In prison, Jimmy would say he got hooked on gambling faster than heroin.. What no one knew at this point was that the feds had already busted Wallace. Kerr was frail and sallow-faced and talked in a high-pitched voice that suggested he was about to shatter. He was bubbling over with tales of the previous days Tucson victory. A month later, Jack Stricklin was standing before Maximum John Wood, contemplating life without parole. All the drawers were open and papers were scattered on the floor. Right there before your eyes Lee Chagra became the Black Striker. He ran a floating blackjack game and started peddling dope. The interview was patently leading; most of the questions were of the when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife variety. Hughes, who assisted in the defense, thought that Lee won in his opening remarks to the jury. 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. That was the year Lee and Jo Annie started building their new home on Frontera Road in the Upper Valley. The next summer the Chagra brothers hit Vegas like a blizzard of kamikaze locusts. His grandfather had been an ironfisted sheriff of Bexar County when lawmen still fought off Apaches. He wanted everything his brother had, but he just didnt want to work for it. During his tenure as magistrate, Boyd and Lee Chagra became friends, and when there was an opening for the job of U.S. attorney after Jimmy Carters election in 1976, Lee, Sib Abraham, and others supported Boyds appointment. 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 feel that it has all been terribly twisted. [33] His wife was never released and she died in custody of ovarian cancer at age 41. One way or another, were gonna get Lee Chagra.. He was a mamas boy, always pouting and complaining. When he appeared several hours later in his Black Striker ensemble, a woman asked Clark Hughes if his friend was a movie star. There's no way a bullet could have gone through there. Yosephs gazed moved around the room. [36][37] However, his sister Patsy stated that he was not in the witness protection program at the time of his death. He was living in a trailer camp in Mesa, Arizona. Fortunately the glass was shatter-proof. 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. And even if it was true, for Wood to reveal it in open court was outrageous. Jamie Boyd, who had known Renteria for years (the prosecutor once chaperoned him in a Boy of the Year competition), expected that once Renteria realized the seriousness of his situation he would name Lee as the kingpin. I waited around to wish you and the kids a merry Christmas, the gambler told her. But, speaking to his ex-wife, Vivian, in a federal prison more than 30 years ago, he said he was not a killer. He worked his way through the University of Texas law school, graduating fourth in his class in 1962. He was practically chasing ambulances. Here she is in the Sinatra suite at Caesars, the tacky wallpaper so thickly felted it practically had to be brushed. [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. Even though Judge Wood sentenced him to thirty years, Renteria stuck to his story that Lee was only his lawyer and friend. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. As the feds worked around the clock to build cases against both Chagras, an agent provocateur came forward with information that could potentially put both of them away for life. Jimmys Florida operation, far from being an immediate disaster, disbanded after successfully offloading fifty tons of grass from a Colombian freighter in March. Tom Foster writes about business, innovation, and creative people. This was among over a thousand recorded conversations that the government had collected as evidence. Lee had showered and was standing in front of the bathroom mirror in his shorts when his brother Jimmys ex-wife, Vivian, arrived. Lee had wanted to be a lawyer, and so, after some convincing, had the youngest of the boys, Joe. 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 success in trying drug cases soon led him to meet Jack Stricklin, who had sent the Pitts case his way. The family name was originally Bushaada, but Lees grandfather mexicanized it during the revolution. It was hard to imagine two men more different. He imported more high-grade ganja than anyone, tons at a time, planeload after planeload. The best guess is that they divided at least $5 million. Paperback November 6, 2015. by Catherine Chagra (Author) 168 ratings. [31][32], In a deal with the federal government, Jimmy Chagra admitted to his role in the murder of Judge Wood and the attempted murder of Assistant United States Attorney James Kerr. Hardly a day passed that the flamboyant attorney didnt make the news. A.I think now its a separate dealIm not sure. Lee kissed her and slipped her the money. Ive got to go, he told her. Lee had never let his name be linked to an illegal enterprise before the fact. 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. On several occasions he watched Lee remove one of his boots and count out the cash. The following afternoon at the Aladdin, Lee took the worst beating Clark had ever seen him take. Lee was Clarks friend, maybe the best friend hed ever had, but in some strange, almost unthinkable way he felt the friendship slipping away. Things really fell apart when Jimmy was arrested on trafficking charges. September 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? I blocked the door with my body, Donna recalled, but he opened it enough to see the money.. Lee Chagras funeral was a microcosm of all the extremes in his life. The government was so rabid for convictions that it destroyed its own case. How come when Im winning you let me do anything I goddam please, but when I lose you wont let me out of the trap? he shouted in a voice that could be heard in the coffee shop on the opposite side of the casino. Oscar Goodman and Joe Chagra were Jimmys attorneys. The bonds that he set in marijuana cases averaged $200,000. Kay McCulloch died, and with her death the raw material for the book went to the attic. The investigation cost more than $11 million. It wasnt the cocaine so much as the lifestyle it symbolized. 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. I did not worry about a long-term jail sentence until Wood was killed, he said. 