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. Lee had $15,000 riding on the game. The story surrounding the assassination of Judge Wood was profiled in an episode of City Confidential. On the cartoon, Clark had written Wood below the eagle and Chagra below the mouse. October 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? El Paso and Jurez have always floated on a little healthy corruption. His practice had foundered, he had run up huge gambling debts, his life was peopled with shysters and thugs; and if the truth was known, Lee himself had become little more than a highly paid functionary in Jimmys fluctuating gang of smugglers. The investigation cost more than $11 million. Jimmy had chartered a jet and attempted to rescue an El Paso pilot who had been badly burned when a DC-6 crashed on takeoff at an improvised field near Santa Marta, Colombia. Part of it was the publicity: Lee loved to see his name in headlines. The pit boss shooed the sheep away from table that Lee selected for his private performance. They were rivals in many ways.. Even after the charges were dismissed, there was still the stigma. Lou Esper had planned both of these crimes too. All the drawers were open and papers were scattered on the floor. At this point in his life Lee was bored with the tame pace of the blackjack table. 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. 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. In Western Texas, Powell was a prosecutor in the trial of American drug trafficker Jimmy Chagra for criminal enterprise violations. That old watch-me-carry-the-world smile was back on his face. Chagra had little use for public servants, especially prosecutors, and Kerr was a classic bureaucrat, squeaking with authority and wedded to the book. But Jimmy took most of the credit. 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. Reporters flocked to the federal courthouse to get a look at what was happening to Lee Chagra. Chagra laid out the cold, hard facts: I cant save you. Goodman managed to get Chagra acquitted. He let himself in with a specially made key and walked upstairs. For months Lee had been unable to shake the premonition that something wild and uncontrollable had broken loose. But lately Lee was taking new directions. Chagra's third wife, Elizabeth, was found guilty of delivering $250,000 to Charles Harrelson to kill Wood. He would attach his belt to the giant solid-gold buckle with the thick crust of diamonds, and draw on his black alligator cowboy boots. "He was great friends with 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. Part of it was his steadily increasing need for money. 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. Where do you get off? If Stricklin cooperated, they would work for his early release. 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. He looked smaller than life as he stood there, facing the dresser, looking at the picture of his father and seeing his own reflection. Do you love me, do you love me? He knew the answer, but he had to hear it again. Narcotics agents believed that Stricklin and his associates supplied a good part of the South and Southwest with Mexican marijuana. 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 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. Jo Annie left the game early, and when she stopped by the office Roberts was just leaving. You sonuvabitch, how are you gonna pay off those markers?, He took a deep draw on his cigarette and pressed Clarks shoulder. A month later, Jack Stricklin was standing before Maximum John Wood, contemplating life without parole. He knew how to quit while he was winning. 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. I dont know how much longer I can do this, he confided. He earned a lot of money and became a high roller in Las Vegas, known for his very generous tipping. 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. The other lawyer couldnt appreciate the irony, but until that moment, Lee had always envied him. WebThey mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). The case wound up in Woods court. Lee had always lived his life on the edge of respectability, goading the El Paso establishment by defending hardened criminals, consorting with known drug smugglers, and cultivating his image as the Black Striker. He didnt appear to recognize the name. Which for Jimmy was almost the same as being broke, Patty said. Dan Solomon writes about politics, music, food, sports, criminal justice, health care, film, and business. On the plane from Tucson, Lee must have reflected on the paradox of his life. In a few years Abraham and Chagra had the leading anti-establishment law firm in the city. Jack Stricklin met him at the airport and drove him to the office. At the intersection of Broadway a mint-green van blocked his route. Knewz is a registered trademark. Vivian did her best to smile. He thought nobody would love him without money. He inherited the whole El Paso docket in 1974 when Judge Ernest Guinn died suddenly of a heart attack. Then Wood was assassinated, leading to a massive manhunt, and Chagra was tried and convicted before another judge on charges of operating a continuing criminal enterprise. He was also used in FBI: The Untold Stories. He looked as though he hadnt slept for three nights. [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. By the time Lee finished dressing, Jo Annie had breakfast readyfreshly baked Syrian bread, butter, and a variety of fruit preserves. (At that point the public had no inkling of the earlier, even bigger Boston haul.) Some of them deposited large sums in the lawyers safe, against the inevitable. Patsy ran out the back entrance and toward the cathedral. The family had a late dinner. On five minutes notice, Caesars would dispatch a Learjet to fetch one or both of the Chagras. He was a fanatic about his family: he lavished gifts on his wife, his children, his mother, his sister. I blocked the door with my body, Donna recalled, but he opened it enough to see the money.. 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. [7] According to George Knapp writing for Las Vegas CityLife, he was "the undisputed marijuana kingpin of the Western world. Gentlemen, he told the other players, this table is now reserved for a private game. 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. The government questions the good faith of this request, Kerr concluded. Its like Teddy Roosevelt always said, Lee told him, and now his smile was back in place. Leave them blank to get signed up. A man named David Long phoned before you woke up, she told him. They say there was nothing Jimmy really wanted to be, but that wasnt entirely true. Boyds strategy was to indict Jimmy on multiple counts and wait for him to break. Another indisputable fact. Woods blunder was the last straw. About four oclock Bobby Yoseph returned to the office from a shopping trip in Jurez. And co-conspirators in others. 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. 