jimmy chagra daughters

It was his most important victory in monthsand his most profitable. Now it was the judge who was having difficulty. If you scratched Stricklin deep enough, Kerr reasoned, you would find Chagra. 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. Lee left the money spread across the bed and closed the bedroom door behind him. 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. [7] According to George Knapp writing for Las Vegas CityLife, he was "the undisputed marijuana kingpin of the Western world. Lees limit was $3000, and he would have played for $10,000 had Caesars Palace allowed it. The deal made guys sweating over a ton of weed loaded onto a plane and flown across the border look like chumps. But now the years of fast living were catching up. When he appeared several hours later in his Black Striker ensemble, a woman asked Clark Hughes if his friend was a movie star. Joe announced plans to open his own law firm. Lees morning coffee was perfect, and the cocaine was first-rate. The lawyer mentioned that he sometimes looked down at the office complex that Lee was remodeling and experienced pangs of envy. The bell boy warned me of (Lees) reputation as a gambler, and that he was known to like women, Vivian Chagra would tell her friend and former anthropology professor Kay McCulloch, in an interview for a book project on which the two were collaborating. 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. Eventually, Jimmys limit was $10,000 a hand and his credit almost unlimited. Even as Lee was working to salvage what he could from the ruins, Jimmy was plotting a new deal. 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. Jimmy was just talking. With the gambling and the ostentatious living, the money never lasted long. A block from the cathedral, on North Mesa at the edge of the downtown business district, Lee Chagras new office building was closed for good. 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. Maybe it will get better, Vivian said. The documents revealed that hardly a week passed without some agents making inquiries into Lee Chagras private life. In fact, the charges were dismissed because there was no evidence to bring charges in the first place. Traditionally, gambling and smuggling are on a par with fixing parking tickets and hiring illegal aliens. 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. [21], Chagra was released from prison for health reasons in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 9, 2003. Patsy Chagras husband, Rick De La Torre, faced four charges in the same conspiracy. Though Jimmy Chagras name was never officially mentioned, almost everyone assumed that he had masterminded the scheme. In 1995, he appeared as himself in the movie, Casino.. It took Lee less that half a day to discover that the search warrant used to bust the Tennessee smugglers was faulty. Well, I didnt know about it, Lee said, dumbstruck. In 1979, a federal grand jury in Midland, Texas, indicted Chagra on drug smuggling charges. There was a line from The Picture of Dorian Gray that she liked to paraphrase: I hope that when I die and go to hell, they deduct those four years I spent with Jimmy Chagra. She almost said it now, but the suffering in Lees eyes cut her off. Lee was a baffling tangle of contradictions. All things considered, 1978 has probably been the worst year of Lee Chagras life. A ton of marijuana is no better or worse than a ton of quicksilver. At this point in his life Lee was bored with the tame pace of the blackjack table. He inherited the whole El Paso docket in 1974 when Judge Ernest Guinn died suddenly of a heart attack. On the cartoon, Clark had written Wood below the eagle and Chagra below the mouse. 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. He had $250,000 credit. 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. But Kerr wasnt satisfied. It was almost midnight when the Black Striker made his appearance on the casino floor. Lee handed out $200 in tips before they got to the suite. Fold this five ways and stick it where the elves dont play, he said. Lee concurred and told other members of the family that Jimmy was dead broke and needed their help. They had to take care of him because he spoiled everything he touched. He made a motion for Judge Wood to recuse (disqualify) himself in the Stricklin case. Defendants convicted on a kingpin rap were not eligible for parole, period. Uncle Lou, who had recently been paroled in California, had a drug habit of long standing. The scam brought in more money than Lee had ever thought of making in his law practice. Although Jo Annie appeared at the federal courthouse with $50,000 in bail money, Lee was obliged to spend the night with Georgie Taylor, Jack Stricklin, and virtually the entire hierarchy of El Paso drug trafficking. He began taping most of his telephone conversations and collecting every scrap of evidence that even hinted of government malfeasance. Another indisputable fact. Sandy was to count out $20,000 from the stash under the bathroom sink and have it ready when the woman arrived. Her mom and sisters left witness protection and moved to Buda to be near Bastrop, where her father was being held. A short time later there was a knock, and Lee admitted two hookers to the room. Patsy heard the bells from St. Patricks Cathedral in the next block and remembered Mom Chagra. Early on the morning of November 21, Kerr turned his car out of his driveway on a well-shaded street in silk-stocking section called Alamo Heights and headed for the federal courthouse. And yet by the end of the trial, a majority of the jurors refused to find the defendants guilty. It took three days for an ingenious pulley apparatus to hoist the 100-pound bales to the top of the cliffs. It's going to be a very interesting night Jan. 18 at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. Catherine figures she was 10 when her dad went to prison. The fact that Lee Chagra was the lead attorney automatically made the case big-time. Everyone had assumed theyd made loveLee made a point of keeping her in his office long enough, then he flushed the toilet and gave her the money. By the time Lee finished dressing, Jo Annie had breakfast readyfreshly baked Syrian bread, butter, and a variety of fruit preserves. Goodman managed to get Chagra acquitted. He would never go back to Vegas. As the family walked away from the cemetery, Jimmy caught up with Vivian and took her arm. He unlocked the door to his private bath. The Mafia! Jimmy was born the middle son of a Lebanese rug merchant family. 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. His older brother Lee was a very prominent defense attorney Jimmy was the middle son, and the younger son, Joe, was also an attorney.. I dont know how much longer I can do this, he confided. Youre going to get five years each. In broken white letters, like shards of milk glass on velvet, it said FREEDOM. The first thing he noticed was his filing cabinet. His great-grandfather had come from New York and fought in the Texas Revolution. His dream was to stash away $20 million, all taxes paid. Chagra's lawyer in the case was Oscar Goodman,[26][3] future Mayor of Las Vegas and prosecutors included Assistant United States Attorney Sidney Powell. The shotgun murder of an Oklahoma gambler in El Paso some years earlier had convinced him that the Dixie Mafia was making a power play in El Paso, and he had instigated a controversial grand jury investigation. Except for a few faithful clients like Jack Stricklin, Lees practice was at rock bottom. Its like Teddy Roosevelt always said, Lee told him, and now his smile was back in place. It had been months since anyone had seen him so animated. She still has paintings he made while locked up, a hobby he never resumed after getting a medical parole in December 2003. He filed a freedom-of-information request demanding that the government furnish him with all documents relating to its investigations of him, and before long the files filled two heavy-duty storage boxes. The agents thought so little of the information gleaned in the interview with Johnson that they didnt even bother to place him under oath. I feel that it has all been terribly twisted. He hustled personal injury cases, divorces, wills. He crossed the living room and closed the apartment door behind him. Wood was apparently confusing the fifty-page transcript of the secret interview with actual grand jury testimony. He nearly bankrupted the family carpet store and maybe even helped along Dad Chagras fatal heart attack. Whats it all for? he said out loud, and Vivian could see the tears in his eyes and hear the catch in his voice. A man named David Long phoned before you woke up, she told him. Something about a will, about some large estate in California? Lee meant $10,000 for all three defendants, but Pitts didnt understand that. Then he expanded the pointer, an inch at a time. The government was so rabid for convictions that it destroyed its own case. As far as having Wood killed, no way, he said. A blast of double-aught buckshot and .30-caliber slugs ripped across the hood, left fender, and windshield of the car: police officers later counted nineteen bullet holes. The next summer the Chagra brothers hit Vegas like a blizzard of kamikaze locusts. Jimmy Chagra was a lot of things: a high-rolling gambler who chummed around with celebrities in Las Vegas, probably the biggest pot smuggler in the Western world and a father to children he arguably adored and unarguably failed. He ran a floating blackjack game and started peddling dope. The government seemed to know it didnt have a case, but it was determined to see how far it could travel. The Florida operation had the potential to make millions, but it could also spell disaster for Lee. Chagra attempted to bribe Judge Wood for "$5 million or 10million". Like Julius Caesar, John H. Wood was several times offered high office, and several times he refused. On several occasions he watched Lee remove one of his boots and count out the cash. That was when Jo Annie remembered the telephone call. The indictment was so vague as to make it impossible to respond or even to contemplate a defense. It was the era of the Nixon Administrations much-heralded war on drugs. Most high rollers would think a 9-year-old would cramp their style, but he took me everywhere.. Its David Long, the first man said. 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. [36][37] However, his sister Patsy stated that he was not in the witness protection program at the time of his death. Here she is with Paul Anka. By the time the jury began its deliberation, it was obvious that the best the prosecution could expect was a tie. Lee held the picture so it caught the light. Whats more, Kerr and Wood and the entire apparatus of the federal government were breathing down his neck. He got 30 years. Lees law practice never recovered. 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. I have never found anything, he said pleasantly, in any of these grand jury investigations. Chagra: The King of Dope Drugs, Deceit and Dirty Darlings, WATCH: Indiana father arrested on live TV after toddler is seen with gun. Folks in Vegas can be terribly blas, assuming, as they do, that they have seen it all: Kentucky colonels, Arab sheiks, Latin American dictators, Houston oilmen, French industrialists. For years there had been a rivalry between the two brothers, a fierce and unyielding competition that only the two of them completely understood. Lee didnt protest as Clark led him out of the casino to the waiting limousine. Boyd, Kerr, and the DEA had worked so hard selling the media on the contention that El Paso was the hub of dope trafficking in the Southwest that everyone took it as gospel. A rigorous and lengthy investigation into the murder brought Jimmy Chagra front and center. For the most part, 1978 turned out to be just a continuation of the long slide that had begun in 1977. Lee wanted to be head of the family, and Jimmy was constantly jealous of Lee because he stole the glory that Jimmy wanted. Case dismissed. The 38-year-old prosecutor had given up his apartment in El Paso and moved back to San Antonio, where he felt more comfortable. Chagra argued that the indictment smacked of double jeopardy, but there was no way he could prove it until the government got specific. He looked smaller than life as he stood there, facing the dresser, looking at the picture of his father and seeing his own reflection. On five minutes notice, Caesars would dispatch a Learjet to fetch one or both of the Chagras. Lee, the man was saying, Im not gonna say this againno more credit!. Its good business for everybody.. He didnt appear particularly disturbed. Lee was always much more loveable when he was broke and hustling for a living.. Lou Esper had planned both of these crimes too. He would try to join the family by half-time. One way or another, were gonna get Lee Chagra.. 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. It was the first time anyone from El Paso had thought of using a tramp steamer. When Lee hit a losing streak, he could fly into a snit, blaming anyone handy, especially Jo Annie, who more than once hurried off the casino floor in tears. As Lee reached for the dice, he recited a spiel that was also part of his ritual. Lees vial of cocaine was open on the corner of his desk. One day while Vivian was there, they delivered a dozen red roses to the room. In a secret interview with a group of DEA agents and prosecutors, Johnson had implicated at least sixty El Paso citizens as major drug traffickers. And it was killing Lee. Looking on, Joe marveled. 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. 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