And co-conspirators in others. Who do you think you are? The pit boss had heard the spiel many times and smiled patronizingly as he personally counted out the stacks of $500 chips. Pitts fancied himself a big-timer and concluded that Chagra must be pretty big himself if he was demanding thirty grand. At the intersection of Broadway a mint-green van blocked his route. If he refused, they would see that he was reindicted under the kingpin act and sent away for life without parole. Later, a superseding indictment added the charge of continuing criminal enterprise. But Kerr wasnt satisfied. Up and then down. Vivian said she didnt know. And, of course, Jimmy Chagra. Lee kept detailed records of gambling transactions, but no one else had any concept of home much he bet or with how many different bookies. Much later, Lee Chagra learned that the single piece of evidence against him was a statement made by Tom Pitts, claiming that he and another drug dealer had once used Lees office to cut a deal. Maybe it will get better, Vivian said. Security guards kept the riffraff away. Looking on, Joe marveled. Lee didnt say anything. The judge was a member of every exclusive club in San AntonioSons of the Republic of Texas, Sons of the American Revolution, Texas Cavaliers, Argyle Club, San Antonio Club, Order of the Alamo, San Antonio Gun Club, German Club, American Legion, San Antonio Country Cluband owned property in the segregated Key Allegro resort on the Texas coastthe list went on and on. Hadnt I already proven that wrong?. 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. Vivian did her best to smile. The rest of it, he said, his voice sure and unwavering, represents not guilty. His cowboy hat was pushed forward until the brim almost touched his nose, and shaggy locks of graying hair spilled over his collar. A graduate of SMUs law school, Kerr had worked for the Justice Department and helped draft the 1970 Drug Control Act. The Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to advance the public understanding of organized crime's history and impact on American society. By maintaining close ties to Democratic Party kingmaker Travis Johnson, Boyd had run the gamut of offices: assistant county attorney, assistant U.S. attorney, district attorney, U.S. magistrate. The scam brought in more money than Lee had ever thought of making in his law practice. To mark the 40th anniversary of the trial of drug kingpin Jimmy Chagra, who was accused of paying a hitman $250,000 to kill a federal judge John Wood, Oscar All three believe he would never have gotten into the dope business without the contacts of Lee, a lawyer who seemed drawn to shady characters along the border, where smuggling was the economy. [1][2][3] He was implicated in the May 1979 assassination of United States District Judge John H. Wood Jr. in San Antonio, Texas. Hughes knew these had been hard times for his friend. Lees law practice never recovered. Even after the charges were dismissed, there was still the stigma. His eyes were open, but he was obviously dying. At the end of his life, Jimmy Chagra knew he was dying, and unlike his ex-wife, whod fought the cancer for herself and her daughters, he gave up quickly. Ten smugglers, two airplanes, and four U-Haul trucks had been seized in the predawn trap. The district attorney, several district judges, and a former mayor stood elbow to elbow with Sailor Roberts, gambler Amarillo Slim, and at least a dozen convicted dope dealers. Patsy tearfully asked for respect from the press during the crisis. This morning Jo Annie had another surprise, a block of tickets to the afternoons Sun Bowl football game between Texas and Maryland. For the time being, the Jerry Johnson episode played itself out in obscurity, but the Chagra name burst into the headlines in the opening days of 1977. Minimum sentence was ten years, maximum was life. In the first minutes of Lees run, a little old lady burst through the crowd just as Lee released the dice. The charges against all the defendants were eventually dropped, but not for two years. By the late sixties he had put together an organization capable of moving tons of marijuana across the river. Clark was dog tired and went straight to bed. I blocked the door with my body, Donna recalled, but he opened it enough to see the money.. He was bubbling over with tales of the previous days Tucson victory. The case against Stricklin appeared to be nothing more than a rehash of the long-discredited Tennessee indictment mushed together with evidence from the deal for which Stricklin was serving time. Despite, or perhaps because of, these tactics, agents of the FBI, the IRS, and especially the DEA became convinced that Chagra not only was involved in international drug trafficking but was in fact the mastermind, the kingpin. The news that a task force of federal and state agents had seized a DC-4 with 