"Mom and Pop" Adult Web Business Dies

A husband-and-wife team who ran a small Web business selling adult videos - and faced his conviction for prostitution, after conducting seminars in which he and his wife demonstrated sexual performance techniques - closed their operation last month.

"There are a number of politicians, judges, prosecutors, police officers, developers, polluters, realtors and church leaders who will surely be happy to see me go, as well as others from all walks of life," wrote Tom Wahl, in an announcement on the since-disbanded site, saying he and his wife, Suzi, were leaving their St. Charles County home to move elsewhere.

"I would like to sincerely apologize to anyone who felt I was mean-spirited, hateful or angry ? I admit to being all of those things, on occasion," Wahl continued. "But on my best days, I pursued my mission here with unconditional love. It is with unconditional love that I bid you good-bye. No matter how deep our differences, I will miss you, each and every one."

The Wahls were tried and convicted of prostitution a few years earlier for setting up their seminars in a hotel room, according to STLToday.com. "As it stands now," the couple said in a press release they issued about that case, "Suzi Wahl is the only woman in America convicted of deviate sexual intercourse and prostitution because she had sex with her husband of 20 years. T.L. 'Tom' Wahl is the only man in America convicted of prostitution and deviate sexual intercourse because he had sex with his wife."

It wasn't exactly the first time the couple had run afoul of local law. Tom Wahl had protested an anti-porn protest group outside a St. Charles adult bookstore - dressed as Patrick Henry and talking explicitly about oral sex, getting him arrested for disturbing the peace. "People brought these children to an adult video store, and they are offended at somebody talking about oral sex?" he said in a statement at that time, before his conviction on that misdemeanor charge.

The Wahls did not say where they would relocate or what their future plans were.