Porn and the Mafia

Gangland Wire

Gary Jenkins: Mafia Detective

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 623 Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gary and Cam Robinson discuss organized crime’s infiltration of the pornographic film business. Specifically, Colombo Family member Tony Peraino. He was this crime family’s biggest earners because Tony Peraino developed pornography into one of organized crime’s biggest moneymakers after narcotics and labor racketeering. Tony Peraino was aided by his brother Joe “The Whale” Peraino, his sons Louis “Butchie” Peraino, and his nephew, Joseph Peraino, Jr. Venmo me @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” They got their start with the biggest porn star ever, Linda Lovelace. Louis Peraino produced the movie Deep Throat and his father Tony loaned him the initial $22,500 in production costs. The Perainos leased the theatres and allowed employees to account for all proceeds. They ensured compliance by sending their associates known as “checkers” to manage the movie houses. They reaped huge profits from such successes as Deep Throat, The Devil and Miss Jones, and Wet Rainbow. In instances where they do not have a direct financial share in film, as in the case of Behind the Green Door and The Life and Times of Xaviera Hollander, crime figures pirated those films and distributed them illegally, earning money without any investment. Successes of several films have given several pornographic moviemakers with Mafia connections money to go into producing and distributing legitimate films. Anthony and Louis Peraino used the Deep Throat profits to build financial ownership of garment companies in New York and Miami and investment companies. The Perainos also controlled various adult and porn industry interests in New York, Los Angeles, and South Florida. These businesses included adult bookstores and adult movie theaters. The Feds took notice and prosecutors went after the Peraino family. In 1975, they obtained convictions of Anthony and brother Joseph Peraino on racketeering charges. In 1976, they convicted Anthony of conspiracy to ship obscene material interstate. Before appearing for sentencing, he jumped bail and disappeared for the next five years, reportedly to Italy. In 1981, in poor health, Anthony turned himself into authorities. Anthony was sentenced to ten months in prison and $15,000 in fines for his 1976 conviction and jumping bail. The Peraino brothers for into a dispute over their pornography empire. The Colombo Family mediated and the dispute was settled in favor of Anthony. Not too long after, an unidentified assailant shot Anthony’s brother Joseph and nephew Joseph Jr. in a residential area of Gravesend, Brooklyn. Joseph Sr. was paralyzed, and Joseph Jr. was killed. Venmo me @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. To subscribe on iTunes, click here; please give me a review and help others find the podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Gangland Wire, hosted by former Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit Detective, Gary Jenkins.
0:17.5	Well, welcome all you wiretoppers back in the studio of Gangland Wire.
0:22.7	I'm here with our good friend from Chicago, Cam Cam, Cammy and Liz Robinson. Hey, Cam, how you doing? How you doing, Gary? Good to be here.
0:27.5	Well, it's always good to have you back on the show. And folks, Cam got hold of me. I mean, it's interesting
0:32.8	that it got hold of me today because I'm behind the time. I just started watching the Duce on HBO and I was
0:39.5	enthralled with it. It was done by some of this David Chase and author of Pelicanos, George Pelicanos.
0:46.5	George Pelicanos is probably one of the better crime writers, maybe even the best crime writer in the
0:51.3	United States. And so they're the ones that are responsible for that
0:54.4	and wrote a lot of it. It's based on the mob infiltration of the Times Square porn industry. And it was
1:02.9	huge back in those days before they came along. And the very end of it, I don't want to spoil it for
1:08.0	you, but by the third year of the series of
1:11.4	dues, they're cleaning up Times Square, and it's all about real estate. And real estate and
1:16.7	owning real estate was a big part of this whole porn industry. It seemed kind of funny,
1:21.8	but you've got to have a place to put those porn stores. Everybody didn't want to rent to you.
1:25.8	And it's a good place. You know, back then, like every major city, Cam, if you remember, the midtown, the core
1:33.1	of all big cities was just going to shit.
1:36.3	Yeah.
1:36.7	Everybody was leaving.
1:38.1	The businesses were closing.
1:39.6	There was just the government was about left in the 70s.
1:42.9	After the, really after the rise of 68, everybody started running for the suburbs.
1:47.7	And it wasn't until like the 80s and it started slowly but surely turned back around.
	...

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