Across the Line
Was the quaint East Texas town of Mineola home to a horrific child sex ring? Were the three people sent to prison last year for running it guilty? Was justice served? Depends on which district attorney you ask.
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.
Was the quaint East Texas town of Mineola home to a horrific child sex ring? Were the three people sent to prison last year for running it guilty? Was justice served? Depends on which district attorney you ask.
By Michael Hall
As he readies himself for this summer's Tour de France, the two-time winner is battling allegations in Europe and elsewhere that he uses performance-enhancing drugs. He insists he is clean. But proving that is turning out to be one of his toughest challenges yet. He doesn't use performance-enhancing drugs, he
By Michael Hall
Until he overdosed in November, he was one of the most influential cultural figures in Texas, the master of a scene fueled by drugs and his own brilliant, eccentric music.
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
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.
By Michael Hall
A decade ago, Gabby Sones accused her parents and five others of running the most depraved child sex ring in Texas history. Now she’s ready to clear their names.
By Michael Hall
The incredible true story of two brothers raised on the hardscrabble country music of rural West Texas who dropped out, tuned in, found God, and helped launch the seventies soft-rock revolution.
By Michael Hall
Those who know Ramiro Gonzales say he’s utterly transformed since committing a heinous crime at the age of 18. That may not be enough to save his life.
By Michael Hall
Kerry Max Cook, wrongfully convicted of murder, fought for decades to prove his innocence. He was exonerated Wednesday as he lay in a hospital bed awaiting major surgery.
By Michael Hall
Texas writer and artist Roxy Gordon loved Native culture so much that—at least in his own mind—he “became” an Indian.
By Michael Hall
The quarterback led the Houston Texans to the NFL playoffs in his rookie season—and his work off the field is even more impressive.
By Michael Hall
At eighty, the musician-artist-playwright is still doing things his way. (He is worried about the year 4024, though.)
By Michael Hall
She was pressured into convicting a man she believed was innocent—and was haunted by remorse. Three decades later, she did something about it.
By Michael Hall
Thanks to hundreds of DNA exonerations, experts now know false confessions are common. That wasn’t the case in the nineties in Texas.
By Michael Hall
The famously powerful dreadnought was hailed by Hemingway and played a key role in several famous battles.
By Michael Hall
On Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared the 67-year-old Native American innocent of a 1981 murder.
By Michael Hall
We keep putting convicts away. And lawmakers want those numbers to rise.
By Michael Hall
The new grandmother, in need of a new kidney, says all she wants is a normal life.
By Michael Hall
The second teen has pleaded to criminal mischief charges. Both face two years of probation.
By Michael Hall
Hypnosis played a critical role in the real-life case depicted in Max’s ‘Love & Death.’ But was it good science? Here’s what the experts say.
By Michael Hall
The Max docuseries debuting today sheds new light on my reporting for Texas Monthly.
By Michael Hall
For decades, the Houston folklorist labored over his biography of the legendary bluesman. Seven years after McCormick’s death, the book is finally out—and so are the secrets long kept by its troubled author.
By Michael Hall
Those in the office that prosecuted him agree the soft-spoken Native American did not murder a priest back in 1981. His case is back before a district court judge.
By Michael Hall
Brands once staged elaborate productions for their employees. No one was better at making them than Mexia-born Michael Brown.
By Michael Hall
Katherine Propper’s student films have won awards at major film festivals. How does she do it? By knowing the rules of filmmaking—and breaking them.
By Michael Hall
In 1983 James Reyos was convicted of murder in Odessa, despite having an airtight alibi. Four decades later, he’s still fighting to clear his name.
By Michael Hall
Families of those who died in the Korean War are asking Congress to investigate why their relatives’ names aren’t on the recently raised memorial wall in Washington, D.C.
By Michael Hall
The Spurs electrified a once sleepy city, paved the way for the Mavs’ and Rockets’ success, and won a few games along the way.
