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The only time that I really got involved with what I thought was more factual material involved the Black Cat Pussycat Cafe, which was opened by an incredible entrepreneur. He ultimately closed it and went to Tangiers. He kept a ledger on payoffs to cops, and he listed the payoffs under the word “Grease.” Whereever in his account schedule the word “grease” appeared, it wasn't for the purchase of soap. (laughs) It was payoffs. Jan Mitchell -- I think that's what his name was or John Mitchell. Anyway that's all I can really tell you. Whether or not there's corruption now, I suspect that there's little or none simply because everybody's so attuned to it that it would be hard to be corrupt in the Village. The entrepreneurs would come running to people and complain, I'm sure.

To his credit Art d'Lugoff I am convinced never paid any monies by way of corruption for special favors from the cops or anybody else. Another guy like that -- absolutely impeccable, incorruptible -- is Kelsey Maraschel, who owned the Limelight. He never paid anything. I used to eat in Kelsey Marschel's Limelight regularly. They had very inexpensive dinners. For a buck 75 or $2 (this is beginning in the ‘60s, a coffee house; he had put in a pretty good cook) you could get a very good meal, and I used to eat there regularly. Ultimately they changed their policy and they escalated the cost of the food because they really weren't making any money on it. They wanted to make money on their liquor, and the people like myself in the VID who came there for dinner didn't drink much -- I don't drink much. So they really wanted to get rid of us, and they did