WHY DID MULDER REALLY QUIT?

When Doug Mulder was first Assistant District Attorney in Henry Wade’s armada of prosecutors, he managed to acquire the reputation of being the most universally hated person at the Dallas County Courthouse- no small accomplishment.

His Machiavellian tactics made him both feared and despised by not only defense attorneys, but also prosecution colleagues and clerks and secretaries around the DA’s office. A session with Mulder, the most rabid of Wade’s mad-dog prosecutors, would generally leave colleagues or adversaries devastated.

This is why Mulder’s sudden departure from the court-house to a new career in civil law, which he has never practiced, was so surprising. Courthouse speculation is that Mulder and Wade came to a parting of ways for several reasons. The paramount one, according to various sources, is that Wade has decided to seek reelection again in 1982 and that Mulder didn’t want to spend another four years playing out his heir-apparent role.

Sources also claim Wade is upset over some significant and highly publicized cases that Mulder’s team lost in the Criminal District Courts. Among them were the acquittal of the accused school bus sniper and the acquittal of DISD defendants Weldon Wells and Gordon Sentell.

Mulder’s replacement as first Assistant DA still hasn’t been determined. Two of the most likely candidates, Jon Sparling of the specialized crime division and Norm Kinne, a chief prosecutor, seem to have limited chances.

Currently, the odds seem to favor Jim Burnham, son of a former judge, who has been in charge of the grand jury and was a protégé of Mulder.