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Their association ended in one of the most brutal mass murders in the history of Los Angeles. Arriving back at Wonderland just after dawn, Holmes announced the coast was clear. On the . In the meantime, here's an interview with Bren: 1. Lets face it, Amerson says, John was a product. He was picking on a kid that didnt know any better. March 3 (UPI) -- A Kentucky man who stopped to buy some breakfast said he lost his appetite when he won $50,000 from a scratch-off lottery ticket. Number 8763 Wonderland Avenue had some history of its own: Paul Revere and the Raiders once lived there. Browse by collection. Sharon sat on the wood-covered commode. Its the cops.. Holmess character, said Al Goldstein in Screw magazine, was a thin, bony, trench-coated shamus, outrageously horny, bedding down with client and quarry alike. In Goldsteins opinion, it was a goofy, crudely made series, but it was wildly successful. Though the movie, when it began to appear at theaters around the country, was branded as obscene and closed down almost everywhere it played, its producers contested the charges in the courts and eventually won. By Steve Helling. I said, Please, just let me get my clothes and my dog and well leave.'. Harold drank a lot. (John) was so much of a liar . John would just stay home. Each time, drugs, money and weapons were seized. Atkins was convicted for her involvement. When he did coke, says Jeana, hed do it until it was all gone, and then hed scrape the pipe and smoke all the resin he could find, and then hed take a bunch of Valium. He wore the buckle when he and Sharon sold bumper stickers door-to-door. She told him to get the fuck out of my life. He couldnt call Jeana. But Sharon Holmes and Jeanna Sellers insist that it is true. I think they call it a taxi cab. He said, Im gonna die! and drove off., When he came back, says Laurie, he was laughing about it. Holmes was doing sex pictorials, dancing in clubs. He quickly racked up a rap sheet, including gun and drug charges. Tossing and moaning, punching and kicking. He stayed in there like three hours, and Im just sitting there, you know, twiddling my thumbs. He quit the ambulance service and got work stirring vats of chocolate at a Coffee Nips factory in Glendale. John was tired of the whole industry, she says. Holmes told his wife that he was held against a wall, at gunpoint, while the three men beat to death Launius, 37; William DeVerell, 42; Joy Audrey Miller, 46; and Barbara Richardson, 22. In time, the surgery was completed, and Thorson was made into a young vision of Liberace. One of the customers was Scott Thorson. She wasnt happy. The maid was the only one home, and they tied her up. John C. Holmes, the worlds premier pornographic film star, sobbed as he sat in a steaming bathtub early one morning in July, 1981. Above all, he said, he loved his work: A happy gardener is one with dirty fingernails, and a happy cook is a fat cook. They had a few questions for John Holmes. Bob Gregory, 62, went missing the same day as Sands. But Holmes kept calling. After she left him, according to a court affidavit, I took the children to Oklahoma to my aunt and uncles farm, together with my parents. The motive is not suspected to be robbery as his diamond ring and watch were found on the body. Web Design & Digital Marketing Six months ago shed had a double mastectomy. So much blood! Holmes was having a nightmare. A few months later, Jeana moved into the guest room of the house. I used to be a Web Developer in the Newsroom, now I spend my time in coffee shops researching murder. They made him beg for his life. It was owned by the pediatrician she worked for; she and Holmes lived rent-free in an adjacent house. A sign on the box, written in blue Magic Marker, said, FOR DISTRIBUTION AT BOX OFFICE. John? In a way, Holmes was everymans gigolo, a polyester smoothy with a sparse mustache, a flying collar and lots of buttons undone. Six months later, on September 8th, 1988, Diles and Nash were charged with the murders on Wonderland Avenue. Shed driven out from Miami with her father and younger sister. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Come with us, Sharon., It can be the three of us, Sharon, like old times.. Hard Candy, a 3-D thriller. One regular trick had him barge into her bedroom while she was watching TV, then tie her up and rape her. 3 children killed, 2 hospitalized in North Texas domestic incident, At least 5 dead following year's first severe spring weather outbreak, 'Saving Private Ryan,' 'True Romance' actor Tom Sizemore dead at 61, Dozens killed, injured as Jakarta fuel depot fire engulfs neighborhood, Governor of Philippine province, 5 others killed in gun attack. Ventura County is a wussy answer. John and Jeana painted the Malibu gray with a red top. Barbara's cousin tells me this info. 1-20 of 285. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. Susan A. Murphy Launius, then 30, while not an official member of the gang, was married to gang member Ron Launius and had a drug habit. Dole said there's no question that Trump lost his reelection race - narrowly but fair and square. Eddie Nash was a drug lord. Suddenly, Johnny Carson was telling Deep Throat jokes on The Tonight Show. At midnight, the Wonderland people scraped together $400, and Holmes, whose pretense for entrance would be buying drugs, drove off to Nashs house. She was an associate of the Wonderland Gang, hanging around the Wonderland apartment, where she was savagely beaten by criminals with lead pipes on the night of 1 July 1981. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. On their first date, hed brought a bottle of Mateus and a handful of flowers. Hed been in jail eleven months in all, 110 days on the contempt charge. All Marriage & Divorce results for Ronnie Launius. An hour before, Holmes had run into Diles. Under Review. Nash was on the job day and night, wearing a tall white chefs hat, waiting tables himself. It goes from five inches all the way to ten. I stood there and watched them kill those people., I was involved in a robbery, John began, and he told the story. DeVerell, 42, was also a heroin addict. When I come home at night, the tools stay on the job., You are having sex with other women, said Sharon. Though, she didn't survive unscathed. Caring about employees. He was willing, even eager, to murder a helpless woman who was no physical threat to him. She cut her eyes slowly, caught his profile. Then what?, I leave the sliding door unlocked this one, said Holmes, pointing to the floor plan, here, in the back. You know, says Detective Lange, theres no mystery here. He went white. Memorial ID. Mrs. Launius, whose husband, Ronald, was killed in the attack, told the court doctors removed a large portion of her skull during surgery following the beating. After his release, Nash told a friend that jail had saved his life. A mother and daughter offered to help. I called up and said I had some things for the people inside and to let me up. A day or two later, Holmes gave a compressed, but similar account of what happened to Sellers, she told The Times. One was abruptly interrupted on the morning of July 1, 1981, when a shaken John Holmes crawled into their Glendale bedroom, bleeding, and told his wife that he had been in an accident. He told me that he had set up the robbery. It began, according to Thorsons book, Behind the Candelabra, when Liberace ordered him to have cosmetic surgery. His gay clubs were the first in L.A. to allow same-sex dancing. After mustering out of the army, at age nineteen, Holmes went to work as an ambulance driver, and soon thereafter he met Sharon Gebenini. It was 8:30 Monday morning. There was shouting, laughing, rock & roll twenty-four hours a day.. Nash reciprocated with a quarter ounce of coke. One woman who had sex with Nash remembers a lot of temptation. Nash would kill him and his family if he talked, he was certain of it. Holmes went on to say that he wanted to be best in the world at something, and that he thought pornography was it. No one but Holmes has ever been charged in the murder case. In a recent interview with The Times, Sharon Holmes, who divorced the late actor in 1984, described for the first time the story her husband told her less than three weeks after the July 1 killings. He has just published his latest project about one of Los Angeles's most well known murder cases in the 80s. A sunny room in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, California. Youre going to get hurt. On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 1st, 1981, Eddie Nash was again consuming drugs at an alarming rate. His first porn film was made while he was working his way through college. He could repair anything, liked sketching and working in clay. She was nowhere to be found. I have been fascinated by the Wonderland case ever since co-producing the documentary Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmesin 1999. Inside was her husband, John. Chris caught up. Hed have me make these peanut-butter chocolate-chip brown-sugar butter cookies. Eruption, a porn remake of Double Indemnity. Change your mind. At the moment that Diles barged through the door with Holmes in tow, Thorson was with Eddie in his bedroom, doing hits. Its business.. John tried to make a deal with the cops. He wouldnt even let me meet the people he worked with.. Done. Youd walk into the house, there were various girls walking around in various states of undress. He knew that Nash had a lot more than that lying around the house. Pharmaceutical cocaine was one of the ingredients. The Top 5 newsletter catches you up with LAs top 5 stories in just 3 minutes. He keeps a sawed-off shotgun under the blanket Here, this is Nashs room. And so the plan was fixed. Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. Once, he rammed his own hand into a harvesting machine. Then another girl, another. According to legend largely of his own making Holmes was born in New York and lived with a rich aunt whod been married fifteen times. I said yes. Then, in the summer of 1985, John tested positive for AIDS. It was like he was doing a movie. Holmes remained in jail, however, on his outstanding burglary case. Tabs. I really dont recall. Thorson was the live-in lover of the entertainer Liberace. Now he was a drug delivery boy for the Wonderland Gang. Or perhaps he had flown from Las Vegas. Police, however, believe that Holmes actually took part in the fatal beatings. The murderers were brought to justice. This means absolutely nothing to me. Alex MurdaughCalled 'Family Annihilator' by Prosecution in Murder Trial. He always had large quantities of coke, heroin, Quaaludes and other drugs at the house. Another victim, William DeVerell, 44, who lived at the house, had an arrest record in the 1950s, mostly for narcotics but had not been arrested in the recent case. Launius' estranged wife, Susan, who was visiting, survived the assault but suffered severe head injuries. 7 May 2013. While awaiting that trial, he was ordered by a judge to tell the grand jury what he knew about the Wonderland murders. Nobody ever came over, says Laurie. Liberace called him Booper, treated him like a son, a lover, a pet. The Sixties, the pill, free love, communes, wife swapping, the perverse creativity of mixed-media artists who were pushing the limit, trying to shock all of these things created an atmosphere in which porn could blossom. The day after the robbery, someone who knew Nash apparently spotted Holmes in Hollywood, wearing a piece of jewelry that had been stolen from Nashs home, he told his wife. The top story was something about a mass murder. She cleared her throat John?, You had this dream. March 3 (UPI) -- A sheep spotted wandering loose on a British highway was given a lift back to its owner by a concerned bus driver on her first day on the job. The judge in the case was Everett E. Ricks Jr. He was known as Eddie Nash. When Detectives Bob Souza and Tom Lange entered the home, nestled in the hip L.A. enclave of Laurel Canyon, they found pills and pipes scattered all over the flooralong with four dead bodies whose. You sure about this, donkey dick? asked Tracy McCourt, the gangs wheelman. They were going underground. She was the sole survivor of the attack - suffering severe head injuries, amnesia, and a severed finger. Salary in 2020. His eyes blinked rapidly. The poor girl was emaciated, Sharon says. Both cars slowed, pulled even in the middle of the street. Dismiss. By the mid-Seventies, Nash held thirty-six liquor licenses, owned real estate and other assets worth over $30 million. One day, Jeana was visiting a neighbor when Holmes came by to deliver a bag of pot. After leaving California, Jeana and John had gone to Vegas, then Montana, then headed south, visiting the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert. Ron Launius was a known associate of Weiss and also a suspect in his murder. The Holy Roller was up in the balcony, waving a Christian flag, praying and hollering, singing We Shall Overcome. She said John had cut some coke with an old tarot card and she believed it was a sign from the devil. Miller, De Verell and Launius needed drugs every day. Sharing the house with Miller and DeVerell was Ronald Launius, 37. He wanted to be in charge. What he may have been referring to was the imprisonment, that very same morning, of Eddie Nash, on charges of dealing drugs. Sports promoter Vic Weiss was found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls Royce in a Hollywood hotel parking lot in 1979. Drugs, inattention, back taxes and lawyers fees had depleted his fortune. During one special engagement, Thorson danced with the Rockettes. Will Dominion-Fox News lawsuit be different? . Then you guys take him down.. . They watched some more TV. Around that time, he also began developing complications related to AIDS. One night Holmes told Jeana to meet him at the van. Are you afraid its withering and dying? she said, laughing. ', Nash is said to have had political, police and crime connections. Tell me where you are. The Sellers would stay there. For extra money, Jeana solicited tricks on the beach. I said, John, how could you? Then Liberace would make a joke about having the only fur coat in the world that had its own limo. House tossed by assailants. Get the fuck out of here! he screamed. Now things were not so friendly. Though elaborately secure, the house was paint-cracked and rust-stained, an eyesore in a trendy neighborhood. On weekends they went to