I. PREFACE

The Commission has relied heavily on information and intelligence provided by experienced federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities regarding the involvement of organized crime in the pornography industry. This first hand knowledge is based upon years of investigative experience in the highly complex and covert area of organized crime. Many of these law enforcement authorities testified before the Commission on January 21-22, 1986, in New York City, at a hearing devoted primarily to matters relating to organized crime. The Commission has also used investigative reports prepared by the United States Department of Justice, the office of the Attorney General of California, the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network (MAGLOCLEN), the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and others. Reliance on the investigative reports and the experience of these law enforcement authorities was necessary because the Commission operated without the authority to subpoena witnesses or compel their testimony regarding this sensitive area of inquiry.

II. INTRODUCTION

1126

Organized crime involvement in the pornography industry has been described by law enforcement officers and by organized crime operatives themselves. A retired veteran Federal Bureau of Investigation agent said of traditional organized crime members, "you cannot be in the field and distribute pornography without their consent 1127 He added that the pornography trade is attractive to organized crime because [i]t's a fast way of making a buck."1128 Aladena Fratianno whose involvement in La Cosa Nostra dates back to the late 1940's has

reached the same

conclusion.1129

In an interview with a

Commission investigator, Fratianno described the connection as he

knew it to be in the 1970's as follows:

Interviewer:

Is it possible for any person to become a major distributor of pornography in the United States without becoming involved in organized crime?

Fratianno: I doubt it. I doubt it.

Interviewer:

Fratianno:

1126

Okay, why do you doubt it?

Well, because there's so much involved and I

For a more complete explanation of traditional organized crime structures and influence see the textual discussion of organized crime, supra.

1127 New York Hearing, Vol. I, Homer Young, p. 40.

1129 New York Hearing, Vol. I, Fratianno interview, Interview by Senior Investigator Edward H. Chapman, Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, p. 112.

don't think they would let them.

Interviewer:

an involvement

Okay, so if someone tried to operate without

Fratianno: Well, somebody would report 'em, they'd say look it, he's taking my business.

Interviewer: . .

take them over?

what would they do? Shut them down, or

I really

Fratianno: Well, they would do something.
couldn't answer that. You know, they would do something.
They might go so far as killing them, who knows.1130

Another individual who was the owner and operator of an "adult" bookstore and spent many years in the pornography business described his experience in dealing with organized crime:

Interviewer:

If the mob says, "I do not want this,

boy."

Subject: You don't sell it. Even if they don't even talk
to you.
You're not going to sell it nowhere. If you go to
the store on 14th street and put it in there, they're gonna
bust his ass. Or they're gonna break your legs when you
start going through them. There was a man who went from New
York City . . . went into Atlanta. Had films to sell. .
They found him at the airport, with a $5,000 Rolex watch on
and about eight grand in his pocket, and four rolls of film
in his hands, with his head blown up in the trunk of his
car. Nobody robbed him, nobody took a dime off him. They
didn't even take the film. But he was at the airport with a
New York ticket shoved in his coat pocket. Don't come down
from New York, selling unless you've been sent down.1131

1131 New York Hearing, Vol. I, "Bookstore Operator" interview, p. 141-44; See also, New York Hearing, Vol. II, William Johnson, p. 82A-1 on "16 November 1970, Kenneth Herbert (Jap) Hann's bullet riddled body was found in the trunk of a car at Atlanta International Airport."

III. Organized Crime Involvement in Pornography

The 1970 President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography was unable to draw conclusions regarding the role of organized crime in the distribution of obscene and pornographic materials. The 1970 Commission on Obscenity and Pornography found:

Although many persons have alleged that organized crime
works hand-in-glove with the distributors of adult
materials, there is at present no concrete evidence to
support these statements.

The hypothesis that organized criminal elements
either control or are "moving in" on the distribution
of sexually oriented materials will doubtless continue
to be speculated upon. The panel finds that there is
insufficient evidence at present to warrant any
conclusion in this regard.1132

There is some question about how the earlier Commission reached this conclusion.1133 It is clear that the role of traditional organized crime in the pornography trade has increased substantially since the 1970 report was issued. Until 1970, only one LCN family, the Columbo organization, was known to have been involved significantly in the pornography business.1134 The Attorney General's Commission on Pornography has received reports from law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and

1132

The Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, 141-43 (1970).

1133 New York Hearing, Vol. I, Homer Young, p. 10; Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Obscenity Specialist Young reported that a staff member of the 1970 Commission interviewed him for approximately four hours about the role of organized crime in pornography in the 1968/1969 era. Young advised that he furnished the individual with documentation of organized crime involvement which for some unknown reason was not included in the earlier Commission's final report.

1134 New York Hearing, Vol. I, William Kelly, p. 69.