Rob Black, Russ Hampshire and the Mob
2002-12-24 14:03:41
Extreme Associates has gotten itself into big trouble. They robbed duplicator Vinnie DeStefano for $66,000 by not paying their bill. These Gambinos came from New York to collect the money from Rob Black. Rob Black told them that Pete Milano, the Mafia boss of Los Angeles, told him he could do it. So the Gambinos went back to Rochester and collected from Rob's Dad, Dominic Zicari, instead. Rob might get hurt. The FBI have already warned him.
Black also put Louie Peraino out of business by not paying him.
VCA owner Russell Hampshire's home was invaded a couple of months ago and he was robbed of over $500,000 cash. What's Russell doing with that much cash lying around the house? Russ suspects a Mafia crew from Boston did it - a Ronnie Rove and company.
Hampshire has had a horrible year. He was sick for months. He's gone on the wagon.
I am not convinced that Hampshire really owns VCA. I think he's the nice-guy front man.
I don't understand where he'd get $500,000 in cash. Business is not good at VCA.
Anthony Fiato is planing to transcribe the tape of Russell Hampshire trying to hire a hit on his then-partner Walter Gernert in the early eighties. Fiato and John L. Smith are coming out with an updated paperback version of their book, The Animal In Hollywood.
There have been several big robberies of pornographers this year. One went down at the New Century Studios on Satsuma in North Hollywood.
If all these robberies are connected, I do not know.
Vivid hires their girls out to do parties. I've got tapes from the girls describing what happens. Here's a dispute that just happened. Howard Levine is friendly with a guy from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. That rocker wanted some girls in New York. So Howard told some girls in New York that if they went with the rocker, Vivid would put them in a movie. When the girls came to California, Howard Levine wouldn't even take their call. So Kenji went to see Howard Levine at Larry Flynt Publications, Vivid's distributor, to enforce the commitment. Steve Hirsch and Howard Levine were intimidated by Kenji and put the girls in a Vivid movie.
Nici pimps out most of Vivid's girls. Just look at the Nicisgirls.com website. Nici has got to be working with law enforcement or she would be busted right now. Top porn girls earn $10-20,000 for a night's gig with Nici.
Teddy Rothstein is the front man for Bizarre and Star Distributors but the real owners of the companies are the Gambino family. They have a social club on Coney Island. Sammy the Bull Gravano's brother-in-law, Eddie Garafolo, Craig Marino. These are heavy duty Gambinos.
Michael Esposito of Gentlemen's Video is still tight with New York's Genovese family. Michael is close to Pete Milano, LA mob boss. During one of Extreme's wrestling gigs, Pete Milano brought water to Rob Black. Pete and his sons hang around the porn business.
Tommy Gambino isn't hanging out with LA capo Louis Caruso anymore.
Tommy Gambino of the LA family bribed Roger Clinton, the brother of the former president, with $50,000 to get his Dad out of prison.
The most connected and most powerful mob man behind the scenes of porn remains Joseph Abinanti. His business partner is Mickey Civello, the son of the boss of Kansas City Tony Rite. That name is like God. Kansas City's organized crime operation has spread to California. They control organized crime throughout the Mid-West.
They've gained control by running casinos. They own the Beverly Hills restaurant Maestros and a ton of other restaurants.
The Chicago crime families are basically out of the porn game. It's Kansas City and New York.
Many of the new people getting into porn are not the bad characters we're used to. It's like the Mob and Las Vegas. The business people are moving in and pushing the Mob guys out.
You've got Robert Herrara and John Chambliss who own Simon Wolf Productions. Chambliss owns one of the biggest hotel porn markets in the country out of Denver. Chambliss surely buys his own product for his hotels, not other people's.
You've got these Canadians who own Pure Play Media, who bought out Michael Ninn and Home Branch and the whole catalogue of Seymore Butts. They've hired Seymore to shoot for them. What are the real names of these rich guys from Vancouver?
Porn star Tabitha Stevens is from College park, Long Island and other places on the Island. Her Family lives in Las Vegas.
She came to wiseguy meetings. She would be in the restaurants or places but not included. She knows lots of mobsters on a first name basis. She is friends with one of Sonny Franzese guys.
Tabitha was at San Gennero`s in Culver City, Ca, when there was a meeting at which Mike Esposito, Kenny Gallo, mobster Fat Stevie Cino, John Bronco, Tony Angeoletti, and Vince Lupo met. Mike was chummy with Mob Rat John Bronco and the whole thing was caught on tape thanks to John Bronco, Tony Angeoletti who
were both working for the FBI. The FBI not only taped this meeting, it was outside taking pictures. Steve Cino is in the Las Vegas Black Book [meaning, he is banned from all the casinos].
