August 16, 2025 • 23 mins
This conversation delves into the life of Charles Harrelson, exploring his criminal activities, including the assassination of federal judge John H. Wood Jr. The discussion covers Harrelson's background, his claims of involvement in high-profile murders, and conspiracy theories surrounding Harrelson's life.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
All right, guys, I'm here with Elizabeth with another episode
of Political Retrograde. What are you covering today?
Hi guys. So today we are going to be
covering Charles Harrelson or for anyone who's not familiar
with who that is, it is the father of Woody and Brett
Harrelson, the actors. What do you You'll probably know
him the most from Now You See MeOne and Two, Hunger Games,
(00:34):
Cheers, No Country for Old Men, and then his most recent movie
is Last Breath. OK.
Brett, his brother, has had his career really kind of stopped in
the 90s, but I think people would know him from like Dante's
View, Inferno and Sun Chaser. I've not seen any three of those
movies, but I've heard of Dante's View before.
So yeah, let's just get into it.So Charles Harrelson, he had
(00:59):
several wives throughout his time.
He in 1968 left his family didn't have any contact.
Woody didn't know him growing up.
Brett didn't know him growing up.
His their mother was left to raise him alone and that was in
1968. So they didn't know where he was
until 1981 when the news of the that Woody Harrelson's father
(01:22):
Charles had murdered a federal judge broke.
Charles Harrelson was an American contract killer.
He has alleged that he has killed upwards of 50 people, but
those close to him say that it was probably closer to five or
six. However, he was known to be
involved with a lot of really dangerous entities, mafias,
(01:43):
cartels, things like that. So he could have been involved
in a lot of deaths that it sounds like maybe it was more
than he actually did. So the federal judge was
ironically John H Wood Junior. So Judge Wood.
And he was the first federal judge to be assassinated in the
(02:04):
20th century. So Charles Harrelson was born
July 23rd in 1938 in lovely Texas.
First he married Nancy Hillman, they separated, and then he
married Diane Lou Oswald, which is who he had Woody and Brett
with. And then he also eventually
(02:24):
married Joanne and Gina Adele Foster.
So his day job was he was an encyclopedia salesman in
California as well as a professional gambler.
So he's a pretty interesting guy.
Yeah. He had been picked up and
charged for a lot of different things, you know, like
(02:46):
misdemeanor crimes, things like that.
Well, he got picked up and was charged for the murder of Allen
Harry Berg in 1970. So he, he allegedly murdered him
in 1968, was charged in 1970, and he stood trial for that in
Angleton, TX on September 22nd. And he was actually acquitted of
(03:10):
that murder. And then in 1960, like I said,
he had been convicted in 1960 ofarmed robbery.
And he says that most of his crime started in the, but I
don't know, he was just this encyclopedia salesman for that.
Yeah. OK, so starting from the
beginning, he was tried for the 1968 murder for hire killing of
(03:31):
Sam de Gallia Junior. This was a grain dealer in
business with his best friend Pete Thomas Schemardo.
However, Schemardo was trafficking heroin with Charles
Harrelson. It was also found out later that
Schemardo was deeply in debt andwanted de Gallia out of the way
(03:55):
so he could collect his life insurance policy on him.
He was also a resident of Hurrying, Texas.
Harrelson was paid $2000 for themurder.
That would be a probably about 18 to $20,000 in today's money.
So good amount of money. Yeah.
And this guy that he murdered was just his.
(04:18):
He was a grain dealer that was friends went into business with
his friend. His friend put out a hit on him
and ended up killing, shooting and killing him.
He was a father of four as well.So he was just kind of a family
man doing his thing. Got caught up with with
Harrelson. His first trial that he went
(04:39):
ended in a deadlocked jury. Pete was tried and was also
tried in the case and he was found guilty of being an
accomplice to murder and sentenced to seven years
probation. Harrelson was retried in 1973,
was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(04:59):
In 1978, after serving five years, he was released for good
behavior. OK, so now it's 1978.
He's been convicted of at least one murder, he's been acquitted
of 1 murder, and he has been charged with armed robbery and
several other crimes. So after his 1978 release, this
is when he married Joanne. So Woody and Brett are off in
(05:24):
California with their mom Diane.They don't know.
They don't know about their dad.So this is what he during that
time. OK.
So after he married Joanne on May 29th, 1979, AUS District
Judge John H Wood Junior was shot in a parking lot of his
townhouse in San Antonio, TX. Harrison was hired by the drug
(05:47):
dealer Jameel, also known known as Jimmy Chagra.
Judge Woods was noted to be really hard on the on crimes and
the people that were convicted of his crime.
