(According to The New York Times, Jimmy told brother Joe in a conversation taped by the FBI that he hired Harrelson to do the hit. Push a button and curtains would reveal a huge projector TV. Patsy heard the bells from St. Patricks Cathedral in the next block and remembered Mom Chagra. Ive got to go, he told her. He was going to play baccarat instead of craps. As in: Heres a picture of Jimmy in Vegas with Muhammad Ali, both in black tie. As far as having Wood killed, no way, he said. The staff knew the ritual, but no one knew for sure what went on behind the closed door. 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. On five minutes notice, Caesars would dispatch a Learjet to fetch one or both of the Chagras. 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. An electronic current unbolted the door. Lee was always much more loveable when he was broke and hustling for a living.. Lee Chagra was special, and he went out of his way to prove it: student court, law review, Order of the Coif. Many a night, the Chagra brothers would play all six spots on a blackjack table, for anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 a hand. Whatever the maximum penalty was, that was generally what he gave. Wood was finally convinced that it was his duty. They didnt count all the bundles of cash in the tennis bag, but there was more money than either of them had ever seen in one place, something like $450,000. The language was vague and ambiguous, but essentially it said that a person was a kingpin if he (1) committed a continuing series of violations of the drug act, in concert with five or more other persons with respect to whom such person occupies a position of organizer, a supervisory position, or any other position of management and (2) obtained substantial income or resources from those violations. [6] In fact, he is described as having been "no less than the biggest marijuana smuggler in the country" during that time. [17][10], Chagra's downfall began in February 1979 when he was arrested on trafficking charges. Goodman Over the next year Lee had only a handful of cases. Lee meant $10,000 for all three defendants, but Pitts didnt understand that. For pure gambling, Jimmy may have been the strongest anyone in Vegas ever saw. I did not worry about a long-term jail sentence until Wood was killed, he said. Jimmy had ruined it. Reporters flocked to the federal courthouse to get a look at what was happening to Lee Chagra. And it was killing Lee. The sisters today say that if Lee Chagra had not been killed, Wood would not have been, either. Before the case could be brought to trial, however, Jimmy eclipsed his brother in the headlines with a new and even more spectacular exploit. They were all scammers, everyone he knew or cared about. But, speaking to his ex-wife, Vivian, in a federal prison more than 30 years ago, he said he was not a killer. He imported more high-grade ganja than anyone, tons at a time, planeload after planeload. Someone had gone after Jo Annie, who had collapsed when she first heard the news but now wanted to be there with the family. Catherine remembers the prison visits as the best times she ever had with her father. His dream was to stash away $20 million, all taxes paid. Chagra, 39, a licensed professional gambler, was accused of paying Charles V. Harrelson $250,000 to kill the judge. He once sentenced a dope dealer to 35 years for contempt of court. He still had $150,000 credit, but that night he went through another $70,000. 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. Because they forgot that the murder took place May 29th, and down there in Texas, the trees were in bloom. While it was being renovated, he occupied an office in a building on Montana owned by another lawyer friend, Mickey Esper, who was related to Jo Annie. But let me add, he had a lot of enemies.. It was that strange hour when the golfers are still on their morning rounds and the drunks are still asleep, that time when they clean the sand in the ashtrays and empty the slots and put fresh ice in the urinals. He was bubbling over with tales of the previous days Tucson victory. The government questions the good faith of this request, Kerr concluded. But Jimmy took most of the credit. Uncle Lou, who had recently been paroled in California, had a drug habit of long standing. Fighting seemingly hopeless causes became his passion. 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. Lee speculated that the attempt was an inside job. The weapons existed only in the agents imagination, but at one point the trap got so bizarre that the poor cafe owner believed he was negotiating for a used submarine. A few months later two soldiers from Fort Bliss admitted robbing and killing Lee Chagra. Lee loved being at the middle of the table, flanked by armed guards and at least one beautiful broad who would act as his lucky piece. 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. 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. Wood was apparently confusing the fifty-page transcript of the secret interview with actual grand jury testimony. On the morning of the day Lee was murdered, his bookkeeper, Donna Johnson, arrived at the office about ten oclock. 