The Wages of Sin Is $50

Not sure why, but I got to thinking today about my first and only venture into felony crime.  Maybe it’s because tomorrow marks the fifth anniversary of the passing of Juanita Slusher, the real name of the Dallas Stripper and Porn Star known as Candy Barr, but more on that later.

It was late 1962 or early ‘63, and I was working as a disk jockey/newsman for a radio station in a small town in East Texas.  One Friday, as I prepared to head to my parent’s place  for the weekend, a coworker offered to buy my gas if I would drop something off  for him while I was in Houston.  I said I would, and he gave me a a package about the size of a shoe box, with directions to deliver it to Joe X at an address on Hempstead Highway.

The address turned out to be a supermarket, and Joe was the butcher.  When I offered him the package, his face turned as white as his apron, and he told me to bring it around back to the loading dock and he would meet me there.

When he met me out back, he was still shaky and looking around to be sure he wasn’t being observed.  Though I’m a pretty bright fellow, I’ve never been known for thinking fast on my feet, but even I knew something wasn’t on the up-and-up.  So I told him that before he could have the package he owed me a delivery fee.

“How much,” he says.

“50 bucks,” say I.

And he peeled off a pair of 20’s and a 10 dollar bill without batting an eye.

That $50 went a long way back then, but I still arrived back at work on Monday mad as hell.  I was sure the package was marijuana – possession of a shoe box full of pot back then could get you life in the penitentiary.

My coworker laughed and explained that it wasn’t dope, it was pornographic movies.  He had a darkroom and a 16 to 8mm reduction printer where he turned out copies of stag films that he sold (discretely) all over the state.

Transporting and  distributing porn could also have gotten me put under the jail, but somehow it didn’t seem quite as bad as peddling dope. Oh – Candy Barr – She was his best seller.  She starred in a film called Smart Alec .