Right there before your eyes Lee Chagra became the Black Striker. If it was a crime to love the fast lane, Lee Chagra was guilty. He was up and down all his lifestruggling. There was plenty of cocaine to guarantee a holiday spirit; at least five ounces had been delivered a few days earlier. The case against Stricklin appeared to be nothing more than a rehash of the long-discredited Tennessee indictment mushed together with evidence from the deal for which Stricklin was serving time. Its better to try. Some speculated that they omitted Lee Chagra because he was from El Paso and had a Spanish surname. The family was worried about Lee. 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. Lee referred to it as the mansion that Jack built. It was 6500 square feet, with pool and stables, electronically operated gates, and closed-circuit television monitors. Which for Jimmy was almost the same as being broke, Patty said. Hardly anyone wanted a lawyer who was under indictment, recalled Joe Chagra, Lees youngest brother, who by then had joined the law firm. 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 The sisters today say that if Lee Chagra had not been killed, Wood would not have been, either. He was really happy that all the money was gone and he had to work again. Lee adopted a wardrobe suitable to his imagea black cowboy hat, fancy handmade boots, and an assortment of expensive jewelry, including a gold bracelet that spelled the word freedom. Lee left the money spread across the bed and closed the bedroom door behind him. The interview was patently leading; most of the questions were of the when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife variety. He worked his way through the University of Texas law school, graduating fourth in his class in 1962. His grandfather had been an ironfisted sheriff of Bexar County when lawmen still fought off Apaches. He may or may not have locked it. 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. He was a good, sound, all-around lawyer, but he didnt have Lees appetite for controversy. Before the case could be brought to trial, however, Jimmy eclipsed his brother in the headlines with a new and even more spectacular exploit. Stricklin was an enterprising and likable young man who had grown up in one of El Pasos better neighborhoods. Until now. I knew he was dying, Catherine Chagra 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. He certainly knew about it before the feds did. Heres What We Want at the Park. Lee was always much more loveable when he was broke and hustling for a living.. [17][10], Chagra's downfall began in February 1979 when he was arrested on trafficking charges. Federal agents turned up at Lees office the next morning to confiscate his gun collection and question him about the unsuccessful assassination attempt. Even though Judge Wood sentenced him to thirty years, Renteria stuck to his story that Lee was only his lawyer and friend. That was it, the last of the half-million the Black Striker had blown in Vegas the year before. He loved the streets and the people who plied themwhores, gamblers, smugglers, cops. It's going to be a very interesting night Jan. 18 at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. As it turned out, he was right.. Crimes against persons are treated with extreme gravity, but crimes against the economy are treated with a wink and a smile. It became his trademark. I think Jerry Johnson told us whatever he thought we wanted to hear, DEA agent J.T. In the court of John Wood, Chagra realized, that could be some distance. Lee had showered and was standing in front of the bathroom mirror in his shorts when his brother Jimmys ex-wife, Vivian, arrived. the Mortal Mustache, a.k.a. This morning Jo Annie had another surprise, a block of tickets to the afternoons Sun Bowl football game between Texas and Maryland. Paradoxically, though, Lee was secretly jealous of Jimmy. On several occasions he watched Lee remove one of his boots and count out the cash. 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. In a single short sitting he lost almost $190,000. They showed him a Xerox copy of the section of the law dealing with continuing criminal enterprise. He and Clark went back to the suite for a while. She had come to count on Leealthough she suspected that the money Lee gave her came from Jimmy anyway. The Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to advance the public understanding of organized crime's history and impact on American society. While it was being renovated, he occupied an office in a building on Montana owned by another lawyer friend, Mickey Esper, who was related to Jo Annie. Lee developed a standard ploy he secretly taped the conversation, then gave the agent the phone number of the real Mr. Big. It was the unlisted number of the local DEA chief. I think he was sad about what he did to his kids. On May 29, 1979, the day that Jimmy was originally supposed to go on trial in Judge Woods court, John Wood was assassinated in the driveway outside his apartment. 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. The case had been dead for two years, but Kerr had a plan. He had several of the bracelets made for close friends and members of the family. They were like a sickness with him., Lee also loved El Paso and had never thought of living anywhere else. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he had refused to let go of the notion that El Paso was being overrun by the Mafia. The model just had the bare branches., Catherine Chagra's 2015 book. It was as if their friendship had come to a fork in the road, and Lee had wandered off in another direction. The scam brought in more money than Lee had ever thought of making in his law practice. I blocked the door with my body, Donna recalled, but he opened it enough to see the money.. They had to take care of him because he spoiled everything he touched. A few months later two soldiers from Fort Bliss admitted robbing and killing Lee Chagra. Lee joked as he gave the Indian the $75,000, and the Indian mumbled and studied his boots. Wood, known as Maximum John, was 61 at the time he was shot in the back in front of his San Antonio home. Catherine Chagra Patrick Beach View Comments 0:00 0:56 Last December, we brought you the story of Catherine Chagra, daughter of Jamiel Jimmy Chagra, the 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. An inextricable connection, whether emotional or physical or both, would continue between Lee and Vivian long after Vivian and Jimmy were married, Catherine would later learn. It was that strange hour when the golfers are still on their morning rounds and the drunks are still asleep, that time when they clean the sand in the ashtrays and empty the slots and put fresh ice in the urinals. He wanted to indict De La Torre on five counts of perjury in an attempt to add another 25 years to the sentencein effect, requiring him to defend his story to a second jury. He swore he did not put out a hit on Maximum John H. Wood Jr., the federal judge in San Antonio presiding over a case that could have sent Jamiel Jimmy Chagra to prison for life. 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 earned a lot of money and became a high roller in Las Vegas, known for his very generous tipping. He seemed burned out, used up, and he was hitting the cocaine pretty hard. All the drawers were open and papers were scattered on the floor. This other end represents guilty beyond a reasonable doubt: the government proved its case, and you, the jury, are convinced beyond a moral certainty. Lee held the members of the panel with his eyes, pausing for a few seconds so it could all register. Yoseph let himself in the front entrance with the key that Lee had given him that morning. 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. When Lee was murdered sixteen years later, Charles Alan Wright, one of the countrys leading authorities on constitutional law, called him one of the few students who stand out in my memory., There was never any doubt that when Lee passed the state bar exam he would join Jo Annies brother, Sib Abraham, who had finished law school the previous year and had already set up his practice in El Paso. Just barely making it. When you live that way, chances are youll die that way too. As far as having Wood killed, no way, he said. He ran a floating blackjack game and started peddling dope. They volunteered for every hard-core criminal case that came along: murder, rape, robbery, burglary. His eyes were open, but he was obviously dying. He loved it. Things really fell apart when Jimmy was arrested on trafficking charges. You ought to pay me fifteen hundred dollars an hour to entertain customers. Hughes knew that it would be several hours before Lee worked himself into the proper frenzy. Lee had $15,000 riding on the game. 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. This was among over a thousand recorded conversations that the government had collected as evidence. One day while Vivian was there, they delivered a dozen red roses to the room. The lawyer mentioned that he sometimes looked down at the office complex that Lee was remodeling and experienced pangs of envy. A third, Cynthia Jones Chagra, lives in Austin. Patsy Chagras husband, Rick De La Torre, faced four charges in the same conspiracy. 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. Or for Lee Chagra. He had an affinity for cards and dice, for dope dealers and shady politicians, for cripples and nightclub singers, for dabblers in the black market and exponents of the quick buck. They could have been twins. Well, I didnt know about it, Lee said, dumbstruck. I knew he would take a hard look at narcotics and organized crime.. Is his [dope smuggling] operation totally separate [from another smugglers]? No charges were filed, but it was apparent that the crash was another of Jimmys scams gone up in smoke. Jimmy knelt beside the bag that now contained the remains of his brother and started bawling. Stricklin looked at the copy of the law for a few seconds, then returned it to the agents. [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. Part of it was his steadily increasing need for money. Sandy was to count out $20,000 from the stash under the bathroom sink and have it ready when the woman arrived. What no one knew at this point was that the feds had already busted Wallace. It was Stricklin who was on trial, not Chagra. The government questions the good faith of this request, Kerr concluded. David Long? Lee said. On the cartoon, Clark had written Wood below the eagle and Chagra below the mouse. Hughes knew these had been hard times for his friend. He made a motion for Judge Wood to recuse (disqualify) himself in the Stricklin case. Over the years lawyers encountered scores of cases in which citizens had been lured into crimes by what amounted to federal bounty hunters. 