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The heavily armed U.S. marshals waiting last week outside the gates of Porn Peddler Larry Flynt's Bel-Air, Calif., mansion were taking no chances. Flynt, 41, who had been paralyzed by a would-be assassin's bullet, had been quoted as saying he would shoot anyone who came to get him "right between the eyes." But this time, at least, he was not true to his word. "If any of you want to know if this is a publicity gimmick, yes, it is," he told reporters, "and thank God you all fell for it." Then, wearing a LARRY FLYNT FOR PRESIDENT shirt, the raunchy, paunchy publisher of Hustler magazine was taken before Judge Robert Takasugi. The judge had ordered Flynt to surrender an audio tape that Flynt said was a recording of former Auto Magnate John Z. De Lorean being coerced by federal agents into participating in the $24 million cocaine deal that ended with his arrest. In court, Flynt stuck to his story that he no longer had the tape because it had been stolen. Later he went before a grand jury, where he ran on at the mouth until disgusted federal prosecutors gave up. Afterward, Flynt tried to explain his grand design: "If a man bites a dog, that's news. I try to bite a dog every day."
—By Guy D. Garcia