It was the second worst day of J. Edgar Hoover’s life.
On May 2, 1969, Screw published Issue #11 with our infamous cover story, “Is J. Edgar Hoover a Fag?” — publicly calling-out the nation’s first FBI director and hero of the Conservatives, personally, on his sexuality, and the entire Nixon administration on its hypocrisy. This simple headline ignited a ruthless, personal vendetta against Screw and publisher Al Goldstein, that continued even after Hoover’s death which, by the way, was the number one, worst day of his life — May 2, 1972 — exactly three years later, to the day, of the headline.
“Get Goldstein.”
It has long been rumored that Hoover’s last directive to the FBI before he died was a simple, two-word memorandum that read, “Get Goldstein”. Two-and-a-half years later, in December 1974, federal marshals kicked in the door of Al’s Manhattan townhome with a warrant for his arrest. Al and co-publisher Jim Buckley were arrested and immediately flown to Wichita, Kansas to stand trial for twelve felony counts of mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter. Wait — where?
That’s right, Wichita, Kansas. Despite the fact that Screw (only on its 11th issue) was distributed primarily in the Greater New York City area, somehow twelve copies ended up in the most Conservative place in the country.
But how?
Dirty Dick
Turns out, the Nixon administration, in its effort to avenge the humiliation of it’s lovable, fashionably-late FBI director caused by Screw and to carry out his final directive, had dispatched twelve U.S. Postal Inspectors to the most Conservative place ol’ Dirty Dick Nixon could think of. Then, using false names and fake addresses the Postal Inspectors ordered copies of Screw to be delivered by mail.
Unbeknownst to Al and Jim, the orders were received by Screw’s distributor at the time, a mobbed-up operation run by the Gambinos and then shipped, in violation of federal laws. See, at the time, sending (or transmitting) pornography (“obscene material”) across state lines was a federal offense because each state had its own definition of “obscenity”. Something that could be considered art or editorial in New York City could easily be deemed obscene in Kansas or vice versa (though that was likely never the case).
Essentially, it was all one, big set-up.
The Angle of the Dangle
Back then “obscenity” was defined as anything that appealed to “prurient interest” (a term back in the news as of late, especially in Florida) based on the “Angle of the Dangle” principle — an unofficial judicial measurement used to determine if content was criminal based on whether or not it was sexy enough to “create an erection in a male or moist vaginal area in a female.”
In the formal indictment, the charges against Screw alleged, “defendants did knowingly cause to be delivered by mail an envelope containing a tabloid giving information, directly and indirectly, as to where, how, from whom, and by what means obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy, and vile articles, matters and things, i. e., films entitled “Snake Fuckers’ Color Climax Film Number 1276,” and “Big Dick, Number Ten,” might be obtained. (Hee-hee, I had a boner at “lewd, lascivious and indecent”.)
The People v. SCREW
A highly-publicized obscenity trial ensued, followed by another highly-publicized retrial — with both Al and Jim facing 60 years in prison. Fortunately, they could afford to be defended by legendary Free Speech attorney Herald Price Fahringer and both trials ended in hung juries (pun alert). It seems even Average Joe Conservative in Kansas (at that time) couldn’t come to grips on the government telling you what you can or can’t read or what is considered obscene and what isn’t. Or perhaps they were just to modest to admit in open court what gives them a boner and what doesn’t. (Not that it’s anyone’s business but their own.)
In the end, the government walked away with a big gob of jizz on its face and Al invited the jury to celebrate Screw’s victory with an all-expense-paid trip to New York City, culminating in a weekend romp (er, fuck fest) at the legendary, iconic sex club, Plato’s Retreat. Five jurors came. (And came.) Turns out, they were indeed a well hung jury. (Pun complete.)
You can read more into the case on Justia: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/431/974/2185028/
Goldstein’s Revenge
Ultimately, Al and Screw got their revenge for being targeted, entrapped and persecuted (by the “weaponization of the FBI and DOJ”) for stating a simple fact about Hoover’s sexuality (something today we all know as true and could totally care less about): the Screw name is forever written into the late FBI director’s biography and his sexuality, which otherwise could be seen as something beautiful and even inspiring, is left only to humiliate him for eternity due to his blatant hypocrisy.
More importantly, however, the government’s vendetta against Screw led to huge wins for First Amendment Rights in America with Supreme Court precedents establishing the blanket laws on obscenity we have today — the same laws that allow us the freedom to buy, sell, read, watch, stream, share and otherwise get-off on, whatever “creates an erection in a male or a moist vaginal area in a female”, online and off.
Unfortunately, that freedom is once again under attack by radical, Right Wing extremists. They say, history repeats itself…
—P.
Publisher
As a child my mother said to me, ‘If you grow up to be a soldier, you will become a general. If you grow up to be a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I grew up to be a degenerate, and now I’m publisher of SCREW.
