Skip Hollandsworth | |
---|---|
Born | Walter Ned Hollandsworth Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States |
Occupation | Journalist, screenwriter |
Period | 1981–present |
Walter Ned "Skip" Hollandsworth is an American writer, journalist, screenwriter, and executive editor for Texas Monthly magazine. In 2010, he won the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing from the American Society of Magazine Editors, for "Still Life", the story of John McClamrock. His true crime history, The Midnight Assassin , about a series of murders attributed to the Servant Girl Annihilator that took place in Austin, Texas, in 1885, was published in April 2016 by Henry Holt and Company. [1]
Hollandsworth co-wrote the Richard Linklater movie Bernie (2011), a low-budget, black comedy film based on his own 1998 article in Texas Monthly, titled "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas". Starring Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Shirley MacLaine, the film depicts the 1996 murder of an 82-year-old woman, Marjorie Nugent, in Carthage, Texas, by her 39-year-old companion, [2] Bernhardt "Bernie" Tiede.
Hollandsworth was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina. [3] [ unreliable source? ] He is the son of the late [4] Reverend Walter Ned Hollandsworth, [5] a Presbyterian minister, [6] and Peggy Hollandsworth. [4] His siblings are older sister Cathy, a doctor, and younger sister Laura, a minister. [6]
Hollandsworth grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, where his father was the pastor at Meadowthorpe Presbyterian Church from December 1961, to December 1968. When he was eleven years old, Hollandsworth moved with his family to Texas, settling in Wichita Falls in December 1968, [7] where his father served as pastor of Fain Memorial Presbyterian Church. [6]
Hollandsworth's father, uncles and grandfather graduated from the Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. [8] His family assumed that he, too, would become a Presbyterian minister, but Hollandsworth, a self-described "scamp," wrote in Texas Monthly back in 1985, that, "As minister's children, we could not help but be fascinated yet repelled by church ways." [6]
From an early age, Hollandsworth became equally fascinated with North Texas State Hospital, an in-patient mental health facility owned by the state of Texas, located in Wichita Falls, which he described as "a small, starkly normal city of about 100,000 people." In the June 2010 issue of Texas Monthly, Hollandsworth wrote about riding past the state hospital in the back of a pickup truck with his friends on Friday nights, looking for patients. "For us, the state hospital, which nearly everyone referred to as LSU, or Lakeside University, because it was located across from Lake Wichita, was our real-life haunted house. The fact that two thousand adults were being treated for 'insanity' out in those buildings, just past the city limits sign, simply tortured our imaginations." [9] As he became a teenager, he kept returning to the hospital, volunteering in different departments, even playing his cello for some of the patients, drawn "for reasons I couldn't then explain" to what he described as this "community of odd souls who had never been able to make it on the outside." [10] Hollandsworth wrote in Texas Monthly that he eventually realized it was those trips to the state hospital that ultimately led him into journalism:
Hollandsworth graduated from Texas Christian University in 1979, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. [12]
Hollandsworth began his career as the sports reporter for the Texas Christian University school newspaper, The Daily Skiff, covering the football team. In a September 2011 interview, Hollandsworth commented that he "found the cheerleaders far more interesting than the games themselves ..." During one game, Hollandsworth said, "a cheerleader ran onto the field during a timeout to do a cheer, and I watched, barely able to breathe, as the last of the late afternoon sun caught her blonde hair and smiling face, illuminating her like perfectly placed museum lights illuminate a painting." [13]
After graduating from Texas Christian University, Hollandsworth worked as a reporter and columnist for newspapers in Dallas. [14] In 1981 he worked as a sports reporter for the Dallas Times Herald . [15] He joined Texas Monthly magazine in 1989. He also has worked as a television producer and documentary filmmaker. [14]
Hollandsworth's true crime writing has been recognized by Byliner, Longform [16] and Best American Crime Writing. [17]
Hollandsworth was interviewed for the podcast Criminal in their episode "Cowboy Bob" about the bank robber Peggy Jo Tallas. [18]
