This is exactly right.

This story contains adult content and language.

Listener discretion is advised.

So now they got two women, both of them shot on the back of the head with 40 caliber bullets,

and they realize that now they have a serial killer on their hands.

I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a nonfiction author and journalism professor in Austin, Texas.

I'm also the co-host of the podcast Buried Bones on Exactly Right.

And throughout my career, research for my many audio and book projects has taken me around the world.

On Wicked Words, I sit down with the people I've met along the way.

Amazing writers, journalists, filmmakers, and podcasters

who have investigated and reported on notorious true crime cases.

This is about the choices writers make, both good and bad,

and it's a deep dive into the unpublished details behind their stories.

On this week's episode of Wicked Words, we're traveling to the Texas border town of Laredo.

When four vulnerable women are murdered, police suspect that a well-respected U.S. Border

Patrol agent has turned into a serial killer.

Author Rick Jervis tells me the story behind his book,

The Devil Behind the Badge,

the horrifying 12 days of the Border Patrol serial killer.

Where does it make sense for you to start the story?

Well, it takes place right in Laredo,

so we could start there, and also San Bernardino Avenue

...