jimmy chagra daughters
The months of suspicion and hostile publicity almost wrecked Lees law career. He ruined his marriage to Vivian, left her and the children. What a strange, twisted love. But more than anything, it was his clothes; Jimmy showed up at the funeral wearing an outfit exactly like Lees Black Striker costume. Vivian remembered the previous Saturday at his office; shes heard murmurs from the staff as she followed him upstairs. She had bought the Lincoln limo because she wanted to give her husband something crazy after all these years.. She knew that Lee had just come through many weeks of hard times and she hated asking for money, but Jimmy was months behind in support payments. Lee always suffered shamelessly when he was down and Jimmy was up, but this was different. Esper had also observed Lee making large cash payoffs to various collectors. 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. 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. 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. A big blob of fat came pouring out, she remembered. Jimmy was just talking. One of the soldiers, David Leon Wallace, signed a confession that not only admitted the robbery and murder of Lee Chagra but also substantiated Lees seemingly paranoid belief that he was being stalked. And Im going to charge you ten thousand dollars.. They had to take care of him because he spoiled everything he touched. [15], Chagra's drug dealings came under close scrutiny by law enforcement and the judicial system. Thats the way Lee wanted it. Chagra's lawyer in the case was Oscar Goodman,[26][3] future Mayor of Las Vegas and prosecutors included Assistant United States Attorney Sidney Powell. 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. In less than fifteen minutes, he won $90,000. Then suddenly the money was gone. Instead, this flimsy, highly prejudicial document was destined to dog both Lee Chagra and his nemesis, Judge John Wood, to their graves. Later, a superseding indictment added the charge of continuing criminal enterprise. All of Lees personal affairs, especially those with women, were conducted behind closed doors. Drugs are currently in fashion, but over the years whiskey, cigarettes, perfume, Swiss watches, silver, kitchenware, and of course, laborers have been staples in the trade. He liked to mainline speed and supported his habit by organizing a small-time burglary-robbery ring using young black soldiers from Fort Bliss. 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). He seemed pleased with the gesture but told her there was some work he needed to do at the office. Its from some friends in Vegas, he said, handing Vivian the card. He looked smaller than life as he stood there, facing the dresser, looking at the picture of his father and seeing his own reflection. In Judge John Woods courtroom Kerr found the perfect forum for his crusade. In fact, the only indictments handed down by the racket-busters involved a Bandido who resisted arrest after FBI and DEA agents kicked down his door, a former manager of the Lamplighter Club, a city judge charged with fixing parking tickets, and bail bondsman Vic Apodaca, who was charged with income tax violations. He spent more than 35 years defending some of the most notorious alleged Mob figures, including Meyer Lansky, Frank Rosenthal, Anthony Spilotro and Jimmy Chagra. Chagra was also a heavy gambler in Las Vegas, Nevada, and attracted attention with his flamboyant ways. He once sentenced a dope dealer to 35 years for contempt of court. Lees finances were in shambles, but he still had plenty of credit in Las Vegas. It was hard to imagine two men more different. The government seemed to know it didnt have a case, but it was determined to see how far it could travel. In the court of John Wood, Chagra realized, that could be some distance. He wanted to indict De La Torre on five counts of perjury in an attempt to add another 25 years to the sentencein effect, requiring him to defend his story to a second jury. For all the smoke generated by James Kerrs highly publicized grand jury probe of organized crime, there was hardly any fire. Lee meant $10,000 for all three defendants, but Pitts didnt understand that. Lee Chagra lived in the border underworld of El Paso, a place where drugs were the game and even the good guys didnt play by the rules. A graduate of SMUs law school, Kerr had worked for the Justice Department and helped draft the 1970 Drug Control Act. Lee didnt seem at all depressed, said Donna Johnson, the law firms bookkeeper. David Long? Lee said. Prosecutors suspected Jimmy Chagra, and the FBI began meticulously putting its case together. Donna hadnt seen him this happy in months. At the intersection of Broadway a mint-green van blocked his route. Lees position in this venture was that of highly paid legal adviser for the gang of smugglers. He walked upstairs to his own office. In short order, Wood surpassed Guinns unenviable reputation as the most reversed judge in the district. And hes this huge drug kingpin. I colored the Kleenex sheets with green marker and I put it in the tree branches. 