Hugh Hefner, the founder and longtime editor of Playboy Magazine who became an American icon of the sexual revolution, was so afraid that the contents of his personal sex tape collection could damage the lives and reputations of the other people appearing in the recordings that he took extreme measures to prevent them from leaking to the public, according to new report by Britain’s Sun tabloid newspaper.
Citing “insiders,” the paper reported on Friday that “Hef” owned a collection of thousands of salacious films, raunchy photos and even personal notes in which some of the biggest names in Hollywood and possibly other prominent persons as well make appearances.
“Marilyn was definitely in them as well as many superstars who graced the pages of his magazine,” the source told the Sun. “Some of the women were in relationships and others never even made the magazine, but simply were partying with him.”
Hefner died at the age of 91 in 2017, without the treasure trove of homemade erotica and other intimate memorabilia, according to The Daily Mirror. He got rid of all of that material in the 1990s, the “insiders” said, after a sex tape featuring Hefner’s friend Pamela Anderson and her then-husband, rock star Tommy Lee, leaked to the public and circulated online in the early days of the World Wide Web.
"Hugh explained that he didn't want anyone's lives, marriages or careers to be destroyed by what he had in his library,” the source said.
But Hefner also did not trust anyone to simply burn the tapes and other material, so he ordered his Playboy Mansion Security Chief Joe Piastro to get rid of the sensitive collection by loading all of it into a specially manufactured, cement-lined casket—and dumping the coffin into the ocean, according to a New York Post account.
The collection included “a batch of tapes, shot on 8 mm and cinefilm, which were filmed during some of the orgies he enjoyed in the ‘70s,” the source said, adding that the tapes featured not only Hefner himself with a seemingly unending parade of beautiful women, both stars and unknowns, but “famous male movie stars too,” the source said.
Piastro died in 2011, meaning that the location where the collection of Hefner sex tapes was dumped will likely remain forever a mystery.
Photo by ABC Television / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
