-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.uniontrib.com/news/utarchives/cgi/idoc.cgi?368076+unix+alex6+ads.un iontrib.com..80+Union-Tribune+Union-Tribune+Library+Library++%28john ----- JOHN S. ALESSIO | 1910-1998 | Ex-shoeshine boy built a transborder empire Jack Williams STAFF WRITER 25-Mar-1998 Wednesday John Alessio John S. Alessio, a one-time San Diego shoeshine boy who built a multimillion- dollar business empire that ranged from racing and real estate to tuna and taxis, died yesterday. He was 87. Mr. Alessio died of cancer at Green Hospital of Scripps Clinic, where he had been admitted March 16. Mr. Alessio's holdings over the years included the Hotel del Coronado, the landmark Mr. A's restaurant, the Kona Kai Club and insurance, finance and investment companies. As director and major stockholder in the late financier C. Arnholt Smith's conglomerate Westgate-California Corp., he directed Yellow Cab, Breast-O'-Chicken tuna company, shopping centers in Long Beach and Redlands and real estate ranging from San Diego to the San Joaquin Valley. During his 17 years as executive director of the Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, he was responsible for several attendance-spurring innovations, including a revolutionary "5-10" betting scheme, and vast modernization. But in 1970, Mr. Alessio fell hard from his powerful perch. Along with three brothers and a son, he was accused of funneling money from a Caliente account in a Mexico bank and failing to pay nearly $1 million in taxes. Convicted of the charges, Mr. Alessio was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $20,000. A brother, Angelo, drew a one-year sentence and a $20,000 fine. "It was all politics," John Alessio told The San Diego Union in 1992. "I could be a very, very coarse man today, considering all the hardships that were brought on me and my family because of several misunderstandings." Mr. Alessio blessed San Diego and Tijuana with his philanthropy and hobnobbed with politicos. His support of the late Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, a former Democratic governor of California, was credited with playing a role in providing state funding for the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. " John Alessio was very active in Democratic politics," said Ed Butler, a former San Diego city attorney, Superior Court judge and state appellate court justice. "I saw him at Mr. A's from time to time -- always a good laugh, always a chuckle, always a wisecrack or two. "He never had a bad word, as far as I can recall, to say about anybody." Much of Mr. Alessio's influence and power originated south of the border. "John and his family were among the first San Diegans to establish transborder relationships," said Malin Burnham, a longtime San Diego civic and business leader. "He was equally strong on both sides of the border and really started a lot of relationships among San Diego and Tijuana." Mr. Alessio, who had learned to speak Italian from his immigrant parents, established his Tijuana ties in 1929 before he learned to speak Spanish. Smith, one of his former shoeshine customers, offered him work as a bank messenger at Banco del Pacifico. By 1943, he had become director of the Tijuana bank and was proficient in Spanish. In 1947, Caliente officials invited him to serve as an interpreter. He was appointed executive director of the track in 1953. Over the years, Mr. Alessio became an adviser to the governor of Baja California, a delegate to the Border Cities Chamber of Commerce Conference and director of the Tijuana Rotary Club. He built 11 elementary schools in Tijuana, including one named in his honor, and sponsored an annual Christmas party for 15,000 poor youngsters. Mr. Alessio also contributed the land for Instituto Mexico, an elementary, secondary and high school, recalled Sergio Dordero of the municipal government in Tijuana. In recognition of his contributions to Tijuana youths, Mr. Alessio was named "Citizen of the Year" in 1961 by the Tijuana Junior Chamber of Commerce. The Guardians, a San Diego organization, named him "Mr. Charity" the same year. In 1956, after the death of a jockey in a fall from his mount, Mr. Alessio produced the first safety helmet for jockeys at Caliente. His invention led to his election as "Man of the Year" in 1957 by the Jockey Guild of America. Refined versions of Mr. Alessio's design later became standard gear for jockeys worldwide. Mr. Alessio introduced the "5-10" at Caliente in 1956. Conceived as a six-horse daily double, it challenges bettors to pick winners in the fifth through the 10th races. Its popularity has been credited with creating hundreds of thousands of turf fans, contributing to the growth of racetracks throughout the West. In 1960, a taxi driver became an example of the betting plan's potential riches by turning a $2 bet into a $98,000 payoff. In 1949, Mr. Alessio weathered his first major legal storm when grand theft charges against him were dismissed by a San Francisco Superior Court judge. The action cleared Mr. Alessio of charges stemming from loans made by and through Banco del Pacifico to the once-powerful A.V. Aldrete holdings in Baja California. Mr. Alessio's subsequent conviction for income tax evasion in 1971 interrupted his Tijuana connections. But after his release from prison in 1973, he directed such development projects as the 1,494-home Lomas de Agua Caliente tract and the 12-story International Plaza in the downtown area. "I came out of prison working like nothing happened," he told a reporter. "I have friends who are still good friends. And I'm making new friends every day." One of those old friends, Smith, fell precipitously from power. His U.S. National Bank, which made large loans to the Alessio empire, became insolvent in 1973. At that time, it was the greatest bank failure the nation had ever seen, with federal banking officials estimating its debt at $400 million. Smith pleaded no contest to charges that he had conspired to violate U.S. banking statutes by funneling about $170 million in bank loans to himself and his associates. After years of court appearances, he served eight months of a one-year sentence. Smith died in June 1996. Summing up his view of Smith's troubles, Mr. Alessio said in 1992, "Compared to what's going on in banking today, it was so minute what happened at National Bank. So minute." In recent years, Mr. Alessio maintained a plush first-floor office in his family's Fifth Avenue Financial Centre building. Mr. A's, the upscale eatery he founded in 1966, commands one of the city's most compelling views from the 12th floor. Up until his bout with cancer, Mr. Alessio worked seven days a week managing his properties, "from sunup to sundown," said grandson John Alessio. "He was sharp as a tack. He would spend a couple days in Tijuana and three days at his Rancho Tecate Resort each week." Home for the past five decades has been a sprawling Mount Helix estate -- a far cry from Mr. Alessio's impoverished roots. In 1920, Mr. Alessio, his six brothers, mother and coal-miner father arrived in San Diego from Clarksburg, W.Va., in a crumpled panel truck. They began picking grapes for a living in Escondido. " `The Grapes of Wrath' had nothing on us," Mr. Alessio told The San Diego Union in 1963. San Diego had become the Alessios' destination because of its climate, a welcome tonic for his father, Dominic, who had developed asthma working in the mines. The family's first home was a three-bedroom apartment near 26th Street and Imperial Avenue. Mr. Alessio left school after the seventh grade and began shining shoes with his brother Russell at Fifth Avenue and E Street. At 17, he befriended Smith, who gave him the Tijuana bank job that eventually would catapult him to prominence and power. In 1960, Mr. Alessio and three of his brothers bought the Hotel del Coronado for $2.5 million. He sold it for $7 million three years later, but not before extensive renovation of the venerable landmark. The Alessio family then bought the Kona Kai Club and Kona Inn on Shelter Island and a greyhound racing track in Arizona. In 1964, Mr. Alessio was honored as "Mr. San Diego" by the Grant Club. He is survived by his wife, Edna; three daughters, Rose Marie Rosa and Ernestina Cutri, both of Mount Helix, and Tina Marie Alessio of Rancho San Diego; a son, Dominic "Bud" Alessio of Mount Helix; a brother, Angelo of La Jolla; 15 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Visitation is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Greenwood Mortuary. A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at the mortuary. Donations are suggested to the American Cancer Society. Copyright <A HREF="http://www.uniontrib.com">Union-Tribune Publishing Co.</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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