So he got the nickname Maximum John because he almost always
handed down the maximum sentencefor drug offenses.
(06:10):
So this is specifically why the mafia wanted him to be killed is
because the people that were being caught were being
sentenced to ridiculous sentences.
And well, not ridiculous, completely warranted sentences,
but it didn't give them the opportunity to like, get back
into the game after they did their time.
Right, right. So on the day of his murder,
(06:32):
that was supposed to be the day that Jimmy appeared in front of
the judge for trial. However, that trial was delayed.
So he was caught because of an anonymous call came in saying
that Harrelson was firing a gun at imaginary FBI agent while on
drugs. So no way.
(06:56):
Like who called this in? What's going?
On we don't know, like how? How do you know that they're
imagined like? I don't know, I don't I could
not find. And especially like in this
time, you know, it's it's kind like just about to be 1980 and
you're like. Yeah.
No one's tracking phone numbers,you know, So, so that call came
(07:18):
in. There was also an anonymous tape
recording during a prison visit between Jimmy, the guy who hired
the, and his brother Joe, who they were partners in drug
trafficking. OK, so Jimmy and Joe had a
conversation in prison and it was taped without them knowing.
So all of these pieces led to identifying who did it.
(07:39):
Later, Harrelson will eventuallyclaim that he didn't kill the
judge, but took credit for it toget a big payment from Jimmy.
So Harrelson was tried and convicted for the murder of
Judge Wood. He was sentenced to two life
terms, which was based pretty much entirely on the recording
between Jimmy and Joe. Harrelson and Joe were both
(08:01):
implicated in the assassination,but Joe only received a 10 year
sentence as part of a plea bargain to explain what
happened, but also not give up Jimmy.
So Joe was able to say what happened, implicate Harrelson,
and then him and Jimmy got off, not Scott free, but they got off
(08:23):
on a much lighter sentence. Yeah.
Did you say he was? He was sentenced to life
sentences. Yeah.
What? Why 2?
Two life terms. Or yeah, two life terms.
Yeah. But one person was murdered,
right? Yeah, but I.
I mean, I guess you can do. Yeah, this, I don't know if it
(08:46):
was just because there's a federal judge.
It was also the 80s, seventies. So, yeah, I'm not sure.
OK, so then Jimmy was acquitted of the murder.
So Jimmy, I found this little thing interesting.
Jimmy's defense attorney at the time was a public defender named
(09:06):
Oscar Goodman, who later went onto become the mayor of Las
Vegas. Yeah.
Interesting. Isn't that weird?
A public defence mayor of Sin City.
Yeah. So in Jimmy's plea bargain, he
admitted that his role in the judge's assassination was to to
help Harrelson basically just shoot the judge.
(09:29):
So he was, he admitted to attempted assassination.
And Harrelson's wife, Joanne, was also sentenced to
consecutive terms totalling 25 years on multiple convictions of
conspiracy and perjury related to the assassinate
assassination. Oh.
Really. Joanne's a little sketch.
A little, yeah. And definitely, you know, lied
(09:51):
on stand and covered. Well, tried to cover for.
Yeah. So on July 4th, 1995, Harrelson
and two other inmates are in theAtlanta Federal Penitentiary.
Harrelson and two other inmates attempted to escape from prison
at this time. They made a makeshift rope, and
they swung it out their cell window or wherever they were at.
(10:14):
What a, you know, little. Yeah, skylight they get, but
there was a tower with a guard and a gun, so the guard started
shooting at them, fired a couplewarning shots and they they
surrendered immediately. OK, like this isn't.
There's just no way this is gonna.
You didn't. Think there'd be a guard up
there? Yeah, I know.
I. But.
(10:35):
We are in the most like one of the most maximum security
prisons at this. We didn't have electronics, but
we definitely still have guns. Oh yeah, yeah.
So then he was transferred to supermax prison ADX Florence in
Colorado. So that's where he kind of
stayed then in he kept quiet forabout 8 years.
(10:58):
In 2003, Jimmy said he came out and said that someone other than
Harrelson had shot Judge Wood. So he was saying the guy that
had hired him was saying I lied.It wasn't, it wasn't Harrelson
who shot him. Well, at this time he had kind
of reconnected with his sons andWoody Harrelson was famous.
(11:22):
So Woody did attempt to actuallyhave his father's conviction
overturned in 2003, but was not successful at securing a new
trial. And then Jimmy ended up dying in
prison of cancer in 2008. On March 15th, 2007, Harrelson
was found dead in his cell at 68.
(11:43):
He had a heart attack. The other things I found cut.
So that's kind of the end of like the judge.
