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From Gary W. Potter's 1986 book The Porn Merchants:

John Krasner controlled a chain of adult bookstores from his five-story pornography warehouse in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Krasner's network included over fifty different corporations, more than one hundred employees, and a fleet of more than fifty vehicles. His network operated in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Virginia, and even had pornography industry interests as far away as Florida and Colorado.

Krasner financed his start in pornography with an $80,000 loan from a Philadelphia loanshark named "Max." The same loanshark also provided an additional loan of $80,000 to Krasner once the business got going. Max was Willie Weisberg, a major organized crime figure in Philadelphia whose career extended from Prohibition days and who, for some thirty years, had been the second-in-command of Philadelphia's Rosen Mob, one of the largest and most successful organized crime networks in the nation. While it is not known if Weisberg retained an interest in Krasner's operations, his involvement certainly helps to explain Krasner's subsequent successes.

In addition, Krasner had ongoing business relations with at least two major pornography figures in California, Norman Arno and Teddy Gaswirth.

Krasner's business operations were incredibly sophisticated and complex. A single Krasner-owned bookstore would be concealed in a maze of corporations and individuals acting as "straw men." Former Krasner employeees have revealed that a typical bookstore may have involved as many as eight corporations, thereby concealing actual ownership.

When Krasner opened a pornography retail store, someone associated with Krasner's Allentown warehouse would form a corporation, most often a corporation exclusive to that particular store. The reason for this proliferation of corporation was that court orders or warrants executed against as single corporation would only impact one store under Krasner's control rather than on the entire network of stores.

Once the store opened, a second corporation would be used to employ the manager. The manager was usually someone from Krasner's "home office," although store clerks were hired locally.

Supplies for the store were packaged by a third corporation and then picked up and delivered by a fourth. The peep-show booths were constructed by a fifth corporation, and the projectors and films in the booths, along with the coin boxes, were handled by a sixth corporation.

The receipts from magazine and book sales were forwarded directly to teh Allentown headquarters, where a seventh corporation handled accounting duties. An eighth corporation was responsible for Krasner's fleet of vehicles.

But the corporate layering only begins to describe the complexity of the operation. Unraveling the rest of the puzzle leads not just to Krasner and his Pennsylvania network, but directly to Reuben Sturman, the Cleveland-based pornography magnate. The trail back to Sturman is complicated but can be followed. For example, an employee of one of Krasner's companies such as K&A Vending would actually be paid by Crown News of Camden, a corporation registered in Delaware, which lists Morton A. Goss of Toronto as its president. Toronto law enforcement officials say that Goss and his company are affiliated with Sovereign News of Cleveland, which is of course, run by Sturman. In addition, K&A Vending, which serviced the projection equipment and collected the coins in peep show booths, was in reality Krasner and Automated Vending. Automated Vending is a company which is controlled by Sturman.

Crown News in Candem supplies many pornography retail outlets in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The owner of record of the stores serviced by Crown News of Camden is Crown News of Cleveland. The clear inference which can be drawn from these corporate entanglements is that the Krasner network was a subsidiary of Reuben Sturman's business operations. Krasner is known to have introduced some of his employees to Sturman at a Christmas party.

Another major pornography supplier in Pennsylvania is Allen Charles Morrow, who started out in teh porn busienss by working for Krasner in the early 1970s. Morrow left Krasner's operation and established his own chain of stores.

Morrow's home office is in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, and his network operates stores throughout Pennsylvania and New York.

Despite their early connections, Krasner and Morrow had a falling out and a "porn war" between the two networks began in the late 1970s. A Krasner employee, for example, was stopped on Interstate 83 near Harrisburg with 85 pounds of explosives in the trunk of his car. He was enroute to blow up a Morrow-owned porn store. Unfortunately the employee had solicited assistance in the bombing from an undercover Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agent. Krasner was also charged with soliciting a man named James Flood of Moscow, Pennsylvania, to kill Morrow. The plan backfired when Flood went to Morrow with the story.

In general, Krasner's efforts in the war were not meeting with any success. His arrest in the Morrow murder plot was compounded by the kidnapping of his wife and a series of bombings at his stores. The situation had become so perilous that Krasner and his family left the state to ride out the war in Florida. On 2/6/79, Krasner was shot and killed...

Morrow was shot 5/29/79 but survived... He did not survive a series of later prosecutions for arson and fraud.

This brief examination of local pornography networks highlights several important considerations:

First, the retail-level operations are run by a large number of small entrepreneurs. They operate their businesses in a similar manner and offer similar services. Prices are constant from shop to shop and available stock is often the same. These small businessmen are totally dependent on regional distribution networks for their supplies. Without support froma distributor they would be out of business ina short time. As a result the distributor actually determines the real parameters of the business, setting prices, limiting products, and enforcing conformity. On the other hand, local porn retailers are also often at the mercy of other organized crime groups, who offer them "protection" and share in their largesse.

Second, local pornography networks clearly overlap with other crime networks. In every instance mutual involvements can be noted between retail pornographers and gamblers, loansharks and even drug dealers. Of course, there is also an overlap with individuals providing other illicit sexual services. What is unclear is whether this arrangement at a local level is a "partnership" or merely the result of physical proximity in the provision of vice.

Finally, it is also quite obvious that violence, intimidation, and extortion are common means of maintaining order in the porn industry. This reliance on violence makes close association with other criminal groups inevitable.