Katy Vine
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Staff writer at Texas Monthly since 1997. Email: kvine@texasmonthly.com
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Articles by Katy Vine
The Infamous San Antonio Love Triangle That Ended in Murder
There remains some disagreement over whether gunshots were fired before or after the screaming started. One neighbor said the afternoon’s silence was broken by the familiar voice of Emma Dachsel, yelling “Come quick!” from a two-bedroom bungalow on Hunstock Avenue. Others nearby recalled that the shot came first.
The Rise and Rise of Balloon Racing’s First Family
You might not think much about wind. Storms, sure, but you may not ponder the forces behind the soft, warm breezes that bend the switchgrass or the stiff, cold northers that sting the cheeks. You haven’t studied the physics of gases that yearn for stabilization and rush from high- to low-pressure areas. You don’t analyze the various wind currents flowing in different directions at different altitudes, moving like the traffic on some Dallas interchange in the sky. And why would you?
A Magical Stained Glass Museum Glows in a South Texas Town
The Rio Grande Valley city of San Juan (population 37,000) may not seem a likely spot for the most comprehensive stained glass window collection in the United States. But located between a Pizza Hut and a barbecue joint, in a fairly new building designed to resemble a Gothic cathedral, is the Gelman Stained Glass Museum, home to 174 church windows created in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (including many by Tiffany Studios).
Judge Says No Retrial for Erik Maund
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. Following a lengthy trial in the fall of 2023, the Austin auto executive Erik Maund, along with two accomplices, was found guilty in a complicated murder-for-hire scheme detailed on our podcast The Problem With Erik. But ten months later, a federal judge determined that Maund and his codefendants would need a new trial because the jury had been given some information it shouldn’t have seen.
Why the Descendants of Cynthia Ann Parker and Quanah Parker Gather Every Year
While descendants of Cynthia Ann Parker may debate some details of her capture, many can recite the facts by heart. At around 10 a.m. on May 19, 1836, forty miles east of modern-day Waco, the blue-eyed girl somewhere between eight and twelve years old was inside her family’s fort when a group made up mostly of Comanche arrived at the open front gate, ending life as her family knew it.
Abraham Quintanilla, Selena's Father, Fiercly Protected His Daughter's Legacy
Abraham Quintanilla Jr., best known as father and manager of the tejano star Selena, died December 13, according to his family. He was 86. Born and raised in Corpus Christi, Quintanilla developed his own dreams of stardom in his teenage years, during which he toured with the doo-wop group Los Dinos (the Guys).
Amy Nelson and Cathy Guthrie Aren't Worried About Living Up to Willie and Woody
Nobody will tell you that the band Folk Uke sucks as often as its two members. The jabs aren’t meant to cultivate sympathy—not completely. Their intention is more strategic and addresses a fundamental conundrum. On the one hand, thanks to the members’ legendary surnames—Guthrie and Nelson—audiences expect a high-quality act.
It May Be in Fort Worth, but Near Southside Is More Funky Town Than Cowtown
While it can be hard to determine a cultural scene’s beginnings with indisputable accuracy, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore when I hear that the catalyst was an empty warehouse.
College Station Caught Off Guard By Purple Martin Bird Poop
It’s not like anyone was pulling out a ruler and measuring the distance between bird droppings, but if College Station recreation supervisor Laurie Brown were to guess, she’d say they were an inch apart—a speckled, white-and-brown blanket coating a walkway in College Station’s popular Northgate District. “In some cases,” she says, “there was bird poop on top of bird poop.” What was causing this tableau—grackles? Starlings?
A New Gruene Hotel Is the Latest in the French Cowboys’ Growing Hill Country Empire
About 25 years ago, checking into a small-town independent hotel in Texas came with an assumed risk. While some hosts offered comfortable and quiet accommodations, others assumed you’d play along with their ruse that the giant stain on your floor wasn’t caused by a shooting. As time went on, Holiday Inn Express and other chains infiltrated the hinterlands, but if the reliable corporations brought relief, they also spread blandness as though it was a necessary contagion.
