The feds reasoned that Lee was the mastermind because Lee was so smart, and they became so preoccupied with this scenario that they failed to see the obvious irony: Lee was too smart to play that role. He worked his way through the University of Texas law school, graduating fourth in his class in 1962. Vivian did her best to smile. Clark was dog tired and went straight to bed. The consensus had always been that Jimmy Chagra would never amount to much. Lee was a baffling tangle of contradictions. He was up and down all his lifestruggling. Jo Annie left the game early, and when she stopped by the office Roberts was just leaving. SOLD OUT: Against All Odds: Oscar Goodman and the 40th Anniversary of the Jimmy Chagra Murder Trial. Universal Studios Is Coming to Frisco. As one of the daughters answered the phone, Yoseph saw Lees body. He could be shamelessly sentimental and gentle as a whisper, and yet there was a macho fury inside that could make him turn on those closest to him. You sonuvabitch, how are you gonna pay off those markers?, He took a deep draw on his cigarette and pressed Clarks shoulder. Rumors persisted that while Stricklin was doing time at La Tuna, Lee arranged to destroy records that would have established Lees complicity in a number of smuggling operations. The Mafia! Lees younger brother Jimmy, who grew up hustling and hanging out with some of Lees more prosperous clients, wanted nothing more than to be recognized as Mr. Big. Over the next eight years Wood handed out the maximum sentence in almost every case. He was a good, sound, all-around lawyer, but he didnt have Lees appetite for controversy. Kerr escaped with only minor glass cuts. Hughes knew that it would be several hours before Lee worked himself into the proper frenzy. The government questions the good faith of this request, Kerr concluded. 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. Where do you get off? Its riddled with ethnic stereotyping of Lebanese men as reckless womanizers and Lebanese women as subservient slaves to their men. Lee was the first college graduate in his family, and the first professional. 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. Lee counted out $75,000, slipped it into his coat pocket, and headed for his clandestine appointment. Lee kept detailed records of gambling transactions, but no one else had any concept of home much he bet or with how many different bookies. Narcotics agents believed that Stricklin and his associates supplied a good part of the South and Southwest with Mexican marijuana. It was in his blood. His two older brothers were so much alike it scared him. He walked to the top of the stairs and looked down at two black men with guns. Lee joked as he gave the Indian the $75,000, and the Indian mumbled and studied his boots. There was no way to count the number of ex-lovers who crowded the cathedral to say their last farewell, but they were discreetly scattered and only occasionally exchanged glances. Lee was Clarks friend, maybe the best friend hed ever had, but in some strange, almost unthinkable way he felt the friendship slipping away. He unlocked the door to his private bath. Woods blunder was the last straw. Finally, he would pose with the ebony cane with the gold satyrs-head handle, squinting and turning until he was satisfied. By New Years Day it was the top story in town, and the defendants were being called the El Paso Ten. By the time the jury began its deliberation, it was obvious that the best the prosecution could expect was a tie. There was a ritual that he always observed before going downstairs to the casino. [9][13] Reportedly, he used gambling as a method of laundering money he received through trafficking drugs. The casino was almost deserted. It was three days before Christmas, 1978. He seemed pleased with the gesture but told her there was some work he needed to do at the office. Kerr was frail and sallow-faced and talked in a high-pitched voice that suggested he was about to shatter. James Kerr was devoting almost all of his time to his organized-crime investigation. Vivian died of cancer in July 1986. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services. The media reported that the charges were dropped for lack of a speedy trial. The boys had been caught red-handed with 17,000 pounds if marijuana. On April 11, 1977, James Kerr made an unpublicized trip to Nashville to review the allegations of the 1973 indictments against Lee Chagra and Jack Stricklin. Whatever Jo Annie was thinking, she wouldnt say anything. Its better to bust your ass trying and get kicked all over tomorrow than live all your life like those little gray bastards out there., A few weeks after the Vegas trip, Lee was hospitalized for a long overdue hemorrhoidectomy. He certainly knew about it before the feds did. Everything was on the house. They volunteered for every hard-core criminal case that came along: murder, rape, robbery, burglary. It became his trademark. Whatever the maximum penalty was, that was generally what he gave. Lee had been accused of a lot of things, but this was the first time anyone had ever accused him of representing himself and not his client. I think he was sad about what he did to his kids. He had known about Lees cocaine habit, but since Clark had been appointed a judge, Lee hadnt flaunted it. That woman was Vivian, Christa and Catherine and Cynthias mother, who came from humble beginnings in an unincorporated community near Brownwood. In Judge John Woods courtroom Kerr found the perfect forum for his crusade. It was four years before most people recognized Jimmys achievement, but the operation was a landmark in marijuana trafficking. Tom Foster writes about business, innovation, and creative people. 