Something about a will, about some large estate in California? Its from some friends in Vegas, he said, handing Vivian the card. The scam brought in more money than Lee had ever thought of making in his law practice. 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. 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. Technically and legally, the unsworn interview shouldnt even have been a part of the grand jury report. The family posted a $25,000 reward and announced that the freedom banner would hang until the killers were caught and the case was closed. By maintaining close ties to Democratic Party kingmaker Travis Johnson, Boyd had run the gamut of offices: assistant county attorney, assistant U.S. attorney, district attorney, U.S. magistrate. Paradoxically, though, Lee was secretly jealous of Jimmy. Chagra: The King of Dope Drugs, Deceit and Dirty Darlings, WATCH: Indiana father arrested on live TV after toddler is seen with gun. 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. She didnt know the details, but she had heard that Jimmy and his new wife, Liz, were living it up in Vegas. For the time being, the Jerry Johnson episode played itself out in obscurity, but the Chagra name burst into the headlines in the opening days of 1977. The rest of it, he said, his voice sure and unwavering, represents not guilty. It must have been nearly three-thirty by then. That was when Jo Annie remembered the telephone call. That was it, the last of the half-million the Black Striker had blown in Vegas the year before. Even after the charges were dismissed, there was still the stigma. All three believe he would never have gotten into the dope business without the contacts of Lee, a lawyer who seemed drawn to shady characters along the border, where smuggling was the economy. Lee continued to object. While federal agents snapped photographs from the parking lot across the street, hundreds of mourners jammed St. Patricks. [15] The FBI conducted more than 30,000 interviews related to the case and in total collected more than 500,000 pieces of information. Which for Jimmy was almost the same as being broke, Patty said. The following afternoon at the Aladdin, Lee took the worst beating Clark had ever seen him take. I waited around to wish you and the kids a merry Christmas, the gambler told her. Now the feds had a yard of hot real estate on their hands; they desperately needed someone to buy it. Boyd was wrong. Woods first big drug case came in May 1971. Vivian died of cancer in July 1986. Hughes knew these had been hard times for his friend. Chagra argued that the indictment smacked of double jeopardy, but there was no way he could prove it until the government got specific. But lately Lee was taking new directions. 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. Visions of the 1973 fiasco in Nashville that had almost ruined his law career danced through his mind. Ive got to go, he told her. 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. Donna helped Sandy count the $20,000. He couldnt have flushed it down the toilet faster than the way he gambled it and lost it, she said. 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. A rigorous and lengthy investigation into the murder brought Jimmy Chagra front and center. Knewz is a registered trademark. September 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? In the summer of 1975, Jimmy finally hit the big time. Lee protected Jimmy, but he also contributed to Jimmys sense of inadequacy. At the same time a swell of excitement seemed to rumble from the floor, and people pushed to get a look at the action. 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. Lee Chagra was special, and he went out of his way to prove it: student court, law review, Order of the Coif. [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. 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. Joseph Chagra, a Texas lawyer who admitted his complicity in the first assassination of a Federal judge in more than a century, died last Sunday in Thomason Hospital in El Paso. Goodman had represented Chagra in a previous drug case, which was undone by his client testifying. The bonds that he set in marijuana cases averaged $200,000. [15], Chagra's drug dealings came under close scrutiny by law enforcement and the judicial system. Liddy came up with one farfetched idea after another. Lees law practice never recovered. He was up and down all his lifestruggling. And even if it was true, for Wood to reveal it in open court was outrageous. 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. 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. Of course, not all the authorities are so blas. David Long? Lee said. Lee couldnt stop talking about Tucson. It was Stricklin who was on trial, not Chagra. Boyd believed that one way or another Jimmy would take him to Lee. The interview was patently leading; most of the questions were of the when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife variety. The agents thought so little of the information gleaned in the interview with Johnson that they didnt even bother to place him under oath. Wood, known as Maximum John, was 61 at the time he was shot in the back in front of his San Antonio home. The office was a maelstrom of activity, none of it having anything to do with the practice of law. 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. The boys had been caught red-handed with 17,000 pounds if marijuana. "He was great friends with Inside Friscos Lavish, Enormous New Golf Resort. 3.9 on Goodreads. There's no way a bullet could have gone through there. 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. Christa remembers the family being on food stamps after her dad went to jail. For sheer lan, Hughes recalled, I dont think Id ever seen him any higher.. Fayuqueros (smugglers) from Mexico usually make two trips a week across the border, carrying about 250,000 pesos ($10,000) worth of goods each way. It was the era of the Nixon Administrations much-heralded war on drugs. In 1995, he appeared as himself in the movie, Casino.. They implicated Lou Esper as the man who had planned the heist and supplied the weapons. 