“Exploring the underbelly of Texas, I ventured into Odessa, a city with a notorious reputation for being one of the most dangerous places in the USA. As I wandered the streets of this oil-rich town, I encountered a side of Texas that few people ever see.
Odessa’s history is steeped in oil, with the discovery of black gold fueling the town’s growth during the Great Depression. Today, the city is still dominated by the oil industry, with pump jacks dotting the landscape as far as the eye can see.
But beneath the veneer of prosperity lies a darker reality. With a crime rate that rivals some of the most notorious cities in the country, Odessa is no stranger to violence. Shootings, burglaries, and car thefts are a common occurrence, and the city has earned a reputation as a dangerous place to live.
As I drove through the rundown neighborhoods and listened to the stories of its residents, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease. The poverty and despair that permeate the streets are a stark reminder of the struggles faced by many in this forgotten corner of Texas.
But amidst the darkness, there is resilience. The people of Odessa have weathered tough times before, and they continue to persevere in the face of adversity. Their spirit and determination are a testament to the strength of the human spirit.
So, as I left Odessa behind, I couldn’t help but reflect on the complexity of this place. It may be rough around the edges, but there is a rawness and authenticity to Odessa that is hard to ignore. And while it may not be the most glamorous city in Texas, it is definitely one of the most fascinating.”
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From the time that I grew up until now the crime the crime my me myself have been the prison so many different times but I’ll go to prison before I go to that graveyard over there I go to prison my mother always said I rather say let my son go then let
My son late that’s Michael they call him yum yum Round Here I met Michael the last morning I was in Odessa Texas I was like Mike hey they say this place is bad and dangerous but I don’t see it what am I missing and he was basically like man it’s crazy here
I’ve seen it all I’ve been to prison many times this place is bad used to be the murder capital of the country I was like okay I’ll take your word for it and I mean it looks kind of bad at least part of town
Does so why am I here in the middle of nowhere’s Western Texas cuz Odessa is the most dangerous place in the state that’s why now you might not have ever heard about the place cuz well look around it’s not really that exciting a tourist trap this is
Not but the history here and the reasons why this place is so bad worth talking about it’s all very interesting now we are in the Heart of Texas now ombre it is real out here boy folks are tough and Macho and manly it’s too bad we got to talk about the criminals
Though back in my day when we robbed somebody we looked him in the eye we held him up like a man only reason you shot is if they shot first well that ain’t how they do it now and today we’re going to mosy up and saddle around and check out the most
Dangerous place in Texas and look I even got Deputized those are pump jacks every day up and down they go pulling up fresh beautiful crude Texas Drillers pull out a million barrels of that stuff before the sun sets each day from machines just like that they’re a big deal for our country and very very important for this
Area that right there is why a lot of these places exist you could say they’re the only reason most of Western Texas even has anyone anymore remember two weeks ago when we were on the Eastern side of Texas with all the chemical plants and refineries well all that oil flow begins right
Here odessa’s large largest city out here and what’s known as The peran Basin now if you know anything about oil You’ know that under the ground I’m driving on right now has the biggest oil and gas reserve in the country 40% of the oil production and 15% of gas
Production in the whole country is right underneath me you can see on the map how big it is they say there’s enough whale in here that it’ll last another 50 years if we still need oil then cuz you know they’re pushing Eve vehicles on us
Now look at all the oil rigs on the map there’s nothing out here but pump jacks and smallish cities for hundreds of square miles this is West Texas looks like we could be in Kansas or Oklahoma or Nebraska or the dtas and it is just all farms and flat now where in the Texas are we anyways we’re way out here we’re halfway to Albuquerque it is super desolate we’re kind of on the Eastern edge of the deserty Prairie Land that begins in eastern California and covers a lot of
Arizona and New Mexico too if you’ve been following along I’ve been in Texas for almost a month now in the last 5 days I’ve all been in western Texas this is way different from anything I had seen up to this point on the road trip but the whole reason Odessa got
Started isn’t cuz of oil it’s cattle back in the late 1800s Odessa popped up as a water stop for all the cattle that were being shipped on the roadways and then they found oil nearby but that was during the Great Depression and that brought a lot of people here always
