MIPORN and law enforcement against porn by Ford
LUZDEDOS
I spent today speaking to several persons in law enforcement's battle
against obscenity/porn...
This is the consensus of what they said...
Since Clinton has become president, there's little national law
enforcement effort against mainstream porn...
Porn is becoming softer, more acceptable, more in mom and pop stores and
DAs don't want to bother them...
The FBI and police and sheriff's have little interest in busting
mainstream pornographers...
A useful analogy would be drugs... Drug use, cocaine etc... seemed common
in '70s then declined during the Reagan era and rose again in the '90s....
So too law enforcement efforts against porn rose '85-'91 then declined...
All persons remain convinced that the Mafia continues to play an important
role... They no longer dominate adult book stores... as the New York Daily
News/Sheldon Ranz point out... Sri Lankans and Israelis now operate many
sex stores in NYC... But law enforcement say these stores either pay a
direct 'tax' to the mob or indirectly because all major distribution
powers in porn - mainly General Video - are mob dominated...
We had laughs about those who laugh at our assertions that the mob playsa
significant role in the porn business...
Law enforcement, like pornographers, thought the Eric Strosser US NEWS and
WORLD report article 2/10/97 accurate... but thought it played down
Mafia/criminal involvement angle... as does John Hubner in Bottom
Feeders...
Tom Bowling has had a long and well known role in law's battle against
porn/obscenity.... He now heads the Cook County Sheriff's Department Vice
Squad... Says they no longer investigate porn because it's become softer
and more mainstream - no beastialiity, defecation....
DAs and his department and superiors have little interest in prosecuting
mom and pop video stores that sell X...
Recent Chicago Mafia plot - a Mr. Schweitz asking Redwing Met to knock off
owner of several gay theaters/video stores... a Stephen Torshian who used
to be partners with Paul Gonsky who was knocked off by Mafia in late
'70s...
Law Enforcement speaks highly of an FBI agent in Las Vegas who helped
bring down Reuben Sturman - Roger Young. He's the son of veteran FBI
obscenity buster Homer Young, a partner of Bill Kelly. Homer died 1990.
It seems that the Mafia increasingly works through legit channels.. Maybe
they're in serious decline or maybe they're more effective and quiet...
Supposedly influencing politics, controlling strip clubs, chains like Deja
Vu...
Veteran mob pornographer Harry Mohney runs Deja Vu... Producer/director
Gail Palmer was his mistress... Harry's had people severely beaten up,
legs broken....
Customs officials and postal inspectors supposedly now have little
interest in busting mainstream porn... though they are obsessed with child
pornography of which there is no industry...
Only individual collectors....
Bruce Taylor is a veteran prosecutor of "obscenity".. Now works as a
consultant to other prosecutors and for an anti-porn "Pro-children,
pro-family" non-profit organization in Arlington, Virginia.
It seems that the dominant figure in General Video and porn distribution
after Sturman got busted is his former lieutenant out of San Diego, Eddie
Wedelsted. Born in Kenoshwa, WI, 1942, Eddie is a big guy - 6'4, 250#...
Has a criminal record for violent crimes... Tough, mean...
Law enforcement regards David Sturman, Reuben's son, as incompetent.. the
much tougher Eddie appears to dominate..
Wedelsted works out of Denver, the home of his charming lawyer Arthur
Schwartz...
When Sturman got in trouble, he supposedly "gave" 250 of his stores to
Eddie.. What sort of kickbacks is Reuben getting?
Does anyone know anything about Reuben Sturman's girlfriend Paula Lawrence
Bubrick?
About the only charity that Reuben gave, it seems, was to Russian Jewish
organizations...
There seem to be many Russian Jewish immigrants, children of immigrants,
selling porn, like Sturman..
Harry Mohney was #2 or #3 or #4 in porn power in late '70s... Got
convicted in MIPORN in early ';80s, paid fine and spent time in jail..now
in strip club biz...
Remember early '90s when Reuben sent bombers against owners of adult book
stores in Chicago and elsewhere... He did that through Mickey Fine, LA
pornographer Michael Feinberg... ANyone know about him?
Reuben learned much from Milton (and Beatrice) Luros and his corporate
spider webs which Sturman copied... At his peak, Reuben grossed almost a
million dollars a day, one law enforcment official speculated...
Bill Kelly says they ran Reuben out of South Florida in the late '70s.. in
the midst of the federal government's most succesfful crackdown against
porn...
Bill Kelly is over 70 years old... He attended Georgetown University in
the late '40s with the brother of Mafia leader "Chin" Gigante (sp?)...
who is a Jesuit priest in (Harlem?)...
Kelly joined FBI in 1962 and has mainly worked against obscenity..
In early 70s, a peer asked to accompany him on his porn beat in Miami's
flesh district..,tenderloin...
Several years later, this man became important in the FBI and agreed to
fund MIPORN which was Kelly's brainchild..
Kelly knew FBI undercover agent Pat Livingstone since Pat was 18 and a
clerk, later successful undercover agent in Detroit...
Pat was short, bowlegged, balding with mental problems, exacerbated by
going undercover... Acting like a gangster rubbed off on him.
Pat's undercover partner for MIPORN was the handsome and succesful Bruce
Ellavsky who has gone on to an illustrious FBI career.
Pat and Bruce infiltrated the porn industry thorugh the HELP of Rubin
Gottesman..unwittingly... Not a particularly bright guy.. Convicted of
selling Traci Lords tapes, now in jail for a year...
