Jailer recalls conversations with Woody Harrelson's father

SAN ANTONIO - Charles Harrelson cemented his reputation in San Antonio the moment he fired the bullet back in 1979 that gunned down U.S. District Judge John H. Wood in the driveway of his home on his way to work.

A convicted hit man-for-hire whose son, Woody Harrelson, would go on to be a two-time Academy Award winner and star in the series "Cheers," where he would win an Emmy Award.

But for one Houston jailer, he knew another side of this killer. He was just a man called "Deacon."

Retired Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Kershaw worked the night shift at the Harris County Jail from 1980-83 and had many talks with countless "guests" of the jail. Men from all walks of life and accused of all types of crimes. And most of those conversations were not worth remembering, as it was just day-to-day talk while you went through your daily routine inside the jail.

It was his talks with convicted murderer Charles Harrelson that he remembers to this day. Harrelson would be later convicted of the 1979 assassination of Judge Wood in San Antonio.

"We got along pretty good," said Kershaw during a recent telephone interview. "We developed a good relationship, so much so that we had nicknames for each other. He would call me "Boss" and I'd call him "Deacon."

Harrelson was sitting in the Harris County Jail for felony weapons possession in what the guards referred to as "death row," a place where high-risk inmates were isolated from the rest of the jail's general population.

Kershaw was just 21 when he was one of the jailers in charge of keeping watch over the high risk inmates, and that included Harrelson.

His recollections of his conversations and every day dealings with Harrelson are not those you'd associate with a convicted killer, but that of an inmate who talked more about family than he did about past criminal acts.

Kershaw said he called Harrelson "Deacon" because of his knowledge of the Bible.

"He could quote the Bible just like a pastor or a deacon," he said. "He was one of the most well mannered and intelligent person that I ever met in jail. He was extremely knowledgeable in the law and in the Bible. I was always wondering what he was thinking."

Harrelson was in the Harris County Jail after a six-hour cocaine-induced standoff with authorities near Van Horn, Texas in 1980 that led to his arrest on drug and weapons charges.

Harrelson could be a charming and charismatic figure, but he also had a violent streak in him. He had already served five years for the 1968 murder-for-hire killing of Sam Degelia Jr. in McAllen and had been charged and acquitted in the killing of Alan Berg by the time he was in the Harris County Jail.

And even though federal authorities had their eyes on Harrelson for the assassination U.S. District Judge John H. Wood, Kershaw only had limited information on this convicted murderer and had no idea he'd be linked to what the FBI called "the crime of the century.".

"We were told that he was a rumored hit man for organized crime," he said. "He did look like a hitman. I mean nobody bothered him. I knew not to turn my back on him."

MANHUNT FOR JUDGE WOOD'S ASSASSIN

May 29, 1979. 8:30 A.M. It was the day of the gunshot heard around San Antonio, and some say the entire country.

An assassin's bullet struck down U.S. District Judge John H. Wood in the driveway of the Chateur Dijon townhouses in Alamo Heights as he was leaving for work.

It was the first murder of a federal judge in over a century, but to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it was "the crime of the century." President Jimmy Carter referred to Judge Wood's murder as an "assault on our very system of justice."

FBI Special Agent Jack Lawn, who was put in charge of the investigation into the assassination of Judge Wood, said during an interview for "FBI: Untold Stories" that it was an attack on the justice system.

"I think every inmate in every local and state institution thinks the source of their problem is the prosecutor and/or the judge," he said. "And if we were to announce an open season on our prosecutors and our judges, then we would have mayhem in our society."

An intense manhunt ensued, but when the dust settled, convicted hit man Charles Harrelson, father of actor Woody Harrelson, would be convicted of his murder in one of the most expensive and longest manhunts at the time in FBI history, involving every one of the FBI's 54 offices in the United States at varying times over more than three years.

Judge Wood earned the nickname "Maximum John" for his tough sentences handed down to those convicted of drug trafficking offenses during the height of the "War on Drugs" campaign. That gave the FBI plenty of suspects with the motive to kill him.

The FBI immediately went to the judge's docket and saw Jamiel Alexander Chagra a.k.a. Jimmy Chagra, a well-known El Paso drug trafficker, who was slated to go to trial on drug trafficking charges.

Prosecutors say he killed Wood for $250,000 from Jimmy Chagra of El Paso, Texas, who feared a life sentence from Wood in a scheduled drug smuggling trial.

On Feb. 26, 1979, Jimmy was indicted on five counts of trafficking in marijuana and cocaine. It was then, the Government asserted, that ''the fear began.''

It was at a pretrial hearing on April 2, 1979, as he listened to Judge Wood deny a score of defense motions, that Jimmy Chagra turned to his brother and attorney, Joe Chagra, and said, according to Joseph Chagra's testimony later, ''that he was never going to have a fair trial and if I thought he should have Judge Wood killed.''