Hollandsworth has written numerous celebrity profiles for Texas Monthly , Glamour , Women's Health and others. His subjects have included Farrah Fawcett, [19] Kate Winslet, [20] Brooklyn Decker, [21] Cher, [22] Sandra Bullock, [23] Kelly Clarkson, [24] Tommy Lee Jones, [25] Troy Aikman, [26] and Lou Diamond Phillips. [27]
A 2010 press release by North Lake College stated that Hollandsworth "regularly works as a ghost writer, producing books and articles for celebrities and other newsmakers. [28] Jan Miller, who, in 1998, represented some of Hollandsworth's ghostwriting projects, told the Dallas Business Journal that she "retains ghostwriters like Skip Hollandsworth of Texas Monthly to assist nervous first-timers." [29]
According to Suzanne Bruring, who worked for Hollandsworth as a transcriptionist from 1998 to 2003, Hollandsworth provided "verbiage as (ghost) author for a Dr. Phil book". [30]
After reading Hollandsworth's Texas Monthly article in January 1998, director Richard Linklater contacted Hollandsworth with an interest in adapting the article as a film and also to hire Hollandsworth to co-write the screenplay. Bernie made its world premiere on June 16, 2011, at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival. [31] The low-budget, independent film opened at theaters in April 2012, and has since earned a score of 92% on the user review aggregator and a 7.6 out of 10 on the average rating by critics compiler at Rotten Tomatoes. [32] Bernie grossed a modest $9,156,000. [33]
Regarding the writing of Bernie, Hollandsworth told Culture Map Houston: "When I realized I was going to get my name on this movie – when I realized, "Hey, I'm a screenwriter!" – I began writing these scenes that I thought were fantastic. My creative side was coming out. But whenever I did that, Rick would ask – in that gentle, loving way of his – "Did that really happen?" And when I said it didn't, he'd say, "Hell, no." [34]
Hollandsworth's articles in Texas Monthly have launched three made-for-television movies, and two proposed films: The CBS telepics The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery [35] and Suburban Madness ; [36] the 1997 NBC telepic Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder [37] (for distribution outside the United States, the DVD was titled Swearing Allegiance ); The Goree Girls, a proposed movie set in the 1940s about several women in a Texas prison who form a country-western band, [38] and Still Life, a proposed film based on the Texas Monthly non-fiction article of the same name written by Hollandsworth in 2009, about John McClamrock and his mother Ann. [39]
The Midnight Assassin, which was named a New York Times bestseller in May 2016, is a history of Austin, Texas in the year 1885 when a brutal but brilliant serial killer went on a rampage, ritualistically slaughtering seven women over the course of twelve months, and setting off a citywide panic. Three years later, when a man nicknamed Jack the Ripper carried out a similar series of killings in the Whitechapel district of London, England, Scotland Yard detectives speculated that he was the Austin killer who had traveled overseas to continue to carry out his "diabolical work." The New York Times described The Midnight Assassin as "true crime of high quality," "smart and restrained" and "chilling." [40] In its review, the Wall Street Journal called the book a "thoroughly researched, excitingly written history" and an "absorbing work." [41]
Hollandsworth has received the following journalism awards: [42]
Hollandsworth has been a finalist four times for the National Magazine Awards. [42] His work has been included in such publications as Best American Crime Writing and Best American Magazine Writing.
Carthage is a city and the county seat of Panola County, Texas, United States. This city is situated in deep East Texas, 20 miles west of the Louisiana state line. Its population was 6,569 at the 2020 census.
Doris Elizabeth Angleton was an American socialite and murder victim. Her husband, Robert Angleton, had been accused of planning the crime. His brother, Roger Nicholas Angleton, was arrested in possession of a contract for a murder in exchange for $100,000 per year for ten years, in addition to cassettes containing audio recordings purportedly of conversations between himself and Robert planning the murder of a woman named Doris in exchange for money. Roger killed himself in custody, after writing a suicide note in which he admitted to killing his sister-in-law and claimed his brother had no involvement.
Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films, Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).
Christopher Barton Adkisson was an American professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Chris Von Erich of the Von Erich family.
Juanita Dale Slusher, better known by her stage name Candy Barr, was an American stripper, burlesque dancer, actress, and adult model in men's magazines of the mid-20th century.
