Private detective. USA.

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[Объединенное Детективное Бюро]

 

[Объединенное Детективное Бюро]

Sherlock Holmes of our time​

What cases did the most controversial private detective in the United States handle?​

Private Investigator Jack Palladino's clients included Bill Clinton and Harvey Weinstein, Courtney Love and Robin Williams, Black Panthers and Hell's Angels, sectarian and drug traffickers, anti-communist and anti-smoking campaigners, pedophiles and victims of pedophilia. Jack Palladino died on February 1, 2021 from the effects of an injury sustained in the attack.
How Jack became and did not become a lawyer
Jack Palladino was born in Boston in 1944 to immigrants from Sicily. His father was a plumber. Jack graduated from the prestigious Boston Latin School. In the list of graduates of this institution, you can find the names of a dozen governors of Massachusetts, several mayors of Boston, the descendants of 5 out of 56 people who signed the US Declaration of Independence. According to the school legend, Harvard University was created especially for its first graduates. But Palladino did not go to Harvard, but to Cornell University, from which he graduated with honors. After winning a Ford Foundation grant, he earned an MA in Political Science and then a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1978, on the third attempt, he passed the bar exam. Palladino dreamed of becoming a lawyer since childhood. “I didn’t know then that compared to investigations, any other activity seems boring, uninteresting, too simple,” he said in an interview with People magazine a year after admission to the bar.

While still a law school student, Palladino worked part-time at Hol Lipset's detective agency.
Lipset revolutionized the profession. He hired not former police officers, who were accustomed to doing everything according to official instructions, but young people with good education and knowledge in various fields. Lipset also actively used eavesdropping and sound recording devices in his work.
At a Senate hearing in 1965, he demonstrated a miniature transmission device disguised as an olive tree in a glass. The stick stuck into the "olive" was an antenna. The device, as Lipset himself later admitted, was created for the sake of the show. In real life, it would work for a maximum of 20 minutes, transmitting a signal at a distance of no more than 12 m. Or, perhaps, it would not work at all if alcohol got into the glass.

Early in his career as a detective, Jack Palladino pretended to be a thief for a month and a half serving time in the Nassau County jail in New York.​

Photo: LiberationNews.org
In 1970, Lipset's agency was brought in to investigate service crimes committed by staff at the New York State Nassau County Jail. The jailers were suspected of beating prisoners and providing privileged conditions to representatives of organized crime. For bribes, the guards brought alcohol and drugs into the prison, arranged for the mafiosi to meet with prostitutes and women prisoners. To collect evidence, 15 employees of the agency were "imprisoned". According to operational legend, Palladino received a term for stealing furs. Aspiring detective Sandra Sutherland has become an accomplice of a drug dealer. In 1972, charges were brought against 24 jailers. Palladino and Sutherland testified at the trial. Four years later, they began an affair. They married in 1977 and opened their own detective agency in San Francisco, Palladino & Sutherland.
Radical protection
Irregular working hours. $ 35 per hour. Cases of petty fraud, injuries, claims to doctors, sometimes murder. This is how Palladino and his wife began. One of the first successful investigations that they could boast of was the search for expensive musical equipment stolen from the rock group The Greatful Dead.
Palladino and Sutherland were leftist in their youth. While working for Lipset's agency, Sutherland provided assistance to the defense in the trial of the famous human rights defender Angela Davis. Among the first clients of the matrimonial detective agency were bikers from the Hell's Angels motorcycle club and Larry Leighton, one of the few members of the Temple of the Nations religious sect, who did not commit suicide.

Another client was Hughie Newton, co-founder of the radical left-wing Black Panthers. He was facing trial on charges of killing 17-year-old prostitute Kathleen Smith and beating tailor Preston Callins with a pistol. As suggested by the prosecution, Smith called him "Baby" and Newton shot her because he hated the nickname. He beat the tailor in a dispute over the price of a tailored suit. In 1974, charges were brought against Newton. He was arrested twice, both times he was released on bail, and then fled to Cuba. From there he returned in 1977 to stand trial. For private investigators, Newton set this task - to find weaknesses in the position of the prosecution and to look for information that would make it possible to challenge the main witnesses for the prosecution.

