Overview

Bluegrass Sons is the story of a Kentucky family who through politics and providence, the CIA and a pack of Vegas mobsters, became key figures on both sides of America's ""War on Drugs."" The time and place traverse the years I bore witness to the raunchy, colorful debauchery that was Las Vegas in the 1970s. Key players are my father, Vice President of Caesar's Palace, Dan Chandler, son of Kentucky governor and Major League Baseball Commissioner, A.B. ""Happy"" Chandler, Uncle Bradley Bryant, former marine turned CIA strong man and drug smuggler for Jimmy Chagra, the largest marijuana trafficker America had seen to date. Jimmy Chagra was responsible for ordering the assassination of Texas Federal Judge, John Wood. Charles Harrelson, Woody's dad, was the hitman. Jimmy was the brother of my father's close friend, Lee Chagra, a handsome criminal defense attorney and professional gambler who was tragically murdered sitting at his desk in El Paso. Another imperative figure is Brad's childhood friend and business partner, Andrew Thornton, who ushered him into the Central Intelligence Agency. Drew was an expert paratrooper turned cop, turned lawyer, turned drug trafficker, who met his end when he jumped from a private plane above Knoxville, Tennessee. Attached to his body along with the faulty parachute were knives, guns and a duffel bag holding forty kilos of cocaine. Dan Chandler, Brad Bryant, Drew Thornton, Lee Chagra and Jimmy Chagra moved seamlessly between Philadelphia, El Paso, Vegas and Kentucky, Savannah, Columbia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Fortunes were made and careers were crushed, people went to prison and others died mysterious deaths. When I decided to uncover our complicated family dynamic which set these events in motion, my upbringing proved more precarious than I dreamed. I discovered Uncle Brad was instructed by the CIA to gather information about the Chagra brothers by way of my father. When Daddy and Uncle Brad's unconventional lifestyles intersected none of us would ever be the same.

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Reviews

""It is often said of someone that they come from a 'colorful' family, a description which will seem like a radical overstatement once one has read Erin Chandler's remarkable BLUEGRASS SONS, a memoir populated by gamblers, smugglers, drug dealers, CIA agents, murderers, prostitutes and a cast of characters so far removed from the ""normal"" as to warrant an entirely new definition of that term. No one could have invented a story stranger than Erin Chandler's families, nor filled it with more remarkable characters, and now, gratefully, no one has to."" Michael Blumenthal, Don't Die, All My Mothers and Fathers ""Author Erin Chandler is BRILLIANT! Erin describes the Sinatra / Elvis Las Vegas long before neon flashing billboards and ""all you can eat"" buffets. Bluegrass Sons is a true story with A-list celebs, the Mob, notorious drug traffickers, Susie Creamcheese fashionistas, undercover CIA agents, Derby winners and famous politicians! It is a captivating cliffhanger, reminiscent of a story told by the award-winning fiction crime writer Elmore Leonard! The only difference... Bluegrass Sons isn't fiction!"" Linda Solomon, Photojournalist/ Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, The Queen Next Door

Author Information

Erin Chandler received an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University and Masters in Theatre from the University of Kentucky. She is the author of two previous books and several plays. Chandler's play, June Bug Versus Hurricane was produced at the Lost Studio in Hollywood during her twenty-two years spent in Los Angeles working as an actress in theatre, film and television as well as producing plays and independent film. The memoir of the same name was published in 2017 and her collection of essays, Cinderella Sweeping Up, came in 2019. Erin is the founder and editor of Rabbit House Press, a small publishing company based in Versailles, Kentucky. She currently teaches memoir and playwrighting privately and for the Carnegie Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Erinchandlerauthor.com, Rabbithousepress.com, Bluegrasssonsfilm.com, YouTube Rabbit House Press for interviews, and videos.

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