The Other Hollywood (63 page)

TOM BYRON
:
I dunno—if Nancy Pera had gotten there before, or the House of Pain guy hadn’t taken the dog out—circumstances beyond your fucking control. And Savannah was drunk, probably coked-out, heroin, whatever. Her nose is all broken; she’s looking at her fucked-up face. She had no money. She’s got this big dance gig she’s not gonna be able to do. How’s she gonna pay her rent? “OH, FUCK IT! BAM!”

If the gun hadn’t been there, it wouldn’t have happened. The industry didn’t kill her. She killed herself.

HENRI PACHARD
:
I talked about it with a lot of people, but I never really talked one-on-one to any of the girls about why they got into the business. I suppose I was in my own form of denial. If I said, “Why are you doing this?” they might interpret that as, “Do you want me to quit and move in with you?” Because that happened a lot, ha ha ha. A lot of guys on both sides of the camera would get involved with a performer and make her stop being a performer—and they’d be only too glad to stop.

BILL MARGOLD
:
The day that she died is the day I said there’d be no more Savannahs.

Luckily, her death propelled an organization called PAW—Protecting Adult Welfare—into existence. I couldn’t allow any more of these things to happen. Of course they have and they’ll continue to because a lot of these people aren’t prepared to come into the meat grinder of X—they’re ground up, and they’re not cared for.

To be honest with you, this is a business where the three most important letters should be H-U-G. You should hug these kids. But most people would sooner fuck ’em.

NINA HARTLEY
:
Not to make light of the deaths and other suicides as well, but I do not blame porn for their deaths—and who’s to blame for suicide?

BILL MARGOLD
:
I’m really not interested in fucking these girls. I wanna hold them; I wanna protect them from themselves. Because they become famous so fast, and they don’t know what fame’s all about. They suck it up through their noses, they shoot it into their veins, they become polluted by it, they worry about it, and then, perhaps, they kill themselves over it because they’re afraid their fame is going to dissipate. I think Savannah was a case of that.

VINCE NEIL
:
Most of the girls in her line of work are gold-diggers, but Savannah was never like that. She just wanted somebody to love her.

CLEVELAND/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO
1993–1995

ROGER YOUNG
:
When Reuben Sturman escaped from Boron Prison, Richard Rosfelder and I were flown in to Los Angeles. We met with the federal marshals and brainstormed about all the relatives, all the associates, the money, who he knew, what was going on…everything.

REUBEN STURMAN
:
I would’ve been free and clear if I’d not gone to see my family. I just couldn’t see myself leaving for Europe or Asia—I wouldn’t want them to be on the run with me.

ROGER YOUNG
:
They caught Reuben in a hotel near Disneyland, with a loaded. 45 and a briefcase with close to thirty thousand dollars next to his bed.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
, APRIL 2, 1994: DEFENDANT CONVICTED IN EXTORTION ATTEMPT
:
“After deliberating less than two hours Friday, a federal jury convicted Herbert ‘Mickey’ Feinberg of hiring four men to damage and bomb several Chicago adult bookstores in April 1992 in an attempt to extort payoffs for a powerful pornography distributor.”

ROGER YOUNG
:
I asked Reuben, “When you fled Boron Prison on December seventh—Pearl Harbor Day—why didn’t you go right to the airport? You know, you had a plan: People gave you the gun and the money. Why didn’t you just take off?”

Reuben said, “Because that’s the first place I thought you guys would be looking for me.”

CHUCK BERNSTENE
:
Mickey Feinberg owed me eighteen thousand bucks; they told me to forget about it. Meaning, you know, walk away. Which I didn’t take too well. I said, “I’m not happy about this.”

But Mickey got his in the end. What happened? Conspiracy to commit murder. Yeah, and I think he’s still in jail today.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
, DECEMBER 10, 1994: EXTORTIONIST SENTENCED
:
“Herbert ‘Mickey’ Feinberg has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in an extortion bombing scheme involving peep shows that resulted in the death of one man. Feinberg, 63, of Los Angeles was sentenced here this week to 30 years for the bombing charge and a 10-year sentence for extortion.”

CHUCK BERNSTENE
:
So Mickey gets charged with conspiracy to commit murder and ends up doing life, ha, ha, ha.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
, DECEMBER 10, 1994: EXTORTIONIST SENTENCED
:
“Feinberg and Reuben Sturman, the self-acknowledged godfather of pornographic peep shows, were accused of a 1992 plot of hiring thugs to blow up two Chicago adult bookstores because owners would not pay higher film rates.”