What Killed This Texas Gulf Coast City's Once-Thriving Windsurfing Scene?
There was a time, decades ago, when Frank Floyd could step outside his Corpus Christi surf shop, on South Padre Island Drive, and witness a water-sports revolution. “If you looked out for ten minutes, you’d see thirty cars go by with windsurfing gear,” says Floyd, who owns Wind and Wave Watersports. Amid the jumble of neon sails, masts, and wide boards sticking out of windows and strapped to rooftops, windsurfers pulled up to the beach and wiped away tears of joy.
Remembering Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell
Captain James A. Lovell Jr., an astronaut best known for Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the moon, and Apollo 13, an engineering feat that beat the odds, died on August 7, 2025, in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was 97 years old. Lovell was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1928. His father died in a car accident when he was four, and Lovell grew up moving around the Midwest.
Remembering Flaco Jiménez, Tejano Music’s Heart and Soul
Could tejano music have picked a more jovial, warmhearted ambassador? Leonard “Flaco” Jiménez, who died Thursday at the age of 86, was something more than simply a master accordion player and an exceptionally versatile session musician: He was a steward of the joy his music brought to others and the power it had to bring people together. “One way to look at it: Leonardo ‘Flaco’ Jimenez is our ‘Satchmo,’ the Alamo City’s Louis Armstrong,” Hector Saldaña wrote in 2019.
Remembering Flaco Jiménez, Tejano Music’s Heart and Soul
Could tejano music have picked a more jovial, warmhearted ambassador? Leonard “Flaco” Jiménez, who died Thursday at the age of 86, was something more than simply a master accordion player and an exceptionally versatile session musician: He was a steward of the joy his music brought to others and the power it had to bring people together.“One way to look at it: Leonardo ‘Flaco’ Jimenez is our ‘Satchmo,’ the Alamo City’s Louis Armstrong,” Hector Saldaña wrote in 2019.
The Young Performer Who Wants to Reinvent Magic
Eric Chien, who has wowed television audiences and top-tier professional magicians alike, is seeking yet another title at the World Championship of Magic in Italy later this month. On this week’s episode of TM Out Loud, host Katy Vine has the story of her meeting with Chien last year, when they discussed Chien’s upbringing in Houston and how he developed the competitive drive that took him to the top ranks of the global magic community. Her profile of Chien ran on texasmonthly.com in July 2025.
The Young Magician Planning to Make History at a Secretive Competition in Italy
One hundred and forty-three years ago, on a dimly lit stage at the Berlin national theater, a Bavarian carpet maker turned director named Max Auzinger observed something that would change his life—and the craft of magic—forever. During a rehearsal for a dungeon scene, he saw that an actor in makeup to play a Moor virtually disappeared in the darkness, so that only the performer’s eyes and teeth were visible. Auzinger was stunned.
The Big Temple That Divided a Small Texas Town
For years, residents of Fairview had it in for McKinney, their much larger neighbor to the north. Citizens of the small town thirty miles northeast of Dallas prize their Longhorns, horses, alpacas, and dark-sky ordinance, and McKinney was a perfect symbol of the encroaching urbanization that threatened their way of life.
Take a Trip Down the Rio Grande With the Flatlanders’ Butch Hancock
If you recognize Butch Hancock’s name, you probably know him as a member of the Flatlanders, the legendary trio from Lubbock that is now a cornerstone of Texas country music. What you may not know is that, for decades, this Flatlander has lived alongside the Rio Grande. He’s also a one-of-a-kind river guide. Last fall, TM Out Loud host Katy Vine joined Butch on one of his tours and wrote about the experience for a feature package on Texas tour guides in the May 2025 issue of Texas Monthly.
Texas’s Most Exciting Creative Scene Just Might Be in McAllen
I could see the flashing purple party lights as I pulled up to Tropicasa, a vegan mini-mart and vintage-clothing shop in McAllen’s arts district. Empty, the space could serve as a garage for a Ford F-450 and not much else. But on this cold February night in the Rio Grande Valley, it was packed with several dozen locals dressed mostly in dark colors, bobbing their heads to a live deejay’s thunk-thunk-thunk as they celebrated the store’s fifth anniversary.
Behind the Scenes of Texas Monthly’s Top 50 Barbecue List
This week, Texas Monthly released its latest ranking of the top fifty barbecue joints in the state. It’s a massive undertaking, one we repeat every four years, and on this week’s episode of TM Out Loud, the editors who organized the project tell host Katy Vine all about how it came together. This piece was produced by Ella Kopeikin, Patrick Michels, and Brian Standefer. Katy Vine (voice-over): Hi, and welcome to TM Out Loud, exclusive audio storytelling for Texas Monthly Audio subscribers.
Twenty-One of the Best Artists in Texas Are Featured in This New Museum's First Show
James Surls thinks on a large scale. A few years ago, after telling me about the late Houston artist Bert Long’s ambitious but impractical concepts—such as dragging an iceberg into the Gulf—the sculptor, who often works with wood and metal, turned to a gigantic, twisted log nearby, and, without a hint of irony, launched into his own formidable plans for turning it into art.
Fruitcake | Crime, Drama
Sandy and Kay Jenkins, a seemingly upstanding middle class couple, achieve the American dream when Sandy uses his job as an accountant to embezzle $17m from Collin Street Bakery.Sandy and Kay Jenkins, a seemingly upstanding middle class couple, achieve the American dream when Sandy uses his job as an accountant to embezzle $17m from Collin Street Bakery.Sandy and Kay Jenkins, a seemingly upstanding middle class couple, achieve the American dream when Sandy uses his job as an accountant to...
A West Texas Man Discovered a New Species While Scuba Diving
WHO: Jason Osborne, of Odessa, who scuba dives across the country looking for ancient marine life. WHAT: A newly discovered genus and species of parasitic marine isopod, known as Calverteca osbornei, that lived 18 million years ago. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: It will shock no one that few explorers volunteer to scuba dive in mucky water. In near darkness, divers may suddenly encounter alligators, catfish with mouths as wide as your shoulders, or water snakes as big around as a forearm.
Keshi Braces for Superstardom
Keshi stays vigilant at his local H-E-B. Is anyone following him through the produce section? Did that shopper’s gaze linger as he waited in line to check out? “I’m always surprised where I’ll get caught,” he told me in August. He isn’t concerned with watchful store clerks—he’s not juggling tomatoes or pocketing Juicy Fruit.
‘The Problem With Erik’ Update: Judge Orders a New Trial for Erik Maund
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. After the verdict in the Erik Maund murder-for-hire trial, this bizarre story finally seemed to have reached an end: Maund and his codefendants all faced mandatory life in prison. But this week, some surprising news came from the federal court in Nashville: Erik Maund may be getting a new trial. Katy Vine (voice-over): Hi, it’s Katy Vine.
‘The Problem With Erik’ Bonus: “Catching a Hit Man-The Charles Harrelson Case”
This is a bonus episode available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below. “A lot of this is a psychological problem. It’s people with a certain psychology that get involved in it, and the money’s something extra.” —Ray Jahn The Erik Maund case is probably the best-known murder for hire involving Texans in the past forty years.
‘The Problem With Erik’ Bonus: “Behind the Scenes”
This is a bonus episode available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below. “Watching all of these decisions come to this point where two people are murdered in a parking lot . . .
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Bonus: “The Undercover Tapes”
This is a bonus episode available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below. “I love helping out people, man.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 6: “The Fall” (TM Audio Exclusive)
This is an early access episode, available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below. “Oh, I think he feels remorse that he got caught. All criminals feel remorse, but I don’t think many of them feel remorse if they don’t get caught.” —Wallace Lundgren Executive producer is Megan Creydt.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 5: “How to Perform a Hit” (TM Audio Exclusive)
This is an early access episode, available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below. “I’ll never go to prison. Ever. I’ll go in the ground, but I ain’t going to f—ing prison.” —Bryon Brockway Executive producer is Megan Creydt. The show is reported and written by Katy Vine, and written, produced, and reported by Ana Worrel.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 4: “The $60K Option” (TM Audio Exclusive)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. “Well, they thought they got away with it. What else you going to do? That’s why you paid all that money, to silence everything.” —Salem Joseph Sr. Executive producer is Megan Creydt. The show is reported and written by Katy Vine and written, produced, and reported by Ana Worrel. It was produced and engineered by Brian Standefer, who also wrote the music. Story editing and production by Patrick Michels.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 1: “Car Talk”
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. “He’s the most simple rich person you’ve ever met in your life. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was as happy as he could be just being what he was.” —Joe Joseph In early 2020, Erik Maund—an executive at one of the top Toyota dealerships in the country, founded by his grandfather—had a problem. A stranger was blackmailing him for having an extramarital affair.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 2: “Bill”
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. “I got this emotion inside of me, and I could feel what they were feeling. And I knew that this was the morning of these two people’s deaths.” —Matt Garrett Bill Lanway met Holly Williams through mutual friends in the Nashville EDM scene. Soon after they started dating, he moved into her apartment. It was only then, after snooping around on her phone, that he discovered Holly was an escort.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 3: “The Fixer” (TM Audio Exclusive)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. “Maund was freaking out. Everything is at a fever pitch, and that’s when Gilad Peled says, ‘The guys on the ground have offered to take him out.’ ” —Rob McGuire Facing the blackmail threat, Erik Maund decides not to pay up or go to the police. Instead, he turns to Gil Peled, a security guy at the Maund family car dealership who seems qualified to solve sensitive problems.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 3: “The Fixer” (TM Audio Exclusive)
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below.“Maund was freaking out. Everything is at a fever pitch, and that’s when Gilad Peled says, ‘The guys on the ground have offered to take him out.’ ”—Rob McGuireFacing the blackmail threat, Erik Maund decides not to pay up or go to the police. Instead, he turns to Gil Peled, a security guy at the Maund family car dealership who seems qualified to solve sensitive problems.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 2: “Bill”
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify “I got this emotion inside of me, and I could feel what they were feeling. And I knew that this was the morning of these two people’s deaths.”—Matt GarrettBill Lanway met Holly Williams through mutual friends in the Nashville EDM scene. Soon after they started dating, he moved into her apartment.
‘The Problem With Erik,’ Episode 1: “Car Talk”
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify “He’s the most simple rich person you’ve ever met in your life. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was as happy as he could be just being what he was.”—Joe JosephIn early 2020, Erik Maund—an executive at one of the top Toyota dealerships in the country, founded by his grandfather—had a problem. A stranger was blackmailing him for having an extramarital affair.
The Problem With Erik: Privilege, Blackmail, and Murder for Hire in Austin
Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for audio stories and much more. Already a subscriber? Log in. Erik Maund had always lived the high life, as you might expect of a man whose surname had been blasted on TV ads for decades. By the time he was in his forties, he was an executive at Maund Automotive Group, a car sales business whose first dealership was opened by his grandfather Charles Maund.
Remembering the Reverend William Lawson, Civil Rights Icon and “Houston’s Pastor”
The Reverend William Lawson, a beloved preacher and community leader known as “Houston’s pastor” who led efforts to desegregate the city, died Tuesday at the age of 95. Lawson was judicious in the fight for social justice, his prudent approach evident from the start.
Chasing Thrills, Waves, and More on South Padre Island
One of my earliest vacation memories involves the dunes of Padre Island—the northern end, near Corpus Christi. When I was in sixth grade, my thrifty grandma mailed in enough empty Virginia Slims cigarette packs to purchase a promotional buy-one-get-one-free plane ticket, which we used to fly from Wisconsin to visit my Gulf Coast cousins.
The Sand Dunes of South Padre Island Have a Mind of Their Own
The Detours series celebrates lesser-known locales worth visiting across the state. On South Padre Island, change happens not just seasonally—from the crowded summer to the quiet winter—but every day, right under your feet. As you drive north through the resort town on State Park Road 100, the beach shops and fried-fish restaurants give way to one of the prettiest features of the island: the sand dunes.
