Dirty Dealing, Gary Cartwright
Dirty Dealing, Gary Cartwright
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
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Dirty Dealing
Drug Smuggling on the Mexican Border and the Assassination of a Federal Judge

Author: Gary Cartwright

Narrator: J. Rodney Turner

Unabridged: 15 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/24/2020

Synopsis

Minutes into this rollicking good story, the central figure, Lee Chagra, comes alive: "[Lee] washed his morning cocaine down with strong coffee and remembered the time he had met Sinatra, how genuine he appeared." Everything you'll need to know and remember about Chagra—the son of Syrian immigrants to Mexico and an attorney who spun the world of dope-running, border-crossing, high-living outlaws along the El Paso–Juarez border around his finger like the gaudy rings he favored—can be neatly summarized in that one sentence. Chagra dies not long after, yet he haunts the rest of this cautionary tale like a high-rolling specter.

About Gary Cartwright

Gary Cartwright (1934-2017) had a distinguished career as a journalist, author, and magazine writer. His nonfiction titles include Heart Wise Guy, How to Live the Good Life After a Heart Attack, Blood Will Tell, Confessions of a Washed-up Sportswriter, and Galveston: A History of the Island. He cowrote three movie scripts-J. W. Coop; A Pair of Aces; and Pancho, Billy and Esmerelda, which he also coproduced.

After more than three decades as a writer and editor at Texas Monthly, Cartwright retired in August 2010. Cartwright also contributed stories to such national publications as Harper's, Life, and GQ. His awards include a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship and the Stanley Walker Award for Journalism (both awarded by the Texas Institute of Letters) and the Carr Collins Award for Nonfiction. He also won the 1989 Press Club of Dallas Katie Award for Best Magazine News Story, and he was a finalist for a National Magazine Award in 1986 in the category of "Reporting Excellence." Cartwright received his BA in journalism from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Scott

Back in the late 70's as I moved to El Paso and began college, the Chagra brothers, Charles Harrelson and Federal Judge John Wood all dominated the local media for years. Entangled alongside the main cast you have a lengthy list of supporting characters that could make any reader's head spin. Gary C......more

Goodreads review by Audrey Hare

An easy to read account of the rise and fall of the Chagra family in the El Paso legal and drug smuggling communities and the murder of a federal judge. The journalistic style manages to balance an interesting narrative, many scattered characters, and a realistic feeling. Possibly only 3 stars if yo......more

Goodreads review by Barbie

Having known this family well, I appreciate that Gary Cartwright stuck to the truth. Watching this terrible event unfold has been a lifelong painful memory. What happened to this family was shocking. I just read Jamail Chagra's daughter's book about her family. Not very well written, but directly fro......more

Goodreads review by Belle

This book is a little dated, but it was on my husband's bookshelf and I had intended to read it for a number of years. Extremely well written, Gary Cartwright was an excellent writer, right up there with Molly Ivins on the list of great Texas journalists.......more

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