The Binge Crimes: Night Shift - Introducing... Witnessed: Borderlands

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

The tall-but-true tale of a charismatic outlaw, an iconic small-town sheriff, and the record-setting drug bust that ensnared them both. Set in the rugged Texas borderlands, host Rob  D’Amico transports listeners back to the U.S. side of the border for the opening salvo of the War on Drugs … where so much dirty money was swirling across the Rio Grande that even the most incorruptible citizens would be tempted. In the tradition of films like No Country for Old Men and Charles Portis novels, Witnessed: Borderlands mashes up the shockingly real and the deeply surreal, chronicling not just the events of a crime, but digging deep into the mystery and aura of one of America’s most myth-soaked regions. Want the full story? Unlock all episodes of Witnessed, ad-free, right now by subscribing to The Binge. Plus, get binge access to brand new stories dropping on the first of every month — that’s all episodes, all at once, all ad-free. Just click ‘Subscribe’ on the top of the Witnessed show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, folks. I'm Rick Thompson, sheriff of Presidio County. I'm working with the U.S. Customs Service to lock up drug smugglers. Y'all can help us ruin a drug smuggler's whole day. Once there was a good cop. It just seemed like Rick was our sheriff forever. Like he should be on TV. You know, big, tall, he was handsome, with his badge. You just felt safer having somebody like that as your sheriff.

Just so Texas. And that good cop, he knew a charismatic outlaw. Robert played the guitar. He would play songs for me when we were having an affair. And those two men lived in a rugged and beautiful land, far out in the hinterlands of West Texas. You know, my mother always had animals that were attracted to her. So even now, if I have the windows open or something,

I can smell them out in the wild, part of my wild childhood. But that land was changing, getting more violent. The old laws didn't seem to mean much anymore. There's a lot of killing. There's a lot of bad things that can happen. That's a scary world. And the cop and the outlaw, they were changing too. He was always telling us that he was untouchable.

And later I could see why he felt that way. And I told Rick, I don't care who's in control of the drugs, Rick. I don't want to have anything to do with it. That's a quote. And then one cold night, out in the high desert, it all came crashing down. He had a look on his face like he was looking for something. He didn't know what he was looking for.

I can't imagine what he was thinking, that he was going to walk away from this. And things in far west Texas were never the same again. When this happened, it was like dropping a bomb on this town and having it reverberate. Borderlands, a new podcast from Campside Media. The first season of Witnessed, coming September 7th.