Lee who was called F. No charges were filed, but it was apparent that the crash was another of Jimmys scams gone up in smoke. 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 Stricklin was an enterprising and likable young man who had grown up in one of El Pasos better neighborhoods. The case wound up in Woods court. He would never go back to Vegas. But, speaking to his ex-wife, Vivian, in a federal prison more than 30 years ago, he said he was not a killer. A major law firm that always invited the top six UT law graduates to a spring gala invited only five in 1962. James Kerr was devoting almost all of his time to his organized-crime investigation. I cant practice in front of you, and I dont think you can honestly say that you can treat me or my client fairly in any court, Chagra told Wood. Hed never seen it so quiet there. He said he would meet her at home in a couple of hours. 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. 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. In the winter. Whether or not he knew the details, Lee surely sensed the magnitude of the disaster that was bearing down on him. Although Wood had devoted his career to civil law, there was no more ardent law-and-order advocate anywhere. Jimmy preferred the Sinatra penthouse with its white baby grand piano and spiral staircase. A short time later there was a knock, and Lee admitted two hookers to the room. He may or may not have locked it. It was an incredible sight. By New Years Day it was the top story in town, and the defendants were being called the El Paso Ten. Wood, known as Maximum John, was 61 at the time he was shot in the back in front of his San Antonio home. Chagras idea of a good time was slapping a Willie Nelson album on the stereo, snorting cocaine, and getting naked in a pile of aromatic bodies. He knew how to quit while he was winning. They wanted information on the real kingpin of dope trafficking in El Paso. Case dismissed. When Patsy, who at one time weighed 180 pounds, finally worked up the courage to wear a swimsuit in public, Jimmy humiliated her mercilessly. This morning Jo Annie had another surprise, a block of tickets to the afternoons Sun Bowl football game between Texas and Maryland. Unlike many casinos, the Aladdin allowed a player to lay double odds; thus it was possible to win or lose twice as fast. He thought nobody would love him without money. He didnt appear particularly disturbed. It was the era of the Nixon Administrations much-heralded war on drugs. The next year he paid taxes on $450,000, including $125,000 declared as gambling winnings. 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 She remembers being elated when he got out, and the heartbreak that he was largely unchanged, as was her love for him: He was always looking for the next million and used a credit card a friend had given him strictly for essentials to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in gambling debts. 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. Kay McCulloch died, and with her death the raw material for the book went to the attic. His cowboy hat was pushed forward until the brim almost touched his nose, and shaggy locks of graying hair spilled over his collar. He would try to join the family by half-time. 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. Friends, relatives, and people that Donna had never seen before paraded through as though the place were a museum. The model just had the bare branches., Catherine Chagra's 2015 book. It was obvious that the prosecution and the DEA had problems coordinating their investigation. When Lou Esper learned that Lee was a cocaine user, he found a good supply and usually delivered the goods in person. Woods blunder was the last straw. Woods first big drug case came in May 1971. It was his most important victory in monthsand his most profitable. 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. Kerr claimed that money didnt matter, that his mission in life was vigorously and, I hope, successfully prosecuting all offenders that his clients could provide, but the mere fact that his adversary put such emphasis on money and the trappings of wealth must have touched some deep reserve of resentment in him. In January 1971 Wood was sworn in as a U.S. district judge, with jurisdiction over about a quarter of the El Paso docket. Youve got it wrong, Lee replied. Jimmy knelt beside the bag that now contained the remains of his brother and started bawling. Lee was lying face up on the floor, blood trickling from his mouth. He would attach his belt to the giant solid-gold buckle with the thick crust of diamonds, and draw on his black alligator cowboy boots. 