The Supreme Court has rejected Jesse Ventura's appeal of a $1.8 million verdict in his defamation case against the estate of "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle.
Ventura said that Kyle made up an incident where Kyle claimed that Kyle punched Ventura at a bar in 2006 for offensive comments about the SEALs, thus damaging his reputation among former SEALs. Kyle was killed in 2013.
Christopher Kyle was born and raised in Texas and was a United States Navy SEAL from 1999 to 2009. He is currently known as the most successful sniper in American military history. According to his book American Sniper, he had 160 confirmed kills (which was from 255 claimed kills).
A claimed kill refers to a shot where the round hits the target, but cannot confirm the kill.
Chris Kyle served as a Navy SEAL in 4 tours in the latest Iraq war. For his bravery and military skills, he was awarded some of the highest medals in the US military multiple times including the Bronze and Silver Star.
Whilst in Iraq, the insurgents called him the "Devil of Ramadi" and offered a bounty for his head. In a funny twist, they displayed pictures of him around the local area with the bounty but it was a picture of another sniper! He was shot twice, and was involved in six IED attacks
Chris needed to make a decision on family life or the military. He had a small child that he did not know very well as he was overseas constantly. This also put pressure on his marriage, so he decided to leave the SEALS and was honourably discharged in 2009. After some time struggling with civilian life, he started a security company called CRAFT and wrote the New York Times bestselling book, American Sniper.
Unfortunately Chris Kyle was murdered at a shooting range by a US military veteran he was trying to help on February 2, 2013 in Texas.
A film has been made starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller and is called American Sniper. It was launched at cinemas around the world in January 2015. Clint Eastwood is the director.
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