Meet the Extreme Cavers Who Explore Texas's Underground
Just west of Interstate 35, in the region where the flat Texas coastal plain ends and the rolling Hill Country begins, ancient history rules us still. It was here, 20 million years ago, that the limestone began to shift and break in a stair-step pattern of fractures and form the Balcones Fault Zone, providing an infrastructure for life.
Go Underground: Seven Texas Caves to Explore
Although most of the state’s nearly seven thousand known caves are on private property, Texas does boast many popular cave systems that are easily accessible and open to the public, including these seven attractions and parks. If you develop more than a passing interest in going underground, join your nearest grotto (caving club). There are seven around the state; learn more on the Texas Speleological Association website.
Six Great Texas Hikes for Families With Kids
Nina Palmo knows disasters. Small ones, at least. Growing up in Finland and later in Michigan, she spent much of her leisure time with friends and extended family around one campfire or another, which meant experiencing all the highs and lows of nature’s whims: gorgeous sunsets and magical stargazing along with temperatures that drop and rain that dampens the fire. “Sometimes the mosquitoes were terrible,” she says.
Larry McMurtry's Bookstore Was Legendary. It Still Exceeded My Expectations.
Welcome to Indie Bookstore Week, Texas Monthly’s salute to the bookshops that have shaped the lives of our readers and writers. By 2002, when I first visited Larry McMurtry’s enormous bookstore, Booked Up, it was already legend. Its used, rare, and collectible books took up 30 percent of Archer City’s 66,518-square-feet of commercial space with rows upon rows of shelves. You couldn’t miss it.
Waiting in Line for Ken Paxton
While many expected a crowd to form outside the Capitol grounds’ black wrought-iron fences on the first morning of Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial, those who arrived first had to have been disappointed by the sparse predawn numbers. Perhaps they hadn’t needed to arrive at 2:45 a.m. after all. By 6 a.m., when the lawn sprinklers announced daybreak and spread extra mist into the humid air, a crowd of about a dozen reporters and cameramen started to gather at the south entrance.
Waiting in Line for Ken Paxton
While many expected a crowd to form outside the Capitol grounds’ black wrought-iron fences on the first morning of Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial, those who arrived first had to have been disappointed by the sparse predawn numbers. Perhaps they hadn’t needed to arrive at 2:45 a.m. after all.By 6 a.m., when the lawn sprinklers announced daybreak and spread extra mist into the humid air, a crowd of about a dozen reporters and cameramen started to gather at the south entrance.
A New Photo Exhibit Celebrates the “Cultura” of South Texas, From Sandra Cisneros to Selena
From a young age, San Antonio photographer Al Rendón felt a compulsion to photograph events. In 1969, as he watched the moon landing, the twelve-year-old took a photo of his television set. That same year, when he heard the film Viva Max! was shooting in downtown San Antonio, he snapped pictures of the actors (before security shooed him away).
When This Watchmaking Instructor Is in the Classroom, the Hours Pass Like Minutes
Working Life is a monthly column in which Texans talk about their jobs. Stanley McMahan, who is 62, lives in Blossom, near the North Texas town of Paris. He earned his watchmaking credentials in Switzerland and has taught horology at Paris Junior College since 2018. About five weeks after I got my first job changing batteries and selling watches on the retail side of a watch shop in Colorado, in 1983, one of the watchmakers had a heart attack and the other watchmaker left.
When Vertigo Melted My Brain
It started when I was carrying a laundry basket from the dryer to the couch. Time began to slow, thickening like cooling wax. A pounding heartbeat accompanied a heaviness in my chest and a weakness in my legs. Next, what felt like invisible strings were pulling me down and sewing me to the wooden floor—my feet, then my hips, then my hands. Not a big deal, I thought. As a mother of two, I’d long relied on adrenaline to ride out the effects of hypervigilant, shallow sleep.
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