Some TEXAS MONTHLY Stories on Crime
The Fugitive »
Friends and family knew Deborah Murphey as a mild-mannered nurse and a loving wife and mother. Then a U.S. marshal knocked on her door.
by Skip Hollandsworth [December 2008]
The Unusual Suspects »
The arson of the Governor’s Mansion in June was as mystifying as it was heartbreaking. Could Austin anarchists have been to blame?
by Pamela Colloff [December 2008]
A True Crime: Video »
Video interviews with wrongfully imprisoned men who have been exonerated through DNA testing.
[November 2008]
The Exonerated »
Thirty-seven men, 525 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Thanks to DNA testing, their claims of innocence have finally been proved—but what happens to them now?
by Michael Hall [November 2008]
The Killing Field »
Before they clubbed two deer to death in their tiny West Texas town, the four high school football stars were treated like royalty. Afterward, when news of their exploits hit the Internet, they were celebrities of a very different sort.
by Skip Hollandsworth [August 2008]
Compound Fracture »
Why I have no sympathy for the Eldorado polygamists.
by Skip Hollandsworth [June 2008]
The Valley of The Shadow Of Death »
Did Kari Baker, despondent over her daughter’s passing, commit suicide? Or was she killed by her husband, Matt, a Baptist preacher in Waco and an alleged sexual predator? He says he didn’t do it, but her family insists otherwise—and they say they’ll keep after him until justice is done.
by Skip Hollandsworth [March 2008]
Badges of Dishonor »
Two Border Patrol agents are sent to prison while the dope smuggler they pursued and wounded is granted immunity by federal prosecutors and goes free. A miscarriage of justice? Not so fast.
by Pamela Colloff [September 2007]
Faces of Forgiveness »
An East Texas prison ministry is trying to heal crime victims and rehabilitate criminals by getting them to talk.
Text by Pamela Colloff [August 2007]
Angel of Death »
What was it, exactly, that caused Vickie Dawn Jackson, a sweet, soft-spoken nurse at Nocona General Hospital, to become one of the most prolific serial killers in Texas history?
by Skip Hollandsworth [July 2007]
Angel of Death »
Skip Hollandsworth reads the cover story.
by Skip Hollandsworth [July 2007]
The Beating of Billy Ray Johnson »
The short, slight, mentally disabled black man was found on the side of a road in Linden, huddled in a fetal position. He was bloody and unconscious—the victim of a violent crime. But another tragedy was how residents of the East Texas town reacted.
by Pamela Colloff [February 2007]
“You Don’t Want to Know What We Do After Dark” »
The young, tattooed men who are members of the Southwest Cholos, La Primera, La Tercera Crips, Somos Pocos Pero Locos, Mara Salvatrucha, and other Houston gangs are vicious career criminals who regularly rob innocent people in some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. They steal cars and break into businesses. They deal drugs on street corners. And they constantly wage war with one another.
by Skip Hollandsworth [December 2006]
Acting Up »
At the Giddings State School, violent teenagers come to terms with their horrific crimes—and learn how to avoid committing them again—through role-playing exercises in a jailhouse version of group therapy. This is what your tax dollars are paying for? Well, it works. For a while, at least.
by Katy Vine [November 2006]
Free Richard Lafuente! »
They say he ran over Eddie Peltier with his El Camino on a North Dakota Indian reservation in 1983. He says he didn’t do it, and the evidence is overwhelmingly on his side—yet the Plainview native has languished in federal prison for twenty years. It’s long past time for justice to be done.
by Michael Hall [October 2006]
96 Minutes »
At 11:48 a.m. on August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman began firing his rifle from the top of the University of Texas Tower at anyone and everyone in his sights. At 1:24 p.m., he was gunned down himself. The lives of the people who witnessed the sniper’s spree firsthand would never be the same again.
by Pamela Colloff [August 2006]
The Bad Guy With the Badge »
How Conrado Cantu, the sheriff of Cameron County, lived down to people’s expectations of South Texas law enforcement.
by Cecilia Ballí [August 2006]
My Life As an Illegal »
You’ve heard enough from the politicians and the activists, the demagogues and the bleeding hearts. Here’s my story. I only wish I could put my name on it. By Immigrant X
As told to John Spong [July 2006]
The Gangstas of Godwin Park »
Whatever else you can say about it, the life and death of Bellaire High School junior Jonathan Finkelman is a tragic tale of drugs, money, race, and MySpace.
by Mimi Swartz [June 2006]
The Last Rustler »
If he was asked what he did for a living, Roddy Dean Pippin would smile and say something about the cattle business. But he didn’t exactly buy and sell cows. He stole them. And right up until he was caught, he was as good as any such thief had ever been.
by Skip Hollandsworth [May 2006]
Walled Off »
As a record number of demonstrators hit the streets this spring, one Texas border town was rolling the dice on a draconian method of dealing with illegal immigrants. And it’s working.
by S. C. Gwynne [May 2006]
A Kiss Before Dying »
Forty-five years after Betty Williams was shot to death by the handsome football player she had been secretly seeing, her murder haunts her Odessa high school—literally.
by Pamela Colloff [February 2006]
The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob »
The feds knew him as a prolific bank robber. But the bearded man who eluded them for so long was not who they imagined him to be. And absolutely no one expected the story to end the way it did.
by Skip Hollandsworth [November 2005]
Dr. Evil »
By almost any measure of performance, including the sheer number of patients who are crippled and maimed, the medical profession has rarely seen anyone like Houston orthopedic surgeon Eric Scheffey. So why did he get to keep his license for so long?