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. I though maybe I was the Jonah, he said. The case wound up in Woods court. When Lee pinned them down on the exact location from which they had watched the scene, several jurors snickered: not only was the position almost a mile from the field but a massive hill blocked the view. Lee laughed with pride. Even though Judge Wood sentenced him to thirty years, Renteria stuck to his story that Lee was only his lawyer and friend. Mom would be returning from mass just about now, walking toward Lees office, unaware that anything had happened. He nearly bankrupted the family carpet store and maybe even helped along Dad Chagras fatal heart attack. Woods blunder was the last straw. Chagra was outraged. Lee stared out the limo window at the blur of cold neon. When an average high-stakes player sits down at one of the seven places around a blackjack table, his limit might be as high as $1000 a hand. 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 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. Before, they ate beans and a little meat. By the time Lee finished dressing, Jo Annie had breakfast readyfreshly baked Syrian bread, butter, and a variety of fruit preserves. There was a ritual that he always observed before going downstairs to the casino. A graduate of SMUs law school, Kerr had worked for the Justice Department and helped draft the 1970 Drug Control Act. [7] He had a $1 million mansion in Las Vegas. The news that a task force of federal and state agents had seized a DC-4 with 17,000 pounds of top-grade Colombian marijuana in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on December 30 hit El Paso like a sonic boom. 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. [5][34] Joe Chagra served six and a half years in prison (of his ten-year sentence) and was released. For six years now shed been divorced from Jimmy and nothing much had changed. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he had refused to let go of the notion that El Paso was being overrun by the Mafia. They could have been twins. No, you got it backwards, Lee said when he saw it. That was the year Lee and Jo Annie started building their new home on Frontera Road in the Upper Valley. He talked about death a lot. Lee was already there. Now they eat three meals a day and imported cheese. He imported more high-grade ganja than anyone, tons at a time, planeload after planeload. He was convicted of obstructing the investigation of the Jimmy Chagra, in another conversation recorded in prison and later transcribed, would not go quite as far, although he further muddied the waters. A block from the cathedral, on North Mesa at the edge of the downtown business district, Lee Chagras new office building was closed for good. 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. 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. It was becoming an obsession. 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. Lee held the picture so it caught the light. Out on bail before sentencing, he went on the lam for five or six months and was on the FBIs 10 most wanted list. A few months later two soldiers from Fort Bliss admitted robbing and killing Lee Chagra. The real show was on the casino floor in special sections roped off for the Chagras. Kerr had been involved with pursuing Chagra for his drug dealings. Jo Annie went on to the Sun Bowl and telephoned her husband at halftime. Lee concurred and told other members of the family that Jimmy was dead broke and needed their help. 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. Jamiel "Jimmy" Alexander Chagra (December 7, 1944 July 25, 2008) was an American drug trafficker, carpet salesman and professional gambler. He swore he did not put out a hit on Maximum John H. Wood Jr., the federal judge in San Antonio presiding over a case that could have sent Jamiel Jimmy Chagra to prison for life. 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. Now the government was trying to prove that Johnson had helped smuggle a pound of heroin out of Mexico. They mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). The new office was a show of faith, or at least tenacity, and it made Lee feel good to know that someone else appreciated it. Whatever Jo Annie was thinking, she wouldnt say anything. He died from injuries resulting from an automobile accident that occurred on December 6, 1996. Lee had never let his name be linked to an illegal enterprise before the fact. "[8], Jamiel Chagra, known as Jimmy, was born in El Paso, Texas on December 7, 1944. Boyds strategy was to indict Jimmy on multiple counts and wait for him to break. 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. 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. 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. A second man stood behind him, out of camera range. On the night before he was murdered, Lee Chagra returned home to El Paso flushed with the euphoria a gambler feels when he believes his luck is changing. Chagra attempted to bribe Judge Wood for "$5 million or 10million". 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. [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. In fact, the only evidence that Lee expected things to improve was his new office complex. 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. 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. In his eleven years on the El Paso political scene, Boyd had been elected to public office only one time, to fill out the unexpired term of district attorney in 1970, and yet no politician in town had a better feel for the bureaucracy or for subtle shifts in power and opinion. 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. 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. His older brother Lee was a very prominent defense attorney Jimmy was the middle son, and the younger son, Joe, was also an attorney.. Another suggestion was to disrupt the drug market by passing out poisoned drugs. He earned a lot of money and became a high roller in Las Vegas, known for his very generous tipping. 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. Right there before your eyes Lee Chagra became the Black Striker. I knew that Vivian had been working on a book about the Chagra saga, McCulloch said. Id lay next to him and stroke his arm and hed say, Baby, I think I might go to hell. He didnt apologize for anything; he just said, I think Im going to hell. I said, You just have to ask God to forgive you, Daddy. I dont think he felt bad about the crimes. Narcotics and gambling were crimes that grew from a common stem composed of the worst elements in society. She was sentenced to 30 years and died in prison in 1997 Instead of flying in the customary small planeload of 2000 pounds from Mexico, they imported 54,000 pounds from Colombia. Is his [dope smuggling] operation totally separate [from another smugglers]? 