4.2.12 WC: 191694 In order to get out of the conspiracy, according to the government, Reems was obliged “to take up affirmative actions to defeat and destroy the conspiracy.” But what could Reems have done? He could not have “exposed” the crime, as one might expose a secret conspiracy, since everyone knew that Deep Throat was being distributed throughout the world. He could not have prevented the distribution and exhibition of the film, since he retained no legal rights to it. The prosecutor apparently expected him to physically destroy the thousands of prints of Deep Throat that were then in theaters and on video. The jury, selected from residents of Memphis, a city proud of being called “the buckle of the Bible Belt,” convicted Reems and his co-conspirators and Harry went off in search of an appellate lawyer. Because of my involvement in the I Am Curious Yellow case, he called me. When we first met, Reems described himself to me as “a nice Jewish boy earning his livelihood by doing what lots of people would pay to do.” He was born in Scarsdale, New York, with the name Herbert Streicker, attended the University of Pittsburgh, dropped out, joined the Marines, and later set out to become a stage actor. He had performed with the La Mama troupe, the New York Theater Ensemble, and the National Shakespeare Company in New York City. He had even done a Wheaties commercial. During Christmas of 1969, “when things got rough and there was no work around. ..,a fellow said he knew where I could make $75 doing a stag film.” He nervously accepted and reported for work. His two female costars, both doctoral students in sociology at NYU, put him at ease, and he completed several “loops.” Streicher was successful, not so much because of his looks or size, but rather because of his extraordinary ability to perform repeatedly on cue. In a business where time is money and the major cause of delay is male incapacity, a porno actor capable of filming several sequences in one day’s shootin