For the current California politician (Joseph Alioto's grandson), see Joe Alioto Veronese

Joe Alioto Veronese

Joe Alioto Veronese is a member of the San Francisco Police Commission, and is a former Democratic Party candidate for California State Senate including San Francisco, Marin, and Sonoma Counties. He withdrew from the race on March 7, 2008....

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Joseph Lawrence Alioto (February 12, 1916 – January 29, 1998) was the 36th mayor of San Francisco

Mayor of San Francisco

The Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of San Francisco's city and county government. The mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch....

, California, from 1968 to 1976.

Biography

Alioto was born in San Francisco. His father was a Sicilian immigrant who owned and operated several fish processing companies. His mother, Domenica Mae Lazio, was born in San Francisco in 1893. His parents met on a fishing boat while escaping the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

1906 San Francisco earthquake

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...

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Education

Alioto graduated with honors from St. Mary's College in Moraga, California in 1937 and from law school at The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

 with honors,
in Washington, D.C. in 1940.

Law practice

Alioto worked for the Antitrust

Antitrust

The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...

 Division of the Justice Department

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

 and then for the Board of Economic Warfare. He returned to San Francisco after World War II and started an antitrust practice, representing Walt Disney

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

 and Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...

, among others, eventually becoming a millionaire. He argued the Radovich v. National Football League

Radovich v. National Football League

Radovich v. National Football League , , is a 1957 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that professional football, unlike professional baseball, was subject to antitrust laws...

case before the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

, convincing the justices that professional football, unlike baseball, was subject to antitrust laws.

In 1993, he represented his father-in-law Billy Sullivan

Billy Sullivan (American football)

William Hallissey "Billy" Sullivan, Jr. was an American businessman who owned the Boston Patriots franchise from their inception in the American Football League until their sale, as the New England Patriots of the NFL, to Victor Kiam in 1988.-Early life:Sullivan was born in Lowell, Massachusetts...

 in his lawsuit against the NFL. The court ruled that Sullivan was forced by the league to sell his team at below market value and awarded him $114 million. Sullivan eventually settled for $12 million after the NFL appealed.

Political career

Alioto served on the San Francisco Board of Education from 1948 to 1954, and in the 1960s, served as the chair of the city's Redevelopment Agency. Alioto on the death of California State Senator J. Eugene McAteer, went from campaign finance chairman to candidate for mayor. He entered the mayoral race in 1967 when John Shelley

John Shelley

John Francis "Jack" Shelley was a U.S. politician. He served as the 35th mayor of San Francisco, from 1964 to 1968, the first Democrat elected to the office in 50 years, and the first in an unbroken line of Democratic mayors that lasts to the present .Shelley earned a law degree from the...

, the incumbent, bowed out of the race, allegedly because of poor health but probably because Alioto was more pro-development than Shelley (Shelley, whose rival Eugene McAteer was being backed by Alioto, was also expected to lose against a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 opponent, Harold Dobbs, after McAteer collapsed and died while playing a game of handball

American handball

American handball is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against a wall using their hands.- History :...

).

Joseph L. Alioto was inaugurated on January 8, 1968, served a term, and was handily re-elected in 1971. Alioto delivered the speech nominating Hubert Humphrey

Hubert Humphrey

Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...

 at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

1968 Democratic National Convention

The 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968. Because Democratic President Lyndon Johnson had announced he would not seek a second term, the purpose of the convention was to...

. There were rumors that Humphrey would select Alioto as his running mate, but Humphrey selected Edmund Muskie

Edmund Muskie

Edmund Sixtus "Ed" Muskie was an American politician from Rumford, Maine. He served as Governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, as a member of the United States Senate from 1959 to 1980, and as Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981...

. An article in the September 23, 1969 issue of Look

Look (American magazine)

Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...

magazine claimed that Alioto had ties to the Mafioso Aladena Fratianno. Alioto sued the magazine for libel and won a $450,000 judgment. In the course of the litigation, Alioto proved that Look, desperate and on the verge of bankruptcy, simply conjured up (with no proof) an alleged mob meeting in Vacaville, California

Vacaville, California

Vacaville, California is a city located in the northeastern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area in Solano County. The city is nearly half way between Sacramento and San Francisco on I-80. It sits approximately from Sacramento, and from San Francisco...

 at the Nut Tree Restaurant. He later claimed that he had documents that showed that the Nixon administration

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 leaked disinformation

Disinformation

Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...

 to the magazine in order to stall his career.

In January 1970, the State of Washington, three cities, a port authority, and eight public utilities brought civil suit against Alioto. The civil suit came about because he split a $2.3 million fee in an antitrust case with Washington State Attorney General John J. O'Connell

John J. O'Connell

John J. O'Connell was an American law enforcement officer and police inspector with the New York City Police Department...

 and an O’Connell deputy, George Faler. Attorney General O’Connell had maintained Public Utility Districts as private clients during his time as AG. The Public Utility Districts were suing electrical manufactures that were fixing prices at an improperly high level. The case began in 1962 and O’Connell retained Alioto, a very successful anti-trust attorney, to work on the case. Originally, Alioto agreed to receive 15% of what was awarded with a $1 million cap. Later, O’Connell, apparently without telling his clients, abolished the fee ceiling. Alioto ended up receiving approximately $2.3 million and gave $802,815 of those fees to O’Connell and Faler. The state and other groups sued to have the entire $2.3 million returned. The trial took six months and jury unanimously found the three were entitled to the $2.3 million.

