Jack Palladino
Encyclopedia
Jack Palladino is a San Francisco-based private investigator
and attorney
. Born in Boston
, he attended Boston Latin School
and went on to do his undergraduate studies at Cornell. He subsequently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area
to pursue graduate studies at UC Berkeley, first as a Ford Fellow
in political science and then at Berkeley's Boalt Hall
law school.
In the mid 1970s, he founded the private detective agency Palladino & Sutherland with his wife, Sandra Sutherland. Palladino and Sutherland met in 1972 during the course of an undercover investigation into abuses against the inmates of a New York prison on behalf of the Long Island District Attorney. Over a career spanning more than three decades, he has specialized in the preparation for trial of witnesses and evidence in high profile litigation.
Palladino is best known for his work in the Peoples Temple
tragedy, his defense of car maker John DeLorean, and for the Bill Clinton
presidential election committee, the tobacco industry whistleblower
Jeffrey Wigand
, singer Courtney Love
, and musician R. Kelly
.
(SLA).
Palladino spent seven years investigating the Peoples Temple
tragedy, in which more than 900 members of a religious cult died in Guyana in 1979. His interviews with surviving members of the cult and their families is now part of the definitive history of that event.
In 1982, John DeLorean — a former GM executive associated with the development of cars such as the Pontiac GTO — was charged with engaging in a cocaine trafficking deal in order to finance his struggling independent sports car company. Palladino & Sutherland interviewed more than two hundred witnesses in a defense which convinced the jury to acquit DeLorean based on entrapment by government agents.
Palladino is perhaps best known for being hired by the Bill Clinton
presidential election committee to challenge a smear campaign intended to deny Clinton the Democratic nomination. Palladino’s work included discrediting women with whom Clinton supposedly had been intimate, according to Newsweek magazine. The Clinton election committee reportedly paid Palladino over $100,000 over several years to "investigate" two dozen women in a "damage control inquiry."
Michael Isikoff
claimed the Clinton campaign used deception regarding the payments. He says the payouts came from campaign funds, but were listed as legal fees paid to a Denver law firm rather than payments to Palladino. He further claimed that Clinton's chief of staff Betsy Wright later told him the funds were for "controlling Bimbo eruptions"
Palladino also was employed by singer Courtney Love
to challenge journalists writing about allegations of her involvement in the 1994 death of her husband, singer Kurt Cobain
.
When former tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand
began cooperating with 60 Minutes
on insider revelations of tobacco company manipulations designed to increase smoker addiction, the industry launched a million dollar public relations campaign to discredit him. Palladino engaged in a counter-investigation that turned the spotlight onto this smear campaign and preserved Wigand’s credibility as an expert witness in a lawsuit that subsequently resulted in a more than two hundred billion dollar settlement, in the first successful litigation against Big Tobacco. This effort is chronicled in Marie Brenner
’s May 1996 Vanity Fair
article “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and in the 1999 Michael Mann film The Insider
in which Palladino plays himself, and actress Megan Odebash played Sandra Sutherland.
In 2002, singer, songwriter, and record producer R. Kelly
was charged with videotaping himself having sex with an underage teenage girl. An investigation by Palladino that lasted six years culminated in Palladino’s testimony at trial challenging the principal prosecution witness, and the acquittal of Kelly in less than a day.
In April 2009, Australian businessman Peter Holmes à Court
admitted in the NSW Supreme Court that the Hollywood actor Russell Crowe
had hired Palladino & Sutherland to investigate opposition to the planned takeover of the South Sydney Rabbitohs
. Crowe had first gotten to know Palladino and his Australian wife and partner, Sandra Sutherland, when all three worked on the film The Insider
.
Note: Palladino is often confused with Anthony Pellicano
, a Los Angeles-based private investigator
whose client list is similarly composed of celebrities.
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
and attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. Born in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, he attended Boston Latin School
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States....
and went on to do his undergraduate studies at Cornell. He subsequently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
to pursue graduate studies at UC Berkeley, first as a Ford Fellow
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
in political science and then at Berkeley's Boalt Hall
UC Berkeley School of Law
The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, commonly referred to as Berkeley Law and Boalt Hall, is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley Law is consistently regarded as an elite and prestigious law school...
law school.
In the mid 1970s, he founded the private detective agency Palladino & Sutherland with his wife, Sandra Sutherland. Palladino and Sutherland met in 1972 during the course of an undercover investigation into abuses against the inmates of a New York prison on behalf of the Long Island District Attorney. Over a career spanning more than three decades, he has specialized in the preparation for trial of witnesses and evidence in high profile litigation.
Palladino is best known for his work in the Peoples Temple
Peoples Temple
Peoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, included over a dozen locations in California including its headquarters in San Francisco...
tragedy, his defense of car maker John DeLorean, and for the Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
presidential election committee, the tobacco industry whistleblower
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
Jeffrey Wigand
Jeffrey Wigand
Jeffrey S. Wigand is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the development of reduced-harm cigarettes...