17,000 pounds of top-grade Colombian marijuana in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on December 30 hit El Paso like a sonic boom. James Kerr was devoting almost all of his time to his organized-crime investigation. September 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? I undermined their entire case of how the bullet got to the judge.. Inside Friscos Lavish, Enormous New Golf Resort. Loaves of Syrian bread were baking in the kitchen. The case had been dead for two years, but Kerr had a plan. A major law firm that always invited the top six UT law graduates to a spring gala invited only five in 1962. And Im going to charge you ten thousand dollars.. [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. The case remains unsolved. Since he was not technically involved in the murder, Esper escaped with a relatively light sentence of fifteen years. By the time Lee finished dressing, Jo Annie had breakfast readyfreshly baked Syrian bread, butter, and a variety of fruit preserves. Lee handed out $200 in tips before they got to the suite. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The consensus had always been that Jimmy Chagra would never amount to much. 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. Traditionally, gambling and smuggling are on a par with fixing parking tickets and hiring illegal aliens. And hed better. Chagra jumped bail, but was captured six months later in Las Vegas. Until now. Sometime in the middle of the night, after everyone else was asleep, Lee changed clothes and drove to his new office. He worked his way through the University of Texas law school, graduating fourth in his class in 1962. He could be shamelessly sentimental and gentle as a whisper, and yet there was a macho fury inside that could make him turn on those closest to him. Maximum sentence was 15 years on each of three counts, and thats what the judge gave him45 years. So Jimmys smuggling operation must be thriving as Lees law practice crumbled. He had several of the bracelets made for close friends and members of the family. In some ways, they said, he was like Dad Chagra, old Abdou, a man stunted by his dreams. But after their father was arrested and his hundred-million dollars had disappeared, they were left penniless, at the mercy of a Texas society that vilified them. Because they forgot that the murder took place May 29th, and down there in Texas, the trees were in bloom. Chagra was also a heavy gambler in Las Vegas, Nevada, and attracted attention with his flamboyant ways. If Stricklin cooperated, they would work for his early release. Lee kissed her and slipped her the money. Joe Chagra testified against the other defendants in exchange for pleading guilty to murder-conspiracy with a maximum sentence of ten years in a plea-bargain deal, and with an agreement that he would not testify against his brother Jimmy in a separate trial. When Lee hit a losing streak, he could fly into a snit, blaming anyone handy, especially Jo Annie, who more than once hurried off the casino floor in tears. By early autumn 1976 Lee was back in El Paso, pumping money. In January 1971 Wood was sworn in as a U.S. district judge, with jurisdiction over about a quarter of the El Paso docket. They say Jimmy lacked ambition. Hed never cried about it before. Wood pressed on, however, announcing that the grand jury investigation concerned not only Lee Chagra and Stricklin; it also involved Sib Abraham and others. Written by Catherine Chagra, The Chagra family was a big, big deal in El Paso, Texas, Geoff Schumacher, vice president of exhibits and programs at the Mob Museum, explained to Nevada Public Radio ahead of the event (he will be moderating). They were like a sickness with him., Lee also loved El Paso and had never thought of living anywhere else. It is hard for me to go back into my cell and think of myself as the man the newspapers have made me out to be. The bell boy warned me of (Lees) reputation as a gambler, and that he was known to like women, Vivian Chagra would tell her friend and former anthropology professor Kay McCulloch, in an interview for a book project on which the two were collaborating. Narcotics agents believed that Stricklin and his associates supplied a good part of the South and Southwest with Mexican marijuana. Catherine figures she was 10 when her dad went to prison. Ive been a fool.. For six years now shed been divorced from Jimmy and nothing much had changed. The next summer the Chagra brothers hit Vegas like a blizzard of kamikaze locusts. He would never go back to Vegas. On several occasions he watched Lee remove one of his boots and count out the cash. That was a fact. Boyd, Kerr, and the DEA had worked so hard selling the media on the contention that El Paso was the hub of dope trafficking in the Southwest that everyone took it as gospel. Lou Esper had planned both of these crimes too. He