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Christian McPhate

Christian McPhate is an award-winning journalist who specializes in investigative reporting. He covers crime, the environment, business, government and social justice. His work has appeared in several publications, including the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the Miami Herald, San Antonio Express News and The Washington Times.

@writerontheedge

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Demon in Denton Seeks Funds for Toy Walk

By Christian McPhate
Dec 5, 2019

On the night before St. Nick’s Day, on Thursday, a 7-foot-tall demonic Santa Claus will appear on the streets near downtown Denton, not to wreak havoc but to give toys to children who appear in his path on the Krampus Walk. Two days later, he’ll be at Wit’s End in...
Universal Rehearsal, Studio Where Dixie Chicks, Pantera and Badu Have Recorded, Was Destroyed in Dallas Tornado

By Christian McPhate
Nov 4, 2019

Jesse Cohea, also known as Outlaw JACC, first noticed the gloom when he left Universal Rehearsal, a popular rehearsal and recording studio off Walnut Hill Lane, to buy cigarettes at the gas station around the corner. It was late evening on Sunday, Oct. 20, and he’d been staying at the...
Hip-Hop Wars: A Fort Worth Rapper and a Producer Fight over Album Rights

By Christian McPhate
Oct 16, 2019

Clay Perry had never heard of Oscar Wilde’s comment, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” An aspiring hip-hop artist from Fort Worth, Perry found his poetry in the words and rhythms of street poets like Dr. Dre from N.W.A., Snoop Dog and local street legends D.O.C. and...
Texas Department of Public Safety Warns of a Potential Mass Shooting During Joker Film Premiere

By Christian McPhate
Sep 27, 2019

Todd Phillips’ new Joker movie has been generating buzz in the weeks leading up to its Oct. 4 release. But now the U.S. Army is warning that they have “discovered disturbing and very specific chatter (about a potential mass shooting) on the dark web regarding the targeting of an unknown...
DISH Network Wants to Pay One Lucky Horror Fan $1,300 to Watch 13 Stephen King Movies

By Christian McPhate
Sep 25, 2019

A friendless teenage girl with superpowers and an aversion to pig’s blood. A group of sociopathic children with an addiction to corn. A vampire who chills in a crate only to crawl out at night to spread a rare disease. A killer clown from outer space lingering like a pedophile...
Quaker City Night Hawks Drummer Apologizes for Onstage Meltdown and Berating Venue Staff

By Christian McPhate
Sep 19, 2019

Quaker City Night Hawks drummer Aaron Haynes exploded onstage last week at the Big Velvet Revue showcase at the Basement East in Nashville. Well, exploding may be too strong of an image. His Fort Worth bandmates, David Matsler and Sam Anderson, weren’t actually finding pieces of their drummer strewn about...
Paul Anka Recalls the Time Chuck Berry Thought ‘Diana’ Was the Worst Song He Ever Heard

By Christian McPhate
Sep 17, 2019

His songs have been performed more than 100 million times worldwide. His LP and single sales number more than 90 million. He’s sold 10 million albums worldwide, and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Canadian one, too. With more than 500 songs to his credit,...
Police Say Kylie Rae Harris Caused the Accident That Took Her Life and a Teenager’s

By Christian McPhate
Sep 6, 2019

Texas country music singer Kylie Rae Harris was responsible for causing the fatal three-car crash that killed her and a 16-year-old high school student in Taos, New Mexico, according to the Taos County Sheriff's office. The sheriff's office didn't say Thursday evening if Harris was intoxicated at the time of...
Dallas Music Scene Mourns the Death of Rising Country Star Kylie Rae Harris

By Christian McPhate
Sep 6, 2019

Every 48 minutes, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash. It’s the leading cause of death on U.S. roads, ending more than 37,00 people’s lives in 2017, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. On Wednesday night, that someone turned out to be rising Texas country music star...
Puddle of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin Is Back to Rocking the Stage and Not the Courtroom

By Christian McPhate
Aug 27, 2019

It has been a long road to sobriety for Wes Scantlin. As the lead singer for Puddle of Mudd, he followed the well-worn footsteps of many rock stars: booze, drugs, jail. He didn’t handle his rock stardom well and left a slew of headlines in his wake. In January 2016,...
A Dallas Boutique Hotel Asks Guests to Untag Them in Photos. Does It Have the Right?