Hughie Newton, client of the detective agency Palladino & Sutherland​

Photo: AP
Palladino and his wife forced the FBI to confess to wiretapping Newton and using provocations against the black movement for their rights. For example, the FBI circulated an allegedly anonymous letter with the following content: “Brothers, I am a civil servant of the state of California. I had close contact with Hughie Newton in prison. I want to warn you that this cute nigga seems to be working for Reagan's pig (during the described period - the governor of California.— "B" ) ". The battered tailor Callins told the court that his memory had begun to fail him lately. Newton's beating charges were dropped.

Compromising evidence on the main witness for the prosecution, a prostitute Rafael Gary (working pseudonym Crystal Gray) could not be found. Newton had to solve the problem on his own. Three Black Panther members went to her home to kill her. But they made the wrong address and ended up in a neighboring apartment. Its owner Mary Matthew killed one of the attackers with a shot from a revolver. Although the police took witness Gary under guard, she refused to testify in court after a failed assassination attempt. As a result, after two trials in which the jury could not come to a common decision, Hughie Newton was never convicted of murder.

The case smells like cocaine

The DMC-12, manufactured by the defunct DeLorean Motor Company, is well known for its Back to the Future movie. Jack Palladino rescued company owner John DeLorean from prison​

Photo: Andrew Kelly / Reuters
“They call me when the house is on fire, not when the kitchen smells of smoke. They ask me to put out the fire, save the owner, properly, deal with the fire: where did it come from, what is burning, can this happen again? People call me when they have huge problems, sometimes great pain ”(from Jack Palladino's interview with The San Francisco Examiner, 1999).

One day, John DeLorean, a famous car designer and owner of the DeLorean Motor Company, had huge problems. On October 20, 1982, an FBI agent arrested him in a hotel room near the Los Angeles airport. Several kilograms of cocaine were found in DeLorean's suitcase. Eight different charges have been filed against the car tycoon, including attempted distribution of 54 pounds (25 kg) of a drug with a market value of about $ 24 million and financing a 220 pound (100 kg) drug smuggling operation. DeLorean faced up to 67 years in prison. After being released on bail of $ 5 million, DeLorean turned to several private detectives for help. Jack Palladino played a major role in providing this assistance.

The case looked almost hopeless. In the hotel room where DeLorean was arrested, the FBI was recording video and audio. Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt bought out a copy of the tapes. They were shown on television in October 1983. The whole country saw DeLorean opening his suitcase, saying, "This is better than gold," and then raising a glass of champagne and making a toast to the success of the operation.

The trial began on March 5, 1984. The main witness for the prosecution was FBI informant James Timothy Hoffman. After being arrested for smuggling cocaine, while awaiting trial, he agreed to work for the department. For this he was promised a lighter sentence. For two years of work as a secret agent, he earned about $ 112 thousand.
Knowing that DeLorean's company was in financial trouble, Hoffman offered him a "profitable transaction." The agent reported to his owners from the FBI that DeLorean was the initiator of the cocaine smuggling operation. The cocaine was provided by the FBI.
According to attorney John Re, who defended DeLorean in court, it was private detective Jack Palladino who played a major role in exposing the prosecution witness. The defense proved that Hoffman called DeLorean first and offered a deal, and that Hoffman was directly interested in the success of the provocation. On August 16, 1984, John DeLorean was found not guilty.

DeLorean probably paid private investigators more than the usual $ 35 an hour. In 1985, Palladino and his wife bought a Victorian mansion, which became their home and office.

