Udo (Woody) Specht

Dallas, Texas

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After graduating from PHS, I attended Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas.  In 1959 I proudly became a naturalized United States Citizen.  Shortly after graduating from Tech in 1962, I was admitted to the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas.  At the beginning of my second year of law school, November 1, 1963, I married Yvonne Stark of Dallas, Texas. I received my law degree from the University of Texas in June 1965. 

In August 1965, I had the opportunity to be appointed the first naturalized citizen in the ranks of Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  After training in Washington, D.C. and the FBI Academy, Quantico, Va., I was transferred in the fall of 1965 to the FBI’s Regional Office in Minneapolis, Minn., covering Minnesota, North and South Dakota.  I spent two long winters in that part of the country, and I am still allergic to cold weather.  Brian, our only child, was born in Minneapolis in October 1966.  In the spring of 1967 I was transferred to the FBI’s Newark, N.J., Office.  From 1967 through 1971 I did all types of criminal investigations and also worked organized crime (Mafia) cases.  Some of the characters I was able to investigate and prosecute were the role models for the “Sopranos.” 

In 1972 I was appointed Chief Divisional Legal Counsel for the Bureau in New Jersey and really started having the opportunity to fully use my legal training again.  In the fall of 1973 I received a requested transfer back to the Regional Office in Dallas, Texas, and became the Chief Divisional Legal Counsel for what I have always considered my “adopted” home area which included the Texas Panhandle.  In addition to my legal duties with the Bureau, I became their media spokesperson (and the nickname “Woody” came into being), primary hostage negotiator, training coordinator for all federal and state programs as well as the custodian of all the records including the files concerning the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  After 25 years of having all the “fun” I could stand I retired from the Bureau in August 1990. 

I immediately opened up a private law practice and “fun” started all over again.  In addition to my law practice I had the opportunity to become one of the first naturalized citizens to be appointed a Municipal Judge and Magistrate of Dallas County. 

My wife, Yvonne, went back to law school in 1981 and received her law degree from SMU in 1984, the same year our son, Brian, graduated from high school.  Yvonne has been practicing law of 19 years and Brian went on to graduate from the University of Texas.  Brian married Jody in 1994, and they live in Houston, Texas.  We are the proud grandparents of three girls, Madeline and Jordan (twins), age 5, and Evann, age 7. 

Yvonne and I still have not seriously contemplated retirement.  We both still enjoy the challenges that various legal matters present us. 

2003 is a banner year for us.  I arrived in Pampa 50 years ago, barely able to speak/understand English, and Yvonne and I will be celebrating our 40^th wedding anniversary this fall.