Tom Brown’s Body, Chapter 9: Another Day in Canadian
“I’ll never lose that hope. It could be five years from today. The door is always open at our office for anything that will bring resolution to this case.”
Skip Hollandsworth is a staff writer at Texas Monthly, specializing in long-form narratives. He grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, attended TCU in Fort Worth, and after graduation worked as a reporter and columnist for newspapers in Dallas. He also worked as a television producer and documentary filmmaker.
In 1989, Hollandsworth joined Texas Monthly, where he has received several journalism awards, including a National Headliner Award, the national John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism, the City and Regional Magazine Association gold award for feature writing, and the Texas Institute of Letters O. Henry Award for magazine writing. He has been a finalist four times for a National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, and in 2010 he won the National Magazine Award in feature writing for “Still Life,” his story about a young man who, after suffering a crippling football injury in high school, spent the next 33 years in his bedroom, unable to move. The comic crime movie Bernie, which Hollandsworth cowrote with director Richard Linklater, was released in May 2012. It's based on his 1998 story "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas." His book, The Midnight Assassin, a true crime historical thriller, was published in April 2016 and became a New York Times best-seller.
“I’ll never lose that hope. It could be five years from today. The door is always open at our office for anything that will bring resolution to this case.”
In “the trial of the century,” a Houston socialite was accused of plotting her husband's murder—and of having an affair with her nephew. But Candace Mossler was only getting started.
I caught my first glimpse of the 'Lonesome Dove' author on the streets of Archer City when I was a teenager. It was an encounter that shaped the rest of my life.
“I’m definitely more paranoid wherever I go. I definitely watch my back more and pay attention to what’s going on around me.”
“The people of the town are calling us and saying, ‘Do we have a monster that lives in our community?’ I wish I could give them solace.”
“I’m like, ‘What in the heck is that?’ So, I walk around some shrubs, and as I get closer, I can see that it kind of looks like bone.”
“It’s kind of strange that your investigator calls this search, and, lo and behold, right after he starts the search, a cellphone is found.”
“I'm sitting there thinking, ‘Oh God, I'm so scared right now.’ I couldn't convince them. And so I just let them hammer me.”
“Makes you want to go to the church, get on your knees, and say a few words, right?”
“My gut tells me he hasn't left Hemphill County. I think he's here somewhere, and I don't know if he intends to come out in the next day or two.”
In 2016 a popular teenager disappeared in the tiny Panhandle community of Canadian. Two years later, his remains were discovered beneath a tree outside of town. But to this day, no arrests have been made, and it seems that nearly everyone involved in the case has fallen under suspicion.
When her former student was found wandering the streets a decade after she’d last seen him, Michell Girard immediately agreed to take him in. Then she decided to do far more, including give him the Christmas he’d never had.
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.
The stories, the traditions, and the deeper meanings of the boots in their lives.
By Michael Hall, Skip Hollandsworth, Andy Langer, Emily McCullar, Katy Vine and Lauren Smith Ford
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.
In his plainspoken, hilariously vivid vernacular, the Texas oilman constantly spun tales about good times and bad.
He renounced his violent San Antonio childhood during 28 years behind bars. A new life and new love awaited him outside the prison gates.
America finds inspiration and salvation on the moon—and then keeps going.
By Al Reinert and Skip Hollandsworth
Peppard was the last of his breed, covering with panache the feuds and foibles of his city’s bold-faced names.
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.
New insights about Redrick “Red” Batiste emerge after his accomplices are found guilty.
The brother of a young cowboy lost in a 2017 Panhandle fire helped his team to a stunning victory.
The president of Dallas’s Paul Quinn College serves the underserved.
The wildly popular Houston author and speaker is staring down the ”sin” and ”ungodliness” in her own denomination.
Now 99 years old, the legendary coach of the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens has his official place in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Notes from the Dallas courtroom where, against the odds, police officer Roy Oliver was convicted of murder after shooting the 15-year-old black boy.
Texas leads the country in hot-car deaths of children. Was Michael Thedford a horrible father, or did he make a mistake any parent could make?
Jeff Henry often said that his goal in life was to make customers of his family’s legendary water parks happy—“to put a smile on their faces, to give them a thrill or two.” It was a beautiful vision. Until it went horribly wrong.
Earlier this spring, Jeff Pike, the head of the infamous Texas-based Bandidos motorcycle club, went on trial in federal court for racketeering. Prosecutors called him a ruthless killer, the man behind one of the deadliest biker shootouts in American history at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco. Pike, however, said
Originally sentenced to twenty years, the Houston dentist who ran over her cheating husband has been paroled.
Beginning in 2015, Houston was plagued by a series of brutal armored car robberies that bewildered FBI agents for nearly two years. To finally bring down the unassuming mastermind behind it all, the agents had to stage an elaborate trap—and catch him in the act.
The Midnight Assassin, who terrorized Austin 138 years ago, also targeted minorities first.
The country music provocateur and East Texas native talks growing up, ”getting weird” onstage, and taking risks with her new album.
And yes, it has to do with global warming.
What Skip Hollandsworth learned writing this month’s cover story.
A tale of love and loss on the Plains.
A struggling community forges a life for itself against the odds.
Two years after a deadly Waco shoot-out, the local district attorney is trying to take down the Bandidos and Cossacks biker clubs. It won’t be easy.
He’s a billionaire. He says whatever is on his mind. He thinks he can run the country. No, it’s not Trump we’re talking about. Could Mark Cuban be our next president?
Edwin Debrow committed murder at age 12. Now 37, he remains behind bars. When should a child criminal be given a second chance?
On the heels of tragedy, community policing in Dallas remains as valuable as ever.
Texas may have inspired Larry McMurtry to become a writer, but there is no writer who has inspired an understanding of Texas quite like Larry McMurtry. At age eighty, our most iconic author still has work to do.
Two decades after killing Marjorie Nugent, Bernie Tiede was sentenced this spring for her murder—again. So what do we make of him now?
An exclusive excerpt from The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer reveals a forgotten time in Austin history, when a series of brutal, unsolved slayings terrified officials and left them wondering if a madman was on the loose.
The descendants of Richard and Henrietta King do hereby invite you into the King Ranch with these exclusive photographs of the one-hundred-year-old Main House.
The district attorney of Dallas County is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. What happened?
Behind the lens with photographer Laura Wilson.
He’s the best defensive player in the NFL but writes his own Christmas cards. He has thousands of fans who’d love to party, but he goes to bed at seven-thirty. He could be the league’s next MVP but enjoys buying his own groceries. Is Houston’s J. J. Watt for real?
Ah, NorthPark, how Dallas loves thee.
After the deadly shoot-out in Waco, what do the Bandidos want? To be left alone.