Charles Harrelson
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Charles Harrelson mug shot.Charles Voyde Harrelson (born July 23, 1938), is a organized crime-connected freelance hitman. He is the father of actor Woody Harrelson.
Harrelson was sentenced to two life prison sentences after being convicted in 1982 of the May 29, 1979 assassination of John H. Wood, Jr., an American federal judge. Harrelson shot and killed Wood in the parking lot outside of Wood's San Antonio, Texas townhouse, apparently as a favor for a powerful local drug dealer named Jimmy Chagra. Wood had a reputation for handing down long prison sentences for drug offenses and Chagra was scheduled to appear in his courtroom.
Harrelson declared several times (the first time being when he had been apprehended for the Wood shooting) that he had been involved in John F. Kennedy's assassination. Some think he was one of the three tramps arrested on November 22, 1963 in a train near Dealey Plaza, but Dallas Police Department documents made public in 1992 reveal that the three men really were transients with no connection to the assassination.
Prior to the Wood murder, Harrelson was tried for the 1968 killing in Edinburg, Texas of a Hearne grain dealer named Sam Degilia. Famed Texas Ranger Captain Jack Dean investigated the case. Harrelson hired famed Houston criminal attorney Percy Foreman (who had also been counsel for confessed Martin Luther King assassin James Earl Ray) for his defense. Just when it looked liked Harrelson was to be convicted, Foreman sprung a surprise witness on the prosecution. A nightclub singer with a questionable background 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 retried in 1974 in nearby Brownsville, Texas. Dean was in the courtroom waiting for the nightclub singer to appear, this time with a perjury arrest warrant for her in his pocket. However, she had learned that the Rangers were waiting to arrest her, and quickly fled to Aruba. Without the help of the singer’s testimony, there was no hung jury. Harrelson was found guilty, but sentenced to only 15 years in prison. With time off for good behavior, he was free in five years.
Harrelson was apprehended for the Wood shooting with the aid of an anonymous tip. Harrelson attempted to escape from the Atlanta federal penitentiary in 1996, but failed and was shortly afterward transferred to ADX Florence, the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, where he remains. In 1998, after spending 16 years in prison, Harrelson's son, by then a famous actor, acquired high powered attorneys in an attempt to get his father's conviction overturned and secure for him a new trial, but to no avail.
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Reference
20th Century Shining Star: Captain Jack Dean, United States Marshal, Texas Ranger Dispatch Magazine.
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Categories: 1938 births | Living people | Federal Supermax Prisoners at Florence, Colorado | John F. Kennedy assassination | Prisoners serving life sentences
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Harrelson declared several times (the first time being when he had been apprehended for the Wood shooting) that he had been involved in John F. Kennedy's assassination. Some think he was one of the three tramps arrested on November 22, 1963 in a train near Dealey Plaza, but Dallas Police Department documents made public in 1992 reveal that the three men really were transients with no connection to the assassination.
Harrelson declared several times (the first time being when he had been apprehended for the Wood shooting) that he had been involved in John F. Kennedy's assassination. Some think he was one of the three tramps arrested on November 22, 1963 in a train near Dealey Plaza, but Dallas Police Department documents made public in 1992 reveal that the three men really were transients with no connection to the assassination.
Harrelson declared several times (the first time being when he had been apprehended for the Wood shooting) that he had been involved in John F. Kennedy's assassination. Some think he was one of the three tramps arrested on November 22, 1963 in a train near Dealey Plaza, but Dallas Police Department documents made public in 1992 reveal that the three men really were transients with no connection to the assassination.