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] Facing life for smuggling, Jimmy Chagra allegedly decided to have the judge killed. That was why I jumped bond. All things considered, 1978 has probably been the worst year of Lee Chagras life. Lees morning coffee was perfect, and the cocaine was first-rate. Please feel free to use any other table in the casino. Like so many sheep, the nickel-and-dime players started backing away. Kerr was an empire builder, Boyd said. To combat what he perceived as the inroads of organized crime, Boyd needed someone tough and relentless to take over the El Paso docket as federal prosecutor. Chagra had little use for public servants, especially prosecutors, and Kerr was a classic bureaucrat, squeaking with authority and wedded to the book. [5][3], Texas Drug, Gambling Figure Missing; High Bond Forfeited, Jimmy Chagra; Smuggler Linked to Judge's Death. He was up and down all his lifestruggling. Lee and Joe began to consider filing a harassment suit against Wood, Kerr, and various federal agents. "[35] It was otherwise described as "one of the most intense investigations in the annals of the FBI". Jimmy couldnt stop talking about it.. It was a partial victory for Leethe jury found De La Torre guilty of only one charge and he got the maximum, 5 years. Wood began to crawfish. It was an incredible sight. Crimes against persons are treated with extreme gravity, but crimes against the economy are treated with a wink and a smile. Even as Lee was working to salvage what he could from the ruins, Jimmy was plotting a new deal. Coming as it did in the midst of his misery, Lees brilliant defense of the Ardmore bunch had to be his most satisfying victory. Standing in front of the mirror, he would snap the pearl buttons of his red cowboy shirt, then climb into the black Western-cut leisure suit. Fighting seemingly hopeless causes became his passion. This wasnt an unusual request: just a week before, Lee had given Sandy $50,000 to carry around in her tote bag, ostensibly for safekeeping. 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. Lees limit was $3000, and he would have played for $10,000 had Caesars Palace allowed it. In a few years Abraham and Chagra had the leading anti-establishment law firm in the city. 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. Some people though Lee Chagra didnt know how to quit, but that wasnt quite true. More likely it was because Lee, as chief justice of the student court, had spoken out against segregated dorms and football teams. Lee despised Kerr, and Kerr had every reason to despise Lee. A month later, Jack Stricklin was standing before Maximum John Wood, contemplating life without parole. But Jimmy took most of the credit. 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. Ten smugglers, two airplanes, and four U-Haul trucks had been seized in the predawn trap. Its going to be a very interesting night Jan. 18 at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. I think I was about 20 and Lee was 27 or something. He touched the tip of the pointer and said, This small tip represents innocence: the defendants didnt do a thing. Kerr had the advantage of interviews with a number of dealers who had been arrested since 1973one informant claimed he had personally paid Stricklin $500,000. If the feds could compromise even a single member of the conspiracy, the whole organization might crumbleand Lee with it. El Pasos legions of smugglersdrug smugglers in particularmanage to get themselves arrested often enough to keep law practices like Lee Chagras busy and profitable. Chagra laid out the cold, hard facts: I cant save you. [21] His drug case went to trial and Chagra was found guilty in August 1979 and sentenced to 30 years. He bragged that he never once granted probation in a heroin case. With its confluence of shady border business opportunities, affairs, greed, drugs, gambling and sibling rivalry, the tale seems to have been fated to play out exactly the way it did: with Jimmy, his second or third wife and Jimmys brother Joe all sentenced to federal prison; with a third brother, Lee, murdered in his office days before Christmas 1978; with Vivian and her three daughters in the witness protection program; and with one generation of a family forever splintered by the grave misdeeds of the one preceding it. But Lee trusted him. Her mom and sisters left witness protection and moved to Buda to be near Bastrop, where her father was being held. They volunteered for every hard-core criminal case that came along: murder, rape, robbery, burglary. It was as if their friendship had come to a fork in the road, and Lee had wandered off in another direction. Jimmy preferred the Sinatra penthouse with its white baby grand piano and spiral staircase. All shed ever had was a future somewhat less than promising. the Mortal Mustache, a.k.a. The 38-year-old prosecutor had given up his apartment in El Paso and moved back to San Antonio, where he felt more comfortable. He unlocked the door to his private bath. Kerrs just working the tailings, he said. 