Frances Mealbach Newsbank articles

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RETIRED JUDGE 'THE CENTER OF A HOST OF FRIENDS'

Detroit Free Press (MI)
November 15, 1990
Edition: METRO FINALOBT
ROBERT MUSIAL Free Press Staff Writer
Section: OBT
Page: 2B
Record Number: 9002130256


Retired Wayne County Probate Judge James Robert Gragg died
Tuesday of respiratory arrest at Beaumont Hospital in Troy.


Mr. Gragg, 60, was married to Pontiac Schools Superintendent
LaBarbara Gragg.


Mr. Gragg's philosophy was "the greatest reward for doing is
the opportunity to do more," he once told his daughter, Lauren.


Mr. Gragg was appointed to the probate bench in 1984 and
elected later that year.


In his most famous case as judge, he denied the claim in 1985
of Frances Mealbach, who claimed to be the long-lost daughter of auto
pioneer John Dodge.


After being on medical leave for several months, he resigned
in December 1986, at the start of a Judicial Tenure Commission hearing
on whether he was able to do his job after brain surgery.


Mr. Gragg, who grew up in Detroit, served in the Army from
1953 to 1955.


He earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University and law
degree from Wayne State University. He became an attorney for the
National Labor Relations Board in Detroit in 1963.


He also worked as a Ford Motor Co. attorney from 1964 to 1966
before going into private practice.


From 1970 to 1972, he was a partner in a Detroit law firm with
former Chief Recorder's Court Judge Samuel Gardne.


"He was the reason I went to law school -- he suggested it,"
said Gardner on Wednesday.


"He was a warm, wonderful, very considerate person. I doubt
very seriously if he had any enemies. . . . He was the center of a host
of friends we all knew," said Gardner.


In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by another
daughter, LaNita, and a grandson.


Visitation will be Friday after 3:30 p.m. at Bethel AME Church,
5050 St. Antoine, Detroit, with a family hour between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m.


Funeral services will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at the church.
Burial will be in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit.


***




Copyright (c) 1990 Detroit Free Press


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WOMAN SAYS PENCIL STROKE ERASED HER FROM AUTO MAGNATE'S PAST

Detroit Free Press (MI)
March 1, 1990
Edition: METRO FINALNWS
EMILIA ASKARI Free Press Staff Writer
Section: NWS
Page: 3B
Record Number: 9001080780


Call in the handwriting experts and paper analysts.


Frances Manzer Mealbach, the 75-year-old woman who contends she
is the daughter of the late auto magnate John Dodge, said Wednesday
that the birth certificate she obtained last week was altered.


Someone, she said, has erased some of the names on the
certificate and replaced them with others. The alleged tampering
strengthens Mealbach's contention that she is Dodge's daughter, she
said.


Mealbach, a bridal consultant who lives in Dearborn, has been
waging a legal battle to obtain her correct birth certificate for six
years. Recently, she received some paperwork, including a birth
certificate, but no definitive answers about her parentage.


"I don't know who I am, but I sure as heck know that I'm
somebody they didn't want around."


"They" are members of the Dodge family, said Mealbach, who was
adopted. She says she is the Siamese twin of Frances Dodge, Dodge's
daughter.


Mealbach's birth certificate lists her mother as Emma May. No
father is listed, she said. Mealbach's adoption records list her mother
as Emma Nelson, who worked for John Dodge, she said.


***




Copyright (c) 1990 Detroit Free Press


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FILES BACK DODGE BIRTH CLAIMANT, LAWYER SAYS

Detroit Free Press (MI)
February 24, 1990
Edition: METRO FINALNWS
WYLIE GERDES Free Press Staff Writer
Section: NWS
Page: 1A
Record Number: 9001080116


The 75-year-old adoption records examined this week by Frances
Manzer Mealbach "definitely, though not conclusively" support her claim
to be a daughter of auto magnate John Dodge, her lawyer said Friday.


Mealbach of Dearborn fought a six-year court battle for the
release of her adoption records to learn whether she was given up as a
child by a member of the Dodge family. The 20 to 30 pages of documents
show that there is "clearly a link to the John Dodge household and the
John Dodge family," attorney James Cunningham said.


But he said there was "no smoking gun" about John Dodge,
although the records were "not in apple pie order" and "candidly, if
there was an attempt by the Dodge family to keep something like this
very private, it certainly would have been accomplished."


At the request of Mealbach, Cunningham said he would not
reveal anything more specific, except that the records have no evidence
showing Mealbach was the Siamese twin of a Dodge child, as she
suspected because of childhood scars on her head.


Mealbach could not be reached for comment Friday, but
Cunningham said she intends to pursue the search into her roots and has
not ruled out legal action against the Dodge estate.


He said the records show that Mealbach is the daughter of an
unwed mother and also names her father. Cunningham would not reveal the
names, but said the father was not listed as John Dodge.


Mealbach was adopted by Robert and May Manzer in January 1915.


Cunningham said he spent hours with Mealbach going over the
records and "she's very much at peace about all this.


"She in her heart knows what she is. . . . If you find a
turtle on a tree stump, you know that somebody put it there even if you
didn't see them."




Copyright (c) 1990 Detroit Free Press


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DID DODGE DYNASTY PASS WOMAN UP? \ \

Miami Herald, The (FL)
February 21, 1990
Edition: FINALFRONT
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Section: FRONT
Page: 4A
Record Number: 9001130303


Frances Manzer Mealbach hopes to learn this week whether she is
the long-lost daughter of auto magnate John F. Dodge, and whether she
also is a separated Siamese twin, secretly and mysteriously given up
for adoption after her birth.


Last Wednesday, the state Court of Appeals reversed a probate
ruling, ordering the Mealbach adoption records opened to her. This
week, in the privacy of her lawyer's office, Mealbach, who says she is
77, will be handed three sets of the documents pertaining to her birth
and adoption.

Mealbach has memories of being taken at a young age to an elegant
old home on Boston Boulevard. She recalls many details of the Dodge
mansion, including the walks around the home, the plants and the ornate
interior and decor.


But they didn't mean much to her until 1968, when her father,
Robert Manzer, died and referred to her in his will as "my beloved
adopted daughter."


Years later, Mealbach saw the mansion again, first in a picture
book, then driving past it. Right away, she said, she knew it was the
image from long ago.


The best circumstance for her would be that the documents would
provide evidence that Mealbach is the daughter of Dodge, who died in
1920, leaving a $36.8 million estate. But just knowing her roots, she
says, would be enough.


At her age, Mealbach said, "I really am not interested in any
money. I am much more concerned about who my natural parents really
were."


"I also expect that the birth records may not tell much. They
could have covered them up back then, too. Money buys anything."


Mealbach has scars on her neck and the back of her head that,
she was told, resulted from a childhood accident. However, she wondered
whether Frances Matilda Dodge Van Lennep was her Siamese twin. Dodge
Van Lennep, a daughter of Dodge, died in 1971. Mealbach also wondered
whether she was given up after separation surgery because the family
feared she would not be normal.


Dodge's will provided that when the last of his six children
died, the trust would be broken up and handed over to the Dodge
grandchildren. That event came on Jan. 3, 1980, with the death of
Winifred Dodge Grey Seyburn.


The 12 heirs each received between $350,000 and $1.3 million.


Meanwhile, Mealbach and her family were getting closer to
establishing a connection to the Dodge family. Six years ago, her
lawyer, Jay Cunningham, filed suit against the Dodge trust seeking to
have Mealbach declared an heir to the fortune.


He based the action in part on the discovery of a Michigan
Department of State birth certificate for Frances Matilda Dodge Van
Lennep. It showed a birth date of Nov. 27, 1914, and revealed she had a
twin sister. Mealbach's own birth certificate, which mysteriously was
not filed until 1941, shows a birth date of Nov. 23, 1914. Mealbach
insists she is 77, however.




Copyright (c) 1990 The Miami Herald


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77-YEAR-OLD ADOPTION FILES MAY HOLD KEY TO A DODGE

Detroit Free Press (MI)
February 20, 1990
Edition: METRO FINALNWS
CHRISTOPHER COOK Free Press Staff Writer
Section: NWS
Page: 1A
Record Number: 9001070595


In her mind's eye, she could see herself taken at a young age
to an elegant old home on Boston Boulevard in Detroit.


She didn't know why she was there, but remembered clearly a
parquet floor in the mansion, a sun room and a front bedroom decorated
in pink that she once tried to reproduce with crepe paper in her own
home.


She could see a frail, redheaded woman who was happy and fun
and treated her with special affection. She remembered getting milk
and cookies.


Frances Manzer Mealbach could describe the images in detail,
down to the walks, plants, ornate interior and decor. But they didn't
mean much to her until 1968, the year her father died and his will
revealed that she was adopted.


Years later she saw the house again, first in a picture book,
and then she drove by it. She knew right away it was the image from
long ago.


The images, her curiosity and the discovery are woven through a
22-year maze that has taken Mealbach from recollection to revelation to
hope and frustration by way of anecdotes, books, records and the
courts.


This week, in the privacy of her lawyer's office, Mealbach will
at last be handed three sets of 77-year-old documents, all ordered
unsealed by the Michigan Court of Appeals. They will pertain to her
birth and adoption.


In the best circumstance for her, the documents would provide
evidence that Mealbach is a daughter of auto industry mogul John F.
Dodge, who died in 1920, at age 55. Just knowing that would be enough.


"At 77 years old, I really am not interested in any money,"
Mealbach said in an interview last week. "I am much more concerned
about who my natural parents really were.


"I also expect that the birth records may not tell much. They
could have covered them up back then, too. Money buys anything."


Mealbach, of Dearborn, said that when her father, Robert
Manzer, referred to "my beloved adopted daughter" in his will, "I was
shocked.


"But that was the first time I ever even conceived of it. I
really didn't have much interest in chasing anything at first, because
I was very comfortable with who I am now. In fact, my husband used to
say 'maybe you don't want to know. They might want to move in with
us.' "


But in part at the urging of her three children, Mealbach and
her family have obtained inconclusive yet tantalizing information from
agencies that hold her adoption records. Two of those point to the
Dodges.


One connection came from Wayne County Probate Judge Thomas
Murphy, now deceased, who agreed in 1968 to talk to Mealbach in his
chambers.


She later learned that the judge had handled several Dodge
family wills, including parts of John Dodge's estate. He told Mealbach
she "did not want to know about my parents," but let her see the back
side of one document on which she saw the name Emma Nelson.


Years later, Mealbach learned that Nelson was a servant at the
Dodge mansion on Boston Boulevard. Was Emma her mother, she wondered,
or just a witness for the papers?


Mealbach knows she was adopted in January 1915 by Robert and
Minnie May Manzer, and contends she grew up hearing about connections
to a large automotive family. She recalls talk about how her own
family's circumstances improved after she arrived, but then declined
after John Dodge died.


She also remembers the curious and constant presence around the
Manzer house in her childhood of an affable man, a friend of her
mother and father, named Frank Upton. She later learned that he was
personal secretary to John and Horace Dodge. Early in her search, she
said, she went to visit Upton's aging widow, Violet. Mealbach said
Violet told her: "The truth is finally going to come out."


John Dodge was married twice. Each of his wives had three
children, although the last child lived only a few years.


The disposition of his $36.8-million estate was a highly
publicized event that extended over the next two decades.


With income from a trust that made up the bulk of the estate,
John Dodge provided generously for his second wife, Matilda, and all
the children except his oldest son, John Duval Dodge, who had a
reputation for booze and women, plus a string of confrontations with
the law. He was left an income of $150 a month.


John Duval Dodge would spend the rest of his life trying to
increase his inheritance, losing some attempts and winning others
before he finally died in police custody one raucous night in 1942
after being caught in an amorous liaison with a young interior
decorator who was the house guest of a neighbor.


The will provided that when the last of the children died, the
trust would be broken up and handed over to the Dodge grandchildren.
That date came on Jan. 3, 1980, with the death of Winifred Dodge Grey
Seyburn.


The 12 heirs received between $350,000 and $1.3 million each.


Meanwhile, Frances Mealbach and her family were getting closer
to establishing a connection to the Dodge family. In 1984, her lawyer,
Jay Cunningham, filed suit against the Dodge trust seeking to be
declared an heir to the fortune.


He based the action in part on the discovery of a Michigan
Department of State birth certificate for Frances Matilda Dodge Van
Lennep, a daughter of John Dodge who died in 1971. It showed a birth
date of Nov. 27, 1914, and revealed she had a twin sister. Mealbach's
own birth certificate, which mysteriously was never filed until 1941,
shows a date of Nov. 23, 1914.


Mealbach has scars on her neck and the back of her head which
she was told resulted from a childhood accident. She wondered if
Frances Matilda was her Siamese twin. She wondered if she was given up
after separation surgery because the family feared she would not be
normal.


In 1985, Wayne Probate Judge Robert Gragg denied Mealbach's
motion to be declared a "natural issue" of John Dodge, saying she
waited too long to pursue the matter and refusing to retract the
disposition of the estate.


Wayne Probate Judge Martin Maher in 1987 denied a petition from
Mealbach to open her birth and adoption records. The Michigan Court of
Appeals reversed him last month, clearing the way for Mealbach to see
the files this week.


She hopes to clear up several contradictory statements she has
heard in her search -- including that she was born to a Jackson woman
and that her father was unknown, and that her parents were unmarried
teenage factory workers.


If the records show she is a Dodge child, attorney Cunningham
said "we will have to proceed with caution and see what we might do in
terms of recovering from the estate."


In one of the files in 11 boxes of court records dating back
to 1920, Cunningham may have offered the answer:


"The very history of this matter suggests the outcome. John
Duval Dodge, the deceased son, was effectively disinherited although
not omitted from John F. Dodge's will. He knew his legal right, pressed
his claim, and as a result of simply not liking what he got, was
awarded a substantial settlement."


CHRONOLOGY


* Nov. 23 1914: Official date of birth of Frances Manzer
Mealbach, in Detroit. She was adopted in January 1915 by Robert and
Minnie May Manzer, but for reasons unknown her birth certificate was
not recorded until 1941.


* Nov. 27, 1914: Matilda Dodge bears John Dodge's fifth child,
Frances Matilda Dodge Johnson Van Lennep, who would die in 1971.


* Jan. 14, 1920: Automobile magnate Dodge dies, leaving a
pregnant wife and five children.


* Feb. 10, 1921: John Dodge's will is unsealed. He split his
fortune between his wife and four of his five children. The oldest son,
John Duval Dodge, is disinherited and left with $150-a-month support.


* August, 1921: John Duval Dodge starts the first of several
successful moves over the ensuing 18 years to get more of his father's
estate, including pressure on the Legislature to alter Michigan
inheritance laws to his favor. He lives until 1942.


* January, 1968: Robert Manzer dies, leaving a reference in his
will to Frances Manzer Mealbach, his "beloved adopted daughter," her
first revelation of being adopted. During a visit to the chambers of a
Wayne County probate judge, she sees a name on a document he holds,
Emma Nelson, whom she later learns was a housekeeper at the Dodge
mansion.


* Fall, 1982: The Michigan Secretary of State's office
accidentally sends Mealbach a birth certificate for Frances Matilda
Dodge which states she was a twin and first in order of birth.
Mealbach, seeing no connection, replies that they must have sent her
the wrong document. The state responds, addressing her as "Dear
Margaret Frances," a name she has never heard.


* Jan 3, 1980: Winifred Seyburn is the last of John Dodge's
six children to die, clearing the way for distribution of the family
trust to the 12 grandchildren.


* December 1984: Mealbach files suit against John Dodge's
estate asking that it be determined whether or not she is a "natural
issue" of John Dodge, and possibly an heir.


* Feb 15, 1985: Wayne County Probate Judge Robert Gragg denies
Mealbach's request.


* Dec. 7, 1984: Mealbach files a petition asking that all her
birth records be unsealed.


* Dec. 18, 1987: Wayne County Probate Court denies the request,
and the matter is appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals.


* Feb. 14, 1990: The Michigan Court of Appeals reverses
probate court, ordering the Mealbach adoption records opened to her.




Copyright (c) 1990 Detroit Free Press


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WOMAN VOWS TO PRESS HEIR CASE

Detroit Free Press (MI)
November 8, 1986
Edition: STATE EDITIONNWS
BRENDA J. GILCHRIST Free Press Staff Writer
Section: NWS
Page: 2A;
Record Number: 8602200617


Frances Mealbach, the Dearborn woman who claims to be an heir
to the estate of the late auto magnate John Dodge, said Friday she will
pursue her claim until it has a chance to be heard in court.


Mealbach, 72, was in the Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday
seeking reinstatement of her case, which was dismissed without a
hearing Feb. 15, 1985, by Wayne County Probate Judge J. Robert
Gragg. Her petition asking the court to determine if she is an
heir was filed in October 1984. Mealbach also wants to examine her
adoption records.


"I'll give it up once I'm heard and once I look at the
papers," Mealbach said.


During the proceedings before Gragg, Jay Cunningham,
Mealbach's attorney, said she may have been a Siamese twin of John
Dodge's daughter Frances Dodge VanLennep, who died in 1971 at age 57.
Cunningham said state records showed two birth certificates for
VanLennep, one listing a single birth and another saying she was the
firstborn of twins.


Gragg, in dismissing the case, said the 1980 probate court
settlement of the $4 million Dodge estate was a final and binding
order and that Mealbach filed her calim too late.


Joseph Sullivan, an attorney for the estate of Dodge's oldest
daughter, Winifred Dodge Seyburn, again argued that the 1980 settlement
was binding. He said Mealbach's claim was based on hearsay.


****




Copyright (c) 1986 Detroit Free Press


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DODGE'S LEGACY OF LITIGATION \ 65 YEARS LATER, AUTO MILLIONAIRE'S WILL
IS STILL CONTESTED

Detroit Free Press (MI)
March 31, 1985
Edition: METRO FINALWWL
LAURA BERMAN Free Press Staff Writer
Section: WWL
Page: 1H
Record Number: 8501130193


From the 13th floor of the City-County Building, a back
stairway leads to a mezzanine. It is here that auto magnate John F.
Dodge's will and legacy reside in nine brown file folders, all of them
crumbling and tattered from the wear of many hands.


The clerks of the Wayne County Probate Court shrug at the
disarray. So many people look through these papers -- last week,
someone from Florida; the week before, a man from California -- they
can't be maintained properly. Some of the pages are in pieces, the
brittle, yellowing scraps of paper scattered throughout different
folders. It is not an orderly compilation of 65 years of history.


John Dodge had planned for a more systematic disposition of his
wishes and fortune. When he died in 1920 at age 55, he left behind $40
million and a will drafted by what newspapers of the day called "the
combined efforts of some of the finest legal minds in the city." So
precise was the will's language, so detailed were the various
contingencies foreseen in its 22 pages that it was considered to be
unbreakable.


Dodge's will did remain unbroken for several months after his
sudden death -- the time it took for his heirs to speed a law through
the state Legislature allowing them early access to some of his
millions.


In the years since, the will has provided unending fodder for
public debate, private acrimony and legal maneuvering. It has been the
subject of two state Supreme Court decisions, one state appeals court
ruling and the hastily enacted 1921 "Dodge law." It also has provided a
steady and substantial flow of income to some of the city's blue-chip
law firms and to Comerica Bank, which administers the Dodge trust.
Commenting on the case, the late Judge Willis Ward once wryly remarked,
"As long as there's language, there's a possibility of litigation
between ingenious minds."


New twist to old story


Despite an appeals court order last year to distribute Dodge's
trust, the legacy lives on, the lawyers continue to toil and the
Probate Court clerks watch with bemused expressions as new generations
of lawyers, journalists and various unidentified but interested parties
thumb their way through 65 years of court filings.


Perhaps Dodge wouldn't be completely surprised by the turn of
events. In his will, he provided for his wife and six children (one of
whom was born after his death) to be paid the income from a trust
fund. Only when the children died would the assets of the fund be
distributed.


The last child to die, in 1980, was Dodge's oldest daughter,
Winifred Dodge Seyburn, a Grosse Pointe socialite famous both for her
Sunday night suppers and for her British butler who made a fortune
(though not one equal to hers) in the stock market. "We'll have dinner
if we can get this rich man to serve us," she would tell her guests.
Her death, at 85, touched off a legal battle that ended last year, when
the state Supreme Court declined to interfere with Ward's ruling to
distribute the trust to Dodge's seven grandchildren.


That might have been that, except for the new and unexpected
claim of a 70-year-old Dearborn woman, Frances Mealbach, who says she
is a long-lost daughter of John Dodge and, perhaps, a Siamese twin of
his daughter Frances.


Last fall, when Mealbach petitioned the court to release her
adoption records, 11 lawyers representing individual Dodge heirs showed
up to fight her claim and to file stacks of new documents.


Her claim has added a new twist to the ambiguity of a phrase in
Dodge's will, a phrase Ward once Mealbach identified as "the guts of
the case." It reads: "I direct my said trustees to convey my said
estate to the heirs of my said children."


When Ward made that comment, the word "heirs" seemed the most
ambiguous part of the phrase. Now Mealbach's claim suggests a further
ambiguity -- John Dodge's choice of the words "said children."


Compelling coincidences


Fantastic on its surface, Mealbach's story has been told in
publications as diverse as the National Enquirer and Paris Match. A
movie company has called, she says, and three authors are hungry for
book rights. Even the Dodge biographer, Jean Madden Pitrone, says she
is trying to be objective, but the number of coincidences that point
to John Dodge seem compelling.


"I'm certainly almost convinced by her story," says Pitrone,
who discovered John Dodge had been secretly married to his housekeeper
at the time he was courting his official second wife, Matilda Rausch.


Pitrone, who lives in Trenton, has interviewed Mealbach
several times, attended all the court hearings and met with
Mealbach's daughter Brenda Eilers in Florida.


Mealbach, a dignified and straightforward woman who works at a
bridal shop, says the series of events that have led her to this link
with the Dodge family are "spooky."


"I'm not interested in the money," she says, "I'm really not.
With all the lawyers they have, even if I won this case, I'd be dead by
the time I did."


Frederick Buesser III, counsel to the court-appointed lawyer
assigned to locate unknown heirs to the trust, comments, "The Dodge
heirs had been fighting among themselves long before Mealbach. This
case has generated more paper just in the last four years than any
I've ever seen."


If anything, Mealbach's willingness to seek legal action is a
Dodge family trait. "They are a litigious group of people," said
Buesser.


Fast living at the top


Their wealth was wrought in the brief and heady era when
Detroit was the center of a new industrial revolution. The brothers,
John and Horace Dodge, were ambitious, risk-taking, hard- drinking
mechanics ("Cripple Beaten by Dodge Asks Damages," read one 1912
headline). Together, they quickly soldered a reputation for precision
machine work, a reputation that won them a contract to produce
transmissions for early Oldsmobiles. They abandoned Ransom Olds for
Henry Ford a few years later, gambling they could make money faster by
producing cars for Ford. It was the Dodges who built the chassis and
most of the moving parts for the first Model A's. To raise cash for the
enterprise, Ford sold stock, making the Dodges major shareholders and
ensuring their fortune.


By 1916, John and Horace Dodge had created Dodge Brothers
Inc., with their own Hamtramck assembly line; soon after, it became the
fourth largest automobile company in the nation. Their continued
ownership of Ford stock -- and the $1 million- plus dividends they
were reaping -- was proving intolerable to Ford. After a court battle
in 1919, Ford bought their shares for $25 million. Both brothers were
dead within two years.


Unlike their competitor Ford, whose grandson Henry Ford II took
over the Ford Motor Co. and added dynastic luster to the Ford name,
the Dodge brothers left no legacy in their automobile company. The
firm was sold in 1928, absorbed by what was to become the Chrysler
Corp., and their legacy was money -- money that perpetuated decades of
spectacular excess in multiple marriages and divorces, lavish spending
and lavish debts, and always, the parade of expensive lawyers.


The family trees


Horace Dodge's only son, Horace Jr., a florid-faced man with a
love for liquor and fast boats, acquired castles (one in France,
another in England) and a string of wives with long legs and expensive
tastes. In honor of his engagement to fifth wife Gregg Sherwood, Horace
Jr. threw a party in Cannes where he presented his fiancee a $100,000
diamond while guests munched on 60 pounds of caviar. When he died in
1964, he left behind $2 million in his estate and $16 million in debts.


John Dodge's family life was considerably more complicated
than his brother's: He had six children from two marriages, to Ivy
Hawkins, who died in her early 30s, and then to the stern but
industrious Matilda. (The secret marriage to his housekeeper produced
no children.) His two sons died young. Daniel Dodge died on his
honeymoon in 1938, when he drowned under bizarre circumstances. Injured
by an explosion of dynamite, he fell off a boat speeding to take him
from an Ontario island to the mainland for help. His wife of 13 days
relinquished claims to his estate in exchange for a cash settlement
that, according to the Dodge biography, totaled $2.5 million.


The older son, John Duval Dodge, who had been jailed
occasionally for various infractions involving alcohol and women, was
disinherited by his father, except for a $150-a- month stipend. John
Duval Dodge spent most of his life seeking to wrest back some of his
father's fortune.


A case contesting the will was pending in the Supreme Court
when John Duval was arrested in 1942 outside an Indian Village home
where his wife, Dora, found him with another woman. The other woman,
Mignon Fontaigne, was "an attractive, unemployed interior decorator"
who had been staying with neighbors of the Dodges. When John Duval
forced his way into her room, Fontaigne told him, "I don't go in for
love," she explained to police.


The scandal erupted into public view when Dodge died, under
mysterious circumstances, at police headquarters. Police claimed he
suffered a skull fracture when, drunk and argumentative, he fell to the
floor. After his death, the Supreme Court ruled against his latest
claim to his father's trust fund.


But John Duval Dodge's lifelong efforts to break his father's
will were somewhat vindicated in 1980, when Judge Ward ruled that John
Duval's daughter Mary Ann Dodge Danaher, who lives in Grosse Pointe
Farms, was entitled to 8.33 percent of her grandfather's trust.


Search for identity


By the time Frances Mealbach had made her way to probate court
late last year, Comerica was at last distributing John Dodge's estate.
Lawyers say all but about $12 million of the $40 million trust has been
distributed to heirs.


Mealbach's bid to halt the process failed last month, when
Probate Judge J. Robert Gragg ruled against her, saying she had waited
too long to surface her claim. At the same time, he denied her request
to let her adoption records be released. Her lawyer James Cunningham
since has appealed Gragg's decision. According to Cunningham, judges
sometimes let people look at their adoption records privately, but no
Michigan judge has ever ordered adoption records opened publicly.


In her fastidiously neat Dearborn home, Mealbach describes the
years of hunting for clues of her ancestry that led to her legal
challenge. She began the search after her adoptive father, Robert
Manzer, died in 1967. Startled by a phrase in his will that referred to
her as his adopted daughter, and under pressure from her children to
learn more, she began to seek information about her natural parents.


Her children have been the impetus, she says. They have pushed
her to continue the search, and have spent hundreds of dollars and
countless hours of their time pursuing leads, writing letters for
records and digging up long-forgotten names.


"My mother says the money doesn't mean anything to her and she
means that," her daughter Brenda Eilers says bluntly. "Now, I don't
mean that and my brothers and sisters don't feel that way, because
we're younger. I believe that John and Matilda were my grandfather and
my grandmother, and from what I know about John, he wouldn't have just
left my mother without providing for her in some way."


The search is complicated further by the fact that most of the
people who knew John Dodge's family have long since died. Even Amelia
Rausch, Matilda Dodge's younger sister who lived well into her 90s,
died before Mealbach knew she needed to speak with her.


Interesting questions


The evidence Mealbach has -- and will share -- is tantalizing
because of the questions it raises. Among the details Mealbach believes
link her to John and Matilda Dodge and their daughter, Frances:


* She has been given two accounts of her birth. She says a
Wayne County Probate Court judge, now deceased, told her he had only
the name of her mother, who was from Jackson. "He said I shouldn't know
what was in my papers because it might upset me," Mealbach said. State
officials later sent her records indicating she had been born in
Detroit and had been hospitalized near Niles -- the birthplace of John
and Horace Dodge -- as an infant.


In 1982, her daughter sent away for the birth certificate of
Frances Dodge (Van Lennep), which said she was was born Nov. 27, 1914.
The birth certificate says Frances Dodge was female, and "1st in order
of birth." A box marked "twins" also is checked. Frances Mealbach --
who didn't learn her first name was Frances until after her father's
death -- said her birthday was listed as Nov. 23, 1914. Her
registration of birth, which lists her adoptive parents, never was
filed until Sept. 2, 1941. "I have no idea who filed it," she says. Her
lawyer, Cunningham, theorizes the Dodges may have given up a baby for
adoption if the baby was deformed or sickly.


fter her adoption, Mealbach claims, her parents paid cash to
buy a new, large house on Hogarth in Detroit, only a short time after
losing their previous home through foreclosure. Photographs of her
family show her mother in a fur coat and indicate the family was
well-to-do, she claims. Mealbach's lawyer will not release the
photographs.


With her daughters, Mealbach had driven down West Boston Blvd.
several years ago, searching without success for a mansion she
remembered visiting as a child. When she saw a photograph of the Dodge
home at 75 East Boston Blvd. in Pitrone's book, "The Dodges," she
said, "That's the house," and spotted it immediately the next time she
drove down Boston Blvd.


Old memories surface


Publicity has flushed out old memories from people around the
country, Mealbach says, some of them lending credence to her story. A
cousin of Mealbach's, Mary Henneman of Salt Lake City, claims her
mother, now dead, told her twice that Frances Mealbach had come from an
automotive family, a family "where the father was wealthy and the girl
and her family was not." And Mabel Burgett, a 70-year-old Brighton
woman, says her mother- in-law told her John and Matilda Dodge had had
Siamese twins, but that the matter was hushed up and one of the twins
disappeared.


Burgett had no close ties to the Dodge family, although she
had relatives who worked for Dodge Brothers and told saloon stories
about the Dodge boys. "John Dodge was like one of the family. He just
was always talked about," Burgett explains. Over the years, she has
saved pictures and clippings of Dodge family history. She also has been
unable to shake the memory of the Siamese twin tale, she says. "I've
been waiting my whole life for this story to come out. It was still in
my mind someday I would find that other twin."


The stories of Burgett and Henneman suggest some connection
between Mealbach and the Dodges, but the possibilities are numerous.
Mealbach herself acknowledges she could have been an illegitimate child
of John Dodge.


Did Frances Dodge have scars to match the scars on Mealbach's
back and neck -- scars medically consistent, lawyer Cunningham claims,
with the result of an operation to separate Siamese twins? Or are
Mealbach's scars the result of a bad fall, as her adoptive parents told
her? Court documents quote Frances Dodge's ex-husband James Johnson,
who said she had "a perfect body" without scars.


Mealbach says she has much more convincing proof than what has
been outlined already in court: photographs that portray a remarkable
likeness between her and John Dodge, conversations with people who,
like Burgett, remember disquieting stories about a missing twin from
the Dodge household. And though she says she has pursued this peculiar
quest largely at the prodding of her children, she now wants the matter
settled.


"It seems silly to wait 10 years to have this matter settled.
Instead of all these lawyers fighting in court, why can't someone -- a
judge, any impartial person -- just open up the records? If there's
nothing to it, that will be it."


****




Copyright (c) 1985 Detroit Free Press


==================================================
`HEIRESS SUIT THWARTED'

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
February 18, 1985
Edition: FINALNEWS
Section: NEWS
Page: 9
Record Number: 7417


Detroit


Wayne County Probate Judge J. Robert Gragg has rejected a claim
from Frances Mealbach, 70, who said she was the long-lost Siamese twin
of an heiress to automobile magnate John F. Dodge and sought part of
his $40 million fortune.
Associated Press




Copyright 1985 San Francisco Chronicle


==================================================
PROSECUTORS TO SEEK INDICTMENT OF DE LOREAN IN FINANCIAL DEALS

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
February 17, 1985
Edition: FINALMAIN NEWS
Herald-Leader wire services
Section: MAIN NEWS
Page: A4
Record Number: 8501070049


Federal prosecutors who are investigating the financial
dealings of John Z. De Lorean will ask a grand jury to indict the
former automaker, his lawyers say.


Creditors of the bankrupt De Lorean Motor Co. have sued former
directors and officers for $200 million, alleging that more than $26
million was diverted from the company for use by De Lorean and other
company officials.

Los Angeles lawyers Howard Weitzman and Donald Re, who represent
De Lorean, said in a letter to two federal judges that U.S. attorneys
in Detroit told them of the request for an indictment.


Meanwhile, the British government said yesterday it had filed a
$270 million suit against the U.S. accountants who checked the books of
De Lorean's failed auto firm in Belfast, Northern Ireland.


The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in New York City,
claims the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen and Co. was negligent in
not uncovering irregularities in the American carmaker's operation,
Britain's Northern Ireland Office said in a statement.


NAACP asks Reagan to meet with its leaders: The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked President
Reagan yesterday to meet with its leaders to discuss "very grave civil
rights and social issues that are blocking the path of black Americans
toward full equality."


NAACP director Benjamin L. Hooks said yesterday at the civil
rights group's 76th annual convention in New York City that he met with
Reagan three times in his first term but was turned down recently.


Administration spokesman Peter H. Roussel said yesterday that
the White House had not received the NAACP's request but "would
certainly be glad to review it when it comes in."


White House reporters' vehicles burned: A suspicious fire
outside a Santa Barbara, Calif., hotel housing White House staff and
press corps yesterday damaged two vehicles rented by reporters covering
President Reagan's visit to his ranch, officials said.


Someone siphoned gasoline from a truck around 3:15 a.m. and
allowed the fuel to run under a car rented by a reporter for Reuters,
the British wire service, and a pickup truck rented by a Detroit News
reporter, fire department spokesman Pete Ramsdell said.


Investigators assume the same people set the gasoline afire, he
said.


Nigerians arrested in heroin bust: Two Nigerian nationals were
arrested and 5 pounds of heroin worth an estimated $5 million were
seized in what drug enforcement officials yesterday called one of the
largest heroin seizures ever in the Washington area.


The men were arrested late Friday night after a two-month joint
undercover operation between the Drug Enforcement Administration and
Washington police.


William Merritt of the DEA said the men apparently carried the
heroin into this country from Nigeria, which he said had turned into a
drug trafficking hub in recent years.


Judge throws out woman's claim to Dodge estate: A judge in
Detroit has rejected a claim from a woman who said she was the
long-lost Siamese twin of an heiress to automobile magnate John F.
Dodge, and sought part of his $40 million fortune.


Wayne County Probate Judge J. Robert Gragg ruled Friday that
Frances Mealbach, 70, was too late to lay claim to the estate, which
was divided under a 1980 probate court order that was upheld by the
state Supreme Court.


Colombian airline faces penalty: The Colombian airline Avianca
faces a penalty of at least $1 million for the return of its impounded
$119 million cargo jet used to smuggle more than a ton of cocaine, U.S.
customs officials in Miami said.


Federal agents seized the Boeing 747 early Friday after agents
found the cocaine hidden in a shipment of Valentine flowers, officials
said.


The huge haul was the 34th time cocaine had been found on an
Avianca jet since April 1980, authorities said.




Copyright (c) 1985 Lexington Herald-Leader


==================================================
JUDGE REJECTS BID TO FREEZE DODGE ESTATE

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
December 16, 1984
Edition: FINALNATIONAL
Associated Press
Section: NATIONAL
Page: A05
Record Number: 8403010101


A woman who says she might be a Siamese twin of one of John F.
Dodge's daughters has lost a bid to halt the distribution of the
automobile magnate's $40 million fortune.


Wayne County Probate Judge J. Robert Gragg rejected the request
Friday

from Frances Manzer Mealbach, 70, saying that halting the
distribution pending a ruling on her claim to part of the estate would
be unfair to Dodge's known heirs.

Dodge, who founded the automobile company bearing his name in
1914, died of pneumonia in 1920. He put his estate in a trust that paid
interest to his six children, the last of whom died in 1980.


Efforts to divide the principal among remaining heirs were
bottled up in courts for several years. The estate eventually was
settled, and about $28 million of the $40 million reportedly has been
distributed.


Gragg said Mealbach failed to show that distributing the rest
of the estate would cause her irreparable harm.


Mealbach said that in 1967, when her adoptive father died, she
learned that she had been adopted. She is asking Gragg to open her
adoption and birth records.






Copyright (c) 1984 The Philadelphia Inquirer

==================================================
VIDEOS BY LENNON, SUMMER RATED AMONG LEAST VIOLENT

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
December 16, 1984
: FINALMAIN NEWS
Associated Press
: MAIN NEWS
: A2
: 8402170732

Music videos featuring Donna Summer and the late John Lennon were rated
among the least violent by a television watchdog group that says the
multimedia clips are making children anti-social and less sensitive to
violence. A report issued Friday by the National Coalition on
Television Violence listed Michael Jackson and the Jacksons and the
group ABC as the most

violent. "The Jacksons continue to use a large amount of violence
in their entertainment," Thomas Radecki, the chairman of the group,
said in a telephone interview Friday from his office in Champaign,
Ill.Harmful habit: After surprising his doctors by apparently winning a
bout with lung cancer, actor Yul Brynner says that if he had it to do
again he would not smoke. Smoking is "suicide," said Brynner, who
continued performing in a national tour of The King and I while
fighting the disease. Brynner, 64, who is scheduled to appear today on
CBS' "60 Minutes," told correspondent Mike Wallace that he was
convinced his cigarette habit of five packs a day caused his cancer.
"Otherwise, I was enormously healthy, a very strong man," he
said.Joint mission: Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke is calling
for U.S.-Soviet cooperation in space exploration, as depicted in his
novel 2010, the basis of a current movie."If we can't cooperate on
this planet, we have no future any!
where in the universe," Clarke said Friday at a luncheon with U.S.
Sen. Spark Matsunaga, D-Hawaii. The senator has submitted a
congressional resolution calling for the United States to work with,
rather than compete against, the Soviets in space.Rock-related injury:
The British rock band Wham was forced to cancel a concert scheduled for
last night after singer George Michael suffered a painful back injury.
Michael strained his lower vertebrae Friday night after a concert in
the northern England city of Leeds, said the group's press agent,
Connie Philippello. He was in great pain and had to be carried to his
dressing room, she said.Cut off: A woman who says that she may be a
Siamese twin of one of John F. Dodge's daughters and that she was put
up for adoption has lost a bid to halt distribution of the automobile
magnate's $40 million fortune. Wayne County (Mich.) Probate Judge J.
Robert Gragg rejected the request Friday from Frances Manzer Mealbach,
70, saying that to ha!
lt distribution pending a ruling on her claim would be unfair to Dodg
e's known heirs. Dodge, who in 1914 founded the automobile company
bearing his name, died of pneumonia in 1920.Freedom seeker: Wilbert
Rideau, co-editor of an award-winning inmate's magazine at the
Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, plans to ask the state
Wednesday to set him free after 23 years. He says he is not the same
person who held up a bank at age 19, took three hostages to a lonely
road, shot all three and stabbed one to death. Under the direction of
Rideau and fellow inmate Billy Sinclair, The Angolite magazine has been
singled out at least eight times in the last seven years for national
recognition by organizations ranging from private foundations to the
American Bar Association.



Copyright (c) 1984 Lexington Herald-Leader


==================================================
WOMAN SAYS SHE'S SIAMESE-TWIN HEIR TO DODGE CAR FORTUNE

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
November 21, 1984
: FINALNATIONAL
Edward Miller, Associated Press
: NATIONAL
: F05
: 8402250211


A 69-year-old woman who says she is a long-lost daughter of
automotive pioneer John Dodge asked a judge yesterday for help in her
bid to win a share of the $40 million family fortune.


Wayne County Probate Judge J. Robert Gragg took under
advisement the request by Frances Mealbach that he block distribution
of the money to the recognized Dodge heirs until her claim is settled.

Mealbach says she is a twin - perhaps a Siamese twin - of Frances
Dodge, who died in 1971 at age 57.


Separate hearings will be held March 21 and March 22 on
Mealbach's assertion that she is an heir.


James Cunningham, Mealbach's attorney, said his client has
scars on the base of her neck and her spine that her doctors say
typically occur only in the separation of Siamese twins.


He also said Mealbach had a birth certificate given to her by
the State of Michigan indicating that a Frances Dodge was born Nov. 27,
1914, as a first twin.


Mealbach, however, has never been able to obtain her own birth
certificate and does not know her exact date of birth, Cunningham said.


Mealbach, who lives in Dearborn, Mich., and is married to a
retired stove executive, used the first name Lucille until she learned
when her father died in 1968 that she was adopted.


In researching her background, her attorney said she discovered
that as an infant in 1914, she was left at an orphans' home by people
who said her name was Frances. Since then, she has used the name
Frances. Only later did she

draw a link between her parentage and Dodge.


There are fewer than a dozen potential heirs, lawyers say, so
Mealbach stands to gain about $4 million if her claim is upheld.


Tom Owen, attorney for the Dodge heirs, told Gragg that
Mealbach's claims were "unsubstantiated."


"They are asking that everything stop in its tracks, while they
fish around for a legal theory" to support their case, Owen said.


Cunningham said that stopping distribution of money from the
estate temporarily would have no serious effects. But Joseph Sullivan,
another lawyer for the heirs, said, "I think the harm is obvious.
People have a right to invest that money."


Sullivan told the judge that about three-fourths of the estate
had been paid out.


The judge said he would notify the attorneys of his decision by
mail.


John Dodge died in 1920 and put his estate in a trust that paid
interest to his six children. He specified that the estate was not to
be divided until all of his children died. The last of them died in
1980.


Efforts to have the principal divided among the remaining heirs
who had made a claim in the property have been bottled up in the courts
for several years.


John Dodge and his brother, Horace, began turning out cars
under their name in 1914 from a factory in Hamtramck, Mich., an urban
enclave surrounded by Detroit.


By 1920, the cars the company called "the dependable Dodge"
were second in sales only to those of Ford Motor Co.


Their company was bought out for $128 million in 1928 by Walter
P. Chrysler, who merged it with his own and kept the name alive.






Copyright (c) 1984 The Philadelphia Inquirer


==================================================
WOMAN CLAIMING TO BE DODGE TWIN WANTS PART OF AUTOMAKER'S ESTATE

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
November 21, 1984
: FINALMAIN NEWS
Associated Press
: MAIN NEWS
: A2
: 8402140582


DETROIT - A woman who claims to be a long-lost daughter of
automotive pioneer John Dodge asked a judge yesterday for help in her
bid to win a share of the $40 million family fortune.


Wayne County Probate Judge J. Robert Gragg took under
advisement the request by Frances Mealbach that he block the
distribution of the money to the recognized Dodge heirs until her claim
is settled.

Mrs. Mealbach, 69, says she is a twin - perhaps a Siamese twin -
of Frances Dodge, who died in 1971 at age 57.


Separate hearings will be held March 21 and March 22 on Mrs.
Mealbach's claim that she is an heir.


James Cunningham, Mrs. Mealbach's lawyer, said his client has
scars on the base of her neck and on her spine that, her doctors say,
usually occur only in the separation of Siamese twins. He said the
woman also has a birth certificate indicating that a Frances Dodge was
born Nov. 27, 1914, as a first twin.


Mrs. Mealbach has said that she did not discover until 1968
that she was adopted and only later drew a link between her parentage
and Dodge.


There are fewer than a dozen potential heirs, lawyers say, so
Mrs. Mealbach, of nearby Dearborn, stands to gain about $4 million if
her claim is upheld.


Tom Owen, an attorney for the Dodge heirs, told Gragg that Mrs.
Mealbach's claims were unsubstantiated.


"They are asking that everything stop in its tracks while they
fish around for a legal theory" to support their case, Owen said.


Cunningham said that stopping the distribution of money from
the estate temporarily would have no serious effects. But Joseph
Sullivan, another lawyer for the heirs, said: "I think the harm is
obvious. People have a right to invest that money."


Sullivan told the judge that about three-fourths of the estate
had been paid out.


The judge said he would notify the attorneys of his decision by
mail.


John Dodge died in 1920 and put his estate in a trust that paid
interest to his six children. The last of them died in 1980.


Efforts to have the principal divided among the remaining heirs
have been bottled up in the courts for several years.


Brothers John and Horace Dodge began turning out cars under
their name in 1914 from a factory in Hamtramck, Mich., near Detroit.


By 1920, the cars the company called "the dependable Dodge"
were second in sales only to those of Ford Motor Co.


Their company was bought out for $128 million in 1928 by Walter
P. Chrysler, who merged it with his own and kept the Dodge name alive.




Copyright (c) 1984 Lexington Herald-Leader


==================================================
2 DODGE BIRTH CERTIFICATES COMPLICATE ESTATE STRUGGLE

Detroit Free Press (MI)
November 21, 1984
: METRO FINALNWS
BRENDA J. GILCHRIST Free Press Staff Writer
: NWS
: 2A
: 8402110613


State records show two birth certificates for the late Frances
Dodge, one listing a single birth and another saying she was a twin,
says an attorney for a Dearborn woman who says she could be that twin.


If Francis Mealbach also is a daughter of John F. Dodge, she
could be eligible for about $3.2 million of the auto magnate's estate,
estimated to have been $40 million to $50 million.


At a hearing Tuesday, Bloomfield Hills attorney Jay Cunningham
asked Wayne County Probate Judge J. Robert Gragg to halt distribution
of Dodge's estate until it can be determined whether Mealbach, 69, is
a Dodge daughter.


GRAGG SAID he would issue a written opinion on the request to
interrupt distribution of the estate to the acknowledged heirs. A
trial to determine if Mealbach is an heir has been set for March 1985,
Cunningham said.


Cunningham has said Mealbach might have been born a Siamese
twin, joined at the spine and head with Frances Dodge, who died in 1971
at age 57.


The birth certificates -- one filed in Lansing, the other at
Detroit's Herman Kiefer Hospital -- are not the only evidence that
Mealbach is a legitimate heiress, Cunningham said.


When all the circumstances are put together, he said, "you are
left with a pervasive belief that these are not just . . . incidences
that are unrelated.


MEALBACH, who has five children, began researching her
parentage in 1968, when her adoptive father's will revealed that she
was not his natural daughter.


Cunningham said Mealbach thought a name on her adoption papers
might be that of her mother. A 1910 U.S. Census showed that the woman
was a maid at 43 Boston Blvd., the Dodge home, he said. Mealbach
claims to have been fathered by Dodge in 1914.


Mealbach's birth was not recorded until seven years after she
was born, Cunningham said, an afterthought he believes "tidied up" her
record. Mealbach also remembers many childhood visits to a beautiful
house, Cunningham said, and Dodge's personal secretary was a friend of
Mealbach's family.


Mealbach was not at the hearing, the third since she filed her
petition Oct. 29.


AT LEAST nine attorneys representing Dodge heirs were there to
argue against interrupting the estate distribution, which they say is
three-fourths complete.


The opposing attorneys dismissed Cunningham's revelations as
hearsay and rumors. Joseph Sullivan, who represents the estate of
Winifred Dodge Seyburn and a charity named for Matilda Wilson, Dodge's
second wife, said Mealbach's claim is based on "fantasy, speculation .
. . and the dream of sharing in a large estate."


When Mealbach wrote to Lansing for her birth certificate, she
was sent a copy of Frances Dodge's certificate, which said the late
heiress was the first in a twin birth, Cunningham said. Francis
Mealbach never has received a record of her own birth, he added.


The legal squabble over the estate was thought to have been
settled in 1980, when Probate Judge Willis F. Ward, now dead, ordered
most of the money distributed to Dodge's eight grandchildren and one
son-in-law.


Dodge, who died in 1920, and his brother, Horace, founded the
auto company bearing their name.


****




Copyright (c) 1984 Detroit Free Press


==================================================
Title: Public Eye

San Diego Union, The (CA)
November 2, 1984
: 1,2,3,4LIFESTYLE
JANET SUTTER
: LIFESTYLE
: D-1
: UTS0096251


FIRST THERE WAS THE GERRY look. Now, there's Gerry perfume.
Never mind that sales might zoom or dip depending on election-day
returns. "We think the public will find the news of the 'Gerry' perfume
as fascinating as they find Gerry Ferraro herself," said Michael Paulle
of The Synarome Corp. of America. He added that he will offer Walter
Mondale's running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, $500,000 a year to boost the
product if she doesn't get that other job.


o o o


LIECHTENSTEIN HAS ONLY 26,000 people, but, oh, the cars -- the
little country between Austria and Switzerland has the highest
car-to-people ratio in the world, two automobiles for every three
adults. Now the government is appealing to the populace to use public
transportation and thus prevent ecological damage. The public transport
consists of buses that leave given stops every five or 10 minutes, but
a government official said, "only one out of five people use the bus
and they are mostly schoolchildren."


o o o


FRANCIS MEALBACH'S ATTORNEY has two theories. One is that
Francis is the illegitimate daughter of the late auto magnate John F.
Dodge, and the other -- much more bizarre -- is that she might have
been the Siamese twin of Dodge's daughter, Frances. If true, that might
make Mealbach, 69, of Dearborn, Mich., eligible for about $3.2 million
from the Dodge estate, estimated at $40 million. Attorney Jay
Cunningham suggests the twins were joined at the spine and head, but
Dr. Arnold Coran, a pediatric surgeon at the University of Michigan
Medical center said it might have been impossible surgically to
separate such twins in 1914. Cunningham says, "We based the theory on
the facts that we can see. You might say that I have observed those
scars. Presumably, she had the finest technology that money could buy
at the time of her birth." Mealbach learned she was adopted in 1968,
and the court is being petitioned to allow her to review her adoption
papers.


o o o


MASAO SAITO HAS CONFESSED to no less than 400 burglaries over
the past two years. Saito, 34, was in custody in Tokyo because of a
little confusion last month. He thought he was breaking into a
hospital. Instead he broke into a policemen's dormitory -- with white
walls. -- JanetSutter




Copyright 1984, 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.


==================================================
WOMAN SAYS SHE'S MILLIONAIRE'S KIN

Miami Herald, The (FL)
November 1, 1984
: FINALFRONT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
: FRONT
: 2A
: 8403210651


A woman who says she might have been a Siamese-twin daughter of
the late millionaire John F. Dodge has filed a claim to the automobile
pioneer's $40 million fortune.


Attorneys for Frances Mealbach, 69, of Dearborn, asked in Wayne
County Probate Court that distribution of the Dodge estate be halted
until county adoption records can be reviewed.


Probate Judge Robert Gragg scheduled a hearing for next month
on the request.


Attorney James Cunningham said Mealbach might have been a
Siamese twin to one of the Dodge children and given up for adoption
after surgeons separated her when she was an infant.


Cunningham said Mealbach, as a child, "was told she had fallen
and incurred many scars at the base of her neck and spine. Doctors
later told her these incisions typically occur only in the separation
of Siamese twins."


A birth certificate obtained by Mealbach showed that the
purported twin, Frances Dodge, was born Nov. 27, 1914, and was "the
first of two twins to be born," Cunningham said.


Mealbach said she could not obtain a copy of her own birth
certificate. But Cunningham said an unknown person in 1941 filed a
registration of Mealbach's birth that gave the date as Nov. 23, 1914.


Mealbach says she also remembers being taken to a large home,
which she later recognized in a book about the Dodges, attorney John
Schaefer said. The woman also noticed a strong resemblance between
herself and John Dodge.


"It's a funny thing, but I've known about her claim for several
months and so have all the other attorneys representing the heirs and
trusts," said Frederick Buesser, a guardian who had been appointed to
represent unknown, incompetent or unborn Dodge heirs. "But not one of
them ever has called her story preposterous."


Buesser has filed a petition asking Gragg whether he should
assist Mealbach.


Nine heirs are collecting payments on the estate after the
Michigan Supreme Court resolved a five-year legal battle.


Brothers John and Horace Dodge established the Dodge Brothers
company in 1914. John Dodge died of pneumonia Jan. 14, 1920.




Copyright (c) 1984 The Miami Herald


==================================================
SIAMESE TWIN THEORY RAISED IN SUIT

Detroit Free Press (MI)
November 1, 1984
: METRO FINALNWS
JOHN FLYNN Free Press Staff Writer
: NWS
: 3A
: 8402080949


Attorney Jay Cunningham contends that his client, Francis
Mealbach, might have been born a Siamese twin, joined at the spine and
head with Frances Dodge, the daughter of the late auto magnate John F.
Dodge.


Such a birth would make Mealbach, 69, of Dearborn, eligible for
about $3.2 million from the Dodge estate, estimated at $40 million.


But, in the opinion of Dr. Arnold Coran, a pediatric surgeon at
the University of Michigan Medical Center, it might have been
impossible surgically to separate such twins in 1914, when Cunningham
said the births and separation might have occurred.


"I can't say for sure, but I would consider that almost an
impossibility," Coran said Wednesday. "I don't believe that surgical
separation of Siamese twins joined in that fashion occurred until much
more recent times."


Cunningham suggested the Siamese theory after a hearing Tuesday
in Wayne County Probate Court during which he and his partner, John
Schaefer, asked Judge Robert Gragg to order trustees of the Dodge
estate to stop payments to proven Dodge heirs until Mealbach's claim is
settled.


The two lawyers also petitioned the court to allow Mealbach to
review adoption papers.


"We based the theory on the facts that we can see," Cunningham
said. "You might say that I have observed those scars" on Mealbach's
"cranium and spine. Presumably, she had the finest technology that
money could buy at the time of her birth."


Gragg is expected to set a hearing date later this month to
rule whether the trustees should be enjoined temporarily from paying
the acknowledged Dodge heirs. A court date on Mealbach's petition to
review adoption records will be set later, Cunningham said.


Cunningham said the Siamese twin theory was not the only one
that he is following. It is possible, he said, that Mealbach is the
illegitimate daughter of Dodge.


Cunningham said Mealbach learned she was adopted in 1968 when
her adoptive father died, revealing the secret in his will.


****




Copyright (c) 1984 Detroit Free Press


==================================================
YET ANOTHER DODGE ESTATE CLAIMANT -- FROM 1914!

Detroit Free Press (MI)
October 31, 1984
: STATE EDITIONNWS
JOHN FLYNN Free Press Staff Writer
: NWS
: 1A
: 8402080850


John F. Dodge left a bushel of money and a peck of business for
lawyers.


Tuesday, another person showed up in Wayne County Probate Court
claiming to be a daughter of the pioneer automobile mogul and eligible
to share in the $40 million that he passed on to his heirs.


The stakes are high -- $3 million or more -- if indeed it is
proved that Francis Mealbach, 70, a small, well-dressed resident of
Dearborn, was fathered in 1914 by Dodge, as in Dodge automobile, and
then was turned over for adoption.


A dozen attorneys, nine representing the heirs of the Dodge
estate whose identities were determined after a five-year legal battle
that went all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court, gathered in Judge
Robert Gragg's courtroom to hear Mealbach's attorneys tell bits and
pieces of the story told to them by the Dearborn woman.


Attorney John Schaefer of Bloomfield Hills asked that Gragg
issue an order to review the adoption records of the Wayne County Child
and Family Services records, which he indicated were vital to the claim
of Mealbach that she is Dodge's daughter. He went on to request that
payments from the trust to the heirs be halted until her claim is
settled.


THE GUARDIAN ad litem of the Dodge estate, Frederick Buesser of
Bloomfield Hills, also entered the picture, filing a petition
requesting that Gragg advise him on whether he should assist Mealbach
in attempting to prove that she is Dodge's daughter.


One attorney after another representing the heirs and the Dodge
trust fired legal salvo after salvo against the suggestion that Buesser
has a responsibility as the guardian ad litem -- a legal term meaning
that he represents unknown heirs, and children and incompetents who
might have an interest in Dodge's pot of gold -- to pursue Mealbach's
claim.


They argued that since Mealbach has made herself and her claim
known, and is represented by her own attorneys, that Buesser's
obligation to her has ended.


Buesser pursued the issue, however. "There does in fact exist
the possibility that this individual may have an interest in this
estate. She believes she may be Mr. Dodge's biological daughter. I want
to know whether I have a duty or I do not have a duty to confirm or
deny her claim."


SCHAEFER said that Mealbach had a "long and intriguing story"
and that she should be permitted to examine adoption and probate
records that she believes will show that she is the daughter of the
auto magnate who founded the company, along with his brother Horace,
that produced the car bearing his name.


He said that Mealbach did not learn that she was adopted until
1968. At that point, he continued, she met with Probate Judge Thomas
Murphy and asked to see the records. Murphy denied the request, telling
Mealbach that she would not want to know what was in the records,
according to Schaefer.


In 1983, Schaefer said, Mealbach filed a legal petition to
review her adoption papers. Her request, he said, was denied after a
15-page brief was filed against her petition by a prominent
metropolitan-area law firm, adding another wrinkle to the story that
unfolded in the courtroom Tuesday.


At the conclusion of the hearing, Gragg rose from the bench
and announced quietly that he would take "these matters under
advisement."


MEALBACH was mobbed by reporters and cameramen outside the
courtroom after the hearing. She said that she had been advised by her
attorneys not to talk about the case, although she gave a few personal
details, including the facts that her husband, William, is 80 years old
and retired, and that she has five children.


Buesser, the guardian, spoke freely. "It's a funny thing," he
said," but I've known about her claim for several months and so have
all the other attorneys representing the heirs and trusts. But not one
of them ever has called her story preposterous. It may be because of
all the folklore about John Dodge's life-style."


Buesser said he didn't know whether the adoption records would
show that Mealbach is Dodge's daughter, making her eligible for about
$3.2 million from the estate.


"If you want to believe that her story is true, then you have
to believe that there was a great effort to cover it up 70 years ago,"
he added.


****




Copyright (c) 1984 Detroit Free Press


==================================================
AND YET ANOTHER DODGE ESTATE CLAIMANT -- 1914!

Detroit Free Press (MI)
October 31, 1984
: METRO FINAL CHASERNWS
JOHN FLYNN Free Press Staff Writer
: NWS
: 13A
: 8402080867


John F. Dodge left a bushel of money and a peck of business for
lawyers.


Tuesday, another person showed up in Wayne County Probate Court
claiming to be a daughter of the pioneer automobile mogul and eligible
to share in the $40 million that he passed on to his heirs.


THE STAKES are high -- $3 million or more -- if indeed it is
proved that Francis Mealbach, 70, a small, well-dressed resident of
Dearborn, was fathered in 1914 by Dodge, as in Dodge automobile, and
then was turned over for adoption.


A dozen attorneys, nine representing the heirs of the Dodge
estate whose identities were determined after a five-year legal battle
that went all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court, gathered in Judge
Robert Gragg's courtroom to hear Mealbach's attorneys tell bits and
pieces of the story told to them by the Dearborn woman.


Attorney John Schaefer of Bloomfield Hills asked that Gragg
issue an order to review the adoption records of the Wayne County Child
and Family Services records, which he indicated were vital to the claim
of Mealbach that she is Dodge's daughter. He went on to request that
payments from the trust to the heirs be halted until her claim is
settled.


Schaefer said that Mealbach had a "long and intriguing story"
and that she should be permitted to examine adoption and probate
records that she believes will show that she is the daughter of the
auto magnate who founded the company, along with his brother Horace,
that produced the car bearing his name.


SCHAEFER said that Mealbach did not learn that she was adopted
until 1968. At that point, he continued, she met with Probate Judge
Thomas Murphy and asked to see the records. Murphy denied the request,
telling Mealbach that she would not want to know what was in the
records, according to Schaefer.


In 1983, Schaefer said, Mealbach filed a legal petition to
review her adoption papers. Her request, he said, was denied after a
15-page brief was filed against her petition by a prominent
metropolitan-area law firm, adding another wrinkle to the story that
unfolded in the courtroom Tuesday.


At the conclusion of the hearing, Gragg rose from the bench and
announced quietly that he would take "these matters under advisement."


Mealbach was mobbed by reporters and cameramen outside the
courtroom after the hearing. She said that she had been advised by her
attorneys not to talk about the case, although she gave a few personal
details, including the facts that her husband, William, is 80 years old
and retired, and that she has five children.


****




Copyright (c) 1984 Detroit Free Press

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

Is there nothing on this since 1990?