Author

Skip Hollandsworth

Skip Hollandsworth's Profile Photo

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.

True Crime |
April 30, 1993

See No Evil

Dallas police say Charles Albright is the coldest, most depraved killer of women in the city’s history. To me, he seems like a perfect gentleman. Maybe too perfect.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
November 1, 1992

The Almost Great Bank Robbery

It seemed like the perfect inside job: A respected cop conspires with his teller girlfriend to pull the biggest bank heist in San Antonio history. If they hadn’t been so careless, they might have gotten away with it.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
September 30, 1992

The Meanest Divorce

When Chuck Smith kidnapped his own small boys to keep them from his estranged wife, a simple divorce case turned into an international family feud.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
February 1, 1992

The Ranger Bandit

Steve Benifiel was an old-fashioned outlaw who practically owned the town of Ranger—until he was busted for running one of West Texas’s biggest drug rings.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Culture |
January 1, 1992

Doing the Hustle

Today, TGI Friday’s is sedate, but twenty years ago this month, the place started the singles era in Dallas.

By Skip Hollandsworth

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March 1, 1991

The Greek Way

Are good times and fun pranks giving way to racial slurs and ritualized violence? An inside look at UT’s fraternity row.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Health |
May 31, 1990

Can Kids On Drugs Be Saved?

Drug treatment seldom works: at many centers, greedy entrepreneurs prey on frightened parents and troubled kids. But one teenager’s parents decided to take one last, desperate step: they sent their son to the toughest program in Texas.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
April 1, 1990

Grande Dames

In her golden years, a lady is free to be imperious, incorrigible, impertinent, and altogether indispensable.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
February 1, 1990

The Codependency Conspiracy

Codependency leaders preach that we are the victims of a psychological plague. It remains to be seen whether they are selling us a valuable insight or merely a bill of goods.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Reporter |
January 1, 1990

Bon-Furor

Bonfire-crazed yell leaders Keving Fitzgerald and Brant Ince foresee defeat for fire’s foes.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
January 1, 1990

The Call of the Wildman

To find their true masculine selves, wildmen dance and sweat, bond and meditate, renounce their mothers and grunt, “Ho!” I thought, “Hmmm.”

By Skip Hollandsworth

Sports |
November 1, 1989

Can’t Win for Losing

When San Antonio’s Memorial Minutemen took on a crosstown rival, all they had to lose was their chance to go down in history as Texas’ worst high school football team.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
March 1, 1986

Bass’n Gal

There are bass in Sam Rayburn Reservoir, and the gals were out to hook ‘em. And Rhonda Wilcox hoped to hook the biggest one of all.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
November 1, 1985

Preacher’s Kids

My father had to have an answer for everything—adultery, spiritual crises, the pigeons defecating in the church gutter. No wonder I didn’t become a preacher. The miracle is that my sister did.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Feature |
June 30, 1985

Music to My Ears

The small-town orchestra has it all: performers who love the music passionately, audiences who lend their wholehearted support, and even occasional moments when all the instruments are playing the right note.

By Skip Hollandsworth