It wasn't super. It was it was pretty much he was
just a contract killer who, Yeah, we never heard about,
like, who actually suspected to have killed the judge from
Jimmy. But in 1982, Harrelson told
(12:06):
Dallas TV station Quote. Do you believe that, Lee?
Oh, OK. I'm sorry, I should preface
this. Harrelson came out and tried to
take credit for the assassination of John F Kennedy.
What? Yeah, he came out and tried to
say that he was part of it. And like after JFK got shot,
(12:32):
there was three men that were taken in called the Three
tramps. OK.
And he is saying that like there's like a picture of him
and he's saying that's his picture.
And like he he did this, he killed JFK and all this stuff.
Well, then when he was in prisonand he was asked about it, he
(12:53):
said, quote, do you believe thatLee Harvey Oswald killed
President Kennedy alone without any aid from a rogue agency of
the US government or at least a portion of that agency?
I believe you are very naive if you do.
That he killed him alone. No, Yeah, he's.
So then Harrelson was like, OK, yeah, no, I didn't kill him.
(13:15):
But if you guys think Lee HarveyOswald did, you're insane.
Which is if you think that Lee Harvey Oswald did without the
help of, like, some, I mean, OK,like the CIA going bad and
helping or some other governmentagency that has a ton of power.
Basically, Harrelson is saying, like, I've been in this world, I
(13:39):
know how contract killing works.This isn't this isn't something
that Lee Harvey Oswald did by himself.
Which what they've released so far, Tulsi Gabbard, the director
of National Intelligence, what what she's released so far on
what is it whitehouse.gov like slash, JFK or whatever files,
(13:59):
the files they've released, doesn't it implicate the CIA?
There's no hole like I mean, youcan go down this rabbit hole of
JFK and then down another rabbithole of like the Kennedys
themselves and then to another rabbit hole of like 911, you
(14:19):
know, like all these conspiracy.But there is a lot of
documentation now coming out that I mean.
That the government killed JFK, basically, right?
Yeah. Like JFK says that he's going
to, you know, like sink this cruise ship and then doesn't
(14:40):
takes his, takes it back the next day and ends up fucking
assassinated like. Right, right.
Oh yeah, 'cause Cuba was implicated in that as well,
correct? Yeah, they, they wanted us
pretty much. It would have started the a war.
And JFK was like, I'm not doing that.
And at first he said yes. And then he changed his mind the
next day. And then bullet to the head.
(15:02):
Right. Great.
So I thought that was pretty interesting that he was like,
OK, it wasn't me. It was because then they were
asked like, why did you claim that you did all of this if now
you're claiming your innocence? And he was like, well, I was
just trying to extend my life because he was afraid that they
were going to shoot him when they captured him.
OK. So I think part of the craziness
(15:24):
was a facade. Also, I'd I'm for anyone who's
not familiar, there is some rumblings about maybe Woody
Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey being brothers.
I think maybe I've heard that. They I know that Woody and Woody
(15:44):
Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have both talked
about maybe doing a paternity test, but from what I could
find, it wasn't if they did wantit, the results were never
shared publicly. OK, but they're from the same
place. They're about the same age.
Matthew Mcconaughey's mother hung out with Charles Harrelson.
OK. So that because I mean they talk
(16:06):
similar, but if they're from thesame area, well and.
If they are brothers, they wouldn't have ever grown up with
each other because Woody Harrelson's dad, Charles
Harrison, took off when they were little.
Right. So when did Woody Harrelson
connect with his dad? So he did.
He started going to see him whenhe was in prison after the
(16:30):
murder of of judge. Yeah.
So Woody Harrelson said, you know, he went and visited him
frequently, but he had a lot of mixed feelings about it sounds
like after, after in his, you know, older age.
He died at 68, so not that old, but he had really slowed down
and just wasn't interested in that life anymore.
(16:52):
So he was more open to talking about it.
And I will leave you with a quote from Woody.
He said my father is one of the most articulate, well read,
charming people I've ever known.Still, I'm just now gauging
whether he merits my loyalty or friendship.
I look at him as someone who could be a friend more than
someone who was a father, which honestly makes me so sad.
(17:14):
Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine ifyou finally learn who your
father is and that's who it is. And whether he murdered Judge
Wood or not, he's still a murderer, you know?
No, he definitely killed a lot of people and he was a almost
like the worst kind, like just acontract killer, like right.
(17:37):
There's no reason. It's just money just for money.
I mean, not not that there is any good excuse for murder, but
like, other than self-defense. But if you were to put it into
tears, that yeah, no. It's a pretty like low reason to
murder. And I don't know, you know what?
He obviously went on to be incredibly successful in his
(18:00):
acting career. He acts in No Country for Old
Men, which is an amazing movie. It's a great movie.
And it's actually, it's based off of a book.
And in the book, they reference the murder of the federal judge.
Really, I'm going to have to read that because I love the
movie. I love him in Zombie Land and
(18:21):
then he's a dad. He's a dad in Sandlot.
So it's like, oh, like I feel like I kind of grew up with
Woody Harrell. I.
Know. He's so lovable.
Oh, and he's had such good roles, like No Country film that
was one of the best movies ever made.
Yeah, my opinion. I think in most people's
opinion. It's yeah, that's a good one.
He played in the movie 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing,
(18:42):
Missouri. His character was Chief Bill
Willoughby. I should watch that movie.
I don't want to say too much, but it's Woody Harrelson's
character in that. Yeah.
Is. Does some some pretty I mean,
he's a he's a wonderful character.
He's a good guy, but. Yeah.
There were some things in that movie that when they happened, I
(19:03):
was like, I was not expecting that.
So, you know, I was trying to dosome research and Charles
Harrelson and stuff, and I have a hard time believing anyone
that's going to traffic drugs isn't also going to do drugs.
So there's some reports of like when he was, you know, freaking
out and he was in a six hour standoff with police after the
(19:24):
judge assassination and he was allegedly like super high on
cocaine at the time. And that's when he was like, I'm
going to kill myself. I also killed Judge Wood and
President JFK. So do you.
Do you think he killed Judge Wood then?
I don't. I don't because he he had a
quote that said he did an interview on TV after his arrest
(19:48):
and said at the time, at the same time I said I had killed
the judge. I had said I said I had killed
Kennedy, which might give you anidea to the state of my mind at
the time. He said that this he said that
the statements made during the standoff were an effort to
elongate his life. Which I do know a lot of people
(20:09):
do that they will pretend like they have valuable information
to, to put something off sentencing, whatever it may be.
You know, you make yourself a more valuable inmate or more
valuable criminal, whatever. And you're you're able to
negotiate certain things. So if you pretend like you have
information that you don't have,you kind of get some benefit out
(20:31):
of it. And if you use high, you know I
mean. Yeah.
And then like. That's kind of outrageous,
honestly. Like I killed Jake.
I know it's insane. So then there was also like,
some testimony at his trial thatsaid that he drew out a map
(20:53):
showing where he was hiding during Kennedy's assassination
and how he did all this. But the FBI says they've
discounted any involvement. So I don't know.
It feels like he was like there's he's already in prison.
He already was convicted of thatcrime.
He's not getting out. It just feels like a weird thing
(21:14):
to suddenly like change your mind about like if unless it
was. Yeah, and I mean, I guess I
can't. He did kill, so I can't feel bad
if he's in for killing somebody he didn't kill because he still
killed other people so. Yeah, he totally deserved to be
in prison for life. Yeah, yeah.
It's interesting though, how that?
(21:35):
Yeah, there's like speculation that.
So Jim Marrs wrote a in 1989, wrote a book called Crossfire.
And some theorists believe that he in that book there's like a
picture of these three men walking after JF KS
assassination and some are claiming that he would he was
(21:56):
one of them. They called him the three
tramps. There was some involvement with
that, but it was hard to know because Harrison was like very
involved with criminals, connected to like the FBI, the
CIA, the military. In the Mafia, right?
That's why. He killed, I mean, he like he
(22:17):
was into the drugs. Organized crime was a big part
of of his thing. There was a forensic artist who
said that they matched the photograph of Harrelson to the
youngest looking of the three tramps.
And then that was when Charles Harrison came out and was like,
do you think only one person didthis?
(22:39):
You are an idiot, right? Basically, you said there's no
way this could have been done without the help of a agency.
That makes sense. OK, so that's all we got on the
murder of John H Wood Junior, allegedly committed by Charles
Harrelson. Awesome.
Thank you for sharing this. I, I had never heard anything
(23:00):
about it. So that was very interesting
and. New for me too, so yeah.
New new thing about Woody Harrelson that I didn't know.
I know this guy that we like grow up with watching in movies,
and then all of a sudden it's like, hey, did you know?
Yeah. Also, was a murderer right?
That's wild. And I, I did not even know that
he had a brother that was an actor either.
(23:21):
So. All right.
Well, thanks everyone for listening.
Do you have any ideas on what you're going to cover next
month? No, it'll be a game time
decision. All right, well, if anyone has
any suggestions in the next couple of weeks, let us know.
Otherwise, Elizabeth will find something on her own.
Yeah, otherwise it'll be a surprise.
(23:42):
All right, cool. Awesome.
Thank you so much. Bye.
All right, guys, I'm here with Elizabeth with another episode
of Political Retrograde. What are you covering today?
Hi guys. So today we are going to be
covering Charles Harrelson or for anyone who's not familiar
with who that is, it is the father of Woody and Brett
Harrelson, the actors. What do you You'll probably know
him the most from Now You See MeOne and Two, Hunger Games,
(00:34):
Cheers, No Country for Old Men, and then his most recent movie
is Last Breath. OK.
Brett, his brother, has had his career really kind of stopped in
the 90s, but I think people would know him from like Dante's
View, Inferno and Sun Chaser. I've not seen any three of those
movies, but I've heard of Dante's View before.
So yeah, let's just get into it.So Charles Harrelson, he had
(00:59):
several wives throughout his time.
He in 1968 left his family didn't have any contact.
Woody didn't know him growing up.
Brett didn't know him growing up.
His their mother was left to raise him alone and that was in
1968. So they didn't know where he was
until 1981 when the news of the that Woody Harrelson's father
(01:22):
Charles had murdered a federal judge broke.
Charles Harrelson was an American contract killer.
He has alleged that he has killed upwards of 50 people, but
those close to him say that it was probably closer to five or
six. However, he was known to be
involved with a lot of really dangerous entities, mafias,
(01:43):
cartels, things like that. So he could have been involved
in a lot of deaths that it sounds like maybe it was more
than he actually did. So the federal judge was
ironically John H Wood Junior. So Judge Wood.
And he was the first federal judge to be assassinated in the
(02:04):
20th century. So Charles Harrelson was born
July 23rd in 1938 in lovely Texas.
First he married Nancy Hillman, they separated, and then he
married Diane Lou Oswald, which is who he had Woody and Brett
with. And then he also eventually
(02:24):
married Joanne and Gina Adele Foster.
So his day job was he was an encyclopedia salesman in
California as well as a professional gambler.
So he's a pretty interesting guy.
Yeah. He had been picked up and
charged for a lot of different things, you know, like
(02:46):
misdemeanor crimes, things like that.
Well, he got picked up and was charged for the murder of Allen
Harry Berg in 1970. So he, he allegedly murdered him
in 1968, was charged in 1970, and he stood trial for that in
Angleton, TX on September 22nd. And he was actually acquitted of
(03:10):
that murder. And then in 1960, like I said,
he had been convicted in 1960 ofarmed robbery.
And he says that most of his crime started in the, but I
don't know, he was just this encyclopedia salesman for that.
Yeah. OK, so starting from the
beginning, he was tried for the 1968 murder for hire killing of
(03:31):
Sam de Gallia Junior. This was a grain dealer in
business with his best friend Pete Thomas Schemardo.
However, Schemardo was trafficking heroin with Charles
Harrelson. It was also found out later that
Schemardo was deeply in debt andwanted de Gallia out of the way
(03:55):
so he could collect his life insurance policy on him.
He was also a resident of Hurrying, Texas.
Harrelson was paid $2000 for themurder.
That would be a probably about 18 to $20,000 in today's money.
So good amount of money. Yeah.
And this guy that he murdered was just his.
(04:18):
He was a grain dealer that was friends went into business with
his friend. His friend put out a hit on him
and ended up killing, shooting and killing him.
He was a father of four as well.So he was just kind of a family
man doing his thing. Got caught up with with
Harrelson. His first trial that he went
(04:39):
ended in a deadlocked jury. Pete was tried and was also
tried in the case and he was found guilty of being an
accomplice to murder and sentenced to seven years
probation. Harrelson was retried in 1973,
was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(04:59):
In 1978, after serving five years, he was released for good
behavior. OK, so now it's 1978.
He's been convicted of at least one murder, he's been acquitted
of 1 murder, and he has been charged with armed robbery and
several other crimes. So after his 1978 release, this
is when he married Joanne. So Woody and Brett are off in
(05:24):
California with their mom Diane.They don't know.
They don't know about their dad.So this is what he during that
time. OK.
So after he married Joanne on May 29th, 1979, AUS District
Judge John H Wood Junior was shot in a parking lot of his
townhouse in San Antonio, TX. Harrison was hired by the drug
(05:47):
dealer Jameel, also known known as Jimmy Chagra.
Judge Woods was noted to be really hard on the on crimes and
the people that were convicted of his crime.
So he got the nickname Maximum John because he almost always
handed down the maximum sentencefor drug offenses.
