He didnt appear particularly disturbed. Borrowing heavily from Kerrs own wording, Wood totally agreed: This request appears to be primarily an effort by the defense attorney to obtain reports of an investigation pertaining to him. September 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? It was only in 1970, after Senator John Tower and other ranking members of the Republican Party in Texas made personal pleas, that the staunch Republican lawyer agreed to accept a federal judgeship for the Western District of Texas. [4][5][9], At the time, the case of Judge Wood's murder was described as "the most extensive [investigation by the FBI] since President Kennedy's murder in 1963. As the feds worked around the clock to build cases against both Chagras, an agent provocateur came forward with information that could potentially put both of them away for life. The interview was patently leading; most of the questions were of the when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife variety. Jo Annies own family, the Abrahams, had considerable wealth, and she continued to collect antiques and preserve an extravagant lifestyle. They learned later that Jimmy left town with about $50,000. To get to that part of the story, we have to go back in time, to the war on drugs that Richard Nixon initiated, and to three brothers in El Paso of Lebanese descent by way of Mexico. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. Goodman managed to get Chagra acquitted. [10][4], Jimmy got into drug smuggling in 1969 and became one of the largest smugglers in the United States, trafficking drugs from Mexico and Colombia by plane and boat. You ought to pay me fifteen hundred dollars an hour to entertain customers. Lee counted out $75,000, slipped it into his coat pocket, and headed for his clandestine appointment. If they had, they would have seen the small, trembling figure of the prosecutor crouched in a fetal position below the dashboard, dazed, bleeding from the shards of splintered glass, shaky as a bowl of gelatinbut otherwise unharmed. Jimmy Chagras first big score came in the summer of 75, when he orchestrated a shipment of more than 50,000 pounds of pot on a tramp steamer from Colombia to the Massachusetts coast, according to Dirty Dealing, a book about the Chagras published in 1984 by Austin author and journalist Gary Cartwright. In the summer of 1977, sensing the heat but also attracted by the opportunities being suggested by his new partner, a wily, borderwise ex-con named Henry Wallace, Jimmy told Lee he was moving his base of operations to Florida. After a while Clark said, You must have dropped close to half a million back there. What was happening here? He had an affinity for cards and dice, for dope dealers and shady politicians, for cripples and nightclub singers, for dabblers in the black market and exponents of the quick buck. A scathing memorandum written in March 1975 by the chief judge of the Middle District of Tennessee declared the indictment to be obviously and fatally defective. He also said it was so worded as to be utterly meaningless, and therefore, the indictment actually charged nothing at all. Judge Frank Gray, Jr., went out of his way to rebuke agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and federal prosecutors, declaring that the restraints on the defendants liberty and their being forced to live for two years under a cloud of anxiety, suspicion, and often hostility violated basic principles of justice. What a strange, twisted love. Copyright 2023 Knewz Media Group LLC. On five minutes notice, Caesars would dispatch a Learjet to fetch one or both of the Chagras. Please feel free to use any other table in the casino. Like so many sheep, the nickel-and-dime players started backing away. Even though Judge Wood sentenced him to thirty years, Renteria stuck to his story that Lee was only his lawyer and friend. He had seven children, including a daughter named Catherine, who wrote a memoir about the family. Jimmy Chagra died of cancer on July 25, 2008. He was living in a trailer camp in Mesa, Arizona. Kerr preferred playing Bach fugues in the dim light of the First Presbyterian Church and going to the symphony. Lee concurred and told other members of the family that Jimmy was dead broke and needed their help. Lees law practice never recovered. More likely it was because Lee, as chief justice of the student court, had spoken out against segregated dorms and football teams. Hughes knew these had been hard times for his friend. At the intersection of Broadway a mint-green van blocked his route. If you scratched Stricklin deep enough, Kerr reasoned, you would find Chagra. They were making a career, or at least a crusade, of trying to prove that Lee Chagra, master criminal lawyer, was in fact master criminal. [19][20] Chagra faced a possible life sentence without parole if convicted and reportedly feared he would receive a life sentence, according to prosecutors. [11][24][9], Jimmy Chagra died of cancer on July 25, 2008. Texass Most Venomous Caterpillar. But everyone said Lee was the best. Pitts arrived at Lees office looking like a hippie who had just crawled out of a Goodwill box but acting like the owner of a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. [21], Chagra was released from prison for health reasons in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 9, 2003. I waited around to wish you and the kids a merry Christmas, the gambler told her. He was really happy that all the money was gone and he had to work again. When you live that way, chances are youll die that way too. There was no way to count the number of ex-lovers who crowded the cathedral to say their last farewell, but they were discreetly scattered and only occasionally exchanged glances. [7] He had a $1 million mansion