jimmy chagra daughters

A judge cant associate socially with a prosecutor the way Wood did with Kerr and still call em correctly, John Pinckney, the first U.S. attorney, had said. The Mafia! Family problems were accumulating faster than Lee could catalog them. The interview was patently leading; most of the questions were of the when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife variety. Patsy ran out the back entrance and toward the cathedral. Im sick and tired of being the fall guy, Lee said, and Vivian knew that he was talking about Jimmy. Over the next eight years Wood handed out the maximum sentence in almost every case. [15] The FBI conducted more than 30,000 interviews related to the case and in total collected more than 500,000 pieces of information. 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. An electronic current unbolted the door. 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. Copyright 2023 Knewz Media Group LLC. Narcotics and gambling were crimes that grew from a common stem composed of the worst elements in society. He worked his way through the University of Texas law school, graduating fourth in his class in 1962. Over the years lawyers encountered scores of cases in which citizens had been lured into crimes by what amounted to federal bounty hunters. Sandy and the others began to realize that this was something truly personal; it was as though Lee were mourning his own impending death. As far as having Wood killed, no way, he said. Jimmy, on the other hand, had a true gamblers instinct, a fatalistic kill-or-be-killed attitude. One of his key tactics was to source the details of a model of the apartment complex where Wood was shot, built for $11 million by the prosecution. In less than fifteen minutes, he won $90,000. He had $250,000 credit. 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. Chagra's son, Joseph, 19, and daughter, Samantha, 17, kept a bedside vigil urging him, despite his coma, not to give up. As Boyd must have realized, Kerr and Lee Chagra were natural enemies. The other lawyer couldnt appreciate the irony, but until that moment, Lee had always envied him. Hed brought corsages for all the women on the staff. Christa remembers the family being on food stamps after her dad went to jail. As the defense had expected, several officers testified that they had arrived at the airstrip in time to witness the off-loading of the DC-4. Hed never cried about it before. Lee and Joe began to consider filing a harassment suit against Wood, Kerr, and various federal agents. All rights reserved. Goodman Checking himself again in the mirror, he would fuss with the black cowboy hat that had Lee Chagra and Freedom embossed in gold on the inside until he achieved the proper tilt and slope. [9][10] His mother was named Josephine, and his father Abdou 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. It was as if their friendship had come to a fork in the road, and Lee had wandered off in another direction. The soldiers implicated Esper in planning the heist, but he received a considerably lighter sentence than they due to not being technically involved with the murder itself. Robinson later admitted. Now the government was trying to prove that Johnson had helped smuggle a pound of heroin out of Mexico. Vivian died of cancer in July 1986. Here he is with Joe Namath. It wasnt the cocaine so much as the lifestyle it symbolized. The rest of it, he said, his voice sure and unwavering, represents not guilty. Technically and legally, the unsworn interview shouldnt even have been a part of the grand jury report. They were scheduled to fly back to El Paso Monday morning. Lee Chagra was special, and he went out of his way to prove it: student court, law review, Order of the Coif. And that wasnt all. A third, Cynthia Jones Chagra, lives in Austin. Lee had always been our strength., Lee couldnt shake the feeling that something or someone was stalking him. He earned a lot of money and became a high roller in Las Vegas, known for his very generous tipping. 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. She had put the same question to herself. Food, drinks, girlsanything one might fancy was there in a whisk. There's no way a bullet could have gone through there. About four oclock Bobby Yoseph returned to the office from a shopping trip in Jurez. [27] Joe Chagra's defense reportedly attempted to plead guilty to a lesser offense of conspiring to obstruct justice instead. They were rivals in many ways.. No force on earth could stop him. By the time Clark arrived, Lee had already lost another $80,000 and was yelling at the floor manager because he was threatening to cut off his credit. Everyone had assumed theyd made loveLee made a point of keeping her in his office long enough, then he flushed the toilet and gave her the money. Every morning when I drive down to the office, I get sick at my stomach, Joe told Patty. Dirty Darlings Paperback November 6, 2015. Though neither knew it, this was the last time the two old friends would ever go to Vegas together. And co-conspirators in others. There was plenty of cocaine to guarantee a holiday spirit; at least five ounces had been delivered a few days earlier. Catherine Chagra Patrick Beach View Comments 0:00 0:56 Last December, we brought you the story of Catherine Chagra, daughter of Jamiel Jimmy Chagra, the They were all scammers, everyone he knew or cared about. It was four years before most people recognized Jimmys achievement, but the operation was a landmark in marijuana trafficking. 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. There is no way to calculate how all the damning publicity affected the careers of Sib Abraham and the others. The story surrounding the assassination of Judge Wood was profiled in an episode of City Confidential. Lee cried a lot in those days. Lee was preoccupied this morning. 