The case remains unsolved. Lee speculated that the attempt was an inside job. Since he was a stranger to El Paso, Pitts asked a local smuggler named Jack Stricklin for the name of a good lawyer. On the monitor he saw a tall, muscular black man in his early twenties. 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. The boys had been caught red-handed with 17,000 pounds if marijuana. They say Jimmy lacked ambition. Now it was the judge who was having difficulty. He imported more high-grade ganja than anyone, tons at a time, planeload after planeload. It appeared to be a clear example of double jeopardysame events, same evidence, same witnesses. It is like I am reading about a third person.. He had started using cocaine some months earlier, and now he was using it daily. A.I think now its a separate dealIm not sure. With its confluence of shady border business opportunities, affairs, greed, drugs, gambling and sibling rivalry, the tale seems to have been fated to play out exactly the way it did: with Jimmy, his second or third wife and Jimmys brother Joe all sentenced to federal prison; with a third brother, Lee, murdered in his office days before Christmas 1978; with Vivian and her three daughters in the witness protection program; and with one generation of a family forever splintered by the grave misdeeds of the one preceding it. That was it, the last of the half-million the Black Striker had blown in Vegas the year before. The best guess is that they divided at least $5 million. Whats more, Kerr and Wood and the entire apparatus of the federal government were breathing down his neck. His grandfather was imprisoned before Jimmy was born, and the family immigrated to El Paso from Mexico. 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. The next summer the Chagra brothers hit Vegas like a blizzard of kamikaze locusts. With the gambling and the ostentatious living, the money never lasted long. 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. He helped develop Operation Intercept, a massive media event in which millions of U.S. citizens were stopped and searched at the border. He would try to join the family by half-time. The family was breaking apart. Texass Most Venomous Caterpillar. The shock of Lees death didnt really hit Jimmy until he faced the prospect of walking into Judge Woods courtroom without Lee. All of Lees personal affairs, especially those with women, were conducted behind closed doors. That was a fact. Push a button and curtains would reveal a huge projector TV. Clark was painfully aware that all serious gamblers harbored deep and irrational superstitions: once hed seen Lee go berserk because a Chinaman approached the table. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. That old watch-me-carry-the-world smile was back on his face. [7] According to George Knapp writing for Las Vegas CityLife, he was "the undisputed marijuana kingpin of the Western world. 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. [5][3], Texas Drug, Gambling Figure Missing; High Bond Forfeited, Jimmy Chagra; Smuggler Linked to Judge's Death. Then he expanded the pointer, an inch at a time. Lee couldnt stop talking about Tucson. Jimmy preferred the Sinatra penthouse with its white baby grand piano and spiral staircase. Ive been a fool.. Its David Long, the first man said. He had two brothers, Lee and Joseph, who were both attorneys involved with the legal defense of drug smugglers. 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. Family problems were accumulating faster than Lee could catalog them. He was 50. But Vegas had never seen anything that surpassed the performance of Lee and Jimmy Chagra. 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. A third, Cynthia Jones Chagra, lives in Austin. The Photo the Dallas Cowboys Never Wanted the Public to See, Welcome to Palo Pinto, Texass Next State Park, The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition, Please Do Not Touch the Toxic Toupee, a.k.a. By New Years Day it was the top story in town, and the defendants were being called the El Paso Ten. By setting up the corporation for Jimmy, Lee had, for the first time, made himself vulnerable. A known gambler and hit man, Harrelson had apparently been cleared in the Wood murder. I feel that it has all been terribly twisted. 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. 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. 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. It looked as though Lee had struck gold, but quicksand might have been closer to the truth. Soon every drug dealer on the border carried one of Lee Chagras cards. In the court of John Wood, Chagra realized, that could be some distance. As was his custom when he was in one of these expansive moods, Lee sat in his new office with his feet on his desk, telling war stories and handing out money. A black banner was stretched across the entire front of the building. [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. He and Clark went back to the suite for a while. [7] He had a $1 million mansion in Las Vegas. Kerr escaped with only minor glass cuts. Instead, this flimsy, highly prejudicial document was destined to dog both Lee Chagra and his nemesis, Judge John Wood, to their graves. Would you ask Kerr to take a lie detector test if someone tried to kill me? he demanded. Lee sparkled like a kid with a new toy as he showed Donna and Sandy where the various safes were concealed. Please feel free to use any other table in the casino. Like so many sheep, the nickel-and-dime players started backing away. Every morning when I drive down to the office, I get sick at my stomach, Joe told Patty. Its good business for everybody.. He hardly seemed aware she was in the room. In the first minutes of Lees run, a little old lady burst through the crowd just as Lee released the dice. Lee handed out $200 in tips before they got to the suite. 