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.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff's "The Innocent Man, Part One" 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.
In 1986, in northwest Austin, Texas, Michael Morton came home from work to discover that his wife had been brutally murdered in their bed, with their son in the next room. In less than six months, he would be convicted of murdering her and sentenced to life in prison. In this detailed investigative piece of true crime journalism, Pamela Coloff picks apart how an innocent man was charged on insubstantial physical evidence and immature scientific evidence.
In exploring Morton's story, Colloff examines the full cast of characters that made up the case. A portrait of a misunderstood marriage, a sheriff who played by his own rules, a district attorney eager to make a name for himself, and a close-knit community quick with judgement come together to create a nightmare that wouldn't end.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff's "The Innocent Man, Part Two" 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.
Picking up where Part One of "The Innocent Man" left off, Pamela Colloff dives into what Michael Morton went through in the 25 years he was wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his wife. Lawyers convinced of Michael's innocence sought appeal after appeal and were blocked repeatedly by a court system reluctant to admit their errors. Michael meanwhile dealt with the torments of prison, matched only by the torment of slowly losing hope of ever reconciling with his son.
What began with the tragedy of losing his wife and what could have led to bitter vindication became the story of man seeking nothing more than the truth and a chance to start over.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff's "Dreaming of Her" 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.
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.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff's "A Kiss Before Dying" 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.
Few stories feel as classic as a well-told ghost story, the kind that makes your hair stand on end or sends chills down your spine even years after its alleged happening. Almost as classic are those stories that take place in high school, starring the jocks, the cheerleaders, and the outsiders; nostalgic for a time that almost certainly never was and yet remains a stalwart of American storytelling. Pamela Colloff's "A Kiss Before Dying" is both kinds of story and what's more, it's all true.
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's murder would shock no one familiar with the resolutions of today's rape cases.
In "A Kiss Before Dying," Pamela Colloff weaves together a story that's part true crime, part high school classic, that feels at once contemporary as it does of another time.
