Nothing To Fear

In 1956, Alfred Hitchcock focused his lens on an issue that cuts to the heart of our

criminal justice system: the risk of wrongful conviction. The result was The Wrong Man, a bracing drama based on the real-life false arrest of Queens musician Christopher " Manny" Balestrero. Manny's ordeal is part of a larger story of other miscarriages of justice in the first half of the twentieth century. Attorney Jason Isralowitz tells this story in a revelatory book that situates both the Balestrero case and its cinematic counterpart in their historical context. Drawing from archival records, Isralowitz delivers a gripping account of Manny' s trial and new insights into an errant prosecution. He then examines how Hitchcock' s film bears witness to issues that animate the contemporary innocence movement. Given the hundreds of exonerations of the wrongfully convicted in recent years, this genre-bending work of true crime and film history is a must-read.