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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Jackshi and you get to spend a lot of time

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Speaker 2: with Jimmy Shagra later in his life, and we'll get

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Speaker 2: into how that happened in a little bit. But did

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Speaker 2: he describe for you and can you describe for us

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Speaker 2: how big he got, how quickly it happened, how much

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Speaker 2: money he was raking in, and how much marijuana he

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Speaker 2: was smuggling.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's Jimmy was prone to exaggerate a little bit,

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Speaker 3: but I think most things he told me were pretty

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Speaker 3: close to the truth, because I interviewed enough other people

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Speaker 3: who backed him up. They would bring in through the Bahamas. Typically,

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Speaker 3: Jimmy greased all the wheels he needed to. So the

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Speaker 3: Prime Minister of the Bahamas back in the seventies was

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Speaker 3: a guy named Lyndon Pindling, and he was as corrupt

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Speaker 3: as you can imagine. He'd take money from anybody for

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Speaker 3: free passage past the Bahamas up to the East coast

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Speaker 3: of the United States. And not only did Jimmy pay

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Speaker 3: off Pendling to have his boats and planes go through

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Speaker 3: or by the Bahamas without interference, but he also went

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Speaker 3: up to Boston and introduced himself to the godfather of

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Speaker 3: New England, a mobster named Raymond Patriarca, and he worked

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Speaker 3: out a deal with Patriarca to pay him X number

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Speaker 3: of dollars per pound that could be safely unloaded off

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Speaker 3: the ships on the Boston coastline. And so Jimmy was

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Speaker 3: smart enough and fearless enough to go right to the

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Speaker 3: people that would help him build his empire. And by

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Speaker 3: the time he was at his peak, he had at

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Speaker 3: least three or four airplanes, a couple freighter ships, if

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Speaker 3: not more, and a huge number of workers who were

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Speaker 3: being paid exorbitant amounts of money to bring tons and

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Speaker 3: tons of marijuana from Columbia, Mexico City any place they

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Speaker 3: could find it, even across the border, from El Pasa

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Speaker 3: to Warez. He had a distributor in Warez, Mexico, which

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Speaker 3: was a driver of five iron in golf terms from

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Speaker 3: El Paso, and he would get good stuff from him

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Speaker 3: as well. I think Jimmy told me on good months

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Speaker 3: he would make ten to fifteen million dollars gross, of

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Speaker 3: which he would probably collect half of that said, there

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Speaker 3: were a couple of years where he made for himself

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Speaker 3: well over one hundred million dollars again, factor in inflation,

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Speaker 3: it's just ridiculous. You can't even calculate how much money

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Speaker 3: that was. And because he was I have to say

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Speaker 3: he's a degenerate gambler because he couldn't stop if he

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Speaker 3: wanted to. But he wasn't a horrible gambler. A degenerate

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Speaker 3: gambler is just one who can't stop. He's addicted to

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Speaker 3: the action, and you know he would win and lose

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Speaker 3: these astronomical amounts at Caesar's. And the reason I don't

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Speaker 3: think Jimmy was fudging on his figures is because the

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Speaker 3: people at Caesar's backed it up and said that the

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Speaker 3: tips they were making in twenty one and in the

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Speaker 3: crafts table were it was the best money they ever

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Speaker 3: made in their time at Caesar's. There's a cute story,

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Speaker 3: and I won't go into it because it takes too long,

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Speaker 3: but we were having dinner with Jimmy and his wife

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Speaker 3: and another couple friends of ours at the Palms in

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Speaker 3: the Forum at Caesar's Palace six years ago, and I thought,

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Speaker 3: wouldn't it be fun if I could find a really

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Speaker 3: old twenty one dealer who might remember who the Chagras were,

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Speaker 3: and so I went out and there was this older

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Speaker 3: gentleman at a dead table. He had no action there,

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Speaker 3: and I came up to him and I said, I