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. When Joe and Lee had drawn up their partnership, the arrangement was that they would share all revenues and losses, but Joe hadnt counted on sharing Lees gambling losses. [11][24][9], Jimmy Chagra died of cancer on July 25, 2008. Much later, Lee Chagra learned that the single piece of evidence against him was a statement made by Tom Pitts, claiming that he and another drug dealer had once used Lees office to cut a deal. He was convicted of obstructing the investigation of the The indictment was so vague as to make it impossible to respond or even to contemplate a defense. Mom would be returning from mass just about now, walking toward Lees office, unaware that anything had happened. Lee left the money spread across the bed and closed the bedroom door behind him. Goodman punched holes in the governments case, and the jury acquitted Chagra. It was four years before most people recognized Jimmys achievement, but the operation was a landmark in marijuana trafficking. And she suspected that some of the money that was paying off Lees elaborate new offices and his gambling debts came from Jimmy. But lately Lee was taking new directions. The 38-year-old prosecutor had given up his apartment in El Paso and moved back to San Antonio, where he felt more comfortable. Later, a superseding indictment added the charge of continuing criminal enterprise. After a while Clark said, You must have dropped close to half a million back there. Two overstuffed easy chairs were pushed together against the front of Lees desk, blocking the path across the room. Yosephs gazed moved around the room. His office and home telephone records as far back as 1970 had been subpoenaed, and so had his income tax records. Stricklin started peddling lids when they were still lidsan ounce of grass in a Prince Albert tin. I undermined their entire case of how the bullet got to the judge.. They were making a career, or at least a crusade, of trying to prove that Lee Chagra, master criminal lawyer, was in fact master criminal. A graduate of SMUs law school, Kerr had worked for the Justice Department and helped draft the 1970 Drug Control Act. [9][10] His mother was named Josephine, and his father Abdou Chagra. He was a good, sound, all-around lawyer, but he didnt have Lees appetite for controversy. Sandy and the others began to realize that this was something truly personal; it was as though Lee were mourning his own impending death. Sib remembered: Candidly, we were very, very successful. He walked to the top of the stairs and looked down at two black men with guns. Chagra could win or lose more in a single session at a Vegas crap table than Kerr made in a year. I did not worry about a long-term jail sentence until Wood was killed, he said. I knew he would take a hard look at narcotics and organized crime.. 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. She had put the same question to herself. 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. He loved the streets and the people who plied themwhores, gamblers, smugglers, cops. Early in the fall someone had broken into Mickey Espers law offices and attempted to haul off a safe. But, speaking to his ex-wife, Vivian, in a federal prison more than 30 years ago, he said he was not a killer. 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. All rights reserved. He died from injuries resulting from an automobile accident that occurred on December 6, 1996. They mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). Patsy, the second, was the miracle baby, born against all odds and medical opinions; on the morning of her birth Abdou walked barefoot to the summit of Sierra del Cristo Rey and dropped to his knees and thanked the Virgin. He liked to mainline speed and supported his habit by organizing a small-time burglary-robbery ring using young black soldiers from Fort Bliss. 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. Look at em, he grinned at the pit boss. 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. 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. For some unexplained reason, the three assailants (apparently there was a third behind the wheel) raced from the scene without bothering to walk five or six feet and make sure that Kerr was dead. His dislike for narcotic cops, particularly agents provocateurs, had been stoked to a white-hot hatred that nearly consumed both his private and his professional life. No man could have been prouder of his heritage than Wood; he was a confirmed, unapologetic elitist, a descendant of hardy pioneer-stock aristocrats. Shortly after noon the next day, Lee telephoned and said: Ninety thousand is nothing for a stepper. No force on earth could stop him. A major law firm that always invited the top six UT law graduates to a spring gala invited only five in 1962. Copyright 2023 Knewz Media Group LLC. [14], Prior to his arrest, he accumulated approximately $100 million in various bank accounts, today amounting to about $500 million. On November 21, 1978, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Kerr was ambushed and shot at near his home by two men who fired 19 bullets at his car. About four oclock Bobby Yoseph returned to the office from a shopping trip in Jurez. Lee turned the channel selector to the camera over the alley entrance. "[35] It was otherwise described as "one of the most intense investigations in the annals of the FBI". His great-grandfather had come from New York and fought in the Texas Revolution. 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. All rights reserved. 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. 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. First he saw Lees boots standing in one corner by the door to the balcony, then he saw the blotch of blood on the wall. In fact, the charges were dismissed because there was no evidence to bring charges in the first place. Lees vial of cocaine was open on the corner of his desk. The family had a late dinner. By the time the jury began its deliberation, it was obvious that the best the prosecution could expect was a tie. Drugs are currently in fashion, but over the years whiskey, cigarettes, perfume, Swiss watches, silver, kitchenware, and of course, laborers have been staples in the trade. October 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? [38] A fictitious name reference to the Judge John Wood assassination also appeared in an The FBI Files episode "Dangerous Company" as the show regularly changed names of real-life people to protect privacy. He was widely believed to have been placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Chagra was outraged. Only a few select friends and celebrities like Rosey Grier or Gabe Kaplan were allowed in. Dad had been gone for eight years. A ton of marijuana is no better or worse than a ton of quicksilver. In his time, Lee had invested in a racehorse that ended up as dog meat, a pro golfer who never made the cut, a combination lock that served to secure nothing more than a long, bitter lawsuit, and a caper to corner the Colombian coffee bean market. It was becoming an obsession. A sample: Q.What about Lee Chagra? 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. Jimmys Florida operation, far from being an immediate disaster, disbanded after successfully offloading fifty tons of grass from a Colombian freighter in March. 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. 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. 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. David Long? Lee said. That woman was Vivian, Christa and Catherine and Cynthias mother, who came from humble beginnings in an unincorporated community near Brownwood. 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