months of the revolution had put so much pressure
on Clinton that he signed welfare reform and other
vital aspects of the Contract with America into law.
Once Clinton left office and Bush was elected as a
Republican who was not necessarily a conservative,
enduring qualities of the revolution were under-
mined. Limited government, a staple of the revolu-
tion, was lost in the shuffle as Bush agreed to new
entitlements and government expansion.
Further Reading
Garrett, Major.The Enduring Revolution: How the Con-
tract with America Continues to Shape the Nation. New
York: Crown Forum, 2005. Attempts to trace the
enduring qualities or aspects of the Republican
Revolution. It provides a brief overview of how
the ideas of small government as espoused by
Gingrich in 1994 was neither dead nor dying in
some parts of the country ten years later.
Gimpel, James G.Fulfilling the Contract: The First One
Hundred Days. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1996. Pro-
vides a statistical overview of the breakdown of
the electorate and the Republican approach to
the 1994 elections.
Gingrich, Newt.Winning the Future: A Twenty-first
Centur y Contract with America. Washington, D.C.:
Regnery, 2005. Gingrich tries to show the way to
a continued Republican Revolution and thus
smaller government, lower crime rates, and im-
proved border security, among other things. A
worthy read for anyone seeking to understand
the philosophical underpinnings of the 1994 rev-
olution.
AWR Hawkins III
See also Armey, Dick; Christian Coalition; Clin-
ton, Bill; Conservatism in U.S. politics; Contract
with America; Elections in the United States, mid-
term; Gingrich, Newt; Line Item Veto Act of 1996;
Term limits.
Reséndiz, Ángel Maturino
Identification Serial murderer
Born August 1, 1959; Matamoros, Mexico
Died June 27, 2006; Huntsville, Texas
Reséndiz crisscrossed international borders to commit murder
in several regions, demonstrating the difficulty of investigat-
ing murder by stranger and the porousness of U.S. borders.
Between 1997 and 1999, a series of murders occurred
in the United States and Mexico that were connected
by the crimes’ proximity to railroad tracks. For in-
stance, two University of Kentucky students walking
beside some railroad tracks were assaulted, one mur-
dered; in Texas, a neurologist who lived near a rail-
road was sexually assaulted and murdered; in Illinois,
an eighty-year-old man was murdered less than a
quarter mile from railroad tracks. The murderer in
each case was a drifter named Ángel Maturino
Reséndiz, dubbed the “Railway Killer.”
For almost two years, Reséndiz rode the rails look-
ing for victims. Like other serial murderers, Resén-
diz was able to avoid detection by committing crimes
in various jurisdictions, stowing away on freight
trains and committing crimes wherever the train
stopped. After choosing a likely victim and blud-
geoning him or her with whatever object was at
hand, Reséndiz rode the rails back to his wife in Mex-
ico. Sometimes he stole from his victims, but more
often Reséndiz left valuables behind, suggesting that
murder itself was his goal.
Reséndiz often left evidence behind, including
fingerprints. Eventually, investigators were able to
identify him and convince his relatives to cooperate
in order to prevent unnecessary bloodshed. He was
arrested in July, 1999, and was later linked to at least
fifteen murders around the United States. After be-
ing convicted and sentenced to death, Reséndiz con-
fessed to murders in five states.
Impact Like most criminals of his ilk, Reséndiz has
little personal significance. He was a sloppy, impul-
sive, brutal murderer. In the late 1990’s, he found
much more significance as a symbol of the threat
posed by easily penetrated international borders
and slack security. More tragically, Reséndiz’s case
demonstrates the difficulty of investigating murders
committed by strangers with seemingly unfathom-
able motives. Had he not been so sloppy and left so
much forensic evidence behind, Reséndiz might
have been able to commit far more crimes before be-
ing caught.
Further Reading
Booth, Daniel. “Federalism on Ice: State and Local
Enforcement of Federal Immigration Law.”Har-
vard Journal of Law and Public Policy29, no. 3
(2006): 1063-1083.
Clarkson, Wensley.The Railway Killer.London: John
Blake, 2007.718 Reséndiz, Ángel Maturino The Nineties in America