Being Evel Page #11

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he said, "i'm gonna kill you,

you son of a b*tch."

i did everything i could

to defend myself.

and i remember

putting my hand up,

i said, "what're you doin'?

what're you doin'?"

i was fighting

for my life.

and he was wailing on me,

and then i passed out.

reporter:

knievel came to court

accompanied by his wife linda

and his attorney.

the 38-year old daredevil

faces charges of felony assault

in the baseball bat attack

on television executive

sheldon saltman.

tonning:

knievel could've gotten

away with it.

he could've if he would've

just stopped being knievel

for 10 minutes.

reporter:
it was a very

interesting hour at division 91

of municipal court

in which evel knievel

fired his attorney

and entered a plea of guilty.

he fires them

and says to the judge,

"judge, i did it,

and i'd do it again.

do what you will with me."

you know,

this old frontier justice thing.

you know, in butte, montana,

you settle things

out in the street.

you don't settle 'em

with lawyers.

and evel always settled it

with his fists,

or sometimes a tool helped.

not with a baseball bat.

that's not butte.

i never knew of anybody

in butte that did that.

if i did not think

there was a much

stronger judge someday

that i will

stand before called god

than the judge i stood before

in that courtroom

in san monica, california,

i would have killed

that lousy little bastard.

i broke his arms

with a baseball bat,

and i think that's

just what he deserved.

i'll guarantee you one thing--

he doesn't write

anything else about me.

- ( laughter )

- but i mean--

i think i was a sophomore

in high school at the time,

and i was not proud of my dad

for doing that...at all.

stuntman evel knievel

got a jail sentence yesterday

for beating his former

press agent with a baseball bat.

reporter:
the judge told

the 39-year-old

motorcycle daredevil

that while as a judge

he found knievel's

admission of guilt

as refreshing,

at the same time,

rafeedie said,

"long ago

we abandoned frontier justice

in california."

with that, rafeedie sentenced

knievel to six months in jail

and three years probation.

judge is a good judge

and he's a fair judge.

rundle:

course, when h

, when he was in jail,

judge is a good judge

and he's a fair judge.

it was like--

i think in his own way,

he played it as a game.

knoxville:
so he's in jail,

but he's on work release.

so he's only in there at night.

and he would have

his chauffer

pick him up every morning

and take him to the bar.

reporter:
knievel believes

in sharing the wealth.

so this morning

he hired a dozen limousines

to transport

his fellow work release inmates

to their jobs.

you know,

putting him in jail,

he got more press

than anything else.

there was no end

to the shenanigans

that guy would pull.

reporter:

the inmates were amazed,

but the authorities

were not so enthusiastic.

knoxville:
well,

the judge got pissed,

and he revoked evel's

work release privileges.

tonning:

i was pissed off at him.

he started believing the hype,

that he was totally impervious,

and he could get away

with anything.

i don't think

he thought about the public.

well, maybe if he did,

he thought that,

"that's what they

expect of me."

the ideal toy company,

which manufactures

the evel knievel toys,

says it has already lost

$1.6 million since evel knievel

went into the county jail.

we had a meeting at ideal

the next day or the day after.

and i said, "you know--

you know, we don't--

we don't sell toys of murderers

or gangsters or stuff

like that,

and so therefore,

we are going to suspend sales

in the united states."

reporter:

on the toy front,

it may not be a merry christmas

for daredevil evel knievel.

the contracts were canceled,

and he lost

a lot of money, yeah.

it all--

it all started coming apart.

anymore it doesn't matter

reporter:
knievel says

his experience in jail

was a good one,

but that it has

set him back financially.

i hated to see him lose

everything he worked for

in 10 minutes.

when it was falling apart,

it fell apart very quickly.

mccloud:

the cars, the boats...

robbie knievel:

the lear jets, ferraris,

everything to go

down the drain?

that was hard.

the house that we all loved

got repossessed

because my dad didn't pay

the property taxes.

bank came and got it

and the irs sold it.

we loaded up

all the furniture,

everything of any value,

from the saddles to guns,

and we would just bring

so much out at a time,

and we'd have a garage sale.

the arc of the sky cycle is like

what happened to his career.

he was at the pinnacle,

and then he destroyed

his whole life.

evel knievel:

i just dropped out of sight

and played golf.

i just completely withdrew

from the public.

when i met him,

he was in a bit of a low point.

i mean, he was kinda

just getting by.

hustling golf-- he might make

a couple hundred here,

a couple hundred here.

he lived day to day

at that time.

he didn't keep the fact

that he was married

a secret or anything,

and in two weeks i packed up

what i wanted to take with me,

and we went on the road.

linda knievel:

and i just let it go.

i thought,

the heck with it,

you know?

you know,

after 38 years

of somebody

telling you what to do...

i didn't like him.

( chuckles )

i didn't like him.

nobody wins

you could see that

his health was declining,

you know,

he was getting worse

all the time.

he had a hip replacement,

a pelvis reconstruction,

a spinal fusion,

a liver transplant,

seven or eight bouts

of staph infection.

evel knievel:

i have hepatitis c,

and i got it through

blood transfusions,

and i've been told by

the doctors five years ago

that i didn't have

five years to live.

i'm taking it

one day at a time.

yeah, you really felt sorry

for him, i did, really.

i said,

"you're really hurting."

if you're gonna be dumb,

you've gotta be tough

when you get knocked down,

you gotta get back up

i ain't the sharpest rig

in the 10 pack

but i know enough to know

if you're gonna be dumb,

you've gotta be tough

knoxville:

then the '90s come around

and motorcycle jumping

was just one part

of this whole new huge thing

called action sports.

pastrana:
it's amazing how

quickly the sports progressed.

this multimillion motorcycle

jumping, skateboard riding,

surfing industry

as definitely come a long way

from daredevils

to professionals.

in 2006, i was able to land

the first double back flip

on a dirt bike.

no one ever thought

that that was possible.

the bikes have evolved.

the riding has evolved.

they have coaches.

they have schools.

they have camps,

but the spirit

will never die,

and evel was the one that set

our foundation for the future.

the thing about the knievels

that's really captivating

and inspiring to all of us

is the showmanship side of it.

( cheers and applause )

i stay awake at night,

and i dwell on

how to do

what i do in the biggest,

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