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. Yet he could risk the familys last penny on a roll of the dice. The hitman, Charles Harrelson, was the father of actor Woody Harrelson. His cowboy hat was pushed forward until the brim almost touched his nose, and shaggy locks of graying hair spilled over his collar. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms of service, privacy policy and cookies policy. However, his sister Patsy stated that he was not in the witness protection program at the time of his death. People in the Chagras party didnt bother to register: they just walked up to the desk and someone handed them a key to a six-room suite. Because they forgot that the murder took place May 29th, and down there in Texas, the trees were in bloom. All things considered, 1978 has probably been the worst year of Lee Chagras life. 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. They learned later that Jimmy left town with about $50,000. All rights reserved. He would try to join the family by half-time. She dismissed the greeting as a typical Sailor Roberts lie: she didnt believe for a second that hed gone out of his way to wish her anything. Kerr had been involved with pursuing Chagra for his drug dealings. Two of Chagras daughters, Christa and Catherine, now live in Smithville. Do yourself a favor, one of the agents said. Minimum sentence was ten years, maximum was life. For the most part, 1978 turned out to be just a continuation of the long slide that had begun in 1977. A few years ago, the director of El Paso customs acknowledged: If we stopped all smuggling activity right now, the economies of two cities would fall flat on their faces., Millions of dollars worth of goods are smuggled daily across the three main bridges connecting Jurez and El Paso. 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. He referred to all of his male friends as brother, and yet there was a time when he couldnt keep his hands off his real brothers wives and girlfriends. He gambled in Vegas and wrote bad checks and was constantly calling Lee to bail him out. As it turned out, he was right.. 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. And yet by the end of the trial, a majority of the jurors refused to find the defendants guilty. When Lee was murdered sixteen years later, Charles Alan Wright, one of the countrys leading authorities on constitutional law, called him one of the few students who stand out in my memory., There was never any doubt that when Lee passed the state bar exam he would join Jo Annies brother, Sib Abraham, who had finished law school the previous year and had already set up his practice in El Paso. He needs you to look it over before he mails it back.. By mid-November the feds had just about made their case against Jimmy Chagra, and rumors of his imminent indictment were rampant. Before Yoseph could think of an answer, Lee asked another question: What would you do if you came in and found Id been murdered?, This preoccupation wasnt totally without foundation. Chagra jumped bail, but was captured six months later in Las Vegas. Or for Lee Chagra. November 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? While they were counting, Bobby Yoseph appeared at the door and tried to shove his way inside. In January 1971 Wood was sworn in as a U.S. district judge, with jurisdiction over about a quarter of the El Paso docket. 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. Soon every drug dealer on the border carried one of Lee Chagras cards. No man could have been prouder of his heritage than Wood; he was a confirmed, unapologetic elitist, a descendant of hardy pioneer-stock aristocrats. Gambling and women, said Lees old friend and fellow lawyer Clark Hughes. I though maybe I was the Jonah, he said. At first Lee wasnt terribly worried about the new charges against Stricklin. The feds reasoned that Lee was the mastermind because Lee was so smart, and they became so preoccupied with this scenario that they failed to see the obvious irony: Lee was too smart to play that role. Lees position in this venture was that of highly paid legal adviser for the gang of smugglers. He may or may not have locked it. One client who occupied a good deal of Lees time during the autumn of 1976 was Jerry Edwin Johnson, a local con man and admitted drug smuggler accused of masterminding a scheme to defraud the IRS of a quarter of a million dollars. His plan was to reindict Stricklin, and maybe Chagra too, under an almost unknown section of the 1970 Drug Control Act that spelled out the crime of continuing criminal enterprise, popularly known as the kingpin act. For six years now shed been divorced from Jimmy and nothing much had changed. When they called Jimmy he chartered a jet and arrived about two hours later. 3.9 on Goodreads. Yoseph walked behind the desk and dialed Lees home number. Most afternoons as Donna and Sandy were crossing the parking lot after work, they saw her, and sometimes two or three other strippers from the Lamplighter, hurrying toward Lees office. Jimmy had given her a couple of kids and a lasting pain in the ass. Every time the local papers wrote anything about Lee, the story started with Indicted drug trafficker Lee Chagra. David Long? Lee said. He was going to play baccarat instead of craps. It was the first time anyone from El Paso had thought of using a tramp steamer. Vivian did her best to smile. His practice had foundered, he had run up huge gambling debts, his life was peopled with shysters and thugs; and if the truth was known, Lee himself had become little more than a highly paid functionary in Jimmys fluctuating gang of smugglers. WebAfter Joe was killed, the bad publicity inevitably returned, so Patty took their daughter, Samantha, a seventeen-year-old high school honor student, to all the television stations in (At that point the public had no inkling of the earlier, even bigger Boston haul.) The case remains unsolved. Lee had wanted to be a lawyer, and so, after some convincing, had the youngest of the boys, Joe. 