0:00

This podcast is not sponsored by . It

0:02

does not reflect the views of the institutions

0:04

that employ us . It is solely our thoughts

0:06

and ideas , based upon our professional training

0:09

and study of the past .

0:13

Welcome to Talking Texas History , the

0:15

podcast that explores Texas history

0:18

before and beyond the Alamo

0:20

. Not only will we talk Texas

0:22

history , we'll visit with folks who teach

0:24

it , write it , support it , and

0:27

with some who've made it and , of course , all

0:29

of us who live it and love it . Welcome

0:35

to another edition of Talking Texas

0:37

History .

0:37

I'm Gene Pruice . I'm Scott Soseby . Gene

0:40

, it looks like and sounds like that

0:42

this will be our second in

0:44

a row of murder in Mayhem in West

0:46

Texas as we do this . So tell

0:49

everybody who we have with us today .

0:51

Well , we have Christina Stevens , who

0:54

is we've known for a while

0:57

, and

0:59

, Christina , tell everybody a little

1:02

bit about yourself , if they haven't already

1:04

met you who you are , what you

1:06

do , where you're from . All that good

1:08

stuff .

1:10

All that good stuff , gene , you know me since

1:12

like what ? 2006

1:14

? Yeah , it

1:17

goes back all the way to 2006 with the

1:19

Mallet Ranch project . So

1:21

, yeah , it has been quite a while . So

1:25

hello everybody , thank

1:28

you for joining in on this podcast . A

1:31

little bit about me I

1:34

have two master's degrees from Texas Tech

1:36

University and

1:38

one was supposed to be my PhD in

1:40

environmental toxicology and then I decided

1:43

I could not stand that professor

1:45

for

1:47

working under him for another four

1:50

or five years , so I walked

1:52

away with the second masters and

1:55

I went in

1:57

heavily into nonprofit

1:59

work where

2:01

I was starting and founding

2:03

and guiding and leading nonprofits

2:05

. Then

2:09

I became a professional photographer

2:11

through actually through my

2:13

Mallet Ranch work , which started back

2:16

in 2006 , and

2:18

still a professional photographer today

2:20

, and

2:23

my work part

2:25

of it . I actually wound

2:28

up working for a nonprofit

2:30

foundation in

2:32

Ford County , texas , where

2:35

I was a wildlife biologist for eight years

2:38

and other than

2:40

my boss at that time . That

2:43

was probably the best experience I could

2:45

have ever had , because it gave

2:48

me the ability to biologically

2:52

monitor wildlife

2:55

from all angles for an eight

2:57

year period . So it was kind

2:59

of like I was monitoring . I

3:01

wasn't just like there for a February

3:04

. I was able to do it like

3:06

for eight February's and

3:10

I still have tons of research that I've got to figure

3:12

out . What I'm going to do with tons of

3:14

photos and what I'm going to do with those

3:16

I have no idea yet . And

3:19

right now I'm working for the USDA

3:21

and

3:25

my home office is actually

3:27

in Brownfield and

3:31

I'm a natural resources specialist for

3:33

USDA NRCS , and

3:37

probably my most significant achievement

3:39

is me being the president

3:41

of the National

3:43

Intel Booker Mountain Dog Association

3:45

. This is a national organization

3:48

and

3:50

I came on board

3:52

as president where it

3:55

had to lead the organization through

3:58

organizational change management , and

4:02

I'm very proud of that accomplishment

4:04

. There are probably more than you wanted to

4:06

know , but

4:08

then , at the same time , I'm also an author of the book

4:10

that we're here to talk about today .

4:12

That is correct . And you know , first

4:14

off president of any national organization

4:17

biological stuff

4:19

in USDA that is so far

4:21

above Jean and my pay grade I'm . You know we're

4:24

just in awe about the natural Don't

4:26

even let us join national organizations , much less

4:28

be a president one . So I

4:30

mean , that's how it goes . But we are here to talk

4:32

about a book you have coming out . It's out , it's

4:35

just out , brand new out from Texas A&M

4:37

press , titled Bound in Silence

4:39

. An unsolved murder in a small Texas town

4:41

Takes place in Littlefield

4:43

, texas 1943 , which we all know

4:46

is a lot of cotton , wayland

4:48

Jennings hometown . And then , other

4:50

than that , tell us about Littlefield and a little bit

4:52

about the book .