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. I have never found anything, he said pleasantly, in any of these grand jury investigations. Lee was lying face up on the floor, blood trickling from his mouth. Most high rollers would think a 9-year-old would cramp their style, but he took me everywhere.. Jimmys Florida operation, far from being an immediate disaster, disbanded after successfully offloading fifty tons of grass from a Colombian freighter in March. He was convicted of obstructing the investigation of the James Kerr was devoting almost all of his time to his organized-crime investigation. At the intersection of Broadway a mint-green van blocked his route. The Most Reverend Sidney Metzger, bishop emeritus of El Paso, came out of retirement to say mass. He ruined his marriage to Vivian, left her and the children. 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. A known gambler and hit man, Harrelson had apparently been cleared in the Wood murder. It was a shocking verdict after the FBI conducted its most extensive investigation since the Kennedy assassination. Tom Foster writes about business, innovation, and creative people. He began taping most of his telephone conversations and collecting every scrap of evidence that even hinted of government malfeasance. She had put the same question to herself. Now they eat three meals a day and imported cheese. 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. Wallace was sentenced to death, though this was later reduced to life in prison. 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. She had bought the Lincoln limo because she wanted to give her husband something crazy after all these years.. [12] Their family name was historically "Bushaada", but Jimmy's grandfather changed it. Then Kerr observed that the request for reportsis an overt act on the part of the defense attorneyto obtain government reports and documents concerning him. That is, concerning Lee Chagra. The shock of Lees death didnt really hit Jimmy until he faced the prospect of walking into Judge Woods courtroom without Lee. That night as he was dressing, Lee announced intentions to change his luck. Lee never forgot or forgave. On June 20 a team of narcotics agents appeared at his law office with a warrant for his arrest and hauled him away in handcuffs. Robinson later admitted. Jimmy and the crew of the chartered jet were arrested by Colombian authorities. Chagra and Wood were on a collision course that was bound to end in catastrophe. His great-grandfather had come from New York and fought in the Texas Revolution. The bonds that he set in marijuana cases averaged $200,000. Instead, this flimsy, highly prejudicial document was destined to dog both Lee Chagra and his nemesis, Judge John Wood, to their graves. Vivian remembered the previous Saturday at his office; shes heard murmurs from the staff as she followed him upstairs. Maximum sentence was 15 years on each of three counts, and thats what the judge gave him45 years. [27] Joe Chagra's defense reportedly attempted to plead guilty to a lesser offense of conspiring to obstruct justice instead. 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. He marched straight to a crap table on one side of the casino and told the pit boss to clear the table. They checked out of the hotel that same night and moved to the Aladdin, where Lee had a $250,000 line of credit. A book signing of A front-page headline in The El Paso Times virtually screamed the news that the flamboyant kingpin had been nabbed. 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. Chagra had little use for public servants, especially prosecutors, and Kerr was a classic bureaucrat, squeaking with authority and wedded to the book. When Patsy, who at one time weighed 180 pounds, finally worked up the courage to wear a swimsuit in public, Jimmy humiliated her mercilessly. 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's son, Joseph, 19, and daughter, Samantha, 17, kept a bedside vigil urging him, despite his coma, not to give up. Jimmy would tip the hotel staff like a salesman with an end-of-the-month goal handing out business cards. That was why I jumped bond. In a short time the bust was being described as the biggest one in El Paso history. The fifty-page text of the interview was used as supplemental material by a grand jury investigating a tax fraud, but it was never given the slightest weight as courtroom evidence. 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. I feel that it has all been terribly twisted. The fact that Lee Chagra was the lead attorney automatically made the case big-time. 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. They had to take care of him because he spoiled everything he touched. In prison, Jimmy would say he got hooked on gambling faster than heroin.. Clark was dog tired and went straight to bed. 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. Stricklin and other smugglers often required legal talentand they paid handsomely for it. But as usual, Jimmys success only threw Lee into a funk. The charges against all the defendants were eventually dropped, but not for two years. The investigation cost more than $11 million. 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