6/24/01

I talked to internet pornographer Gary Horn Friday. He's been disabled since a 1977 car accident. A drunk driver ran into him and broke his back. He's had 26 surgeries since then.

Gary left law school in 1991 to pursue publishing. At the time, the magazine business was terrible. Paper was expensive and advertising was down. So he investigated electronic publishing. In 1992, he was one of the adult content providers to CompuServe.

In 1993 out of South Florida, Horn started one of the first major adult web sites called AdultAmerica. Seth Warshavsky was just entering the business with his Candyland. Gary's partner helped Danni Ashe learn HTML.

Horn did a deal with Harry Mohney and IGallery to build their video facility. Gary brought IGallery the money partner and built the studios and staffed them.

Horn became a senior VP at Brian Shuster's Xpics, his first real job in 20 years, until leaving July 30, 1998. He had a relationship with porn star Shawna Edwards that ended in late 1998 when she returned to her abusive husband.

Gary formed a company called "The New Event Group." It was set up to serve Xpics. Attorney Greg Picconelli set it up as the most thorough record keeping 2257 organization to make sure porn libraries complied with the law.

"In 1997 this was unheard of," says Horn. "Everybody was being cowboys and we were doing it by the book. The New Event Group had three fulltime employees and all they did was obtain and polish content and keep records of it all. It was a nice machine until [Brian] Shuster decided to stop paying his bills. It was one of those things where they love your work, love your work, and all of a sudden you don't hear from them. Next thing you know they hate your work and they won't pay you.

"After Shuster stopped paying, I kept the company going for another six months but none of the other players were that interested in [federal law] 2257 yet. It's got everybody's attention now."

Gary retired to his yacht in Marina Del Rey, played in a band, and visited with his grandchildren.

When Norm Wilson ran into trouble April 20th, Horn stepped up and put him on his feet again. Gary brought together the people who are putting Wilson's new company together.

"I probably wouldn't have come out of retirement for myself," says Horn, "but to help a friend... That's what a mentch does. And Norm's one of the good guys. I won't say the guy never bounced a check in his life but he always made good.

"Norm had partners, he couldn't pick better enemies. They all sabotaged him. I don't know anybody he's ever ripped off. He's been the salt of the earth. I've built a company for him where he's got partners and a support staff so there aren't going to be those kind of problems that happened in the past. He started a business that was terribly under-capitalized and that's why when he left, he had less than $100 in his pocket.

"He put every dime he made back into his business. This is a guy who drives around a ten-year old Ford van. His wardrobe seems to consist entirely of stuff he got at the trade shows. It's not unusual to see him with a Cybererotica T-shirt on even though Cybererotica wasn't a client of his in the past. But if the handful of big players come through, he'll be ok after the show."

Luke: "Have you found that the business has changed much since you left?"

Gary: "I've kept tabs on it. There's a lot of younger, new blood. Wicked guys like Warshavsky and Shuster eventually get theirs. I've still got some litigation pending with the Xpics boys. Because they stuck it to me before I left for a couple of hundred gran. I think Xpics is still running, barely crawling. At one point, they were the top dog. Shuster was never a people person and he made a couple of bad business decisions that I advised him against and eventually I had to leave. I couldn't work with the guy."

7/4/01

Russ writes: No offence Luke but do you print all of the bulls--- that people tell you is true. Do you know all of the facts about this Gary Horn guy? He's an absolute idiot. Hanging out with Norm Wilson should be proof enough of that. He says he lives on a yacht did you know his boat is a 20 foot tug boat that is falling apart at the seams. He has not a dime to his name, their both begging money from almost strangers.Gary was not in retirement, he was not wanted by anyone. As like Norm Wilson any deal he had tried to put together for himself in the past 10 years fell threw. He did introduce some people to each but they did the work. Their two idiots in a pod. It seems that their business consists of stealing ideas from Internet Fulfillment, which was rightfully taken from Norm... I can't wait to watch phoenix fulfillment crash and burn. As far as Gary and xpics he was let go for being over paid for his job. He tried to be a tuff guy and draw up a law suit that xpics laughed at. His good friend Greg Picconelli tried tell him move on but to what he had nothing even his friends are done with these guys. Luke I hope you can see that these guys are full of s--- trying to sell you on how great it is. Two guys who are so busy have time to write you. By the way Norm and Gray are two guys who got a big kick out of you being pouched out at a La show awhile back now your a good friend... This new fulfillment deal they have IT ISN'T WORKING they went to a show with nothing .....lol smart guys ....They have even tried to order product in IFC name dip s---s. Gary and Norm are standing up and opening there arms to the Adult world an guess what people are done with dick heads like this and are going to kick them right in the nuts.