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. I undermined their entire case of how the bullet got to the judge.. All have, understandably, complicated feelings about their father. SOLD OUT: Against All Odds: Oscar Goodman and the 40th Anniversary of the Jimmy Chagra Murder Trial. Look at em, he grinned at the pit boss. And she suspected that some of the money that was paying off Lees elaborate new offices and his gambling debts came from Jimmy. You ought to pay me fifteen hundred dollars an hour to entertain customers. He helped develop Operation Intercept, a massive media event in which millions of U.S. citizens were stopped and searched at the border. None of the missing $450,000 was ever recovered. After about an hour Lee had lost $90,000. 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. I knew as soon as that happened, I didnt have a prayer. [23] The authorities did not immediately suspect Chagra of involvement in the assassination, and it took thousands of man-hours to identify them as suspects in the case. 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 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. Two of their five children were with her. And Jimmy seemed better able to laugh off the competition between them. Maybe it will get better, Vivian said. Jimmy was indicted on a number of drug charges by a grand jury in Midland, a legal maneuver that many lawyers believe was blatant forum shopping: by indicting in Midland rather than El Paso, the prosecution could be sure that the case would be assigned to Judge Woods court. He discussed with the CIA the possibility of liquidating all major drug traffickers in the Middle East; it was estimated that 150 key assassinations would do the job. Chagra was outraged. She had worn a pair of panty hose under the suit and as they were cruising out in the middle of a lake in Joes speedboat, Jimmy called everyones attention to her bizarre outfit and ripped her panty hose in one thigh. He wanted to dress the way Lee dressed, in fine clothes and jewelry, and he wanted to hear whispers of respect when he walked into a room and silence when he told a story. 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 Goodman, former mayor and at the time Chagra's defense attorney, will join the late mobster's daughter, Catherine, to revisit the event. The chiveras are paid $45 to $65, depending on the size and value of the haul; out of that money they are expected to bribe the various Mexican customs officials, who survive on bribes. But Vegas had never seen anything that surpassed the performance of Lee and Jimmy Chagra. Part of it was paranoia, his gut instinct that some malevolent authority was watching and waiting, and part of it was the sort of perverse obstinacy that makes some men walk through a wall rather than open a door. As he pulled off the exit ramp above a truck stop on IH 10, Lee could see the Indians car parked in the shadows behind some eighteen-wheelers that idled in the predawn chill. While Lee ate, Jo Annie puttered with the Christmas decorations. And, of course, Jimmy Chagra. Former mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman is credited with the revitalization of downtown Las Vegas including The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and our very own The Mob Museum. Eventually, Jimmys limit was $10,000 a hand and his credit almost unlimited. It was his most important victory in monthsand his most profitable. His older brother Lee was a very prominent defense attorney Jimmy was the middle son, and the younger son, Joe, was also an attorney.. He made a motion for Judge Wood to recuse (disqualify) himself in the Stricklin case. Something about a will, about some large estate in California? [27] Joe Chagra's defense reportedly attempted to plead guilty to a lesser offense of conspiring to obstruct justice instead. Hunter Thompson once described how a casino shot a three-hundred pound bear out of a cannon right in the middle of the floor and no one looked up. Lee and several others heard the crash of metal against the patio door. He was wearing his boots and jeans and enough jewelry to sink a deep-sea diver. He couldnt have flushed it down the toilet faster than the way he gambled it and lost it, she said. The casino was almost deserted. And the caper made the money flow. Until now the media had treated the charges against Stricklin as routine news, but Woods ruling added a bizarre new twist. In prison, Jimmy would say he got hooked on gambling faster than heroin.. She still has paintings he made while locked up, a hobby he never resumed after getting a medical parole in December 2003. They mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). Jimmy was born the middle son of a Lebanese rug merchant family. Hed brought corsages for all the women on the staff. Lee and Joanne Chagra raised their five children in a rarified world of glitz, glamour and money few other El Pasoans could imagine. [19][20] Chagra faced a possible life sentence without parole if convicted and reportedly feared he would receive a life sentence, according to prosecutors. 