Sorta OT, but Texas Monthly has so many great long reads like this.

Among my favorites are

Man on Fire http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/man-on-fire/, the story of an East Texas civil rights activist who self-immolated in a parking lot in a town of just a couple thousand.

Sinners in the Hands, which deals with a controversial church also in a tiny town in Eastern TX http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/sinners-in-the-hands/

and The Witness which is a pretty intimate look at one of the employees involved hands-on with capital punishment in Huntsville TX (very high rate of death penalties) http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-witness/.

And really OT, but still interesting I think, Texas Monthly BBQ http://tmbbq.com is one of the best food blogs IMO and basically the only one I will read. It's very well done.

I'm not a big fan of many publications but TM is a winner in my book.