Most people know the face of Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson, but far fewer know the dark history of his father. Charles Voyde Harrelson walked away from his family in 1968, trading a mundane life as an encyclopedia salesman for a lucrative career as a professional gambler and underworld hitman.
His escalating criminal path ultimately led him to execute the first assassination of a federal judge in the twentieth century, sparking a massive manhunt and resulting in one of the most bizarre police standoffs in Texas history.
A Hired Gun in Texas
Born in 1938 in Lovelady, Texas, Charles Voyde Harrelson transitioned into serious crime in the late 1960s. After an armed robbery conviction, he stood trial for the 1968 murder of Alan Harry Berg but was acquitted. However, authorities caught up with him for the murder-for-hire of Sam Degelia Jr., a grain dealer in McAllen, Texas.
Harrelson received a two-thousand-dollar payout for the hit. After a deadlocked first trial, a 1973 retrial ended with a conviction and a fifteen-year prison sentence. He secured early release for good behavior in 1978, but his deadliest job was still ahead.
The Assassination of Judge Wood
Shortly after his parole, Harrelson took a contract from El Paso drug dealer Jamiel Chagra. Chagra was scheduled to face trial before U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr., known as “Maximum John” for handing down harsh drug sentences. On May 29, 1979, Harrelson shot and killed the judge in the parking lot of his San Antonio townhouse.
The crime went unsolved until an anonymous tip and a recorded jailhouse conversation between Chagra and his brother implicated Harrelson. A jury convicted the hitman, handing him two life terms.
Standoffs, JFK Claims, and Escape
Police finally cornered Harrelson in September 1980. High on cocaine, he engaged in a six-hour standoff, firing a gun at imaginary FBI agents. Trying to prolong his life, he falsely confessed to killing President John F. Kennedy, a claim the FBI completely discounted. Harrelson’s chaotic life in the prison system continued well into the 1990s.
In 1995, he and two other inmates used a makeshift rope to attempt a prison break from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Tower guards fired a warning shot, forcing their immediate surrender and prompting Harrelson’s transfer to the Supermax facility ADX Florence.
The Actor and the Assassin
Woody Harrelson lost track of his father until the 1981 news reports regarding the judge’s murder. By 1988, the actor began visiting ADX Florence regularly, viewing the convicted criminal more as a friend than a traditional parent.
Years later, Jamiel Chagra recanted his statements regarding Harrelson’s involvement in the judge’s death, prompting Woody to try and secure a new trial for his father. The attempt failed. Charles Voyde Harrelson remained incarcerated in the Colorado maximum-security prison until he died from a heart attack in his cell on March 15, 2007.