, singer Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
, and musician R. Kelly
R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly , better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. A native of Chicago, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play...
.
Career
While still in law school (at UC Berkeley), he was hired by the family of Patty Hearst to assist in the matter of her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation ArmySymbionese Liberation Army
The Symbionese Liberation Army was an American self-styled left-wing urban militant group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army...
(SLA).
Palladino spent seven years investigating the Peoples Temple
Peoples Temple
Peoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, included over a dozen locations in California including its headquarters in San Francisco...
tragedy, in which more than 900 members of a religious cult died in Guyana in 1979. His interviews with surviving members of the cult and their families is now part of the definitive history of that event.
In 1982, John DeLorean — a former GM executive associated with the development of cars such as the Pontiac GTO — was charged with engaging in a cocaine trafficking deal in order to finance his struggling independent sports car company. Palladino & Sutherland interviewed more than two hundred witnesses in a defense which convinced the jury to acquit DeLorean based on entrapment by government agents.
Palladino is perhaps best known for being hired by the Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
presidential election committee to challenge a smear campaign intended to deny Clinton the Democratic nomination. Palladino’s work included discrediting women with whom Clinton supposedly had been intimate, according to Newsweek magazine. The Clinton election committee reportedly paid Palladino over $100,000 over several years to "investigate" two dozen women in a "damage control inquiry."
Michael Isikoff
Michael Isikoff
Michael Isikoff is an investigative journalist for NBC News, formerly with the United States magazine Newsweek. He joined Newsweek as an investigative correspondent in June, 1994, and has written extensively on the U.S...
claimed the Clinton campaign used deception regarding the payments. He says the payouts came from campaign funds, but were listed as legal fees paid to a Denver law firm rather than payments to Palladino. He further claimed that Clinton's chief of staff Betsy Wright later told him the funds were for "controlling Bimbo eruptions"
Palladino also was employed by singer Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
to challenge journalists writing about allegations of her involvement in the 1994 death of her husband, singer Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
.
When former tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand
Jeffrey Wigand
Jeffrey S. Wigand is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the development of reduced-harm cigarettes...
began cooperating with 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
on insider revelations of tobacco company manipulations designed to increase smoker addiction, the industry launched a million dollar public relations campaign to discredit him. Palladino engaged in a counter-investigation that turned the spotlight onto this smear campaign and preserved Wigand’s credibility as an expert witness in a lawsuit that subsequently resulted in a more than two hundred billion dollar settlement, in the first successful litigation against Big Tobacco. This effort is chronicled in Marie Brenner
Marie Brenner
Marie Brenner is an American author, investigative journalist and writer-at-large for Vanity Fair. She has also written for New York, The New Yorker and the Boston Herald and has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism...
’s May 1996 Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
article “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and in the 1999 Michael Mann film The Insider
The Insider (film)
The Insider is a 1999 film based on the true story of a 60 Minutes television series segment, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand. The 60 Minutes story originally aired in November 1995 in an altered form because of objections by CBS’ then-owner, Laurence Tisch, who...
in which Palladino plays himself, and actress Megan Odebash played Sandra Sutherland.
In 2002, singer, songwriter, and record producer R. Kelly
R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly , better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. A native of Chicago, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play...
was charged with videotaping himself having sex with an underage teenage girl. An investigation by Palladino that lasted six years culminated in Palladino’s testimony at trial challenging the principal prosecution witness, and the acquittal of Kelly in less than a day.
In April 2009, Australian businessman Peter Holmes à Court
Peter Holmes à Court
Peter Holmes à Court is an Australian businessman and a joint owner of the National Rugby League team South Sydney Rabbitohs together with Russell Crowe....
admitted in the NSW Supreme Court that the Hollywood actor Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
had hired Palladino & Sutherland to investigate opposition to the planned takeover of the South Sydney Rabbitohs
South Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-central Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the state capital...
. Crowe had first gotten to know Palladino and his Australian wife and partner, Sandra Sutherland, when all three worked on the film The Insider
The Insider (film)
The Insider is a 1999 film based on the true story of a 60 Minutes television series segment, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand. The 60 Minutes story originally aired in November 1995 in an altered form because of objections by CBS’ then-owner, Laurence Tisch, who...
.
Note: Palladino is often confused with Anthony Pellicano
Anthony Pellicano
Anthony Pellicano is a former high-profile Los Angeles private investigator who recently served a sentence of three and a half years in federal prison for illegal possession of explosives, firearms and homemade grenades, and who was arrested on February 4, 2006, on unlawful wiretapping and...
, a Los Angeles-based private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
whose client list is similarly composed of celebrities.
Further reading
- Fiddling Around (February 28, 1998)
- Flowers Feels Vindicated by Report (January 23, 1998)