I saw this film the other day on British TV and it struck me that the Balestreros were entitled to some compensation. I know that the compensation culture is very strong these days (almost too much so) but when you take into consideration the cost of Rose's treatment, the bail money his brother-in-law had to pay (or could he get it back?) not to mention the extreme distress the whole family felt, then they should have got some compensation.
shareToo right, and if you add in the legal fees the Balestreros are due quite a fair bit.
It'd be interesting to know if thy received any income from the movie. I'm not sure about back in the '50s, but these days they'd be arranging the film rights and taking offers from newspapers wanting their story as an exclusive.
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good point ...
shareThe purpose of bail money is to influence a suspect, who is released on bail, to return for the court proceedings. Since Henry did return for trial, the bail money should have been refunded to the family in full.
Henry informed the detectives that he earned $85/week (which is $4420/year). So the $7500 bail amount was a significant amount.
I do not know the details, but my father (who should have known; he was the saxophone/clarinet player in the Stork Club band with Manny at the time and the person referred to by Manny as his friend who he played horses with once in a while) told me at the time that Manny and his family received a substantial (for the time) settlement from New York City for his false arrest and imprisonment, etc. I believe Frank O'Connor represented him in the suit.
That, of course, is how the Balastreros wound up in Florida, as he quit his job at the Stork Club shortly after this incident.
Ocala Mike