by S. C. Gwynne [September 2005]
Girls Gone Wild »
Bobbi Jo and Jennifer were young, in love, and on the road, with the wind at their backs and a happy future ahead of them. All that stood in their way was a dead body back in Mineral Wells.
by Katy Vine [September 2005]
The War on Thugs »
Five years after the Tulia fiasco put the state’s amateurish, irresponsible drug task forces in the national spotlight, more than half of them have been dissolved. That’s a good start.
by Nate Blakeslee [September 2005]
Borderline Insanity »
How else to describe the murder and mayhem and fear that have gripped Nuevo Laredo for months—and are now spilling over into Texas?
by Cecilia Ballí [August 2005]
“We Are Going to Die In Here” »
What the seventy-plus illegal immigrants smuggled into Texas in the container of an eighteen-wheeler saw, felt, and, in the luckiest cases, survived.
by Jorge Ramos [May 2005]
I Inject, Your Honor »
The Panhandle DA known statewide for his zeal in busting drug dealers and abusers turns out to have been an addict. Prosecutor, heal thyself.
by Skip Hollandsworth [April 2005]
Case Not Closed »
Senior editor Pamela Colloff on the murder of McAllen beauty queen Irene Garza and confronting the longtime suspect, John Feit.
Interview by Katherine Sands [April 2005]
Attack Here »
The Houston Ship Channel is considered one of the top strategic targets in the U.S.—an enormous bomb waiting to be detonated by terrorists. But what happens if the bomb actually goes off? Brace yourself for a worst-case scenario of the sort the Homeland Security folks are modeling and simulating and staying up late worrying about.
by S. C. Gwynne [November 2004]
Yikes! »
Executive editor S.C. Gwynne on security at the Houston Ship Channel.
Interview by Kimberly Jeffries [November 2004]
Court Reporter »
Senior editor Michael Hall talks about Ernest Willis, who was recently freed from death row, and the super-conservative Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Interview by Susan Shepard [November 2004]
A New Lease On Life »
Freedom for Earnest Willis?
by Michael Hall [October 2004]
Wrecked »
The car crash that killed four teenage girls in Tatum last
September is an East Texas version of a Greek tragedy,
one that has forced the tiny town's residents to address
some of life's most agonizing questions: When the worst
things happen—when the most heartbreaking
events come into your life to stay—whom do you
blame? Whom should you blame?
by Skip Hollandsworth [September 2004]
A Small-Town Tragedy »
Executive editor Skip Hollandsworth on Tatum and
taking sides.
Interview by Rebecca Markovits [September 2004]
Greg Ott, Free »
The philosophy graduate student who was convicted of
killing a Texas Ranger in 1978 has finally been released
and is getting on with his life.
by Gary Cartwright [July 2004]
The Framing of Mario Medina? »
Did Mexican authorities find the man who killed a
crusading Nuevo Laredo editor? Or have they taken the
easy way out (again)?
by Cecilia Ballí [July 2004]
Life and Meth »
Around the Piney Woods, most people will tell you that they know someone who’s addicted to homemade speed. Drug recovery centers are overwhelmed; court dockets are backed up; jails are filled. There’s no end in sight.
by Pamela Colloff [June 2004]
Fast Times »
Senior editor Pamela Colloff on methamphetamine's grip on East Texas, talking to addicts, and what it's like to follow around narcotics investigators.
Interview by Lori Fradkin [June 2004]
Crime Scene »
Suzanne O'Malley, the author of Are You There Alone? The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates, talks about mental illness, postpartum psychosis, and Rusty Yates.
Interview by Ingrid Grobey [April 2004]
The Pedophile Next Door »
How do you know when a child molester is cured? Are you willing to take his word for it? David Wayne Jones hopes so. Thirteen years ago he was convicted of preying on little boys at the East Dallas YMCA, but he could soon be out of jail and back on the street. Your street.
by Jim Atkinson [March 2004]
Family Man »
To his suburban Dallas neighbors, Todd Becker was a doting husband and devoted father. They had no clue that he led a secret, lucrative life as a safecracker.
by Skip Hollandsworth [February 2004]
The Verdict »
Getting Robert Durst acquitted might be too tall an order for most lawyers, but for Dick DeGuerin, it was just another day at the office.
by Gary Cartwright [February 2004]
True Crime »
Journalists around the nation wanted access to Todd Becker, the all-American dad who also ran a safe-stealing ring, but only executive editor Skip Hollandsworth got him to talk.
Interview by Patricia Busa McConnico [February 2004]
Jasper »
The town's name will forever be synonymous with one of the worst hate crimes in American history. But the story doesn't end there.
by Pamela Colloff [December 2003]
Little Shop of Horrors »
If you've ever thought of donating your body to science, read what happened at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston—and then ask yourself if a good, old-fashioned burial might not be a better idea.
by Katy Vine [August 2003]
Ciudad de la Muerte »
Ten years. More than three hundred women murdered. What is going on in Juárez? And why aren't the Mexican authorities doing something about it?
by Cecilia Ballí [June 2003]
Being There »
Writer-at-large Cecilia Ballí describes what it is like to be in Juárez, where hundreds of women have been murdered in the past ten years.
Interview by Patrick Michels [June 2003]
Proof Negative »
A Houston crime lab under the microscope.
by John Ratliff [May 2003]
45 Years (Sat Nov 22 at 5:28 PM)
Can You Spare Some Change I Can Believe In? (Sat Nov 22 at 4:10 PM)
Even Worse, They're Cutting Back on Monocles (Fri Nov 21 at 8:39 AM)