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. I though maybe I was the Jonah, he said. 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. October 2022 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? Even after the charges were dismissed, there was still the stigma. 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 Indian brushed a strand of limp hair over his bald spot as he walked toward Lees car. Donna made fresh coffee and explained the new telephone system to Lee. A front-page headline in The El Paso Times virtually screamed the news that the flamboyant kingpin had been nabbed. Lee didnt say anything. The door was partially open, but the office appeared empty. Composed of, and by, organized crime. For months Lee had been unable to shake the premonition that something wild and uncontrollable had broken loose. But as usual, Jimmys success only threw Lee into a funk. I imagine everyone in this area knows that youve been the subject of a grand jury investigation ever since the Tennessee indictment, Wood announced. Defendants convicted on a kingpin rap were not eligible for parole, period. Vivian died of cancer in July 1986. In fact, the only evidence that Lee expected things to improve was his new office complex. 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. The rest of it, he said, his voice sure and unwavering, represents not guilty. Lee stared out the limo window at the blur of cold neon. No force on earth could stop him. There were at least twenty lawyers for the defense, but apparently the entire burden of prosecution fell on poor Kilcrease. The Chagra family was a big, big deal in El Paso, Texas, Geoff Schumacher, vice president of exhibits and programs at the Mob Museum, explained to Nevada Public Radio ahead of the event (he will be moderating). I want to talk to you. Vivian was startled to see how much Jimmy looked like Lee, how he had grown out his moustache, how his hair was full and shaggy and touched now with streaks of gray. Please feel free to use any other table in the casino. Like so many sheep, the nickel-and-dime players started backing away. Some of them deposited large sums in the lawyers safe, against the inevitable. The position of federal authorities was that even though Joe Chagra was a lawyer, he was also suspected in conspiracy to conceal the crime; therefore, their conversations were not covered by attorney-client privilege. 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. At the intersection of Broadway a mint-green van blocked his route. After two days the jury reported itself hopelessly deadlocked, eight to four for acquittal. Later he built a reputation as a hard-driving prosecutor in charge of the docket in Del Rio, where he and Judge John Wood became fast friends. Boyds strategy was to indict Jimmy on multiple counts and wait for him to break. He would lend a stranger his last $100, knowing he was kissing it good-bye. What investigation against him? Still, everyone loved Jimmy and took care of him. Her mom and sisters left witness protection and moved to Buda to be near Bastrop, where her father was being held. The casino was almost deserted. 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. Lee had wanted to be a lawyer, and so, after some convincing, had the youngest of the boys, Joe. At the same time a swell of excitement seemed to rumble from the floor, and people pushed to get a look at the action. I dont know how much longer I can do this, he confided. But the mere act of talking on the telephone seemed to boost his confidence. Prosecutors suspected Jimmy Chagra, and the FBI began meticulously putting its case together. Two of their five children were with her. He was bubbling over with tales of the previous days Tucson victory. Jimmy had given her a couple of kids and a lasting pain in the ass. Lee continued to object. 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. That woman was Vivian, Christa and Catherine and Cynthias mother, who came from humble beginnings in an unincorporated community near Brownwood. Youve got it wrong, Lee replied. Early in the fall someone had broken into Mickey Espers law offices and attempted to haul off a safe. "[35] It was otherwise described as "one of the most intense investigations in the annals of the FBI". All have, understandably, complicated Clark Hughes went ahead to the casino to lose my piddling three or four hundred. He never knew why Lee liked to bring him along, but he seldom refused. Ill drive you home, he said in a low voice. 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. Lee didnt appear to like Lou Esper, but he was one of the few people in town who tolerated him. It was almost midnight when the Black Striker made his appearance on the casino floor. That was the year Lee and Jo Annie started building their new home on Frontera Road in the Upper Valley. When Lou Esper learned that Lee was a cocaine user, he found a good supply and usually delivered the goods in person. Now it was the judge who was having difficulty. All rights reserved. Now the feds had a yard of hot real estate on their hands; they desperately needed someone to buy it. [2][22][6] He was the first federal judge to die by assassination in over a century. The gesture was unmistakable: hed come to replace his brother. 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.
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