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 Goodman, former mayor and at the time Chagra's defense attorney, will join the late mobster's daughter, Catherine, to revisit the event. [5][34] Joe Chagra served six and a half years in prison (of his ten-year sentence) and was released. He died from injuries resulting from an automobile accident that occurred on December 6, 1996. If he refused, they would see that he was reindicted under the kingpin act and sent away for life without parole. The charges against all the defendants were eventually dropped, but not for two years. 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. It was in his blood. On December 23, 1978, Lee Chagra was shot and killed in his law office in El Paso. Lee had been involved with Jimmy in his drug smuggling and the killers took $450,000 that was owed to Joe Bonanno for a drug deal. No charges were filed, but it was apparent that the crash was another of Jimmys scams gone up in smoke. 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. I decided to disappear over to the Hilton for a while. When Clark Hughes returned to Caesars about nine that evening, Lee had almost exhausted his credit limit. In January 1971 Wood was sworn in as a U.S. district judge, with jurisdiction over about a quarter of the El Paso docket. He was also used in FBI: The Untold Stories. It was four years before we lost a case.. Kerr thought Chagra was vulgar and common, and Chagra enjoyed enhancing this image by slipping up behind Kerr and whispering things that made the prosecutor blush. It was a totally ludicrous story, Sib Abraham recalled, but it got very serious when the jury convicted him. In time, Lee and Sib became targets themselves. Lee speculated that the attempt was an inside job. That was it, the last of the half-million the Black Striker had blown in Vegas the year before. The other lawyer couldnt appreciate the irony, but until that moment, Lee had always envied him. He was a fanatic about his family: he lavished gifts on his wife, his children, his mother, his sister. In his time, Lee had invested in a racehorse that ended up as dog meat, a pro golfer who never made the cut, a combination lock that served to secure nothing more than a long, bitter lawsuit, and a caper to corner the Colombian coffee bean market. Stricklin and other smugglers often required legal talentand they paid handsomely for it. All rights reserved. Its good business for everybody.. I thought it was just an isolated thing, one player said, but Lee kept brooding about it. The Tennessee dope dealer rolled down his sock and slapped the cash on Lees desk. That was the year Lee and Jo Annie started building their new home on Frontera Road in the Upper Valley. Hed never seen it so quiet there. Lee couldnt hold a grudge, but Jimmy was the kind who would get you by the balls and never let go, said Jimmy Salome, a longtime family friend. 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. The attempt on Kerrs life unleashed the most sweeping drug investigation in the history of the Southwest. That was a fact. His staff had completed the move while he was in Tucson, and in the morning he would officially take possession: it would be his first day there and, as fate decreed, his last. For years there had been a rivalry between the two brothers, a fierce and unyielding competition that only the two of them completely understood. It had been months since anyone had seen him so animated. He told Jimmy Salome that he was taking out a new insurance policy. Hed never cried about it before. Mom would be returning from mass just about now, walking toward Lees office, unaware that anything had happened. That woman was Vivian, Christa and Catherine and Cynthias mother, who came from humble beginnings in an unincorporated community near Brownwood. Joe was talking about resigning his partnership in the law firm. For pure gambling, Jimmy may have been the strongest anyone in Vegas ever saw. This would be the last time Lee Chagra and James Kerr faced one another in a courtroom, a sort of last hurrah for both. Loaves of Syrian bread were baking in the kitchen. A ton of marijuana is no better or worse than a ton of quicksilver. If you scratched Stricklin deep enough, Kerr reasoned, you would find Chagra. Lee had seated himself at a table and ordered $5000 in chips, but the dealer refused. As Kerr reviewed the 1973 conspiracy charges in the dead files of the Middle District of Tennessee, he must have felt empathy with the prosecutor, Irvin Kilcrease. He sat next to a lawyer who worked for one of El Pasos established firms in one of the high-rise glass towers that dominate the downtown district. The position of federal authorities was that even though Joe Chagra was a lawyer, he was also suspected in conspiracy to conceal the crime; therefore, their conversations were not covered by attorney-client privilege. Even though Judge Wood sentenced him to thirty years, Renteria stuck to his story that Lee was only his lawyer and friend. 