Defendant Bragged of Slaying, Witness Says

The former brother-in-law of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt testified Friday in the so-called “Cotton Club” murder case that one defendant bragged about shooting producer Roy Radin six years ago and another had to drink a bottle of wine before he could join in the slaying.

William Rider, who was also chief of Flynt’s personal security force from 1976 through 1983, testified during the preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Municipal Court that the publisher hired as many as 25 bodyguards after an assassination attempt in 1976 left him permanently paralyzed and wheelchair bound.

Hired 2 Defendants

Among those Rider hired to watch over Flynt’s Bel-Air mansion and his magazine’s headquarters in Century City were Alex Lamota Mentzer and William Molony Marti, two of the defendants charged in the murder six years ago of Radin.

Radin, a 300-pound producer from Long Island, N.Y., was attempting to co-produce the motion picture “The Cotton Club” with former Paramount Pictures production head Robert Evans shortly before he was shot to death near Hungry Valley Road in northeast Los Angeles County. His body was found June 10, 1983. He had been shot repeatedly in the head.

Evans went on to produce “The Cotton Club” with two Las Vegas casino operators, Ed and Fred Doumani. The movie, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Kennedy, did not recoup the more than $40 million that it cost to make.

Fighting Extradition

Prosecutors contend that reputed drug dealer Karen DeLayne (Lainie) Greenberger contracted for Radin’s murder after they quarreled over her share of profits from “The Cotton Club.” Greenberger allegedly introduced Radin to Evans several months before Radin disappeared May 13, 1983. Greenberger is charged along with Marti, Mentzer and Robert Ulmer Lowe, all former Flynt bodyguards who worked for Rider. Lowe is fighting extradition in Maryland.

After Radin’s disappearance, but before published reports of the discovery of his body, Marti and Mentzer boasted to Rider of shooting Radin to death, he testified.

“Alex liked to make fun of Radin and called him Rodan,” Rider said. Marti, a native of Argentina, was extremely anti-Semitic, Rider testified.

Rider said Marti told him that he had emptied his gun into Radin the night of the murder but that Mentzer had to drink a bottle of wine before he, too, could find the courage to shoot the producer.

Defense attorneys asked Municipal Judge Patti Jo McKay to halt Rider’s testimony after less than 30 minutes, arguing that Rider had made several statements from the stand that had never turned up in prosecution tapes or transcripts the defense had requested in prehearing discovery motions. Under rules of evidence, the prosecution is required to turn over such material to the defense upon demand.

McKay ordered Deputy Dist. Atty. David Conn to return to court Monday with all of Rider’s debriefing notes as well as with the investigating homicide officers who made those notes to ascertain whether defense attorneys have everything they demanded in discovery.

In earlier testimony, actor Grady Demond Wilson, best known as the character Lamont Sanford on the late ‘70s television series “Sanford and Son,” ended four days on the stand Friday by announcing that his autobiography, chronicling his move from cocaine-abusing entertainer to Christian preacher, is due in bookstores in September.

His part as the gun-toting bodyguard, actor, friend and client of Radin is not included in the book, he testified.

Wilson testified that Radin asked him and his former secretary to park outside the Hollywood Regency hotel the night of May 13, 1983, and to follow Radin to La Scala restaurant for dinner. Wilson said he has the right to carry a concealed weapon because he was once deputized by a judge in Louisville, Ky. Radin feared that “something might happen” to him as a result of his involvement in “The Cotton Club,” Wilson said.

Wilson lost Radin’s limousine in traffic on Sunset Boulevard and never saw him again, he testified.

The preliminary hearing is being conducted to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bind Greenberger, Marti and Mentzer over to Superior Court for trial in Radin’s murder.