ROGER YOUNG
:
When Reuben was caught I was flown to Chicago because he had convinced the FBI Strike Force that—for a deal—he would give them all this intelligence about organized crime and pornography. He was gonna lay it all out.

Turn, yeah.

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
The bulk of my eighteen-year career in the IRS was spent on Reuben Sturman and Sturman-related cases.

ROGER YOUNG
:
I go with the Chicago case agent over to the holding cell where they had Sturman to pick him up.

Reuben says, “Hey, kid, what are you doing here?”

I said, “Well, heard you were gonna tell all.”

He goes, “Thought I’d never see you again.”

So we handcuff Reuben and take him over to the Strike Force offices at the Justice Department.

REUBEN STURMAN
:
Robert DiBernardo was one of my customers. I knew DiBernardo as a business acquaintance, not as a friend. He seemed to be a nice fellow.

ROGER YOUNG
:
I am convinced that Reuben was gonna try to scam a young Strike Force attorney and an agent who really didn’t know all about him and his profile. That’s why the agent said, “Roger, we better have you come in here.”

So we sat and talked, went over the whole thing, and really nothing
came up that we didn’t already know. DiBe came up—oh yes, absolutely. And going to Fort Lauderdale for a sit-down with Ettore Zappi, and paying this debt he welched on to one of the Gambino stores.

REUBEN STURMAN
:
I didn’t know Robert DiBernardo was in organized crime for the first ten years we did business. His two partners were Jewish. His first wife was Jewish. His second wife was Jewish. His kids went to Hebrew school. I really thought he was Jewish—until I had my eyes opened.

But that had nothing to do with me, anyway. Gotti’s people shot him, and he disappeared from the face of the earth.

ROGER YOUNG
:
Reuben confirmed that DiBe was his contact in organized crime. He confirmed what Jimmy “The Weasel” Frattiano told me—that Sturman was already taken by DiBe.

Here’s the wealthiest, most prolific producer/distributor of pornography in the history of the world—and none of the other families could really go after him because DiBe already claimed him, already had him under control.

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
I spent the next three years, until I retired, investigating the escape, the jury tampering, the bribery, and put a lot more people in prison.

ROGER YOUNG
:
Reuben said, “It’s too bad. I really liked DiBe. He was a nice guy.”

I said, “Well, uh, you know, how’d it happen?”

He says, “Mob. Just the way they do things. That’s their business.”

NAOMI DELGADO
:
Reuben said he would lose the case without my help. He wanted me to offer a bribe of twenty-five thousand dollars to this one particular juror, and if the bribe didn’t work, I should do whatever it took to sway him.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT; FILED JULY
14, 1995:
“In November 1989, near the end of Sturman’s trial, defendant Naomi Delgado was observed in court staring at Hofstetter [a juror] and winking at him. During a recess at the trial, defendant sent Hofstetter a note, bearing a lipstick imprint, that invited him to join ‘another person’ at a suburban restaurant that evening.”

NAOMI DELGADO
:
Reuben had never asked anything of me before. Never in my life. The juror was in the middle of the first row. I just remember looking over, and he was staring right at me.

CRAIG MORFORD (ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY)
:
We had a fifteen-year investigation, a ten-week trial, and it almost comes crashing down over dinner and drinks at the Pier W restaurant.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT; FILED JULY
14, 1995:
“Hofstetter went to the restaurant in hopes that the note had come from the ‘sexy-looking woman’ in court. He and the defendant had dinner that evening.

“During the meal, the defendant mentioned that she was with the Sturman party, but did not say she was Sturman’s wife. Hofstetter stated that the defendant repeatedly mentioned the trial and insisted Hofstetter vote for Sturman’s acquittal. After dinner, while Sturman’s driver drove the two home, the defendant made physical advances to Hofstetter, which Hofstetter stated he rejected.”

REUBEN STURMAN
:
I begged and pleaded with Naomi. I told her, “If I have a chance to get out of this, we’ve got to take it.” I was willing to take that chance.

ROGER YOUNG
:
I don’t know if an act was actually consummated.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT; FILED JULY
14, 1995:
“Hofstetter failed to inform the court or any other jurors about the contact with defendant. The jury subsequently voted to convict Sturman. This scheme remained secret until a secretary employed by defendant and Sturman informed the government in June 1992.”

NAOMI DELGADO
:
The verdict was guilty on all counts. I felt totally responsible.

