 | "I Traded My Soul For A New Truck" By: Jennifer McKelvey of The Gold Patrol |
On February 2, 2013, the most famous American sniper, Chris Kyle, 38, and his friend Chad Littlefield, 35, took a fellow Iraqi War veteran named Eddie Ray Routh (age 25) to Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose, TX, to do some "shooting therapy". Routh's mother, Jodi, had approached Chris at his children's school, where she worked. She had heard how successful Kyle was in working with soldiers with PTSD. She hoped Chris could break the shell her son had placed around himself after returning from Iraq.
Rough Creek Lodge They arrived at the lodge that day at approximately 3:15 PM and both Kyle and Littlefield were found dead at 5:00 p.m. by a hunting guide, shot multiple times with a semi-automatic handgun at point blank range. Littlefield was face down with claw marks in the sand, indicating he was struggling after being shot. Chris Kyle was found face down, shot in the back of the head and also in the back. Numerous guns were also found at the scene of the crime, believed to be guns intended for the day's planned “therapy.”
Chris Kyle in Iraq Chris Kyle's military career is one that will be heard about for generations to come. After injuring his arm in a rodeo, Chris headed to his local recruiting station to join the Marines with an interest in special operations. Due to the residual pain in his arm from his accident, as well as the metal pins, the Marines passed on Kyle. He enlisted in the US Navy in 1999 instead. He served 4 tours of duty in Iraq, becoming the deadliest sniper in US Military History with 160 confirmed kills. He was nicknamed: 'The Devil of Ramadi' by the enemy and the "Legend" by his comrades. He left the Navy in 2009.
After returning from Iraq, Kyle wrote the best-selling book, 'American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper In U.S. History' which became the basis for the huge box office film, 'American Sniper', starring Bradley Cooper and directed by Clint Eastwood. (The movie was #1 on the charts as of February 9, 2015 and has earned six Oscar nominations.) Kyle had made all the talk show rounds to promote his book and his charity, “FITCO”, which gave wounded veterans workout equipment in their homes. While being interviewed on The Opie and Anthony Show and The Bill O’Reilly Show, Chris told a story of how he punched Jessie Ventura, an opponent of the war in Iraq, in a bar in California in 2006 after Ventura allegedly said the Navy Seals “deserved to lose a few”. In Chris' book, he did not name Ventura but referred to him as “Scruff Face”. Ventura field a lawsuit again Kyle in January, 2012. After Kyle’s death, Ventura still pursued the lawsuit and was eventually rewarded $1.8 million in damages for defamation against Kyle’s estate.
Kyle also appeared on a reality TV show called, 'Stars Earn Stripes', where military operatives are paired up with celebrities to show them day-to-day operations in their specialty field. He had also begun preparations for the movie 'American Sniper' and never met Bradley Cooper to begin preparing Cooper to play the part of himself. They did speak by phone a couple of times. Ironically, the first draft of the movie was handed in the day before Kyle was murdered.
After returning from Iraq, Kyle wrote the best-selling book, 'American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper In U.S. History' which became the basis for the huge box office film, 'American Sniper', starring Bradley Cooper and directed by Clint Eastwood. (The movie was #1 on the charts as of February 9, 2015 and has earned six Oscar nominations.) Kyle had made all the talk show rounds to promote his book and his charity, “FITCO”, which gave wounded veterans workout equipment in their homes. While being interviewed on The Opie and Anthony Show and The Bill O’Reilly Show, Chris told a story of how he punched Jessie Ventura, an opponent of the war in Iraq, in a bar in California in 2006 after Ventura allegedly said the Navy Seals “deserved to lose a few”. In Chris' book, he did not name Ventura but referred to him as “Scruff Face”. Ventura field a lawsuit again Kyle in January, 2012. After Kyle’s death, Ventura still pursued the lawsuit and was eventually rewarded $1.8 million in damages for defamation against Kyle’s estate.
Kyle also appeared on a reality TV show called, 'Stars Earn Stripes', where military operatives are paired up with celebrities to show them day-to-day operations in their specialty field. He had also begun preparations for the movie 'American Sniper' and never met Bradley Cooper to begin preparing Cooper to play the part of himself. They did speak by phone a couple of times. Ironically, the first draft of the movie was handed in the day before Kyle was murdered.
Dress Blues and Mug Shot Eddie Ray Routh "I traded my soul for a new truck" said Routh stopping by his sister and brother-in-law's house to tell them about what he had done. According to his sister, Laura Blevins, Routh said, In a frantic 911 call, Blevins tells the dispatcher that her brother confessed to killing "two guys" and she was frightened he may return and harm her and her family. On the call, she can be heard telling others in the house to get their shoes on as they were preparing to leave the residence to go to the police station. Too emotional to finish the call, she handed the phone to her husband, who informed the dispatcher that Routh had recently been released from a mental institution with a diagnosis of PTSD (His 2nd visit since returning home from the war) as well as gave a description of the car Routh was driving. You can listen to the 911 call here: 911 Call From Sister . After leaving their home, Routh returned to his house and eventually led cops on a chase, which ended in his arrest for the murders of Kyle and Littlefield.
