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. Lees vial of cocaine was open on the corner of his desk. [40][3], He had seven children, including a daughter named Catherine, who wrote a memoir about the family. After about an hour Lee had lost $90,000. What no one knew at this point was that the feds had already busted Wallace. He marched straight to a crap table on one side of the casino and told the pit boss to clear the table. 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. 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. Push a button and curtains would reveal a huge projector TV. But the mere act of talking on the telephone seemed to boost his confidence. Wallace was sentenced to death, though this was later reduced to life in prison. The gesture was unmistakable: hed come to replace his brother. 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 eyes were open, but he was obviously dying. Joe and his wife, Patty, who had been married for about eighteen months, sold some of their furniture and gave Jimmy some money and their Blazer. Hardly anyone wanted a lawyer who was under indictment, recalled Joe Chagra, Lees youngest brother, who by then had joined the law firm. That was the year Lee and Jo Annie started building their new home on Frontera Road in the Upper Valley. [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. He did quit for the night, though. A second man stood behind him, out of camera range. He called her into the bedroom. The following afternoon at the Aladdin, Lee took the worst beating Clark had ever seen him take. 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. From time to time agents provocateurs posing as clients came to his office to discuss a phony case, then ended up trying to score some drugs from him. 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. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms of service, privacy policy and cookies policy. 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. He named two of his chows Kilo and Poker., Look how sweet and dorky and innocent I look, Catherine Chagra said. Goodman punched holes in the governments case, and the jury acquitted Chagra. It was the first time anyone from El Paso had thought of using a tramp steamer. He was widely believed to have been placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Then he expanded the pointer, an inch at a time. He bragged that he never once granted probation in a heroin case. They showed him a Xerox copy of the section of the law dealing with continuing criminal enterprise. In a single short sitting he lost almost $190,000. Jimmy had given her a couple of kids and a lasting pain in the ass. Lees position in this venture was that of highly paid legal adviser for the gang of smugglers. He was 50. [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. But the real bite of the law, the element that made it harsher than any other federal law on the booksharsher even than penalties for rape, murder, or kidnappingwas its inordinate range of sentences. In a short time the bust was being described as the biggest one in El Paso history. It was called Capital Acquisition, and its purpose was to channel funds through several banks in Mexico and then into Jimmys new business. The judge was a member of every exclusive club in San AntonioSons of the Republic of Texas, Sons of the American Revolution, Texas Cavaliers, Argyle Club, San Antonio Club, Order of the Alamo, San Antonio Gun Club, German Club, American Legion, San Antonio Country Cluband owned property in the segregated Key Allegro resort on the Texas coastthe list went on and on. Hughes never knew whom he called or whyLees life was like hornets nest, with thousands of isolated cells, and no one person, however close, ever saw more than a single cell. Back in El Paso things werent going much better. Over the years lawyers encountered scores of cases in which citizens had been lured into crimes by what amounted to federal bounty hunters. Lees success in trying drug cases soon led him to meet Jack Stricklin, who had sent the Pitts case his way. He liked to mainline speed and supported his habit by organizing a small-time burglary-robbery ring using young black soldiers from Fort Bliss. I think he was sad about what he did to his kids. Loaves of Syrian bread were baking in the kitchen. There have been people who gambled higher in one sitting, but week after week, month after month, nobody kept coming, kept flat firing at em, like Jimmy Chagra.. The charges against all the defendants were eventually dropped, but not for two years. They volunteered for every hard-core criminal case that came along: murder, rape, robbery, burglary. Security guards kept the riffraff away. 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. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. 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. That was a fact. Another indisputable fact. Worse than 1973, the year the federal government indicted him on a trumped-up marijuana trafficking charge in Nashville and nearly destroyed his law practice. This is a fascinating story written by Jimmy Chagra's daughter. Catherine writes her story and tells what she and her family went through as the daughter of one of the biggest drug smugglers in the 1970s. It's a great read and helps you understand what a child of a person incarcerated goes through. He ran a floating blackjack game and started peddling dope. With the gambling and the ostentatious living, the money never lasted long. [27] Joe Chagra's defense reportedly attempted to plead guilty to a lesser offense of conspiring to obstruct justice instead. Tom Foster writes about business, innovation, and creative people. If Stricklin cooperated, they would work for his early release. By the late sixties he had put together an organization capable of moving tons of marijuana across the river. Now the government was trying to prove that Johnson had helped smuggle a pound of heroin out of Mexico. 