REUBEN STURMAN
:
Okay, I tampered with the jury. Very badly, in fact. They want me and everyone around me. I’m surprised they didn’t indict my six-year-old kid. I beat these guys sixteen ways from Sunday, every one of them. They all hated me like poison because they could never win.

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
There were also allegations that Reuben tried to bribe the judge. If Reuben thought he could have done himself any good by offering me a big bribe, he wouldn’t have hesitated to try. But for some reason he just didn’t choose to go that route.

REUBEN STURMAN
:
Rosfelder’s a horrible man. He lied to the federal government. He lied to the Swiss government. He lied to everyone.

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
Maybe Reuben figured it was kind of a battle between me and him. He may not have figured that if he could get the case derailed by dealing with somebody else, then he’d win.

ROGER YOUNG
:
I started on the Reuben Sturman case in December 1982. Then Sturman went away, was convicted in 1993. Escaped, and went back to prison, facing more charges. Now he had an escape from prison charge, trying to bribe a juror and trying to bribe a judge.

Things didn’t look good for Reuben.

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
, MAY 29, 1995: LAWYER’S TRIAL TO STAR PORN KING STURMAN AS WITNESS FOR FEDS.
“During his thirty years as the king of the pornography business, Reuben Sturman infuriated police, FBI agents and prosecutors with his arrogance and his ability to beat obscenity charges.

“But in a trial that opens tomorrow in U.S. District Court, Sturman will be the star witness for the prosecution.

“He is expected to testify that Cleveland attorney Sanford I. Atkin bilked him out of $550,000 by claiming he could bribe U.S. District Judge George W. White, who presided over Sturman’s 1989 tax trial in Cleveland.”

ROGER YOUNG
:
In all of Sturman’s trials, I basically wanted to know, could he get to the judge? Because here you have somebody who, twelve different times in his career, was arrested for obscenity and was never, ever successfully convicted of interstate transportation of obscene matter.

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
MAY 29, 1995: LAWYER’S TRIAL TO STAR PORN KING STURMAN AS WITNESS FOR FEDS
:
“The FBI and Internal Revenue Service investigated Sturman’s charges for nearly two years before indicting Atkin last fall on charges of obstructing justice, fraud, money-laundering and tax evasion.

“Atkin, 63, of Moreland Hills, has denied telling Sturman he could bribe White. In interviews and court filings, his attorneys have said the money Atkin got from Sturman was for legitimate legal fees. They contend Sturman hired Atkin to prepare a challenge to his tax conviction. The appeal was supposed to argue that Sturman’s trial attorney, J. Michael Murray, made mistakes in his defense.

REUBEN STURMAN
:
I didn’t think Sanford Atkin was much of an attorney.

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
, MAY 29, 1995: LAWYER’S TRIAL TO STAR PORN KING STURMAN AS WITNESS FOR FEDS
:
“Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig S. Morford and Michael Attanasio, a trial lawyer from the Justice Department’s public integrity section, have said in court filings that the $550,000 that Atkins maintained Sturman paid him in legal fees is ‘grossly disproportionate to the compensation he typically earned from bona fide clients.’

“‘Reuben feels that he’s been a victim in this,’ said Adam Bourgeois, Sturman’s Chicago-based attorney. ‘Money was taken from him, and when he asked for it to be returned, the guy wouldn’t give it back.’”

ROGER YOUNG
:
Oh, there’s no question that Sturman gave the money to Atkin to try to get it to Judge White.

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
, JUNE 22, 1995: COURT NAILS LAWYERS FOR PORN KING
:
“‘I think we’re finally at the end of the road,’ said Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig S. Morford, who has spent much of his eight years with the U.S. Justice Department prosecuting Sturman and his associates.”

REUBEN STURMAN
:
I was a businessman. I didn’t see pornography as good. I didn’t see it as bad. It was just a product to be sold. You want to know how the industry started? Well, you’re looking at the person who started it. No one was anywhere near me. In the world. I was the biggest in the world, and there will never be another.

BILL KELLY
:
Reuben Sturman is deceased as of October 27, 1997, in federal prison in Manchester, Kentucky. Edward Joseph Wedelstedt is Reuben’s successor on most of the businesses. He’s probably the number one guy in the country.

If he’s not, Kenny Guarino is. And if not Guarino, then it’s Harry Virgil Mohney, who owns that Deja Vu chain of strip clubs—who’s also a major pornographer. They’re probably the top three guys in the country.

REUBEN STURMAN
:
I had a wonderful life. If I die tomorrow I’m going to die with a smile on my lips.