(06:10):
So this is specifically why the mafia wanted him to be killed is
because the people that were being caught were being
sentenced to ridiculous sentences.
And well, not ridiculous, completely warranted sentences,
but it didn't give them the opportunity to like, get back
into the game after they did their time.
Right, right. So on the day of his murder,
(06:32):
that was supposed to be the day that Jimmy appeared in front of
the judge for trial. However, that trial was delayed.
So he was caught because of an anonymous call came in saying
that Harrelson was firing a gun at imaginary FBI agent while on
drugs. So no way.
(06:56):
Like who called this in? What's going?
On we don't know, like how? How do you know that they're
imagined like? I don't know, I don't I could
not find. And especially like in this
time, you know, it's it's kind like just about to be 1980 and
you're like. Yeah.
No one's tracking phone numbers,you know, So, so that call came
(07:18):
in. There was also an anonymous tape
recording during a prison visit between Jimmy, the guy who hired
the, and his brother Joe, who they were partners in drug
trafficking. OK, so Jimmy and Joe had a
conversation in prison and it was taped without them knowing.
So all of these pieces led to identifying who did it.
(07:39):
Later, Harrelson will eventuallyclaim that he didn't kill the
judge, but took credit for it toget a big payment from Jimmy.
So Harrelson was tried and convicted for the murder of
Judge Wood. He was sentenced to two life
terms, which was based pretty much entirely on the recording
between Jimmy and Joe. Harrelson and Joe were both
(08:01):
implicated in the assassination,but Joe only received a 10 year
sentence as part of a plea bargain to explain what
happened, but also not give up Jimmy.
So Joe was able to say what happened, implicate Harrelson,
and then him and Jimmy got off, not Scott free, but they got off
(08:23):
on a much lighter sentence. Yeah.
Did you say he was? He was sentenced to life
sentences. Yeah.
What? Why 2?
Two life terms. Or yeah, two life terms.
Yeah. But one person was murdered,
right? Yeah, but I.
I mean, I guess you can do. Yeah, this, I don't know if it
(08:46):
was just because there's a federal judge.
It was also the 80s, seventies. So, yeah, I'm not sure.
OK, so then Jimmy was acquitted of the murder.
So Jimmy, I found this little thing interesting.
Jimmy's defense attorney at the time was a public defender named
(09:06):
Oscar Goodman, who later went onto become the mayor of Las
Vegas. Yeah.
Interesting. Isn't that weird?
A public defence mayor of Sin City.
Yeah. So in Jimmy's plea bargain, he
admitted that his role in the judge's assassination was to to
help Harrelson basically just shoot the judge.
(09:29):
So he was, he admitted to attempted assassination.
And Harrelson's wife, Joanne, was also sentenced to
consecutive terms totalling 25 years on multiple convictions of
conspiracy and perjury related to the assassinate
assassination. Oh.
Really. Joanne's a little sketch.
A little, yeah. And definitely, you know, lied
(09:51):
on stand and covered. Well, tried to cover for.
Yeah. So on July 4th, 1995, Harrelson
and two other inmates are in theAtlanta Federal Penitentiary.
Harrelson and two other inmates attempted to escape from prison
at this time. They made a makeshift rope, and
they swung it out their cell window or wherever they were at.
(10:14):
What a, you know, little. Yeah, skylight they get, but
there was a tower with a guard and a gun, so the guard started
shooting at them, fired a couplewarning shots and they they
surrendered immediately. OK, like this isn't.
There's just no way this is gonna.
You didn't. Think there'd be a guard up
there? Yeah, I know.
I. But.
(10:35):
We are in the most like one of the most maximum security
prisons at this. We didn't have electronics, but
we definitely still have guns. Oh yeah, yeah.
So then he was transferred to supermax prison ADX Florence in
Colorado. So that's where he kind of
stayed then in he kept quiet forabout 8 years.
(10:58):
In 2003, Jimmy said he came out and said that someone other than
Harrelson had shot Judge Wood. So he was saying the guy that
had hired him was saying I lied.It wasn't, it wasn't Harrelson
who shot him. Well, at this time he had kind
of reconnected with his sons andWoody Harrelson was famous.
(11:22):
So Woody did attempt to actuallyhave his father's conviction
overturned in 2003, but was not successful at securing a new
trial. And then Jimmy ended up dying in
prison of cancer in 2008. On March 15th, 2007, Harrelson
was found dead in his cell at 68.
(11:43):
He had a heart attack. The other things I found cut.
So that's kind of the end of like the judge.
It wasn't super. It was it was pretty much he was
just a contract killer who, Yeah, we never heard about,
like, who actually suspected to have killed the judge from
Jimmy. But in 1982, Harrelson told
(12:06):
Dallas TV station Quote. Do you believe that, Lee?
Oh, OK. I'm sorry, I should preface
this. Harrelson came out and tried to
take credit for the assassination of John F Kennedy.
What? Yeah, he came out and tried to
say that he was part of it. And like after JFK got shot,
(12:32):
there was three men that were taken in called the Three
tramps. OK.
And he is saying that like there's like a picture of him
and he's saying that's his picture.
And like he he did this, he killed JFK and all this stuff.
Well, then when he was in prisonand he was asked about it, he
(12:53):
said, quote, do you believe thatLee Harvey Oswald killed
President Kennedy alone without any aid from a rogue agency of
the US government or at least a portion of that agency?
I believe you are very naive if you do.
That he killed him alone. No, Yeah, he's.
So then Harrelson was like, OK, yeah, no, I didn't kill him.
(13:15):
But if you guys think Lee HarveyOswald did, you're insane.
Which is if you think that Lee Harvey Oswald did without the
help of, like, some, I mean, OK,like the CIA going bad and
helping or some other governmentagency that has a ton of power.
Basically, Harrelson is saying, like, I've been in this world, I
(13:39):
know how contract killing works.This isn't this isn't something
that Lee Harvey Oswald did by himself.
Which what they've released so far, Tulsi Gabbard, the director
of National Intelligence, what what she's released so far on
what is it whitehouse.gov like slash, JFK or whatever files,
(13:59):
the files they've released, doesn't it implicate the CIA?
There's no hole like I mean, youcan go down this rabbit hole of
JFK and then down another rabbithole of like the Kennedys
themselves and then to another rabbit hole of like 911, you
(14:19):
know, like all these conspiracy.But there is a lot of
documentation now coming out that I mean.
That the government killed JFK, basically, right?
Yeah. Like JFK says that he's going
to, you know, like sink this cruise ship and then doesn't
(14:40):
takes his, takes it back the next day and ends up fucking
assassinated like. Right, right.
Oh yeah, 'cause Cuba was implicated in that as well,
correct? Yeah, they, they wanted us
pretty much. It would have started the a war.
And JFK was like, I'm not doing that.
And at first he said yes. And then he changed his mind the
next day. And then bullet to the head.
(15:02):
Right. Great.
So I thought that was pretty interesting that he was like,
OK, it wasn't me. It was because then they were
asked like, why did you claim that you did all of this if now
you're claiming your innocence? And he was like, well, I was
just trying to extend my life because he was afraid that they
were going to shoot him when they captured him.
OK. So I think part of the craziness
(15:24):
was a facade. Also, I'd I'm for anyone who's
not familiar, there is some rumblings about maybe Woody
Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey being brothers.
I think maybe I've heard that. They I know that Woody and Woody
(15:44):
Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have both talked
about maybe doing a paternity test, but from what I could
find, it wasn't if they did wantit, the results were never
shared publicly. OK, but they're from the same
place. They're about the same age.
Matthew Mcconaughey's mother hung out with Charles Harrelson.
OK. So that because I mean they talk
(16:06):
similar, but if they're from thesame area, well and.
If they are brothers, they wouldn't have ever grown up with
each other because Woody Harrelson's dad, Charles
Harrison, took off when they were little.
Right. So when did Woody Harrelson
connect with his dad? So he did.
He started going to see him whenhe was in prison after the
(16:30):
murder of of judge. Yeah.
So Woody Harrelson said, you know, he went and visited him
frequently, but he had a lot of mixed feelings about it sounds
like after, after in his, you know, older age.
He died at 68, so not that old, but he had really slowed down
and just wasn't interested in that life anymore.
(16:52):
So he was more open to talking about it.
And I will leave you with a quote from Woody.
He said my father is one of the most articulate, well read,
charming people I've ever known.Still, I'm just now gauging
whether he merits my loyalty or friendship.
I look at him as someone who could be a friend more than
someone who was a father, which honestly makes me so sad.
(17:14):
Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine ifyou finally learn who your
father is and that's who it is. And whether he murdered Judge
Wood or not, he's still a murderer, you know?
No, he definitely killed a lot of people and he was a almost
like the worst kind, like just acontract killer, like right.
(17:37):
There's no reason. It's just money just for money.
I mean, not not that there is any good excuse for murder, but
like, other than self-defense. But if you were to put it into
tears, that yeah, no. It's a pretty like low reason to
murder. And I don't know, you know what?
He obviously went on to be incredibly successful in his
(18:00):
acting career. He acts in No Country for Old
Men, which is an amazing movie. It's a great movie.