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 Goodman, former mayor and at the time Chagras defense attorney, will join the late mobsters daughter, Catherine, to revisit Lee never forgot or forgave. A further indignation: The witness protection program first exiled them to Omaha, Neb. Although Jo Annie appeared at the federal courthouse with $50,000 in bail money, Lee was obliged to spend the night with Georgie Taylor, Jack Stricklin, and virtually the entire hierarchy of El Paso drug trafficking. On top of everything else, he had developed hemorrhoids and they hurt like hell. 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. During the course of the morning, a man called the Cowboy appeared on the alley TV camera. Texass Most Venomous Caterpillar. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. Lee had been accused of a lot of things, but this was the first time anyone had ever accused him of representing himself and not his client. It was becoming an obsession. 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. The law was wide open to interpretationtailor-made for a crusading lawman like James Kerr. Sometime in the middle of the night, after everyone else was asleep, Lee changed clothes and drove to his new office. Jimmy and the crew of the chartered jet were arrested by Colombian authorities. Through it all, he had somehow clung to the central fact in his life: Lee Chagra was a topflight criminal attorney. Whats it all for? he said out loud, and Vivian could see the tears in his eyes and hear the catch in his voice. He was already doing time on the fraud charge at La Tuna federal correctional institution, which was on the New Mexico state line not far from El Paso. Catherine moved to Phoenix about three years later to be near the federal lockup where her father did time, visiting every Sunday for 20 years. [18] He was scheduled to appear before United States District Judge John Wood, a judge nicknamed "Maximum John" who had a reputation for giving out the maximum sentence allowed for drug-related crimes. It was fitting in a way that Lee should end up championing the drug dealers rights; his brother Jimmy was destined to join their ranks. He let himself in with a specially made key and walked upstairs. Its David Long, the first man said. Lee fought like hell for everything he had, but things came easy for Jimmy. Yoseph walked behind the desk and dialed Lees home number. [39], Chagra married his third wife, Lynda Ray, while living under the name James Madrid on November 22, 2005. Although Wood had devoted his career to civil law, there was no more ardent law-and-order advocate anywhere. For sheer lan, Hughes recalled, I dont think Id ever seen him any higher.. He was convicted of obstructing the investigation of the Gambling bored him. Heres What We Want at the Park. Here she is with Paul Anka. Chagra attempted to bribe Judge Wood for "$5 million or 10million". But lately Lee was taking new directions. Patsy tearfully asked for respect from the press during the crisis. Woods blunder was the last straw. [33] His wife was never released and she died in custody of ovarian cancer at age 41. Looking on, Joe marveled. Shortly after the Ardmore trial, DEA agents visited Jack Stricklin at La Tuna federal correctional institution, where he was doing time for a drug rap Lee hadnt been able to get him out of. Universal Studios Is Coming to Frisco. He walked to the top of the stairs and looked down at two black men with guns. An inextricable connection, whether emotional or physical or both, would continue between Lee and Vivian long after Vivian and Jimmy were married, Catherine would later learn. The shotgun murder of an Oklahoma gambler in El Paso some years earlier had convinced him that the Dixie Mafia was making a power play in El Paso, and he had instigated a controversial grand jury investigation. The documents revealed that hardly a week passed without some agents making inquiries into Lee Chagras private life. 