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Great articles, every Saturday.

Publications

Texas Monthly

Crime

“It’s the Most Outrageous Thing I’ve Ever Seen. It Makes No Sense.”

DNA evidence proved Lydell Grant’s innocence. So why won’t the state’s highest criminal court exonerate him?

Michael Hall Texas Monthly Oct 2020 40min Permalink

Crime

The Wildest Insurance Fraud Scheme Texas Has Ever Seen

Over a decade, Theodore Robert Wright III destroyed cars, yachts, and planes. That was only the half of it.

Katy Vine Texas Monthly Aug 2020 20min Permalink

Arts Business

Pride and Prejudice

Vivian Stephens helped turn romance writing into a billion-dollar industry. Then she got pushed out.

Mimi Swartz Texas Monthly Aug 2020 35min Permalink

Politics

Young Americans

On the people who will be sent back to a place they’ve never called home if DACA runs out.

Read more

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration may not immediately proceed with its plan to end DACA

Michael Hall Texas Monthly Dec 2017 20min Permalink

Health

How the Pandemic Turned Brené Brown Into America’s Therapist

But for heaven’s sake, the best-selling author, unapologetic cusser, and fifth-generation Texan would rather not be called that.

Sarah Hepola Texas Monthly Jun 2020 30min Permalink

Business

Inside the Story of How H-E-B Planned for the Pandemic

The grocer started communicating with Chinese counterparts in January and was running tabletop simulations a few weeks later. (But nothing prepared it for the rush on toilet paper.)

Dan Solomon, Paula Forbes Texas Monthly Mar 2020 20min Permalink

Crime History

The School Shooting That Austin Forgot

In 1978, an eighth grader killed his teacher. After 20 months in a psychiatric facility, he was freed. His classmates still wonder: What really happened?

Robert Draper Texas Monthly Mar 2020 45min Permalink

A Battle for the Soul of Marfa

What happens when a wealthy patron wears out his welcome in the “strangest, most conflicted place in all of Texas”?

Mimi Swartz Texas Monthly Jan 2020 35min Permalink

Crime

The Doctor, the Dentist, and the Killer

Brenda thought she and Ricky would be together forever, until he left her. Kendra thought she and Ricky would be together forever. Then Brenda took matters into her own hands. Inside the case of jealousy, spying, and murder that shook Uptown Dallas.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Dec 2019 30min Permalink

Miss Girard’s Christmas Gift

When her former student was found wandering the streets a decade after she’d last seen him, Michelle Girard immediately agreed to take him in. Then she decided to do far more, including give him the Christmas he’d never had.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Dec 2019 15min Permalink

Health

Can Bee Stings Treat Lyme Disease?

“What am I going to do? Because this isn’t fair. I deserve to have a life, to be functional. Well, I guess I’m going to stick myself with bees.”

Katy Vine Texas Monthly Nov 2019 25min Permalink

Best Article Crime

Midnight in the Garden of East Texas

A charming assistant funeral home director named Bernie Tiede murders a wealthy widow, keeps her in a freezer for months, finally gets caught, and still has the town's sympathy as his case goes to trial. The story that became Richard Linklater's Bernie.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Jan 1998 20min Permalink

Arts History

When ‘Angels in America’ Came to East Texas

Twenty years ago my hometown made national headlines when the local college staged an internationally acclaimed play about gay men and the AIDS crisis. The people I grew up with are still feeling the aftershocks.

Wes Ferguson Texas Monthly Oct 2019 30min Permalink

Crime

The Hunt for the Serial Killer of Laredo

Last September, law enforcement officers were confounded by a murderer targeting prostitutes along the border. As the investigation intensified, they discovered that the killer had been hiding in plain sight.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Sep 2019 Permalink

Crime

Crowdsourcing Justice

It took only a handful of people to wrongly convict Ed Ates of murder. It took an army to free him from prison. Now comes the hard part.

Michael Hall Texas Monthly Aug 2019 40min Permalink

Science

When the River Rises

In a few short hours, a normal evening along Texas’s Blanco River became the site of a deadly flash flood.

Jamie Thompson Texas Monthly May 2016 40min Permalink

Best Article Crime

The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob

Peggy Jo Tallas spent most of her adult life doing two things: taking care of her ailing mother and robbing bank after bank dressed as a pudgy, bearded cowboy.

Read more

More: The Longform Guide to Bank Heists

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Nov 2005 35min Permalink

Best Article Sports

Still Life

On October 17, 1973, John McClamrock was paralyzed playing high school football. Doctors doubted he would make it through the night. But he and his mother refused to give up—for more than three decades.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly May 2009 30min Permalink

Business

The Price of Oil

The Permian Basin is booming with oil. But at what cost to West Texans? Though some will reap serious profits, the region’s dealing with skyrocketing rents, overcrowded schools, and potholes as big as VW Beetles.

Christian Wallace Texas Monthly Jun 2019 25min Permalink

Crime

Joe Exotic

A dark journey Into the world of a man gone wild.

Leif Reigstad Texas Monthly May 2019 25min Permalink

World Religion

Faith, Friendship, and Tragedy at Santa Fe High

Sabika Sheikh, a Muslim exchange student from Pakistan with dreams of changing the world, struck up an unlikely friendship with an evangelical Christian girl. The two became inseparable—until the day a fellow student opened fire.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Apr 2019 40min Permalink

Business

Buc-ee’s: The Path to World Domination

The making of a convenience store empire.

Eric Benson Texas Monthly Mar 2019 25min Permalink

Crime

When Does an Accident Become a Crime?

While driving through a dangerous curve in East Texas, James Fulton crossed into oncoming traffic and killed a young woman. The cops said the crash was an accident. But the Smith County DA saw it differently.

Michael Hall Texas Monthly Mar 2019 30min Permalink

Best Article Crime

The Innocent Man

The decades-long saga of Michael Morton, who was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife.

  1. Part One

  2. Part Two

Pamela Colloff Texas Monthly Dec 2012 1h50min Permalink

Best Article Crime History

The Love Story that Upended the Texas Prison System

In 1967, a 56-year-old lawyer met a young inmate with a brilliant mind and horrifying stories about life inside. Their complicated alliance—and even more complicated romance—would shed light on a nationwide scandal, disrupt a system of abuse and virtual slavery across the state, and change incarceration in Texas forever.

Ethan Watters Texas Monthly Oct 2018 1h10min Permalink

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