His dad was a famous murderer,,violent family background. Amazing how this nobody gets so much attention.
Charles Voyde Harrelson (July 23, 1938 – March 15, 2007) was an American freelance hitman connected with organized crime and was convicted of assassinating a federal judge. He was actor Woody Harrelson’s father.
Harrelson was sentenced to two life terms for the May 29, 1979, assassination of U.S. District Judge John H. Wood, Jr. Harrelson was convicted of shooting and killing Wood in the parking lot outside of Wood’s San Antonio, Texas, townhouse after being hired by drug dealer Jamiel Chagra of El Paso. Wood — nicknamed “Maximum John” because of his reputation for handing down long sentences for drug offenses — was originally scheduled to have Chagra appear before him on the day of his murder, but the trial had been delayed.
This incident is mentioned in Cormac McCarthy’s book No Country for Old Men. In the film for the book Charles Harrelson’s son, Woody Harrelson, plays one of the contract killers.
Prior to the Wood murder, Harrelson was tried for the 1968 murder for hire killing of Hearne, Texas grain dealer Sam Degelia Jr in McAllen, Texas. Harrelson committed a murder for hire of Sam Degelia on July 6, 1968. On November 19th, 1968, Harrelson was arrested in Atlanta, GA in possession of a car, which had been reported stolen on November 15th, 1968. Harrelson’s attorney was Percy Foreman, who had been counsel for convicted Martin Luther King assassin James Earl Ray. Foreman produced a surprise witness: a nightclub singer who claimed that she had been with Harrelson at the time of the murder. The trial ended in a hung jury: 11 for conviction, one for acquittal.
Harrelson was retried in 1974 in Brownsville, Texas. Texas Ranger Jack Dean, the lead investigator on the Degelia case, was in the courtroom with a perjury arrest warrant for the nightclub singer, but she had learned of it and fled to Aruba. Without the help of her testimony, Harrelson was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison. With time off for good behavior, he was free in five years.
After attempting to escape from the Atlanta federal penitentiary in 1996, Harrelson was transferred to Supermax prison ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado. He was found unresponsive in his cell on March 15, 2007, having apparently died of natural causes. Woody Harrelson had attempted to have his father’s conviction overturned and secure a new trial, to no avail.
“Woody Harrelson’s Father Dies in Prison”