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Speaker 3: think his name was Victor. I said, Victory, you look

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Speaker 3: like you've been here a while at Caesar's, and he goes, yeah,

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Speaker 3: I opened this joint in sixty six, is when Caesar's

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Speaker 3: Palace opened by Jay Sarno and Andy Williams was the

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Speaker 3: headliner on opening night. And I said, how are Tipsy's

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Speaker 3: days and they said, yeah, they're not like they used

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Speaker 3: to be. And I said, well, you mind, if my

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Speaker 3: little group sits down, we'll play ten dollars black check

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Speaker 3: with you. Oh, I'd love to have your company. So

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Speaker 3: we sat down and it was Jim and Joanhammer, these

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Speaker 3: friends of ours, Jack and Carol Shean, Jimmy and Linda Shagra.

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Speaker 3: Six of us sat down at the table, and I

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Speaker 3: was just thinking this could be fun, and so I said, guys,

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Speaker 3: Victor's been at caesar since nineteen sixty six. And he

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Speaker 3: tells me that the tips are okay now, but they

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Speaker 3: are like they used to be. And I said, when

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Speaker 3: were they really good, Victor, And he said, oh, in

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Speaker 3: the nineteen seventies. I'm not making this up. This guy

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Speaker 3: played played his part perfectly in the nineteen seventies. Why

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Speaker 3: was that, Well, we had some big players back then,

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Speaker 3: we had the Shager brothers. And Jimmy's sitting right next

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Speaker 3: to me, and he kind of perked up and he

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Speaker 3: looked at the guy, trying to figure out if he

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Speaker 3: remembered the face. And I said, oh, really, tell me more. Well,

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Speaker 3: you know, Lee and Jimmy Chagra, they had reputations in

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Speaker 3: the drug business, but we didn't care. We were making

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Speaker 3: great money. And I said, like, how much would you make?

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Speaker 3: He said, well, three to four times what we're making now.

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Speaker 3: And I said, well, gee, what happened to those guys?

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Speaker 3: Of course I knew, but he said, well, Lee Shager

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Speaker 3: was murdered in his office down in Texas in nineteen

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Speaker 3: seventy eight, and I think Jimmy's probably dead too. And

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Speaker 3: I said, I don't think Jimmy's dead. He goes, well,

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Speaker 3: how do you know. I said, well, because I'm pretty

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Speaker 3: sure he's sitting right next to me. And Victor looked

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Speaker 3: at him and goes, oh, my god, Jimmy, is that you.

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Speaker 3: Jimmy goes, yeah, I think I remember your Victor, how

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Speaker 3: you been man? And Victor closed down the twenty one

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Speaker 3: table and he went and got some of the older

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Speaker 3: guys that had been around forever and brought him over.

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Speaker 3: We stopped playing, and they crowded around Jimmy and Linda

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Speaker 3: and the Hammers and the Sheans decided let's let him

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Speaker 3: have his moment of glory and we just left. I

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Speaker 3: told Jimmy the next day. So that had to be

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Speaker 3: fun for you, he goes, man, I was crying most

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Speaker 3: of the time. All these guys acted like we were

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Speaker 3: the greatest guys that ever lived. It was really nostalgic

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Speaker 3: for him.

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Speaker 2: Well, he was a generous tipper, big gambler, friendly guy,

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Speaker 2: but not always he went bad. You had told me,

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Speaker 2: and I remember hearing these stories about him traveling with

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Speaker 2: what's described as a pack of killers, I mean, higher

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Speaker 2: guns who were very dangerous people.

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Speaker 3: I've got a great picture at his wedding reception when

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Speaker 3: he married Liz, who was his third wife and really

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Speaker 3: the love of his life. And poor Liz spent sixteen

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Speaker 3: years in prison and died in prison of over Yeah.

