The Opera of Emeline
How one woman’s fight for freedom inspired Houston’s lawyers and artists more than a century and a half later.
Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. Mike graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979 with a degree in government. He wrote for various publications, including Trouser Press, Third Coast Magazine, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Austin Chronicle. In 1997, he joined Texas Monthly, where he has won two Texas Gavel Awards from the State Bar of Texas and four Stephen Philbin Awards from the Dallas Bar Association. He was named Writer of the Year at the City and Regional Magazine Awards in 2015. His stories have appeared in The Best American Magazine Writing, The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Da Capo’s Best Music Writing, the New York Times, and Men’s Journal. Mike is also a musician and has played in Austin bands the Wild Seeds, the Setters, the Lollygaggers, and the Savage Trip. He pitches for the Burkas, the Texas Monthly softball team.
How one woman’s fight for freedom inspired Houston’s lawyers and artists more than a century and a half later.
By Michael Hall
A new documentary tells the story of the San Antonio Four, a group of lesbians who were accused of sexually abusing two children in what many consider a modern-day witch-hunt.
By Michael Hall
A hipster paradise, a high-tech nirvana, a festival wonderland. Today Austin barely resembles the sleepy college town I moved to in the seventies. How it changed is the story of a lifetime.
By Michael Hall
The host of the beloved radio show "Twine Time" on KUTX in Austin died Friday at 73.
By Michael Hall
How the once troubled Texas Forensic Science Commission put the state at the forefront of the criminal justice reform movement.
By Michael Hall
The famed musicologist’s obsession with history made him one of the great chroniclers of American music.
By Michael Hall
Cotton Mather translates the wisdom of 'I Ching' to Texas power pop.
By Michael Hall
”Booger Red,” a film by Berndt Mader and based on a Texas Monthly story, premieres at the Austin Film Festival.
By Michael Hall
A dark incident almost twenty years ago put Greg Torti on the sex offender registry for life. But the real story, he insists, is much more complicated.
By Michael Hall
Critics denounce this arm of forensic science as bogus and subjective.
By Michael Hall
Thirty-eight years after Kerry Max Cook was convicted of murder, he continues to seek exoneration. And now he might finally have a chance to convince the courts of his innocence.
By Michael Hall
The banjo player from Belton recently won the Steve Martin Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass award, a recognition of his “barnyard electronic aesthetic.”
By Michael Hall
Innocence Project of Texas executive director Scott Henson says his organization is about more than DNA evidence.
By Michael Hall
Old friends Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett talk about songwriting Texas music history, and the early days back in College Station.
By Michael Hall
This state has been shaped by its songs. And as these 25 tales show, the stories behind them are often as great as the songs themselves.
By Michael Hall
Oh, the endless arguments about Texas music. But don’t feel the need to master it—no one really can. Instead, here are ten songs to help you hold your own at almost any party.
By Texas Monthly and Michael Hall
Head west on FM 170 through an astounding wilderness of shallow canyons, ancient riverbeds, and craggy limestone hills.
By Texas Monthly and Michael Hall
Twenty-year-old Hayden Pedigo is making the most innovative, audacious music in the country. So why is he still in Amarillo?
By Michael Hall
Texas’s criminal justice system has seen some staggering changes in the past decade. Thank Cathy Cochran.
By Michael Hall
A day after a legendary Texas saxophonist died, a legendary Texas keyboard player has also breathed his last.
By Michael Hall
Maybe it had something to do with the dissent written last week by Judge Tom Price, of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
By Michael Hall
More than 115,000 people think he should.
By Michael Hall
The Reverend Charles Moore ardently dedicated his life to the service of God and his fellow man. But when he couldn’t shake the thought that he hadn’t done enough, he drove to a desolate parking lot in his hometown of Grand Saline for one final act of faith.
By Michael Hall
Max Soffar is dying on death row, where he sits for a crime I'm certain he didn't commit. Maybe this letter will convince you to let him spend his last days at home with his family.