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 interview was patently leading; most of the questions were of the when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife variety. Wallace was sentenced to death, though this was later reduced to life in prison. [1][2][3] He was implicated in the May 1979 assassination of United States District Judge John H. Wood Jr. in San Antonio, Texas. [7] According to George Knapp writing for Las Vegas CityLife, he was "the undisputed marijuana kingpin of the Western world. Which for Jimmy was almost the same as being broke, Patty said. He talked about death a lot. Here he is with Joe Namath. There was no bitterness or rancor, but by the end of August Joe Chagra realized that he had had all he could take. But the mere act of talking on the telephone seemed to boost his confidence. With Redd Fox. The hitman, Charles Harrelson, was the father of actor Woody Harrelson. While federal agents snapped photographs from the parking lot across the street, hundreds of mourners jammed St. Patricks. Like Julius Caesar, John H. Wood was several times offered high office, and several times he refused. It wasnt the cocaine so much as the lifestyle it symbolized. He couldnt have flushed it down the toilet faster than the way he gambled it and lost it, she said. His great-grandfather had come from New York and fought in the Texas Revolution. Lee didnt protest as Clark led him out of the casino to the waiting limousine. All things considered, 1978 has probably been the worst year of Lee Chagras life. At the same time a swell of excitement seemed to rumble from the floor, and people pushed to get a look at the action. He hardly seemed aware she was in the room. 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. 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. Id grown up in El Paso, Stricklin recalled. Then Wood was assassinated, leading to a massive manhunt, and Chagra was tried and convicted before another judge on charges of operating a continuing criminal enterprise. Lee told her he still had a pile of work on his desk. Even though Judge Wood sentenced him to thirty years, Renteria stuck to his story that Lee was only his lawyer and friend. Since he was not technically involved in the murder, Esper escaped with a relatively light sentence of fifteen years. His eyes were open, but he was obviously dying. Gambling bored him. The greatest job of bullshit advocacy Ive ever seen, Clark Hughes said of Lees performance. 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. Lee and Joanne Chagra raised their five children in a rarified world of glitz, glamour and money few other El Pasoans could imagine. 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. Not long after that, someone attempted to rob a high-stakes poker game at Jimmy Salomes house. It's going to be a very interesting night Jan. 18 at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. He had started using cocaine some months earlier, and now he was using it daily. Yoseph walked behind the desk and dialed Lees home number. The real show was on the casino floor in special sections roped off for the Chagras. None of the missing $450,000 was ever recovered. This would be the last time Lee Chagra and James Kerr faced one another in a courtroom, a sort of last hurrah for both. He didnt appear to recognize the name. Since he was a stranger to El Paso, Pitts asked a local smuggler named Jack Stricklin for the name of a good lawyer. Hadnt I already proven that wrong?. [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. His office and home telephone records as far back as 1970 had been subpoenaed, and so had his income tax records. Kerr was frail and sallow-faced and talked in a high-pitched voice that suggested he was about to shatter. I knew he would take a hard look at narcotics and organized crime.. Clark assumed that he would go straight back to Caesars and claim some of his markers, but that wasnt Lees plan. Curiously, this kind of heavy action seemed to bring out the best in Jimmy and the worst in Lee. When he read copies of Kerrs motion and Woods reply, Chagra was flabbergasted and then outraged. Once again, Lee went first to his suite and carried out the ritual. Family problems were accumulating faster than Lee could catalog them. 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. Sometime in the middle of the night, after everyone else was asleep, Lee changed clothes and drove to his new office. [36][37] However, his sister Patsy stated that he was not in the witness protection program at the time of his death. That was it, the last of the half-million the Black Striker had blown in Vegas the year before. It was hard to imagine two men more different. It was called Capital Acquisition, and its purpose was to channel funds through several banks in Mexico and then into Jimmys new business. 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. Joe announced plans to open his own law firm. But Vegas had never seen anything that surpassed the performance of Lee and Jimmy Chagra. Its like Teddy Roosevelt always said, Lee told him, and now his smile was back in place. Sib remembered: Candidly, we were very, very successful. 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. The government was so rabid for convictions that it destroyed its own case. He was going to play baccarat instead of craps. Goodman November 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? 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. Now they eat three meals a day and imported cheese. A.I think now its a separate dealIm not sure. What no one knew at this point was that the feds had already busted Wallace. Jimmy was born the middle son of a Lebanese rug merchant family. [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. I didnt have Wood killed. Boyd felt that singling De La Torre out would be construed as the worse sort of sour grapes, and he insisted that Kerr submit the evidence to the Justice Department, which approved the new indictments. Heres Catherine Chagra with Ann-Margret. After a while Clark said, You must have dropped close to half a million back there. The attempt on Kerrs life unleashed the most sweeping drug investigation in the history of the Southwest. 