October 27, 1988

On This Date in TWISTED-HISTORY.com! in 1988, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department released information about a suspected assassination-by-hire attempt allegedly orchestrated by Larry Flynt in 1983. It was purported that Flynt wrote Mitchell Livingston WerBell III a $1,000,000 check to kill Frank Sinatra, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, and TV Guide publisher Walter Annenberg. The plot allegedly fell apart because Flynt’s financial manager stopped payment on the check written to the hitman. The alleged hitman, WerBell, could not be interviewed as he had died of a heart-attack back in 1983, a month after the check was supposedly written. Larry Flynt was quoted as saying, “This is just crap. $1,000,000 to kill everyone AND Sinatra? Do you think I’m stupid? It would take at least $2,000,000 to whack Sinatra alone and then you’d have to deal with the Mafia. What? Do I LOOK stupid?”

About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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