Charles Harrelson (1938-2007) was a minor figure around the world of poker and the World Series of Poker, but he gave poker a big national black eye. Harrelson, the father of actor, Woody Harrelson, abandoned his family when Woody was seven to become an outlaw, including a poker player, and cheater. He was also known to rob poker games. Harrelson was convicted of a murder-for-hire in Texas and did time in prison. While there, he practiced cheating at cards all the time, until he was rather good. He'd brag about his cheating abilities, and he'd say he was a hit man. This was incredibly rare. On TV, there are hit man all the time. Harrelson was thought by some Kennedy assassination theorists to have been involved as a shooter. Harrelson even confessed, but recanted.


At the forerunner to the World Series in 1969 in Reno, Harrelson was there, and he was known as a hit man at that time.

Charles Harrelson's wife knew Jimmie Chagra the big dope dealer who had lost large sums at poker in Las Vegas. Chagra had created a big game of expert players like Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Sailor Roberts, and Puggy Pearson at Binion's Horseshoe. Harrelson and confederates had a plan to get Chagra in a high stakes poker game and cheat him. James McManus wrote that the Binion family introduced Harrelson and Chagra. This was hugely false, and known to be false from books, trial testimony, and one of the biggest investigations in U.S. history way before James McManus wrote his lies about this event, for which he was sued and lost.

Harrelson, and his wife, approached Chagra, and Harrelson offered to kill the Judge for a sum. Later, the fee was set at $250,000 to kill a federal judge, Maximum John Wood, known for his long sentences. Chagra was facing trial for being a huge international dope dealer with ties to Columbia. These discussions happened at the World Series of Poker, and in a massively publicized trial, the connections to poker were repeated often.

James McManus wrote several false things about Chagra/Harrelson/and the Binion's. He wrote that Chagra was laundering money and stated that Jack Binion was a crook. He said very wrongly that the "Binion family" introduced Harrelson to Chagra. The most ignorant thing that James McManus said about this got his publisher sued. He said that four people: Jack Binion, Benny Binion, Ted Binion, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, then Chagra's attorney sat in booth 1 of the Sombrero and plotted the murder of a federal judge. McManus said the contract was for $50.000. He wrote this after the massive trial and investigation which involved seventy federal agents. Mayor Goodman's lawyer called the publisher threatening to sue. They settled for an unreported amount, believed to be $50,000, a full-page advertisement apologizing in the New York Times, and removal of these false, offensive, and child-like passages from future editions of McManus' books.

When he was captured out on a Texas highway, Charles Harrelson confessed to being one of the shooters in the Kennedy assassination. He was all coked up. For years, people had said he was one of the three tramps in Dealy Plaza on the day of the assassination, but that was discredited. One of the big journalists, Jack Anderson, believed he was a shooter. I do not. I think Oswald was the only shooter. It was a small conspiracy headed by New Orleans Mafia Don Carlos Marcello. A few guys were supposed to help Oswald escape, then kill him. Simple.

Jimmy Chagra got out of prison. He came to the World Series in 2007, but is now dead. Charles Harrelson died in prison. Here is a YouTube video of a Charles Harrelson interview. He says he confessed to Kennedy and Judge Wood assassinations, but brings up his "state of mind."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpVlqh14WHY

always good stories johnny! thank you

I always enjoy Johnny Hughes threads. I have to disagree with 1 thing though.. no way was Oswald the only shooter. Magic bullet etc.

Jack Ruby was a mob guy of decades. All of them were connected to New Orleans. I believe Ruby laid off football bets and got his strippers there. Ruby visited Santos Trafficante, Floria Mafia Don, in a Cuban prison. Ruby had ties to Cuba and gun running. However, his actions on the day he shot Oswald might indicate no planning. He knew they wanted Oswald dead, and saw his chance.

Bobby Hoff told me stories about Charles Harrleson consistent with this one. Said he was a total psycopath (obv). Said he had a business card that stated he was murder for hire. Interesting that Woody Harrelson still believes his dad was set up.

Wht's your take on Sirhan Sirhan Johnny?

Thought you said you weren't going to mention McManus again.