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. By the time the jury began its deliberation, it was obvious that the best the prosecution could expect was a tie. When Patsy, who at one time weighed 180 pounds, finally worked up the courage to wear a swimsuit in public, Jimmy humiliated her mercilessly. It was an incredible sight. Their dad just didnt feel safe going to court without his consigliere. Im the eagle! But Sandy noticed there were tears in his eyes. Vivian remembered the previous Saturday at his office; shes heard murmurs from the staff as she followed him upstairs. Back in El Paso things werent going much better. Please feel free to use any other table in the casino. Like so many sheep, the nickel-and-dime players started backing away. 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. Stricklin looked at the copy of the law for a few seconds, then returned it to the agents. [19][20] Chagra faced a possible life sentence without parole if convicted and reportedly feared he would receive a life sentence, according to prosecutors. Jimmy would tip the hotel staff like a salesman with an end-of-the-month goal handing out business cards. The documents revealed that hardly a week passed without some agents making inquiries into Lee Chagras private life. The hitman, Charles Harrelson, was the father of actor Woody Harrelson. In the first minutes of Lees run, a little old lady burst through the crowd just as Lee released the dice. 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. 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. Except for a few faithful clients like Jack Stricklin, Lees practice was at rock bottom. Youve got everything I always dreamed of having, the lawyer said. Any craps! she shouted, throwing a $5 chip on the table. The family name was originally Bushaada, but Lees grandfather mexicanized it during the revolution. He had known that the DEA was watching him, but a grand jury? He walked upstairs to his own office. James Kerr was devoting almost all of his time to his organized-crime investigation. 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. [14], Prior to his arrest, he accumulated approximately $100 million in various bank accounts, today amounting to about $500 million. The indictment was so vague as to make it impossible to respond or even to contemplate a defense. Ill drive you home, he said in a low voice. He was a mamas boy, always pouting and complaining. He would try to join the family by half-time. 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. More likely it was because Lee, as chief justice of the student court, had spoken out against segregated dorms and football teams. In the 24 hours since their arrival, he had signed markers totaling $240,000. They went down there, they took pictures of everything And I was able to take that model and demolish their case. [4][11] Jimmy Chagra also had a sister named Patsy. He was also used in FBI: The Untold Stories. With the gambling and the ostentatious living, the money never lasted long. No force on earth could stop him. Its David Long, the first man said. He liked to mainline speed and supported his habit by organizing a small-time burglary-robbery ring using young black soldiers from Fort Bliss. His father was a vice president of El Paso Natural Gas. Chagra had little use for public servants, especially prosecutors, and Kerr was a classic bureaucrat, squeaking with authority and wedded to the book. A book signing of 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. Reporters flocked to the federal courthouse to get a look at what was happening to Lee Chagra. Jimmy preferred the Sinatra penthouse with its white baby grand piano and spiral staircase. Loaves of Syrian bread were baking in the kitchen. Traditionally, gambling and smuggling are on a par with fixing parking tickets and hiring illegal aliens. But the mere act of talking on the telephone seemed to boost his confidence. 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. If there was a single piece of new evidence, it wasnt mentioned, or even hinted at, in the indictment. The perfect vehicle for the imperfect time. It was four years before we lost a case.. The government seemed to know it didnt have a case, but it was determined to see how far it could travel. Catherine figures she was 10 when her dad went to prison. On several occasions he watched Lee remove one of his boots and count out the cash. Lee told her he still had a pile of work on his desk. In the winter. The consensus had always been that Jimmy Chagra would never amount to much. Through it all, he had somehow clung to the central fact in his life: Lee Chagra was a topflight criminal attorney. 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. Lees position in this venture was that of highly paid legal adviser for the gang of smugglers. 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. Finally, he would pose with the ebony cane with the gold satyrs-head handle, squinting and turning until he was satisfied. The government was so rabid for convictions that it destroyed its own case. His grandfather had been an ironfisted sheriff of Bexar County when lawmen still fought off Apaches. Stricklin started peddling lids when they were still lidsan ounce of grass in a Prince Albert tin. While they were counting, Bobby Yoseph appeared at the door and tried to shove his way inside. It was his most important victory in monthsand his most profitable. Hed never cried about it before. He helped develop Operation Intercept, a massive media event in which millions of U.S. citizens were stopped and searched at the border. 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. In some ways, they said, he was like Dad Chagra, old Abdou, a man stunted by his dreams. If the feds could compromise even a single member of the conspiracy, the whole organization might crumbleand Lee with it. Sometime in the middle of the night, after everyone else was asleep, Lee changed clothes and drove to his new office. Even as Lee was working to salvage what he could from the ruins, Jimmy was plotting a new deal. 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. For years there had been a rivalry between the two brothers, a fierce and unyielding competition that only the two of them completely understood. Jurors heard hours worth of tape recordings and more than 500 pages of documents were presented. [5][3], Texas Drug, Gambling Figure Missing; High Bond Forfeited, Jimmy Chagra; Smuggler Linked to Judge's Death. They had to take care of him because he spoiled everything he touched. 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