locations. One of those locations provided an important clue to the killer’s identity. The other led to the killer himself, waiting in ambush to execute the player. Each week, a Lifeguard was selected (by the last person “killed”) to direct the investigation and also pick one of the two players who would go to the locations described in the black envelope; the other person was selected by a group vote.

The winner would be the one who chose the right killer at the end, when only two investigators remained. That person would win $250,000.

Despite the fact that MiSTX seemed to have a number of dedicated fans, the show only aired for one season, with the winner being Angel Juarbe, Jr. But while he made it through fake murders unscathed, he was killed in an all too real moment, before he could even collect his winnings, when he went – in his real job as a New York City fireman – into the World Trade Center as part of the rescue on September 11, 2001.

Certainly every rescue worker who gave his or her life deserves recognition for that. But as this is the Hall of Fame specifically for reality TV, it is appropriate to note that Angel played the game in much the same way as he died – by helping others.

During the game, Angel showed himself to be a kind and caring individual – and an intelligent one. A few examples:

• Early in the game, players were told that if they were ever alone, they might be killed by the murderer. This was meant to scare the players and keep them together. Indeed, in just the second episode, Angel was left with fellow contestant Andy in a cemetery, guarding a grave that had been dug up. The local police officer character came to tell them that he was concerned about the safety of another grave and wanted to take one of them with. But wait – what about the warning that players who were alone could be killed? Angel told Andy to be strong and explained to him that he had to conquer his fear – and then went off with the “officer.” Neither was killed, but we saw a side of Angel that told us his feelings about facing fear head-on and not giving in.
• Although he originally was not one of her biggest fans, Angel managed to get along with the infamous Kristen – the show’s designated bitch – who was so disliked that she was sent to play the killer’s game five times in six episodes until she finally stopped coming back. But when Angel went on an investigation with her, he told her that he didn’t want to be a part of the negativity that was sweeping through the team. According to host Gary Fredo in an interview with RealityNewsOnline, Kristen’s response upon learning how everybody felt was to ask Angel how she could change. The two of them stuck together from that point until she was “killed.”
• On another investigation when Angel was with Kristen, they were supposed to train for a cold water dive. Kristen, however, felt claustrophobic in the suit. So Angel did the mission by himself and made sure to let her know that she would always be a part of the team.
• Also in the aforementioned interview, Fredo said he was lucky to be able to call Angel a friend. He further talked about how Angel had a very caring quality about him. While some of the other players had problems dealing with each other, Angel stood out as being somebody who was the exception. He kept the cohesion of the team.
• Numerous times, Angel was the one who came up with the correct answer to the killer’s question, thus allowing them to eliminate a suspect. This showed that not only was he a good at the politics of the game – he was never selected to play the killer’s game – but that he was also smart enough to follow the clues and answer the questions posed in the mystery portion of the game.