In 1977-78, Gottesman thought Pat and Bruce were serious pornographers and
he vouched for them... Kelly says it is a wonder that Gottesman is still
around...
Gottesman's eldest son got murdered by drug dealers for not paying his
debts... Gottesman's son in law runs his video company..
After a couple of years of infiltration of porn in the late '70s, with
threats to their lives and to Kelly, FBI sent a big raid against
pornographers on Valentine's Day, 1980... 55 arrested and 45 were
convicted, largely thanks to an effective prosecutor in Fort Lauderdale
Marica Cohen... When she took time off to have a baby, it allowed Ken
Guarino to slip through less effective prosecution... Guarino owns/runs
SOuthpoints and Metro HOme Video... which trade on NasDAQ... are porn
companies... See AVN 9/96... He's regarded in top three porn distribution
power..
Guarino recently beat charges in Las Vegas along with the Perainos...
Anthony Peraino, the father, died in October 1996...
AFV Releasing, ARROW, sold to Ray Pistol, big Las Vegas pornographer... He
has no ties to mob, it appears... Seems like a good guy... Acquaintance of
Bill Margold..
Guarino's codefendent was a Mafia guy.. Richici..
Father, Natali Richichi used violence, guns to accomplish his work...80
years old... Son is Salvador Richici..
Guarino hung out frequently with John Gotti...
Back to MIPORN>..
Pat Livingstone assimilated gangster values after going undercover so
long.. became mentally unstable... arrested for shoplifting in 1982...
He was a lousy MIPORN witness and allowed six persons to beat charges,
including Sturman..
Bill Kelly retired from FBI in 1980 but has served since as a consultant..
He is Roman Catholic. Hates porn in his gut, Mafia or no mafia. Hates
porn... "Gross, disgusting, immoral..."
Believes in the Ten Commandments, Judeo-Christian society...
He graphically described bestiality tapes that Reuben Sturman sold... of
women dressed as nuns having sex with donkeys, etc...
Have you ever heard of this?
A defecation tape called "You Said A MOUTHFUL" where men and women eat
feces... Ever hear of this?
Another Sturman sold tape shows men having sex with chickens, which kills
the chickens... ?????
Kelly says veteran NY pornographer Teddy Rothstein came over to him in
late '70s at a trial and asked him why he hated pornography. "Immoral"
said Kelly.
Teddy couldn't comprehend such a perspective and hasn't talked to Kelly
since...
Bill Kelly calls Russ Hampshire - busted in MIPORN along with Walter
Gernert for pirating tapes and sending such stolen material across state
lines - and Harry Mohney "nice guys" he enjoyed having coffee with..
Discussed morality one day with Mohney. Harry said no such thing.
"What if I took a pistol and shot you?" asked Kelly.
"Killing<" said Mohney. "Not immoral, no such thing.."
Kelly says pornographers are mainly interested in money and power... They
fear risk/murder...
Kelly says pornographers don't want Mafia in their business but the mob
muscles in...
Kelly says David Friedman, who headed the Adult Film Assocation at the
time, offered him $5000 a months and other perks to clean the mob out of
porn, in the early 80s, and Kelly replied he'd never :"fucking work for
pornographers...."
Kelly hates HATES PORN>>>
Anthony Peraino, in '70s, said, "If you could keep Bill Kelly off my ass
for two years... I could get so rich.."
Kelly remembers receiving a call in mid '70s form a Peraino associate at
their office in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Wilton Manors...
"We've got so much money here, we can't move around the office..."
Take it to the bank?
"We're not afraid of you and the FBI.... We fear the IRS>>>
SO much money we can't be bothered counting it... We weight it and call
the bank... "How much is 20 pounds of $20 bills?"
Bill Kelly was prominent in the Watergate investigation,writing a long
initial 200 page report... Now friends with some of the persons he helped
put away such as E. Howard Hunt...
Kelly suffers from spinal problems... When exhausted, they paralyze him...
Isn't Milton Luros's son a judge in LA?
Jamie Gillis made about 20 defecation tapes that sell /sold in NY...hired
hookers to defecate on and defecate on him...?
Ed Powers and Randy West have split up? Ed feuding with lots of people
these days, it seems...
Kelly has a list of 58 pornographers been murdered... I guestimate closer
to 100, counting anyone who sells/deals porn as a porngrapher....
Mark Carriere, owner of Leisure Time, has a brother.. The brother was
murdered... Details, anyone....????
Parrish says his ideal jury is urban blacks... He says they hate porn...
Blacks not voyeurs... The poor, religious, women, grandmothers, ideal jury
to try obscenity...
Kelly ideal jury - 12 Baptist grandmothers...
Luke Ford - author of forthcoming history of sexually explicit cinema.
David Austin
In article <rame.864493225p11445@primus> Brandy Alexandre,
bra...@kamikaze.xxx writes:
>That's funny. In just the few years since I retired porn has increasedin its
>agression. Since porn became pseudo-legal via the Freeman decision it
>proliferated, everyone had a chance to see it -- and get used to/desensitized
>to it. Since then the industry has had to come up with newer, more graphic
>things to toss into a sex act.
I read Brad Williams's follow up, which seems right so far as the
legal situation is concerned. The CA Supreme Court held in Freeman
that CA prostitution statutes did not apply to a movie that had
not been found to be obscene; they also noted that since oral sex and
sodomy had been decriminalized in 1975 in CA, none of the sex acts
of the performers were themselves illegal. While I don't doubt that
all of this was very reassuring to those in the industry, you seem to
suggest that the ruling had a psychological effect beyond the legal one.
Is that the way you see things?
Thanks.
David.