Murder, sex, drugs

Guillermo Suarez Mason. On his orders, people in Argentina were killed, tortured, kidnapped, and trafficked in children taken from their mothers. Jack Palladino was looking for ways to prevent the extradition of Mason from the United States​

Photo: Reuters
Jack Palladino was convinced that everyone has the right to protection and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. His clients were sometimes not the best representatives of the human race. For example, Guillermo Carlos Suarez Mason, who turned to Palladino in 1987. During the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), General Mason was one of the main fighters against communism. He oversaw the activities of prisons for political prisoners and special forces, including the so-called 601st reconnaissance battalion. This structure was involved in the abduction, torture and murder of dissidents and their family members. After the restoration of democracy in Argentina, Mason was stripped of his general rank, the prosecutor's office issued a warrant for his arrest. The former general left the country with a false passport. He settled in Foster City, California, but was arrested at Argentina's request through Interpol. He was accused of involvement in the murder of 43 people and the abduction of 23 more people, including newborn children. Palladino fought against the extradition of Mason to Argentina, but was unable to succeed in this matter. However, after several trials, another escape to the United States and a new extradition, the general managed to remain at large - in a military hospital in Buenos Aires.

Sex without a condom could have cost Robin Williams millions of dollars. Jack Palladino corrected the situation​

Photo: AP
Famed comedian Robin Williams asked Palladino for help in 1991. Former mistress Michelle Tish Carter sued Williams, demanding $ 6.5 million from him for allegedly infecting her with herpes. The comedian told the detective that Carter initially demanded $ 20 thousand from him and a Corvette for silence, but was refused. Palladino instructed several female detectives to speak to Carter's girlfriends. The girlfriends turned out to be talkative. Thanks to their testimony in court, Carter was forced to confess that she had unprotected sex with at least eight men. Palladino's strategy was to question her claims of infection from Williams. The case ended in an out-of-court agreement, according to which Williams nevertheless paid his ex-girlfriend a certain amount.
In 1988, Jack Palladino was contacted by lawyers for Brian Daniels. Their client, who lived in Thailand, was accused of supplying about 200 tons of marijuana from Southeast Asia to the United States in four years. Daniels was facing jail time. Palladino began to act according to his favorite scheme - to verify the identity of prosecution witnesses. He flew to Bangkok and there, in bars loved by the criminals, began distributing leaflets. These leaflets said that he was interested in any information about these witnesses. Palladino hoped to find evidence that one of them not only helps law enforcement officers, but also sells drugs himself. According to the detective, the US Drug Enforcement Administration tried to obstruct his investigation and sought from the Thai authorities to expel him from the country. Palladino also claimed that FDA agents tried to set him up by posing as a fundraiser sent by Daniels. Although the detective, again according to him, collected "tons" of dirt on government witnesses, Daniels was not very helpful. In October 1990, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and a $ 6.5 million fine.

Cover of Ian Halperin and Max Wallace's book on the alleged assassination of Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain​

Photo: Allison & Busby
In May 1996, actress and rock singer Courtney Love became a client of Palladino. Canadian director, journalist and writer Ian Halperin worked on a book about her late husband, Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain, and checked rumors of Love's involvement in her husband's death. Palladino, at the request of the widow, tried to prevent the publication of the book, but did not succeed.

To be continued

 

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Yes, I am the President.​

Jennifer Flowers announced in January 1992 that she had been the mistress of Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton for 12 years. Following her, other women began to speak out with accusations against Clinton. The campaign headquarters of the presidential candidate paid Jack Palladino $ 100,000 to find ways to extinguish the scandal.

By the time the name of Courtney Love was added to the list of Palladino's famous clients, the whole of America already knew the name of the detective.

In April 1992, Palladino began working for the campaign headquarters of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, who is running for president of the United States. During the presidential campaign, 26 women said they had an intimate relationship with Clinton. Betsy Wright, political consultant and deputy chief of staff for the Clinton campaign, called the flurry of accusations an "infestation of girls." The term subsequently entered American political jargon. Many of the applicants, Wright argued, simply received between $ 100,000 and $ 500,000 from tabloids and television talk shows to lie. She set a task for Palladino: to stop the "invasion of girls." The detective's total fee, according to The Washington Post journalist Michael Izikov, was about $ 100 thousand. Already in the first month of work, Palladino proved that he was not getting money in vain.