Eddie Ray Routh Eddie Ray Routh joined the Marines in 2006 and eventually rose to the rank of corporal in 2010. He was a small arms technician, referred to as an "Armorer". His service took him to Iraq where he served one tour at Balad Air Base and Camp Fallujah from 2007-2008. Balad Air Base has 24 hour fast food, a movie theater, and mini-golf, a base a fellow Marine said was comparable to being on base Stateside. According to the men he served with, those locations saw no action and Routh never stepped foot off of the base. He never saw any events that were traumatic in any way. There were a couple of incoming mortar attacks, but nothing close to Routh, and was no threat to him at all. He did guard Muslim terrorists at a jail on base. It is also alleged that Routh saw no combat time at all while stationed in the Marine Corps. Fellow Marines said that Routh was a known drug user and performed below average during his time in the service. Could this information help the prosecution debunk the PTSD theory? In addition to serving one tour in Iraq, Routh was sent to Haiti on a disaster relief mission in 2009. While Routh told of being on the streets of Haiti with rotting bodies all around, military records show he never left the warship, the USS Bataan. Many fellow Marines have expressed that Routh clearly exaggerated his service to friends and family. Was Routh jealous of his fellow hometown veteran who was welcomed back as a hero and went on to national fame?
Walid Shoebat referred to this photo, speculating that the appearance conforms to the standard appearance of a Muslim convert’s beard Routh was also alleged to have been violent on several occasions while deployed. Ryker Pawloski, a Marine who served with Routh, said that he witnessed Routh beat a fellow Marine for posting pictures up on base of Routh with the word "WANTED" and a rainbow. Then, a few weeks later, Pawloski said that Routh body slammed him to the ground for laughing at something unrelated to Routh. Allegedly, Routh slammed him so hard he woke up convulsing due to hitting his head on a metal bar on the way down. There is no record of Routh being punished for these events.
In addition to the recent news that Routh never saw combat and his diagnosis of PTSD is being questioned as a motive in the killing, wild conspiracy theories are beginning to run rampant. One in particular suggests that Routh was a terrorist sympathizer, after he was a guard at a prison in Iraq. According to Walid Shoebat, a former radical Muslim, he says that in a phone call to his father from Iraq, Routh talked about the poor living conditions the prisoners were living in, his increasing opposition to the war, and how he was not eager to engage in any kind of combat, (which he never did).
In addition to the recent news that Routh never saw combat and his diagnosis of PTSD is being questioned as a motive in the killing, wild conspiracy theories are beginning to run rampant. One in particular suggests that Routh was a terrorist sympathizer, after he was a guard at a prison in Iraq. According to Walid Shoebat, a former radical Muslim, he says that in a phone call to his father from Iraq, Routh talked about the poor living conditions the prisoners were living in, his increasing opposition to the war, and how he was not eager to engage in any kind of combat, (which he never did).
Routh's defense will be that he was legally insane at the time of the murder. Fellow Marines and friends have said that Routh was addicted to drugs and began to get paranoid after his deployment. At one time, his mother, Jodi, reported a theft of 9 prescriptions, including Morphine from Routh's grandfather, who was suffering from terminal cancer. Did he have a mental illness there before he enlisted? Some friends say something always seemed a bit off about Eddie Ray. But classically the issue in legal insanity is did the defendant know right from wrong? When questioned by police after being caught, the arresting officer asked Routh if he knew what he did was wrong. Routh's response was to the point, his answer, "Yes sir". According to The Gold Patrol's own Jeff Gold: "if Routh knew he had just traded his soul for a truck, then he knew it was wrong”.
Routh at court
'American Sniper' left moviegoers exiting the theaters in tears and with an eerie silence. The movie itself does not show the murder. With defense attorneys already saying that the defendant cannot get a fair trial in the midst of box office and Oscar furor over the Clint Eastwood film about the victim, its a good thing too. The trial of Eddie Ray Routh is expected to start Wednesday, February 11, 2015, in the small Texas town of Stephenville. Prosecutors have chosen not to seek the death penalty against Eddie Ray Routh.
Follow @TheGoldPatrol and @JeffGoldEsq. We will be live tweeting the openings which will be also streamed live at www.TheGoldPatrol.com.
Copyright (c) by The Gold Patrol (tm) all rights reserved.
Follow @TheGoldPatrol and @JeffGoldEsq. We will be live tweeting the openings which will be also streamed live at www.TheGoldPatrol.com.
Copyright (c) by The Gold Patrol (tm) all rights reserved.
