INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Eddie Ray Routh: A Look Inside The Past Of Accused Chris Kyle ‘American Sniper’ Killer

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 00:58 PST, Feb 11, 2015

Eddie Ray Routh, the accused killer of American Sniper Chris Kyle has been accused of having a history of violence by his fellow Marines and behaving “bizarrely” for years by his family. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Routh was suffering from PTSD when Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield took him to a Texas gun range while attempting to help their fellow veteran.

Chris Kyle’s accused murdered was “in and out” of Veterans Affairs clinics for PTSD treatment since 2011, according to his mother Jodi Routh. Routh also said that her son had not shown any signs of improvement and his erratic actions spiraled out of control.

Jodi Routh worked at the Midlothian, Texas, elementary school where Taya Kyle and Chris Kyle’s children attended.

“She approached Chris Kyle as he was dropping off his children and asked him if he would help her son. At that point, she had been trying to get [her son] care at the VA, and he was only getting worse,” according to Laura Beil, author of the ebook, The Enemy Within: The Inside Story of Eddie Routh, the Man Accused of Killing Legendary ‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle.

Laura Beil, who is also a contributing editor for Men’s Health magazine, spent about four months with Eddie Ray Routh’s family after the murders of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. Routh’s family shared details about the struggles faced by the former Marine after he returned home from tours in Iraq and Haiti. “At the end of the conversation, [Kyle] said, ‘I’m going to do everything I can to help your son.’ She actually cried at that point because it was the first time in over a year that anyone had said that,” Beil told CNN.

Marines who served with Eddie Routh in Camps Fallujah and Balad between 2007 and 2009 – and also later when the accused American Sniper killer was sent to help with a humanitarian effort in Haiti in 2010 – have maintained that he was “violent” and “unpredictable.” The Marines also claim that Routh had no “direct combat” experience. The men who had served with Routh further allege that he did not fish bodies out of the ocean as he has claimed, noting that the armorer “never left the ship” in Haiti.

Not long before being captured by Texas police officers, Eddie Ray Routh reportedly confessed to killing American Sniper Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. Routh allegedly became “aggressive” towards jail guards and refused to return his dinner tray and “spork” utensil. The accused killer was placed on suicide watch under 24-hour surveillance in the Erath County Jail.

[Image via: Shutterstock.com]

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