RIP the Sultan of Smut, Richard Basciano, aged 87

RIP, Richard Basciano, the Sultan of Smut, aged 87-- Richard Basciano, the owner of Show World died on May 1st, 2017. In a career that spanned more than five decades, Basciano, a Baltimore native and a former boxer, ran as many as 12 porn palaces at the height of his Times Square empire in the 1980s. As Times Square changed and gentrified, Basciano made a fortune selling his buildings to the city. He kept a sanitized version of Show World that still remains, straddling 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. He lived in the tower above. Much of his fortune was made off of the dirty quarters of desperate men dropped into peep show slots.

Read today's amazing obituary by Sam Roberts, the May 7, 2017 New York Times at nytimes.com.