ONCE upon a hard time, when detectives came calling in Glasgow’s mean streets, up would go the cry:  “Get me Beltrami!”

Renowned lawyer Joe Beltrami, Scotland’s finest criminal lawyer of the 20th century, has died, thus bringing down the final curtain on an era of sensational criminal trials that he bestrode like a colossus. 

The man who defended a dozen people accused of capital crimes, and saved them all from the hangman’s noose, passed away peacefully at home in Bothwell on Monday evening, at the age of 83. 

His death was announced in a statement from the firm he founded, Beltrami & Co. 

It said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our founder, the legendary Mr Joseph Beltrami. Sincere condolences to his family.”

That family includes his wife Delia, his three sons, Edwin, Adrian and Jason – who all followed him into the law – and his grandchildren. 

For once the description “legendary” is no exaggeration. 

In a legal career lasting more than 50 years, Beltrami became synonymous with the craft of criminal defence in Scotland, and helped to train and mentor many of Scotland’s top legal eagles. 

Tall and imposing with a forensic mind and a fine speaking voice, Beltrami was one of the first Scottish lawyers to specialise in criminal law, and among the first to become a solicitor-advocate. 

He featured in some of the most famous and controversial criminal justice cases of the last 60 years. 

His clients were a roll call of Scottish crime celebrity, from Glasgow gangsters Arthur Thomson Snr and Jnr to safecracker king “Gentle” Johnny Ramenksy, from Jimmy Boyle to Nat Fraser and William “Tank” McGuinness.

The latter featured in Beltrami’s most famous case, that of Paddy Meehan who was wrongly convicted of the murder of Rachel Ross, 72, in 1969. McGuiness was a client of Beltrami and had confessed to involvement in the crime, but Beltrami refused to break his solicitor-client confidentiality until McGuinness himself was killed, thus allowing Meehan to be freed in 1976. 

The previous year, Beltrami had been the first Scottish lawyer to secure a Royal Pardon for a client, Maurice Swanson, who had been wrongly convicted of a bank robbery.  

Meehan’s even more sensational Royal Pardon made Beltrami the best-known legal figure in Scotland, though his reputation had been soaring throughout the previous two decades. 

His first high-profile success was the case of Walter Scott Ellis, found not proven on the capital charge of shooting dead Glasgow taxi driver John Walkinshaw. In that 1961 case, Beltrami insisted on interviewing 125 witnesses twice each to destroy the prosecution case, and that experience informed his passionate opposition to capital punishment.




FIVE years later Beltrami found the evidence to clear “Gentle” Johnny Ramensky of yet another safecracking charge – of Lithuanian parentage, Ramensky became a commando during the war and blew open safes to steal Nazi secrets.

The 1960s and 70s were Beltrami’s heyday as he recounted in several books, including The Defender.  

It was a time when top criminal lawyers were household names from their appearances in the tabloids – solicitors Len Murray, the late

Laurence Dowdall, and Beltrami were in a league of their own, and only advocates Donald Findlay and the late Paul McBride have achieved similar fame as defenders since then. 

Beltrami was not destined for the law at first. After attending St Aloysius College, he was determined to become a teacher, but  a chance meeting with a friend saw him change his mind during the course of a bus journey. 

Graduating from Glasgow University, Beltrami qualified as a lawyer in 1956 after National Service, and formed his own eponymous company two years later.

In a sense, Beltrami was close to the law from birth – his childhood was spent in the Briggait near Glasgow High Court. 

He was the son of fish restaurant owner Joseph, a Catholic Swiss man of Italian extraction, and a Protestant mother, Isobel, which is perhaps why he had a life-long detestation of bigotry. 

He crossed the Glasgow divide, too, as he showed by chairing a testimonial dinner for legendary Rangers captain John Grieg as well as chairing the testimonial committees of Celtic greats Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Lennox and Danny McGrain. 

Throughout an illustrious career, Beltrami appeared for the defence in more than 350 murder trials including  those dozen successful capital cases prior to the abolition of hanging – as The Herald, sister paper of The National, put it in a memorable headline, “Beltrami 12, Hangman 0.” 

Beltrami formed a particularly productive partnership with the late Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, QC. Fairbairn’s sad decline in his latter years pained Beltrami. 

In 1993, Beltrami became the first solicitor-advocate to plead in the Court of Criminal Appeal. He also received many honours, including life membership of the Law Society of Scotland. Its president, Alistair Morris, said yesterday: “Joe Beltrami was a towering figure in Scotland’s legal landscape and will be much missed by all those who knew him.

“Joe became a household name as one of the country’s foremost criminal defence solicitors and after campaigning for extended rights for solicitors to represent clients in Scotland’s higher courts, qualified as one of the first solicitor-advocates. We were delighted to award him honorary life membership of the Law Society in 2009 for the enormous contribution he made to the solicitors’ profession during a career which spanned more than 50 years. We offer our sincerest condolences to his family and friends.”

Thomas Ross, president of the Scottish Criminal Bar Association, said: “The Scottish Criminal Bar Association is extremely sad to learn of the passing of Joseph Beltrami. Perhaps the first lawyer in Scotland to specialise in criminal law, he laid the path for all of us to follow. No counsel instructed by him failed to learn from his guidance. Known fondly as Big Joe, he will never be forgotten.”