Madness of Joe Francis: "I thought we were all just having fun. I was wrong."

Joe Francis meets Southern Justice: The true story of how porn mogul Joe Francis' legal battles in a small, Southern town left him broken, weeping and quite possibly deranged. Francis was young, rich and brash in 2003, when a small-town mayor began a crusade to block Girls Gone Wild from filming Spring Break in Panama City Beach, Florida. Francis happily threw himself into the fray, treating the mayor's threat like one more publicity stunt. A month later, he was behind bars, charged with racketeering and child pornography. Years later, after intense legal battles and 11 months in jail that left him teetering on the brink of insanity, Francis fired his lawyers and went to trial himself, with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line. In a moment ripe with the potential for poetic justice, the outcome of the wildest trial in recent history would be decided by an all-woman jury and a young, serious, female lawyer with no patience for the uncontrollable Francis. "The Madness of Joe Francis" is the story of how a manic California pornographer clashed with the tough-taking Vietnam Vet mayor, a straight-arrow federal judge, a bemused reporter and a young lawyer who made her reputation as an incredible trial attorney in less than a week. Not only is "The Madness of Joe Francis" the perfect beach companion, but it is a must-read for anyone who loves a great courtroom drama. This engaging story was written as it happened by the reporter who covered it all. It is a testament to the adage that "truth is stranger than fiction."