Private detective Larry Keyes received a much larger sum for investigating the personal life of Bill Clinton - half a million dollars (from "three news organizations" who wished to remain anonymous). During the course of the investigation, he taped the testimony of an Oklahoma City woman who recounted her romance with Clinton in the late 1980s. Palladino flew to Oklahoma City and convinced the woman to sign an affidavit (affidavit) refuting everything she had told Case. The woman stated that Keyes spoke to her after she underwent surgery to remove a tumor in her brain. Because of this, she developed amnesia and multiple personality disorder. Keyes took advantage of this and tricked into obtaining the testimony he needed.

Palladino met with many women accusers. Each time his task was to obtain an affidavit refuting what was said earlier. In case of refusal, he had to find incriminating evidence on the applicant.
The press accused Palladino of intimidating these women. “Some of the nefarious types hired by Clinton's lawyers thrive by doing evil. Jack Palladino, who was once tasked with intimidating the girls who staged the invasion, powdered the brains of journalists so that they did not recognize the authenticity of the recordings on which Bill Clinton convinces the witness: "Deny, deny, deny," columnist William Safir.

Former Clinton adviser Dick Morris said that Palladino "threatened" women and "collected incriminating evidence, blackmail material to force them to sign affidavits." Using Palladino's principles, we can say that this applicant is not very credible: Morris lost his position after a scandal with a prostitute, whom he allowed to listen to the president's conversations.

The private detective claimed that he had never intimidated anyone: “I do not need to intimidate or intimidate anyone. I don't carry weapons. I don't hit people. I'm sure there are people who will say that I bullied them because I told them, "You are lying." I am sure that witnesses feel frightened when the truth, unpleasant for them, becomes known. But this is not intimidation with force or threats - it is just a fact. Everyone gets scared when their lies are exposed. This is the fear of the witness, not my intimidation. This is a witness problem, not mine. Sometimes I quote a good African saying to witnesses: When elephants fight, they can trample the grass. You don't have to be grass. "

Smoking control

In 1992, the maximum rate for Jack Palladino and his wife's agency was $ 200 per hour, but not more than $ 2 thousand per day. In 1999, Palladino estimated his services at $ 250 per hour, his wife at $ 150 per hour (at an average rate of a private investigator of $ 75 per hour). In 2000, Palladino raised his hourly rate to $ 300. He without false modesty declared that he was not only one of the highest paid, but generally the best private detective in the United States. To the home-office in San Francisco, another home was added - in the state of California and a third - in Tuscany.

Palladino handled cases of sexual harassment, defamation, psychiatric abuse. For about every tenth case, he took on free or for a small fee - out of conviction or if the case seemed interesting to him.
Thus, he collaborated for free with the human rights organization Amnesty International.

The most famous of his pro bono cases was the defense of Jeffrey Wigand, against whom the tobacco industry launched a massive discrediting campaign. Wiegand was fired from his position as vice president of the Brown & Williamson tobacco company in 1993. One of the reasons for the dismissal was Wigand's calls to remove the coumarin flavor from the company's tobacco products - experiments on laboratory mice showed its carcinogenicity. Wigand also studied the health effects of other additives in cigarettes. After being fired, in violation of a signed nondisclosure agreement, Wigand began to oppose the tobacco companies.

The story of Jeffrey Wigand (pictured), who entered into an unequal battle with the largest tobacco companies, formed the basis of the script for the film "Insider". In this film, detective Palladino played a cameo role - himself​

Photo: JP Aussenard / WireImage / Getty Images
He became the first person with experience in the tobacco industry to testify in court under oath that tobacco companies knowingly provide false information about the composition of cigarettes and the harm caused by smoking. His testimony was critical to the agreement between the four largest US tobacco companies - Philip Morris Inc., RJ Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard - and the attorneys general of 46 states in November 1998. The agreement pledged tobacco manufacturers to pay $ 206 billion in damages caused by smoking.

