Joe Beltrami
Criminal defence lawyer Born: May 15, 1932. Died: February 23, 2015.
JOSEPH Beltrami, always known as Joe, who has died aged 82, was a Glasgow defence lawyer for 50 years, probablyScotland’smost-famoussolicitoradvocate of the latter half of the 20th century and never far from the headlines.
Such was his reputation that the cry “Get me Beltrami” went from being the first three words of many an arrested high-profile criminal to a phrase used in Glasgow streets and even in school playgrounds whenever someone was jokingly accused of something.
Born in Rutherglen to an immigrant Italian-Swiss owner of a fish and chip shop in Glasgow Cross, he went on to become a legend in Scotland and beyond and was inducted in 2009 as an honorary life member of the Law Society of Scotland.
Mr Beltrami successfully defended no fewer than 12 capital murder cases, later leading The (Glasgow) Herald to run the headline Beltrami 12 Hangman 0 on a piece about his career.
The death penalty had in fact been abolished in the 1960s and Mr Beltrami had long called for its end, saying: “There have been miscarriages of justice where innocents have been executed and that is too high a price to pay.”
Mr Beltrami gained the only two royal pardons granted in Scotland in the 20th century – for convicted bank robber Maurice Swanson in 1975 and for murder convict Paddy Meehan the following year. By the time he retired in 2008, by then aged 76, he had appeared in court for more than 350 murder trials, defending, among others, the so-called “gangland godfather” Arthur Thompson Snr, murderer Jimmy Boyle, safecracker Johnny Ramensky and Walter Scott Ellis, who had been accused of killing a taxi driver in Castlemilk in 1961.
Mr Beltrami was a lifelong Celtic fan and maintained close relations with players and the club for more than 50 years. He chaired the testimonial committees for retired players including Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Lennox and Danny McGrain. On his desk he kept a photograph of two of his sons on the pitch at Parkhead holding the European Cup won by the Lisbon Lions a week earlier. Mr Beltrami had been at the game and it was he who opened the box containing the by-then engraved trophy delivered to Jock Stein’s hotel room in the wee hours after the match. “I was the only one with a pen-knife,” he said.
Joseph Beltrami was born in Rutherglen on May 15 (Whitsunday), 1932, to Giuseppe (Joseph in Italian) Beltrami, from the Italian-speaking Canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland, who had moved to Glasgow, married a Dumbarton lassie, Isobel (Isa), and opened a fish and chip shop in Glasgow Cross.
Brought up mostly in the Briggait by the Clyde, at the time famous for its fish market, young Joe attended the Jesuit St Aloysius’ College, Garnethill, before going to the University of Glasgow to study law. He did his National Service from 1954-56 as a sergeant in the army’s Intelligence Corps, mainly as a military interpreter in Paris. On guard, he once firmly refused to let Earl Mountbatten into a meeting because he had forgotten his security pass. The Earl had to send his valet back to his hotel to get it.
Having graduated B.L. from Glasgow University in 1953, and qualifying as a solicitor in 1956, he became an apprentice lawyer for £6 a week. He began his full legal career doing conveyancing and commercial work at the firm Turner McFarlane before setting up his own firm, Beltrami & Co, initially on the corner of Buchanan Street and Bath Street, in 1958, the same year he married Delia.
The couple were on honeymoon in Ireland when he heard that suspected serial killer Peter Manuel had been arrested. Although not involved, he made a point of getting into the public gallery at Glasgow High Court, knowing it could be “the murder trial of the century,” which it probably was. Two of his Celtic player friends begged him to get them into the trial, which he did. Manuel went to the gallows in Barlinnie prison on July 1958 but the intricacies of the trial fascinated Mr Beltrami and strongly influenced his career.
Mr Beltrami was influential in launching the careers of many leading lawyers, including Donald Findlay, and he wrote three books: The Defender, Tales of the Suspected and A Deadly Innocence. His own three sons all followed in his legal footsteps: Edwin is director of the Crown Prosecution Service for North Wales, Adrian is a barrister specialising in banking law and Jason, like his father, went into criminal law, notably with the Glasgow firm Beltrami Berlow and later Beltrami Anwar.
According to Cumbernauld solicitor Ian Smart, a former president of the Law Society of Scotland: “Joe’s strength lay in his judgment. He possessed a sixth sense that enabled him to spot the pivotal issue in a case that would ultimately undermine the basis of the Crown case. Furthermore, in an era where the funding of accused persons defence was limited or haphazard and disclosure by the Crown was largely non-existent, Joe was noted for the thoroughness of his preparation of cases.
On the personal side, there was Joe the trencherman, known for his love of that well known delicacy, the fish supper with a mutton pie on the side. And Joe the sports fanatic, given to obscure trivia questions on football, about which you wonder if even he knew the answer.
Mr Beltrami retired to Bothwell, Lanarkshire. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Delia, their three sons and eight grandchildren.