The Servant Girl Annihilator, also known as the Austin Axe Murderer and the Midnight Assassin, was an unidentified American serial killer who preyed upon the city of Austin, Texas, between 1884 and 1885. The sobriquet originated with the writer O. Henry. The series of eight axe murders were referred to by contemporary sources as the Servant Girl Murders.
Charles Frederick Albright also known as the Eyeball Killer, was an American murderer and suspected serial killer from Texas who was convicted of killing one woman and suspected of killing two others in 1991. He was incarcerated in the John Montford Psychiatric Unit in Lubbock, Texas.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas is a teaching hospital and tertiary care facility in the United States, located in the Vickery Meadow area of Dallas, Texas. It is the flagship institution of 29 hospitals in Texas Health Resources, the largest healthcare system in North Texas and one of the largest in the United States. The hospital, which opened in 1966, has 875 beds and around 1,200 physicians. The hospital is the largest business within Vickery Meadow. In 2008, the hospital implemented a program in which critical care physician specialists are available to patients in the medical and surgical intensive care units 24 hours a day, eliminating ventilator-associated pneumonia, central line infections and pressure ulcers. The hospital has maintained an active internal medicine residency training program since 1977, and hosts rotating medical students from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder is a 1997 American made-for-television drama film based on the real life murder of Adrianne Jones by Diane Zamora in Texas. The film stars Holly Marie Combs, David Lipper, Cassidy Rae, Dee Wallace, Gary Grubbs, Kurt Fuller, and Joanna Garcia. The film was adapted from "The Killer Cadets", an article in Texas Monthly by Skip Hollandsworth, and aired on NBC on February 10, 1997.
John McClamrock was a Dallas high school American football player who received media attention and sympathy from many Americans after an accident that left him with near-total paralysis in 1973.
The Dallas County District Attorney is the elected, or appointed by the Texas Governor in the event of a vacancy, district attorney (DA) of Dallas County, Texas. Currently, this position is held by John Creuzot, a Democrat who defeated Faith Johnson, appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, after Susan Hawk resigned in 2016. The office prosecutes offenses under Texas state law classified as felonies, Class A and B misdemeanors, appeals of Class C misdemeanors, and Class C misdemeanors filed in the Justice of the Peace courts, generally by non-municipal police agencies..
Bernie is a 2011 American biographical black comedy crime film directed by Richard Linklater, and written by Linklater and Skip Hollandsworth. The film stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey. It is based on Hollandsworth's January 1998 article, "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas", published in Texas Monthly magazine. It explores the 1996 murder of 81-year-old millionaire Marjorie Nugent (MacLaine) in Carthage, Texas, by her 39-year-old companion, Bernhardt "Bernie" Tiede (Black).
Bernhardt Tiede II is an American mortician who was convicted of the November 19, 1996 murder of his companion, wealthy 81-year-old widow Marjorie "Marge" Nugent, in Carthage, Texas. He was 38 at the time of the murder.
The Goree All Girl String Band, popularly known as The Goree Girls, was a band of eight female prisoners of the Goree Unit which performed in the 1940s. It was one of the first all female country and western bands in the United States.
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Sandra Adair is an American film editor who has worked with director Richard Linklater since 1993.
Lisa Blue Baron is an American trial lawyer. Previously a psychologist, she worked in the field for nearly a decade before becoming a jury consultant and graduating from law school. She then became an assistant district attorney in Dallas County, Texas before joining the Baron & Budd law firm. Following her time with Baron & Budd, she started her own firm, Baron and Blue, and was elected President of the American Association for Justice in 2014. Blue is also a fundraiser for the Democratic Party and a philanthropist through the Baron and Blue Foundation.
Yvonne Gonzalez is a former school superintendent, serving in that capacity in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) in 1997 as well as in Santa Fe Public Schools from 1994 to 1996. She also served as interim superintendent of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in 1994. Her career in education ended after a conviction in federal court for embezzling money from DISD.
The Bear is an American production company and creative studio based in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2007 by directors Ben Steinbauer and Berndt Mader. The company has produced feature films and narrative and documentary short films.
Carla Jan Walker was an American homicide victim abducted from a bowling alley parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas on February 17, 1974. Her body was found three days later in a drainage ditch just 30 minutes south of Fort Worth.
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