SF investigator's last photos may have helped solve his own homicide, friends say

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- ABC7 News is learning more about a heartbreaking case involving a world-renowned private investigator from San Francisco, who has now died from injuries he sustained after being attacked last week outside of his home.

Jack Palladino was 76-years-old and worked some of the biggest cases around over the last several decades. His family and friends are in mourning.

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A box full of flowers saying 'RIP Jack' could be seen outside the home where he lived on Monday night. Palladino was attacked outside of his Haight-Ashbury home last week.

"What a tragic way to end a brilliant career, this man really was a legend," said Jack Immendorf, who is a private investigator and longtime friend of Palladino.

Palladino's client list is a long one, Bill Clinton brought him on back in 1992. He was also active in a Michael Jackson civil case and a slew of others involving Hollywood's biggest celebrities and some of the biggest cases in California and the country.

Family and friends are in shock.

"The suddenness of it that moment that I got the phone call that my dear friend of decades had been killed in front of his house in a random act of violence, it's staggering," says Palladino's attorney and close friend Mel Honowitz.

Immendorf says that it's believed Palladino had seen two people engaging in some suspicious acts on the street that he lived on, grabbed his camera, and began taking photos.

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"And as I understand it they came racing down the street and the passenger reached out to grab his camera which was around his neck and the driver gunned the car smashing him forward into the sidewalk," says Immendorf.

The two did not get the camera but friends say Jack hit his head in the process. Something that proved to be fatal.

"This is in my opinion felony murder," says Honowitz.

Friends say that it was those pictures on Jack's camera that led to the arrest of 24-year-old Lawrence Thomas and 23-year-old Tyjone Flournoy. Both will be in court on Tuesday in connection with the case.

"It's a terrible end to a brilliant career," says Immendorf who acknowledges along with Honowitz that Palladino went out solving his own case.

"He investigated his own murder and helped solve it," says Honowitz.