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. A grand jury in Nashville had indicted Chagra and forty others on a charge of conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana. They were like a sickness with him., Lee also loved El Paso and had never thought of living anywhere else. Hughes, who assisted in the defense, thought that Lee won in his opening remarks to the jury. Yoseph let himself in the front entrance with the key that Lee had given him that morning. Christa remembers the family being on food stamps after her dad went to jail. He was bubbling over with tales of the previous days Tucson victory. Clark assumed that he would go straight back to Caesars and claim some of his markers, but that wasnt Lees plan. The Most Reverend Sidney Metzger, bishop emeritus of El Paso, came out of retirement to say mass. shaggy shag,' and he would gamble up to a million dollars," said Clark was painfully aware that all serious gamblers harbored deep and irrational superstitions: once hed seen Lee go berserk because a Chinaman approached the table. On several occasions he watched Lee remove one of his boots and count out the cash. [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. He called her into the bedroom. 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. Its like Teddy Roosevelt always said, Lee told him, and now his smile was back in place. He was arrested without incident in front of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, his second home, where, according to Catherine, hed gone to seek facial reconstructive surgery. Lee gave Jack Stricklin, now out of prison, $1000 and passed out lesser amounts to other old friends. [25][21][26], Both Harrelson and Chagra's brother Joe were implicated in the assassination. Lees success in trying drug cases soon led him to meet Jack Stricklin, who had sent the Pitts case his way. Lee was Clarks friend, maybe the best friend hed ever had, but in some strange, almost unthinkable way he felt the friendship slipping away. He seemed burned out, used up, and he was hitting the cocaine pretty hard. Goodman insisted that Chagra not testify. At first Lee wasnt terribly worried about the new charges against Stricklin. Gentlemen, he told the other players, this table is now reserved for a private game. Jimmy would tip the hotel staff like a salesman with an end-of-the-month goal handing out business cards. On five minutes notice, Caesars would dispatch a Learjet to fetch one or both of the Chagras. And yet by the end of the trial, a majority of the jurors refused to find the defendants guilty. A few months later, Luis "Lou" Fred Esper, a small-time drug dealer and acquaintance of Lee Chagra, and two U.S. Army soldiers from Fort Bliss were held on various charges related to the murder of Lee. WebDrug kingpin who was charged with the murder of the US district court judge who would have presided at his drug trial. In 1979, a federal grand jury in Midland, Texas, indicted Chagra on drug smuggling charges. Ive been a fool.. [11][24][9], Jimmy Chagra died of cancer on July 25, 2008. The rest of it, he said, his voice sure and unwavering, represents not guilty. He was not very good at suffering alone, and friends and family visited him almost constantly. Though the prosecution recognized there was hardly any chance that Rick would turn on his family, James Kerr did everything in his power to put him away for 40 years. Case dismissed. He cried when he thought of Jimmy. That old watch-me-carry-the-world smile was back on his face. Patsy Chagras husband, Rick De La Torre, faced four charges in the same conspiracy. Marble floors. Now the feds had a yard of hot real estate on their hands; they desperately needed someone to buy it. 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. The fact that Lee Chagra was the lead attorney automatically made the case big-time. It was the first time anyone from El Paso had thought of using a tramp steamer. He would lend a stranger his last $100, knowing he was kissing it good-bye. From a radio in another part of the house, Sinatra was singing about doing it his way. Patsy ran out the back entrance and toward the cathedral. He left his hat and keys on the couch and walked down the hall to Lees office. An electronic current unbolted the door. Id grown up in El Paso, Stricklin recalled. By early afternoon the party was over, and staff and hangers-on had gone. "He was great friends with Theres a client buzzing at the door. Jo Annie tried to picture the man who had called that morning waiting outside. Jo Annie, Lees boyhood sweetheart and the wife who had seen him through law school and nineteen years of an emotionally charged marriage, met him at the airport. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he had refused to let go of the notion that El Paso was being overrun by the Mafia. Is his [dope smuggling] operation totally separate [from another smugglers]? Most high rollers would think a 9-year-old would cramp their style, but he took me everywhere.. I feel that it has all been terribly twisted. WebThey mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). A third, Cynthia Jones Chagra, lives in Austin. Lee didnt protest as Clark led him out of the casino to the waiting limousine. It was a shocking verdict after the FBI conducted its most extensive investigation since the Kennedy assassination. Drug kingpin Jimmy Chagra, accused of paying a hitman $250,000 to kill a federal judge, retained Las Vegas attorney Oscar Goodman to defend him. Do yourself a favor, one of the agents said. 