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. Chagra had little use for public servants, especially prosecutors, and Kerr was a classic bureaucrat, squeaking with authority and wedded to the book. Lee adopted a wardrobe suitable to his imagea black cowboy hat, fancy handmade boots, and an assortment of expensive jewelry, including a gold bracelet that spelled the word freedom. The pit boss shooed the sheep away from table that Lee selected for his private performance. Clark was dog tired and went straight to bed. Jimmy and the crew of the chartered jet were arrested by Colombian authorities. 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 unlocked the door to his private bath. 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. The Most Reverend Sidney Metzger, bishop emeritus of El Paso, came out of retirement to say mass. 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. Im the eagle! But Sandy noticed there were tears in his eyes. Lee had never let his name be linked to an illegal enterprise before the fact. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. [27] Joe Chagra's defense reportedly attempted to plead guilty to a lesser offense of conspiring to obstruct justice instead. Jimmy was known to win or lose $1 million a night, according to Catherine. When he appeared several hours later in his Black Striker ensemble, a woman asked Clark Hughes if his friend was a movie star. Prosecutors suspected Jimmy Chagra, and the FBI began meticulously putting its case together. In a secret interview with a group of DEA agents and prosecutors, Johnson had implicated at least sixty El Paso citizens as major drug traffickers. Wood was finally convinced that it was his duty. The judge said he had spent eight or ten hours reading Jerry Edwin Johnsons 1976 grand jury testimony and the transcript of the IRS investigation. Stricklin started peddling lids when they were still lidsan ounce of grass in a Prince Albert tin. The feds could never prove he had any part in the operation or even that he knew about it in advance, though he probably did. It was becoming an obsession. What was happening here? And yet by the end of the trial, a majority of the jurors refused to find the defendants guilty. The case had been dead for two years, but Kerr had a plan. 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. 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. Early on the morning of November 21, Kerr turned his car out of his driveway on a well-shaded street in silk-stocking section called Alamo Heights and headed for the federal courthouse. Dan Solomon writes about politics, music, food, sports, criminal justice, health care, film, and business. Please feel free to use any other table in the casino. Like so many sheep, the nickel-and-dime players started backing away. If Stricklin cooperated, they would work for his early release. While Lee ate, Jo Annie puttered with the Christmas decorations. She didnt know the details, but she had heard that Jimmy and his new wife, Liz, were living it up in Vegas. Coming as it did in the midst of his misery, Lees brilliant defense of the Ardmore bunch had to be his most satisfying victory. 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. Pitts fancied himself a big-timer and concluded that Chagra must be pretty big himself if he was demanding thirty grand. Theres a client buzzing at the door. Jo Annie tried to picture the man who had called that morning waiting outside. Those words, that adamant denial, were lost until this years Halloween floods in Central Texas displaced them from the attic of Jim McCullochs home on Bluff Springs Road in Southeast Austin, where for decades the transcribed words of Chagras ex-wife and the federal prisoner had been stored, then forgotten. For sheer lan, Hughes recalled, I dont think Id ever seen him any higher.. Everything was on the house. WebThey mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). I imagine everyone in this area knows that youve been the subject of a grand jury investigation ever since the Tennessee indictment, Wood announced. He and Clark went back to the suite for a while. Well, I didnt know about it, Lee said, dumbstruck. Visions of the 1973 fiasco in Nashville that had almost ruined his law career danced through his mind. On May 29, 1979, the day that Jimmy was originally supposed to go on trial in Judge Woods court, John Wood was assassinated in the driveway outside his apartment. They were scheduled to fly back to El Paso Monday morning. 