How a mob-run S&M club put your tax dollars to work
by Tom Robbins
Anthony Marini was the manager at the Vault, the old S&M club in the meat-packing district on the western edge of Greenwich Village, during its heyday in the 1990s.
As such, he never lacked for entertainment.
There was the guy who wore a dog collar and little else and who insisted on walking on all fours. There was the wealthy executive who donned chains and loincloth and rolled in the dirt, pleading that he was a Roman slave who needed whipping. There were the wannabe goths who wore capes, capped their teeth with porcelain fangs, and clustered in the corners biting one another. On the celebrity side, there was Madonna, who was so fond of observing these hijinks that she had much of her photo book, succinctly titled Sex, shot at the club. Al Pacino came to study up for an acting role. Marini remembers him as an apt student.
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