Son of notorious murderer sentenced to 5 years for bilking law clients

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A lawyer who was raised by one of Palm Beach County's most respected attorneys but is the biological son of one of its most notorious murderers today was sentenced to five years in prison for bilking clients out of more than $600,000.

Without any show of emotion, A. Clark Cone, 56, pleaded guilty to grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. He was fingerprinted and taken into custody immediately.

Raised by the late Al Cone, a revered lawyer who launched the careers of many of the county's most prominent attorneys, his 2009 arrest spurred a startling revelation. He is the biological son of Joe Peel, another once respected attorney who was convicted of master-minding the 1955 drowning deaths of Judge Curtis Chillingworth and his wife.

While Cone's wife left the courtroom in tears, one of his victims said he had no sympathy for Cone.

"We put all our trust in Mr. Cone," said Anthony DePrizio, who flew in from Boston to tell Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp how Cone's dishonesty prolonged the agony of a Riviera Beach car accident that nearly cost his wife her life. Instead of helping him and his wife recover money they desperately needed for her care, he stole it. Cone's prison sentence offered him little comfort.

"I don't care if he serves one day. I just want my money," DePrizio said.

While ordered to make restitution, Cone appears to have no means to repay his clients.

He has been disbarred. His $540,000 home is in foreclosure. He was represented by a public defender.

He took a $500,000 settlement he negotiated for the DePrizios in 2005, prosecutors said. He kept $100,000 he received in 2006 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a Miramar man who lost his wife in a plane crash. He also kept $38,940 awarded a Boca Raton woman he represented in a slip-and-fall case.

But the extent of his misdeeds are unknown. A paralegal who worked for him said many people, including a West Palm Beach couple who claimed their son suffered neurological damage because he was misdiagnosed at two local medical centers, lost their ability to recover money because Cone failed to file court papers on time.

Further, an examiner for the Florida Bar, who audited Cone's books, reported that he didn't keep records to show whose money he kept in his trust accounts. It was clear that Clark used the accounts as his own piggy bank, the examiner said.

John Tuckett, who was driving the car when DePrizio's wife was injured, said he belatedly discovered that Cone had gotten $4,000 from an insurance company by forging his and his wife's signatures. He said he never asked Cone to pursue the insurance company and didn't know he had done so until DePrizio started investigating.

The deceit was hurtful, Tuckett said. He had recommended DePrizio hire Cone because Cone and his son were friends, serving as best men at each other's weddings.

Many who knew about Cone's connection to what is still considered the most shocking crime in county history voiced similar sentiments after his arrest. His mother married Al Cone after Peel was convicted for hiring two thugs to kill Chillingworth and his wife because he feared Chillingworth was about to blow the whistle on his lucrative bolita and numbers racket and strip him of his ability to practice law. Al Cone adopted Clark Cone and his sister.

"I'm going down a horrible memory lane," longtime resident Mimi Mirsky said shortly after Cone's arrest.