He sounds like a rare species..an honorable attorney, and one willing to stand up to “the system” to boot.
Good on him. Can’t wait to read up on him, as it’s hard to believe.
of course, I will give his story a fair shake...it’s just in my blood & through personal experiences that it’s natural to question the morals, motivations & actions of such a rare bird. Never dealt with someone like that firsthand, but it’s a hopeful sign that not all is lost.
Thank you for sending!
The guy was as decent a man as there ever was. After he got his millions he moved to Austin and for years represented people who couldn’t afford a decent lawyer.
There was a school janitor that had been wrongfully convicted of murder and spent 20 years in prison. Once DNA proved him innocent he was released. The state immediately went after him for back child support. Vic represented him for free and I think he got the state to pay the child support.
He was a very strong Christian man and he was as clean as a whistle. In the trial it came out that one of the crooked lawyers the IRS was forcing to testify against Vic had a C.B. Radio “handle” of “Sheister”. The lawyers, by the way, came out and told the truth and how they had been threatened by the IRS if they didn’t lie about Vic taking bribes.
The Sunday morning paper that announced his acquittal began about a small time lawyer who said he was called to the federal building in Waco and he said he found himself sitting across the table for the largest group of law enforcement agencies he had ever seen. The only one not represented was the county sheriff’s office. He said they tried to coerce him into testifying against Vic. He said he told them they could send him to prison because he would not lie about it. He said he knew right then they didn’t have anything on Vic if they “were coming after a small time lawyer like me.”
You should read CARELESS WHISPERS if you want to see his skill as a lawyer. He got a conviction of murder for hire when the killer killed the wrong girl. It’s hard enough to convict a murder for hire as it is. But to get a conviction when the wrong person was killed is extraordinary.
The story also shows what a dedicated cop can do. The Waco Police stopped investigating the case and put it in their cold case file. And they did it rather quickly. The cop that had found the bodies quit and went to work for the sheriff’s office under the condition that he could work on the murders on his own time. He solved the case with the help of a psychic. Fascinating story.
It took years but I remember the day the killer was executed.
I think another thing that pissed off the establishment was several of Vic’s assistants ran for judgeships. They thought he was trying to build his on machine.
During his trial in Austin he passed me on the freeway. I gave him a thumbs up and he smiled and returned the gesture. He didn’t know me but he knew who I was because he knew I was a friend of his first assistant. He was driving an old Caddy that had seen it’s better days. Believe me, he was NOT on the take.
Like I said, it’s sad to see that Waco is still corrupt. I haven’t lived there since 1991. I will be town this weekend for the Baylor-Oklahoma game.
Sorry for the long post but it’s a story that’s always fascinated me. A movie deal was in the works but, as I was told, the story was too long to do it justice in two hours.