On Monday, December 4, 1967, a body was discovered in the science building of the largest university in West Texas. The next day, citizens of Lubbock gathered for the Carol of Lights, and event typically the centrepiece of the holidays for the quiet college town. But in 1967, the normal festive excitement and anticipation was shockingly and swiftly shattered by the harrowing events that had occurred just twenty-four hours earlier.

For the first time, the story of this shocking murder has been painstakingly reconstructed by Alan Burton and Chuck Lanehart. Piecing together timelines based on interviews, journalists' archives, courtroom transcripts, and the personal experiences of Lubbockites, Fatal Exam situates the murder, relates the capture, and details the trial of the crime's perpetrator. Not your standard psychopathic master, the criminal at this story's center cuts a challenging profile, and his story shines an unusual light on the criminal justice system.

Fatal Exam is a crime story, but it's also the story of its biggest university in West Texas and the peculiar town-and-gown relationship that comes in such a far-flung setting.