The Story of Michael Tevis, a Porn Millionaire with Blood Up to His Elbows (13 photos)

By the 1950s, the United States remained a very puritanical country, where erotic publications were illegal. But the stricter the bans, the more people wanted to break them.





It was precisely on people's passion for voyeurism that Michael Thevis made his fortune—a man who made millions from porn machines, fanned rumors of his connections to the mafia, and wasn't above personally killing competitors and ill-wishers.

Magazines with girls are the key to success



The future king of the porn business was born in the midst of the Great Depression in 1932 and came from a family of Greek immigrants. His parents divorced, and the boy was forced to work from childhood. Finally, at just 18, he fled his native North Carolina for Atlanta—the city of opportunity and the center of the American South.

Working nights at a magazine stand, the young man quickly realized that the lion's share of the proceeds came from sales of adult products. So he decided to stock up on magazines like The Dude and Gent and persuaded his boss to let him manage one of the stores. Things took off—by the age of twenty-three, Tavis owned three such kiosks, married a saleswoman from a nearby store, fathered two children, and was repeatedly accused by the police of distributing "obscene" magazines like Playboy.

Yet, at first, poverty greatly hindered the young businessman's life. His family lived in a tiny apartment next to a prison, and they couldn't even afford antifreeze for their car. Then the ambitious husband promised his wife, Joan, that he would be a millionaire by the age of thirty—and she believed him. Tavis had a hypnotic effect on people, especially women.

In the 1960s, Michael Tavis published a guide to American nudist colonies. "I must have sold a quadrillion copies," he recalled. "And they didn't even have pictures." He later founded Peachtree News, producing cheap pamphlets with risqué stories and pictures on every page.

The First Million and the Golden Age of Porn





Michael Tavis in his youth

Tavis first saw video arcades in New York City in 1967. Although they were invented in the early 1940s to play cartoons at fairs, savvy retailers realized that adult films would be far more popular. The machines were incredibly inconvenient by today's standards, but customers literally fought in line to get them.

Michael decided to make several improvements to the machines. Returning to Atlanta, he hired Roger Underhill, a locksmith who had served time for phone hacking, to help him build his own prototype.

By 1969, they had developed the perfect machine, resistant to break-ins and theft. That same year, viewing pornography was no longer illegal, and bookstore booths began playing fifteen-second videos for twenty-five cents per view. It was a gold mine—pornography machines were shipped by the trailerload across the country, yet demand still exceeded supply. By the end of the year, Tavis and Underhill, who had become his business partner, had assembled and delivered over six thousand porn machines across America at their factory.

Bookstore owners gave Tavis half the sales revenue—the profits were simply fabulous. Even after porn hit theaters in 1972, movie theater revenue barely accounted for a quarter of the money played in the machines.

Model Citizen



Young married couple Michael and Joan

As the cash flow increased, troubles began to rain down on Mr. T, as the corporation's employees nicknamed him. Tavis deftly avoided anticipated legal troubles with the help of skilled lawyers and lobbyists who assisted the nascent pornography industry in the US Congress. He also founded the American Publishers and Distributors Association and became its first president.

If, early in his career, Tavis liked to boast about his high status in the porn industry, now it was obvious to everyone—he had also become the head of a church community and a generous philanthropist. His companies were registered with the Better Business Bureau, and Tavis invested his profits in real estate and two hundred small stores and delivery services. Mr. T also opened a furniture and shipping company, as well as a restaurant. His professional career was successful, but his private life was beginning to show signs of trouble.

The large sums of money had awakened in him a passion for luxury, and his simpleton wife no longer held the same appeal for the extravagant millionaire. In public, they played the role of a glamorous couple, but at home, Joan was immersed in raising their five children and managing the ostentatious thirty-room mansion, Lion's Gate.



Tavis with the children

Michael preferred to spend time with the gorgeous dance teacher Janet Evans. She was not only a beauty but also a very strong woman, which particularly appealed to Tavis, who spared no expense on her. Janet was religious and dreamed of consummating their relationship and even bought herself a wedding dress, but the amorous Mr. T had other plans—he had already begun an affair with Patricia McLean, a waitress from his restaurant.

