Texas, as you may have intuited, is hot, but Texas prisons, as you may have heard, are hotter. Since 2007, 14 inmates, including nine in 2011 alone, have died from heat-related illnesses, according to a 2014 report from UT Law School’s Human Rights Clinic. Larry McCollum’s death received most of…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Dallas Police Chief David Brown didn’t need to be told there was unrest. The barest recitation of…
Kolten Parker/San Antonio Express-News via Washington Post For the last week or so, as America’s mayors and well-heeled urbanists descended on our fair burg, we have touted ourselves as the bonafide Florence in Texas, a cultural oasis in a vast desert of philistines. Well, kind of. Turns out we still…
Cloyd Ray Knight III had a great run. He began to perfect a process to make phony $100 bills in 2004, operating what amounted to a small print shop out of his Arlington home. Knight began by applying a layer of acrylic paint to newspaper print paper. Then he would…
Back in 2006, William Clark Perschman robbed 18 banks in Dallas. He would put a T-shirt over his head to conceal his identity, and it earned him the less-than-stellar nickname of “T-Shirt Bandit.” He was caught and went to federal prison. Five years later, he was released on a supervised…
Back in 2005, a woman, living on disability in Chicago, was contacted online by a man, he apparently as lonely as she. He promised to marry her, said he could cure her health woes, according to the case laid out by prosecutors. Before they could be together, though, he told…
The camera guy was already there when Detective Scott Sayers pulled up to the 79-year-old victim’s Earlywood Drive home in March of last year, ready to gather footage for A&E’s true-crime reality show, The First 48. There was a phone number detectives could call to notify a camera crew that…
UPDATED OCTOBER 6, 2014: Jason Harrison’s Father Sues Dallas and the Police Officers Who Killed His Son ORIGINAL POST: To neighbors and family, it was obvious that Jason Harrison was mentally ill, even if the legal system kept treating him like someone who wasn’t. The last time his mother called…
It started out, according to court documents, on the up and up. Bradley Ward, owner of The Lone Star Shipping Company, agreed with FedEx to become an Authorized Shipping Center for the freight company. In exchange Lone Star received deep discounts on FedEx services and signage to put in front…
Toni Gallego knew what she was going to get her granddaughter for her birthday. She knew the store where she was going to get it, too. She shopped at Target all the time, buying formula and diapers. Then she saw the picture: long, black rifles in the big box store’s…
At the GOP convention in Fort Worth last weekend, as rifle-toting protesters stood outside decrying their guns’ exclusion from the convention hall, three thirtysomething men, two brothers and a cousin, approached Texas State Rifle Association lobbyist Alice Tripp. Their pitch — that Texans should have the right to openly carry…
Until 2011, Luis lived in Mexico, where he made a living building houses. Luis’ wife and children, who are American citizens, lived in Los Angeles. Luis visited his wife and children as much as he could, until he was arrested for illegal reentry. For this crime, he served a three-year…
For as long as a decade, the feds say, brothers Cesar and Gilberto have been the kingpins of a large and violent drug-dealing syndicate in North Texas, known by law enforcement as the Goon Squad. Theirs was a family business. The brothers worked along with their sister Elva as drug…
In a handful of places in Texas — Austin and Midland and San Marcos, for example — getting caught carrying a small amount of marijuana will get you a ticket and a court date but, barring more serious infractions, won’t involve handcuffs. Dallas has a different approach. “We take you…
Pamela Jones is a teacher at DeSoto’s alternative high school. She’s 35. She has a husband and four kids. She works for Athletes for Change, whose mission to “provide exceptional role models” to young people. If authorities are right, she has an odd sense of what makes a great role…
When Robert Coleman’s house got egged, he called the University Park police. It was a Saturday night in September 2012. Officers came to the crime scene but found no leads, other than the splattered egg yolk. Coleman realized that his patio umbrella was also missing, according to the police report…
In news that further confirms something you knew all along — that fast food restaurant restrooms are just the worst — Andrew Crawford Boden, the Irving man arrested for allegedly hiding a camera in a Grapevine Braum’s restroom, has been arrested again. After the Braum’s camera was found on May…
In court documents, he is referred to as “Ruben.” We don’t know his real name, and we don’t know if he was the first to make contact with the now-27-year-old Gerardo Cisneros, aka “Tatuado” or, simply, “Jerry.” But we do know that in November 2012, Ruben made a call to…
And you thought jury duty in Dallas sucked. Tarrant County residents are being contacted by a man calling himself Lieutenant Allen who claims to be with the sheriff’s office, police department or constable’s office. “Allen” informs the person receiving the call that they have been fined between $2,000 and $4,000…
Monday afternoon, the same day Governor Rick Perry announced a statewide advertising campaign to combat human trafficking, Dallas’ Dereck Johnson pleaded guilty to that offense in United States District Court. According to court documents, on June 1, 2012, Johnson lured a 15-year-old girl away from the Downtown Dallas Greyhound Station…
Open Carry Texas and its most active local offshoot, Open Carry Tarrant County, have succeeded marvelously in their quest to mercilessly troll gun-control advocates. Whether they’ve made any progress toward their stated aim of legalizing openly carried handguns in Texas, however, is another matter. The National Rifle Association, for one,…
Local chef Kent Rathbun has a very practical reason for driving a neon yellow Porsche. “Everyone knows it’s you,” he told The Dallas Morning News a couple of years ago. “That’s a good thing and a bad thing, actually. Part of the reason I like it is because when it’s…
