Texas has an identity even if it’s primarily mythical … It’s arrogant, proud and overtly masculine. Rich Hall’s You Can Go to Hell … I’m Going to Texas, BBC 2013
The 72 ounce steak challenge is a uniquely Texan experience. ibid.
Texas is and always will be the home of the cowboy. ibid.
Texas has a lot of ranches. It also has a lot of pseudo ranches. ibid.
The history of Texas is almost entirely male dominated. ibid.
I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans. John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likeable. In three days no one could stand him. Joseph Heller, Catch-22
You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans. George Carlin
The only things that I can tell you is that every case I have reviewed I have been comfortable with the innocence or guilt of the person that I’ve looked at. I do not believe we’ve put a guilty ... I mean innocent person to death in the state of Texas. George W Bush
I was raised in the West. The West of Texas. It’s pretty close to California. In more ways than Washington DC is close to California. George W Bush
It’s a contest they say of stamina but it’s who can maintain their sanity the longest. Hands on a Hard Body, 1997
These people stand beside the truck with their hand on it and the last one to take their hand off wins the truck. ibid.
The mosquitoes started biting me. ibid.
Mystical kind of experience. ibid.
I’m going to be here till I pass out. ibid.
I know the Lord was giving her the strength during that time. ibid.
He was hearing voices or something. ibid.
It’s going to go down to whoever loses their mind. ibid.
Texans are proud Texas was once its own nation. As the second biggest state in the union its enormous size can swallow both Britain and France combined. Texas is a huge compound of power and wealth with the eleventh largest economy in the world. It’s a frontier state with a frontier history and mentality. Even today its horizons are limitless. Christopher Hitchens, America Supersized 2004
In Texas it’s better to be a drug-store cowboy than no cowboy at all. ibid.
‘They spent a hundred million renovating the football stadium.’ ibid. Richard Linklater
In recent years a silent revolution has taken place: we thought the age of fossil fuels was coming to an end … The United States firmly back on the map as an oil and gas producing super-power. Thanks to the shale revolution … has opened up a huge reservoir of fossil energy. Shale Cowboys: Fracking Under Trump, VPRO 2017
A few men in Texas are turning the energy supply industry on its head. ibid.
It looks as though fracking heralds a golden future for the American energy market. But there are major differences of opinion about the safety of the technique. It is said to pose several dangers to the environment: to cause earthquakes, and to contaminate the underground fresh-water reserves. ibid.
Texas has paid 101 men and women who were wrongfully sent to prison $93.6 million over the past 25 years, state data shows. The tab stands to grow as those wrongfully imprisoned individuals age and more people join the list.
Freed after a decade on Texas death row for a murder he says he didn’t commit, Alfred Dewayne Brown thinks he’s entitled to compensation from the state, but Comptroller Glenn Hegar is saying no.
Although a Dallas County district judge decided he was innocent eight years ago, Ben Spencer remains behind bars for a 1987 aggravated robbery he insists he did not commit. The Texas Tribune article 13 August 2016, ‘How Michael Morton’s Wrongful Conviction Has Brought Others To Justice’
On Monday July 13th [2015: at 8:58 a.m. jailers went to cell 95 and observed Miss Bland hanging from the privacy partition in her cell. Say Her Name: The Life & Death of Sandra Bland ***** HBO/Sky Documentaries 2020
Sandra Bland Rest In Power. Arrested for Traffic Violation: Killed in Police Custody. ibid. protest banner
‘You just slammed me head into the ground. Don’t you even care about that?’ ibid. Bland arrest filmed after rozzers’ assault
Cell 95: ‘Where she was didn’t have cameras … You have a thirty-gallon trash can in the inmates’ cell that gives her access to a plastic bag. If she was in as much pain as she said she was in, I just don’t see how she could have tied that perfect – very perfect – noose.’ ibid. family
‘Step out or I will remove you … I’m gonna yank you outta here … You are under arrest … I’m gonna drag you outta there.’ ibid.
‘That man [arresting rozzer] slapped her. You can hear it.’ ibid. lawyer
‘You are about to break my wrist! Can you stop?’ ibid. on arrest
‘The destruction of evidence on this family when they [rozzers know they [family] were about to bury her. You don’t release a body if there’s more tests that you need on that body.’ ibid. lawyer
‘I don’t think there’s ever been an issue like this.’ ibid. mother
‘There are uneducated people who are hell-bent on self-extermination. I am not one of them. I am into building up my kings and queens. So for me, Black Lives Matter. ibid. Sandra’s activism
‘I am here to change history.’ ibid.
‘Say Her Name!’ ibid.
‘She had scrapes on her upper right side of her back.’ ibid. Autopsy
‘Here is a guy who should clearly have been charged with assault. Battery … ’ ibid.
Trooper Encinia is fired. The Grand Jury begins to investigate the Walter Country Jail. ibid. caption
‘Evidence of deep bruising … someone has put their knee into her back.’ ibid. autopsy
‘We know that someone’s spirit can be broken.’ ibid. autopsy
‘Everyone was acquitted of wrong doing.’ ibid. television news
‘The jail were filled out in a way that should not have been filled out. They were turned in with false information.’ ibid. rozzer’s apologist’s admission
‘She was hung from a trash-bag. Well, the problem with that trash-bag is is that it didn’t have her fingerprints on it … In fact it didn’t have her DNA on it.’ ibid. lawyer
The family settles for $1.9 million and a prison or jail reform and police de-escalation training. ibid. Caption
Police officers around the country you need to hear my voice – Tell the Fricking’ Truth. ibid. Charles Witherspoon, ex-rozzer
‘No, we didn’t go back there and tie a bag around her neck, but it is our responsibility to take care of her. ibid. R G Smith, sheriff
The Sandra Black Act is now law in Texas, mandating state-wide reforms to increase prison inmate safety. Police de-escalation training was removed from the bill. ibid. caption
The Calder Fields are just an enigma. Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields s1e1: Nobody Sees Anything, woman, Netflix 2022
It’s a place where bad things happen. ibid.
Since 1983 Galveston County has an unusually large number of mysterious disappearances. ibid. US news
Just yards off this busy highway, abducted girls and women have been killed and dumped. ibid. UK news
The Calder Road killings have haunted this part of Texas for a really long time … Why are so many women dying around here? … These cases are old. ibid. author
Laura Miller, age 16, disappeared 10 September 1984, League City, Texas … remains discovered 2 February 1986. ibid. caption
Heidi Fye: Eleven months before Laura Miller disappeared. ibid.
The discovery of her [Heidi] remains in Calder Field was pretty horrific. ibid. family
Jane Doe, age unknown, remains discovered 2 February 1986. ibid. caption
These killings of young women had been going on as far back as 1971. ibid. man
Maria Johnson & Debbie Ackerman: They were 15 when they disappeared in November of 1971. ibid. woman
By the time they disappeared there had already been other mysterious disappearances. ibid.
In the past 6 months, 7 teenage girls and young women aged 13 to 21 have been found murdered in the vicinity of Houston, Texas. ibid. black-n-white TV news
Clyde Hedrick was attracted to Houston in the 70s and 80s by the construction boom … ibid. Lise
Clyde Hedrick had been involved in the mysterious death of a woman named Ellen Beason. ibid.
Another body is found on the same piece of land. ibid.