Schlitz Heir Sentenced in Sex Assaults

The sole heir to the Schlitz brewery fortune was sentenced Tuesday in Santa Monica to 265 years in prison for sexually assaulting his daughter and her friend.

Walter David Tallmadge, 65, will be eligible for parole in about 149 years, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

“In effect, this is a life sentence for him,” Gibbons said.

Superior Court Judge Robert T. Altman imposed the maximum sentence on Tallmadge, who was convicted last month in a second trial on 15 counts of child molestation involving the two girls.

The first jury deadlocked in favor of conviction.

His daughter, now 8, was 2 when Tallmadge first assaulted her and her friend at his Pacific Palisades home and his Santa Monica business, Datal Industries, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Rose said.

Defense attorney Leonard Levine has said he plans to appeal. He has said the accusations are retaliatory fabrications of the child’s mother, who did not report the abuse until she filed to divorce Tallmadge.

Tallmadge is the great-grandson of former Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. President Henry Uihlein. The family sold its interest in the brewery to Stroh’s Brewing Co. of Detroit many years ago, and Tallmadge was the sole heir.

Tallmadge is a sex offender whose convictions date back to 1959 and involve relatives, employees and other young people who trusted him. Court records indicate that he was convicted in 1985 of sexually assaulting minors in Wisconsin and California.