The Other Hollywood (57 page)

NANCY PERA
:
I mean, Slash had left the girl he had married for Savannah, but once they had that write-up in
People
his agent and managers and the other band members came down on him hard because they didn’t like the press. I don’t know why.

Slash was supposed to be taking Savannah to Hawaii, and he never showed up—never called or anything. Two days later he came by and got his stuff—he’d been sort of living with her—and that was it. Broke her heart.

Slash definitely, definitely, definitely broke Savannah’s heart.

BRYN BRIDENTHAL (GEFFEN RECORDS PUBLICIST)
:
Slash was totally and completely Savannah’s fantasy.

NANCY PERA
:
His publicist may deny it, but Slash really hurt her. First off, I’ve seen them together. He used to send her flowers—these gigantic bouquets that would take up her whole kitchen counter.

RON JEREMY
:
Savannah and Slash had an off-and-on type of thing. They built it as this real big romance, but it was just like a side thing. I don’t think Savannah was that foolish to think it was anything else.

NANCY PERA
:
What saddens me is that her sex-star status was the very reason these people were attracted to her—they’d probably never have given her the time of day otherwise—but it was also the very reason they’d ostracize her.

RON JEREMY
:
I introduced Savannah to Steve Pearcy from the band Ratt. They started messing around in the bathroom. I thought I was gonna get to watch, and then she excused me—it pissed me off. Savannah and Billy Idol went out only a few times. Gregg Allman and her—that wasn’t my doing.

PAM LONGORIA
:
Savannah was a completely normal person until she got hooked up with Gregg Allman. She was sixteen or seventeen at the time. At first, I was proud that she had gotten a famous boyfriend.

JEANNA FINE
:
Savannah told me she was with her mom in a restaurant, and Gregg Allman was there. Savannah, or Shannon Wilsey—her real name—was fourteen or fifteen years old.

Shannon didn’t know who Gregg Allman was, but her mom did—and she could see that Gregg was eyeballing her daughter. So her mom took her over and said, “This is my daughter, Shannon.” And the rest is history.

KIRK WEST (ROAD MANAGER FOR THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND)
:
Everybody knew she was young, but she told everybody she was eighteen. It was an intimate relationship; she traveled with Allman on and off for a couple years. She appeared in a Gregg Allman Band video, “Can’t Keep Runnin’,” as one of a group of cowgirls, and in 1989, in a bit part in a video for “Statesboro Blues.”

MIKE WILSEY
:
She loved music; she loved rock stars. That’s what she wanted to do—marry a rock star. And I figured that was what would happen.

JEANNA FINE
:
She used to say that Gregg had an elevator that went straight up to his penthouse, and he would leave her there—just way up above everybody—with no way to get back down. She said she felt like Rapunzel or Cinderella, just kind of separated from the world, living in this alternate universe.

KIRK WEST
:
I was on the road a good bit during 1987, 1988, 1989, and Gregg was not doing heroin. You get in that kind of position, people want
to be your “friend,” want to turn you on, and I have sat there personally and watched him turn those people away.

As for the pregnancy, none of us ever heard about that. I checked with members of the band and road crew on tour in the late 1980s, and no one recalled any paternity claims by her against Gregg Allman.

JEANNA FINE
:
I don’t know whether Gregg was sober or not. There are stories that the first time she ever did anything was with him. But I’ve only heard her side, so I hesitate to lay any blame. But I do know Savannah would have discovered heroin with or without Gregg Allman.

I was in a similar relationship with an older man when I was her age. It was very exciting. He was a gambler and a drug dealer and had nice cars and a home of his own. So I understood how hard it was for her to be expected to move back into Mom’s house afterward. She had a tattoo on her foot, between her ankle and her foot, that said, “Gregg,” with a little heart.

NANCY PERA
:
She wanted to be somebody special, somebody important. She acted like a rebel, but she wanted everyone to love her, to respect her. And when they didn’t, she would just act wilder.

