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. He was the black sheep, the all-star goof-up. His father was a vice president of El Paso Natural Gas. shaggy shag,' and he would gamble up to a million dollars," said He walked to the top of the stairs and looked down at two black men with guns. Some people though Lee Chagra didnt know how to quit, but that wasnt quite true. Lees morning coffee was perfect, and the cocaine was first-rate. "[8], Jamiel Chagra, known as Jimmy, was born in El Paso, Texas on December 7, 1944. Family problems were accumulating faster than Lee could catalog them. Vivian felt Jo Annies dark eyes following her into the bedroom. 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. They learned later that Jimmy left town with about $50,000. So Jimmys smuggling operation must be thriving as Lees law practice crumbled. He seemed burned out, used up, and he was hitting the cocaine pretty hard. He was 50. While federal agents snapped photographs from the parking lot across the street, hundreds of mourners jammed St. Patricks. This morning Jo Annie had another surprise, a block of tickets to the afternoons Sun Bowl football game between Texas and Maryland. The casino was almost deserted. In prison, Jimmy would say he got hooked on gambling faster than heroin.. His dream was to stash away $20 million, all taxes paid. For the most part, 1978 turned out to be just a continuation of the long slide that had begun in 1977. As his friend Clark Hughes warned him, One of the problems with being a criminal attorney is that all your clients are crooks. Lee continued to object. A month later, Jack Stricklin was standing before Maximum John Wood, contemplating life without parole. By now all the Chagras knew that Jimmy was a major drug trafficker, and they must have suspected that Lees arrangement with his brother and his relationship with Jack Stricklin were more than traditional lawyer-client dealings. Lee grabbed an old musket, the only gun in the house, and several of the poker players chased two black men across a field before losing them along the river. The complex included not only a maze of well-appointed offices but also a fully equipped kitchen, a law library, and completely furnished two-bedroom suite. There is no way to calculate how all the damning publicity affected the careers of Sib Abraham and the others. For years there had been a rivalry between the two brothers, a fierce and unyielding competition that only the two of them completely understood. No man could have been prouder of his heritage than Wood; he was a confirmed, unapologetic elitist, a descendant of hardy pioneer-stock aristocrats. And yet federal agents still had no proof: for all the loose talk, there was not a shred of hard evidence that Lee had committed any crime. A rigorous and lengthy investigation into the murder brought Jimmy Chagra front and center. Lee sparkled like a kid with a new toy as he showed Donna and Sandy where the various safes were concealed. 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. Two of Chagras daughters, Christa and Catherine, now live in Smithville. The family was worried about Lee. If you scratched Stricklin deep enough, Kerr reasoned, you would find Chagra. A black banner was stretched across the entire front of the building. 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. 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 Later he built a reputation as a hard-driving prosecutor in charge of the docket in Del Rio, where he and Judge John Wood became fast friends. But Vegas had never seen anything that surpassed the performance of Lee and Jimmy Chagra. All rights reserved. He let himself in with a specially made key and walked upstairs. Dirty Darlings. By law, the interview was to remain a secret, known only to a handful of agents and prosecutors who read the transcript as part of their official duties. Leave them blank to get signed up. An electronic current unbolted the door. 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. 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. Further complicating the relationship between the two brothers was that Lee, who was married, had an affair with a woman who worked the switchboard at the Sheraton Hotel in El Paso and, after cutting off the relationship, or at least attempting to, introduced her to Jimmy in order to keep her close. In fact, the charges were dismissed because there was no evidence to bring charges in the first place. What a strange, twisted love. [17][10], Chagra's downfall began in February 1979 when he was arrested on trafficking charges. The Most Reverend Sidney Metzger, bishop emeritus of El Paso, came out of retirement to say mass. It was the first time anyone from El Paso had thought of using a tramp steamer. Lee always suffered shamelessly when he was down and Jimmy was up, but this was different. Lee, the man was saying, Im not gonna say this againno more credit!. In the 24 hours since their arrival, he had signed markers totaling $240,000. It wasnt the cocaine so much as the lifestyle it symbolized. 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. I dont know how much longer I can do this, he confided. Chagra was also a heavy gambler in Las Vegas, Nevada, and attracted attention with his flamboyant ways. Lees success in trying drug cases soon led him to meet Jack Stricklin, who had sent the Pitts case his way. Lee had seated himself at a table and ordered $5000 in chips, but the dealer refused. He made a motion for Judge Wood to recuse (disqualify) himself in the Stricklin case. The district attorney, several district judges, and a former mayor stood elbow to elbow with Sailor Roberts, gambler Amarillo Slim, and at least a dozen convicted dope dealers. He nearly bankrupted the family carpet store and maybe even helped along Dad Chagras fatal heart attack. He called himself a pacifist, and yet he was comfortable around violence. About four oclock Bobby Yoseph returned to the office from a shopping trip in Jurez. Two of their five children were with her. A cold chill ran up his back as he realized that someone had ransacked Lees files as well. A blast of double-aught buckshot and .30-caliber slugs ripped across the hood, left fender, and windshield of the car: police officers later counted nineteen bullet holes. To get to that part of the story, we have to go back in time, to the war on drugs that Richard Nixon initiated, and to three brothers in El Paso of Lebanese descent by way of Mexico. As the year progressed, so did his paranoia, his insistence that someone was out to get him. 