By Christian McPhate
Aug 21, 2019

DFW music promoter Callie Dee was trying to be body positive when she booked a room at the Lorenzo Hotel and brought a professional photographer friend for a photo shoot. It was Valentine’s Day 2018, and Dee had just lost weight, mostly due to stress, and was seeking to love...
Denton Hosted its First Lucha Libre Event This Past Weekend

By Christian McPhate
Aug 20, 2019

The Red Panther stands on the green ropes in the corner of the ring with his right hand raised as if he were challenging the sun to a wrestling match. He wears black tights and, similar to the other luchadores, a mask, black with a red panther face. On this...
The Wandering Poet Is Dead: David Berman Died on Wednesday

By Christian McPhate
Aug 8, 2019

“O Dallas, you shine with an evil light / Don’t you know that God stays up all night / How’d you turn a billion steers / Into buildings made of mirrors / Why am I drawn to you tonight.” David Berman penned those words more than 20 years ago. They...
Mac Sabbath, Black Sabbath Tribute Band That Sings About Fast Food, Plays Dallas This Friday

By Christian McPhate
Aug 7, 2019

They come from an enchanted forest where cheeseburgers grow on trees, milkshakes flow like rivers and french fries blossom in the morning sun. They look like possessed mascots from a demented clown’s playland, destroying the stage much like their musical inspiration, Black Sabbath, did off and on for 50 years...
Texas Bar Owner Starts a Controversy After Making Bands Play the National Anthem at His Venue

By Christian McPhate
Aug 5, 2019

Peace of Blues guitarist Kepha Arcemont had planned a night of guitar slinging at Canyon Road Barn & Grill reminiscent of his guitar hero, Jimi Hendrix, slaying the stage 50 years ago at Woodstock. A lanky, white-haired 59-year-old, Arcemont has been a fan of Hendrix since he was a teenager...
Denton Artist Andrea Christensen Turns Death into Art

By Christian McPhate
Jul 26, 2019

At a distance, he looks like an old homeless man with a cyborg’s eye and in desperate need of a cane. His spine protrudes down his back like Godzilla’s back spikes. His antlers cast shadows on the ground. Hunched over, he forever reaches for something that only he can see...
Dallas Theater Pioneer Katherine Owens Dies

By Christian McPhate
Jul 24, 2019

For 35 years, theater visionary Katherine Owens created expressive art in a basement in Deep Ellum, taking audiences to far away places and fairy tale lands created by legendary playwrights such as Samuel Beckett and David Rabe. As co-founder and co-director of the Undermain Theatre troupe, Owens established North Texas...
Tammi True, Texas Burlesque Queen, Died Tuesday, Leaving Behind a Legacy Tied to History

By Christian McPhate
Jul 12, 2019

They called her Miss Excitement. Her real name was Nancy Bolen, then Powell, then Myers. But she was better known as Tammi True. With blonde, big hair like Marilyn Monroe’s, True looked like a movie starlet. She thought she resembled Kim Novak, who was best known for Alfred Hitchcok's Vertigo...
Fort Worth Venue The Rail Club To Reopen After Owners’ Legal Battles

By Christian McPhate
Jul 10, 2019

Chris Palone wanted redemption, a second chance to live the rock ’n’ roll dream with local fans at a place where dreams were made onstage at The Rail Club. Nearly a year has passed since the old landlord chained its doors, and Brian Scheid and Palone blame their former partner Kevin Dunlap...
Glenn Beck Says He’s Committing ‘Political Suicide’ With New Slavery Exhibition

By Christian McPhate
Jun 28, 2019

Life-sized photographs of the bodies of four African American people dangled from nooses on Barney’s tree in Glenn Beck’s studio on Wednesday evening in Dallas. Beck didn’t kill them, but some white man did. They were images of slaves who had been hanged in the past for real and then...
Metal Band Pinkish Black Wrote Album Inspired by Traumatic Chuck E. Cheese’s Rebranding

By Christian McPhate
Jun 14, 2019

For nearly a decade, Fort Worth duo Pinkish Black’s music has been hard to categorize. Some have called it “doom rock.” (We labeled it heavy metal.) Kerrang! referred to it as “sci-fi synth doom,” like a collaboration between John Carpenter and Rush. Their latest album, Concept Unification, sounds like a...
Family of Slain Dallas Woman Petitions for Adult Charges for Teen Rape Suspect

By Christian McPhate
May 14, 2019

The last time Chris Mullins saw his girlfriend alive, she was leaving for work early on a Monday morning in late November 2018. Maria Ezquerro had recently returned home from visiting her parents in Mexico and spent the night with Mullins in Denton. Partially asleep, he walked her to the...