by Sam Whiting
In his 1970s aviator sunglasses and a bushy mustache, Jack Palladino looked like a Soviet-era spy or a double agent. He wasn’t, but he was close. Palladino was a private eye — a snoop who could dig up a crucial witness or piece of evidence or follow a money trail to clear or convict a defendant at trial.
Palladino did not carry a gun, which he often said would make his job too easy. His weapon of choice was a camera with a long lens, strapped around his neck, and that may have been what got him killed.
On Thursday afternoon, Palladino was in front of the Haight-Ashbury home/office he shared with his wife and business partner, Sandra Sutherland, when he was allegedly assaulted by two men in a gold Acura, who reached out from the car to steal his camera. Palladino held on in a tug-of-war, according to witnesses, and was dragged. During the struggle he fell and hit his head on the pavement.
Rushed to UCSF, he never regained consciousness and was taken off life support on Sunday. He died shortly after noon Monday, according to his attorney, Mel Honowitz, of San Francisco. Palladino was 76. Cause of death was traumatic brain injury, Sutherland told the Chronicle.
Palladino’s camera held images that led to the arrest of two suspects...