Flood of Lies
A Summary
Logline: When an elderly couple is charged with murder in the drowning deaths of 35 bedridden 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, vengeful families of the victims, and a ravenous media that brands the defendants ‘Monsters of Hurricane Katrina.’ *
In the media storm that followed Hurricane Katrina, one gruesome story captivated a horrified nation: thirty-five elderly residents of St. Rita’s Nursing Home drowned when a wall of water hit the home like a bomb. Rumors abounded that owners Sal and Mabel Mangano tied residents to their beds and left them to drown, then bloat and rot in the Louisiana heat. News reporters and talk-show hosts spewed a constant stream of sensationalized reports based on incomplete information and hearsay. Almost no one believed that the Manganos could be innocent.
Louisiana lawyer James Cobb Jr. had made his career out of defending deep pocket corporate clients, easing his troubled conscience with martinis. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Cobb and his family lost everything. Amid the ruins, Cobb met the Manganos and was convinced not only of their innocence but also of their selflessness and courage on that fateful August day when they, too, lost everything. Cobb agreed to defend the Manganos against near insurmountable odds. His decision was the start of an inner journey toward self-realization.
In this true story of a family blamed for the wrongs of the government that prosecuted them, Cobb finds unexpected heroism, unrewarded devotion, and personal redemption. This amazing story was later profiled for Esquire Magazine by Tom Junod, the same journalist featured in the recent Tom Hanks biopic of Fred Rogers, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
* Logline by John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.