swap meets and yard sales. The murders were so brutal that police were comparing the case to the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Manson Family. Its like being a carpenter. Now, in an exclusive interview with the Observer, . She was twenty, an army brat. But the new accounts cast doubt on the story Holmes told a biographer before his death March 13. Hed sent two of his minions out to score more drugs, but they hadnt yet returned. Atty. . . One of the actresses in the cast was Laurie Rose. To get better results, add more information such as Birth Info, Death Info and Location even a guess will help. At least two of the four people beaten to death at the yellow two-story house in rustic Laurel Canyon had narcotics records and the blonde woman who rented the house delivered drugs in her shiny white Mercedes, court records indicated Friday. In the end, the most damaging evidence the prosecution could produce was a palm print on a headboard above one of the victims. For the first few months, while she was in Oregon with her mother, Jeana had refused to take Holmess calls. He knew he was dying. how much does a cfl general manager makeduskull evolution arceus Ricks cited Nashs need for delicate surgery to remove a sinus tumor. He was marketing Holmess old films on video. He was consuming it. Finally he said, Ive got to tell you Ive been doing something else, and I think I want to make it my lifes work.. But Detective Tom Lange of the Los Angeles Police Department, the lead investigator on the case, said, There is no mystery, because we know who is involved and we know why. At 98 and facing cancer, Bob Dole reckons with legacy of Trump and ponders future of GOP. Hed have a big glass of milk, and wed turn on the cartoons, and then hed go to bed in Sharons room. That evening, Chinn wrote a three-page screenplay; a partnership was born. Dont worry.. In the summer of 1981, Sharon Holmes said, she and John Holmes were living together as the managers of a small Glendale apartment complex. Now it was December 4th, 1981. In the end, both Diles and Nash went to jail. When I got out, he said, Lets go, and we drove toward home. How do other people see you? The fifty-two-year-old former jurist had been arrested after he allegedly punched his eighty-two-year-old mother and threatened to kill someone if she didnt give him keys to a car. Where are you calling from? He also renovated the house, outdoing himself in the master bathroom, recreating a backwoods outhouse, complete with a quarter-moon cutout, a shingled roof over the bathtub and a rough-hewn box around the commode. Two weeks later, it was reported that hed lost only seven pounds. He was also a drug dealer and a heavy user. He drove a forklift at a meatpacking plant in Cudahy until his lung collapsed from working in the freezer. Holmes, meanwhile, had gone back to making films. Youve got to be joking. All the sugar helped him come down. Funny, she thought, no cuts, no abrasions. Men asked him to autograph their wives breasts. In your opinion, what's the best alternate route to the 405? John? I played in the water. The man in the suit was Los Angeles Police Department detective Tom Lange. The Kit Kat was a strip club. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. 2023 Southern California Public Radio - All Rights Reserved, Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes, Southern California's Snow-Capped Mountains Are Beautiful. How you doing, John? said the man in the gray suit, leaning over the safety rail of the bed. John looked down at Sharon. That we were on the right track, that this is indeed what had happened, that this was the motivation, that this was how it came down. John Holmes was famous, at least in some circles. Remarks by neighbors in the trendy, secluded area above the Sunset Strip and court records revealed the occupants of the stucco house on Wonderland Avenue lived in Southern California's 'fast lane' -- a lifestyle surrounded by drugs, flashy cars and trouble with police. He was great. The drugs affected his penis; he couldnt get it up, he couldnt work in porn. He said that (Nash) told him if he ever talked to the police that (Nash) would kill someone in his family. The detective added that Holmes said he was there when the murders happened, but that he himself did not hurt anyone.. He beat the shit out of me, then walked back up to the room. John Holmes was a porn star. Together, the womens descriptions of what Holmes told them largely corroborate the Los Angeles Police Departments theory of what happened on Wonderland Avenue. Everything from Volkswagens to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Holmes told his wife that he rode with three armed men to the address on Wonderland Avenue. By 1973, John and Sharon were sharing the same house, even the same bed, but they were no longer