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. The interview was patently leading; most of the questions were of the when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife variety. Two of their five children were with her. But Kerr wasnt satisfied. Im sick and tired of being the fall guy, Lee said, and Vivian knew that he was talking about Jimmy. It was four years before we lost a case.. The Indian wasnt a man most folks would care to meet in the darkthere was a .22 pistol under his stained leather jacket, and his face looked like forty miles of bad highway. It was the way he sounded when he was counting money or totaling figures, an abstract, business-first attitude. The family had a late dinner. At the intersection of Broadway a mint-green van blocked his route. Lee was down and Jimmy was up. He sat next to a lawyer who worked for one of El Pasos established firms in one of the high-rise glass towers that dominate the downtown district. Visions of the 1973 fiasco in Nashville that had almost ruined his law career danced through his mind. Just barely making it. Reporters flocked to the federal courthouse to get a look at what was happening to Lee Chagra. Sometimes Jimmy pretended he was Lee, signing his name Lee Chagra and repeating Lees stories as though they had happened to him. Jimmy wanted to be Lee. There were at least twenty lawyers for the defense, but apparently the entire burden of prosecution fell on poor Kilcrease. What investigation against him? In Western Texas, Powell was a prosecutor in the trial of American drug trafficker Jimmy Chagra for criminal enterprise violations. A shake-up of the entire federal drug enforcement apparatus was under way, ramrodded by Nixons ranking authority on drugs, G. Gordon Liddy. Narcotics and gambling were crimes that grew from a common stem composed of the worst elements in society. From a radio in another part of the house, Sinatra was singing about doing it his way. 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. It was apparent from the manner in which the furniture was rearranged and toppled about that the orgies were quite vigorous. Still, everyone loved Jimmy and took care of him. Hardly a day passed that the flamboyant attorney didnt make the news. Gambling bored him. No Mafia figures were ever indicted. Lees morning coffee was perfect, and the cocaine was first-rate. As far as having Wood killed, no way, he said. Boyd was wrong. A further indignation: The witness protection program first exiled them to Omaha, Neb. Wallace confessed that he had taken part in the burglary attempt on Mickey Espers office and also the attempt to rob the poker game at Jimmy Salomes house. In 1979, a federal grand jury in Midland, Texas, indicted Chagra on drug smuggling charges. Jamie Boyd was the consummate politician. Whats more, Kerr and Wood and the entire apparatus of the federal government were breathing down his neck. 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. After two days the jury reported itself hopelessly deadlocked, eight to four for acquittal. There wasnt any Mr. Big, Johnson acknowledged, but if the narcs preferred to look at it that way, Lee Chagra was a good a name as any. He called himself a pacifist, and yet he was comfortable around violence. It was a totally ludicrous story, Sib Abraham recalled, but it got very serious when the jury convicted him. In time, Lee and Sib became targets themselves. Goodman Kay McCulloch died, and with her death the raw material for the book went to the attic. 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. Florida Police Officer Treated After Being Exposed To Fentanyl During Stop, Youth Pot Abuse Jumps By 245% In Two Decades: Researchers, 'Cocaine' Cassie debuts new tattoo sleeve in racy photo as glamorous drug smuggler sets return to Australia. Theres a client buzzing at the door. Jo Annie tried to picture the man who had called that morning waiting outside. Composed of, and by, organized crime. Jamiel "Jimmy" Alexander Chagra (December 7, 1944 July 25, 2008) was an American drug trafficker, carpet salesman and professional gambler. The chiveras are paid $45 to $65, depending on the size and value of the haul; out of that money they are expected to bribe the various Mexican customs officials, who survive on bribes. Lee had seated himself at a table and ordered $5000 in chips, but the dealer refused. Id grown up in El Paso, Stricklin recalled. [1][24], Harrelson was eventually caught and convicted of being the gunman after Chagra discussed the assassination with his brother Joe during Joe's visit to Jimmy in United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, after FBI agents bugged the rooms in which they were speaking. If he refused, they would see that he was reindicted under the kingpin act and sent away for life without parole. The sisters made mistakes, too, some by failing, in their youth, to realize that a substantial portion of their larger-than-life family history was a cautionary tale, an admonition that for some, life is best lived smaller and more quietly, away from big money and bright lights and celebrities with teeth so white and so impossibly perfect. The Mafia! Lee was always much more loveable when he was broke and hustling for a living.. The indictment was so vague as to make it impossible to respond or even to contemplate a defense. 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. Lee, the man was saying, Im not gonna say this againno more credit!. 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. It took almost a year for all the money to work its way back to Jimmy and his partners. Crimes against persons are treated with extreme gravity, but crimes against the economy are treated with a wink and a smile. Lee Chagra was special, and he went out of his way to prove it: student court, law review, Order of the Coif. And hed better. With the agent providing invaluable assistance at every stage, Renteria and several others were drawn into the government trap. It took Lee less that half a day to discover that the search warrant used to bust the Tennessee smugglers was faulty. [7] According to George Knapp writing for Las Vegas CityLife, he was "the undisputed marijuana kingpin of the Western world. Eventually, Jimmys limit was $10,000 a hand and his credit almost unlimited. As he said the words, Lee extended the pointer to its full length. Lee gave the Cowboy $10,000, and the others guessed that he was a collector for some bookie. [21], Chagra was released from prison for health reasons in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 9, 2003. 