Detectives are asking for the public’s help in finding any jewelry that may have been bought or sold following the slaying of a Southern California lawmaker’s father last month.
The body of Joseph Gatto, 78, was found in his ransacked Silver Lake home slumped over in a chair with a gunshot wound to the stomach on Nov. 13, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Gatto created “ornate custom-made” rings, bracelets, pendants and necklaces “using precious metals, stones, bone, ivory, porcelain, glass, wood and Egyptian scarabs,” a community alert from the LAPD Northeast Area said.
Many of Gatto’s pieces were engraved with “J A Gatto,” along with a circular design, police said.
Detectives are hoping that the jewelry’s unique qualities will help lead them to any pieces that may have been purchased or sold by pawn shops.
Gatto is the father of state Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles.
"He was just a tremendous guy," the assemblyman said in an interview outside his late father's home last month. "He worked very hard to raise us right."
Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the detectives Telis or Gable at (213) 486-6890 during business hours Monday through Friday, or LAPD Realtime Analysis & Critical Response Division at (213) 484-6700, 24 hours a day.
