The Sleaziest man in Texas

The rich and eccentric heir to a rich and Galveston family, Shearn Moody, Jr., craved an empire all his own. But his lack of self-restraint cost him his bank, his insurance company, his fortune, and now, perhaps, his freedom.

by Gary Cartwright

The Time It Always Rained

The wettest spell in memory has given the people who live in West Texas an unfamiliar topic of conversation.

by Elmer Kelton

The Booming Business of AIDS

For some entrepreneurs, the dark cloud of AIDS has proved to have a silver lining.

by Patricia Sharpe

Texas Primer: The Tar Ball

There’s one place where you can still find plenty of oil in Texas: the beach.

by Drew Jubera

Cities in Bondage

When eighty-year-old Decker Jackson gives financial advice to Texas public officials, nothing in life is certain but debt and taxes.

by Peter Elkind

Who Says Never Trust a Skinny Chef?

Meet Bruce Auden of San Antonio, the fairest of the Fairmount.

by Alison Cook

What the Stranger Saw

Nobody remembers his name, but the photographer who passed through Corpus Christi in 1934 left behind an unforgettable series of images.

Behind the Lines

Should we have an income tax?

by Gregory Curtis

Mexico

Hollywood on the Rio Grande

Brownsville has everything Mexico’s leading filmmaker could want—except visas.

by David Theis

Art

Subjects of the Realm

Hans Holbein’s life drawings are a tantalizing glumpse into the lusty court of Henry VIII. And courtesy of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, they’re on view at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

by Michael Ennis

Popular Music

Revenge of the Retrorockers

The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Mason Ruffner, and Omar and the Howlers all got the same message from album-oriented-rock radio: Wrap it up, we’ll take it.

by Jody Denberg

Business

What’s in a Name?

Maybe as much as $20,000, if Lee Ballard of Dallas has anything to do with it.

by Alison Cook

Reporter

Texas Monthly Reporter

Let’s play pretend by swapping out Houstonians for Dallasites. Plus: Battling books, good Mex-Mex where you’d least expect it, and our guide to the latest legislative phrases (use ‘em three times and they’re yours!)

by Alison Cook

Roar of the Crowd

Behaving yourself in the eighties; keeping the faith in the parish; winning Pulitzers with penguins.

The National Tour of Texas

Passing (slowly) through Kendleton. Then on to Houston, where student murals record the march of time and Vietnam vets gather; to a meal so good it’s kept under lock and key; and finally to the (formerly) Golden Triangle.

by Dick J. Reavis

Puzzle

Sixteen ways to make an entrance.

State Secrets

Playing fast and loose with the new speed limit; an oil drilling technique gets the shaft; dam builders strick back—with Authority; how the budget battle is changing the Legislature.

Edited by Paul Burka