Does today there’s more than 100,000 people in Odessa and just about everybody here is connected to the oil field and one way or another you’re either working in it you’re related to somebody who works in oil the population here goes up and down though there’ll be a bunch of people
That move in when there’s an oil boom and then overnight oil prices go down and then a bunch of people they’re out of work and they leave now when I was here they were having a boom oil is up so there’s a lot of money to be made here therefore the town is
Busy and I mean busy oil is the reason Odessa blew up and I’ve heard this before oil’s the reason it’s doing so crummy here too now if you ask people in Texas where all the terrible places are to live just about everybody’s going to mention Odessa people call this place hesa or OD
Desolate and probably some other clever names I haven’t heard of yet one guy told me he wouldn’t live in Odessa if they gave him City Hall okay somebody else I know told me that Odessa is definitely the armpit of Texas he said it’s ugly as Sin out there it’s
Factories and meth addicts I was like that’s not very nice but I want to see it and after spending a couple days driving around here I can say it’s not very pretty well one side of town isn’t where we are right now is the most dangerous poorest rundown part of Odessa
It’s in an area south of downtown after driving around a lot I was like I kind of think half the town looks like this Odessa has the highest murder rate in the state of Texas now compared to big cities that you know are terrible I’m talking St Louis Baltimore Oakland this is Child’s
Play but it’s bad for Texas but this is just a dangerous part of the state in general also out this way are Leck and Amarillo which are really bad for Crime right now I just left amarilla it did look pretty shady if you’re a numbers person there
Were more than 800 violent crimes per 100,000 people here that’s a lot one in 16 odessans are the victim of a crime it’s Family Violence shootings stabbings robberies home invasions car thefts I read somewhere one that this place has the fifth most car thefts in the country and DUI are a terrible problem
Here too I never heard of the Midland Odessa shootings some a-hole shot like 35 people and killed like seven of them including a state trooper that was here a few years ago okay ask away all right so I hear OES is dangerous is it really that dangerous
You know anywhere you go in in the United States is dangerous but Odessa yes is very very dangerous at one time we were the murder capital of uh of the United States for a city of our population and uh there here lately there’s been a lot of shootings
Burglaries yeah it’s pretty it’s pretty dangerous uh-huh he dangerous downtown no we’re they at this present time we Reviving downtown making downtown what it used to be let me stand over here yeah get my monies out some website I found said they think there’s 30 active gangs in Odessa what
And 1,200 gang members here damn there’s a huge problem with drugs in Odessa especially meth well it lies along I20 there’s a lot of drugs going back and forth between here and Mexico and so overdoses are a huge problem problem here sometimes some of the kids in town
Think they’re taking a zie and then they find out it’s laced with fent that sucks of course you have to keep in mind this is all per capita there are way more crazy things going on in Houston and San Antonio and the bigger cities but per population there’s more going on
Here than anywhere else in the state this is all because of George Soros well hell Mappy he’s pretty good with them swords but he ain’t much of a shot I saw it once couldn’t hit the broadside of a buffalo no George Soros the guy who wants to take over the world
He wants this and pays people to keep it like this well hell Mappy that ain’t American we should find him and make him face the damn law now is a conservative here well what do you think Mister this is Western Texas a a damn lib for a 100
Miles If you flew a Biden flag out here you’d get the good oldfashioned West Texas wave no there’s some damn around here I’ll show those later but it sure is an oil loving Cowboy culture out here they love their guns they love booze and barbecues and smoking people out here didn’t give a
about the pandemic and mask wearing uh-uh well if that ain’t the most Texas thing you’ve ever seen if you ever doubt how much oil impacts this part of Texas look at this there’s pump jacks right in the middle of all these poor neighborhoods they’ve tried to diversify
Western Texas and not make it as reliant on gas and oil and chemical plants but it’s been hard going with that a lot of the new people in town for the latest oil AB boom are Hispanic it’s nearly 60% Hispanic in Odessa today most of Latinos in town probably
Ain’t going to stick around when oil Peter’s out though they’ll find something else to do move on okay so why here and why are things so bad well oil’s been good and but oil’s been bad to the place they say it’s the eighth least educated small
City in the country well a lot of that has to do with the industry in town you don’t have to go to college to be able to do this stuff you just got to have a strong back and the poverty rate here is high 1 in seven odessans collect
