Lise Olsen

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Lise Olsen is a Houston-based investigations editor at the Texas Observer. Lise has investigated many twisted Texas tales, including crooked judges, an unjust execution, massive environmental disasters, myriad cases of corporate and public corruption, and unsolved serial killings. Her reports in three states over 20 years contributed to the prosecutions of a former congressman and a federal judge, inspired laws and reforms, helped solve cold cases, restored names to unidentified murder victims, and freed dozens of wrongfully held prisoners. She is the author of The Scientist and the Serial Killer.

Articles by Lise Olsen

A checkerboard of book covers from TXO's roundup of the best books of 2023

The Texas Observer’s 2023 Must-Read Lone Star Books

From poetic dreamworlds to the people’s hospital, Texas authors paint very different portraits of our diverse state.

by Lise Olsen

A composite image: At left, the cover of Unheard Witness shows a grainy photo of Kathy Leissner Whitman smiling, with Charles Whitman, the tower sniper, just out of view with his arm on her shoulder. To the right, a low angle view of the UT Clock Tower with trees in the foreground at the University of Texas at Austin, under a partly cloudy blue sky.

The Tower Sniper’s Wife

A new book from UT Press provides a troubling twist on the vow “until death do us part.”

by Lise Olsen

A composite image: at left, the cover of Pastures of the Empty Page, a book about Larry McMurtry. At right, one building in McMurtry's sprawling used bookstore empire, Booked Up, in Archer City, Texas.

The Lonesome Writing Guru

How author Larry McMurtry—and George Getschow, editor of a new book about McMurtry—helped shepherd a Lone Star literary community.

by Lise Olsen

Ricardo Nuila smiles, wearing a suit jacket and button down.

Ricardo Nuila: The People’s Doctor

The physician and author thinks public hospitals could help save patients trapped in our troubled medical system.

by Lise Olsen

A performer plays music on the church Sanctuary, turned into a makeshift stage. The photo has a church-like atmosphere, with dimmed lights, viewers seated on pews and the altar behind the musicians.

A Sanctuary for Sounds

A well-traveled journalist reveals world music to Austin.

by Lise Olsen

Wearing a white suit jacket over a dark sweater, Angela Paxton sits in a chair in the Texas senate with a pensive expression.

The Rise of Ma and Pa Paxton?

If history repeats itself, the attorney general's wife could prosper even if he goes down in an impeachment trial.

by Lise Olsen

Newspapers encased in chains with a lock

Investigative Reporting Is Under Attack in the Americas. We Need More Action.

U.S. journalists are publicly asking the Biden administration to actively support freedom of the press.

by Lise Olsen

Three metal cages under spreading trees each contain the remains of a human body, barely visible now due to decomposition and grass growing up, around and through the remains.

Learning from the Dead

The resident donors at Texas' famed Body Ranch offer many lessons about life—and untimely death.

by Lise Olsen

Mar 03, 2023

Remembering a Social Justice Lawyer Extraordinaire

Attorney Jeff Blackburn, a crusader for the innocent, fought injustices across Texas in his improbable, utterly original, and often profane life.

by Lise Olsen

A closeup of a needle loaded with a vaccine, held in the hand of a medical professional wearing blue gloves. In the background, they are applying an alcohol swab to a grey-haired person who will receive the vaccine in their shoulder. There's increasing hesitancy where once there was widespread acceptance of vaccines in Texas.

The Shot Boosters

Vaccines are under attack in Texas, and public health experts warn we'll pay a price in more outbreaks and deaths from preventable diseases.

by Lise Olsen