Flood of Lies: The St. Rita's Nursing Home Tragedy
"When an elderly couple  is charged with murder in the drowning deaths of thirty-five bed-ridden  residents of St. Rita's Nursing Home, an emotional edge-of-your-seat  thriller takes off like a shot! The players: a wily and profane defense  lawyer, a ferocious prosecutor, devastated families of the victims, and a  ravenous media that brands the defendants 'Monsters of Hurricane  Katrina.' My advice-block out enough time to read this wonderful book in  one sitting."-John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"What  Jim Cobb captures better than any writer I've read is how deeply the  media's pre-trial feeding-frenzy shaped public perceptions about the St.  Rita's nursing home tragedy. When Sal and Mabel Mangano entered the St.  Francisville courtroom facing multiple charges of murder, they also  faced a near-universal presumption of guilt. Cobb's brash, brilliant  storytelling takes you behind the scenes of an important test for the  American system of justice."-Ken Bode, former national political correspondent, NBC News"As  if the story covered in this book were not passionate enough, the  author gives readers unrestricted access to his heart, soul, and the  passion he experienced as his life was consumed by defending the  operators of St. Rita's Nursing Home after Hurricane Katrina. The story  is gripping, the details revealed are amazing, but the emotional link  that emerges between the reader and the author-a key character in the  story-makes this one of the most extraordinary stories ever told."-Dennis S. Mileti, PhD, director emeritus, Natural Hazards Center"This  is more than a story about Katrina. It is that, told from an original  perspective, but it's also a story of abuse of power, of political  ambition, of survival, and of a trying to make life ordinary again-when  ordinariness amounts to triumph."-John M. Barry, Rising Tide: The  Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America and Roger  Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the  Birth of LibertyIn the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the  nation reeled in shock as the story of St. Rita's Nursing Home unfolded  in a flood of constant, garish-and often wildly misleading-media  coverage. Now, author James A. Cobb, Jr., tells the true story behind  the tragedy in this powerful account of loss, devastation, and his  relentless pursuit of justice.