TRICENTENNIAL
Federal judge’s slaying in ’79 was ‘crime of the century’ in S.A.
“Bill Bannister” registered at the Town House motel on Loop 410 on Memorial Day 1979.
The next morning, May 29, using a high-powered rifle fitted with a scope, that man fired a shot that would be heard around the world. It killed U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr. — the first federal judge to be assassinated in the country.
Years later, the trial of Charles V. Harrelson revealed that “Bill Bannister” was a pseudonym Harrelson used to help track the judge, who was shot in the back outside his Alamo Heights town home.
Then-FBI Director William Webster dispatched dozens of agents to San Antonio for a massive investigation that resulted in Harrelson and four others being charged in Wood’s assassination — a killing still etched in the city’s lore.
“It was the crime of the century in San Antonio for sure,” said local defense lawyer Alan Brown, who represented people rounded up during the investigation but never charged. “It was the first time someone assassinated a sitting federal judge. It was such an iconoclastic case because it was believed a federal judge could not be touched.”
“It was a big deal to a lot of people,” concurred lawyer Charles Campion, who defended Harrelson’s wife, Jo Ann Harrelson, the woman who bought the murder weapon.
The case highlighted the criminal acts of those accused in Wood’s killing — a drug lord, an actor’s father and some of their relatives. But it also spotlighted allegations that federal investigators and prosecutors treaded on constitutional rights such as attorneyclient and marital privilege and the secret recording of private conversations.
According to newspaper stories citing trial testimony, a drug trafficker and flamboyant gambler from El Paso, Jamiel “Jimmy” Chagra, paid Harrelson $250,000 to kill Wood because Chagra feared a trial and sentencing by “Maximum John.”
Wood earned the moniker for giving tough sentences to drug traffickers.
Chagra was a prolific marijuana smuggler and spent his ill-gotten fortune on casinos in Las Vegas, where he moved in 1978. Harrelson — a card gambling felon and accused hit man with ties to organized crime, and the father of actor Woody Harrelson — met Chagra in Vegas in 1979 after being paroled in an unrelated murder case.
Chagra and Harrelson weren’t immediate suspects, and it took thousands of man-hours before they were identified as such. By the time the first indictments came down in April 1982, the FBI had conducted more than 30,000 interviews and collected more than 500,000 pieces of information. The inquiry cost more than $11 million.
The trial for the Harrelsons took place in the newly named John H. Wood Jr. courthouse — over objections from defense lawyers. Adding further to their indignation, the trial was presided over by thenfederal Judge William Sessions, who was a pallbearer at Wood’s funeral and delivered a eulogy, Campion said.
Harrelson was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus five years, while Jo Ann Harrelson got a combined 25 years for obstruction of justice.
Chagra’s trial was moved to Jacksonville, Fla. He was acquitted of murder and conspiracy to murder but convicted of lesser obstruction of justice and drug charges. He was sentenced to 30 years for his original drug-trafficking charges, plus 10 years for the obstruction and drug charges.