And it's actually, it's based off of a book.
And in the book, they reference the murder of the federal judge.
Really, I'm going to have to read that because I love the
movie. I love him in Zombie Land and
(18:21):
then he's a dad. He's a dad in Sandlot.
So it's like, oh, like I feel like I kind of grew up with
Woody Harrell. I.
Know. He's so lovable.
Oh, and he's had such good roles, like No Country film that
was one of the best movies ever made.
Yeah, my opinion. I think in most people's
opinion. It's yeah, that's a good one.
He played in the movie 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing,
(18:42):
Missouri. His character was Chief Bill
Willoughby. I should watch that movie.
I don't want to say too much, but it's Woody Harrelson's
character in that. Yeah.
Is. Does some some pretty I mean,
he's a he's a wonderful character.
He's a good guy, but. Yeah.
There were some things in that movie that when they happened, I
(19:03):
was like, I was not expecting that.
So, you know, I was trying to dosome research and Charles
Harrelson and stuff, and I have a hard time believing anyone
that's going to traffic drugs isn't also going to do drugs.
So there's some reports of like when he was, you know, freaking
out and he was in a six hour standoff with police after the
(19:24):
judge assassination and he was allegedly like super high on
cocaine at the time. And that's when he was like, I'm
going to kill myself. I also killed Judge Wood and
President JFK. So do you.
Do you think he killed Judge Wood then?
I don't. I don't because he he had a
quote that said he did an interview on TV after his arrest
(19:48):
and said at the time, at the same time I said I had killed
the judge. I had said I said I had killed
Kennedy, which might give you anidea to the state of my mind at
the time. He said that this he said that
the statements made during the standoff were an effort to
elongate his life. Which I do know a lot of people
(20:09):
do that they will pretend like they have valuable information
to, to put something off sentencing, whatever it may be.
You know, you make yourself a more valuable inmate or more
valuable criminal, whatever. And you're you're able to
negotiate certain things. So if you pretend like you have
information that you don't have,you kind of get some benefit out
(20:31):
of it. And if you use high, you know I
mean. Yeah.
And then like. That's kind of outrageous,
honestly. Like I killed Jake.
I know it's insane. So then there was also like,
some testimony at his trial thatsaid that he drew out a map
(20:53):
showing where he was hiding during Kennedy's assassination
and how he did all this. But the FBI says they've
discounted any involvement. So I don't know.
It feels like he was like there's he's already in prison.
He already was convicted of thatcrime.
He's not getting out. It just feels like a weird thing
(21:14):
to suddenly like change your mind about like if unless it
was. Yeah, and I mean, I guess I
can't. He did kill, so I can't feel bad
if he's in for killing somebody he didn't kill because he still
killed other people so. Yeah, he totally deserved to be
in prison for life. Yeah, yeah.
It's interesting though, how that?
(21:35):
Yeah, there's like speculation that.
So Jim Marrs wrote a in 1989, wrote a book called Crossfire.
And some theorists believe that he in that book there's like a
picture of these three men walking after JF KS
assassination and some are claiming that he would he was
(21:56):
one of them. They called him the three
tramps. There was some involvement with
that, but it was hard to know because Harrison was like very
involved with criminals, connected to like the FBI, the
CIA, the military. In the Mafia, right?
That's why. He killed, I mean, he like he
(22:17):
was into the drugs. Organized crime was a big part
of of his thing. There was a forensic artist who
said that they matched the photograph of Harrelson to the
youngest looking of the three tramps.
And then that was when Charles Harrison came out and was like,
do you think only one person didthis?
(22:39):
You are an idiot, right? Basically, you said there's no
way this could have been done without the help of a agency.
That makes sense. OK, so that's all we got on the
murder of John H Wood Junior, allegedly committed by Charles
Harrelson. Awesome.
Thank you for sharing this. I, I had never heard anything
(23:00):
about it. So that was very interesting
and. New for me too, so yeah.
New new thing about Woody Harrelson that I didn't know.
I know this guy that we like grow up with watching in movies,
and then all of a sudden it's like, hey, did you know?
Yeah. Also, was a murderer right?
That's wild. And I, I did not even know that
he had a brother that was an actor either.
(23:21):
So. All right.
Well, thanks everyone for listening.
Do you have any ideas on what you're going to cover next
month? No, it'll be a game time
decision. All right, well, if anyone has
any suggestions in the next couple of weeks, let us know.
Otherwise, Elizabeth will find something on her own.
Yeah, otherwise it'll be a surprise.
(23:42):
All right, cool. Awesome.
Thank you so much. Bye.
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