Texas Monthly

In partnership with Texas Monthly, the following articles focusing on Texas society are now available in a bundle as an audio download: "Busting Out of Mexico" by Jan Reid, read by Bruce DuBose; "Showdown at Waggoner Ranch" by Gary Cartwright, read by Bruce DuBose; "Cops and Robbers" by Katy Vine, read by Lydia Mackay ; "Lost and Found" by Katy Vine, read by Lydia Mackay; and "The Trouble With Innocence" by Michael Hall, read by Christopher Ryan Grant.

Law enforcement in Hidalgo County would joke that without the drug trade, half the business in the county would fail. Others would say of the region in South Texas that you'd be hard pressed to meet a local who didn't know a drug dealer. The sentiment of the local culture and economy relying on the drug trade would turn from harmless to hostile when the line between drug busters and drug dealers began to blur.

In 1978, a Texas jury found Kerry Max Cook guilty of the state's most brutal murder on record and sentenced him to death row. Cook swore that, no matter how long it took, he would prove his innocence, unearth the truth, and free himself from this sentence. Spanning decades, numerous lawyers, and meanwhile the physical and psychological abuse of prison, Cook would be prosecuted four times, only to have the veil of innocence narrowly evade him in the end. "The Trouble with Innocence" opens with the hearing that would exonerate Cook.

Katy Vine's "Lost and Found" is a thoughtful and uplifting look into a refugee community in the heart of Texas at a time when political sentiment surrounding refugees and immigration turned increasingly negative. Texas is known nationwide for accepting a high ratio of refugees admitted to the United States. Though most end up in Houston, the smaller city of Amarillo has become a harbor for new immigrants looking to start anew.

What follows is a story typically reserved for the movies. The gang started by Davis, Sr. to free his son comprised a Vietnam veteran, trained in skills of war increasingly detestable to those around him; a down-on-his luck Texan in search of his next paycheck or, more accurately, his next adventure; and a naive kid hoping to live up to the tough crowd he ran with. Though each was hooked at the start by promise of money, by the end, they would feel they were performing the work of heroes.

"Showdown at Waggoner Ranch" is the saga of Texas's second-largest ranch and its shambles of an inheritance left by W.T. Waggoner to his descendants. It is a history of a sliver of Texas's elite, how they made their money and how they, often scandalously, spent their time. Simultaneously, it is a nod to the cowboy lifestyle that stands at risk should the feud of the Waggoner inheritance actually put the fate of the ranch at risk.

In partnership with Texas Monthly, the following articles spotlighting true crime are now available in a bundle as an audio download: "The Cheerleader Murder Plot" features a woman who went to extreme, murderous lengths to ensure her daughter's spot on the cheerleading squad. "The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob" profiles the mysterious Peggy Jo Tallas who, disguised as a man, robbed banks and confounded police for years. Also featuring "A Kiss Before Dying", "The Talented Mr. Khater", and "Just Desserts".

Betty Williams was an outsider at a time when conformity was king: Texas in the 1960s. Mack Herring was the quintessential football player, handsome and well-liked by the sweater set-wearing girls Betty scoffed at. When their unlikely relationship came to an end and Betty's life began to spiral, she asked for death and Mack was more than happy to oblige. The resulting trial of Betty Williams' murder would shock no one familiar with the resolutions of today's rape cases.

Cowboy Bob was a master bank robber, robbing countless banks for thousands of dollars and confounding cops along the way. He would rob banks without a weapon, without any apparent muscle or accomplice, and he'd steal license plates to throw police off his trail. The police had a lot of questions and theories when it came to Cowboy Bob, but the last thing they would have suspected was that he was a woman.

Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins led a perfectly adequate middle class life in Corsicana, Texas. Mr. Jenkins, Sandy, worked as an accountant at Collin Street Bakery, world-famous for their fruitcakes. Kay, Mrs. Jenkins, was the more outgoing of the two, the one that friends and neighbors actually noticed and didn't mind talking to. Feelings of adequacy and invisibility weighed on Sandy, and were only compounded by his admiration of boss bakery owner, Bob McNutt, a man who reminded him daily that others were respected and were living more luxurious lives than he.

Mimi Swartz paints a scene of a place that makes the unthinkable - the plot to murder a fellow cheerleading mother and her daughter - something within the realm of possibility. To say Channelview is a dismal place is an understatement. It's the kind of place where even the slightest bit of distinction goes a long way amidst the usual doldrum of high school, marriage, kids, repeat. It's within this setting that the likes of obsessive, helicopter moms, Wanda Holloway and Verna Heath, who live vicariously through their daughters, are given terrifying credence.

The layered story of "The Talented Mr. Khater" begins with Callie Quinn, who, upon graduating college, fulfilled her desire to live and work in Chile. Among the friends she met and lived with there was Youssef Khater, a man she initially found to be arrogant but she would come to befriend and trust. Unfortunately for Callie, that trust led to her being conned, attacked, and buried alive by this seemingly generous, charming man. Although she survived and he was briefly imprisoned, Youssef's story did not end with Callie's.

In partnership with Texas Monthly, the following articles highlighting Texas business and culture are now available in a bundle as an audio download: "The Slow Life and Fast Death of DJ Screw" by Michael Hall, "Dreaming of Her" by Pamela Colloff, "He Ain't Going Nowhere" by John Spong, "A Home of Last Resort" by Sonia Smith, and "The Shelf Life of John Mackey" by Tom Foster.

On March 31, 1995, South Texas came to a standstill as the shocking news spread that the hugely popular Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla Perez had been shot and killed in Corpus Christi. She was a girl from the barrio whose voice won her a Grammy, sold millions of albums, and turned her into a sensation unlike any other. When she was murdered, Selena seemed to take with her the aspirations of fans across the globe. Fifteen years later, in this exclusive oral history, her family, bandmates, and friends recall the life and devastating death of a star who still mesmerizes us all.

He was one of the most influential cultural figures in Texas - a generous godfather to a generation of rappers, an entrepreneur of Houston's mean streets, the master of a scene fueled by codeine cough syrup and hip-hop beats. When he overdosed in November at the age of 29, it was easy to dismiss him as yet another musician who succumbed to his own success. But the story of DJ Screw is more complicated than that.

In partnership with Texas Monthly, Sonia Smith's "A Home of Last Resort" is now available as an audio download, where the length and timeliness of a podcast meets the high-quality production of a full-length audio program. Breaking ground - and betting big - on a doomsday community for the rich.

In partnership with Texas Monthly, John Spong's "He Ain't Going Nowhere" is now available as an audio download, where the length and timeliness of a podcast meets the high-quality production of a full-length audio program. As the godfather of Nashville songwriters, Guy Clark has survived more than 40 years of late-night partying and arduous touring - and suffered the loss of those he loved most. Yet somehow his genius is as sharp as ever.

On June 16, 2017, Whole Foods agreed to sell itself to Amazon for $13.7 billion. This is the exclusive story that led up to that momentous decision for the Austin-based grocery giant. Whole Foods' eccentric founder changed the way Americans consume food. Can he survive the Wall Street forces that now want to consume him?

In partnership with Texas Monthly, the following nationally recognized features are now available in a bundle as an audio download: "Still Life" by Skip Hollandsworth; "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives" by Mimi Swartz; "The Innocent Man, Part One" by Pamela Colloff; "The Innocent Man, Part Two" by Pamela Colloff; "The Witness" by Pamela Colloff.

In partnership with Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff's "The Witness" is now available as an audio download, where the length and timeliness of a podcast meets the high-quality production of a full-length audio program. For more than a decade, it was Michelle Lyons's job to observe the final moments of death row inmates - but watching 278 executions did not come without a cost.