Alioto was also indicted by a federal grand jury

Grand jury

A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

 in March 1971 on bribery charges because of the means by which the fees were awarded. When the case went to court, Alioto was cleared of the federal charges by a judge who ordered acquittal because he was convinced a jury would not convict when it considered the evidence.

In 1971, Alioto's wife, Angelina Alioto, vanished, reappearing after 18 days to say that she had taken off to "punish" her husband for neglect. During the time Angelina was missing, she toured the missions of California as part of a religious pilgrimage.

Alioto ran in the 1974 Democratic primary for the governor's office, losing to Bob Moretti

Bob Moretti

Robert Moretti was a Democratic California politician. He served in the California State Assembly from 1965 until 1974. He represented the 42nd district. he served as the Speaker of the Assembly from 1971 until he left office in 1974 when he ran for Governor of California. He died of a heart...

 and Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown

Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...

. Angelina claimed a bad omen for Joe to seek the governorship. Two prior mayors of San Francisco, Washington Bartlett

Washington Bartlett

Washington Montgomery Bartlett was the 20th Mayor of San Francisco, California from 1883–1887 and was California's first and to date only Jewish Governor of California.- Life and career :...

 and James Rolph

James Rolph

James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, Jr. was an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was elected to a single term as the 27th governor of California from January 6, 1931 until his death on June 2, 1934 at the height of the Great Depression...

 were elected governor of California, and died in office.

Alioto's wife, Angelina, filed divorce proceedings against him in 1975. He remarried in 1978.

After he left office, Alioto went back into private practice, but he and his son Joseph Jr. lost a major malpractice case in 1980. In 1991, he and his son went to battle in court against one another over legal fees in another case.

Death

Alioto died of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...

 in San Francisco on January 29, 1998 and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery

Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma

Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California is an American Roman Catholic cemetery operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Established in 1887 on of a former potato farm, it is the oldest and largest cemetery established in Colma to serve the needs of San Francisco...

 in Colma, California

Colma, California

Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, at the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,792 at the 2010 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924....

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Legacy

Alioto presided over a time of turmoil and change in San Francisco.
Events that occurred during his tenure as mayor included strife in the Haight-Ashbury with the drug culture, anti-Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 demonstrations, Black Panther

Black panther

A black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars , in Asia and Africa they are black leopards , and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars A black panther is...

 marches, The Zebra murders

Zebra murders

The "Zebra" murders were a string of racially motivated murders that took place in San Francisco, California, from October 1973 to April 1974....

 and Zodiac

Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The killer's identity remains unknown. The Zodiac murdered victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. Four men and three women...

 killings.
He ran on a platform of reducing taxes and fighting crime.

Alioto put his energy behind the development of three major building projects: the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART); the Transamerica Pyramid

Transamerica Pyramid

The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline and one of its most iconic. Although the building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, it is still strongly associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo...

; and the Embarcadero Center

Embarcadero Center

Embarcadero Center is a commercial complex of five office towers and two hotels on a site located off the Embarcadero in the financial district of San Francisco, California. The Trammell Crow, David Rockefeller and John Portman development was begun with Tower One in 1971, with the last...

. These efforts engendered opposition in the development stage but were eventually built, transforming the quality of life and skyline of San Francisco.
Alioto helped to bring more minorities into city politics, launched a reform of the city charter, and mediated protracted police and fire department strikes in 1975. Alioto's tenure began with a city-wide newspaper strike of the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

 and San Francisco Examiner in February 1968. The first faculty strike at a college or university in the United States—was at San Francisco State College now San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...

 during 1968–1969, where Alioto gave the resources of the law enforcement of the City and County of San Francisco to the university president, S.I. Hayakawa.

Alioto family

Members of Alioto's family are still deeply involved in San Francisco politics. His second wife, Kathleen Sullivan Alioto

Kathleen Sullivan Alioto

Kathleen Sullivan Alioto is an American educator and politician who served as a member of the Boston School Committee from 1974 to 1979. She was the Committee's President in 1977...

, was a member of the Boston School committee and a candidate for a United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 in Massachusetts in 1978

United States Senate election in Massachusetts, 1978

The United States Senate election of 1978 in Massachusetts was held on November 7, 1978 with the incumbent Republican Senator Edward Brooke being defeated by then Democratic Congressman Paul E. Tsongas.-Republican:...

 primary. Angela Alioto

Angela Alioto

Angela Alioto is an attorney, a politician, and a member of the Secular Franciscan order and Democratic Party. She is a member of one of the best known political families in San Francisco, and her family is generally associated with the liberal democratic side of the city's...

, a daughter from his first marriage, served eight years as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, two as its President. Angela also began one of San Francisco's most highly regarded civil rights law firms. She named the firm The Law Offices Of Mayor Joseph Alioto and Angela Alioto in honor of her late father. One of Angela's three sons, Joe Alioto Veronese

Joe Alioto Veronese

Joe Alioto Veronese is a member of the San Francisco Police Commission, and is a former Democratic Party candidate for California State Senate including San Francisco, Marin, and Sonoma Counties. He withdrew from the race on March 7, 2008....

, campaigned for the California State Senate seat in 2008. One of his granddaughters, Michela Alioto-Pier

Michela Alioto-Pier

Michela Alioto-Pier served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She represented District 2, encompassing the Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods. She previously served as a member of the San Francisco Port Commission. She was appointed to the Board of Supervisors by Gavin...

, was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 2003 by San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom

Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...

 and won election to the Board in 2004. His grandson Joseph Alioto Jr. ran an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors

San Francisco Board of Supervisors

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco, California, United States.-Government and politics:...

 in District 3. Several of his sons, as well as many of his grandchildren, are prominent and successful attorneys and businesspersons in 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...

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