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. Kerr was frail and sallow-faced and talked in a high-pitched voice that suggested he was about to shatter. For sheer lan, Hughes recalled, I dont think Id ever seen him any higher.. Lee didnt appear to like Lou Esper, but he was one of the few people in town who tolerated him. There's no way a bullet could have gone through there. It was four years before we lost a case.. Whether or not he knew the details, Lee surely sensed the magnitude of the disaster that was bearing down on him. The family was breaking apart. Liddy came up with one farfetched idea after another. He just picked up the money and tossed it in a drawer. 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. 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. The 38-year-old prosecutor had given up his apartment in El Paso and moved back to San Antonio, where he felt more comfortable. 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. 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. Death came in Mesa, Ariz., on July 25, 2008. Lee read the card and laughed. I didnt trust Arabs. And even if it was true, for Wood to reveal it in open court was outrageous. The Indian brushed a strand of limp hair over his bald spot as he walked toward Lees car. Hughes knew these had been hard times for his friend. Kerrs just working the tailings, he said. [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. Lee had always lived his life on the edge of respectability, goading the El Paso establishment by defending hardened criminals, consorting with known drug smugglers, and cultivating his image as the Black Striker. With the gambling and the ostentatious living, the money never lasted long. Like Julius Caesar, John H. Wood was several times offered high office, and several times he refused. Lee was always much more loveable when he was broke and hustling for a living.. The attempt on Kerrs life unleashed the most sweeping drug investigation in the history of the Southwest. The hitman, Charles Harrelson, was the father of actor Woody Harrelson. In these pictures shes 9 or thereabouts. A few months later two soldiers from Fort Bliss admitted robbing and killing Lee Chagra. There was a steel floor safe sunk into five feet of concrete, but like the other safes, it hadnt yet been completely installed. Several times Lee talked to Vivian and others about dying. Shortly after noon the next day, Lee telephoned and said: Ninety thousand is nothing for a stepper. [6] In fact, he is described as having been "no less than the biggest marijuana smuggler in the country" during that time. They were married in Las Vegas. However, his sister Patsy stated that he was not in the witness protection program at the time of his death. I colored the Kleenex sheets with green marker and I put it in the tree branches. But Lee trusted him. Sometimes Jimmy pretended he was Lee, signing his name Lee Chagra and repeating Lees stories as though they had happened to him. Lee who was called F. I have never found anything, he said pleasantly, in any of these grand jury investigations. The Florida operation had the potential to make millions, but it could also spell disaster for Lee. The charges against all the defendants were eventually dropped, but not for two years. What was happening here? The next morning FBI agents called on Lee Chagra, confiscated his gun collection, and asked him to take a lie detector test. Lee developed a standard ploy he secretly taped the conversation, then gave the agent the phone number of the real Mr. Big. It was the unlisted number of the local DEA chief. The law was wide open to interpretationtailor-made for a crusading lawman like James Kerr. It was hard to imagine two men more different. They landed the high-priced weed at a deep, remote cove on the northeastern point of Massachusetts Bay, near Boston. The family name was originally Bushaada, but Lees grandfather mexicanized it during the revolution. Wood was apparently confusing the fifty-page transcript of the secret interview with actual grand jury testimony. He bragged that he never once granted probation in a heroin case. A big blob of fat came pouring out, she remembered. 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. Jimmy and the crew of the chartered jet were arrested by Colombian authorities. He walked upstairs to his own office. As the feds worked around the clock to build cases against both Chagras, an agent provocateur came forward with information that could potentially put both of them away for life. It must have been nearly three-thirty by then. [21], Chagra was released from prison for health reasons in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 9, 2003. 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. Lee had always been our strength., Lee couldnt shake the feeling that something or someone was stalking him. [27] Joe Chagra's defense reportedly attempted to plead guilty to a lesser offense of conspiring to obstruct justice instead. 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. They were like a sickness with him., Lee also loved El Paso and had never thought of living anywhere else. Boyd had never been regarded as a crusader, but one exception was his views on gamblinghe hated gamblers. Lee was lying face up on the floor, blood trickling from his mouth. Over the years lawyers encountered scores of cases in which citizens had been lured into crimes by what amounted to federal bounty hunters. Jimmy knelt beside the bag that now contained the remains of his brother and started bawling. Joe Chagra also went to prison for his role in the assassination. 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. I feel that it has all been terribly twisted. I did not worry about a long-term jail sentence until Wood was killed, he said. 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