A San Francisco private investigator who worked for the Black Panthers, Bill Clinton and other celebrities is life-sustaining after he was seriously injured during an attempted robbery, his family and authorities said Sunday.
Jack Palladino, 76, fell on the sidewalk and sustained a life-threatening head injury after someone jumped out of a car Thursday afternoon and tried to steal his camera, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing police, witnesses and Palladino’s stepson , Nick Chapman.
A grandchild, Ash Ivanov, confirmed Sunday that the attempted robbery took place in the town of Haight-Ashbury, where Palladino lives. The Chronicle reported that he was not expected to survive.
San Francisco police said in a statement that two suspects, Lawrence Thomas, 24, and Tyjone Flournoy, 23, were arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and other crimes.
It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers.
The Associated Press reports that Palladino’s career began in the 1970s after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, and being appointed by the newspaper’s heiress Patty Hearst to investigate her kidnapping by militant leftists.
He later worked for Black Panther leader Huey Newton for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992 and for Courtney Love. The Chronicle reports that Harvey Weinstein also hired Palladino to try to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct.