Posted 3/22/2007 10:19:00 PM by Douglas

Who knew that "good old Woody" on Cheers had a father with such a checkered past. Forget checkers, this guy was into some heavy duty chess.

Charles Voyde Harrelson, the hired assassin of a San Antonio federal judge, professional gambler and father of actor Woody Harrelson, died last week in the maximum-security cell where he was serving two life sentences.

The hitman was 69 when he died March 14 of a heart attack in the Colorado federal prison known as Supermax. His cremated remains now await pickup at a Colorado mortuary.

Harrelson had reportedly claimed a dozen contract killings by 1982 when he was convicted of firing the sniper's bullet that killed U.S. District Judge John H. Wood outside his San Antonio townhome.

"Anyone whose life he touched suffered from it," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Jahn, one of the federal prosecutors who convicted Harrelson in the local federal courthouse that by the time of trial already bore the name of the slain judge.

How weird is that? You just can't make this stuff up.