Pat was twenty-two years younger than her boss, possessed stunning good looks, tenacity, and intelligence—under Tavis's guidance, she rose to the head of his largest company.

The Decline of an Empire



Roger Underhill

Yet Tavis's greatest sin wasn't adultery. He brooked no rivals and was unwilling to share his fame and money with anyone else, so Atlanta in the early 1970s became a battleground for porn royalty. On April 26, 1970, Roger Underhill and his accomplice, Clifford Wilson, broke into Bailen's factory. The accomplices spilled paint on tables and carpets and doused furniture and papers with gasoline. They left with flames blazing near the ceiling—Tavis, who had sent them, was satisfied.

Less than six months later, they moved from destroying competitors' property to more radical measures. Michael Tavis scheduled a meeting for November 13th with his former partner, Kenneth Hanna, who had defected to a competitor in New York. Their truck, loaded with pirated copies of films for Tavis's arcades, had recently been seized by the police—Mr. T realized that Hanna had not only leaked the plans for his projectors but had also stolen the films themselves.

Hanna was likely expecting some kind of business proposal from his colleague, but instead, at the meeting, Tavis simply pulled out a pistol and shot him three times in the chest—a bullet to the head, finishing off the "traitor" who begged for mercy. After wrapping the body in a box—the packaging from a porno machine—Tavis stuffed the unfortunate man in the trunk of his car, then called Underhill to dispose of the body.

After the murder, the couple slowed down for a while. The murder and arson caused quite a stir, and the FBI became interested in the Atlanta situation. So, in January 1971, fearing for his freedom, Underhill sold his stake in the company to Tavis. After this, Mr. T began to worry about being under federal surveillance—Tavis began regularly polygraphing "suspicious" employees of the corporation and appointing relatives and mistresses to management positions.



A Masterpiece Financed by Tavis

To deflect unwanted attention from the authorities, Tavis began producing run-of-the-mill, low-budget horror and action films. Mr. T personally visited the film sets, something he had never done while making XXX films. But he didn't want to completely abandon the porn business and kill the golden goose, so Tavis began running the empire underground, through front men.

Meanwhile, new problems with competitors again forced Tavis to resort to crime. This time, Underhill again volunteered to eliminate another former employee, Jimmy Mayes, who had opened his own adult film store. Tavis himself was in a wheelchair at the time following a terrible car accident.

On September 13, 1973, Mayes blew himself up in his truck—the explosion sent his body crashing through the roof of the pickup and landing on the pavement just meters away. Underhill, who had planted the bomb, was nearby at the time. Before the police arrived, he managed to retrieve a wristwatch and several fragments of the victim's body. He suggested Tavis make a paperweight from the remains, which would make a wonderful decoration for the office in the mansion of the porn king.

Two Kings



Michael Tavis

No matter how hard Tavis tried to shed the stigma of a porn millionaire, police regularly found videotapes mentioning his name in warehouses containing semi-legal products. In December 1974, the FBI charged him with arson and distribution of pornography, but then the businessman reverted to his upstanding citizen persona and held a press conference at his estate. Photos of him with his youngest son, Jason, on his lap, an offer to donate his estate to the Atlanta mayor's office for a school, and a promise to donate over three million dollars to the restoration of the famous Peachtree Street Theater were intended to improve public opinion of Michael Tavis. But it didn't work. He was charged with transporting obscene material and conspiring to arson the Bailen warehouse.

In early April 1978, Tavis appeared in court in Louisville. Clifford Wilson took the brunt of the blame, so the judge commuted the porn king's prison sentence to eight years in a prison medical center—Tavis's injuries from the accident were too severe and he required special care. His girlfriend, Evans, a devout Christian, had completely severed ties with the criminal, so only his wife and Patricia McLean visited him in the prison cell.

Patricia regularly provided him with money, which allowed Tavis to continue his lavish lifestyle even behind bars. His cell was more than comfortable, and he received unheard-of privileges such as unlimited phone calls, the ability to leave the courthouse unsupervised, and privacy with McLean in a separate room.



Tavis and MacLean

But Tavis's troubles with the law were just beginning. Young and ambitious FBI agent Paul King realized the case wasn't over yet, so he decided to track down Underhill. King was a determined man: he enjoyed engaging in intellectual battles with criminals, and he shot his first gangster at the age of twenty-five.