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VCA's Russell Hampshire aggressively investigates reports of pirating of VCA product. In 1989, he heard about the production of 40,000 cardboard sleeves containing titles and scenes from productions by VCA Laboratories. But VCA had not ordered anything.
Russ put a private investigator on the one ton shipment and trailed it to Los Angeles International airport.
"We had a private investigator on the dock at Eastern Airlines, helping the guy unload the truck," Hampshire recalled with a laugh. (Kansas City Star, 10/20/91)
The detective found on the shipping bill the signature: Nick F. Agrusa of Video Midwest Inc.
A father of two who'd gone from selling donuts to real estate, Agrusa created the video distributor Video Midwest Inc in 1986. Investigators believed that the company used such other names as NF Enterprises, MegaMovies, the Small Package Shipping Co. and Essex Midwest. Federal investigators believed Agrusa had ties to Kansas City's reputed crime boss, Anthony "Ripe" Civella.
When he heard that Hampshire was working with the FBI, Agrusa flew to Los Angeles and quizzed one of Hampshire's colleagues in the pornography industry. Agrusa allegedly warned that, if he discovered Hampshire had been cooperating, Hampshire was "history." The FBI considered Hampshire's life in danger.
Asked by the Kansas City Star about the alleged threat on his life, Hampshire declined to give details.
"You're asking me to answer questions now that could put me in danger," he said. "I don't want to open my mouth, insert foot, and have someone banging on my door, trying to break my head in. I've gone through that before." (Kansas City Star, 10/20/91)
Agrussa died in the summer of 1991 of a gunshot to the head.
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Arch Stanton writes on RAME: Because of Gene Ross site Extreme was a company whose innerworkings were out in the open.
Obviously there are problems with this company and it seems to stem right from the top. I've never seen such a high rate of turnover .....even for a porn company.
When they broke from Elegant Angel, Rob Black, Tom Byron, Van Dam started Extreme taking contract star Tiffany Mynx with them.
Soon there was trouble in Paradise and Black was badmouthing Mynx and Van Dam. Gone. Since then a slew of contract girls and even more so "directors" have come and gone.
Word had it that Extreme had trouble paying there employees on time if at all. People have bills to pay. They can't wait for Rob to write another check.
Just off the top of my head I can name a cadre of pornsters who have come and gone: Tiff Mynx, Van Dam, Brandon Irons, Mark Woods, Mike ??? <the guy now at WCP> Luis Cypher, ??? Nystrom, the lawyer guy, Wanker Wang, goofy guy with glasses, Kid Vegas, Zupko............. and a slew of others.
I omitted the gals except for Mynx b/c they naturally have a limited shelf life whereas the guys are another story. Whenever the latest "director of the month" walked out
the back door the next wunderkind walked through the front. I can imagine the bets made as to how long he would last.
And now the final insult; the only good thing that Extreme had going for it. The only reason I would even consider visiting their site is b/c of Ross daily column. Now there is no reason to go there. None.
Bad move Black. You've done it again. You should resign your post and hand the keys to someone more knowledgable, more business savvy without the big ego you possess. Your ship is sinking and you're running out of lifeboats.
Perhaps his wrestling gig is doing well and he just doesn't care anymore about Extreme. I dont know why Black cut Ross loose. Money? Probably. When the number of hits rapidly decrease maybe then Black will realize his mistake. Too late Im afraid. Too late.
Pontus writes: Other names that come to my mind are Jessica Darlin, Kristi Myst, Veronica Caine, Slain Wayne, the Artist Formerly Known as Luciano, and Brad Sisken.
Murray writes on AdultDVDtalk.com: When they first came out they had a good thing going, I even had a thing for Lizzie(PRE-BOOB JOB thank you!). One problem is Rob can do nothing but jump on the bandwagon, and use cheap shocks. I won't dismiss their catalog. I count Terrors from the Clit, Ass Clowns, The Abyss, etc. certainly worthy. Now,they just try to shock, which Lizzie and Zupko are both guilty of. I wish they would stop pretending to exorcise inner demons and comment on society, and just make bone-stiffening porn. Just as with the P.R.stunts, Rob has no original ideas,he is the true carnival huckster, reeling people in and then screwing them once they've paid. This is evident in their comps which aren't listed as comps but continuing series,complete rip offs like Bootcamp 1,etc. They need to clean house,I'd love to see them get back to the energy and QUALITY they had in the beginning. I remember Tom saying they were so fortunate because very few new companies can last,so why waste your time on wrestling. Then Rob wants to be mayor of L.A.,yeah,real orginal,he's just a huckster. But I still dig Miscreants. Oh yeah.
