Woody Harrelson's Dad Was a Texas Hitman Who Claimed to Kill JFK

Father of actor Woody Harrelson, Charles Harrelson put his family in the spotlight in the opposite way of his son, causing scrutiny and plenty of scandals. Versatile, Texas-born actor Woody Harrelson, seen in box office hits like Natural Born Killers, Seven Pounds, and Zombieland along with hit TV shows like True Detective and Cheers, was raised by his single mother, Diane Oswald. Meanwhile, his father was out in the world causing chaos.Show more

His father was the notorious and controversial Charles V. Harrelson, and in case you don’t already know, he was a hitman. Charles Voyde Harrelson was born in Lovelady, Texas in 1938. He left Texas to join the Navy, and shortly after found his way to Los Angeles. This is where he met, married, and had three sons with Diane Lou Oswald, Woody’s mother.

It’s assumed that his contract killer career notches upwards of 20 people for his organized crimes. However, he’s only charged for two of them. Harrelson’s biggest kill was ordered by El Paso drug lord/ kingpin, Jamiel Chagra. Chagra was essentially staring down a life sentence for drug smuggling. He hadn’t gone to court yet, but he was set to appear in front of U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr. in the summer of 1979. The original court date was May 29, 1979, but got rescheduled. However, the judge was found dead near his car at his San Antonio home on that exact date. Chagra paid Harrelson $250,000 to kill U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr. aka “Maximum John.”

Harrelson also killed a Texas grain dealer, Sam Degelia, at the request of his business partner. He was tried for the murder and sentenced 15 years in prison, he walked free 5 later right after that was when he killed Judge Wood. It took the FBI years and grueling $11 million FBI investigation to uncover who-done-it and then find Harrelson.

After his multiple arrests, Harrelson admitted twice to having fired the shot that killed President John F. Kennedy. He later blamed the statement on being high and trying to land big jobs and make money. Conspiracy theorists took his words and ran with it, claiming him to be one of the “three ramps” involved in the JFK 1995 murder.

Woody Harrelson’s dad and he hadn’t crossed paths since he was 7. So, the actor didn’t know about his father’s profession until he happened to hear the news on the radio and inquired to his mother. Well into adulthood, Woody Harrelson made an attempt to befriend his father. He visited him and at one point and spent a couple million in attempts to get his father a retrial. Unfortunately, Woody Harrelson’s father never saw that retrial. He died serving his prison sentence in 2007 of a heart attack. Not before he attempted to escape Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in 1995, which failed and resulted in him being transferred to the Colorado Supermax federal prison, ADX Florence, with the likes of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

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