diff --git a/src/postorius/static/postorius/js/held_messages.js b/src/postorius/static/postorius/js/held_messages.js
index 88e7d03..ceddb63 100644
--- a/src/postorius/static/postorius/js/held_messages.js
+++ b/src/postorius/static/postorius/js/held_messages.js
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
       success: function(data) {
         $('#msg-title').html(data.subject);
         $('.modal-footer form input[name="msgid"]').attr('value', msgid);
-        $('#held-stripped-message').html(data.stripped_msg.replace(/\n/g, "<br />"));
+        $('#held-stripped-message').html(data.stripped_msg.body.replace(/\n/g, "<br />"));
         $('#held-full-message').html(data.msg.replace(/\n/g, "<br />"));
         $('#held-messages-modal').modal('show');
       },
diff --git a/src/postorius/views/rest.py b/src/postorius/views/rest.py
index df9ddda..31ef3ee 100644
--- a/src/postorius/views/rest.py
+++ b/src/postorius/views/rest.py
@@ -16,46 +16,98 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
 # Postorius.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 import json
+import email
+import sys
 
-from email import message_from_string
+from email.Header import decode_header
+from base64 import b64decode
+from email.Parser import Parser as EmailParser
+from email.utils import parseaddr
+from StringIO import StringIO
 
 from django.http import HttpResponse, Http404
-
 from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
 from django.utils.translation import gettext as _
+
 from postorius.auth.decorators import *
 
 
-def _strip_email(email_text):
-    """Strip most of the headers from the email for the
-    held messages view.
+# based on https://www.ianlewis.org/en/parsing-email-attachments-python
+def parse_attachment(message_part, counter):
+    content_disposition = message_part.get("Content-Disposition", None)
+    if content_disposition:
+        dispositions = content_disposition.strip().split(";")
+        if bool(content_disposition and dispositions[0].lower() == "attachment"):
 
-    Only these headers would be kept:
-    - To
-    - From
-    - Date
-    - CC
-    - Subject
+            file_data = message_part.get_payload(decode=True)
+            attachment = StringIO(file_data)
+            attachment.content_type = message_part.get_content_type()
+            attachment.size = len(file_data)
+            attachment.name = message_part.get_filename()
 
-    If available, show only the text part of the email.
+            if not attachment.name:
+		ext = mimetypes.guess_extension(part.get_content_type())
+		if not ext:
+		    ext = '.bin'
+		attachment.name = 'part-%03d%s' % (counter, ext)
 
-    TODO: maxking - modify this later to extract text from HTML
-    to be displayed there.
-    """
-    msg = message_from_string(email_text)
+            return attachment
+    return None
 
-    content_type = msg.get_content_type()
-    if content_type == 'multipart/alternative':
-        for part in msg.walk():
-            if part.get_content_type() == 'text/plain':
-                msg.set_payload(part.as_string())
+def parse(content):
+    p = EmailParser()
+    msgobj = p.parsestr(content)
+    if msgobj['Subject'] is not None:
+        decodefrag = decode_header(msgobj['Subject'])
+        subj_fragments = []
+        for s , enc in decodefrag:
+            if enc:
+                s = unicode(s , enc).encode('utf8','replace')
+            subj_fragments.append(s)
+        subject = ''.join(subj_fragments)
+    else:
+        subject = None
 
-    show_headers = ['To', 'From', 'Date', 'CC', 'Subject']
-    for header in msg.keys():
-        if header not in show_headers:
-            del msg[header]
+    attachments = []
+    body = None
+    html = None
+    counter = 1
+    for part in msgobj.walk():
+        attachment = parse_attachment(part, counter)
+        if attachment:
+            attachments.append(attachment)
+            counter += 1
+        elif part.get_content_type() == "text/plain":
+            if body is None:
+                body = ""
+            if part.get_content_charset():
+                body += unicode(
+                    part.get_payload(decode=True),
+                    part.get_content_charset(),
+                    'replace'
+                ).encode('utf8','replace')
+            else:
+                body += part.get_payload(decode=True)
+        elif part.get_content_type() == "text/html":
+            if html is None:
+                html = ""
+            if part.get_content_charset():
+                html += unicode(
+                    part.get_payload(decode=True),
+                    part.get_content_charset(),
+                    'replace'
+                ).encode('utf8','replace')
+            else:
+                html += part.get_payload(decode=True)
+    return {
+        'subject' : subject,
+        'body' : body,
+        'html' : html,
+        'from' : parseaddr(msgobj.get('From'))[1],
+        'to' : parseaddr(msgobj.get('To'))[1],
+        #'attachments': attachments,
+    }
 
-    return msg.as_string()
 
 @login_required
 @list_moderator_required
@@ -76,7 +128,7 @@
     response_data['moderation_reasons'] = held_message.moderation_reasons
     response_data['hold_date'] = held_message.hold_date
     response_data['msg'] = held_message.msg
-    response_data['stripped_msg'] = _strip_email(held_message.msg)
+    response_data['stripped_msg'] = parse(held_message.msg)
     response_data['msgid'] = held_message.request_id
     response_data['subject'] = held_message.subject