CRIME HUNTER: Who Murdered Porn Pioneer Teddy Snyder? Mob or Mrs?

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Teddy Snyder was Central Casting’s pornographer. He was Boogie Nights in the flesh.

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Snyder had a thick New York accent, wore a gold ring with “Ted” written in diamonds, an ever-present cigar, and a cowboy hat always perched on his bald head.

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As if that wasn’t enough, Snyder also had a penchant for gold chains and leisure suits and drove a Rolls Royce.

But on August 1, 1989, in the twilight of the smut VCR boom, Teddy Snyder was rewarded with a toe tag at the morgue. He was 47.

The night he was taken off the board, cops said he was arguing with someone on the phone. He left his San Fernando Valley mansion and didn’t bother to tell his wife.

According to police, the porn producer was found shot dead next to his Rolls at around 11:15 p.m. Someone parked four balls in the front and, for good measure, five more in the back.

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Investigators determined that a MAC-10 submachine gun was used and that the murder had the hallmarks of an underworld reckoning. They suspected that Snyder knew his killer.

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Snyder was considered a porn pioneer, primarily because he was the two big bangers for the multi-billion dollar pig business: Deepthroat In 1972, the height of the porn chic wave, and again in the 1980s, when videos brought X-rated fare into the living rooms of the world.

Until the 1980s, much of the porn produced in the United States was filmed in New York. And that fell under the auspices of the mafia.

He entered the business in the late 1960s, making “Loops” that were shown at bachelor parties, smokers’ houses and in the back rooms of adult bookstores in Times Square and other seedy places.

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One of the stars of Snyder’s Loops was the genius daughter of an NYPD cop who grew up in idyllic Westchester County. Her porn name was Linda Lovelace.

“He did the lighting, the camera work and all the setup,” his friend and fellow porn director Bobby Hollander told the Los Angeles Times in 1989. “He worked very hard and was very professional.”

Then came the big bang: Deepthroat (starring Lovelace) was made in 1972 for $22,000 and had grossed a whopping $100 million within 10 years. But things changed in New York and the industry moved west because “the talent was in California.”

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In the 1980s, with the advent of home videos, porn was on the rise. Snyder became rich as head of Video Cassette Recordings Inc. and released titles like Screaming desire, Naked nightand countless other videos.

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But he had developed a monkey using the fuel of the dirty business: cocaine. Snyder was a heavy user.

When he was beaten, Snyder was dealing with a variety of legal and financial problems. His company owed $100,000 to a company controlled by the Lucchese crime family, but insiders doubted the mob was behind his murder.

Former business partner Bob Genova told the Times, “It’s much ado about nothing.”

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And there was the reality that the porn business was changing again. Competition and low prices for XXX videos have thinned the herd. In 1988, VCR filed for restructuring.

At the time, Snyder was depressed about his imploding business and the fact that his wife, Sharon, was four months pregnant. She claimed he wanted out of the business.

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“Maybe people aren’t as perverted as we thought,” she told reporters.

She would later deny in court that she was bitter because Teddy wanted her to have sex with other men while he videotaped the action. Sharon didn’t mind, she said, she only had sex in front of the camera when she felt like it.

And she was keen on it as she stood in front of the camera countless times. No big deal.

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Police focused on New Jersey mobster Martin Taccetta, whose company provided the videotape believed to have been stolen from a Korean manufacturer.

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And then Snyder’s company went bankrupt. But others thought that perhaps it was Snyder’s love of Bolivian marching powder that sent him to his grave.

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Porn insiders were shocked when the LAPD Homicide Unit made arrests in the Snyder murder six months later. They were his wife Sharon, 39, and his alleged drug dealer Victor Diaz, 47.

According to police, Sharon Diaz paid $20,000 so she could get the couple’s property. Investigators also discovered that Sharon had given Diaz a rare $10,000 bill from her husband’s collection.

Sharon stuck with the “mob dunnit” narrative.

For his part, Diaz signed a no contest plea deal in exchange for denouncing the grieving widow. Diaz was in love with Sharon.

“I loved my husband. “I expected to be with Teddy for the rest of my life,” the porn star said on the stand, adding that killing Teddy for cash was out of the question – they were broke and couldn’t even afford it to satisfy her cocaine addiction.

Diaz was sentenced to 17 years in prison in the slammer trial. Sharon Snyder was acquitted.

“He was a true pioneer,” said porn legend Bobby Hollander, before quickly adding, “He was no Mr. Rogers.”

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