Welfare there just isn’t a lot to do outside of the oil industry and these big booms and busts make it worse people have these long periods when they’re out of work and then they know things are going to get bad here when the next bust comes it’s coming just nobody knows
When so they have these long days on and long days off lots of time for alcohol and drug abuse and you get all these tough young men in town with criminal backgrounds lots of drifters in town all the time it’s good and bad big paychecks but unsteady work and that messes with people’s
Minds I mean it’s pretty beat up it’s really beat up but I’ve been driving around the worst hoods of Odessa for about an hour now and I’m like this is the most dangerous place in Texas is there something I’m missing cuz this is the most chill dangerous ghetto I think I’ve ever been
In it’s just empty I don’t get it it’s super run down but I don’t really see a lot of I don’t feel danger I mean I’ve been into some hoods and felt danger and felt sketchy and this is not that at all we’ll come back to this Hood in a
Little bit maybe later on in the day and see if we can get some action now Michael the guy that we met at the beginning he told me this is all bad and the stats say this is bad it just doesn’t look bad to me though I
Told Michael where I was driving for two days and he was like yeah that’s the hood you saw it I guess sometimes the way something looks doesn’t match the reality of what it really is why is this so dangerous and what’s going on in Odessa that makes
It so dangerous okay uh drugs number one money the oil people are doing what they have to do nowadays doing what they have to do so like the oil industry up and down puts people on edge they need to go out and hustle I I
Don’t get it yes they do they really do and this here you can have back no you keep it man no it’s not enough not enough no all right but anyway uh keep asking I don’t mind asking questions all right so how has Odessa changed since you have
You’re grow you grow up here yes I’m from Odessa uh how’s it changed the city has changed for as uh the growth we have a lot of uh new people coming to town because of the all wheel all Rigs and all whs and different things of that nature uh
Odessa peran it’s the highlight of this city Friday Night Lights they call it I came to Odessa because everyone’s like it’s the most dangerous place per capita statistically is that is that no it wasn’t time Odes as I said earlier at one time Odes was very very
Dangerous uh but it’s less now oh yes it’s Cal down they why why is it calming down number one we had a badass sherff slim Gabriel and Bob Brook shot they did not play that uh slim Gaber says uh I don’t mind y’all taking these people
Money but stop hitting them in the head they have no damn business over here on this side no way talking about your your your people so so the sheriff started cracking down start cracking down and then when Mr Brook shy became sheriff Oh my he became a sheriff with the same guy
That in in Midland uh uh Gary painer at the same time you know they they they just hard hardcore hard Knuckles hard Knuckles man so they’ve cleaned it up they cleaned it up yes M what about you man have you cleaned up no I haven’t I need a drink
Now I need a cigarette got a cigarette of course there’s a lot of good people in this part of town a lot of these people are working hard and they spend a lot of time away from their families to keep this country going and it’s cheap here homes on this street are probably
All 100K or less good for them I’ll tell you what the whole place smells like natural gas and sounds like diesel engines tough men next to me tough Macho men in front of me all the tough Macho men behind me they are everywhere sounds like diesel everywhere
You go around here it’s diesel trucks and men with dirty boots I tell you what everywhere you go in Odessa the oil Biz is in your face big trucks dudes walking around in stained old jeans kicking off Grime and stains off their boots there are trucks trucks trucks in this
Town I tell you everywhere you go it’s just pickup trucks semi trucks construction trucks should call this truck city damn and look at the truck stop bathroom it is man up time in here there are some big dumps going on down that row can of skull on the side of the
Highway ain’t that the most Texas thing you’ve ever seen the perum Basin is for tough Macho men and women ain’t no room for soft out here you’re up early and you work hard and you love your country and you don’t ask for no thanks my kind of
People everybody here knows the risks of relying on the oil industry it wasn’t too long ago that all of this was closed there were all these zombie Wells everywhere and then within a month the whole side of Texas is filled with big trucks and frackers and just dig dig dig
And when it’s time to dig look out people come from all over the country right now odess is seeing the biggest boom Texas has seen since the 80s the price of oil is just so high right now it cost them $40 a barrel to get the crude out of the ground so as