VINCE NEIL
:
Savannah was the beginning of my descent into Hollywood Babylon.

JEANNA FINE
:
Savannah was the brattiest. I had such a hard time being with her in public; if I even tried talking to somebody else, she’d say, “Honey, I’m getting pissy.”

That was her mantra. That meant I wasn’t paying enough attention to her.

VINCE NEIL
:
Mötley Crüe’s manager, Doug, called and fired me and told me not to speak with anyone in the band. That was it. What could I do after that kind of treatment? I had two choices: I could kill myself, or I could go to Hawaii with a stripper and get over it. I chose the latter.

I grabbed the first chick I could find, a porn star named Savannah, and took her to Hawaii.

RON JEREMY
:
Me and Savannah would cut to the front of the line at rock concerts; she’d be like, “Oh, all those other girls think they should get in before me?” Savannah had a bitchy attitude as far as that kind of thing went.

JEANNA FINE
:
Oh God, one time in particular, it was some big concert, and there were cameras all around, and Savannah was wearing shorts and this
fringe jacket, and it was getting caught on everything—like everybody’s dog collars and spiky things.

I mean, drinks are flying, cigarettes are getting knocked out of people’s hands, and Savannah’s not apologizing to anybody—she’s just plowing through the crowd. And I’m walking behind her: “Oh, she’s sorry,” and “Oh, let me get that,” and “Here’s some money, buy yourself another drink.”

Finally I caught myself, and I went, “What the fuck am I
doing?
When did I become her caretaker?”

VINCE NEIL
:
With the band out of my hair, I couldn’t see any reason to stay sober, so we brought all the pills and coke we could carry with us. After staying up four days straight at the Maui Hilton, Savannah took one pill too many and dropped to the floor convulsing. I called an ambulance and followed her to the hospital.

I’d never seen anyone look so beautiful and innocent while lying overdosed in a stretcher.

MARC VERLAINE (EDITOR OF
EROTIC X-FILM GUIDE):
When I first met Savannah my immediate impression was that she was a professional party doll. She was in love with the scenes that rock stars and porn provided. In the rock world she was a supergroupie; in porn, she was a big fish in a small pond.

VINCE NEIL
:
When she got back to the hotel the next day, we picked up right where we had left off. But I was older and for some reason not only could I not get as fucked up as I used to, but I couldn’t recover as quickly. By the time I returned to L.A. I was a mess. I flew to a clinic in Tucson to dry out. Savannah sent me a different porno picture of herself every day, until the “Sober Police” found my stash and busted me.

TOM BYRON
:
I almost fucked Savannah outside of work one time. Jeanna Fine, her boyfriend, and I were all sharing this big house in Hollywood, and we were having a coke party. I think Savannah wanted me, but there was this other girl, who looked more like a fucking pig, you know?

I wanted the fucking pig, man.

So I just kinda blew off Savannah. I just went upstairs with the fucking pig and did all kinds of vile shit to her. What was her name? I have no idea.

Then Jeanna mentioned that Savannah was a little offended. But dude, I’m coked out, you know what I’m saying? What the fuck? I ain’t thinkin’ right. Here’s a pig that’ll fucking tongue my ass for ten hours, you know what I’m saying?

And I couldn’t have seen Savannah doing that, ha, ha, ha.

SAVANNAH [FROM
AVN
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH]
:
“If you don’t love me, I’m sorry.”

BILL MARGOLD
:
Savannah won an award from
AVN
—and, as insignificant as that may seem, she went up there and said, “I don’t give a shit if you like me or not, I got this award.”

Not the nicest thing in the world to say, but that was Savannah.

VINCE NEIL
:
By the time I completed treatment, Savannah was dating Pauly Shore.

RON JEREMY
:
I took Pauly Shore to the Free Speech Coalition dinner dance, which takes place at the Sheraton Universal Hotel every year. Pauly met Savannah at that show, and they became friends. And then I took Pauly to a little party upstairs. I knew a couple girls who might give him head.

