diff --git a/app/controllers/conversations_controller.rb b/app/controllers/conversations_controller.rb
index b19efa588a0464c16ad01c76413a4a3723ae4f23..6894dbdf7f685b519c5d26ecd3cb38098d2224e5 100644
--- a/app/controllers/conversations_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/conversations_controller.rb
@@ -56,10 +56,11 @@ class ConversationsController < ApplicationController
   end
 
   def new
-    @all_contacts_and_ids = Contact.connection.execute(current_user.contacts.joins(:person => :profile).select("contacts.id, profiles.first_name, profiles.last_name, profiles.diaspora_handle").to_sql).map do |r|
-      {:value => r[0], :name => Person.name_from_attrs(r[1], r[2], r[3])}
+    all_contacts_and_ids = Contact.connection.execute(current_user.contacts.joins(:person => :profile).select("contacts.id, profiles.first_name, profiles.last_name, profiles.diaspora_handle").to_sql).map do |r|
+      {:value => r[0],
+       :name => Person.name_from_attrs(r[1], r[2], r[3]).gsub(/(")/, "'")}
     end
-
+    @contacts_json = all_contacts_and_ids.to_json.gsub!(/(")/, '\\"')
     @contact = current_user.contacts.find(params[:contact_id]) if params[:contact_id]
     render :layout => false
   end
diff --git a/app/views/conversations/new.haml b/app/views/conversations/new.haml
index 40301b10ea171bef32b535d86d134e3aadd4fe09..b7877372b9c80fd47c4bfc7457ecd919b0bfc876 100644
--- a/app/views/conversations/new.haml
+++ b/app/views/conversations/new.haml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 :javascript
   $(document).ready(function () {
-    var data = $.parseJSON( '#{@all_contacts_and_ids.to_json.gsub("'", "\\\\'")}' ),
+    var data = $.parseJSON( "#{@contacts_json}" ),
         autocompleteInput = $("#contact_autocomplete");
 
     autocompleteInput.autoSuggest(data, {