Michael Esposito owns the porn production and distribution company Gentlemen's
Video.
According to the 1998 book "The
Animal in Hollywood," by former mob enforcer Anthony Fiato and
journalist John L. Smith, Michael Esposito is a Lucchese crime family
associate.
Michael's father Sal Esposito
worked worked with the Anthony 'Tony Ducks' Corrallo crew out of Harlem,
part of the New York based Lucchese crime family.
Here are some excerpts
from Pg. 124-125 of ANIMAL:
...Jimmy Coppola,
the guy who picked up the cash. He was later stabbed and killed in prison.
And all this came about because Harvey Ross [Harvey Rosenthal, longtime
employee of VCA, video pirate, duper, died of cancer about 1995] got
me [Fiato] to pressure Marty Krause [Los Angeles crime figure], who
in turn went to Mike Esposito [longtime pornographer, owner of Gentleman's
Video], who went over to his father Sal [who worked with the Anthony
'Tony Ducks' Corrallo crew out of Harlem, part of the NY based Lucchesse
crime family] and then went to Walter [Stevens, veteran LA crime figure].
Sal tried all kinds of things to get us to lay off [pornographers and
other businessmen associated with the Lucchese crime faimly]. He called
me up one day and said, 'Butchie Peraino says to say hello.' And then
he asks, 'Is this coming from Mike [Rizzitello, veteran LA crime boss]?'
Because if it is, they know where to go to get it stopped. I [Fiato]
said, 'This is coming from me.' I know Butchie is with the Genovese
people [NY Mafia family], but he's nothing to me. They were all in the
porno business together. The Perainos had that Deep Throat movie. I
told Sal, 'Well, say hello to Butchie for me and tell him to stay the
hell out of my business.'
But two years earlier I had
had guys pressuring the Espositos. That was what set up the Red Morgan
move. They threatened to go to everybody they knew. Sal Amarena, Jimmy
Fratianno's old friend from San Francisco...
In the middle of
it, I back down... So when I figured they'd dropped their guard, I sent
Fat Steve Munichiello and Carl Cataldo over to Mike Esposito's office.
And they give him the beating of his life.
Russ Hampshire's second wife,
the one before his current wife Betty, serves as Michael Esposito's
secretary at Gentlemen's Video.
Former porn journalist (1978-88)
Hart Williams writes Luke 12/30/98:
So what's your
point, Luke? Is porn in the business of selling heroin because a couple
of junkies are in the biz? As usual, you would prefer to prove a pre-existing
prejudice, rather than assay a field of information and come to a reasonable
conclusion. I remember Sal and Mike shooting a Seka
video a long time ago, and everyone on the set knew they had shadowy
mob connections.
Why was this interesting?
A: Because of its very uniqueness. Many had never seen such athing in
years in the biz. If mob connections were rife, nobodywould have given
it a second thought. Instead, it was THE buzz for days.
B: Because no one on the set had any real knowledge of the "Mob"that
the Espositos were rumored to be connected with (and, moreimportantly,
DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW MORE). This was my first clue that the connection
between porn and XXX was a lot more tenuous than was assumed as gospel
by biased custardheads out in general society.
C: As usual, the connections are precisely what I said they were:money
connections outside the experience of working porn people.Whether a
movie is shot with Union Retirement Funds, with Senator Graham's campaign
contributions, or with Mob Money, the effect is merely to rent the equipment,
and neither Union Organizers, Senate Aides nor Mobsters are ever seen
by the actual porn workers.
Source Confirms That
Russell Hampshire
Sought To Put A Hit On His Former Partner Walter Gernert
5/21/01
Last week I spoke to a person with strong connections to both porn
and the Mafia who said that he'd heard the audiotape from around 1981
where VCA owner Russell Hampshire can be heard asking for a Mafia murder
of his business partner of the time Walter Gernert.
My reliable source says that the tape remains firmly in the possession
of former Mafia muscleman Anthony Fiato, who in 1998 published his autobiography
"The Animal In Hollywood: Anthony Fiato's Life in the Mafia."
We may soon have audio excerpts of Hampshire's request to play on the
internet.
Hampshire totally denies the story.
I know of no other media source within the porn industry that has run
this story though I know various porn journalists who are well aware
it. Including Paul Fishbein,
publisher of Adult Video News, who outright lies to the news media
repeatedly about the role of the Mafia in the industry.
Frank Rich writes Sunday for the NYTimes.com: "I ask if organized
crime is a factor in today's porn world. "When I got here, I heard there
were mob companies," he [Fishbein] answers. "But I've never even been
approached by a criminal element. I've never been threatened or bribed.
So if it ever existed, it's part of the history of the business." He
almost sounds disappointed."
Luke says: Paul Fishbein knows about Metro
Home Video. In January 1997, as Paul Fishbein very well knows (because
he assigned Mark Kernes to write a story about it), Metro pled guilty
to working with the Gambino crime family. Fishbein knows very well about
porn's numerous ties to the Mob but he keeps quiet about it, and lies
about it, because to admit such truths would be bad for business.
Fishbein told Sundays New York Times magazine: "Porn doesn't have
a demographic -- it goes across all demographics," says Paul Fishbein,
42, the compact and intense man who founded Adult Video News. "There
were 11,000 adult titles last year versus 400 releases in Hollywood."