4:53

You know Littlefield , texas it

4:55

grew out of . You know

4:58

the vast , wide open spaces

5:00

of what was the line OS to

5:02

Cotto . It really

5:04

came into its own when the

5:07

train system finally came through and

5:09

, if I am remembering my history correctly

5:12

, I think it was part of

5:14

the XIT ranch . I'm

5:17

not sure if I'm remembering that correctly

5:20

.

5:21

You are correct , it was part of that until George Littlefield

5:23

bought part of the land

5:25

.

5:26

And so , you know , littlefield just

5:28

sprang up and

5:30

it , you know , as with any town

5:32

, small town in this part of Texas

5:35

, it grew and it grew

5:37

. And then all of a sudden , you

5:39

know , with the way life

5:42

is with many people , you

5:44

know , industry moves

5:46

, career shifts , they

5:49

, kids don't want to stay in small communities

5:51

anymore , people don't want to stay in small

5:54

communities anymore . So

5:56

the town is kind of really dying

5:59

. I mean , you have to imagine , in

6:01

1943 , the

6:03

Main Street of Littlefield

6:05

, every single building

6:08

on Main Street had some

6:10

viable open business

6:13

, whether it was bank , restaurant

6:15

, you

6:17

know , clothing store , pharmacy . And

6:20

now you drive down Main

6:22

Street and Littlefield and it's just

6:24

, it is really depressing , it

6:26

really is , because so

6:29

many of those great stores they're

6:31

no longer there anymore because

6:34

the economy just could not sustain

6:36

those built those businesses .

6:39

Tell us what happened on the morning

6:42

of October 26

6:44

, 1943 . What

6:46

did the police find ?

6:49

So what the police actually

6:51

discovered was after

6:54

you

6:58

had an older lady that

7:00

was getting ready for her day . She

7:02

was walking out to her car and

7:04

all of a sudden she

7:06

heard two little girls running and screaming

7:09

towards her . That

7:11

couple went into the house

7:13

and actually took the youngest

7:15

daughter back into the house with them , and

7:19

what that couple discovered

7:21

was the bound and

7:23

beaten bodies of

7:25

Dr Roy Hunt and May Hunt

7:27

, and what

7:30

ensued was , before

7:32

even the crime scene

7:34

was secured you

7:38

probably had close to over

7:40

30 someone people

7:42

walk through that house just so that

7:44

they could get a glimpse

7:46

of the bodies , because

7:49

it was a small town . Rumor

7:51

mill flew like crazy

7:53

and

7:56

you probably had people picking up the phone

7:58

, you probably had people running

8:00

down the street , whatever

8:03

. And so as

8:07

the morning progressed , you

8:10

had , like the

8:12

DA friend plain view show

8:15

up . You had sheriff's deputies

8:17

, you had

8:19

the Texas Rangers all

8:22

show up in this tiny little

8:25

house and trying

8:27

to figure out what had happened . And

8:30

what had happened was the

8:32

Dr Roy had actually

8:35

had been slightly beaten , his

8:38

jaw had been bashed in and he

8:40

had been shot point-blank range in

8:42

the middle of his head and

8:46

May had also been severely

8:48

beaten . And

8:51

what ensued was

8:53

the person , the

8:56

killer , actually tying them separately

8:59

up , tying

9:01

them separately up , and then they were both

9:03

tied to each other and

9:06

then in a weird assortment of

9:08

, I mean , it was like from lamp

9:10

cords to rope to fishing line

9:12

, and then you

9:15

had panties laid

9:17

over both of them . And

9:21

so this is what kind

9:23

of ensued and started this whole

9:26

process of this

9:28

small town being rocked in

9:31

October 26 , 1943

9:33

, by this heinous double

9:36

murder . But

9:38

it really wasn't the first murder that actually

9:40

happened in

9:43

Littlefield , it was just the most

9:45

. It was the one that grabbed nationwide

9:48

attention at that time .

