PHOTO COURTESY THE US TAXPAYER
Simon Simring's stash. Mr. Simring was arrested April 30, 1955 with this trunk load of sleaze and stags. The contents included 134 reels of stag films, 1,276 folders of photographs, 1,000 decks of dirty playing cards, 391 dirty books and finally 567 "latex gadgets" which I presume are "french ticklers" rather than the gadgets women today often forget and wrap in the sheets when they bring their laundry in. I don't see a box big enough here to be labeled "Bananas for Miami" so let's guess the gadgets were small ones.
Certainly doesn't look like a threatening pile to me. The agents have it all spread out there like a load of weapons or illegal drugs. It is actually girlie playing cards!
Simring's crime was being born at the wrong time...dirty playing cards today being a kitschy collectible available on Ebay.
In 1955 postal regulations were so strict, smutsters had to drive their stuff around and deliver it by hand. Simon used a green car. (The color was reported and testified to. I check my facts.)
A few months later, Simring appeared in a Miami court for his trial and sentencing. A witness admitted to buying "$122 in literature" from Simring. During the trial, as prosecutors prepared to screen the confiscated stag film "Favorite Pastime" the judge asked if the women in the court if they would like to leave.
They did.
Favorite Pastime was made in 1948, and you can today purchase it on DVD along with similar classics as "The Flat Tire" and "While the Cat Sleeps" for $6.99.
Guilty.
The sentence? FOUR YEARS. HARD LABOR. His desperate lawyer even played the Jew card! Calling Simon a "New York Jew" his defense attorney asked if the court would "crucify this Jew on the cross?" Well, they did...despite Miami being a retirement haven for the tribe even back then.
A year later Simring was still fighting the conviction (and had suffered a heart attack.)
DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS
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