Luke says: This is nonsense. Porn does have a demographic - men particularly
single secular men. Porn sells much better in Democratic areas and states
than Republican ones.And out of these supposed 11000 new titles last
year, no more than 2000 were new movies. Most "new titles" are
just old footage rereleased as compilations.
Fishbein knows very well that porn has a demographic but again, to
admit such truth would be bad for business.
I quote from page 134 of the book "Animal" published 1998 by
Barricade Books, New York:
After I bailed out Harvey Ross [aka Harvey Rosenthal,
long time employee of Russ Hampshire who died of cancer in 1994, thief,
assisted in the 1982 murder of actor Frank Christi with pornographers
and dupers Alan Betts and Ronald Coe who are associates of Robert Zeichick
aka Puggy, criminal, thief, pornographer], he started coming to the
club regularly and told me all about the pornographers he knew. Now
Harvey's acting like one of my crew… He tells me he's working for a
place called the American Video Library for Russ Hampshire, who Harvey
says wants to have somebody killed. Russ realized who I [LA mafia enforcer
Anthony Fiato] was and knew me by reputation, and he's also good friends
with Michael Esposito. Russ knew that Harvey [Rosenthal] was friendly
with me, and he [Russ Hampshire] brought up this deal to Harvey that
his partner, Walter [Gernert], was throwing away the business by doing
so much cocaine. Harvey came back and told me that Russ had told him
he wanted to have his partner [Walter Gernert] killed.
So I send Harvey to Radio Shack for a seventy-eight-dollar
pocket recorder and arrange a meeting with Russ. I told Harvey, 'Get
him [Hampshire] alone again and get him to repeat what he'd said. Harvey
goes to the meeting, follows him into the men's room, and asks him if
he was really sure he wanted to go through with this. Harvey gets him
to say he wants his motherf---ing partner dead and is willing to pay
Anthony fifty-thousand to do the job. Half up front and half when it's
done. We take the half up front.
After Harvey met with him, we made another meet, this time at the Tail
O' Pop on La Cienega [Blvd]. Harvey, Puggy, John Di Mittia and I were
at the meeting. When Russ walked in I could see the fear on his face.
He only expected to be meeting me [Fiato] and Harvey [Rosenthal]. Russ
was carrying a briefcase and sat down. He appeared to know everybody
at the table. I told Harvey to take out the tape and play it for him.
Russ's eyes almost popped out of his head like a frog.
I gave him the tape. I said, 'Here, you're lucky this came to my attention
because this motherf---er Harvey was going to blackmail you.' He was
so happy, he slid the briefcase over in the booth and handed over twenty-five
thousand cash, just like that. We're not going to kill anybody for this
guy. And we don't have to. He can't go to the cops. He can't do anything.
It was sweet.
When he [Hampshire] left, we just laughed. I'd had Harvey make six copies
of that f---ing tape. Russ kept paying for two years until finally after
the fifth or sixth time he turned his pockets inside out and said, 'All
I've got left is lint. Tell Walter, tell the cops. Tell anybody you
want. I don't care what you do.' "At that point we'd taken thousands
from the guy and we didn't need to hurt anyone.
11/29/05
HollywoodMafia.com
writes about Gentlemen's Video owner Mike Esposito:
Mike Esposito
now has a company in the Valley that sells unique porn. It is called
Gentlemen’s Video and it puts out great titles like Fat Sex in The City,
Mr. 18 and squirt videos. Mike is a short jolly guy. I liked Mike. He
was a good guy. Mike is the kind of guy you can eat lunch with and he
will tell a funny story. Mike grew up in Italian Harlem just blocks
from Rao’s.
Mike had his share of problems, he had to do some time (#31242-060)
because of a grand jury in New York. Mike also had a run in with LA
Family over LA Gangster Walter Stevens. Mike Rizzitello decided that
it was time for Walter to pay up. So the Animal who liked Mike Esposito
made a trip to his office. Sal Esposito (Mike's late father) stepped
in with some choice words. Is this coming from Mike? He asked the Animal
(Anthony Fiato). Then he started pulling names out of the past to get
the Animal to back off. Sal was a connected guy from New York with the
Luchese Family. Sal even dropped Butchie Peraino from AFV to try and
slow the Animal down. The Animal finally caught up with Sal one night
at Amici’s and Puggy who was with the Animal broke down because he could
not hack it. I have told the story of how they obtained the money from
Walter.
Mike still liked to associate with the guys after that time. I used
to be with Jerry Zimmerman over at Mike’s place Visual Images. Jerry
gave Sonny Franzese Mike’s number and Sonny called from prison to say
he wanted to come out and play golf with Mike. Jerry Zimmerman would
bring Jerry’s Deli over to Mike’s and Big Tony would come over and they
would all eat. Mike came down to Culver City to meet us all one day
before John Bronco went bad. LA Capo Louie Gelfuso was a frequent visitor
and Mike even leased him a car. Mike gets along well with LA Boss Shakes
Milano, I have seen them together. Mike even hits a few golf balls with
Shakes. So what is Mike’s status with the LA Family? Mike is an earner,
he does not cause trouble and he is in no way subversive. Mike is Shakes
kind of guy!
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