James Humphreys (1930–2003) was an English businessman and criminal who owned a chain of adult book shops and strip clubs in London in the 1960s and 1970s. In March 1958 he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment after using explosives to open a safe and steal £8,260 in money and postal orders. On his release he opened a strip club in Soho (pictured in 2008), the centre of London's sex industry. When Humphreys expanded his business and opened sex shops and book shops selling obscene material, he could only operate by paying large bribes to policemen, particularly those from the Obscene Publications Branch of the Metropolitan Police. In the late 1970s his diaries detailing his meetings with police officers and the bribes he paid were used as evidence against twelve policemen imprisoned for corruption. The character Benny Barrett, played by Malcolm McDowell in the 1996 BBC television series Our Friends in the North, was based on Humphreys.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Humphreys_%28pornographer%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1873:

The French steamship Ville du Havre collided with a Scottish iron clipper in the North Atlantic and sank with the loss of 226 lives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Ville_du_Havre

1986:

Mike Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick to win the World Boxing Council title, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson

1995:

Toy Story, the first feature film created using only computer- generated imagery, was released in theaters in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

grace note: 1. (music) A musical note, indicated on a score in smaller type with or without a slash through it, played to ornament the melody rather than as part of it. Its note value does not count as part of the total time value of the measure it appears in. 2. (figurative) Something that decorates, embellishes, or ornaments; a finishing touch. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grace_note

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Give me no light, great heaven, but such as turns To energy of human fellowship; No powers save the growing heritage That makes complete manhood.   --George Eliot https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot