They Made Me a Criminal

Johnnie Bradfield is a southpaw world champion boxer falsely accused of murder, after his manager strikes and accidentally kills a reporter who plans to report on Bradfield's confession that he is not really a teetotaler devoted to his mother, but a drinker and high-liver. At his manager's advice, Bradfield disappears and is presumed dead. The manager steals Bradfield's money and girlfriend and flees; they were the only witnesses who could have exonerated him, but they die in an automobile accident, pursued by the police. Detective Monty Phelan, a coroner living under a cloud because he once mistakenly sent someone to the electric chair, believes that Johnnie is still alive and hasn't given up on searching for him. Johnnie, meanwhile, is hiding out on the feisty Grandma Rafferty's farm in Arizona. There, he meets with some juvenile delinquents, who are under the guardianship of Tommy's sister Peggy.