DRUG KINGPIN, HIGH ROLLER JIMMY CHAGRA DIES
Jimmy Chagra, a notorious drug smuggler and legendary Las Vegas high roller before he got entangled in a murder case involving a federal judge, died today in Mesa, Arizona. He was 63 years old.
Chagra had been battling brain and lung cancer.
A film based on his life is being developed by Las Vegas writer Jack Sheehan, who purchased the movie, book and television rights to Chagra’s story two years ago with several business partners. Sheehan met Chagra while he was living in hiding in the Federal Witness Protection program, under an assumed name.
Sheehan’s feature film screenplay, titled "Do A Nickel," covers Chagra’s drug smuggling days in the 1970s, his wild gambling habits and his alleged ties to the assassination of federal judge "Maximum" John H. Wood. "Do a Nickel" refers to the five-year prison sentence that Chagra mistakenly thought he would get if ever caught selling marijuana.
Chagra allegedly hired hit man Charles Harrelson, the father of actor Woody Harrelson, to assassinate Wood, who was about to preside over Chagra’s smuggling trial. Chagra and Harrelson met in Las Vegas in the 1970s. Wood was fatally shot in the back outside his Texas home on May 29, 1979.
After one of the most publicized trials in decades, Chagra was acquitted of conspiring to murder Wood, who was considered the harshest judge in the country on drug traffickers, thereby earning the nickname "Maximum John."
Chagra’s defense attorney, who performed several Perry Mason courtroom tactics to win the acquittal, was current Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, who has said the case a major highlight of his legal career.
Charles Harrelson died in the Supermax prison in Colorado in March of 2007, having served over 25 years of a life sentence without parole.
In his years of marijuana peddling, Chagra was known to bring in by airplane and freighter, shipments of weed from Mexico and South America, sometimes having a street value of $15-$20 million. He was convicted of money laundering and drug charges, and served 23 1-2 years in Federal prison, primarily at Leavenworth in Kansas, and Marion Federal Prison outside Chicago.
Graveside services will be held in El Paso, Texas, where Chagra has a plot next to his brother Lee Chagra, a famed criminal defense attorney who was murdered in 1978.
