My journey ends here...
GIESLER Jerry
Harold Lee
Date of birth : November 2, 1886, Wilton Junction (today Wilton), Iowa.
Date of death : January 1, 1962, Beverly Hills (
).
Profession lawyer, office located 9200 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.
*
*
* 1950 : 1021 Hartford Way, Los Angeles
*
Story
Born in Wilton Junction, a town that his Pennsylvania Dutch grandfather helped found in 1856 (
).
Son of a bank cashier, he later psent his youth in Muscatine (Iowa). He had a younger brother nine years younger.
He was brought up to address people as Mr., Mrs. and Miss, "as a matter of courtesy", and continued to do that throughout his career.
When his mother died in 1901, he was sent to the Morgan Park Academy, near Chicago, where he graduated.
He enrolled at the University of Iowa's law school, then continued his law studies at the University of Southern California.
In 1910,
iconic lawyer Clarence Darrow (
) put Giesler on the road to success.
Darrow was accused of bribing a juror. Giesler was asked to look up a
point of law and Darrow was impressed when he returned with a 40 pages
of documentation. Thanks to this, Darrow was acquitted and Giesler
promoted.
Registration card 1917 
October 11, 1915 he married Elizabeth Hortense O'Connor (August 8, 1890, Canada-January 10, 1950, Los
Angeles 
) in Los Angeles (
-
).
They had a daughter, Mildred Lee (May 7, 1918, Los Angeles-February 3, 1977, California)(
). They divorced in 1928.
In 1931, he married Ruth M.Stevens (February 6, 1901, Michigan-September 16, 1989)(
); they had two children, Jerry Lee (born June 12, 1934, California) and Michael James (June 14, 1937, California-June 25,
1993, California 
).
). Flynn went free and his career wasn't harmed.
In 1944, he again successfully defended Charlie Chaplin (
).
(
,
).He handled many famous people's divorce such as Zsa Zsa Gabor and George Sanders (
), Shelley
Winters and Vittorio Gassman (
), Sylvia Ashley and Clark Gable (
), Barbara Hutton
and Cary
Grant (
).
In 1958, he defended 14-year-old Cheryl Crane, daughter of actress Lana Turner, accused of fatally stabbing
her mother's abusive lover, gangster Johnny Stompanato (
). Crane escaped punishment and
Turner's career survived intact.
,
,
.
In his later years, he suffered heart problems (
) and died in his sleep on January 1st, 1962.
He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (
).
Link with Marilyn
Marilyn hired him in 1954, for her divorce with DiMaggio.
On October 6, 1954, in his statment to the press about the reasons of her client's divorce, he talked about a "career gap" and asserted that the divorce would be grantedfor the usual reasons of mental cruely.
Press conference
Press conference
,
Departure in the car
,
-
,
,
,
,
,
,
Appearance at the court, Santa Monica Court, October 27, 1954
Arrival at the court
-
,
,
-
,
,
,
-
,
In the courtroom
,
,
-
-
,
,
,
,
,
-
,
-
,
Departure 
-
,
,
,
BACK TO INDEX
NEXT FILE