In the course of a multi-year scandal, Wigand's former employer Brown & Williamson hired the detective agency Investigative Group International to search for incriminating evidence on him. Palladino collaborated with the founder and head of this agency, Terry Lenzner, when he fought the "invasion of girls." Now they were on opposite sides of the barricades. Lenzner and his subordinates put together a 500-page dossier. It included charges against Wigand of beating his wife, shoplifting, cheating when ordering goods by mail, alcoholism, and providing false information on a resume. All material was submitted to The Wall Street Journal. Palladino contacted journalists and proved to them that most of the accusations were false or poorly supported by evidence.

Children under 16

Despite Palladino and his wife's 1993 investigation, Michael Jackson has not been formally charged with child molestation.​

Photo: Spencer Weiner / AP
In 1993, Evan Chandler, a dentist and screenwriter based in Los Angeles, accused pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting his son Jordan. Jack Palladino assisted the prosecution in the investigation. The case was settled out of court. Jackson pleaded not guilty, but paid the prosecutor multimillion-dollar compensation. Following the closure of the case, Palladino and his wife were interviewed by The San Francisco Examiner. According to them, the boy told the police "specific erotic details", and also that "a significant number" of witnesses said that the singer on his Neverland ranch molested them too.

In 2002, thanks to the testimony of Palladino, his client, musician, winner of three Grammy awards R. Kelly was acquitted. He was accused of child pornography: of filming, having sex with a 13-year-old girl. Palladino met with the main prosecution witness and her fiancé. They transparently hinted that they were ready to receive money from Kelly for silence. The conversation was taped, which Palladino presented in court. The accusation fell apart.

They too

Since 1992, Harvey Weinstein has made major campaign donations for the Clintons and other Democratic Party members. Perhaps it was the Clintons who advised the Democratic sponsor to seek help from Detective Palladino.​

Photo: Patrick McMullan / Getty Images
In 2017, film producer Harvey Weinstein became a client of the detective agency Palladino & Sutherland. His problem was somewhat similar to the problem that Bill Clinton had approached Palladino with. Weinstein wanted to silence the women accusing him of sexual harassment and abuse, as well as the media spreading these accusations. Palladino and his wife set about compiling dossiers on the prosecutors, containing information that could be used against them. So, according to the New Yorker magazine, the dossier on actress Rose McGowan was more than 100 pages thick and consisted of the sections "Lies, Exaggerations, Contradictions", "Hypocrisy", "Potentially Negative Character Traits", "Former Lovers."

But if the "invasion of girls" Palladino at one time was able to resist quite seriously, he could not cope with the nascent Me Too movement. Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Palladino's last case

Jack Palladino and his dog Tide​

Photo: Roger Ressmeyer / Corbis / VCG / Getty Images
According to Sandra Sutherland, on January 28, 2021, her husband unexpectedly ran out of the house. Perhaps, from the window of his office, he noticed the criminals committing theft, and decided to photograph them. Two young men tried to take the camera away from the 76-year-old detective, but they could not do it. Palladino fell to the asphalt and hit his head hard. The criminals jumped into the car and fled. Police and an ambulance arrived at the scene. Palladino said his name was Jack, after which he passed out. At the hospital, he was operated on and connected to an artificial respiration apparatus.

The photographs taken by Palladino were used to locate and arrest both attackers. Sandra Sutherland told her comatose husband, “Imagine, Jack, the bastards have been caught. It's your merit".
Jack Palladino never came out of a coma. On February 1, he was disconnected from the artificial respiration apparatus, began to breathe on his own, but died soon after.

Alexey Alekseev

A source

 

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