earned a lot of money and became a high roller in Las Vegas, known for his very generous tipping. While federal agents snapped photographs from the parking lot across the street, hundreds of mourners jammed St. Patricks. It was almost midnight when the Black Striker made his appearance on the casino floor. Someone had gone after Jo Annie, who had collapsed when she first heard the news but now wanted to be there with the family. Id lay next to him and stroke his arm and hed say, Baby, I think I might go to hell. He didnt apologize for anything; he just said, I think Im going to hell. I said, You just have to ask God to forgive you, Daddy. I dont think he felt bad about the crimes. His harsh, unbending policy of sentencing and his blatant pro-prosecution posture astonished lawyers and embarrassed other judges, including those that sat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He could betray a trust as casually as tipping a dealer a chip worth more than the dealer made in a month. Ill drive you home, he said in a low voice. Chagra used one of his trademarks, a solid-gold retractable pointer, to demonstrate his case. Emily McCullar is a senior editor covering pop culture, news, and Texas history. One strategy that Liddy and the newly created Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) finally settled on, as defense lawyers in El Paso soon realized, was the use of agents provocateurs, whose job it was to create crime. Every morning when I drive down to the office, I get sick at my stomach, Joe told Patty. He was up and down all his lifestruggling. Though Jimmy Chagras name was never officially mentioned, almost everyone assumed that he had masterminded the scheme. Jimmys Florida operation, far from being an immediate disaster, disbanded after successfully offloading fifty tons of grass from a Colombian freighter in March. On November 21, 1978, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Kerr was ambushed and shot at near his home by two men who fired 19 bullets at his car. Lee stared out the limo window at the blur of cold neon. Kerr was frail and sallow-faced and talked in a high-pitched voice that suggested he was about to shatter. Catherine is at work on a book called Dirty Darlings: A Story of Big Shots, Big Hair, Free Falling and a Texas-Sized Return to Grace. She has the tapes and the transcripts and is determined to get her version of the family story told. It was the first time anyone from El Paso had thought of using a tramp steamer. Marble floors. He crossed the living room and closed the apartment door behind him. Lee, the man was saying, Im not gonna say this againno more credit!. In less than fifteen minutes, he won $90,000. The government was so rabid for convictions that it destroyed its own case. Yosephs gazed moved around the room. The next morning, a Saturday, was one of those perfect December days in El Paso when the desert air is so crisp you can hear it and the mountains loom out of the blue shadows and change colors before your eyes. For months Lee had been unable to shake the premonition that something wild and uncontrollable had broken loose. The story surrounding the assassination of Judge Wood was profiled in an episode of City Confidential. Those tapes, according to Catherine, were doctored and judged inadmissible.). Jimmy had chartered a jet and attempted to rescue an El Paso pilot who had been badly burned when a DC-6 crashed on takeoff at an improvised field near Santa Marta, Colombia. Fortunately the glass was shatter-proof. Although Wood had devoted his career to civil law, there was no more ardent law-and-order advocate anywhere. He was convicted of obstructing the investigation of the The door was partially open, but the office appeared empty. The family posted a $25,000 reward and announced that the freedom banner would hang until the killers were caught and the case was closed. Jimmy, on the other hand, had a true gamblers instinct, a fatalistic kill-or-be-killed attitude. These people used to steal, a Mexican policeman told the Associated Press recently, but there is more money in contraband. Lee had always been our strength., Lee couldnt shake the feeling that something or someone was stalking him. It must have been nearly three-thirty by then. They didnt count all the bundles of cash in the tennis bag, but there was more money than either of them had ever seen in one place, something like $450,000. Chagra and Wood were on a collision course that was bound to end in catastrophe. This is gonna be one theyll write a book about, he told Hughes. I didnt have Wood killed. The Most Reverend Sidney Metzger, bishop emeritus of El Paso, came out of retirement to say mass. Joe Chagra also went to prison for his role in the assassination. I have never found anything, he said pleasantly, in any of these grand jury investigations. By now all the Chagras knew that Jimmy