By Michael Hall
How does the Texas Rangers’ legacy as frontier lawmen affect the men and women who wear the badge today?
By Jack Herrera and Michael Hall
A man approached Cecilia Ballí and asked, “Are you looking for work?” It shook her—and helped her grasp the danger in early-aughts Juárez.
By Michael Hall
Two Texas Monthly writers go head-to-head on the merits and inferiorities of tacos made with crispy shells vs. soft tortillas.
By David Courtney and Michael Hall
Twenty-two years ago, a Texas Monthly writer heard about a Houston DJ whose slowed-down mixes had become the sound of the city.
By Michael Hall
Cecilia Ballí recalls reporting on her family’s legal victory over the lawyer who swindled the Ballís out of lucrative land rights on Padre Island.
By Michael Hall
On Wednesday in Austin, the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission will interview the author of the latest forensic-science takedown.
By Michael Hall
Two brothers in Dallas tried for years to correct the misspellings and omissions. Now they’re heartbroken.
By Michael Hall
Dallas brothers Hal and Ted Barker, who have spent decades studying Korean War deaths, believe the wall is riddled with omissions and errors.
By Michael Hall
The Fifth Circuit is led by four judges who got their start in Texas politics. For these activists, overturning the right to an abortion is only the beginning.
By Michael Hall
The most dynamic freedom celebration in Texas, begun in the nineteenth century, returns to life.
By Michael Hall
Texas Monthly writer Michael Hall, who profiled Seals in 2020, reflects on some of the musician’s best stories.
By Michael Hall
Bobbie Nelson, pianist and older sister to Texas music icon Willie Nelson, died Thursday morning at 91.
By John Spong and Michael Hall
Some Refugio County locals say it was “kids being kids.” For others, the incident has reopened old wounds.
By Michael Hall
When a homeowner shot and killed a police officer in Midland, the court case that followed pitted two core Texas values against each other.
By Michael Hall
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether John Henry Ramirez, a Texan convicted of murder, is entitled to have his pastor by his side when he’s executed.
By Michael Hall
For 68 years, hippies, rednecks, and college kids drank beer at the Austin roadhouse, which received a final sendoff from famed country group Freda and the Firedogs.
By Michael Hall
Texas will put only three inmates to death in 2021. So much for our hang-’em-high reputation.
By Michael Hall
The wild times of a gentle roughneck who beat the Texas criminal-justice system.
By Michael Hall
The Phantom stylishly portrays what most everybody knows: the 27-year-old Texan didn’t kill Wanda Lopez.
By Michael Hall
In 1981 three Black teenagers drowned while in law enforcement custody during a Juneteenth gathering at Lake Mexia. Four decades later, Texas’s proudest Emancipation Day celebration still hasn’t recovered.
By Michael Hall
And 18 months after the police, district attorney, and trial judge all declared the Houston man innocent.
By Michael Hall
Seventeen years after Floyd’s arrest by a notorious Houston cop, his family is seeking a pardon.
By Michael Hall
Her ordeal included one final trauma: ICE showed up to deport her before the Mexican consulate intervened.
By Michael Hall
From ‘Urban Cowboy’ to ‘Northern Exposure’ to ‘No Country for Old Men,’ Texas’s finest character actor isn’t hanging up his spurs just yet.
By Michael Hall
In a nondescript space outside Austin, the team behind these world-renowned guitars carry on the exacting legacy of their founder.
By Michael Hall
The New York–born singer-songwriter got to Texas as soon as he could—and spent the next five decades changing the lives of seemingly everyone he met.
The king of the Parrotheads remembers the ups and downs of his half-century friendship with the late cosmic cowboy.
By Michael Hall
After contracting COVID-19 earlier this year, the musician had spent most of this past summer in isolation—where he was still writing songs.
By Michael Hall
DNA evidence proved Lydell Grant's innocence. So why won't the state’s highest criminal court exonerate him?
By Michael Hall