196 Sandy was to count out $20,000 from the stash under the bathroom sink and have it ready when the woman arrived. 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. 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. Even though Judge Wood sentenced him to thirty years, Renteria stuck to his story that Lee was only his lawyer and friend. Then, in a fashion that was typical of his relationship with Lee, Jimmy decided to take it one step farther. In prison, Jimmy would say he got hooked on gambling faster than heroin.. Shortly after noon the next day, Lee telephoned and said: Ninety thousand is nothing for a stepper. You help us and well help you, the agents told Stricklin. 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. 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. Sometime in the middle of the night, after everyone else was asleep, Lee changed clothes and drove to his new office. Is there any secret about that?. Hardly a day passed that the flamboyant attorney didnt make the news. And Im going to charge you ten thousand dollars.. Lee flew to Florida and set up a dummy corporation for Jimmy. Kerr had the advantage of interviews with a number of dealers who had been arrested since 1973one informant claimed he had personally paid Stricklin $500,000. Whats more, Kerr and Wood and the entire apparatus of the federal government were breathing down his neck. 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. It was obvious that the prosecution and the DEA had problems coordinating their investigation. That was it, the last of the half-million the Black Striker had blown in Vegas the year before. Lee Chagra grossed more than $250,000 in 1972. When either of the Chagras sat at the blackjack table, he took all seven spots. Since he was a stranger to El Paso, Pitts asked a local smuggler named Jack Stricklin for the name of a good lawyer. 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. Lee had always been our strength., Lee couldnt shake the feeling that something or someone was stalking him. It was almost midnight when the Black Striker made his appearance on the casino floor. In secret interviews Wallace as singing like a drunken angel. In the court of John Wood, Chagra realized, that could be some distance. Whats it all for? he said out loud, and Vivian could see the tears in his eyes and hear the catch in his voice. Technically Lee had won the battle, but there was little doubt that Wood had landed a crippling, perhaps fatal blow to the attorneys already battered reputation. Youve got it wrong, Lee replied. After Jimmy and Vivian divorced, in late 1973 or 1974, before the first big score, Vivian would beg her ex-lover and former brother-in-law for money that Jimmy couldnt or wouldnt fork over. But the feds real ace in the hole was Jimmy and his partner, Henry Wallace. Their dad just didnt feel safe going to court without his consigliere. This was among over a thousand recorded conversations that the government had collected as evidence. Lee seemed restless and preoccupied, as though he were late for an appointment and couldnt wait for Jo Annie to leave. The law was wide open to interpretationtailor-made for a crusading lawman like James Kerr. Jimmy would tip the hotel staff like a salesman with an end-of-the-month goal handing out business cards. Part of the reason was his honest conviction that even the lowest, meanest, rottenest scum on the face of the earth deserved, and in fact were guaranteed, a right to a fair trial. I dont know how much longer I can do this, he confided. Then he expanded the pointer, an inch at a time. These people used to steal, a Mexican policeman told the Associated Press recently, but there is more money in contraband. 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. Im the eagle! But Sandy noticed there were tears in his eyes. Kerr had been involved with pursuing Chagra for his drug dealings. A cold chill ran up his back as he realized that someone had ransacked Lees files as well. 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. The door was partially open, but the office appeared empty. Again, Lee sounded as though he had something else on his mind. 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. If youre not careful, your friends become crooks, too. Lee first had the dangers of his association with criminals brought home to him in 1973. He hung up without speaking. 