Steve Kroft, who was the lead investigative reporter or one of ’em on 60 Minutes had been investigating a company called E-Systems down in Dallas for quite a long time. I got into a case against E-Systems with horrific facts, and we were operating on parallel tracks, we didn’t know about each other. He had not aired anything on E-Systems. E-Systems sent a group of about seven or eight men down to El Paso, Texas to do something, and I first heard about the case when I read the facts.

At the same time these E-Systems’ employees were down in El Paso, a wealthy businessman named Carlos Uribe and his wife, Katrina, who was an American citizen, left their home and drove up to El Paso. She was pregnant to have their second child. They went to the Radisson Hotel in El Paso, and in the next room was one of the group of E-Systems employees named Truett Burney. And here is what was happening at the same time.

He had a brand new Glock 45, he emptied, or thought he emptied the magazine. I think there is 19 rounds. He had emptied 18, and I know that they get stuck sometimes, you can’t see ’em. He aimed the gun to dry fire it at a lamp across the room and when he fired it, the bullet did fire, it wasn’t dry firing, it went through the wall and Katrina, who had gotten up to walk over to the baby warmer, was shot in the chest and killed immediately.

In comes Burney. Now, the legal issue here is was he acting within the course and scope of his employment. Well, he’s miles from whatever he was doing, it’s after hours and he’s screwing around with a gun that he had bought that day not the company. But he comes in and he kinda – he sees her on the floor and he said my God, I needed that, I needed that gun, and he then leaves and that’s when the cover-up begins at E-Systems.

So I got into the case and long story short, it turns out E-Systems is a CIA front. E-Systems denied, as did their lawyer, who I’ll never forgive, that there was any instruction, written instruction to these employees saying that there was danger down in this job and they all lied about what they were doing and can’t talk about it, it’s classified. And that’s when I found that Steve was interested in E-Systems. He and I got together and he really wanted to do a story on it. The judge, incidentally, was going to allow 60 Minutes cameras in the courtroom and suddenly E-Systems sends its insurance representative to my office and he offered us, for that case, an enormous amount of money to settle, and we did. And Steve came down with his camera crew and I’m sure that also influenced the settlement.

Three days go by and a very brave man, who is the head of security at E-Systems, calls and says, David, I gotta talk to you, and he comes down and he’s obviously guilt stricken, and he said David, I was in charge on producing documents. He said we didn’t give you this one because the lawyer told us not to give it to you and he handed it to me, and I’ve reproduced this in my book, in the book called the Trial Lawyer, What It Takes to Win. It’s in both editions of the book.

And it says, up at the top it says Operation Stallion. You should be aware that there’s great danger to yourself and your family if you take this job, and that’s what these seven men got and that’s what the lawyer lied about. We thought about setting aside the settlement. You can’t attack a settlement unless you give back the money, and by then it was such a substantial amount the judge said – we filed suit, in fact my great friend, Joe Jamail, the great personal injury lawyer, filed it, and the judge said you’ve got to give back the money, and to be candid, nobody wanted to do that, it was an enormous amount and we moved on. And that’s when 60 Minutes did the interview and actually Steve Kroft have remained friends over the years. We’re neighbors now up on the East Coast, and he says that’s his favorite report ever.

Bob Dylan told me to quit dropping names and I shouldn’t do that, but there you go.