Sports
January 20, 2013
Whatever Happened to Ronnie Littleton?
Twenty-five years ago, in the wake of integration, he was the football star at my mostly white high school in Wichita Falls. Not much has gone right for him since.
Longreads
Sports
January 20, 2013
Tony Romo Is the Greatest Cowboys Quarterback Since…
Die-hard fans of America’s Team are debating that very question as we speak—and also wondering if the kid from Wisconsin with the buxom distraction can take them to the Super Bowl any faster than, say, Gary Hogeboom did.
Health
January 20, 2013
Nothing To It
Bolstered by his favorite phrase, my son Mark faced life with grace, dignity, and good humor. I knew he’d face death the same way.
Health
January 20, 2013
Sniffing
A visit to San Antonio’s underground city, looking for kids with a can of paint and a nose for thrills.
Health
January 20, 2013
The Long, Lonesome Road
Fred Thomas was young, poor, and black. Not only was he afflicted with the terror of schizophrenia, he was also faced with the chaos of the Texas mental health system.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
Lyndon Johnson on the Record
Working on his memoir one day in 1969, LBJ spoke more frankly into a tape recorder about the Kennedys, Vietnam, and other subjects than he ever had before. The transcript of that tape has never been published—until now. Michael Beschloss explains its historical significance.
Film & TV
January 20, 2013
Picture Perfect
Why Peter Bogdanovich filmed in black and white, who discovered Cybill Shepherd, which onetime soap opera diva read for the role of Jacy, and other secrets of the making of ‘The Last Picture Show.’ Plus: A few words from the late Ben Johnson.
Energy
January 20, 2013
The Old Man and the Secret
Thirty years ago, people couldnt believe it: The old man’s elixir boosted crops, ate up sewage, and made the desert bloom. Today half a dozen Texas companies claim the elixir does all that and a whole lot more.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
Masquerader of The Lost Ark
Who came first—Indiana Jones of Hollywood or Vendyl Jones of Arlington, the archaeologist who has spent years trying to dig up the fabled Ark of the Covenant?
Music
January 20, 2013
The Coming of Redneck Hip
Rock and Country music met in Austin. That friendship may make the state.
Film & TV
January 20, 2013
Warren Skaaren, Movie Mogul
The head of the Texas Film Commission hustles Hollywood movie-makers into putting more of Texas in the can.
News & Politics
January 20, 2013
Boone Pickens and the Roach Motel
The controversial home of an embattled college president is a symbol of a Panhandle brawl full of conspiracies.
Music
January 20, 2013
Home Girl
Most people from Dallas who make it big in the music business get out of town as soon as they can. “That’s what celebrities do,” Erykah Badu says. “I never wanted to be a celebrity.”
Politics & Policy
January 20, 2013
The Man Who Isn’t There
In word and deed, the George W. Bush now residing in the White House bears little resemblance to the Texas governor I gladly sent to Washington. That's why I'm so ambivalent about reelecting him.
News & Politics
January 20, 2013
The Evolver
“All you’ve got is a famous name,” a Republican operative told George W. Bush. But six years later he was governor, and six years after that he was president. And six years after that, his place in history—not to mention the fate of the world—is a little uncertain.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
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.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
The Aggie Bonfire Tragedy
What’s so important about a stack of wood? Every Aggie knows that the answer is tradition—which is why, after a catastrophe that took the lives of twelve young men and women, the decision of whether to continue, change, or call a halt to the bonfire looms so large at Texas
Critters
January 20, 2013
Leroy’s Revenge
Ringside as two dogs—father and son—fight to the death.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
Lust in Space
The lovesick antics of diapered astronaut Lisa Nowak are some combination of funny and sad but seemingly not revealing of anything larger, until you realize that her tragic, tabloidy breakdown says everything you need to know about NASA’s many troubles.
Music
January 20, 2013
It’s a Family Affair
For all her talent and poise, Beyoncé didn't become the biggest star in the world without help. And she got plenty of it from the people who know her best.
Film & TV
January 20, 2013
Can Hollywood Solve JFK’s Murder?
Director Oliver Stone may not be sure who did it or how, but he is sure he knows why.
Politics & Policy
January 20, 2013
The Desert of the Dead
While politicians and bureaucrats endlessly debate the best ways to secure our borders, undocumented immigrants are dying to get into America—literally.
Business
January 20, 2013
The Next Frontier
How has the state’s most storied ranch managed to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century? By operating in a way that its founder, Captain Richard King, would scarcely recognize.
Sports
January 20, 2013
Still Life
A violent tackle in a high school football game paralyzed John McClamrock for life. His mother made sure it was a life worth living.
Sports
January 20, 2013
Honor Thy Father
In suburban Fort Worth the frail psyche of a football prodigy collided with the crazed ambition of his dad, who himself had been a high school football star way back when. The consequences were deadly.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
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.
Feature
January 20, 2013
Carlos Brown Is a Hero (No Matter What He Says)
My best friend from high school is no longer the uncool, baseball-card-collecting goofball he once was. He’s a Navy surgeon and commander, and for two horrific weeks I got to watch him calmly and bravely save lives in wartime—not just Americans’ and not just soldiers’—in one of the most dangerous
CRIME
January 20, 2013
Unholy Act
No one in McAllen saw Irene Garza leave Sacred Heart that night in 1960. The next morning, her car was still parked down the street from the church. She never came home.
Sports
January 20, 2013
The Real Troy Aikman
His dreams. His fears. The truth about his love life. A candid chat with Texas’ most misunderstood sports hero.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
One Last Shot
Decades after his family controlled Galveston’s liquor and gambling, 89-year-old Vic Maceo is clinging to his gangster past—and to his pistol.
Texas History
December 1, 2012
11/22/2013
In one year the eyes of the world will turn to Dallas's Dealey Plaza for the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Is the city ready?
Feature
December 1, 2012
The Unsinkable Lisa Blue
Her husband, Fred Baron, helped bankroll John Edwards's presidential campaign, only to die of cancer amid the most sordid political scandal in recent history. But before long, Dallas's newest rainmaker had emerged from the wreckage—with every hair in place.
Sports
November 6, 2012
Texan Tweens Turning Heads In Adult Endurance Athletics
Meet the two preteen sisters from Alvin who compete against, and beat, adult runners.
Texas History
October 31, 2012
My Name Is Cásares
And the story of how I started spelling it that way (with the accent) begins with a kidnapping.
Politics & Policy
October 15, 2012
Jeb Bush Says Texas Could Turn “Blue” In Just Four Years
Joe Hagan profiles the Bush dynasty for New York magazine.
Sports
September 30, 2012
Turnover!
Two decades ago, a barbarian from Arkansas named Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys and rebooted the franchise from the ground up. Inside the wild first days of the most hostile takeover the NFL has ever known.
Art
September 30, 2012
Portrait of the Artist as a Postman
The only American ever to design scarves for the exclusive French fashion house Hermès is Kermit Oliver, a 69-year-old postal worker from Waco who lives in a strange and beautiful world all his own.
News & Politics
September 30, 2012
Storming the Ivory Tower
For the past four years, a group of passionate reformers has been steadily trying to remake how higher education works in Texas—over the screams and howls of many professors and school presidents. Last year the battle came to UT. And the bombs are still flying.
The Culture
August 31, 2012
And Away They Go
Sending a Texan off into the world—and hoping he’ll return.
Sports
July 31, 2012
The Negotiation
Every year, hundreds of Texas high schoolers are aggressively recruited by the nation’s top college football programs. It’s a dream come true, but some kids must go through the bewildering process alone. And according to the rules of the NCAA, there aren’t many places they can turn to for help.
Politics & Policy
July 31, 2012
Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives
Read this National Magazine Award-winning story about how the Legislature slashed funding for women’s health programs in 2011 and launched an all-out war on Planned Parenthood that has dramatically changed the state’s priorities. The battle continues raging, and the stakes could not be higher.
Critters
June 18, 2012
A Blind Man’s View of the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup
Canadian journalist and author Ryan Knighton—who is blind—communes with reptiles he can't see for VICE magazine.
March 19, 2012
Sex, Love, and Lawrence v. Texas
A new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, explores the history of the men behind the landmark Supreme Court case and questions the conventional wisdom of the story.
Art
March 1, 2012
The Tree of Strife
For a quarter of a century, the Art Guys, Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing, have been Houston’s master provocateurs, stirring up discussion with their wacky, thoughtful, and tenaciously marketed “social sculptures.” But have they finally gone too far?
Food & Drink
March 1, 2012
Where Is My Home?
A culinary obsession that began decades ago in my grandmother’s kitchen sent me on a quest through Central Texas (and way beyond) for kolaches—not the best ones but the ones that would lead me to myself.
February 7, 2012
Meet the Man Who Received the Nation’s First Full Face Transplant
Dallas Wiens, a Fort Worth man who lost his face after brushing against a power line, was profiled by the New Yorker's Raffi Khatchadourian.
Politics & Policy
February 1, 2012
Is There Life After Rick Perry?
When Rick Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history loses his first campaign ever, what happens to him? More importantly, what happens to us?
News & Politics
January 1, 2012
Hannah and Andrew
On October 3, 2006, a four-year-old boy named Andrew Burd died in a Corpus Christi hospital. The cause of death was determined to be salt poisoning, an extremely unusual occurrence. Even more shocking was what happened next: his foster mother, Hannah Overton, was found guilty of killing him. But could
December 28, 2011
Year-End Favorites: The Basketball Scandal That Rocked Odessa
Texas Monthly senior editor Michael Hall on why GQ's story about Jerry Joseph, the too-good-to-be-true athlete in Odessa, was one of his favorites of the year.
Style & Design
December 21, 2011
“Garden and Gun” Builds a Profile Around Architects Lake/Flato
Writer Guy Martin talks to Ted Flato, one half of the visionary architect duo from San Antonio, about the merciless sun, the Texas breeze, and Tommy Lee Jones.