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Speaker 3: He the wedding picture I have is of six of

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Speaker 3: the toughest looking guys you've ever seen, and they were

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Speaker 3: all his groomsmen, and he called them my stone cold killers,

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Speaker 3: and I think that title was appropriate.

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Speaker 2: So things start going bad for him and he ends

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Speaker 2: up on the run. Yeah, describe the circumstances of him

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Speaker 2: being on the run. He thought he was going to

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Speaker 2: be killed, right.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he did. You were actually part of the story,

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Speaker 3: you remember, well, I know, so in nineteen when the

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Speaker 3: plane crashed in seventy seven, he got way more attention

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Speaker 3: than any criminal wants to get. And then they got

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Speaker 3: busted the next year. I believe in fact that the

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Speaker 3: pilot of the plane that got busted in Ardmore Oraclehoma,

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Speaker 3: they had twenty one thousand, twenty one thousand pounds of

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Speaker 3: marijuana on this plane and they got busted in Ardo

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Speaker 3: Oracle Homa, and it became The group of guys became

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Speaker 3: known and kind of famous as the Ardmore twelve. And

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Speaker 3: their attorney to get them off these charges was none

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Speaker 3: other than Lee Schagra, Jimmy's brother, and he was such

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Speaker 3: a brilliant attorney. Even though it looked like they were

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Speaker 3: dead to rights, Lee got him an acquittal. He got

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Speaker 3: the case thrown out for you know, governmental malfeasans or something.

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Speaker 3: I've got it in my notes, and so all these

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Speaker 3: guys didn't spend a day in prison. But an interesting

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Speaker 3: sidebar to the story is of the twenty one thousand

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Speaker 3: pounds that Jerry Wilson and Jimmy Toldy were on that plane.

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Speaker 3: The report that was given to the government was only

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Speaker 3: seventeen thousand pounds, and Jerry Wilson said, well, as typically

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Speaker 3: happened when there's a huge drug bust like that, the

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Speaker 3: guys in the dea kind of look at each other

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Speaker 3: and think, you know, we're not getting paid that well

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Speaker 3: for this job. And so four thousand pounds mysteriously was

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Speaker 3: not reported taken off the plane. And that's happened several times,

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Speaker 3: and I guess human nature, we can sort of understand it.

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Speaker 2: And there's a similar story to when he was apprehended

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Speaker 2: in Las Vegas. We had a diaper box full of

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Speaker 2: cash and some of that disappeared too.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there was Jimmy had himself arrested. He knew that

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Speaker 3: the cops that were closing in on him, and he

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Speaker 3: had his wife and two little kids in a motel

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Speaker 3: down across from where the Haciendi used to be. Way

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Speaker 3: at the south end of the strip, and Jimmy described

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Speaker 3: it as that scene in Butcher casting The Sundance Kid

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Speaker 3: where they're cornered and all these guys have their all

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Speaker 3: the cops have their rifles drawn and they just kind

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Speaker 3: of run for it at the end of that movie.

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Speaker 3: And Jimmy told Liz, he said, I'm going to go

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Speaker 3: get arrested or they're going to start shooting and the

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Speaker 3: whole family could get killed. So he jumped in the

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Speaker 3: car and he just drove down the strip and he

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Speaker 3: looked for a black and white cop car and he

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Speaker 3: found one and he kind of pulled in front of it,

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Speaker 3: made the cop stop, and he jumped out, and it

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Speaker 3: happened to be right in front of where the Venetian

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Speaker 3: is now, which is the former side of the Sands.

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Speaker 3: It was the Sands Hotel then, and he jumped out

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Speaker 3: and he said, I'm a federal fugitive. Arrest me. And

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Speaker 3: the cop, who was not even on duty that day,

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Speaker 3: hadn't intentionally pulled him over. He just stopped because this

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Speaker 3: card pulled in front of him. So that cop makes

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Speaker 3: the arrest, and the cop who took the money out

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Speaker 3: of the back of that car. It was a diaper box.

