Larry Flynt

Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. (born November 1, 1942) is the head of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP), producing over twenty pornographic magazines, including Hustler with an annual turnover of around $150 million. He took part in several legal battles involving the First Amendment. He suffers from bipolar disorder and is paralyzed from the waist down after an assassination attempt.

Biography

Born in Magoffin County, Kentucky, he spent his childhood in poverty. His mother divorced his alcoholic father and when Flynt was 10 he moved to Indiana with his mother. Flynt joined the US Army in 1958 aged only fifteen, lasting barely a year. He then joined the Navy and served on the USS Enterprise. He left the Navy in 1964 and opened a strip club in Dayton, Ohio. He later owned several strip clubs and started his magazine Hustler in July 1974.

Related Topics:
Magoffin County, Kentucky - Poverty - Alcoholic - Indiana - US Army - 1958 - Navy - USS Enterprise - 1964 - Dayton, Ohio - Strip club - Hustler - July - 1974

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

According to Flynt's autobiography, he first had sex with a chicken. He'd heard from older boys that sex with chicken was similar in sensation to sexual intercourse with a woman. He proceeded to rape one of his grandmother's chickens, killing it afterwards to avoid any suspicion.

Related Topics:
Autobiography - Chicken

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He was married five times, the longest marriage was to his fourth wife, Althea, from 1976 until her death in 1987. She had been suffering from AIDS and drowned in a bath tub, possibly as a result of a heroin overdose. He has five children.

Related Topics:
Althea - 1976 - 1987 - AIDS - Heroin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He had a one-year flirtation with evangelical Christianity, converted by evangelist Ruth Carter Stapleton (sister of President Jimmy Carter) in 1977. He continued to publish his magazine, vowing to "hustle for God," became "born again" and claims he had a vision from God while flying his jet.

Related Topics:
Evangelical Christianity - Ruth Carter Stapleton - Jimmy Carter - 1977

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During a legal battle related to obscenity in Gwinnett County, Georgia on March 6, 1978, he and his lawyer Gene Reeves Jr were shot outside the county courthouse in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The white supremacist Joseph Paul Franklin confessed to the shooting while serving life in prison for a separate crime; he said he was outraged by an interracial photo shoot in Hustler. Franklin was never brought to trial because Flynt and his lawyer said they didn't want to press charges of aggravated assault against a man already serving six life sentences for murder. Flynt later told Althea, his wife at the time, that he thought the CIA shot him. But some inside the porn industry knew the Mob was angry that Flynt had been distributing his own magazine and decided to send him a serious message. Flynt's injuries left him paralyzed from the waist down. The injury caused him intense constant pain and Flynt was addicted to painkillers until multiple surgeries deadened the affected nerves.

Related Topics:
Obscenity - Gwinnett County, Georgia - March 6 - 1978 - Lawrenceville, Georgia - White supremacist - Joseph Paul Franklin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the attack, he renounced Christianity and moved with Althea to a Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles.

Related Topics:
Bel Air - Los Angeles

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Flynt disowned his eldest daughter Tonya Flynt-Vega after she became a Christian anti-pornography crusader. In her 1998 book Hustled she claims that she was sexually abused by Flynt as a child, which Flynt denies.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~