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. When Joe and Lee had drawn up their partnership, the arrangement was that they would share all revenues and losses, but Joe hadnt counted on sharing Lees gambling losses. Lee wanted to be head of the family, and Jimmy was constantly jealous of Lee because he stole the glory that Jimmy wanted. It was four years before most people recognized Jimmys achievement, but the operation was a landmark in marijuana trafficking. After two days the jury reported itself hopelessly deadlocked, eight to four for acquittal. Now the government was trying to prove that Johnson had helped smuggle a pound of heroin out of Mexico. Lee cried a lot in those days. Lees limit was $3000, and he would have played for $10,000 had Caesars Palace allowed it. His sister, Patsy, recalled, It scared me to hear Lee talk like that. Lee was the first college graduate in his family, and the first professional. 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. And it was killing Lee. For all the smoke generated by James Kerrs highly publicized grand jury probe of organized crime, there was hardly any fire. Goodman is one of the nations best criminal defense attorneys and was named one of the 15 Best Trial Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal. It was a partial victory for Leethe jury found De La Torre guilty of only one charge and he got the maximum, 5 years. Some speculated that they omitted Lee Chagra because he was from El Paso and had a Spanish surname. Instead of flying in the customary small planeload of 2000 pounds from Mexico, they imported 54,000 pounds from Colombia. David Long? Lee said. In fact, it was a condition of him taking the case. Jimmy was also taking care of Lees half-million-dollar marker at Caesars. Chagra's son, Joseph, 19, and daughter, Samantha, 17, kept a bedside vigil urging him, despite his coma, not to give up. Boyds strategy was to indict Jimmy on multiple counts and wait for him to break. This conduct suggests to the court that the defendant is not making a good faith claim concerning former jeopardy, but that he is more interested in determining the extent of the governments evidence against him.. Chagra and Wood were on a collision course that was bound to end in catastrophe. It must have been nearly three-thirty by then. 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 just picked up the money and tossed it in a drawer. Chagra and his wife, Liz, and young daughter relocated to Las Vegas in 1978 and moved into a house across the street from attorney Oscar Goodman. The Indian brushed a strand of limp hair over his bald spot as he walked toward Lees car. I waited around to wish you and the kids a merry Christmas, the gambler told her. Lee had been in Tucson trying a case for most of the past two weeks, and when the Friday night plane began its approach over the Upper Valley and through the Pass, he caught a glimpse of the lighted Christmas star on the slopes of Mount Franklin. 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. 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. 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. Lee Chagras funeral was a microcosm of all the extremes in his life. Kerr had been involved with pursuing Chagra for his drug dealings. It was in his blood. As the year progressed, so did his paranoia, his insistence that someone was out to get him. His father was a vice president of El Paso Natural Gas. [4][11] Jimmy Chagra also had a sister named Patsy. Jo Annie telephoned one final time, from her mothers house on Rim Road. Lees finances were in shambles, but he still had plenty of credit in Las Vegas. [9][10] His mother was named Josephine, and his father Abdou Chagra. His older brother Lee was a very prominent defense attorney Jimmy was the middle son, and the younger son, Joe, was also an attorney.. Lee gave Jack Stricklin, now out of prison, $1000 and passed out lesser amounts to other old friends. With the gambling and the ostentatious living, the money never lasted long. Jo Annie went on to the Sun Bowl and telephoned her husband at halftime. But now the years of fast living were catching up. Universal Studios Is Coming to Frisco. They knew about the safe in the floor of the bathroom, but there were othersone beneath the carpet near the fireplace in the living room of the private suite and another in the master bedroom. Oscar Goodman and Joe Chagra were Jimmys attorneys. But lately Lee was taking new directions. The Chagras were fiercely proud people, a handsome, hardy, beguiling line of Lebanese merchants and vendors who migrated near the turn of the century to Mexico and then to El Paso. Through it all, he had somehow clung to the central fact in his life: Lee Chagra was a topflight criminal attorney. He would lend a stranger his last $100, knowing he was kissing it good-bye. It appeared to be a clear example of double jeopardysame events, same evidence, same witnesses. His two older brothers were so much alike it scared him. The Tennessee dope dealer rolled down his sock and slapped the cash on Lees desk. That was when Jo Annie remembered the telephone call. In fact, many aspects of the case were never investigated. For pure gambling, Jimmy may have been the strongest anyone in Vegas ever saw. Food, drinks, girlsanything one might fancy was there in a whisk. As far as having Wood killed, no way, he said. Lets go downstairs and give them one they can write home about. Clark said he would dress and meet Lee in the casino. 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. 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