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. He knew how to quit while he was winning. But Vegas had never seen anything that surpassed the performance of Lee and Jimmy Chagra. Almost every one of Chagras clients who had been sent to prison reported visits from DEA agents who pumped them for information about Chagra and offered deals if they would incriminate him. Then, in a fashion that was typical of his relationship with Lee, Jimmy decided to take it one step farther. WebOn 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. Lee who was called F. 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. The government seemed to know it didnt have a case, but it was determined to see how far it could travel. A few hours later, the 38-year-old attorney, stunned and bewildered, found himself being transferred to the county jail, handcuffed to Georgie Taylor, who was a legend in local drug circles (he had made a million before he was eighteen) and who happened to be Jo Annies nephew. It is estimated that one out of every five households in these two communities of one million is supported by some type of illegal activity. Patsy heard the bells from St. Patricks Cathedral in the next block and remembered Mom Chagra. More likely it was because Lee, as chief justice of the student court, had spoken out against segregated dorms and football teams. 2023 www.statesman.com. 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. She was sentenced to 30 years and died in prison in 1997 Part of it was the publicity: Lee loved to see his name in headlines. Jimmy knelt beside the bag that now contained the remains of his brother and started bawling. Kerrs long association with FBI, IRS, and DEA agentsclients, he called themhad convinced him of the same sort of monolithic conspiracy that Boyd himself leaned toward. That was why I jumped bond. Friends, relatives, and people that Donna had never seen before paraded through as though the place were a museum. Out on bail before sentencing, he went on the lam for five or six months and was on the FBIs 10 most wanted list. 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. All have, understandably, complicated feelings about their father. By the late sixties he had put together an organization capable of moving tons of marijuana across the river. You help us and well help you, the agents told Stricklin. If he refused, they would see that he was reindicted under the kingpin act and sent away for life without parole. Only a few select friends and celebrities like Rosey Grier or Gabe Kaplan were allowed in. The investigation cost more than $11 million. I didnt trust Arabs. 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. When Lou Esper learned that Lee was a cocaine user, he found a good supply and usually delivered the goods in person. Jack Stricklin met him at the airport and drove him to the office. Donna made fresh coffee and explained the new telephone system to Lee. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Even after the charges were dismissed, there was still the stigma. Now they eat three meals a day and imported cheese. 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. After the phone calls, Lee would take a long timemaybe two hours, maybe moreto bathe, groom, and dress himself in the wardrobe that he reserved for these occasions. While Lee ate, Jo Annie puttered with the Christmas decorations. Clark assumed that he would go straight back to Caesars and claim some of his markers, but that wasnt Lees plan. The family name was originally Bushaada, but Lees grandfather mexicanized it during the revolution. Donna helped Sandy count the $20,000. Emily McCullar is a senior editor covering pop culture, news, and Texas history. But the mere act of talking on the telephone seemed to boost his confidence. Thats the way Lee wanted it. WebThey mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). Jimmy had given her a couple of kids and a lasting pain in the ass. 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. Chagra attempted to bribe Judge Wood for "$5 million or 10million". Jo Annie went on to the Sun Bowl and telephoned her husband at halftime. 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. The gesture was unmistakable: hed come to replace his brother. Tom Foster writes about business, innovation, and creative people. Please feel free to use any other table in the casino. Like so many sheep, the nickel-and-dime players started backing away. Jurors heard hours worth of tape recordings and more than 500 pages of documents were presented. Chagra's third wife, Elizabeth, was found guilty of delivering $250,000 to Charles Harrelson to kill Wood. Sometime in the middle of the night, after everyone else was asleep, Lee changed clothes and drove to his new office. He talked about death a lot. Where do you get off? When he appeared several hours later in his Black Striker ensemble, a woman asked Clark Hughes if his friend was a movie star. Despite the differences in background and age (Stricklin was almost ten years younger), Chagra and Stricklin became more than lawyer and client; they became close friends. 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. Lees limit was $3000, and he would have played for $10,000 had Caesars Palace allowed it. I think he was sad about what he did to his kids. Part of it was his steadily increasing need for money. 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. 