At first, Underhill covered for his accomplice and former partner, but his attitude changed when Tavis staged an assassination attempt on his overly knowledgeable friend. King and Underhill's relatives eventually persuaded him to testify against his former friend. Roger passed a lie detector test, and a new criminal case was opened against Tavis.

Realizing the danger Underhill's testimony posed, Tavis took action. He decided to escape, but not before quickly divorcing his wife and enlisting MacLean's help. Despite King's warnings about Tavis's high risk of escape, the prison staff's vigilance was lulled by generous gifts from the porn king—by the evening of April 28, 1978, he was no longer on the prison medical center grounds.



Patricia MacLean had helped her lover escape from prison, but she was unsuited to life on the run, so Tavis decided to return to Janet Evans. Madly in love with him, Janet put her house up for sale, taking with them all the jewelry worth about a million dollars and half a million in cash, and then began cruising the southern states in a brand new Chevrolet Caprice.

Wigs, five pistols, fake documents, and a radar detector allowed them to live carefree for about six months. Janet planned another wedding, bought another dress and expensive rings, and even scheduled her balding groom for a hair transplant at an English clinic.

Meanwhile, Michael managed to buy a copy of Underhill's three-hundred-page interrogation report. Furthermore, his former partner sued Tavis, seeking $8.3 million in lost business shares. All this infuriated the fugitive porn mogul—the couple decided to put their plans on hold and focus on Underhill.

In late August 1978, Evans asked her cousin, a police officer named Bart Hood, to get Tavis another car and a driver's license. Janet and Bart then contacted another relative to make them a gun silencer, after which Tavis and Hood set off for Atlanta to recover their former partner's head.



Underhill was placed into witness protection, but despite the feds' entreaties, he returned to his hometown to sell his house. Tavis and Hood were waiting outside.

Bullets struck Underhill and his realtor almost at their doorstep—the latter died instantly, and Roger was taken to the hospital with head and chest wounds. He lived another day, but before he died, he managed to tell Paul King that Michael Tavis was the shooter.

Sixteen days later, on November 9, 1978, the pornographic millionaire killer was caught in Connecticut while attempting to withdraw money from a bank using forged documents. A suspicious manager called the police, who then called the FBI. During the assault on the building, Michael Tavis attempted to persuade federal agent Richard Foster and the city's police chief to let him and Janet go, but their persuasion was in vain—the couple was subdued and taken to the police station.

King had ample evidence against Tavis, but he chose not to present it all—the charges were already sufficient for a life sentence, and new details would only prolong the trial.

Mr. T denied all charges, even after Underhill's neighbor confirmed seeing him during the attack. Nevertheless, Tavis called the deceased and his neighbor liars and paranoids, and accused Agent King of professional shortsightedness and a desire to curry favor with a fabricated, high-profile case.



When Michael Tavis was sentenced to life in prison on October 21, 1979, FBI Agent Paul King was applauded as he left the courthouse. Patricia McLean was charged with aiding a prisoner's escape, but she denied the charges and threatened to commit suicide if the prosecution did not stop. The jury acquitted her.

Janet Evans and Bart Hood were found guilty of conspiring to murder Roger Underhill and sentenced to life in prison. Evans's friends and family tried to justify her actions as mad love, writing emotional letters in her defense and calling her a victim of passion in interviews, but it was of no avail. Tavis himself publicly regretted dragging the woman he loved into crime and causing her so much pain.

Janet Evans was released in 1992. That same year, Paul King retired after 23 years with the FBI. The Lion Gate mansion belonged to Whitney Houston in the 1990s, until successful real estate agent Tony Tavis (Michael's son) bought the estate with his stepfather and restored it to its former splendor.

The former millionaire himself kept a hamster in his cell and often peered out of the bars to see the squalid apartment where he lived with Joan while he was poor—the view from the window seemed specially chosen for him. Before Tavis died of a heart attack in 2013, he wrote a memoir about the rise of the porn industry in the United States and his role in it.



Tavis's Mansion

Incidentally, the mafia connections that the porn king touted in the interests of his business were never confirmed—criminal families have always openly despised the boastful upstart.