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. Lee always suffered shamelessly when he was down and Jimmy was up, but this was different. Yet he could risk the familys last penny on a roll of the dice. Gambling and women, said Lees old friend and fellow lawyer Clark Hughes. The door was partially open, but the office appeared empty. No, you got it backwards, Lee said when he saw it. I didnt trust Arabs. In the seven years or so that it had been in on the books, few had bothered to read that section of the drug law. Her mom and sisters left witness protection and moved to Buda to be near Bastrop, where her father was being held. SOLD OUT: Against All Odds: Oscar Goodman and the 40th Anniversary of the Jimmy Chagra Murder Trial. What investigation against him? Catherine Chagra was the daughter of Jimmy Chagra, a Las Vegas high-roller and drug trafficking kingpin once named the Pablo Escobar of weed. After her father He unlocked the door to his private bath. Defendants convicted on a kingpin rap were not eligible for parole, period. They were all scammers, everyone he knew or cared about. But as usual, Jimmys success only threw Lee into a funk. Jimmy was born the middle son of a Lebanese rug merchant family. Ive been a fool.. One weekend after the fiasco in Judge Woods courtroom, Lee Chagra did what he always did when he felt the world collapsing around himhe telephoned Clark Hughes and suggested a trip to Las Vegas. [5][34] Joe Chagra served six and a half years in prison (of his ten-year sentence) and was released. Lee seemed restless and preoccupied, as though he were late for an appointment and couldnt wait for Jo Annie to leave. He and Clark went back to the suite for a while. It must have been nearly three-thirty by then. By now all the Chagras knew that Jimmy was a major drug trafficker, and they must have suspected that Lees arrangement with his brother and his relationship with Jack Stricklin were more than traditional lawyer-client dealings. Wood began to crawfish. 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. 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. Reporters flocked to the federal courthouse to get a look at what was happening to Lee Chagra. Those tapes, according to Catherine, were doctored and judged inadmissible.). 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. [12] Their family name was historically "Bushaada", but Jimmy's grandfather changed it. 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. Lee Chagra grossed more than $250,000 in 1972. Jo Annie left the game early, and when she stopped by the office Roberts was just leaving. As the defense had expected, several officers testified that they had arrived at the airstrip in time to witness the off-loading of the DC-4. Just barely making it. He thought nobody would love him without money. 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. Now they eat three meals a day and imported cheese. Clark Hughes had found a cartoon of a mouse shooting a finger at an eagleit was called The Last Great Act of Defianceand Lees secretary, Sandy Messer, was having it made into a wall plaque. Liddy came up with one farfetched idea after another. One time she wrote about sports. Jimmy Chagra, in another conversation recorded in prison and later transcribed, would not go quite as far, although he further muddied the waters. But now the years of fast living were catching up. Gentlemen, he told the other players, this table is now reserved for a private game. He was wearing his boots and jeans and enough jewelry to sink a deep-sea diver. Over the next eight years Wood handed out the maximum sentence in almost every case. When Clark arrived downstairs with his luggage, he saw Lee at one of the blackjack tables, arguing with a Teamster guy who was apparently in charge of credit for the casino. Many a night, the Chagra brothers would play all six spots on a blackjack table, for anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 a hand. He inherited the whole El Paso docket in 1974 when Judge Ernest Guinn died suddenly of a heart attack. The family had a late dinner. He had two brothers, Lee and Joseph, who were both attorneys involved with the legal defense of drug smugglers. A black banner was stretched across the entire front of the building. About four oclock Bobby Yoseph returned to the office from a shopping trip in Jurez. Dirty Darlings. People in the Chagras party didnt bother to register: they just walked up to the desk and someone handed them a key to a six-room suite. But Kerr wasnt satisfied. He hung up without speaking. It looked as though Lee had struck gold, but quicksand might have been closer to the truth. 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. That was it, Lees ultimate humiliation. Lee was already there. She still has paintings he made while locked up, a hobby he never resumed after getting a medical parole in December 2003. He liked to mainline speed and supported his habit by organizing a small-time burglary-robbery ring using young black soldiers from Fort Bliss. Catherine Chagra and her two sisters, Cindy and Christa, were the darling daughters of Jimmy Chagra, the biggest pot dealer in the history of the U.S.A., and one of Even as Lee was working to salvage what he could from the ruins, Jimmy was plotting a new deal. If she realized how pressed he had been for money in recent months, she didnt show it. He was going to play baccarat instead of craps. At the same time a swell of excitement seemed to rumble from the floor, and people pushed to get a look at the action. You help us and well help you, the agents told Stricklin. The case remains unsolved. Jimmy had ruined it. 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. His harsh, unbending policy of sentencing and his blatant pro-prosecution posture astonished lawyers and embarrassed other judges, including those that sat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. After about an hour Lee had lost $90,000. Because they forgot that the murder took place May 29th, and down there in Texas, the trees were in bloom. In a short time the bust was being described as the biggest one in El Paso history. The complex included not only a maze of well-appointed offices but also a fully equipped kitchen, a law library, and completely furnished two-bedroom suite. Wood was finally convinced that it was his duty. Finally, he would pose with the ebony cane with the gold satyrs-head handle, squinting and turning until he was satisfied. WebAfter Joe was killed, the bad publicity inevitably returned, so Patty took their daughter, Samantha, a seventeen-year-old high school honor student, to all the television stations in As his friend Clark Hughes warned him, One of the problems with being a criminal attorney is that all your clients are crooks. Lee cried a lot in those days. (At that point the public had no inkling of the earlier, even bigger Boston haul.) Jack Stricklin met him at the airport and drove him to the office. As the year progressed, so did his paranoia, his insistence that someone was out to get him. When you live that way, chances are youll die that way too. Even after the charges were dismissed, there was still the stigma. 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