Madge Meredith

On June 30, 1947, Madge Meredith was convicted and sentenced to prison for 5 years to life for complicity in an assault of her former manager, Nicholas D. Gianaclis, and his bodyguard, Verne V. Davis. Gianaclis and Davis testified that were beaten, kidnapped, and robbed by a group of men as they neared Meredith's home in the Hollywood Hills. In March 1951, the California Assembly Interim Committee on Crime and Corrections issued an official report concluding that Meredith had been framed. The case was handled sloppily in court and inconsistent allegations by the perpetrators were overlooked by police. In July 1951, Gov. Earl Warren commuted her sentence to time served and issued a statement of disgust at how her trial had been handled. Mr. Gianaclis was found to have set-up Miss Meredith to gain ownership of her home. Following her release from Tehachapi, prison, the court ordered that Miss Meredith receive back ownership of her home from her accuser. Mr. Gianaclis, an immigrant from Greece, was afterwards denied U.S. citizenship by the U.S. Immigration Service.