9:51

It's a bizarre scene and

9:53

it's a kind of to your mind . Whoever did

9:56

it , they took some time doing it , it

9:58

wasn't just a spur of the moment thing and almost

10:01

sounds like I don't know , a crime of passion

10:03

of some kind . I mean at least extreme

10:05

anger . But

10:08

so tell us about Roy and May

10:10

Hunt . Who were they and

10:12

what did they do in Littlefield and why is that

10:14

significant to the story ?

10:17

So Roy

10:19

was actually . He

10:21

grew up in Lubbock and his

10:24

family was the

10:26

George M Hunt's and

10:28

George M Hunt actually

10:30

found it , helped found Esticado

10:33

and then the Hunt

10:35

. He actually moved from Esticado

10:38

over to Lubbock

10:40

and actually it was one of the founders early

10:42

founders of Lubbock and

10:45

he was Roy's

10:47

grandfather . And so

10:50

Roy grew up , went to Lubbock

10:52

High School , he

10:55

eventually went to

10:57

University

10:59

of Texas in Austin and

11:01

then he transferred to become a doctor

11:03

in Galveston

11:06

. May Hunt herself

11:08

and I really I struggled for

11:11

years trying

11:13

to get as much research as I could on her

11:15

, but she

11:17

came from , she grew up in

11:19

Houston and she graduated

11:21

from high school and then she

11:23

decided she wanted to become a nurse and

11:28

when Roy transferred from Galveston

11:30

to

11:33

Jeff Davis Hospital they're in

11:35

Houston to do his internship

11:38

and his residency . That's

11:40

when they met and

11:42

they later married and

11:45

they moved to Littlefield

11:47

because Roy had been offered

11:49

a partnership

11:51

in the Littlefield Hospital

11:53

with Dr Duke and

11:58

that's kind of how they came

12:01

to Littlefield when

12:03

so like when you even think about

12:05

in today's society of

12:07

how they weren't like big celebrities

12:10

, these were just regular

12:13

small town people trying to

12:15

raise their family because

12:17

they had their first daughter , joanne , and

12:20

then along came Jane , and

12:24

when you

12:27

think , at least when I think about

12:29

Littlefield , about especially

12:31

in the 1940s , I look

12:33

at it as being a very quintessential

12:35

town , to

12:38

where everybody knew everybody's name , everybody

12:40

knew everybody's phone number , everybody

12:44

knew everybody , and

12:48

it was that really small town atmosphere

12:51

. But

12:54

there was like probably there

12:59

was nothing really remarkable

13:02

about Roy or May

13:05

. It was just that they were two people

13:08

living their lives trying

13:10

to raise their families or

13:12

trying to raise their family there

13:14

in Littlefield at that time .

13:17

Well , kristina , was there any indication that

13:19

somebody may have been out to get them ? I

13:22

mean to be honest , this wasn't the first time

13:24

that somebody tried to kill the good Doctor

13:27

Hunt , was it ?

13:29

I know it wasn't . So

13:31

this is where the story

13:34

takes a really interesting turn . It

13:37

was a year before I think

13:40

it was about 18 months earlier , which would have been

13:42

May of 1942 , doctor

13:45

Hunt was actually almost

13:48

murdered on the outskirts of Littlefield

13:51

. And

13:54

what happened was

13:56

he turned around and accused another

13:58

Doctor of this

14:00

attempted murder , and

14:02

that Doctor was actually from Cameron

14:04

, texas . So

14:08

there is still , even when

14:10

I think about this and going back

14:12

to my research , there

14:17

is still a lot of speculation on

14:21

. You know , did this really happen

14:23

? I mean , did Newton actually

14:25

shoot him or

14:28

was it somebody else ? And

14:32

Doctor Newton ? Eventually he was tried

14:34

like three different

14:36

times and then Doctor Newton

14:39

was finally convicted of attempted

14:41

the attempted murder of Roy

14:43

, even after Roy had been

14:46

killed . So

14:49

that's

14:52

where this starts really getting a

14:54

deeper mystery into a mystery

14:56

, because you're like , okay , what is going on

14:58

here , what I

15:01

mean ? You have to believe the Doctor , but

15:03

at the same time , was

15:06

he actually telling the truth ?

