Podcast – The Website of Judge Brandon Birmingham

Why Timothy McVeigh vs. The USA?

I turned 18 the week Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols planted McVeigh’s getaway car near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and commenced to building a weapon of mass destruction out of a Ryder Truck like the one pictured above. I’ve never forgotten that Wednesday morning. Maybe it’s the indelible image of that smoky brown bite mark, or the realization that the war scene from downtown Oklahoma City was on the news, not in a movie. Why study this trial? I couldn’t see the blast from Dallas, but even at 18 I felt it. America changed.

Detective Leavelle Knew Why Jack Ruby Killed Lee Harvey Oswald Because Ruby Told Him

Jim Leavelle survived Pearl Harbor, testified in the “Trial of the Century,” retired a legendary detective, and attained the age of 99. While researching “The Assassin’s Assassin,” the tall man in the light suit wearing the Stetson hat in Bob Jackson’s famous, Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph told me all about his experience with Jack Ruby, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Today, in his honor, I’ll share that with you.

**Top Row**: Brandon Birmingham, Walton Bondies, Phil Burleson, Jr., Margaret Bowie Hirschman, John Mark Dempsey, Gina Causey Hibbs, Toby Shook, Kim Wade.
**Bottom Row**: Alicia Alexander, Bob Huffaker, Jim Leavelle, Waymon Rose, David Rose.

Judge, Why Are You So Interested In The Jack Ruby Case?

His case file looked like all the others in the storage facility for the DA’s Office in Dallas: a collection of a dozen or so dusty brown and white banker boxes. The difference? The name written on the outside: Jack Ruby. Read More

$50 Years Ago Today, Tex Watson’s Killing Spree Began$

50 Years Ago Today, Tex Watson’s Killing Spree Began

He was tall, handsome, and raised in a religious house. As a youth he worked in his father’s grocery store. He was a star athlete at Farmersville high school in Denton, a Texas state record holder in the hurdles. He pledged Pi Kappa Alpha at UNT. And if he hadn’t hitchhiked down Sunset Blvd. in the summer of 1968, he might never have met Charlie Manson. His name is Charles “Tex” Watson, and 50 years ago today, he began a mission of murder called “Helter Skelter.”

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