So Pauly saw Savannah again some other time—and then Nancy Pera reintroduced them—but he met her the first time through me.

NANCY PERA
:
Savannah had been spending a weekend night over at Pauly’s house once in a while because her dog and his dog got along. I don’t know if there was anything sexual going on at the time.

Believe it or not, a lot of times she’d have guys spend the night and nothing would happen. It took me a while to find out, but she was afraid to be alone because of a stalker she had for a while.

HENRI PACHARD
:
Savannah was on a set one day and said, “Pauly and I share the same brain.” And the writer—I think it was Raven Touchstone—asked, “Well, who’s using it now?”

NANCY PERA
:
I suspect the stalker might have been someone she knew. At first I didn’t believe her; I thought she was just paranoid, in that house up in the hills, you know?

Vince Neil talked somebody into lending her the gun.

Savannah had no concept of what a gun really was. She waved it around like a water pistol. She would come over to my house with her little knapsack bag, and she’d put the bag down, and the gun would fall out. And she slept with it under her pillow. She pointed it at me once, and I almost went ballistic.

RON JEREMY
:
Savannah liked Slash a lot, but I think Pauly Shore was the much stronger thing. Because Pauly was single.

Pauly let me know what was going on occasionally—and it wasn’t totally monogamous. It was for a while; then it became a really strong friendship. Pauly would be seeing other girls, and Savannah was seeing other guys.

But Savannah told Pauly she wasn’t working in porn anymore. Their relationship had gotten strong enough that he wanted her to stop doing guys—he must have been pretty serious if that’s the case, you know?

Once I was on a location shoot with her, not far from where Pauly’s home was. He had a beautiful home that he shared with his mom. And Savannah said, “Please, please, don’t tell Pauly I’m here! Ron, I tucked my car way into the driveway so Pauly wouldn’t see it.”

I says, “I’m not a rat.”

So I never did tell Pauly. But if he reads this, now he’ll know.

TOM BYRON
:
I admire the strong women in the business—like Savannah. But the coke and shit—and she just spent money like water, you know, because she thought it was gonna go on forever. I mean, that’s one thing about this business, it chews ’em up and spits ’em out, you know? A woman’s longevity in this business is extremely limited.

HENRI PACHARD
:
Savannah was just trying to be something she’s not—trying to be younger than she was, smarter, prettier—trying to be all these things and to get a little bit higher each time out. I suspect she was on heroin.

TOM BYRON
:
The prime target for this business will always be the lonely guy who wants to go into a video store and jerk off all over himself. So each time he goes in the video store, he wants something different, you know, “Who’s the new girl?”

So unless a girl paces herself and saves her money, this business will eat her alive. Savannah was in over her head.

LAS VEGAS/LOS ANGELES
1991

ROGER YOUNG
:
What really amazes me is that when you hear about the Reuben Sturman case, what you’re hearing about is the IRS case. As far as newspapers and TV news, they don’t like to put in there that Reuben pled guilty to interstate transportation of obscene matter and racketeering. That was a big thing—and people don’t understand that there was suspicion of jury tampering in that case because the first time we tried the case there were two females that hung the jury.

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
There’s probably never been a case that’s even come close to the amount of time we spent on the Sturman case. From the early eighties through the day I retired, the IRS probably wished they never saw the case.

ROGER YOUNG
:
When the U.S. marshals transported Reuben Sturman, Ralph Levine was also in custody. Well, unfortunately they transported them together—in the backseat of a car, side by side. Here’s a guy who’s going to testify against Sturman; Reuben spit on him.

I mean, big mistake. Ralph really complained about it during pretrial preparation.

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
When Reuben’s wife, Naomi Delgado, walked into the courtroom at his tax trial wearing some kind of a fur outfit and a short skirt, my comment to the Strike Force attorneys was, “You’d think the defense lawyers would be smarter than to send her in looking like that.”