Pontus writes: I particularly have ambivalent feelings about Thomas Zupko. The man is actually quite brilliant and visionary, but he desperately needed someone to reign him in to keep him from going off on wild tangents and excesses.
Take for example, In the Days of Whore. If Zupko had written that script in such a way that it didn't include lepers, religious themes, and the vat of pig's blood, that could have been one of the most erotic and intense movies ever. Even with the excesses, Kristi Myst's anal gangbang at the end of the movie is the substance that porn dreams are made of.
But in ALL of Zupko's movies, he made the same fundamental mistake over and over again: shock value at the expense of eroticism. Even regarding his yet to be released Ass Alien, once again he still makes the same mistake, putting a grotesque-looking space alien creature in a porn movie that's supposed to turn people on. Who wants to jack or jill off to that? Because Zupko was too thick-headed and unable to revive long enough out of his drunken stupors to really get a clue about what porn fans really want, it's no wonder that Extreme Associates finally lost their patience with him and showed him the door.
Another issue about Extreme Associates that has been observed by many is this. After a certain point, a clear trend of discontinuing to hire black male porn talent began to emerge. This was especially true of Thomas Zupko's hiring practices. Even in The Crack Pack, which was a porn parody of The Rat Pack that Zupko was planning to shoot, he mentioned that he intended to hire a white man in blackface to play Sammy Davis, Jr.'s counterpart. While Extreme Associates continued to hire and use black female porn talent, they began shying away from black male/white female sexual themes (as if they were suddenly starting to comply with the recommendations of the controversial Cambria List).
But probably no single issue has been more widely discussed and criticized than Extreme Associate's problems with the quality of their DVD releases. Supposedly, Tom Byron himself was going to become directly involved in that operation and bring it up to standards. To date, no one seems to have detected even a modicum of improvement in the quality of their DVDs. But, giving Tom the benefit of the doubt, maybe it just takes awhile for these DVD improvements to really become manifest.
Extreme Associates remains one of the most controversial and enigmatic studios in the history of porn. Although they have shown signs of brilliance in the past, unfortunately for them, they have been on a high-profile downhill slide for the last several months. Will they go down in flames? Or will they somehow reinvent themselves, rise like the mythical Phoenix from the ashes, and once again become a major player in the porn industry. Only time will tell.
Swayne writes: Zupko said that of all the things Extreme shouldn't of done was to create a war on A.V.N. (Adult Video News) because of this perhaps it hurt their sales and their publicity machine, two things important to a company.See Wiseguys At Bizarre's AVN Expo Booth
2003-01-08 14:20:01
Bizarre Video is essentially owned by New York's Gambino crime family.
I'm not sure if Gambino capos will be signing autographed pictures at the Expo.
Theodore "Teddy" Rothstein is the front man for Bizarre and Star Distributors but the real owners of the companies are the Gambino family. They have a social club on Coney Island. Sammy the Bull Gravano's brother-in-law, Eddie Garafolo, Craig Marino. These are heavy duty Gambinos.
Michael Esposito of Gentlemen's Video is still tight with New York's Genovese family. Michael is close to Pete Milano, LA mob boss. During one of Extreme's wrestling gigs, Pete Milano brought water to Rob Black. Pete and his sons hang around the porn business.
I guess John Gray now partners with Londoner Chiro Chiasaru in the Spearmint Rhino strip club chain. His old partner Mike Mahoney has gone.
I hear that incarcerated Gambino capo Mike Starz has turned state's evidence.
Russell Hampshire's stepson Javier is suspected in the big robbery of Russell a few months back. Javier used to own Mystic, which was financed by money from a Boston family, from Lenny and Mike. Javier went around the porn industry saying he was Russ's son.
I hear Rob Black still fears from his life. Some heavy duty mobsters are after him for payment. One of them was involved in the hit on Gambino leader Paul Castallano in 1986. Rob owes about $60,000 to duplicator Vinny Destafano, who used to be close with Los Angeles boss Mike Rizzitello.
The Gambinos are too busy with their own problems (poker machines) back East to concentrate on collecting from Black.
LA mob boss Pete Milano is down to a street crew of about three guys. Jimmy Caci from Palm Springs has more juice. Caci seems to know every wiseguy around, in part from the abundant time he's spent in prison.