I have found it impossible to write about poker history and the truth without debunking the false, which is always incredibly negative about people connected to poker. I recently wrote something on Poker Alice. In no written account is she labeled a cheater except McManus who is guessing, wrongly.

As for Sirhan, who knows. There is far more reason to believe the JKF assassination was a conspriracy. Sirhan left himself no possible escape. I'd make it 95 per cent lone nut. That still leaves 5 per cent conspiracy.

the judge's name was Maximum Wood? are you kidding me? was he a part-time pornstar too?

They called him Maximum John Wood because of the long prison sentences he handed out. He was tougher than Admo. This is Texas. If you don't have a nickname, you ain't ****.

OK

White Man Can't Jump

Not if they're given no bail.

Natural Born Killer?

I'd like to introduce myself and tell you some stories. These are stories about poker. They are important. I hope you'll take the time to tell me your tales also. I figure that every man has at least one good story and every woman has at least two. That's just how we think about it in the Northeast.

In the old days I was a gambler. Now I reckon that the State had the eye on us because of how we handled our business. There was no recourse for a cheater and no course to be a cheater. Fixing card games must have been like fixing tires because there was a lot of fixing going on. I remember the deck of cards I bought from that Pakistani merchant. The store was bright and so was his greeting. Now back then you never looked an immigrant in the eyes. I decided to break the rules and asked him a question. Sir, I said, why are the prices so high on your decks of cards?

The steam that floated from his blue Afghan was enough to take the stripes off a zebra. He said "if you don't like the prices, don't play the game".

Everyone knew who this man was and his anger meant trouble. He was known in many circles as the "iceman". In 1988 there was a massive Hurricane that was legendary around these parts. It was named after his American wife.

She went around town with various merchants. Without a trace she had disappeared. So when that Hurricane came around he had bought 100 truckloads of ice. If the scorn of this storm was anything like temperament of his wife, a lot of blowing would be happening.

When Gloria rumbled through many folks around these parts were desperate to keep their crops cold. He had made a 9 million dollar profit in one day.

At that moment I learned two lessons.

1. The Chinese make a lot of stuff that gets imported into the United States

2. The price to play cards isn't always paid in the game

So I left that store and went home and signed up on PokerStars. That was five years ago. I never had to buy a deck of cards. Now poker is banned.

There have been several myth busting shows that have replicated the "shot" that killed JFK.

best line ever. great story too as always!

I'm from Texas, I have no nickname, and I'm kind of a big deal.

I've been called a lot of names, but Nick isn't one of 'em. But yeah, the Wood family was a big deal here in Texas. Even without the nickname. Judge John Howland Wood Jr. had ancestors here in Texas that went back to 1836.

Never try to con a conman, and definately never try to con a hitman...lol.

When I saw "No Country For Old Men" I thought this is pretty weird. Woody is playing the role of his father.

From the trivia section for "No Country For Old Men" at IMDB:

"In the novel, Sheriff Bell says of the dope-dealers, "Here a while back in San Antonio they shot and killed a federal judge." Cormac McCarthy set the story in 1980. In 1979, Federal Judge John Howland Wood was shot and killed in San Antonio by Texas free-lance contract killer Charles Harrelson, father of actor Woody Harrelson (Carson Wells)."

Also, this is another one of Jonny's rehashes.

No Country for old Men's poker connection -- not sklansky
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...lansky-139379/

Mr Hughes,

Portrayals of people in poker history are often incredibly negative because many of the seminal people are in fact pretty shady. Benny Binion, the guy who started the WSOP was a murderer and mobster correct? I mean, a lot of top regional crooks ended up dead in Texas and their turf was later taken over by him right?

Even your own post is basically incredibly negative about poker players. Apparently a known hitman was walking around the WSOP in the 1960s bragging and making deals to kill people... The best of the bunch in your post are Doyle et al, and they knowingly gambled it up with a drug dealer/whale, plainly showing no qualms with taking blood money at all. The fact that most poker players dont see this as a necessarily bad thing is probably why the general public look at poker players with disdain.

There was no WSOP in the 1960s.