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Speaker 3: I won't name the cop. He was an elder metro

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Speaker 3: cop who retired shortly after he had a nice retirement fund.

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Speaker 3: Jimmy told me there was like eight hundred and sixty

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Speaker 3: thousand dollars in cash in that diaper box, which was

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Speaker 3: not an uncommon amount for him to be carrying around.

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Speaker 3: The foot lockers had two and three million in those

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Speaker 3: things that he took into Caesar's palace. And when you

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Speaker 3: and I interviewed that cop and asked him how much

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Speaker 3: money was in the diaper box, did he say, like

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Speaker 3: seventy thousand dollars. Yeah, so it was it was roughly

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Speaker 3: ten percent of what Jimmy said was in there. And

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Speaker 3: all we heard through the grapevine is that that cop

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Speaker 3: left his job a little while later. And you know

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Speaker 3: about a membership in a country, I'm making that up.

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Speaker 3: He started doing a lot of fishing and hunting and

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Speaker 3: taking weekends off, let's put it that way.

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Speaker 2: So the darkest angle of the Chagra story happened in Texas,

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Speaker 2: where he is to be tried before a guy whose

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Speaker 2: nickname is Maximum John. This judge, Federal Judge John Wood,

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Speaker 2: tell us what happens.

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Speaker 3: Well, that's a really crazy story, and it's at the

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Speaker 3: heart and soul of the project that I'm working on.

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Speaker 3: So Jimmy is been He has been indicted and bonded

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Speaker 3: out for drug smuggling, money laundering, Rico statutes, all the

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Speaker 3: powers that be in Texas are going to get Jimmy finally,

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Speaker 3: all the trouble he'd been in with the plane crash

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Speaker 3: and the bust and ard miracle home and some other

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Speaker 3: stories that piled on. So Caesar's Palace told Jimmy, this

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Speaker 3: is in early nineteen seventy nine. I'm going to say

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Speaker 3: January February nineteen seventy nine, and he's been riding high

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Speaker 3: for ten years, just killing them year after year with

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Speaker 3: these huge scores he was making by playing and by boat.

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Speaker 3: And Jimmy is told by Caesar's you're too hot right now.

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Speaker 3: You need to take your gambling someplace else. So he

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Speaker 3: was friendly with Jack Benyon, who owned the Horseshoe, and

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Speaker 3: Jimmy and Liz went down to Binyon's and he was

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Speaker 3: doing his gambling down there and playing poker in the

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Speaker 3: poker tournaments. And one day, out of the blue, a

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Speaker 3: girl that he went to, a woman he went to

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Speaker 3: high school with in El Paso. Comes up to him.

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Speaker 3: Her name was Joanne, and she said, Jimmy, I just

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Speaker 3: got married here this week. I want you to be

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Speaker 3: my new husband. And she goes, Charlie, this is jim Jimmy, Jimmy,

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Speaker 3: this is Charles Harrelson. I just married him last week,

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Speaker 3: and they start talking. At the time, Charles Harrelson's name

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Speaker 3: didn't have any star power to it because his sons

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Speaker 3: were kids. They were teenagers or thirteen, fourteen years old.

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Speaker 3: How old would what he be about? Sixty?

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Speaker 2: I think so sure?

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Speaker 3: Okay, so the twenty five and forty five? What he

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Speaker 3: was fourteen? Fifteen years old? And Charles Harrelson had left

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Speaker 3: that wife and those three boys years before. He'd been

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Speaker 3: in trouble. He'd been jailed for a while with another murder.

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Speaker 3: He had been busted for a few other things. But

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Speaker 3: he was a charismatic, colorful, handsome guy. People paid a

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Speaker 3: lot of attention to him. He was a fast talker,

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Speaker 3: and Charles that very first meeting at the horse Shoe

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Speaker 3: in the Horseshoe says to Jimmy, I know you've got

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Speaker 3: a lot of trouble. Jimmy, you're gonna need my help. Well,

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Speaker 3: how can you help me? Are you an attorney? No,

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Speaker 3: I'm not an attorney. But here's my business card. And

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Speaker 3: he hands Jimmy the business card. And I won't say

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Speaker 3: all the words on it because it's kind of offensive.

