News of the father of actor Woody Harrelson killing a judge for $250,000 has resurfaced on the 42nd anniversary of the event. Harrelson is an A-list actor known for his roles as Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom Cheers and films like The People vs. Larry Flynt, No Country for Old Men, and Zombieland, and many are unaware of his father's criminal past. 

The incident took place on May 29, 1979, when Charles Harrelson took a hitman job to kill U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr. in San Antonio. Charles was hired by Jamiel "Jimmy" Chagra, a drug lord, to kill Wood before he was set to preside over Chagra's trial. Harrelson, using the alias "Bill Bannister," carried out the plan and shot Judge Wood with a rifle outside of his Alamo Heights townhome. 

Local defense lawyer Alan Brown spoke about the depth of the murder, telling the San Antonio Express-News in 2017, "It was the crime of the century, in San Antonio for sure. It was the first time someone assassinated a sitting federal judge. It was such an iconoclastic case because it was believed a federal judge could not be touched."

The FBI reportedly spent $11 million and thousands of man-hours searching for Judge Wood's killer, and Charles Harrelson was later apprehended with the aid of an anonymous tip. Changra was also recorded implicating Harrelson in the murder during a conversation with his brother, Joe Chagra, during a visit. During the trial, Harrelson claimed that he didn't kill Judge Wood, but he took credit to get the large payout from Chagra. He was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 5 years for the slaying.

While Woody said in previous interviews that he didn't think of Charles as much of a parent after he left him and his mother in 1968 when Woody was 8, the actor later paid for his father's unsuccessful appeal when Chagra recanted his previous statements and claimed someone else had shot Judge Wood. Woody also attended the federal proceedings with his brothers in Texas and Colorado. In 2007, Charles Harrelson was found in his cell in Colorado, having died at the age of 68 from a heart attack.

Source: MySanAntonio