It was on a trip to Las Vegas where Jimmy Chagra met Charles Harrelson, a hitman-for-hire, who had recently been released from prison for the 1968 killing of Sam Degelia Jr. in McAllen, Texas. Harrelson allegedly told Chagra that he was available for work. With the idea to kill Judge Wood already in his head, Chagra now had the perfect guy to carry out his plan.

Chagra's wife delivered the $250,000 to Harrelson's stepdaughter, Terresa Starr, at a Las Vegas hotel and took delivery of the blood money to carry out the hit on Judge Wood.

But his arrest in Houston gave the FBI the big break they needed when Joe Chagra came forward saying he was Harrelson's attorney. That gave investigators a concrete connection between the Chagra family and Harrelson.

FBI tracked down the sale of a Weatherby rifle at a Dallas gunshop, purchased by a "Fay King," a play on the word faking. That was the name that the FBI says Harrelson's wife Jo Ann used to buy the rifle that they say was used in the assassination of Judge Wood.

The FBI had finally caught up to Harrelson.

JAILHOUSE CONVERSATIONS

Kershaw said you wouldn't have known that Harrelson had a mountain of legal troubles against him. He was always calm and cool, and would much rather have a discussion about cards, family or anything else other than his legal woes.

"He never discussed his guilt or innocence," Kershaw said. "He was a great card player. He made his own playing cards and was good at doing card tricks and playing poker. He was definitely a card shark, but we never talked about why he was in jail or what he'd done in the past."

Kershaw said his conversations with Harrelson were more about family.

"During our conversations, he would always ask about me. He wanted to know all about me," he said. "He wanted to know about my family and if I had any kids. I always felt that he regretted that he wasn't close with his family. He talked a lot about family."

Harrelson had three children, Woody, Brett and Jordan with his second wife Diane Lou. Woody would go on to be an Academy Award nominated actor and famous for his breakthrough role in the series "Cheers."

But Kershaw said he never had many visitors besides his current wife Jo Ann and his attorney.

"The one thing I noticed about him is that he was always writing letters," he said. "He had a huge stack of papers in his cell. I never knew who he was writing, if it was family or his attorney. He kept himself busy."

Kershaw would say that his relationship with Harrelson was one of respect and friendly at times, but he never let the inmate take advantage of his being cordial.

"We only butted heads one time," he said. "Deacon was on a hunger strike because he wanted his way about something. He didn't want his food tray during that time so I would put his tray outside his cell, but this time, I didn't. He was angry because I didn't put his tray outside this time. I told him that I knew he would just have Johnny Ray Spinelli push it over to him so he could eat it when I wasn't looking. When I called him out on what he was doing with the food tray, he just smiled and nodded like I knew he was running a con with the hunger strike. I was like run your hunger strike with the rest of the world, but not me. One minute it was like you were speaking to a CEO of a corporation and the next, I'd be talking to a con man. You just never knew who he was going to be."

"He once told me that the scariest man in the world is a man who isn't afraid to die. I didn't know if he was just trying to intimidate me, but I told him I wasn't afraid to die."

CONVICTED OF MURDER

In 1981, Harrelson was indicted for the murder of Judge Wood and was transferred to the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio. Kershaw said Harrelson was on his day off when he was transferred, but he said he'll always remember what Harrelson last told him.

"In what would be our last conversation," Deacon told me 'No matter the road you take in life, always tell your family you love them.' I said 'Amen, Deacon," he said. "I've used that line on people myself since then. As much as he was a convicted killer, I always believed he wouldn't preferred just being a family man."

Harrelson would later get a chance to meet one of his children face-to-face when Woody came for a visit at the Bexar County Jail in 1982, shortly after receiving a letter from his father.

In the book "Dirty Dealings," San Antonio lawyer Alan Brown, who was Harrelson's defense attorney, said "(Woody) came down here numerous times. He wasn't a star back then, just a strange kid who didn't say much."

Woody would have his breakthrough role in 1985 playing "Woody Boyd" on the hit television series "Cheers," before becoming a two-time Academy Award nominee.

After a two-month trial and 18 hours of deliberation, a federal jury found Harrelson, and two other defendants were found guilty on six counts of planning, carrying out and trying to cover up the assassination of Judge Wood Jr.

After an escape attempt in 1995 from a prison in Atlanta, Charles Harrelson was transferred to the Supermax prison, ADX Florence in Florence, Colo. That is where he would spend the rest of his life.

On March 15, 2007, Harrelson died in prison of a heart attack at the age of 68.

Kershaw said that it was the path that Deacon chose that led to his final demise.

"He understood the choices he made had consequences," he said. "He was more sorry about how his choices affected his loved ones. You wonder what his life would've been like if he had chosen his family first."