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. He got 30 years. Stricklin looked at the copy of the law for a few seconds, then returned it to the agents. 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. 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. To get to that part of the story, we have to go back in time, to the war on drugs that Richard Nixon initiated, and to three brothers in El Paso of Lebanese descent by way of Mexico. It was the era of the Nixon Administrations much-heralded war on drugs. Kerr was frail and sallow-faced and talked in a high-pitched voice that suggested he was about to shatter. Lee kissed her and slipped her the money. Whether or not he knew the details, Lee surely sensed the magnitude of the disaster that was bearing down on him. In a single short sitting he lost almost $190,000. Hunter Thompson once described how a casino shot a three-hundred pound bear out of a cannon right in the middle of the floor and no one looked up. Narcotics and gambling were crimes that grew from a common stem composed of the worst elements in society. 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. Youve got it wrong, Lee replied. That was when Jo Annie remembered the telephone call. A black banner was stretched across the entire front of the building. That night as he was dressing, Lee announced intentions to change his luck. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he had refused to let go of the notion that El Paso was being overrun by the Mafia. Joe was talking about resigning his partnership in the law firm. Lee handed out $200 in tips before they got to the suite. Everything was on the house. He had two brothers, Lee and Joseph, who were both attorneys involved with the legal defense of drug smugglers. He would lend a stranger his last $100, knowing he was kissing it good-bye. Jurors heard hours worth of tape recordings and more than 500 pages of documents were presented. He didnt appear particularly disturbed. Oh, yes. 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. Sandy was to count out $20,000 from the stash under the bathroom sink and have it ready when the woman arrived. 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. His father was a vice president of El Paso Natural Gas. He was 50. [9][13] Reportedly, he used gambling as a method of laundering money he received through trafficking drugs. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. With the agent providing invaluable assistance at every stage, Renteria and several others were drawn into the government trap. Lee was preoccupied this morning. 3.9 on Goodreads. He gambled in Vegas and wrote bad checks and was constantly calling Lee to bail him out. 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. It was hard to imagine two men more different. 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. 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. I waited around to wish you and the kids a merry Christmas, the gambler told her. In the winter. [21] Facing life for smuggling, Jimmy Chagra allegedly decided to have the judge killed. 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. The pit boss snapped his fingers and motioned for the guards to bring the velvet ropes. If there was a single piece of new evidence, it wasnt mentioned, or even hinted at, in the indictment. 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. The judge said he had spent eight or ten hours reading Jerry Edwin Johnsons 1976 grand jury testimony and the transcript of the IRS investigation. Federal agents turned up at Lees office the next morning to confiscate his gun collection and question him about the unsuccessful assassination attempt. They mentioned four namesLee Chagra, Jimmy Chagra, Sib Abraham and Vic Apodaca (a well-known bail bondsman). WebDrug kingpin who was charged with the murder of the US district court judge who would have presided at his drug trial. 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. He was the black sheep, the all-star goof-up. 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 What a strange, twisted love. Is there any secret about that?. Patsy tearfully asked for respect from the press during the crisis. He walked upstairs to his own office. Jimmys Florida operation, far from being an immediate disaster, disbanded after successfully offloading fifty tons of grass from a Colombian freighter in March. Lee didnt appear to like Lou Esper, but he was one of the few people in town who tolerated him. Those tapes, according to Catherine, were doctored and judged inadmissible.). He was really happy that all the money was gone and he had to work again. 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. 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. 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. By the time the jury began its deliberation, it was obvious that the best the prosecution could expect was a tie. Lee drew a crowd simply by walking through the front door at Caesars Palace, passing out money, and asking how much they loved him. Kerr escaped with only minor glass cuts. Former mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman is credited with the revitalization of downtown Las Vegas including The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and our very own The Mob Museum. 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. He had $250,000 credit. Some speculated that they omitted Lee Chagra because he was from El Paso and had a Spanish surname. He wanted everything his brother had, but he just didnt want to work for it. 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. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services. Lee loved being at the middle of the table, flanked by armed guards and at least one beautiful broad who would act as his lucky piece. 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. His great-grandfather had come from New York and fought in the Texas Revolution. Whats more, Kerr and Wood and the entire apparatus of the federal government were breathing down his neck. Vivian died of cancer in July 1986. Hardly a day passed that the flamboyant attorney didnt make the news. Woods first big drug case came in May 1971. 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. 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. Hardly anyone wanted a lawyer who was under indictment, recalled Joe Chagra, Lees youngest brother, who by then had joined the law firm. Before, they ate beans and a little meat. Is his [dope smuggling] operation totally separate [from another smugglers]? Yoseph let himself in the front entrance with the key that Lee had given him that morning. Lee speculated that the attempt was an inside job. Sometime in the middle of the night, after everyone else was asleep, Lee changed clothes and drove to his new office. During the course of the morning, a man called the Cowboy appeared on the alley TV camera. 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