- Jake Ehrlich
Jake W. Ehrlich (
1900 -December 24 1971 ) was an American lawyer.Biography
Born near Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland. Known as "the Master," Jake Ehrlich had a forty year career as a defense and divorce attorney in San Francisco. He authored a dozen books on the law, the Bible, and his own life story. Ehrlich's life was the model for television lawyers
Perry Mason andSam Benedict .He earned a law degree and later a doctorate at Georgetown. He married Marjorie Mercer on June 30, 1920.
For much of his career, he was lead attorney for the San Francisco Police Officer's Association. Ehrlich defended prostitutes and police officers during the 1937 Grand Jury proceedings initiated by the work of
Edwin Atherton , hired by the San Francisco DA to investigate police malfeasence. Ehrlich wrote for law journals, magazines and television.Ehrlich's slogan was, "Never Plead Guilty." [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FMAJ22 Never Plead Guilty The Story of Jake Ehrlich (Hardcover)] ] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=VxM_AAAAIAAJ&dq=Jake+Ehrlich+home&num=30&pgis=1 Never Plead Guilty] , Google Books]
His celebrity clients include actors, writers, directors, musicians, sports figures, industrialists, madames, murderers, bigamists and petty crooks. Included in his client list were;
Alexander Pantages for statutory rape,Gene Krupa forcannabis ,Billie Holiday forheroin ,Errol Flynn andJames Mason for divorce,Howard Hughes for the movie "The Outlaw " and Gertrude Morris, on trial for murdering her husband in 1952 [ [http://law.jrank.org/pages/3045/Gertrude-Morris-Trial-1952.html Gertrude Morris Trial: 1952 - Extraordinary Defense Opening, Defendant Flees Courtroom] ] . He also defended rapistCaryl Chessman and stripperSally Rand .In 1957, he was lead attorney for
Lawrence Ferlinghetti , proprietor of theCity Lights Books along with L. Speiser and A. Bendich, defending the sale ofAllen Ginsberg 's book "Howl and other poems" in the obscenity trial.Erhlich's lavish home with a sliding roof at the top of Camino Alto in Marin County, in northern California is now owned by the family of rock promoter Bill Graham.
Bibliography
Books by Jacob W. "Jake" Ehrlich
* Ehrlich's Blackstone
* Howl of the Censor (ISBN 0-8371-8685-4)
* Ehrlich's Criminal Law
* Criminal Evidence
* The Educated Lawyer
* What is Wrong with the Jury System
* The Lost Art of Cross Examination (ISBN 0-88029-151-6)
* Trial of The Contested Divorce Case
* The Holy Bible and The Law (ISBN 1-58477-192-5)
* A Reasonable doubt
* A Life in My Hands - autobiography
* A Conflict of Interest - with B. Williams
* Howl of the Censor - Editor (ISBN 1-11117-504-7)References
Historical Dictionary of the 1950s Never Plead Guilty by Bernard Averbach and John W. Noble - (1955) Balantine N.Y.
External links
* [http://www.neverpleadguilty.com/index.html/ Jake Ehrlich Memorial page]
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