Retired Texas Ranger Captain Carl A. Weathers returned to his creator at the age of 77.
During the time Captain Weathers served our state as a Texas Ranger, he was active in many cases and he and the many who worked beside him managed to bring most cases to a successful close. As Captain of Company C, he and three of the Rangers working with him aided in the capture of seven men in Pecos, TX who were headed to aid Richard McLaren and the Republic of Texas group. The capture of these men prevented them from reaching the Davis Mountains where McLaren and his group were in a stand-off. When talking about this, Carl would say they “were in the right place at the right time.” Following the arrest in Pecos, they drove on to the Davis Mountains and spent about a week in the middle of nowhere, sleeping on the ground on mattresses provided by men from the local Baptist church, and, eating food provided by that same group because they could not leave the scene to go get food.
He along with many other Rangers from all across the State came together to work on the Branch Davidian siege in Waco. These Rangers came from every company across the State to comprise three teams of Rangers to investigate the incident. This was done so that the company based in Waco would not have to carry such a great load by themselves. The Rangers were in Waco for 14 weeks – most all of them did not leave to go home to their families even once during that time; and, each made several trips back to Waco for many weeks after as well as traveled to Washington D.C. to testify as to the findings of their investigation of the incident.
When he first made Texas Ranger, he was part of a group of several Rangers who were trained to use hypnosis as a tool to gather information from witnesses. These Rangers were some of the first to use this skill to solve crimes. By using this method, they could help a witness to feel comfortable talking about what they witnessed at a place and time when they did not feel safe. With the assistance of hypnosis, these witnesses could recall such details as license plate numbers that they looked at but did not recall having seen. Carl helped to solve a cold case that had happened approximately 20 years before. When it went to trial, his testimony was among the very first given and helped to bring about a conviction. This conviction was up held by an appellate court.
Before serving as a Texas Ranger, he served as a Texas Department of Public Safety Patrol Officer and as a City of Brownwood Police Officer. He served in these areas for a total of 40 years.