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. Jo Annie was talking about divorce; she and Lee got as far as the courthouse steps before one or both backed out. [38] A fictitious name reference to the Judge John Wood assassination also appeared in an The FBI Files episode "Dangerous Company" as the show regularly changed names of real-life people to protect privacy. Jo Annie telephoned one final time, from her mothers house on Rim Road. It must have been nearly three-thirty by then. He ran a floating blackjack game and started peddling dope. The months of suspicion and hostile publicity almost wrecked Lees law career. Lee meant $10,000 for all three defendants, but Pitts didnt understand that. [31][32], In a deal with the federal government, Jimmy Chagra admitted to his role in the murder of Judge Wood and the attempted murder of Assistant United States Attorney James Kerr. Ill drive you home, he said in a low voice. This is gonna be one theyll write a book about, he told Hughes. The defendant was one Melchor de los Santos, who was caught with 262 grams of heroin; since the going rate was $30 a gram, it was a fairly substantial bust for the times. I didnt have Wood killed. 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. 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. His eyes were open, but he was obviously dying. A division of Empire Media Group Holdings LLC. Lee gave the Cowboy $10,000, and the others guessed that he was a collector for some bookie. There was a steel floor safe sunk into five feet of concrete, but like the other safes, it hadnt yet been completely installed. It took almost a year for all the money to work its way back to Jimmy and his partners. Finally, he would pose with the ebony cane with the gold satyrs-head handle, squinting and turning until he was satisfied. At the victory party that followed the declaration of mistrial, one of the jurors told Lee: I know those boys did everything they said they did, but dammit, they didnt prove it!. It was becoming an obsession. With the pointer fully retracted, Lee approached the jury box, smiling. A big blob of fat came pouring out, she remembered. Ive got to go, he told her. All have, understandably, complicated And hes this huge drug kingpin. [7] He had a $1 million mansion in Las Vegas. Lee didnt seem at all depressed, said Donna Johnson, the law firms bookkeeper. He began taping most of his telephone conversations and collecting every scrap of evidence that even hinted of government malfeasance. But Lee trusted him. Youve got it wrong, Lee replied. Now the feds had a yard of hot real estate on their hands; they desperately needed someone to buy it. Stricklin started peddling lids when they were still lidsan ounce of grass in a Prince Albert tin. The Photo the Dallas Cowboys Never Wanted the Public to See, Welcome to Palo Pinto, Texass Next State Park, The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition, Please Do Not Touch the Toxic Toupee, a.k.a. Vivian felt Jo Annies dark eyes following her into the bedroom. He crossed the living room and closed the apartment door behind him. He seemed pleased with the gesture but told her there was some work he needed to do at the office. 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. Jamiel Chagra, known as Jimmy, was born in El Paso, Texas on December 7, 1944. Jimmy was born the middle son of a Lebanese rug merchant family. His mother was named Josephine, and his father Abdou Chagra. He had two brothers, Lee and Joseph, who were both attorneys involved with the legal defense of drug smugglers. Of course, not all the authorities are so blas. Instead of flying in the customary small planeload of 2000 pounds from Mexico, they imported 54,000 pounds from Colombia. Im gonna take the joint apart., Caesars Palace dispatched a Learjet, and in less than two hours a limousine deposited them at the casino door. And yet, right there under their noses was another Chagra not at all handicapped by brains or good judgment. Maximum sentence was 15 years on each of three counts, and thats what the judge gave him45 years. Its David Long, the first man said. It was a partial victory for Leethe jury found De La Torre guilty of only one charge and he got the maximum, 5 years. [6], Chagra was accused of (and was acquitted of, although he later confessed to conspiracy in a deal to help his wife) hiring hitman Charles Harrelson (actor Woody Harrelson's father) to kill Wood for $250,000; on May 29, 1979, Judge Wood was murdered outside his home by a shot in the back. What investigation against him? They mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). But the feds real ace in the hole was Jimmy and his partner, Henry Wallace. Jamiel "Jimmy" Alexander Chagra (December 7, 1944 July 25, 2008) was an American drug trafficker, carpet salesman and professional gambler. Not long after that, someone attempted to rob a high-stakes poker game at Jimmy Salomes house. The perfect vehicle for the imperfect time. Theres a client buzzing at the door. Jo Annie tried to picture the man who had called that morning waiting outside. The Tennessee dope dealer rolled down his sock and slapped the cash on Lees desk. Whatever the maximum penalty was, that was generally what he gave. Death came in Mesa, Ariz., on July 25, 2008. Its from some friends in Vegas, he said, handing Vivian the card. If Jo Annie was conscious of this, she moved among them without rancor, beautifully composed and self-possessed. Boyd believed that one way or another Jimmy would take him to Lee. 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. Catherine Chagra was the daughter of Jimmy Chagra, a Las Vegas high-roller and drug trafficking kingpin once named the Pablo Escobar of weed. After her father Lee was down and Jimmy was up. What Lee didnt know at the time was that Johnson had, as they say, gone over. Hed become a government snitch, albeit not a very reliable one. Most high rollers would think a 9-year-old would cramp their style, but he took me everywhere.. 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.

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