Joseph Alioto

His parents met on a fishing boat while escaping the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

He attended Sacred Heart High School (presently Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory).

Joseph Lawrence Alioto (February 12, 1916 – January 29, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 36th mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1968 to 1976.

Alioto was born in San Francisco in 1916.

His father, Giuseppe Alioto, was a Sicilian immigrant who owned and operated several fish processing companies.

His mother, Domenica Mae Lazio, was born in San Francisco.

He graduated with honors from St. Mary's College, Moraga, California, in 1937 and from law school at The Catholic University of America with honors in 1940.

Alioto worked for the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department 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 and Samuel Goldwyn, among others, eventually becoming a millionaire.

Alioto served on the San Francisco Board of Education from 1948 to 1954; and in 1955, he served as the first Chairman of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.

He was on the briefs in Radovich v. National Football League and argued Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., 370 U.S. 690 (1962), an antitrust landmark, and Utah Pie Co. v. Continental Baking Co., 386 U.S. 685 (1967), all three Supreme Court of the United States cases.

In Radovich, the Supreme Court held that professional football, unlike baseball, was subject to antitrust laws.

Continental Ore is one of the most comprehensive and important antitrust cases ever decided by the Supreme Court.

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; Alioto successfully sought a change of venue from Washington to San Francisco.

The trial took six months and jury unanimously found the three were entitled to the $2.3 million.

John Shelley, the incumbent, bowed out, allegedly because of poor health but probably because Alioto was more pro-development than Shelley; additionally, Shelley was expected to lose a re-match against his 1963 opponent, Republican Harold Dobbs.

Alioto defeated Dobbs, 44.2%-37.8%, in an 18-candidate field.

Alioto signed on as campaign finance chairman for the mayoral candidacy of California State Senator J. Eugene McAteer in the 1967 San Francisco mayoral election.

When McAteer collapsed and died while playing a game of handball, Alioto entered the race.

Alioto delivered the speech nominating Hubert Humphrey at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

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

An article in the September 23, 1969, issue of Look magazine claimed that Alioto had business and personal ties to the Los Angeles Mafioso boss Jimmy Fratianno.

Alioto later sued Look 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, at the Nut Tree Restaurant.

He later claimed that he had documents that showed that the Nixon administration leaked disinformation 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 a civil suit against Alioto because he split a $2.3 million fee in an antitrust case with Washington State Attorney General John J. O'Connell 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.

He would be reelected in 1971.

Alioto was also indicted by a federal grand jury 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.

Under California law it was illegal for public employees to strike.

In 1980, he represented Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders in a landmark antitrust case entitled Los Angeles Coliseum Commission v. The NFL.

The case established the right of football franchises to move to football markets throughout the United States without the approval of other franchise owners.

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