1. Joseph Lawrence Alioto was an American politician who served as the 36th mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1968 to 1976.
29 Facts About Joseph Alioto
1. 2.
Joseph Alioto's father, Giuseppe Alioto, was a Sicilian immigrant who owned and operated several fish processing companies.
3.
Joseph Alioto's mother, Domenica Mae Lazio, was born in San Francisco.
4.
Joseph Alioto's parents met on a fishing boat while escaping the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
5.
Joseph Alioto 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.
6.
Joseph Alioto 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.
7.
Joseph Alioto was on the briefs in Radovich v National Football League and argued Continental Ore Co.
8.
Joseph 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.
9.
When McAteer collapsed and died while playing a game of handball, Joseph Alioto entered the race.
10.
John Shelley, the incumbent, bowed out, allegedly because of poor health but probably because Joseph Alioto was more pro-development than Shelley; additionally, Shelley was expected to lose a re-match against his 1963 opponent, Republican Harold Dobbs.
11.
Joseph Alioto delivered the speech nominating Hubert Humphrey at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
12.
An article in the September 23,1969, issue of Look magazine claimed that Joseph Alioto had business and personal ties to the Los Angeles Mafioso boss Jimmy Fratianno.
13.
Joseph Alioto later sued Look for libel and won a $450,000 judgment.
14.
Joseph Alioto later claimed that he had documents that showed that the Nixon administration leaked disinformation to the magazine in order to stall his career.
15.
Joseph Alioto was indicted by a federal grand jury in March 1971 on bribery charges because of the means by which the fees were awarded.
16.
Joseph Alioto ran in the 1974 Democratic primary for governor, finishing second behind Jerry Brown.
17.
In 1974 and 1975, Joseph Alioto served as president of the United States Conference of Mayors.
18.
Joseph Alioto received millions in legal fees after counseling the Oakland Raiders win against the City of Oakland.
19.
Joseph Alioto died of prostate cancer in San Francisco on January 29,1998, and was interred at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, California.
20.
Joseph Alioto presided over a time of turmoil and change in San Francisco.
21.
Joseph Alioto ran on a platform of reducing taxes and fighting crime.
22.
Joseph Alioto put his energy behind the development of three major building projects: the Bay Area Rapid Transit system; the Transamerica Pyramid; and the Embarcadero Center.
23.
Joseph 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.
24.
Joseph Alioto's tenure began with a citywide newspaper strike of the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner in February 1968.
25.
Joseph Alioto had five sons and a daughter with his first wife Angelina Genaro, and a son and daughter with his second wife Kathleen Sullivan.
26.
Joseph Alioto's second wife, Kathleen Sullivan Alioto, was a member of the Boston School committee and a candidate for a United States Senate seat in Massachusetts in the 1978 primary.
27.
Sullivan and Joseph Alioto married in 1978 and remained together until his death in 1998.
28.
One of Angela's three sons, Joe Joseph Alioto Veronese, campaigned for a California State Senate seat in 2008.
29.
One of his granddaughters, Michela Joseph Alioto-Pier, was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 2003 by San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and won election to the Board in 2004.