By Michael Hall
A conversation with the criminal defense lawyers of the year.
By Michael Hall
For 28 years, parole officials tried to get him to confess to a crime he didn’t commit. He refused—and never wavered. This is why he is the bravest man I know.
By Michael Hall
How Johnny Gimble became one of the greatest fiddlers of all time—and showed me and my son a thing or two about playing music.
By Michael Hall
Willie, who turns 81 today, proves that age is just a number.
By Michael Hall
A tour of the city’s rich musical legacy (and some two-stepping).
By Michael Hall
Tom Wilson, a Harvard-educated Republican from Waco who helped launch the careers of Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Lou Reed, and a few other musicians you might have heard of.
By Michael Hall
After Fran Keller spent 21 years in prison based on allegations by children who said they were sexually abused in a satanic ritual at her and her husband's day care, she was finally released.
By Michael Hall
Four women spent more than thirteen years in prison because of bad science and scurrilous tales told by children who had been coached by an adult. They’re free now, but who else is sitting behind bars based on these types of false accusations?
By Michael Hall
Eight years ago Margie Cantrell pushed law enforcement to investigate allegations of abuse by a group of adults in Mineola. Seven people were convicted of child sexual abuse, and the scandal rocked East Texas. Now, two of those same children are alleging Cantrell physically abused them.
By Michael Hall
Dear Mr. President: Richard LaFuente just filed a petition for executive clemency. I urge you to read it—and to commute his life sentence.
By Michael Hall
After decades as one of the most admired athletes on the planet and one of the toughest competitors ever to ride a bike, Lance Armstrong is facing a new challenge: how to come back from a very public disgrace.
By Michael Hall
Taking Austin in from the city's most iconic summit.
By Michael Hall
How badly do we mess up when doing something as fundamentally human as using our eyes, words, and memories? In the case of some eyewitness IDs, very badly.
By Michael Hall
Did YouTube star Trey Sesler kill his family?
By Michael Hall
Kerry Max Cook walked off death row in 1997, but he was never officially exonerated. At least not yet. He just filed a DNA motion he hopes will clear his name.
By Michael Hall
James Waller, who was exonerated 24 years after he was convicted of a crime he didn't commit, started a non-profit to help support and counsel Texas' exonerees.
By Michael Hall
State supreme court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson appoints Texas legend Judge Louis E. Sturns to oversee the court of inquiry into Williamson County DA Ken Anderson.
By Michael Hall
What will state supreme court chief justice Wallace Jefferson do about Ken Anderson, the DA who sent an innocent man to prison? Based on these clues, Anderson is in for the fight of his life.
By Michael Hall
Is Willie Nelson Santa Claus? We asked him that, and a few other things—like what it's like to get busted and get along with Pat Robertson and Snoop Dogg.
By Michael Hall
Most guitars don’t have names. This one has a voice and a personality, and bears a striking resemblance to his owner.
By Michael Hall
From "I'm a Memory" to "Here We Go Again," listen to eight performances that highlight the capabilities of Willie Nelson's treasured guitar.
By Michael Hall
Sure, Texas’s criminal justice system is tough. But as Fort Worth inmate Richard LaFuente could tell you, the federal criminal system is even tougher.
By Michael Hall
Richard LaFuente, who was convicted of murder in 1986, has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence for more than twenty years. Now he has some unlikely support in one person—the victim's own sister.
By Michael Hall
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
By Michael Hall
After two decades of sluggish albums, ZZ Top has returned to raunchy, bluesy form. And the little ol' band from Texas owes it all to a hip-hop anthem from the streets of Houston.
By Michael Hall
ROUTE: Uncertain to JasperDISTANCE: 140 milesNUMBER OF COUNTIES: 6WHAT TO LISTEN TO: Jim Reeves’s “Welcome to My World”If you want to see, smell, and taste the Deep South, look no further than East Texas. Start your drive in Uncertain, but before you even get behind the wheel, take a short
By Michael Hall