"We were a good family--that's what people forget," Joe Chagra said, "It was the money. You can't know what it does until it happens to you...until everyone is chin-deep in millions of dollars."

Dirty Dealing, a true story, chronicles the rise and fall of the house of Chagra. The Chagra brothers of El Paso were pioneers in smuggling drugs across the Mexican border, and were infamous for their fabulous wealth. But in the end Lee Chagra was gunned down, a federal judge was assassinated, Jimmy and Joe Chagra were imprisoned, and Charles Harrelson (Woody Harrelson's father) was convicted for Wood's murder.

When Federal Judge John "Maximum" Wood was gunned down outside his home in San Antonio, Texas in 1979 (the only assassination of a federal judge in more than 100 years) his death sent waves of shock across the country. The FBI labeled it "the crime of the century." Former President Nixon expressed "outrage," calling for quick arrest and punishment. But the crime's solution would be anything but quick. Dragging on for years and costing $11.4 million, the investigation turned out to bethe largest in recent FBI history, surpassing even that of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Gary Cartwright, senior editor ofTexas Monthly and author of several nonfiction bestsellers, details the full history of the events leading up to this crime and the trials that followed inDirty Dealing. This reprint from Cinco Puntos Press includes a new afterword by the author and black and white photographs of all the players. Complete with shady maneuverings on the part of the federal government and an outcome thatKirkus Reviews has called "straight from Oz,"Dirty Dealing is one of the richest and most fascinating of all true crime stories.