Long as the oil’s above that it’s profit well right now it’s sitting at $83 a barrel so times are good Mister same goes for natural gas everything is up right now why well because there’s Wars going on and Joe Biden sold all of our reserves to foreign countries
But you know what now that I think about it all these dudes getting these big checks that are hardcore conservative they should probably be Biden fans for keeping them so busy and all I mean the dude emptied out all the tanks someone’s got to fill them up and if they don’t appreciate Joe
Biden their wives should this is what the middle class in Odessa looks like I guess homes here in the 200,000 in this part of town but I didn’t see a lot of middle class When I Was Here Also wasn’t looking for it we have a shrinking middle class in
America it’s very much becoming rich or poor that’s all you get and boy is at the case here in Odessa so as I learned Odessa is very much two sides of town you got the dark Poor Side on the south end that we saw already but then I was driving around
Exploring and I realized the entire North End is Rich and white that was all kinds of construction going on up here fancy shopping big homes I mean big homes look at this gated community I wondered if these were oil exacts or plant ties UPS or if this was
All somehow related to the energy industry cuz I didn’t see a lot of places in town that could buy all this outside of the big hospitals in town maybe these are doctors it’s like this all over the North End of Odessa there aren’t any pump jacks up
Here I bet if they tried to drill for oil in one of these neighborhoods bunch of Kens would chain themselves to a damn excavator uh-uh turn that thing around my kids walk through here I’ll drive my new Jeep but not in my backyard all the schools up here are
Really nice the colleges up here I mean it’s all completely different from the older overgrown part of town that I had spent the previous day in I was like damn and what made it interesting to me was I just had no idea this part of town
Was even here I just assumed based on what I had heard about Odessa that the whole city was blighted people told me Odessa Midland is a hole it’s ghetto it’s the worst place in Texas not a here though they are building all over up here doesn’t look like the armpit of
Texas to me doesn’t seem that bad at all really there’s enthusiasm in a lot of town and money to be made and families to start I think most of the stuff up here is probably in the 400,000 look good to you well does your kid Excel in football is your husband
Tough then you should move here it’s Texas there’s construction and traffic everywhere so clearly a lot of people want to be here did you know George and Barbara Bush used to live in Odessa well hell those are real Texans Mappy downtown Odessa isn’t really much to speak of there’s a hospital here and
A few buildings that look like they might be kind of important but I don’t think you could have enough night out down here I drove around downtown for a while and I was very unimpressed all the things to do are on the North End I guess but I guess there’s really nothing
To do here but work hard and save people come here to work not to play it’s not even 7:30 in the morning and there’s a lot of people out some hard workers in Odessa I say one morning I got up early and walked around there wasn’t much going on in downtown where is
Everyone it’s clean there any weirdos walking around don’t feel unsafe downtown just it’s just super quiet doesn’t feel dangerous to me at all there’s just nobody around I can’t even find anybody to talk to usually there’s weirdos and bums laying around but not here I just didn’t get it I’ve seen
Terrible downtowns with sketchy everywhere and boarded up just gross and Weirdos and just not a good place to be this is the most dangerous place in Texas I ducked into a bail Bond’s place to get the scoop on what I was missing I was like hey dude what’s going
On well the guy didn’t really want to have a conversation about it guess he had to worry about getting people out of jail I’ve been here for two days and I don’t understand why everybody says that it doesn’t feel dangerous to me what am I missing I have no idea cuz I don’t
Think it’s all that dangerous playing up second down and [Applause] three for fun for a lot of people it’s all about football woo we Friday Night Lights well this isn’t Friday and it’s not night so the lights aren’t on but that there is a big deal around these
Parts football is huge in Texas I cannot overstate that what we’re looking at right now is ratl Stadium that place holds 177,000 people it’s the third biggest High School stadium in the country Mister both the local high schools play here and when they play each other well
I’ll tell you what you never seen so many people freak out over some kids playing a game and then down the road this is pman high school that’s where they based Friday Night Lights on in 1998 this High School right here made a shocking run to the Texas state championship and it was
A big deal here nobody ever forgets that you win a high school title in Texas you ain’t buying a meal again you can probably open your own car dealership when you’re 18 that’s neat animals are a big deal in Odessa have these jack rabbits every where why well in 1932 Odessa hosted the