in Las Vegas. United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, "TRIAL ON JUDGE'S DEATH HEARS ONE JAILED BROTHER DEFAME THE OTHER (Published 1982)", "Jamiel A. Chagra, 63, Drug Kingpin, Dies", "Joseph Chagra, 50, Lawyer Linked to Assassination, Dies", "Drug kingpin accused in slaying of federal judge", "Jailer recalls conversations with Woody Harrelson's father", "Las Vegas author developing documentary on drug kingpin Jimmy Chagra", "Hit man guilty in federal judge's death", "There was a murder at Christmastime 40 years ago", "Charles Harrelson, 69; father of actor killed federal judge", "Chagra Acquitted of Hiring Killer of Federal Judge", "Judge's 1979 slaying was 'crime of the century', "Joe Chagra, Convicted in Conspiracy to Kill Judge, Critically Injured", "SEARCH NARROWS IN '79 SLAYING OF U.S. JUDGE IN TEXAS (Published 1981)", "Drug kingpin Jimmy Chagra's daughter recalls his rise, fall", "Charles Harrelson Trial: 1982-83 | Encyclopedia.com", "GAMBLER IS ACQUITTED OF PLOTTING ASSASSINATION OF A FEDERAL JUDGE (Published 1983)", "Chagra enters guilty plea in Wood murder trial", "Forty years ago, U.S. District Judge Wood assassinated in San Antonio by Woody Harrelson's father", "Elizabeth Chagra, plotted to kill judge", "5 things to know about Sidney Powell, the Dallas lawyer formerly on Trump's legal team", "For Trump advocate Sidney Powell, a playbook steeped in conspiracy theories", "Newspaper says Chagra deal includes early release for wife", "Man implicated in assassination of federal judge now free", "TEXAS LAWYER ADMITS ROLE IN PLOT TO KILL FEDERAL JUDGE (Published 1982)", "Jamiel Alexander Chagra, 63; was mastermind of international drug ring", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jamiel_Chagra&oldid=1124413746, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Pages using infobox person with multiple parents, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Jimmy, Justin, Jackie, Catherine, Csilla, Christa, Cindy, This page was last edited on 28 November 2022, at 20:15. Jo Annie went on to the Sun Bowl and telephoned her husband at halftime. The greatest job of bullshit advocacy Ive ever seen, Clark Hughes said of Lees performance. Lees success in trying drug cases soon led him to meet Jack Stricklin, who had sent the Pitts case his way. His grandfather had been an ironfisted sheriff of Bexar County when lawmen still fought off Apaches. Fold this five ways and stick it where the elves dont play, he said. [6] In fact, he is described as having been "no less than the biggest marijuana smuggler in the country" during that time. By early afternoon the party was over, and staff and hangers-on had gone. He had telephoned Sandy from Tucson on Friday and told her that a woman named Butch would stop by the office later in the day. During his tenure as magistrate, Boyd and Lee Chagra became friends, and when there was an opening for the job of U.S. attorney after Jimmy Carters election in 1976, Lee, Sib Abraham, and others supported Boyds appointment. Food, drinks, girlsanything one might fancy was there in a whisk. You sonuvabitch, how are you gonna pay off those markers?, He took a deep draw on his cigarette and pressed Clarks shoulder. On several occasions he watched Lee remove one of his boots and count out the cash. Chagra's son, Joseph, 19, and daughter, Samantha, 17, kept a bedside vigil urging him, despite his coma, not to give up. [36][37] However, his sister Patsy stated that he was not in the witness protection program at the time of his death. The agent had wormed his way into the confidence of one of Lees protgs, a singer and part-time actor named Joe Renteria who was hot to start his own smuggling ring. Fayuqueros (smugglers) from Mexico usually make two trips a week across the border, carrying about 250,000 pesos ($10,000) worth of goods each way. The family was breaking apart. He was widely believed to have been placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program. A known gambler and hit man, Harrelson had apparently been cleared in the Wood murder. A sample: Q.What about Lee Chagra? Except for a few faithful clients like Jack Stricklin, Lees practice was at rock bottom. He nearly bankrupted the family carpet store and maybe even helped along Dad Chagras fatal heart attack. Leave them blank to get signed up. Dan Solomon writes about politics, music, food, sports, criminal justice, health care, film, and business. Then, in a fashion that was typical of his relationship with Lee, Jimmy decided to take it one step farther. At the same time a swell of excitement seemed to rumble from the floor, and people pushed to get a look at the action. That was the year Lee and Jo Annie started building their new home on Frontera Road in the Upper Valley. He thought nobody would love him without money. I did not worry about a long-term jail sentence until Wood was killed, he said. It is like I am reading about a third person.. Even after the charges were dismissed, there was still the stigma. On June 20 a team of narcotics agents appeared at his law office with a warrant for his arrest and hauled him away in handcuffs. Kerr was an empire builder, Boyd said. It was obvious that the prosecution and the DEA had problems coordinating their investigation. The best guess is that they divided at least $5 million. The attempt on Kerrs life unleashed the most sweeping drug investigation in the history of the Southwest. Lee Chagra by some of his fans was murdered in his office and robbed of some $450,000 that might have been intended for a mob boss. [16], On December 23, 1978, Lee Chagra was shot and killed in his law office in El Paso. The complex included not only a maze of well-appointed offices but also a fully equipped kitchen, a law library, and completely furnished two-bedroom suite.