Woody Harrelson’s father was controversial. He was a notorious hitman who was accused of killing three people, including President Kennedy, and was convicted of two murders
Woody Harrelson is a Hollywood legend. From his breakout role in the sitcom Cheers to major parts in White Men Can’t Jump, Natural Born Killers and the Hunger Games trilogy, the actor has won the hearts of audiences worldwide.
However, the superstar’s father, Charles Harrelson, is almost as well-known as his A-list son, but for very different reasons. Charles was found guilty of two murders and acquitted of a third.
In September 1980, he surrendered to police following a six-hour standoff, during which he was reportedly high on cocaine.
During this tense situation, Harrelson threatened to take his own life and claimed to have assassinated both Judge John H. Wood Jr and President John F. Kennedy, reports the Mirror US.
In a post-arrest interview, Charles Harrelson stated: “At the same time I said I had killed the judge, I said I had killed Kennedy, which might give you an idea to the state of my mind at the time.”
The hitman explained that the claims made during the standoff were “an effort to elongate my life”.
According to the Texas State Historical Association, Charles Harrelson was convicted of murdering the judge who was gunned down in a car park outside his San Antonio townhouse on 29 May 1979. The judge, known as “Maximum John” due to his reputation for giving lengthy sentences for drug offences, was due to have a drug dealer appear before him.
Jamiel “Jimmy” Alexander Chagra, a notorious dealer, was staring down the barrel of a life sentence without parole if found guilty by the judge. Accused of hiring Charles Harrelson to assassinate Wood for a hefty sum of £250,000, Chagra was eventually acquitted, although he later admitted to conspiracy as part of a plea deal to aid his wife.
John became the first federal judge to be assassinated in over a century, shot once in the back. Charles Harrelson and his then-wife, Jo Ann, were implicated in the chilling crime.
Harrelson’s reign of terror came to an end when police received calls about him firing a weapon at imaginary FBI agents whilst under the influence of drugs. Thanks to an anonymous tip-off and a tape recording of a conversation between Joe Chagra and his brother Jimmy during a prison visit, Charles Harrelson was handed two life sentences.
During Charles Harrelson’s trial, Joe Chagra testified that the hitman had claimed to have shot Kennedy and even drew maps to show where he was hiding during the assassination.
However, the witness stated he didn’t believe Charles Harrelson’s claim, and the AP reported that the FBI “apparently discounted any involvement by Harrelson in the Kennedy assassination.”
In Jim Marrs’ 1989 book, ‘Crossfire’, it was speculated by some theorists that Charles Harrelson was the youngest and tallest of the “three tramps” who were arrested shortly after Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. Lois Gibson, a renowned forensic artist, reportedly matched photographs of Charles Harrelson to this figure.
Marrs also suggested that Charles Harrelson was involved “with criminals connected to intelligence agencies and the military.”
The author further linked Charles Harrelson with Jack Ruby, the man who assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald, through a third party named Russell Douglas Matthews. Matthews was known to both Harrelson and Ruby and had connections to organised crime.
In a 1982 interview, Charles Harrelson told Dallas TV station KDFW-TV: “Do you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy, alone, without any aid from a rogue agency of the U.S. government or at least a portion of that agency? I believe you are very naïve if you do.”