Knievel attack victim wants cash

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An author and promoter attacked by Evel Knievel 30 years ago reportedly plans to sue the late motorcycle daredevil's estate for tens of millions of dollars.

Shelly Saltman, 76, won $12.75m (£6.2m) in damages after Knievel, who died on Friday, beat him with a baseball bat over a book he wrote about the star.

Mr Saltman told AP news agency he was never paid and says the sum owed is now more than $100m with interest.

"We are going hot and heavy after his estate," he was quoted as saying.

"What he tried to do to me and how it hurt my family, I'm owed that."

'Pity'

Mr Saltman was a promoter of Knievel's failed bid to jump Idaho's Snake River Canyon on a jet-powered motorcycle in 1974.

Shelly Saltman recovers in hospital in California in 1977

He later published a book, Evel Knievel on Tour, which the stuntman complained had portrayed him as "an alcoholic, a pill addict, an anti-Semite and an immoral person".

In September 1977, a raging Knievel left Mr Saltman's arm badly broken when he pummelled him with an aluminium bat in a car park.

The stuntman, who broke nearly 40 of his own bones during his career, served six months in jail for the assault.

Mr Saltman maintains his book was an accurate warts-and-all portrayal of a man he admired.

He told AP: "I've always felt pity for him. Because of this foolish act, he ruined his career."