Marfa Holiday Trip

  • by
Reporter Notepad Presidio Podcast

In Marfa for four days to get more recordings. Met with Rod Ponton, Chambers’s attorney at the time and now County Attorney. He’s a fun and interesting guy (See the Who’s Who page.) and loves to hear and tell great stories.

I’ve now asked him the same question three times (had to get a good recording of the answer this time): regarding going into Mexico to get his $100,000 cash payment for defending Robert Chambers–almost certainly from the cartels.  A little smile always forms when he answers, as if to say: “Well, I gotta get paid for my work.”

If you haven’t checked out Netflix’s The Confession Killer, definitely give it a look. The documentary outlines how Henry Lee Lucas duped the Texas Rangers and law enforcement officers from across the country with his bogus confessions to hundreds of murders. Ponton is featured in episode five as a former defense attorney for Lucas who proved conclusively in court that some 80-plus of his confessions were false.

Had a lot of conversations as well with Marfa residents about their feelings on the Thompson case. A previous post to the town’s Facebook Group ended up with 134 comments and a lot of bickering back and forth about what kind of man Thompson really was. When I mention to local folks what I’m doing here, their faces consistently contort and they usually reply with a chuckle and, “Really?”

It’s still a contentious subject here, with many people thinking that the story needs to be left alone, that the Sheriff served his time and time has served to let this story fade. Others recognize it as something that needs to be explored.

I plan to post some side stories here on the folks I meet here in Marfa, so stay tuned.

Until then, here’s sampling of photos of what I’m enjoying.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *