Whoa, Woody Harrelson's father was a hitman

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Whoa, Woody Harrelson's father was a hitman

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:43:09 PM EDT

I was reading an article about the Supermax prison in Colorado, and found out Woody Harrelson's dad is an inmate

Charles Voyde Harrelson (July 23, 1938^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harrelson#cite_note-0][1][/url]} – March 15, 2007)^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harrelson#cite_note-CBC2007-1][2][/url]}^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harrelson#cite_note-2][3][/url]} was an American freelance^{[dubious – discuss]} hitman connected with organized crime and was convicted of assassinating a federal judge. He was the father of actor Woody Harrelson.^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harrelson#cite_note-CBC2007-1][2][/url]}

[edit] Murder of Judge Wood

Harrelson was sentenced to two life terms for the May 29, 1979, assassination of U.S. District Judge John H. Wood, Jr. Harrelson was convicted of shooting and killing Wood in the parking lot outside of Wood's San Antonio, Texas, townhouse after being hired by drug dealer Jamiel Chagra of El Paso.
Wood — nicknamed "Maximum John" because of his reputation for handing
down long sentences for drug offenses — was originally scheduled to
have Chagra appear before him on the day of his murder, but the trial
had been delayed.

Harrelson was apprehended with the aid of an anonymous tip and a
taped conversation between Jimmy (Jamiel) and his brother, Joe Chagra.
He claimed at trial that he did not kill Wood, but merely took credit
for it so he could score a huge payout from Chagra.

Harrelson was eventually convicted based largely on Chagra's
conversation with his brother who was visiting him in prison. Both
Harrelson and Chagra's brother Joe were implicated in the
assassination. Harrelson was sentenced to life imprisonment,
while Joe Chagra received a ten-year sentence. Jamiel Chagra was
acquitted of the murder when his brother Joe refused to testify against
him. Chagra was represented by current mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman. In a plea bargain, Chagra admitted to his role in the murder of Judge Wood and the attempted murder of a U.S. Attorney.

After his release in 2003, Jimmy Chagra claimed that Harrelson did
not murder Judge Wood. While he did not identify the real killer,
Chagra indicated that he or she was long deceased. Jamiel and Joe
Chagra allegedly misled federal officials by talking about hiring
Harrelson to kill Judge Wood when they knew they were being illegally
taped during a legal visit in the prison because Harrelson had been
blackmailing Joe Chagra with information he did have about the murder
of the judge.^{[citation needed]}

This incident is mentioned in Cormac McCarthy's book No Country for Old Men. In the film adaptation of the book Charles Harrelson's son, Woody Harrelson, plays a bounty hunter.

Harrelson's attorney was Percy Foreman, who had been counsel for convicted Martin Luther King assassin James Earl Ray
and lost only 53 of 1500 death-penalty cases with only one finally
resulting in execution. At Harrelson's first trial Foreman produced a
surprise witness: a nightclub singer who claimed that she had been with
Harrelson at the time of the murder. The trial ended in a hung jury: 11
for conviction, one for acquittal.

Harrelson was re-tried in 1974 in Brownsville, Texas. Texas Ranger
Tol Dawson, the lead investigator on the Degelia case, was in the
courtroom with a perjury arrest warrant for the nightclub singer, but
she had learned of it and fled to Aruba.
Without the help of her testimony, Harrelson was found guilty and
sentenced to 15 years in prison. With time off for good behavior, he
was free in five years.

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:44:45 PM EDT

[#1]

Man...

He was a natural born killer.

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:46:39 PM EDT

[#2]

... and Woody Harrelson is a douchebag.

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:47:15 PM EDT

[#3]

Kind of puts his role in No Country for Old Men into perspective...

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:48:43 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:

Kind of puts his role in No Country for Old Men into perspective...

That, and isn't the hitman in NCFOM also named Chagra?

ETA: Chigurh, close enough

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:49:54 PM EDT

[#5]

I thought that this was common knowledge?

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:49:55 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:

Quoted:

Kind of puts his role in No Country for Old Men into perspective...

That, and isn't the hitman in NCFOM also named Chagra?

Chigurh

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:51:17 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Kind of puts his role in No Country for Old Men into perspective...

That, and isn't the hitman in NCFOM also named Chagra?

ETA: Chigurh, close enough

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r316/MACDD/1257742761187.jpg

No, but it's close. Like if a gay man said "sugar".

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:52:21 PM EDT

[#8]

remembered when it happened. chateau dijon condos where judge wood lived. done with a .240 weatherby which was then cut apart and sunk in a lake.

the rifle was purchased by lynda chagra, jimmy's wife at a san antonio gun shop.

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:54:15 PM EDT

[#9]

My mom used to live in a town home in the same complex the judge was killed.

ETA:
That's the one, Kieth.

Nice place, but there's a bunch of oldies over there.

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:56:23 PM EDT

[#10]

Some people think he was part of the JFK assassination.

Posted: 4/10/2010 12:57:01 PM EDT

[#11]

^ I've leased a few apartments at Chateau Dijon, some bizarre floorplans there

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:14:57 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:

Some people think he was part of the JFK assassination.

pure lunacy there.

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:27:08 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
I thought that this was common knowledge?

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:28:37 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
I thought that this was common knowledge?

It is unless you've been living under a rock.

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:29:44 PM EDT

[#15]

Old news.

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:38:01 PM EDT

[#16]

Five years for killing a judge?

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:47:41 PM EDT

[#17]

Did you just now crawl out from under a rock? This is old news, man

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:49:51 PM EDT

[#18]

For you readers out there....

Bluegrass Conspiracy by Sally Denton

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:55:56 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Some people think he was part of the JFK assassination.

pure lunacy there.

Was he confirmed to be there?

Posted: 4/10/2010 1:57:30 PM EDT

[#20]

Welcome to the 80's!

Posted: 4/10/2010 2:00:59 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
remembered when it happened. chateau dijon condos where judge wood lived. done with a .240 weatherby which was then cut apart and sunk in a lake.

the rifle was purchased by lynda chagra, jimmy's wife at a san antonio gun shop.

Yeah, I was driving up Broadway that day to go see a friend and saw all the cop cars. Saw it all on the news that night.

Posted: 4/10/2010 2:01:17 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:

Quoted:

Some people think he was part of the JFK assassination.

pure lunacy there.

Was he confirmed to be there?

he was not any of the 3 hobos.

Posted: 4/10/2010 2:17:29 PM EDT

[#23]

I wonder if woody likes his dad?

Posted: 4/10/2010 2:25:11 PM EDT

[#24]

He was also looked at for the Kennedy assassination, and held for questioning.

Posted: 4/10/2010 2:30:55 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
I wonder if woody likes his dad?

He used to visit him in prison before he died.

Posted: 4/10/2010 2:33:53 PM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:

Welcome to the 80's!

actually, late 1970s.

Posted: 4/10/2010 3:14:06 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
remembered when it happened. chateau dijon condos where judge wood lived. done with a .240 weatherby which was then cut apart and sunk in a lake.

the rifle was purchased by lynda chagra, jimmy's wife at a san antonio gun shop.

Interesting caliber choice.

Posted: 4/10/2010 3:18:30 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
... and Woody Harrelson is a douchebag.

It runs in the family. His brother was a motorcycle racer who got nailed for stealing motorcycles to pay for his habits. He would take them for test rides and not bring them back to their owners.

Posted: 4/10/2010 3:21:38 PM EDT

[#29]

Some people claim he is one of the 3 tramps arrested in Dallas the day JFK was shot.

Posted: 4/10/2010 3:26:32 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Five years for killing a judge?

Thats what grabbed me too......WTF?????

Posted: 4/10/2010 3:32:14 PM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Five years for killing a judge?

Thats what grabbed me too......WTF?????

No, that's a different case. He got life on the judge. WJ

Posted: 4/10/2010 4:00:23 PM EDT

[#32]

In other really old news, Lucky Lindy flies the Atlantic solo.....Truman wins.....Sputnik orbits the earth.....

Posted: 4/10/2010 6:59:48 PM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:

In other really old news, Lucky Lindy flies the Atlantic solo.....Truman wins.....Sputnik orbits the earth.....

News to me. Killing judges doesn't rate in the same universe of common knowledge as the things you cite.

Posted: 4/10/2010 7:04:56 PM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:

I was reading an article about the Supermax prison in Colorado, and found out Woody Harrelson's dad is an inmate

Not anymore.

Posted: 4/10/2010 7:42:36 PM EDT

[#35]

Too bad his son is such a squirrely woman.

Posted: 4/10/2010 8:07:30 PM EDT

[#36]

Hello and welcome to 1985.

Posted: 4/10/2010 8:13:19 PM EDT

[#37]

I believe Woody's dad died in prison.

Posted: 4/10/2010 8:27:20 PM EDT

[#38]

Never knew any of this. Interesting.

Posted: 4/10/2010 8:43:25 PM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:
For you readers out there....

Bluegrass Conspiracy by Sally Denton

Hahahahahaha! Hey Andy....don't feed da bears! BTW,I used to live at Merrick Place,continued my main job as habitual drunk there.

Posted: 4/10/2010 8:47:23 PM EDT

[#40]

Small caliber high velocity weapons were his trademark-bullet disintegrated upon impact. Real piece of work, and yes, Woody is still, and always been, at total tool.

Posted: 4/11/2010 9:23:44 AM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:
For you readers out there....

Bluegrass Conspiracy by Sally Denton

What does this have to do with Woody's father please? I read the wiki entry, but don't see the connection.

Posted: 4/11/2010 9:25:50 AM EDT

[#42]

I would preferred he was a abortionist and took his work home with him

Posted: 4/11/2010 9:27:34 AM EDT

[#43]

Quoted:
Some people claim he is one of the 3 tramps arrested in Dallas the day JFK was shot.

He claimed this on and off. He was a psycho and he lied about everything, all the time. I used to date the daughter of one of his co-workers. I heard enough unsavory stories about him to last a lifetime. He was really, really horrible to women.

ETA:

To put this into perspective, people I considered unstable thought that he was unstable. That was more than enough for me. A decent number of folks he worked with are still around in Houston. They are all old, diabetic, testy geezers, but their memories of Charlie are really clear. He was not liked or trusted.