15:08

Well , it was all wrapped up in a love

15:10

affair , right ? That's

15:14

the background story .

15:16

That's the background story . But

15:18

the only background story

15:20

that I found was the fact that

15:22

at one time when Doctor Hunt

15:25

was there at Jeff Davis

15:27

, he had dated

15:29

Doctor Newton's

15:32

wife at that time

15:34

and

15:36

that was really the only connection

15:38

there was . You know , rumors

15:41

and speculation they can

15:43

. You know people , they can run

15:45

rampage . We all can say

15:48

, oh well , you know

15:51

, have

15:53

our own thought processes , our own

15:55

. You know , yeah , this is probably what

15:57

happened . But it's kind of like when

16:00

it boiled down to you , it was still all

16:02

speculation here , say , and

16:05

there was never really any concrete

16:07

evidence . And that's what

16:09

I really tried to present in this book

16:11

was the fact that all of this

16:14

happened but in the end

16:16

there was really no concrete evidence , especially

16:18

of Doctor Newton shooting

16:20

Roy in 1942 .

16:24

Well , you've done a lot of research

16:26

. What do you think ? I mean , do

16:29

you think that that was that

16:31

this Doctor Newton killed him , or was it somebody

16:33

else ?

16:35

It was somebody else .

16:36

I think it was somebody else . So when the police

16:38

got there Little Pills , in small town , even once

16:40

, then you know I'm sure it was a did

16:42

they have a police department or was it a sheriff's department

16:45

? But they began investigating . What

16:47

did they find ? Did they do a good job ? Can

16:50

you blame some of them ? Maybe what happened on

16:52

the police afterwards ?

16:54

Oh , yes , most definitely . So

16:57

you know , this is where

16:59

the story gets become . It becomes even

17:01

more stranger . So

17:04

they zeroed in on

17:06

another suspect , on a prime suspect

17:08

. Were they actual murderers themselves in

17:12

Galveston , texas , like

17:14

less than 48 hours later ? And

17:18

when you even start trying to put

17:20

those pieces together , it's

17:23

kind of those

17:25

pieces they don't match

17:28

to make a picture , they

17:30

don't , they don't mesh

17:33

, and there's still . There's like

17:35

there's a hole here or there's a hole here

17:37

, and there was never any

17:39

real clear indication

17:43

on why the Texas Rangers zeroed

17:45

in on this one suspect . Two

17:48

days later , I let's

17:50

see . There was Littlefield , plainview

17:52

, lamisa and

17:56

Nolan County . He went to trial four

17:58

times for the murder of Roy . He

18:01

was always convicted but at

18:03

the same time it was always overturned

18:05

at the appeals process

18:08

due

18:10

to you know what the lower

18:12

court presented in court

18:14

for

18:16

the evidence and

18:19

to bring this case to trial .

18:20

This guy Thompson Wright , I think was the

18:23

person who kind

18:26

of gets all the blame . He was

18:28

a career criminal , wasn't he ? He

18:31

died in committing

18:33

crimes eventually , right ? So

18:36

maybe he was just suspicious

18:38

.

