Blood in Barton Springs

A true crime podcast wrapped in a love letter to my adopted home of Austin, Texas. A place I’ve been blessed to call home for a quarter century. I’ve always been open to new adventures in a city affectionately nicknamed “The World’s Largest Night Club,” as evidenced by my collection of laugh lines, heartbreaks, broken bones, and questionable credit reports. I’ve tried many times to write a memoir detailing my love affair with this place. I’d get a few interesting anecdotes on the page, but would lack the connective tissue, the coherent plot line that ties things together and keeps the story moving along. I’d get disheartened and shelve the project for some other day. May 11th, 2022, became that “other day.” A day that Austin’s competitive cycling community of which I am a member (see “broken bones” above) was rocked by a senseless murder. The story garnered national and international attention and was characterized by the media as a fatal love triangle: The victim and assailant were both female and were connected through their relationships (albeit very different relationships) with a guy. A guy I knew personally. We were briefly acquaintances, never close friends, but I knew I could tell this story from an insider’s perspective. That was the light-bulb moment. I could write my memoir through a series of podcast episodes. Each episode using a true crime story as its North Star, providing direction for the narrative but leaving room for detours and diversions along the way. Blood in Barton Springs is a scripted podcast written for the true crime aficionado, the adventure traveler with Austin in their sights, and anyone who enjoys a well-told (hopefully!) long-form story. (In case you're curious, Barton Springs is one of the crown jewels of Austin. A spring fed pool, 1/8-mile-long set in 3 acres of greenbelt just south of downtown. I’ve used it as metaphor for the city at large, thinking about how certain events send ripples out through the various communities that make this place so special to me). Inquiries: gary@bloodinbartonsprings.com