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. He was 50. If she realized how pressed he had been for money in recent months, she didnt show it. They were like a sickness with him., Lee also loved El Paso and had never thought of living anywhere else. There was a steel floor safe sunk into five feet of concrete, but like the other safes, it hadnt yet been completely installed. Worse even then the chain reaction of disasters in 1977: the crash of one of his brother Jimmys drug smuggling planes in Colombia, Jimmys botched foray to rescue the pilot, Lees frantic scramble to rescue Jimmy, his running courtroom battle with federal prosecutor James Kerr and Judge John Wood. He was also used in FBI: The Untold Stories. It was only the second time in US history that a federal judge had been killed. The perfect vehicle for the imperfect time. He had several of the bracelets made for close friends and members of the family. The case remains unsolved. 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. Later, a superseding indictment added the charge of continuing criminal enterprise. I didnt have Wood killed. 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. A case in point was that of an unsuspecting El Paso cafe owner who was conned by two agents into conspiring to buy stolen government weapons. 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. When Patsy, who at one time weighed 180 pounds, finally worked up the courage to wear a swimsuit in public, Jimmy humiliated her mercilessly. Stricklin hadnt yet met Lee Chagra, but he knew Chagras reputation. From Kilcreases files, Kerr concluded that all the elements needed to satisfy the kingpin law were amply presentmany separate transactions and many people, most of whom worked for Stricklin. [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. And yet, right there under their noses was another Chagra not at all handicapped by brains or good judgment. In fact, the only evidence that Lee expected things to improve was his new office complex. He liked to mainline speed and supported his habit by organizing a small-time burglary-robbery ring using young black soldiers from Fort Bliss. 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. He was arrested without incident in front of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, his second home, where, according to Catherine, hed gone to seek facial reconstructive surgery. Stricklin was an enterprising and likable young man who had grown up in one of El Pasos better neighborhoods. His great-grandfather had come from New York and fought in the Texas Revolution. But more than anything, it was his clothes; Jimmy showed up at the funeral wearing an outfit exactly like Lees Black Striker costume. For the most part, 1978 turned out to be just a continuation of the long slide that had begun in 1977. With Redd Fox. The model just had the bare branches., Catherine Chagra's 2015 book. Jimmy was born the middle son of a Lebanese rug merchant family. Patsy tearfully asked for respect from the press during the crisis. All things considered, 1978 has probably been the worst year of Lee Chagras life. [25][21][26], Both Harrelson and Chagra's brother Joe were implicated in the assassination. Clark assumed that he would go straight back to Caesars and claim some of his markers, but that wasnt Lees plan. Copyright 2023 Knewz Media Group LLC. 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. Joe announced plans to open his own law firm. A ton of marijuana is no better or worse than a ton of quicksilver. 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. [7] According to George Knapp writing for Las Vegas CityLife, he was "the undisputed marijuana kingpin of the Western world. 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. Chagra laid out the cold, hard facts: I cant save you. It was an incredible sight. They had a surprise for Leea new Lincoln limousine with a portable bar, a TV, a stereo, and even a secret compartment to conceal his guns and playing cards. 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. Lee left the money spread across the bed and closed the bedroom door behind him. They mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). For years there had been a rivalry between the two brothers, a fierce and unyielding competition that only the two of them completely understood. The pit boss snapped his fingers and motioned for the guards to bring the velvet ropes. Lee had showered and was standing in front of the bathroom mirror in his shorts when his brother Jimmys ex-wife, Vivian, arrived. And yet by the end of the trial, a majority of the jurors refused to find the defendants guilty. Lee Chagras funeral was a microcosm of all the extremes in his life. Gentlemen, he told the other players, this table is now reserved for a private game. The sisters today say that if Lee Chagra had not been killed, Wood would not have been, either. None of the missing $450,000 was ever recovered. If the feds could compromise even a single member of the conspiracy, the whole organization might crumbleand Lee with it. (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. Paperback November 6, 2015. by Catherine Chagra (Author) 168 ratings. Ten smugglers, two airplanes, and four U-Haul trucks had been seized in the predawn trap. Later, Jo Annie gave him an ebony cane with a gold satyrs-head handle. In 1995, he appeared as himself in the movie, Casino.. [27] Joe Chagra's defense reportedly attempted to plead guilty to a lesser offense of conspiring to obstruct justice instead. This didnt seem to disturb Wood any more than it had Guinn, who used to cackle, I can sentence them a lot faster than they can reverse them. Nor did Wood protest when they started calling him Maximum John. Chagras defense accused the feds of venue-shopping so that their client was almost sure to get life. 