18:40

So his name was Jim Thomas and

18:42

you

18:44

know , like

18:47

anybody back then I guess

18:50

, he was always trying to find a way to make a quick

18:52

buck . So he was involved

18:54

in a couple of bank robberies . He

18:59

was involved in doing some

19:02

white capping

19:04

type enterprise stuff in

19:07

Waco . But

19:11

they never ever came out and

19:13

said in all of my research

19:15

it was kind of like Jim

19:18

Thomas , he never really killed anybody . I

19:20

mean , honestly , there

19:23

was never a smoking gun or

19:25

anything that was directed

19:27

right at Jim Thomas . And

19:30

yes , he did die . He

19:34

was shot himself in Durant

19:36

Oklahoma years

19:39

later and

19:42

once that happened it

19:44

was kind of like , oh well , we're just

19:46

closing the case completely on the hunt because

19:49

we still believe that Jim Thomas did

19:51

this . And

19:53

I will tell you right now

19:55

. The really

19:58

the amazing part

20:00

of this whole story is how

20:02

my book became published

20:04

. I sent this off . I was scared

20:06

to death because I'm like nobody

20:09

. I was scared of putting my

20:12

work out there . I don't

20:14

know how it was going to be received . I still don't

20:16

know how it's going to be received , but

20:20

I sent it off to three publishers and

20:22

Stony Creek Publishing came back and

20:24

Lauren Steffi he

20:27

asked me the one question

20:29

. He said I read through the book and

20:32

he said do you think Jim Thomas did

20:34

it ? And I was like , came

20:36

back and I said no , I don't . And

20:38

he said if you will do

20:41

this and do this and then if you will

20:43

give your own thoughts of

20:46

what you think actually happened to

20:49

this

20:51

whole case , he said I

20:53

want to publish the book . So I'm

20:55

extremely grateful for that . But

20:58

the other thing that I want to

21:00

point out about what

21:02

makes this book so spectacular

21:05

, or this story so spectacular

21:08

and so grippy , is the

21:10

fact that Joanne Hunt she

21:12

was five years old , she was the

21:14

only one who saw the actual

21:17

murderer

21:20

in her parents'

21:22

house and

21:25

Joanne basically

21:27

, yeah , the cops tried to talk

21:29

to her , the sheriff at that time , he

21:32

tried , but he didn't really talk to

21:34

her . And then after

21:37

she was transported to

21:39

Vernon Texas , she

21:41

was bound to silence for

21:43

70 years and

21:46

she never talked to anybody about her story

21:48

. She never even talked to her

21:51

sister , jane , about

21:53

her story , about what happened

21:55

in that house that night . That

21:59

is the most significant part of this , because

22:01

I have her story . Nobody

22:03

else has the story .

22:05

That's unbelievable , that's amazing . So

22:07

sounds like the police , the Texas Rangers , like

22:10

they often do , zeroed in on one

22:12

person . Did they ever

22:14

think about any other suspects ? Was there anybody

22:17

else ever on the radar for this ? They

22:19

just it's the one , he's the only one , nobody

22:21

else . And you're working

22:23

at this . Would you come up with anybody

22:25

else that may have done it ?

22:28

Okay . So my thing is , what

22:31

I came up with it was somebody

22:33

that knows them , that

22:35

knew them at

22:38

that time and it knew them intimately

22:40

, that knew the layout of the house

22:42

and

22:45

the true victim was

22:47

never the true

22:49

. The actual

22:51

victim was never supposed to be Roy

22:54

. May was always May

22:56

because if

22:58

you remember , scott , what you said at

23:01

the very beginning of this podcast

23:03

about the passion and

23:05

all of that , if you

23:07

look at the facts and you look

23:09

at the prime scene photos and

23:12

you put all those pieces

23:14

together , may

23:16

was always the victim . She

23:19

was the target . It was never

23:21

about Roy , wow .

23:24

Who could that have been ? Was it ? We're talking about

23:26

another love triangle , perhaps , or

23:29

something ?

23:30

like that . We have to wait till the book comes

23:32

in , maybe .

23:35

Yeah , you'll have to wait for the book .

