The Murder of Chris Kyle
On February 2, 2013, former Navy SEAL and best-selling author Chris Kyle — widely considered the most lethal sniper in American military history with 160 confirmed kills during four tours in Iraq — was shot dead along with his friend Chad Littlefield at a shooting range at Rough Creek Lodge near Glen Rose, Texas. The killer was Eddie Ray Routh, a twenty-five-year-old Marine veteran struggling with PTSD and mental illness, whom Kyle and Littlefield had brought to the range in an effort to help him through a veterans' support program. Routh then stole Kyle's truck and fled; he was arrested that evening after a police chase.
Routh was charged with capital murder. His defense argued that he suffered from severe mental illness — psychosis, PTSD, and drug and alcohol induced deterioration — and could not have understood right from wrong at the time of the murders. The prosecution countered that Routh was legally sane, pointing to his evasive behavior after the shooting as evidence of awareness of wrongdoing. The trial in February 2015 attracted enormous national attention partly because Kyle, who had died just months before the film adaptation of his memoir "American Sniper" was released, had become an icon of American military service.
The jury deliberated for only two hours and forty minutes before convicting Routh of capital murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, as prosecutors had not sought the death penalty. The swiftness of the verdict reflected the strength of eyewitness and forensic evidence, leaving the mental illness defense without meaningful purchase. "American Sniper," the Clint Eastwood-directed film starring Bradley Cooper as Kyle, was released that same month and became the highest-grossing war film in American history, introducing Kyle to a new generation of admirers.
The case became part of a broader national conversation about the inadequacy of mental health support for returning veterans, the complex ethics of peer-to-peer veteran support programs, and the particular vulnerability of veterans carrying both weapons and severe trauma. Chris Kyle's widow Taya became a prominent advocate for veterans' mental health resources and continued the work Kyle had begun. The shooting range memorial became a site of pilgrimage for veterans and admirers of Kyle's service.