The Assassination Attempt on Larry Flynt
In 1978, Larry Flynt was shot and critically wounded outside a Georgia courthouse during one of his many obscenity trials. The attack left him paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. The shooter, a white supremacist named Joseph Paul Franklin, later admitted he targeted Flynt because of an interracial photo spread published in Hustler. Rather than silencing him, the attack seemed to harden Flynt's resolve. From his wheelchair, he continued to run Hustler, fight legal battles, and use his platform to challenge racism, religious hypocrisy, and political corruption. The incident turned Flynt into a kind of martyr for free speech in the eyes of some—and an unrepentant provocateur in the eyes of others.
Larry Flynt was born in 1942 in Kentucky. He grew up poor and became involved in petty crime as a teenager. At age twenty, he opened a bar called Hustler Club that featured striptease dancers. In 1970, he launched a magazine of the same name with a mix of sexually explicit photos and humor aimed at working-class men. The magazine quickly gained popularity, but it also drew the ire of moralists who saw it as a threat to traditional values. Flynt was arrested numerous times for obscenity, but he refused to back down.
The Assassination Attempt on Larry Flynt and Beyond
In 1978, while facing another obscenity trial in Georgia, Flynt was shot outside the courthouse by Joseph Paul Franklin. Franklin, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, had been angered by a photo spread in Hustler that showed a black man and a white woman kissing. He later admitted that he targeted Flynt because of the interracial images. The shooting left Flynt paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. But rather than quitting, Flynt continued to run Hustler from his home, using assistants to help him work. He also fought legal battles and used his platform to speak out against racism, religious hypocrisy, and political corruption. He even ran for president several times, running as a third-party candidate on a campaign of free speech and civil liberties.
Larry Flynt's Legacy
Flynt died in 2021 at age seventy-eight. His legacy is mixed. To some, he was a heroic defender of free speech and a champion of the downtrodden. To others, he was a cynical profiteer who exploited people's prurient interests for personal gain. Whatever one thinks of him, there is no denying that Flynt's story raises important questions about the limits of free speech, the power of the media, and the role of money in American politics.