23:39

Well , I gotta say you

23:41

know I knew of this

23:43

crime because I did an oral history when

23:46

I worked at the Southwest Collection with

23:48

Harold LaFont , who I think

23:51

was the DA in Lamb County at

23:53

the time , and he showed

23:56

me , he gave me to

23:58

put in the Southwest Collection photographs

24:00

. They never made it in there because

24:02

they were really graphic and

24:05

so I've seen the murder

24:07

scene and the police and

24:09

I think I shared those with

24:11

you a long time ago and

24:14

you know , I gotta say you

24:16

know you're talking about how the

24:18

daughter didn't speak about

24:21

it for 70 years . I

24:23

can imagine she was quite traumatized

24:26

and it took a long

24:28

time to get over that .

24:31

Well , it's not so much that she was traumatized

24:34

, it was the fact that her

24:36

aunt , at that time where

24:39

she was staying , said that she would never

24:41

get to see her baby sister Jane ever

24:43

again . If she spoke

24:45

about what happened

24:47

in that house ever again , really

24:49

yes . So

24:52

Jane Joanne , actually , yes , she did testify

24:55

in court . But you know , even

24:58

back then prosecutors , the DA's

25:00

lawyers , they didn't really sit

25:02

down and try to talk

25:05

to witnesses before they brought them up on the

25:07

witness stand . It was always

25:09

like , you know , they leaned it and

25:13

yes , we do this podcast . Yeah

25:16

Well , I mean , you know , Jean

25:18

, I wanted to tell you that it's kind

25:20

of like so , after I did that paper presentation

25:23

, they're in Lubbock and

25:26

that was what the largest

25:30

presentation attendance

25:33

ever by any

25:35

West Texas at any West Texas

25:37

Historical Association conference meeting

25:40

. And then you walked up as

25:42

me and Cecily are sitting there on the

25:44

couch and you tell me Christina

25:46

, you need to turn this into the book . Oh

25:48

, and , by the way , I had the original crime scene

25:50

photos . Do you know what that did

25:52

to me ? It was kind of like

25:54

, oh my gosh , I

25:57

you know . And then those pieces

25:59

started falling in place . And , yeah , it

26:02

took a long time for me to get this done

26:04

. But you know what Life happens . And

26:07

life happens you

26:10

have to deal with what you're

26:12

dealt , what is put on

26:14

your plate , and then you move

26:16

on , and then you get brave

26:18

and then all of a sudden decide , okay , in

26:21

one , you know , one

26:23

night . Here goes , you know , my three proposals

26:26

all to three publishers . We'll see what

26:28

happens . And this

26:30

is where we are today .

26:31

So how long total ? Christina ? Did

26:34

you work on this book ? I mean , we've all had projects

26:36

that take us a long time , so give us you

26:38

know it sounds like bits and start . How

26:41

long did you work on this book ?

26:42

So it was over 10 years . It

26:44

really was .

26:48

But you know , look , a lot

26:50

of people work on books

26:53

for a long , long time , so

26:56

I think that you

26:58

know you had plenty of time to think about

27:00

it , and so it's probably a better

27:02

book now than it would

27:05

have been 10 years ago .

27:08

Oh , absolutely . It's a better book

27:10

than it would have been even five

27:12

years ago . I

27:16

mean , you have to understand

27:19

, I was trying to consider

27:21

telling this story and

27:23

at the same time , when it

27:26

was almost like I've always

27:29

wanted to throw in my speculation

27:31

of what happened , especially after

27:34

dealing with this for so long

27:36

and being immersed in it for so

27:38

long . And

27:41

when Lauren came back and said

27:43

, you know , if you add

27:46

what you actually think , your authors

27:48

thought that was just like

27:50

oh my gosh , he is . You

27:53

know , he is the person that

27:55

needs to do this , he gets it , he

27:57

understands what needs to happen

28:00

with this . So there

28:03

you have it .

28:06

So this

28:08

case is officially closed . I

28:10

guess you said after because they just decided

28:13

that Jim Thomas did it and even they did

28:15

it that it's officially closed . So do

28:17

you think there's any chance that it could be reopened

28:19

? That somebody might actually hey look

28:21

, let's find out who did it Some cold-clays

28:23

people or something like that .

