Crowdsourcing Justice
How does a man wrongly convicted of murder get released twenty years later? It helps to have a wife who loves you, a podcaster who believes in you, and an army of amateur sleuths who won’t stop digging for the truth.
Murder
True Crime
May 13, 2019
Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild
He called himself the Tiger King and plastered his face on highway billboards in Texas and Oklahoma. He bred big cats, bears, baboons, and more. He lived, with a parade of partners, on the grounds of his private zoo. He threatened a rival with murder—repeatedly, on YouTube—and tried to hire
News & Politics
April 19, 2019
‘Truth & Justice’ Podcast Offers $20,000 Reward for Info in Controversial Houston Murder Case
Bob Ruff is working on his fifth Texas case in fewer than four years, this time hoping to prove the innocence of Sandra Melgar in the killing of her husband, Jaime Melgar.
News & Politics
April 11, 2018
Texas Border Patrol Agent Allegedly Murdered Woman and Her One-Year Old Son
Ronald Burgos-Aviles, a nine-year Border Patrol veteran, was arrested Monday in Laredo.
True Crime
July 13, 2016
The Murders at the Lake
In 1982 three teenagers were killed near the shores of Lake Waco in a seemingly inexplicable crime. More than three decades later, the tragic and disturbing case still casts a long, dark shadow.
The Daily Post
March 10, 2015
2015 Has Been an Ugly Year for the Treatment of Muslims in Texas
We’re not even a quarter of the way through 2015 yet, and mosques have been burned, loyalty oaths have been demanded, and—in Dallas last week—a Muslim man was shot in the back while watching the snow fall.
The Culture
November 12, 2014
Texarkana Murder Mystery
Nearly seventy years later, the infamous Phantom Killer attacks may finally be solved. But Texarkana remains as puzzling as ever.
The Daily Post
May 27, 2014
A Murder Suspect in San Marcos Received Exonerating Evidence Four Days into His Trial
The video proving that Brelyn Sorrells acted in self-defense the night he fatally stabbed another man had been sitting in the prosecution's office for fifteen months.
Travel & Outdoors
March 7, 2014
¿Viva Terlingua?
A frontier town copes with a murder’s aftermath.
Crime
February 11, 2014
A Question of Mercy
In 1998 famously tough Montague County district attorney Tim Cole sent a teenager to prison for life for his part in a brutal murder. The punishment haunts him to this day.
Crime
April 1, 2013
The Unresolved Murders of Texas Prosecutors
A Texas district attorney and his wife were found dead at their home, gunned down by unknown assailants, less than two months after an Assistant DA in the same office was shot outside the courthouse. There are no conclusive suspects, but the signs are pointing towards gang violence.
Longreads
February 12, 2013
Trouble in Mind
Andre Thomas is deeply mentally ill. He is also a vicious murderer. How should he be punished?
January 21, 2013
Texas Executes Thirteenth Man of 2012
Mario Swain, convicted of the murder of a Longview woman, had a history of stalking and assault.
January 21, 2013
When Good Nurses Go Bad
If Verna McClain is found guilty, she will join the ranks of three other killer nurses from Texas.
January 21, 2013
Disturbing New Details Emerge About Man Arrested in Family’s Murder
Trey Sesler, an online anime critic from Waller, is said to have been planning a Columbine-style attack on a local high school.
January 21, 2013
“Mr. Anime is Planning Something”
Did YouTube star Trey Sesler kill his family?
Border & Immigration
January 21, 2013
Depressing New Documentary about Juárez Plays in Texas
The film 8 Murders a Day focuses on El Paso's sister city, which has seen 10,000 drug war-related murders since 2007.
Feature
January 21, 2013
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
True Crime
January 21, 2013
Midnight in the Garden of East Texas
In sleepy Carthage a rich, haughty widow disappears, and nobody seems to notice. When she turns up dead, everybody seems to feel sympathy for the nice young man who killed her.
Web Exclusive
January 21, 2013
A Q&A With Michael Hall
The senior editor on writing about Mary Eula Sears, talking to relatives of the deceased, and dealing with sensitive issues.
Feature
January 21, 2013
Who Killed Mary Eula Sears?
In 1982 a man named Wayne East was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of one of Abilene’s most prominent citizens. To this day, he maintains his innocence. And one member of the victim’s family believes him.
