In addition to supplying most of the “adult” bookstores in Boston, Palladino is reported to own several in the Combat Zone, but no available records indicate such ownership on Palladino’s part.
But in many cases ownership records for the bookstores appear to be non-existent.
Just how deeply the Mob is involved in backing the Combat Zone operations is a prime question for police investigators. The evidence, at this point, appears inconclusive.
“Our guess,” said one pertinent Boston police officer, “is that Mafia money is indirectly involved with all of them, but it’s very hard to track down.”
“The way it works,” said the source, “is that they operate on borrowed money.”
Or at least, suggested another police source, that’s the way it works in some cases.
“It appears to be a mishmash kind of thing,” said this source. “There’s some open operators, some front men, some who seem to be in it just by tradition.”
Unmishing the mash, even in cases where records of corporate owners are available, can prove a difficult task. Shortly after the recent Supreme Court ruling, Suffolk County District Attorney Garrett Byrne’s office confiscated a film being shown at the Capri Theatre on Washington Street.
Police say the Capri is run by the Venius Brothers. Officially, though, the president, treasurer, clerk and manager of Capri Enterprises is one Aristedes Poravas of Watertown. So when the theatre asked for the confiscated film back, claiming it had no other copy, it was Poravas who showed up at the court hearing.
The courtroom exchange between Poravas and Assistant DA Timothy O’Neill, went something like this …
Q (O’Neill): Where’d you get the film?
A (Poravas): From the distributor.
Q: Who’s that?
A: I don’t know.
Q: How did you get the film?
A: They bring it. They have a key.
Q: Who gave them a key?
A: I don’t know.
Q: How do you pay them?
A: I don’t know.
“To my mind,” says O’Neill, “we established that he couldn’t show there were no other copies.”
Poravas, O’Neill says, was represented at the hearings by Morris Goldings, a law partner of Park Plaza opponent Charles Mahoney. Goldings could not be reached for comment.
“The problem, in a nutshell,” says O’Neill, “is finding out who controls these places. It seems like a matter for the U.S. Attorney’s office and a grand jury, since there appear to be networks.”
There is another possible avenue – the drafting of tough corporate disclosure legislation. Such legislation was drafted last year by Atty. Gen. Robert Quinn’s office and shot down by big corporate interests, who want their dealings out in the open as much as the porn dealers.