28:27

I think , if so

28:31

, in my gut , in

28:33

my gut , there

28:36

is still somebody out there that knows

28:38

something . I

28:41

could be mistaken , but that's my gut . Sometimes

28:44

my gut does not lie or

28:46

lead me astray . I

28:49

think that there is

28:51

something out there . Technically

28:53

, even though , yes , they said the case was closed

28:56

after the murder

28:58

of Jim Thomas , this

29:01

is still an unsolved murder . It's

29:03

an unsolved double murder because you

29:06

have no answers as

29:08

to who , as to why . I

29:11

mean yes , I alluded to the why

29:13

in my author's thoughts . Even

29:16

with Joanne's narrative

29:18

that's in this book , you

29:20

pick up on that , that's

29:22

. The other thing I'd like to say is

29:24

the fact that until I heard

29:27

Joanne's story and I heard it twice

29:29

, that's

29:31

when I started putting the pieces together

29:33

that it was . This

29:37

was about May , it was never about Roy

29:39

.

29:42

Well , that sounds really interesting

29:44

. One of the things that I think that

29:46

it tells us you

29:49

hit upon this is that policing

29:51

in law and order weren't

29:54

like the TV shows that we see

29:56

today , or even the real justice system . It's

29:59

long , it's complex and , back

30:01

in those days , probably

30:04

a little bit more naive than it

30:07

is today .

30:09

Oh yes , and I mean

30:11

mistakes even today still happen

30:13

and still occur . But

30:16

even it was more so even back

30:18

then , even with the birth

30:21

of forensics and what was

30:23

available back then . And

30:25

even I go into

30:27

that in a chapter of that because

30:29

I remember it , one presentation I

30:32

didn't love it . I had

30:34

a wonderful little old lady speak

30:36

up and she was like well , can't you go back

30:39

and dig those bodies up and

30:41

get some DNA off of them ? And

30:44

I just , you know , it's

30:46

those moments that it makes you

30:48

. That is what carried this

30:51

book to where it is today .

30:53

Before we go . Chris , I meant to ask you this earlier

30:55

and I just get carried away and it didn't . You know , paul

30:58

Cross used to press on Jean and I probably you probably

31:00

heard him say this too . Titles mean thing

31:02

. Tell everybody why the title

31:05

bound in silence .

31:07

Oh my gosh , you are going

31:09

to . You're going to be amazed by

31:11

this . So this book has evolved

31:14

with so many titles over

31:16

the years and

31:18

it came down to it early

31:21

last year where

31:24

my publisher was like we need a title

31:26

, we need a title , you need to come up with a title

31:28

. So Jenny

31:31

, who is really

31:34

you know , she is my best friend we

31:38

were on the phone . We got on the phone with

31:40

each other and we

31:42

started , you know , writing

31:44

things out , typing things out

31:46

, and with her

31:48

collaboration , that's what

31:50

we came up with was the

31:52

bound in silence .

31:56

It's a great title . I wish I could come

31:58

up with great titles . I've never

32:00

had a title . That's stuck . You know the editors

32:02

go that's nice and they change it .

32:04

Yeah , and you know , the

32:06

great thing about Lauren was the fact that

32:08

you know he was very , you

32:11

know he was very hands on with this entire

32:13

process , but at the same time , once

32:15

we decided on this , he was like , yeah

32:17

, let's go for it . So

32:19

that's how that title evolved

32:22

.

32:22

That's great . Well , christina , I think

32:24

30 minutes that comes quickly all the time

32:26

when we do this , so so I just want

32:28

to remind everybody . First off , thanks for talking

32:31

to us . It's been great . This is fantastic

32:33

. I didn't know . I'd kind of heard of this

32:35

, I didn't know this much about it and I can't wait till the

32:37

book gets here so I can read it . It's

32:40

from Texas A&M University Press

32:42

. Found in silence an unsolved

32:44

murder in a small Texas town . Thank

32:47

you for being with us so much .

32:49

Thank you both Thank you .

32:51

Thank you , Christina .