Mar 30, 2019 4 min read

The man known to many as “Jimmy D” took off his badge as a sheriff’s deputy earlier this month, ending a 46-year career with Washington County.

James D’Alessandro, 69, of Washington, retired as chief deputy under Sheriff Samuel Romano, but he actually began working for the county decades earlier as a jail guard.

In each role, he came in contact with some of the most notorious figures in the annals of Washington County criminal justice.

Politically connected through his father, a barber who had emigrated from Italy and became an alderman – a forerunner of the post now known as a magisterial district judge – D’Alessandro found himself delivering dinners during his evening shift to those implicated in the Yablonski murder conspiracy.

United Mine Workers’ union dissident leader Joseph “Jock” Yablonski, his wife, Margaret, and their daughter, Charlotte, were discovered dead in their Clarksville home in early January 1970, and although the first arrests were made five months later, the defendants’ court appearances took place over a period of years.

The old Washington County jail lacked the modern technology of electronic locks, so cage-like steel bars confined inmates. Guards carried a multitude of keys for each balcony-like range ringing the large rotunda and specialized areas of the jail, which was constructed early in the 20th century.

“You couldn’t carry any type of instruments to protect yourself,” he said.

Among the three hit men, D’Alessandro said Claude Vealey agreed to testify for the prosecution.

“I got to know him pretty well,” D’Alessandro recalled. “After a while, he began to open up about the homicides,” discussing how the killers scouted the Clarksville area beforehand and placed the Yablonski home under surveillance before cutting the phone line and breaking in on New Year’s Eve.

Vealey told him of skulking around the Yablonski residence, where he peered into a window and saw Yablonski watching an 11 p.m. local news broadcast. The anchorman? “Bill Burns,” D’Alessandro said of the former KDKA-TV personality.

The conspiracy eventually led to UMW President W.A. “Tony” Boyle, who died in prison in 1984 after his court conviction. Vealey also died in prison in 1991 at age 55.

D’Alessandro made the switch to the sheriff’s office as one of just three deputies in 1981, attending the police academy in Greensburg, Westmoreland County.

He was still guarding prisoners in one respect because sheriff’s deputies are responsible for escorting prisoners to, from and during court appearances, and maintaining security in the courthouse.

D’Alessandro continued to have contact with notorious prisoners such as William “Tippy” Wallace and Henry Brown, who were convicted and pleaded guilty, respectively, to murdering Canonsburg dry cleaner Carl Luisi and his 15-year-old clerk, Tina Spalla, in 1979, and Roland Steele, who was convicted of the 1985 karate-style killings of three elderly widows.

In the 1982-83 school year, D’Alessandro was among those assigned to keep order during what became the nation’s longest teachers’ strike at the time: the California Area School District work stoppage lasted for 82 days, leading to legislation to constrain the length of school strikes.

He was present when violence broke out after a late December nighttime negotiating session and a thermos was swung at a school board member’s face, breaking his nose. An iconic photo showed Deputy Fred Johns, arms outstretched, attempting to keep the factions at bay.

D’Alessandro found the public doesn’t understand the role of sheriff’s deputies in these situations.

“We don’t interfere with any strikes unless the court issues an order for us to be there,” he said. “Just because there’s a strike doesn’t mean we show up. We present the court order, called an injunction,” to the union and the employer and explain to both sides the specifics.

The ranks of Washington County deputy sheriffs have grown to 40 since the early 1980s.

“I either wanted to be a policeman or a corrections officer because I’d be contributing to a worthy cause,” D’Alessandro said before exiting the sheriff’s office for the final time.

He’d like to see sheriff’s deputies take on a bigger role in Pennsylvania law enforcement, for which legislation was introduced during a recent session but did not come to a vote.

Replacing him as chief deputy will be Anthony Andronas.

Romano commended D’Alessandro for his commitment to his job that combined noteworthy attendance with a friendly nature.

“He was always here, always around, and he knew everybody,” Romano said. “I can never remember Jimmy missing work. And if there was one thing you’ve got to say, he’s a loyal person.”