True Crime
January 21, 2013
The Longest Ride of His Life
When Randall Adams was sentenced to death ten years ago, the Dallas community thought a cop killing had been put to rest. But it hasn’t.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
Free to Kill
Once, the State of Texas was going to put Kenneth McDuff to death as payment for his crimes. Instead, it set him free to murder again.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
Blood Will Sell
The richest man ever tried for murder has found the Lord, along with a new career peddling hand cream. Are you buying the latest incarnation of Cullen Davis?
Feature
January 20, 2013
Innocence Found
Anthony Graves had been behind bars for eighteen years when the prosecutors in his case abruptly dropped all charges and set him free. How did it happen? What happens next?
Feature
January 20, 2013
Innocence Lost
Anthony Graves has spent the past eighteen years behind bars—twelve of them on death row—for a grisly 1992 murder. There was no plausible motive nor any physical evidence to connect him to the crime, and the only witness against him repeatedly recanted his testimony. Yet he remains locked up. Did
Feature
January 20, 2013
Flesh and Blood
The most shocking thing about the murder of the Caffey family in East Texas last year was not how gruesome or inexplicable the crime was. It was that it was masterminded by sixteen-year-old Erin Caffey, a pretty girl who worked at the Sonic, sang in her church, and loved her
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
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?
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.
November 19, 2012
Southwestern Grad Murdered by Her Own Prayer Group?
27-year-old was suffocated after months of allegedly being raped, at her husband's urging, by members of the prayer group he founded in Georgetown.
May 16, 2012
Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
The Columbia University Human Rights Law Review published a 400-page investigative article that alleges that in 1989, Texas executed the wrong man for a 1983 murder.
March 8, 2012
Revolutionary Corpse Research at Texas State Body Farm
A study conducted by Texas State University researchers involving vultures and human remains could have big implications for homicide investigators.
January 18, 2012
Another NASA Love Triangle?
A former NASA contractor allegedly killed her Air Force Colonel husband's mistress after learning of the affair.
Business
December 2, 2011
Drop in Juárez Murder Rate Is Bad for Funeral Business
The El Paso Times reported that as Juárez’s murder rate drops, funeral homes suffer, a story that elicited horrified reactions from the community.
Hollywood, TX
December 1, 2011
Perfect Execution
Into the Abyss dives deep into the death penalty debate.
Letter From Athens
January 1, 2011
Rich Man, Poor Man
The tragic culture clash that led to the murder of a governor’s son.
Web Exclusive
October 31, 2010
Angels and Devils
CBS’s 48 Hours fills in the final chapters of the notorious Matt Baker.
Web Exclusive
January 1, 2009
The Science of Murder
Someone killed Melissa Trotter and dumped her body in the Sam Houston National Forest. But according to six forensic experts, that someone was not Larry Swearingen.
Letter From Eagle Pass
March 31, 2008
The Night In Question
Thirty years later, we still don’t know who murdered Border Patrol agent Jose Gamez. Or maybe we do.
True Crime
February 1, 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.
True Crime
June 30, 2002
Two Barmaids, Five Alligators, and the Butcher of Elmendorf
He was a ladies' man who owned a tavern. He kept gators in a pool behind the place, into which he liked to toss small animals. He hired women to wait tables, and some of them disappeared. What happened? With Joe Ball, it was easy to believe the worst.
True Crime
February 1, 2002
Durst Case Scenarios
Last September a human torso was found floating in Galveston Bay—a gruesome discovery that opened a window into the bizarre life of the accused murderer, New York multimillionaire Robert Durst.
True Crime
January 1, 2001
Under the Gun
Nine years after the brutal murder of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop rocked the city of Austin, the police say they have finally caught the killers. But they have no evidence and no witnesses—only two confessions that the defendants say were coerced. Which is why, when the case
Crime
February 1, 2000
Unhappy Trails
Although they hate to let anyone get away with murder, Harris County detectives Harry Fikaris and Roger Wedgeworth are finding that cracking unsolved cases is no easy task.
Feature
July 31, 1999
Evil
How serial killer Rafael Resendez-Ramirez struck fear in the hearts of the men and women of Weimar, a tiny Texas town that will never be the same.
Crime
May 31, 1999
Case Open
Nearly three years after attorney Steve Davis’ body was found, his family still doesn’t know how he died. Thanks to an out-of-court settlement with Comanche County, they probably never will.
Reporter
January 1, 1999
Sign of the Times
The New York Times takes on Texas—again.
Reporter
May 31, 1998
Oh, Brother
A River Oaks bookie is tried for murder.
Reporter
April 30, 1998
Whodunit?
The mysterious murder of a small-town mayor.