was a major drug trafficker, and they must have suspected that Lees arrangement with his brother and his relationship with Jack Stricklin were more than traditional lawyer-client dealings. Two of Chagras daughters, Christa and Catherine, now live in Smithville. Chagra was released from prison for health reasons in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 9, 2003. All things considered, 1978 has probably been the worst year of Lee Chagras life. He talked about death a lot. Chagra argued that the indictment smacked of double jeopardy, but there was no way he could prove it until the government got specific. The other lawyer couldnt appreciate the irony, but until that moment, Lee had always envied him. Until now the media had treated the charges against Stricklin as routine news, but Woods ruling added a bizarre new twist. On the morning of the day Lee was murdered, his bookkeeper, Donna Johnson, arrived at the office about ten oclock. With the help of their principled mother before her tragic death, and haunted by the shadow of their father, Dirty Darlings is a portrait of courage as three women attempt to re-assemble the shattered pieces of their lives. The boys had been caught red-handed with 17,000 pounds if marijuana. Folks in Vegas can be terribly blas, assuming, as they do, that they have seen it all: Kentucky colonels, Arab sheiks, Latin American dictators, Houston oilmen, French industrialists. His grandfather was imprisoned before Jimmy was born, and the family immigrated to El Paso from Mexico. They could have been twins. A black banner was stretched across the entire front of the building. Instead of flying in the customary small planeload of 2000 pounds from Mexico, they imported 54,000 pounds from Colombia. A month later, Jack Stricklin was standing before Maximum John Wood, contemplating life without parole. Lee was already there. [6] In fact, he is described as having been "no less than the biggest marijuana smuggler in the country" during that time. It took Lee less that half a day to discover that the search warrant used to bust the Tennessee smugglers was faulty. Their dad just didnt feel safe going to court without his consigliere. On August 31, 1977, Lee Chagra appeared in Judge Woods court to file a motion of discovery, asking that the judge turn over DEA reports, customs reports, grand jury probes, any material that would reveal when Stricklin was supposed to have engaged in continuing criminal activity. I never know if we have fifty thousand dollars in our account or fifty cents. Hed fought a lot of tough battles at Lees side, and he loved them because they were something that he and Lee did together. The Mafia! It took almost a year for all the money to work its way back to Jimmy and his partners. He was going to play baccarat instead of craps. And yet, right there under their noses was another Chagra not at all handicapped by brains or good judgment. He touched the tip of the pointer and said, This small tip represents innocence: the defendants didnt do a thing. Lee referred to it as the mansion that Jack built. It was 6500 square feet, with pool and stables, electronically operated gates, and closed-circuit television monitors. No Mafia figures were ever indicted. Lee was preoccupied this morning. Lee had already made a name for himself before he began taking drug defendants, but the string of cases that would make him one of El Pasos most famousor infamousfigures began in the early seventies when U.S. customs agents busted a smuggler from Tennessee named Tom Pitts and two other men who were attempting to bring six hundred pounds of marijuana across the Rio Grande. Lee gave Jack Stricklin, now out of prison, $1000 and passed out lesser amounts to other old friends. Wallace was sentenced to death, though this was later reduced to life in prison. Florida Police Officer Treated After Being Exposed To Fentanyl During Stop, Youth Pot Abuse Jumps By 245% In Two Decades: Researchers, 'Cocaine' Cassie debuts new tattoo sleeve in racy photo as glamorous drug smuggler sets return to Australia. 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. Jimmy and his new business partner, Henry Wallace, were in Florida awaiting their first freighterload of Colombian marijuana, and from what Lee had heard, the operation had all the earmarks of a disaster. Jo Annie left the game early, and when she stopped by the office Roberts was just leaving. It was as if their friendship had come to a fork in the road, and Lee had wandered off in another direction. State senator Tati Santiesteban, who had known Lee Chagra most of his life, led the procession of pallbearers. In the seven years or so that it had been in on the books, few had bothered to read that section of the drug law. He swore he did not put out a hit on Maximum John H. Wood Jr., the federal judge in San Antonio presiding over a case that could have sent Jamiel Jimmy Chagra to prison for life. If Stricklin cooperated, they would work for his early release. [39], Chagra married his third wife, Lynda Ray, while living under the name James Madrid on November 22, 2005. Clark excused himself and went to his own room, alone. But his eyes spun like a blur of cherries on a slot machine. There was plenty of cocaine to guarantee a holiday spirit; at least five ounces had been delivered a few days earlier. It was the era of the Nixon Administrations much-heralded war on drugs. He filed a freedom-of-information request demanding that the government furnish him with all documents relating to its investigations of him, and before long the files filled two heavy-duty storage boxes. Look at em, he grinned at the pit boss. The family name was originally Bushaada, but Lees grandfather mexicanized it during the revolution. In these pictures shes 9 or thereabouts. Vivian died of cancer in July 1986. "[8], Jamiel Chagra, known as Jimmy, was born in El Paso, Texas on December 7, 1944. [15] The FBI conducted more than 30,000 interviews related to the case and in total collected more than 500,000 pieces of information. 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. [1][24], Harrelson was eventually caught and convicted of being the gunman after Chagra discussed the assassination with his brother Joe during Joe's visit to Jimmy in United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, after FBI agents bugged the rooms in which they were speaking. In Judge John Woods courtroom Kerr found the perfect forum for his crusade. It was during this period that Lee was introduced to Mickeys black sheep uncle, Lou Esper, a pale, seedy, rat-faced Syrian hoodlum who had spent about half his fifty years in prisons. Lee was the first college graduate in his family, and the first professional. Sandy and the others began to realize that this was something truly personal; it was as though Lee were mourning his own impending death. While they were counting, Bobby Yoseph appeared at the door and tried to shove his way inside. But as usual, Jimmys success only threw Lee into a funk. Unlike many casinos, the Aladdin allowed a player to lay double odds; thus it was possible to win or lose twice as fast. Technically and legally, the unsworn interview shouldnt even have been a part of the grand jury report. The 38-year-old prosecutor had given up his apartment in El Paso and moved back to San Antonio, where he felt more comfortable. [7] He had a $1 million mansion in Las Vegas. Out on bail before sentencing, he went on the lam for five or six months and was on the FBIs 10 most wanted list. WebCatherine Chagra, the oldest daughter of Jamiel "Jimmy" Chagra -- a convicted dope dealer accused but never convicted of masterminding the assassination of a federal judge in San He hardly seemed aware she was in the room. Jimmy was known to win or lose $1 million a night, according to Catherine. Which for Jimmy was almost the same as being broke, Patty said. For years there had been a rivalry between the two brothers, a fierce and unyielding competition that only the two of them completely understood. The real show was on the casino floor in special sections roped off for the Chagras. Not long after that, someone attempted to rob a high-stakes poker game at Jimmy Salomes house. Stricklin hadnt yet met Lee Chagra, but he knew Chagras reputation. [40][3], He had seven children, including a daughter named Catherine, who wrote a memoir about the family. Joe and his wife, Patty, who had been married for about eighteen months, sold some of their furniture and gave Jimmy some money and their Blazer. Over the years lawyers encountered scores of cases in which citizens had been lured into crimes by what amounted to federal bounty hunters. 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. He needs you to look it over before he mails it back.. Still, everyone loved Jimmy and took care of him. A.I think now its a separate dealIm not sure. He had known that the DEA was watching him, but a grand jury? Lees limit was $3000, and he would have played for $10,000 had Caesars Palace allowed it. [5][3], Texas Drug, Gambling Figure Missing; High Bond Forfeited, Jimmy Chagra; Smuggler Linked to Judge's Death. It was a shocking verdict after the FBI conducted its most extensive investigation since the Kennedy assassination. There was no bitterness or rancor, but by the end of August Joe Chagra realized that he had had all he could take. His idea of a good time was going home to his wife and newborn son, Joseph, maybe tinkering with his stereo or waxing his speedboat, swimming or lifting weights. It was obvious that the prosecution and the DEA had problems coordinating their investigation. I think Jerry Johnson told us whatever he thought we wanted to hear, DEA agent J.T. 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