Walter Ned "Skip" Hollandsworth (born 1957 or 1958)Skip Hollandsworth, "Introduction", She Kills, Texas Monthly, New York: Harper, 2025, , p. xvii. is an American writer, journalist, and screenwriter who has worked since 1989 for Texas Monthly magazine, where he is a former executive editor. 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, and he co-wrote the Richard Linklater movie Bernie (2011) based on his 1998 article titled "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas".
Early life Hollandsworth was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, the son of Walter Ned Hollandsworth, a Presbyterian minister,Pac Sac Yearbook 1953, Presbyterian College, via e-Yearbooks. and his wife, Peggy Hollandsworth."Reverend Dr. Walter Ned Hollandsworth", Times Record News, September 1, 2011. He has two sisters.Skip Hollandsworth, "Preacher's Kids" Texas Monthly, November 1985. He grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, where his father was the pastor at Meadowthorpe Presbyterian Church from December 1961 to December 1968,History of Meadowthorpe Presbyterian Church and then in Wichita Falls, Texas, where his father served as pastor of Fain Memorial Presbyterian Church.Elissa Chudwin, "Skip Hollandsworth as a preacher's kid fascinated by severed eyeballs", Preston Hollow Advocate, August 24, 2017 (interview).
Hollandsworth's father, uncles and grandfather graduated from the Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.Skip Hollandsworth, "Music to My Ears" Texas Monthly, July 1985. His family assumed that he, too, would become a Presbyterian minister, but Hollandsworth, a self-described "scamp", later wrote in Texas Monthly that, "As minister's children, we could not help but be fascinated yet repelled by church ways." He became fascinated with North Texas State Hospital, a state-owned in-patient mental health facility in Wichita Falls; 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."Skip Hollandsworth, "Patient Observation", Texas Monthly, June 2010. He volunteered there, and while talking to a college class, had a sudden insight that those trips to the state hospital had started him on the path to being a journalist. "Although this had never occurred to me before, ... I realized that what I loved about my visits was that I got the chance to study people who went right up to the line of normal behavior—and then, inexplicably, stepped over it. I was captivated by the patients and tried to fathom what it felt like to be swept away by madness." His interest in true crime was piqued by the shooting deaths of oilman Bobbie Burns and his wife Abbie in Wichita Falls in 1974, which the coroner suggested might be a murder-suicide.Hollandsworth, "Introduction", She Kills, pp. xvii–xxi.
Education A cellist, Hollandsworth won a music scholarship to Texas Christian University, but changed his major to English; he graduated in 1979.Robyn Ross, "Skip Hollandsworth’s Texas Tales: From Closets to Crime", TCU magazine, Texas Christian University, Spring 2017."Schieffer School names new Hall of Excellence honorees", News & Events, Texas Christian University, October 27, 2006, archived from the original on September 27, 2010."SFA's 85th anniversary event to feature media experts", News & Media Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, April 9, 2009. He wrote for the school newspaper, The Daily Skiff, first opinion columns, then as a sports reporter covering the football team (although he said in a 2011 interview that he "found the cheerleaders far more interesting than the games themselves"),"A Q&A With Skip Hollandsworth" Texas Monthly, September 2011, archived from the original on October 16, 2011. and finally feature stories, since he enjoyed interviewing people about their lives.
Career Hollandsworth began working as a reporter and columnist at the Dallas Morning News while still a student. He later moved to the Dallas Times Herald and also wrote for D Magazine and made sports documentaries for NBC."Joe Bob in Bloom" Dallas Observer, December 17–23, 1998. He joined Texas Monthly in 1989, and was executive editor.
Journalism Hollandsworth wrote many celebrity profiles for Dallas newspapers,Hollandsworth, "Introduction", She Kills, p. xxi. and since joining Texas Monthly, where he has profiled Farrah Fawcett,Skip Hollandsworth, "Vanity Farrah" Texas Monthly, February 1997, archived from the original on September 5, 2008. Kelly Clarkson,Skip Hollandsworth, "Since She's Been Gone" Texas Monthly, May 2005, archived from the original on July 9, 2008. and Troy Aikman,Skip Hollandsworth, "The Real Troy Aikman" Texas Monthly, December 1998, archived from the original on March 4, 2007. among others, for other magazines including GlamourSkip Hollandsworth, "Sandra Bullock: The Undercover Activist" Glamour, October 2006.Skip Hollandsworth, "Cher: The Legend" Glamour, November 2010.Skip Hollandsworth,"Kate Winslet: Your #1 Most Glam" Glamour, March 2011. and Women's Health.Skip Hollander, "Brooklyn Decker Shares Her Fitness Secrets" Women's Health, May 2012.
He published his first long-form true crime article in Texas Monthly in 1993, on Charles Albright, and has since become best known for this genre.Skip Hollandsworth, "See No Evil", Texas Monthly, May 1993.Jake Silverstein, "Primal Screen", Texas Monthly, May 2012 (Editor's Letter). His true crime writing has been recognized by Byliner, LongformMax Linsky, "The Longform Guide to Skip Hollandsworth", Slate, March 10, 2012, retrieved August 13, 2016. and Best American Crime Writing.Skip Hollandsworth, "The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob", in: Mark Bowden, Otto Penzler, and Thomas H. Cook, eds., The Best American Crime Writing 2006, Ecco–HarperCollins, 2006, , pp. 73–98.