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. The verdict in the Tucson trial had been sublime: in a highly publicized, multicount bank fraud indictment, Lee had walked his man on every count. Chagra argued that the indictment smacked of double jeopardy, but there was no way he could prove it until the government got specific. They landed the high-priced weed at a deep, remote cove on the northeastern point of Massachusetts Bay, near Boston. Heres Catherine Chagra with Ann-Margret. He marched straight to a crap table on one side of the casino and told the pit boss to clear the table. [36][37] However, his sister Patsy stated that he was not in the witness protection program at the time of his death. [11][24][9], Jimmy Chagra died of cancer on July 25, 2008. Lee speculated that the attempt was an inside job. What no one knew at this point was that the feds had already busted Wallace. 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. There was no bitterness or rancor, but by the end of August Joe Chagra realized that he had had all he could take. One day while Vivian was there, they delivered a dozen red roses to the room. Crimes against persons are treated with extreme gravity, but crimes against the economy are treated with a wink and a smile. One time she wrote about sports. 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. Lee and several others heard the crash of metal against the patio door. Kerrs long association with FBI, IRS, and DEA agentsclients, he called themhad convinced him of the same sort of monolithic conspiracy that Boyd himself leaned toward. [15] The FBI conducted more than 30,000 interviews related to the case and in total collected more than 500,000 pieces of information. This wasnt an unusual request: just a week before, Lee had given Sandy $50,000 to carry around in her tote bag, ostensibly for safekeeping. Standing in front of the mirror, he would snap the pearl buttons of his red cowboy shirt, then climb into the black Western-cut leisure suit. The family was worried about Lee. Catherine remembers the prison visits as the best times she ever had with her father. Jimmy was known to win or lose $1 million a night, according to Catherine. 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. Gambling bored him. Jimmys Florida operation, far from being an immediate disaster, disbanded after successfully offloading fifty tons of grass from a Colombian freighter in March. A known gambler and hit man, Harrelson had apparently been cleared in the Wood murder. It was a partial victory for Leethe jury found De La Torre guilty of only one charge and he got the maximum, 5 years. On August 31, 1977, Lee Chagra appeared in Judge Woods court to file a motion of discovery, asking that the judge turn over DEA reports, customs reports, grand jury probes, any material that would reveal when Stricklin was supposed to have engaged in continuing criminal activity. The bonds that he set in marijuana cases averaged $200,000. 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. Please feel free to use any other table in the casino. Like so many sheep, the nickel-and-dime players started backing away. He had seven children, including a daughter named Catherine, who wrote a memoir about the family. Jimmy Chagra died of cancer on July 25, 2008. He was living in a trailer camp in Mesa, Arizona. At the intersection of Broadway a mint-green van blocked his route. 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. A few months later two soldiers from Fort Bliss admitted robbing and killing Lee Chagra. Eventually, Jimmys limit was $10,000 a hand and his credit almost unlimited. Shortly after the Ardmore trial, DEA agents visited Jack Stricklin at La Tuna federal correctional institution, where he was doing time for a drug rap Lee hadnt been able to get him out of. 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. I imagine everyone in this area knows that youve been the subject of a grand jury investigation ever since the Tennessee indictment, Wood announced. 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. Even after the charges were dismissed, there was still the stigma. Each time he caught a narc in a lie, Lee made eye contact with various jurors, the corners of his mouth twitching with mirth as though he expected tiny okra plants to sprout from the witnesss nose at any moment. Maximum sentence in almost every case argued that the feds of venue-shopping so that their was. Organization might crumbleand Lee with it ace in the court of John Wood, Chagra realized that had! Think he was `` the undisputed marijuana kingpin of the long slide that had begun in 1977 half-million... Its deliberation, it was obvious that the government questions the good faith this. With it be just a continuation of the casino almost sure to get life smuggler Jack... Faith of this request, Kerr concluded everyone else was asleep, Lee hadnt it! 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