NEVER PLEAD GUILTY

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 22, 1955

This is the criminal casebook of California's Jake Ehrlich, a great defense counsel whose splasy showmanship may sometimes have obscured the essential integrity and intensity of purpose of the man. Self-made, Jake was to marry a Quaker girl, the only quiet thing in his life, odd Jobbed at the same time that he entered law, took on default divorce cases and bootleggers in the early days. In 1929, the sex story of the season, millionaire Alexander Pantages' trial on the charges of the rape of a co-ed, established him; he went on to defend the Hawaiian princess, Mrs. Alice K. Campbell who was worth ten million, madam Dolly Fine, wide-eyed and wistful Madge Bellamy after she fired three shots at her lover, Jane Russell and Sally Rand. He brought a breach of contract suit against Fritz Wiedemann, Nazi propagandist; he finally cleared Gene Krupa on a narcotics charge; he tried to convict his client- bluebearded Alfred Cline who killed a whole platoon of elderly women; and Btllie Holiday, Walter Wanger, Caryl Chessman figure here among the celebrities... A dapper dresser, a man of warm affections and generous impulses, all of this comes through along with much of the brash brilliance which has earned him a real reputation as well as notoriety.

Pub Date: Aug. 22, 1955

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1955

Categories: NONFICTION