Hollandsworth was interviewed for the podcast Criminal in their episode "Cowboy Bob" about the bank robber Peggy Jo Tallas."Cowboy Bob", Criminal, May 15, 2020.
His 2009 article on the life of John McClamrock, "Still Life",Skip Hollandsworth, "Still Life", Texas Monthly, May 2009. won the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing in 2010, the first for Texas Monthly.
Screenwriting and screen adaptations Richard Linklater's crime comedy Bernie, which had its world premiere at the 2011 Los Angeles Film FestivalGregory Ellwood, "Review: The old Jack Black is back in Richard Linklater's mixed 'Bernie'", HitFix.com, June 17, 2011, archived from the original on June 19, 2011. is based on a 1998 Texas Monthly article by Hollandsworth titled "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas" and was co-written by Linklater and Hollandsworth.Skip Hollandsworth, "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas", Texas Monthly, January 1998. Regarding the writing of Bernie, Hollandsworth told an interviewer that Linklater insisted the screenplay stick to the truth: "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.'Joe Leydon, "Journalist Skip Hollandsworth helps bring 'only-in-Texas' true-crime story to the screen in Bernie", CultureMap, May 4, 2012, retrieved August 13, 2016.
Linklater's 2023 film Hit Man is also based on an article by Hollandsworth, with the setting moved from Houston to New Orleans.Brittanie Shey, "Richard Linklater's film 'Hit Man' gets a release date", Houston Chronicle, January 23, 2024.Skip Hollandsworth, "Hit Man", Texas Monthly, October 2001. Three made-for-TV movies have also been based on his articles: Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder (NBC, 1997),Todd Everett, "Love’s Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder", Variety, February 9, 1997.Skip Hollandsworth, "The Killer Cadets", Texas Monthly, December 1996. The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery (CBS, 1999, relocated from San Antonio to North Carolina),Michael P. Lucas, "'Bank' an Engaging Caper Loaded With Screwballs", Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1999.Skip Hollandsworth, "The Almost Great Bank Robbery", Texas Monthly, November 1992. and Suburban Madness (CBS, 2004, based on the murder of David Lynn Harris).Roger Catlin, "Marriage, Motherhood Less Than Apple-pie Perfect" Hartford Courant, October 3, 2004, updated September 2, 2021.Skip Hollandsworth, "Suburban Madness", Texas Monthly, November 2002. Movies have been proposed about the Goree GirlsLiam Cullin, "Jennifer Aniston Is a Goree Girl", EmpireMovies.com, August 5, 2009Skip Hollandsworth, "O Sister, Where Art Thou?", Texas Monthly, May 2003. and on John McClamrock based on his "Still Life".Anthony D'Alessandro, "George Robinson To Star In Feature Take Of Texas Monthly Article 'Still Life'; Kevin James & Jeff Sussman Producing", Deadline Hollywood, March 9, 2022.
Books The Midnight Assassin is a true crime history about a series of murders by the so-called Servant Girl Annihilator that took place in Austin, Texas, in 1885, which Scotland Yard detectives later speculated were by the same person as the murders in Whitechapel, London, attributed to Jack the Ripper. Published in April 2016 by Henry Holt and Company, the book was described by The New York Times as "true crime of high quality", "smart and restrained" and "chilling","Review: 'The Midnight Assassin' Recalls Murderous Mayhem in Austin", The New York Times, April 15, 2016, retrieved August 13, 2016. and was named a New York Times bestseller in May 2016. In its review, the Wall Street Journal called the book a "thoroughly researched, excitingly written history" and an "absorbing work".Tom Nolan, "The Texas Jekyll", The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2026, retrieved August 13, 2016.
She Kills is a collection of articles about Texas female criminals that Hollandsworth first published in Texas Monthly, and to which he has added updates.Sean Saldana, "New book looks at the some of the most notorious ‘Bonnies’ of Texas true crime", Texas Standard, November 3, 2025 (interview). It was published in October 2025 by Harper and was described by a reviewer for USA Today as "a jaw-dropping, addictively readable compendium"."She Kills: The Murderous Socialite, the Cross-Dressing Bank Robber, and Other True Crime Tales, by Hollandsworth, Skip", USA Today, October 22, 2025.
He has also worked as a ghostwriter of both books and articles."North Lake College Presents Annual Writer's Fest", North Lake College, April 15, 2010, archived from the original on September 14, 2016.Ronni Sayewitz, "Jan Miller Mixes Self-Help and Celebrity" Dallas Business Journal, January 4, 1998, archived from the original on December 20, 2013.
Awards In addition to the 2010 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing for "Still Life", Hollandsworth has received the National Headliner Award, the John Hancock Award for excellence in business and financial journalism, the City and Regional Magazine Association gold award for feature writing, the Texas Institute of Letters O. Henry award for magazine writing,Skip Hollandsworth at Texas Monthly, retrieved September 30, 2026. and the Austin Headliners club's Charles Green Award for outstanding magazine writing in Texas. He has been a finalist four times for the National Magazine Awards.
Personal life Hollandsworth is married to Shannon Hollandsworth; he has a daughter and a stepdaughter.
References