Joseph Beltrami

For half a century, when a Glaswegian found themselves in serious trouble with the law, there was one name they wanted to hear. Joseph Beltrami was the most celebrated criminal defence lawyer in Scotland, a solicitor who defended in capital murder trials when the gallows were still in use, fought for years to free a man wrongly convicted of murder, and represented some of the most notorious figures in the city’s underworld. His fame was such that "Get me Beltrami" became a Glasgow catchphrase for anyone in a desperate situation.

Early life

Beltrami was born in Rutherglen on 15 May 1932. His father, Egidio Beltrami, was an Italian-Swiss immigrant who had come to Scotland and opened a fish and chip shop; his mother, Isabella, was Scottish. He grew up in Glasgow, part of the city’s large Italian community, was educated at St Aloysius’ College and studied law at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1953.

After national service in the Intelligence Corps he found it hard to obtain an apprenticeship with an established Glasgow law firm, something he attributed to prejudice against his Roman Catholic background. So he set up on his own, founding the firm of Beltrami & Co.

Capital cases

Beltrami began practising when murder could still carry the death penalty in Scotland. Before hanging was abolished in 1965 he acted in twelve capital murder cases, and none of his clients went to the gallows. In an era when a conviction could end at the scaffold at Barlinnie, that record made his name.

The Meehan case

His most important case was that of Paddy Meehan, convicted in 1969 of the murder of Rachel Ross in Ayr. Beltrami was Meehan’s solicitor and believed in his innocence. He also carried a secret: another client, William "Tank" McGuinness, had told him in confidence that he had taken part in the Ayr robbery. Bound by client confidentiality, Beltrami could not reveal it, even as Meehan sat in prison. Meehan was pardoned in 1976, and only after McGuinness died that same year could Beltrami speak. He later told the full story in his book A Deadly Innocence (1989).

The case is still studied as an example of the agonising conflict a lawyer can face between loyalty to one client and the injustice suffered by another.

Gangland clients

Beltrami’s clients included many of the best known names in Glasgow crime. He defended the gentle safe-blower Johnny Ramensky, and through the 1980s he repeatedly and successfully defended Arthur Thompson, the city’s most feared crime figure. He also acted for the armed robber Walter Norval. It was in these years that "Get me Beltrami" passed into Glasgow speech.

Not every client was a gangster. One of his most famous cases involved Hercules, a tame grizzly bear who had appeared in the James Bond film Octopussy. Hercules went missing for more than three weeks while filming an advertisement on the island of Benbecula, and his owner, the wrestler Andy Robin, was prosecuted for failing to keep a wild animal under control. Beltrami won the case by arguing that Hercules was not a wild animal at all but a working bear.

Writing and later life

Beltrami wrote several books about his cases, including The Defender (1980) and Tales of the Suspected (1988), and became a familiar figure in the Scottish press. He married Brigid Fallon, a nurse, at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow in 1958, and their three sons all became lawyers. In 2009 the Law Society of Scotland gave him honorary life membership. He died in February 2015, aged 82.

Legacy

Beltrami is remembered as one of the foremost criminal lawyers in Scottish history, a man who insisted that every accused person deserved a vigorous defence, whatever their reputation. His career spans the city’s criminal history from the last years of the gallows to the gangland era, and his cases run through many of the stories in Glasgow’s famous crimes.

Timeline