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. If there was a single piece of new evidence, it wasnt mentioned, or even hinted at, in the indictment. Lee Chagra was special, and he went out of his way to prove it: student court, law review, Order of the Coif. Vivian died of cancer in July 1986. He hung up without speaking. As in: Heres a picture of Jimmy in Vegas with Muhammad Ali, both in black tie. I knew that Vivian had been working on a book about the Chagra saga, McCulloch said. [30] Jimmy Chagra was acquitted of the murder of Judge Wood in front of Judge William S. Sessions, future director of the FBI, although he was found guilty of obstructing justice and conspiring to smuggle drugs. [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. What investigation against him? Jamie Boyd, who had known Renteria for years (the prosecutor once chaperoned him in a Boy of the Year competition), expected that once Renteria realized the seriousness of his situation he would name Lee as the kingpin. That was when Jo Annie remembered the telephone call. Stricklin was an enterprising and likable young man who had grown up in one of El Pasos better neighborhoods. Now the government was trying to prove that Johnson had helped smuggle a pound of heroin out of Mexico. The Indian worked as a collector for several Las Vegas casinos. [2][22][6] He was the first federal judge to die by assassination in over a century. When the items are small, such as bottles of American perfume or jewelry, the fayuqueros hire old women called chiveras (shepherds), who actually carry the merchandise across the bridge and as far as Chihuahua City, 236 miles into the interior. Im sick and tired of being the fall guy, Lee said, and Vivian knew that he was talking about Jimmy. On October 20, 1977, as Chagra stood before the bench objecting to Judge Woods personal attack, arguing that it was totally without evidence or cause and that the resulting publicity had done great damage not only to Stricklin but to Lee himself, the judge interrupted and dropped his bomb. By the time the jury began its deliberation, it was obvious that the best the prosecution could expect was a tie. Lee sparkled like a kid with a new toy as he showed Donna and Sandy where the various safes were concealed. The family had a late dinner. A book signing of One way or another, were gonna get Lee Chagra.. [1][2][3] He was implicated in the May 1979 assassination of United States District Judge John H. Wood Jr. in San Antonio, Texas. With virtually unlimited spending at the hotel, and often left to entertain herself, shed go down to the lobby and buy so many toys that security had to haul them back to the suite. I knew he would take a hard look at narcotics and organized crime.. Lets go downstairs and give them one they can write home about. Clark said he would dress and meet Lee in the casino. On the trials 40th anniversary, Goodman and Chagras eldest daughter, Catherine, will look back at the case and what it meant for Goodman and the Chagra family.A book signing of Catherine Chagras Chagra: The King of Dope Drugs, Deceit and Dirty Darlings will follow this program.Member and Donor Exclusive: Enjoy a meet-and-greet with Oscar Goodman and Catherine Chagra at 6 p.m. prior to the program. The Mafia! Lee who was called F. Kerr escaped with only minor glass cuts. They were scheduled to fly back to El Paso Monday morning. Another suggestion was to disrupt the drug market by passing out poisoned drugs. They showed him a Xerox copy of the section of the law dealing with continuing criminal enterprise. Wallace confessed that he had taken part in the burglary attempt on Mickey Espers office and also the attempt to rob the poker game at Jimmy Salomes house. This other end represents guilty beyond a reasonable doubt: the government proved its case, and you, the jury, are convinced beyond a moral certainty. Lee held the members of the panel with his eyes, pausing for a few seconds so it could all register. Catherine published a book about her life in 2015 titled Chagra: The King of Dope Drugs, Deceit and Dirty Darlings. She will be signing copies after the panel discussion. 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Shocking verdict after the panel with his flamboyant ways to do at the office he! ] Facing life for smuggling, Jimmy may have been the strongest anyone in Vegas ever saw the hall Lees... Evening, Lee also loved El Paso and had never thought of a... And various federal agents the Tennessee dope dealer to 35 years for of...
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