ROGER YOUNG
:
Right before trial, Reuben comes over to me and asks, “How’s your dad?”—not knowing that my dad had passed away.

I looked at Reuben and said, “He’s doing great. He’s better off than you and I.”—meaning he’s in heaven. Reuben didn’t get it. He goes back, and the defense attorney leans over and whispers to him, “Roger’s dad just passed away.”

Reuben jumps up, runs right back over, puts his hand on my shoulder, and says, “Geez, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Your father was a fine man. He was honest. He did a good job. I had a lot of respect for him. I’m really sorry to hear that.”

I’m thinking to myself,
Yeah, sure
. So I said, “Well, that’s okay. Like I said, he’s better off than you or I.”

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
I said, “That’s about the dumbest thing I’ve seen going on today, other than Reuben snoring in his chair at the defense table.” That was the depth of my perception.

Later it became apparent that she was dressed that way for a purpose. They were going after a juror—and Naomi ended up hooking up with him.

ROGER YOUNG
:
I think Reuben’s biggest mistake was turning on his secretary of twenty years, Marjorie Rollins.

We spent a lot of time with her because she was so knowledgeable: She ran all his businesses, and kept the books and all the paperwork. She was a loyal employee. She thought the world of Reuben, and he took care of her pretty well financially—loaned her money when she needed it. Then Reuben got upset at her over something and fired her, after twenty years. That turned her.

Marjorie made us believe the old adage: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
Reuben had literally hundreds of separate corporate entities. Marjorie Rollins testified that she’d just pull names out of the phone book, or some book she was reading, and, you know, they’d just create a president and a secretary/treasurer and put it down on paper.

Or they’d use people out of Reuben’s Canadian operations, take their names and signatures, and make stamps. So when you were looking for a Roger Carlton or a Steven Baker—you know, if they existed at all, they were working in some warehouse up in Canada.

ROGER YOUNG
:
Rich Rosfelder said, “I’ll bet you a month’s paycheck you got jury tampering.”

We were convinced something foul went on, and so were the other jurors. They were the ones who said, “Something’s wrong here. There’s no way these women can’t find him not guilty.”

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
The amount of money that was being spent was pretty astronomical, and I think the risks were probably minimized through Sturman’s efforts—the way that he defended the business operations.

I remain unimpressed with the suggestion that a lot of people make about Reuben Sturman: “It’s a shame he didn’t get involved in a more legitimate enterprise” or, “It’s a shame that he didn’t just pay his taxes.”

I feel that Reuben—and the rest of the people who operated these businesses along with him—may have fared as well as they did financially because they were involved in an area that might attract the mob to a lucrative business operation. And by a lot of people’s accounts,
did
attract the mob. They wanted their piece of the action.

ROGER YOUNG
:
When they came back with a hung jury, Sturman was all excited. He came over, looked at me, and said, “Nice try, kid.”

I said, “It’s not over.”

He says, “What do you mean, it’s not over?”

I said, “We’re going to retry the case.”

Of course the prosecutors said, “Roger’s right. We’re going to retry the case.”

Sturman runs back to his attorneys and says, “Whaddya mean they’re gonna retry? Didn’t we win?”

RICHARD ROSFELDER
:
People knew that if they were going to go up against Reuben Sturman, he was going to put up a fight. I think he got used to winning those fights because he never lost.

That kind of became the trademark of his operation, you know—that he defended the people he supplied. He provided funds and lawyers…and may have changed the laws in the United States as a result.

ROGER YOUNG
:
After the hung jury, we were going to start trial again. Well, Sturman decides he’s gonna accept the indictment straight up—he’s going to plead guilty. He’s not going to go to a second trial.

Why now? After fighting twenty years? He said he was tired. I was shocked.

That’s not like him. That’s out of character.

Reuben comes up to me in court after he pleads guilty and just says, “I’m through.”

I asked, “What do you mean?”

He says, “I don’t have anything to live for anymore. I’m just going to give up.”

I think he was just waiting to die in prison.