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 story surrounding the assassination of Judge Wood was profiled in an episode of City Confidential. Whether or not he knew the details, Lee surely sensed the magnitude of the disaster that was bearing down on him. When Patsy, who at one time weighed 180 pounds, finally worked up the courage to wear a swimsuit in public, Jimmy humiliated her mercilessly. Some people though Lee Chagra didnt know how to quit, but that wasnt quite true. Is his [dope smuggling] operation totally separate [from another smugglers]? Well, I didnt know about it, Lee said, dumbstruck. Boyds strategy was to indict Jimmy on multiple counts and wait for him to break. She didnt know the details, but she had heard that Jimmy and his new wife, Liz, were living it up in Vegas. As Lee reached for the dice, he recited a spiel that was also part of his ritual. But Vegas had never seen anything that surpassed the performance of Lee and Jimmy Chagra. 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. He was not very good at suffering alone, and friends and family visited him almost constantly. That old watch-me-carry-the-world smile was back on his face. Since he was a stranger to El Paso, Pitts asked a local smuggler named Jack Stricklin for the name of a good lawyer. When Lou Esper learned that Lee was a cocaine user, he found a good supply and usually delivered the goods in person. 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. What she didnt know was that he was in his private apartment, watching the game on TV with his friend Sailor Roberts, a bookie who had recently been busted in James Kerrs organized-crime probe. An electronic current unbolted the door. Some of them deposited large sums in the lawyers safe, against the inevitable. He was a fanatic about his family: he lavished gifts on his wife, his children, his mother, his sister. Joe Chagra also went to prison for his role in the assassination. And it was killing Lee. The boys had been caught red-handed with 17,000 pounds if marijuana. Hed never seen it so quiet there. A.I think now its a separate dealIm not sure. For pure gambling, Jimmy may have been the strongest anyone in Vegas ever saw. Lee and several others heard the crash of metal against the patio door. 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. 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. He was the black sheep, the all-star goof-up. I though maybe I was the Jonah, he said. In the summer of 1975, Jimmy finally hit the big time. WebDrug kingpin who was charged with the murder of the US district court judge who would have presided at his drug trial. Lee Chagra grossed more than $250,000 in 1972. The rest of it, he said, his voice sure and unwavering, represents not guilty. He had started using cocaine some months earlier, and now he was using it daily. Instead, this flimsy, highly prejudicial document was destined to dog both Lee Chagra and his nemesis, Judge John Wood, to their graves. He inherited the whole El Paso docket in 1974 when Judge Ernest Guinn died suddenly of a heart attack. Part of it was his steadily increasing need for money. The Indian worked as a collector for several Las Vegas casinos. Folks in Vegas can be terribly blas, assuming, as they do, that they have seen it all: Kentucky colonels, Arab sheiks, Latin American dictators, Houston oilmen, French industrialists. 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. As his friend Clark Hughes warned him, One of the problems with being a criminal attorney is that all your clients are crooks. He had two brothers, Lee and Joseph, who were both attorneys involved with the legal defense of drug smugglers. Stricklin looked at the copy of the law for a few seconds, then returned it to the agents. 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. 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. 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. He couldnt have flushed it down the toilet faster than the way he gambled it and lost it, she said. Here he is with Joe Namath. He decided on James Kerr, one of the assistant U.S. attorneys he had inherited from the Republican regime. A short time later there was a knock, and Lee admitted two hookers to the room. Ill drive you home, he said in a low voice. Minimum sentence was ten years, maximum was life. This year, 1978, had been a year of galloping paranoia. While federal agents snapped photographs from the parking lot across the street, hundreds of mourners jammed St. Patricks. Fold this five ways and stick it where the elves dont play, he said. October 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? They could barely deal fast enough for Leeall the spots covered with white chips, $21,000 riding on every deal. 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. He unlocked the door to his private bath. Right there before your eyes Lee Chagra became the Black Striker. His older brother Lee was a very prominent defense attorney Jimmy was the middle son, and the younger son, Joe, was also an attorney.. Defendants convicted on a kingpin rap were not eligible for parole, period. He cried when he thought of Jimmy. El Pasos legions of smugglersdrug smugglers in particularmanage to get themselves arrested often enough to keep law practices like Lee Chagras busy and profitable. He let himself in with a specially made key and walked upstairs. She still has paintings he made while locked up, a hobby he never resumed after getting a medical parole in December 2003. 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. Prosecutors suspected Jimmy Chagra, and the FBI began meticulously putting its case together. Goodman had represented Chagra in a previous drug case, which was undone by his client testifying. He touched the tip of the pointer and said, This small tip represents innocence: the defendants didnt do a thing. Lou Esper had planned both of these crimes too. He was already doing time on the fraud charge at La Tuna federal correctional institution, which was on the New Mexico state line not far from El Paso. He needs you to look it over before he mails it back.. 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. Some speculated that they omitted Lee Chagra because he was from El Paso and had a Spanish surname. [4][11] Jimmy Chagra also had a sister named Patsy. This friendship, the fact that the prosecutor and the judge were seen socializing so often, caused some lawyers to question Woods impartiality. 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