World’s first ever Jack Rabbit roping contest at their Rodeo so they want to remember that I guess and then downtown they have a huge longhorn steer to remind everybody about the old cattle days that were so important here it’s very accurate bull huh everyone I also read about the famous
Giant cow outside of some steak house on the north end had to see it too right outside of McDonald’s somebody else told me you need to go see the little replica Stonehenge on the college campus so I did it’s okay I guess for Odessa it’s exciting for me it is not but I
Appreciate it for what it is I’m going to take him to safety towards the end of my second day here I rescued a turtle I know he was trying to cross the road to get to the other side and it was super busy people fly around here worst drivers from any place I
Think I saw in the entire trip Oil Workers and big diesel trucks that ain’t got time for me and then all these teenagers and their big trucks with their loud going on everybody was in a damn hurry all right Mr Turtle let’s put you down there new little Housing
Development yeah so anyway I saw this turtle in the middle of the road I grabbed him and then I took him up to one of the nice neighborhoods on the North End and let him out he seemed happy about it but I don’t speak Turtle for date nights it’s pretty much
Mexican food here at least down on the Poor Side of Town where me and my manager stayed but who’s complaining I hadn’t had Mexican food since well I can’t even remember Hado County maybe that was like 15 days ago damn oh yeah my kind of place anyways
This place is totally chill and it looked to me like all the locals in here or some shade of oil worker look at that they know how to do it right and more cowboying on the TV damn I think that’s an Indian Cowboy I didn’t think you could mix Cowboys and Indians stuff
Changes and he’s pretty good too look at him go and then there’s Michael I liked Michael he’s Street like me smart and cunning but cool the morning we met I saw him walking around looking for on the ground money smokes drugs I don’t know he told me he found a $100 bill out
There one day anyways I saw him out there and I was like he looks like he’s got some perspective on this place so I went over by him and I set up this shot on the railroad tracks knowing that eventually he’d come over and ask me what I was
Doing he did then I offered him 10 bucks to hang out with me for a little bit and he took my money and then we started talking and then he gave me my money back and he asked me for some cigarettes so I bought us a pack of cigarettes and
I gave him 17 of them and then later on we were driving around and he said hey you know what I think I do want that 10 bucks and I was like nice try Mike I gave you the damn pack of smokes anyway I like
Mike he told me that he’s been in and out of prison his entire life he told me that the last time he was in prison was for stealing his mom’s debit card and that was 4 years ago his first time was for breaking and entering but he said after he got in
Trouble for stealing from his mom he realized he’s never going back to prison and I believe him he told me I have 10 years left on this Earth and I’m going to live out my days in Odessa why you ask me how many times I’ve been to prison I think it’s interesting cuz
You’re you’re trying to get out of that I’m out of that it’s been almost 4 years that an officer has not asked me for my ID that’s good so i’ I’ve changed a lot of things about me how old are you I’m 61 years
Old so what’s 20 years you got 20 years left what are you going to do with your life in 20 years I don’t think I have 20 years left say you got 10 years what are you going to do for 10 years one day at a
Time I don’t really have no no shortterm long-term goals just one day at a time you going stay NOA this is my home excuse me I’m going to get a camp yeah this is my home yeah this is my home I’m going be here I pa don’t leave I got to go to
Work I’m sorry I got to go to work I think Odessa is going to be worse off with Michael gone straight up I didn’t think Odessa was bad at all I just think it has a bad reputation it’s way better than where I’m from I hope this place keeps getting better just like
Mike are you looking to move and need advice I do Consulting that’s right I’ll sit down and talk about where the next perfect place for you and your family should be I do it all the time together let’s find you a new home that’s safe
And checks all your boxes and I can also help you find your new house too email me and I’ll work with you on not just helping you figure out where to move but I can help you find your perfect home too that’s right I know awesome reliable
Agents all over the country and I’d love to connect you to somebody who can help you search for that perfect home hey guys if you learned something new about America or what it’s like to live in America great you should think about subscrib and turning on your
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Video “I Went To The Most Dangerous Place In Texas” was uploaded on 03/02/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Nick Johnson on Gretopia