Cheap Dirty Dealing: Drug Smuggling on the Mexican Border & the Assassination of a Federal Judge : An American Parable (Book) (Gary Cartwright) Price

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Customer Reviews of Dirty Dealing: Drug Smuggling on the Mexican Border & the Assassination of a Federal Judge : An American Parable

An enjoyable read and almost fair to the real John Wood
Judge John Wood, whom my father and uncle, both now deceased trial lawyers, both had cases in front of, was one of the worst judges who ever walked the earth. He was a ruthless hack who enjoyed dealing in other people's misery. Wood's vicious sentencing cost the government tens of millions of dollars in prison expenses and destroyed the lives of many people who were not hardened criminals but people who made a mistake and were punished out of proportion to their crime. <
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> My father and uncle had far too much respect for the law to have ever said it, but I will. Judge Wood's killing was bound to happen and it was no tragedy, no disgrace to the country. While I can't say that Charles Harrelson (or for the sake of argument whoever else may have shot Wood) was any kind of hero, and while I cannot advocate killing anyone as Wood was killed, sometimes bullies and tyrants are bound to be gunned down. Wood was both, and a lot of basically decent and law-abiding people acknowledged that in this case a bad thing had happened to a bad person. Indeed, Wood's lawful but vicious behavior was as damaging to society as those of any of his drug defendants <
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> A similar case is in the news as an aging film actor of modest talents and careeer is accused of killing a woman who had had a long career of fraud and bunco schemes which victimized mostly elderly, lonely, and inoffensive, if pathetic, victims. How do we as a society react to such a situation? In both these cases, we have a clearly criminal homicide, and no one save hard-boiled anarchists would say that the killers involved 'did right': but only a fool or a hapless prosecutor forced to try the case would say that it was a truly heinous or uncalled-for act. <
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> I njoyed many other aspects of the book as well, including discussions of Marty Houltin and his marijuana flying activities. I knew Houltin when I was a young student pilot and saw what he could do with a light airplane, particularly the awkward and slothful Piper Cherokee, that were almost beyond belief. Everyone, smuggler, lawman or pilot, who knew Houltin regarded him as possibly the finest lightplane pilot on earth, and he was generally very well liked by those who flew even though it was widely suspected he was at least complicit in stealing airplanes-the story was that he only stole planes that had full insurance and on more than one occasion stole and parted out or ditched insured airplanes whose owners had asked him to in order to get out from under a market albatross or hangar queen. <
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> Overall, it's an interesting read.

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The Chagras Were Criminals..., Period!
Cartwright's friendship with Joe and Patty Chagra is quite evident throughout the contents of this book. As a historical and informative book, I enjoyed it very much. However, Cartwright's constant attempt to portray the Chagras as victims of an over-zealous federal investigation or as some type of folk heros is absurd. Lee, Jimmy, and Joe were the typical, bottom-of-the-barrel scum who hurt many true victims in our society. And I am referring to not just the assassination of Judge Wood, but all the crime that is associated with any narcotics dealer. The U.S. government did an excellent job to remove Jimmy, Joe, and the other worthless members of their group from society. Joe had no business attempting to get his law license back after his time in jail. The government never promised to help him get it back, as Cartwright insinuates in his book. The government doesn't make promises like that. The only people that may have seen the Chagras as "heros" were fellow criminals. And even then, the Chagras weren't the brightest individuals as they were always flaunting their wealth, doing cocaine, and drawing attention to themselves. It's the smart criminals that don't get caught.

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Too sympathetic to the bad guys
The murder of Judge "Maximum" John Wood is a fascinating case, and I'm bewildered as to why it is the subject of apparently just this book. It is my understanding that the FBI spent more time investigating the assassination (which had Woody Harrelson's father as the triggerman!) than in any other case besides the Kennedy murder.

Yet I regret to say that this book is essentially a "hit job" of its own against Judge Wood. The author seems to rely on a lot of statements from defense attorneys (not the type of people to love a judge who hands out stiff punishments). He also "weeps" copious tears over the lot of one Joe Chagra, the brother of Jamiel Chagra, the man who actually ordered the hit. If memory serves, the author gives the impression that he thought it was a shame that Joe Chagra, who admitted to playing a role in the killing, was not allowed to practice law after being released from prison (he subsequently died in a traffic accident).

I am prepared to accept that Judge Wood was not a fair judge. I am also prepared to accept that Joe Chagra may not have been the prince of darkness. However, I will never accept the argument that Chagra, a lawyer and officer of the court, should have been allowed to resume being a lawyer after playing a role, however tangential, in what amounts to a direct assault on the judicial system itself.

I will also never accept the subtext of the book that if Wood had been fairer, he wouldn't have been killed. As if the fact that a judge is unfair gives a criminal (a VERY powerful drug dealer) to kill him. Give me a break.