Show Notes - Witnessed: Borderlands

Episode 8 Notes

Crossing to Paso Lajitas — After 911, U.S. authorities made crossing to Paso Lajitas impossible to cross by car.

Episode 8: Survival

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June 22, 2022

Who shot at Lico’s dad?

One thing I knew I had to do was revisit the opening scene from Episode 1, in which Robert Chambers is trying to kidnap Lico Miller’s dad in Paso Lajitas, the little town across the river in Mexico from the now resort town outside of Terlingua, Lajitas. We left listeners thinking that Sheriff Rick Thompson crossed the Rio Grande to help Chambers and ultimately turn over Lico and his brother to brutal Mexican police. But it wasn’t the sheriff–or at least Lico, his family present at time, and me don’t think so. Lico remembered the wiry figure with the badge announcing he was the sheriff, and we don’t know why this person would have done that, but the guy didn’t look enough like the sheriff.

Episod 7 Notes

Sheriff Rick Thompson after a year in prison.

Episode 7: Conspiracy

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May 8, 2022

Details on the trial

The podcast coverage of the legal proceedings is pretty straightforward, but we obviously had to leave out a lot of details. First, after the grand jury indicted Rick Thompson, County Judge Monroe Elms and County Attorney Dan Newsome removed him from office and the Commissioners Court appointed one of his deputies–Abelardo “Abe” Gonzales–as sheriff. The move caused quite an uproar, and Monroe told me that he received an onslaught of angry calls from Thompson’s supporters, including Thompson’s wife and oldest son. There also were threats of legal action to keep Thompson as sheriff.

When Rick Thompson agreed to plead guilty, the tone of Thompson supporters changed dramatically. They couldn’t believe that their hometown hero was admitting to the smuggling, and their objections faded. Behind the scenes, Rick and his attorney had crafted a plea deal with the prosecution. Rick would agree to the crimes cited (a couple counts would be dismissed), agreed to cooperate with the feds in ongoing investigations, and thus, would receive 10 years in prison. Prosecutors sealed the plea deal–likely fearing a lot of residents would question such a light sentence for a bad cop. The Dallas Morning News sued to open the plea deal, and it eventually was made public.

Episode 6 Notes

Episode 6: Oh Shit

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January 11, 2022

The guts of the bust

In this episode, we get to the guts of the night of the bust and the following days. It’s a good summation of the events, but of course, there’s always more detail. One item we didn’t add was that in addition to informant Sam Thomas’ account of the sheriff’s involvement, the feds also had records of a series of phone calls from Chambers to the sheriff on the nights of the smuggling.

Another item not explored in the show was varying accounts of why the sheriff became the mule to bring the coke to Marfa and why he made three trips. What’s clear from many sources is that something likely happened to Chambers’ truck on the way from the river to his family ranch near Candelaria. Some said stuck in the mud. Others said it broke down.

Episode 5 Notes

Episode 5: The Informant

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January 9, 2022

More on Dale Stinson

You heard some about DEA agent Dale Stinson in Episode 4 notes. But I’ll add a few fun things here. I think we gave an impression that Dale is stuffy, all business. Actually, he’s got a great sense of humor and is quick to crack a joke and laugh with others at theirs. I ribbed him a lot about his contention that he never had smoked pot. He finally responded with a story about an undercover operation in El Paso where he met a seller who came out with a long strand of buds and asked everyone in the room to join him in partaking.

Episode 4 Notes

looking out from Shafter across the scrub plants and rocks to mountains in the distance

Episode 4: The Door

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November 8, 2021

On the podcast name…

Now might be a good time to mention that the working title for the podcast for the longest time was “The Door.” (And my working title before that was “Presidio.”) The “Witnessed” part of the final production had to be there, because this will be an ongoing series, with “Borderlands” being the first. No, I’m not working on Season 2 of Witnessed, which was juicing along while we were finishing this one. Not to jinx it, but it sounds like a riveting story, so stay tuned.

“The Door,” of course, is a reference to “La Puerta,” the nickname given to Sheriff Rick Thompson by some folks along the border.

On dumb questions asked by hosts

I’m sure no one else in the world cares a gnat about this. Well, except me. So, let me be clear that I know what javelinas are. And yes, I gravitate between using “javelina” as singular and plural, and “javelinas” as plural. I’ve seen a ton of them. Never slept with one. So, when in Episode 1 I ask Susan Woodward Springs, “Wait, wait a second…what is a javelina?” I’m doing that for the benefit of you, the listener, who may be listening in Sweden for all I know. But I imagine that a lot of people in Far West Texas I know may have been scratching their heads saying, “This reporter dude from Austin don’t even know what a freakin’ javelina is?”

Episode 3 Notes

Episode 3: Just Say No

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October 25, 2021

On Marfa

Richard West wrote an amazing piece in 1977 for Texas Monthly—“The Last Frontier: What Texas was, Marfa still is”–that creates a really good picture of what was going on with the cattle industry in Marfa during the 70s. Sheriff Thompson gets a bit of ink, which helped fill out our descriptions of him. The story has some great photos as well from John Bintliff, including this one of Thompson and his deputies.

Episode 2 Notes

Episode 2: The Outlaw

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October 20, 2021

Dan Dobbs

Former Customs Agent Dan Dobbs apparently still has a lot of paper records on Chambers that he wasn’t volunteering to share. One interesting detail he did share is that Robert, although in the Marines during Vietnam (1971-1975), did not go to Vietnam. I could not independently verify that. Dobbs said the only military discipline record on Robert was a warning against his collecting curved knives. OK.

I will provide a lot more additional detail on Robert’s money laundering and Dan’s involvement in related cases in future show notes that speak to: Where did all the money go?

Regarding Robert Chambers being a informant for Border Patrol Agent Wayne Wiemers…Well Dan is sure of it. Muckraking reporter Jack McNamara is sure of it too, says he knows details of Weimers and Chambers going to another city with a Border Patrol HQ to document Chambers as a confidential informant. But DEA Agent Dale Stinson remembers not seeing any documentation after the big bust when he looked. Wiemers–who was always good about calling me back–wouldn’t talk to me officially, since he said it could be disruptive to his ongoing part-time work with current Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez. Podcast Correction: I stated that Weimers was “head of the Marfa Border Patrol station.” He was, in fact, a special agent there.

Episode 1 Notes

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Episode 1: A Wild Place

October 18, 2021

On Lico Miller and Paso Lajitas

Lico Miller’s story

Lico Miller’s story, the entire one, literally could be the subject of its own podcast. The details about what happens next in his life (and that of his brother) are extraordinary–searching for his father, then fleeing to Sonora in Western Mexico to dig for gold with his brother. They are too lengthy to detail here, although I might add additional notes later.

But first, the setting. Paso Lajitas can be thought of as “past Lajitas.” Lajitas is the little town west of Terlingua, Texas, that is now a resort. So, Paso Lajitas used to be a community of 30 or so houses on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. “Paso” in Spanish can mean a variety of things, but key to this location is “crossing.” “Lajitas” means flat rocks. So as noted in the show, you often could drive a truck (or even a car) right across the river. Mimi Webb Miller (See Episode 2) was infamous for driving her red Checkered Cab across to visit Mexico.