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Speaker 3: But on the business card it says, and I've got

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Speaker 3: the card, Charles Harrelson professional hit man. Now who has

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Speaker 3: a business card like that? And on the left side

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Speaker 3: is a list of his activities, and the right side

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Speaker 3: is four or five others, and on the top is

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Speaker 3: the most offensive thing. But on the left it says

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Speaker 3: government's overthrown, assassinations plotted, orgy's organized, and then you know

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Speaker 3: Burglary's par none on the right hand side. So all

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Speaker 3: these criminal activities that Charles Harrelson can commit for the

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Speaker 3: right price are listed on this card. And on the

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Speaker 3: very top, i'll just say the N word. It says

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Speaker 3: the N word. Shot free. Now, this is when I

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Speaker 3: got that card. Jimmy had told me about it, and

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Speaker 3: I got it through another guy and he sent it

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Speaker 3: to me. And you've seen it. I think I probably

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Speaker 3: sent you a copy of it. But you look at

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Speaker 3: that and you go, who in the world hands out

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Speaker 3: business cards?

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Speaker 1: Like that.

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Speaker 3: But Jimmy started asking around about Charles Harrelson and he

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Speaker 3: started to hear this guy's the real deal. He is

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Speaker 3: a professional hit man. He will for the right amount

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Speaker 3: of money, he will do some dirty deeds for you.

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Speaker 3: And as the news started to tighten around Jimmy in

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Speaker 3: the legal system in Florida, and when he heard that

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Speaker 3: the judge assigned to his trial in San Antonio was

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Speaker 3: Maximum john Wood, who was reputedly the toughest judge, toughest

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Speaker 3: drug judge in the United States, he knew he was toast.

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Speaker 3: And so the alleged activity that took place then was

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Speaker 3: that Jimmy arranged for Charles Harrison to put a hit

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Speaker 3: on the judge for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash,

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Speaker 3: which was again, that's just another bag of money that

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Speaker 3: Jimmy had around all the time with all of his

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Speaker 3: ill gotten gains. And the crime that Liz Shager was

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Speaker 3: convicted and sentenced to prison for turned out to be

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Speaker 3: a life sentence for her was carrying a paper bag

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Speaker 3: of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from where the

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Speaker 3: Shagers were staying at the Divents Hotel down to the

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Speaker 3: Jockey Club just up the street to the south of

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Speaker 3: where the Blagio is now. It's on that side of

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Speaker 3: the street, on the west side of the street. And

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Speaker 3: she was convicted of that and sentenced to like ten

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Speaker 3: years in prison, but she never got out and she

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Speaker 3: died sixteen years later of ovarian cancer. It's a really

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Speaker 3: sad part of the story.

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Speaker 1: Of course.

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Speaker 2: Charles Harrison was also a suspect of the JFK murder

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Speaker 2: for a while, And.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he made himself a suspect because he bragged the

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Speaker 3: people that he was on the Grassy Knoll and he

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Speaker 3: was one of the guys they call the three tramps.

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Speaker 3: There were three I guess hobos or tramps that were

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Speaker 3: arrested later on November twenty second, nineteen sixty three, And

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Speaker 3: there was the conspiracy. Theorists still believed that JFK was

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Speaker 3: shot from the front as well as from the Texas

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Speaker 3: school Book Depository. And because Charles Harrison resembled one of

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Speaker 3: those three tramps, he bragged in prison and anybody that

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Speaker 3: would listen, I not only killed a federal judge, I

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Speaker 3: killed JFK.

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Speaker 1: Listen to more Coast to coast am every weeknight at

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