having sex. The color drained from his face. The Interviews 25th Anniversary. Dear reader, we're asking you to help us keep local news available for all. An argument ensued. Then one day Harold threw John down the stairs and came after him. Whos this in Montana? What does the print-on demand delivery system offer over other, similar systems like iUniverse.com? His penis, when erect, according to legend, measured between eleven and fifteen inches in length. Later, in the Sixties, the canyon attracted writers and artists, rock stars and gurus. Now, home early from her office, Sharon left her purse in the foyer, squeaked down the hall on white rubber soles to the bathroom of their one-bedroom apartment in Glendale. Get my property! John Curtis Holmes had the longest, most prolific career in the history of pornography. It was a strange and violent time and men wore double-breasted suits and snap-brim Fedoras. Help me. A fifth victim was carried out alive. Holmes went on to make more than 2,000 movies. 159K views 3 years ago #NBC #NBCLA NBC News talked one on one with Manson follower and convicted killer Susan Atkins over a decade after her conviction. In the face of a drier future, that iconic piece of Americana is on its way out in Southern California. I told where the robbers lived and how to get there. I was really charmed, says Jeana. jackson falls santa paula. Just blood. DeVerell, Launius and McCourt, all heroin addicts, were out cold. Her husband, Ron, 37, of the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles, was one of the victims. The guest bedroom. The man who owned the house was named Adel Nasrallah. . What he was famous for was his penis. Her lover was Billy DeVerell. It's been many, many years since we saw this much snow in our mountains. Susan Launius. arcane traps mousehunt; digital readout for sliding table saw Jobs People Learning Dismiss Dismiss. He was held in the county jail for contempt. Then hed swallow a few Quaaludes and return. Which movie about the entire John C. Holmes story accurately captures the Holmes milieu- "Wonderland" or "Boogie Nights" ? He chewed gum and overacted. I trusted you! Jewelry, wads of money. True Crime Writer in Las Vegas. That first time, we didnt get to work together, says Laurie, but we were attracted. Its another thing to testify to it in court.. After a while, the news. Holmes went to work for a construction company, painting a hotel down the strip. We sat on the rocks, the moon was just right. Others looked like theyd been sucking on the pipe a little too long. Mary was a Bible-thumping Baptist John remembered screaming, yelling, his father puking all over the kids. A porn documentary of his life, made in 1981, was called Exhausted. These are my tools, I use them to make a living. . He was supposed to be doing sales and preproduction, writing and editing, in addition to acting. In the late Seventies, Los Angeles police averaged twenty-five drug busts a month at the Starwood. Called the Wonderland Killings, the brutal murder of 4 people in a Laurel Canyon home gained even more noteriety when authorities discovered that porn star John Holmes had played a mysterious role in the case.Age and Occupation: 46. She was moving to a house. In 1962 he joined the USAF and served in the Vietnam War, but was caught smuggling heroin and discharged in 1972. Tom Mix and Harry Houdini once lived there among the quail and scrub pine and coyotes. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents. This button displays the currently selected search type. Also while in college, he said, he danced nude modern jazz ballet and drove an ambulance. A California cop called him one of the coldest people I ever met.. National Park Service: 'Never push a slower friend down' in a bear encounter, March 2 (UPI) -- The National Park Service offered some sage advice for park visitors who encounter bears: "Never push a slower friend down. Do you agree with that assessment? Jeana Sellers (not her real name) arrived in Holmess life in 1976. He had twenty-seven fan clubs; people wrote for locks of his pubic hair. He didnt want part of him ending up in a jar somewhere. So I told him everything, John said. Lt. Ron Lewis discounted speculation that the slayings could be 'random killings' such as the Tate-LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969. Well, kind of, Video shows Memphis jailers beating Black inmate before his death, Skin lesion removed from President Bidens chest last month was cancerous, doctor says, CPAC shows the GOP has deep divisions heading into 2024, Abortion clinics crossing state borders not always welcome. Susan Launius, 25, Ron Launiuss wife. There was a security system at the house. Then another. LOS ANGELES -- The lone survivor of a bloody attack at a Laurel Canyon home last summer testified today she does not recall seeing porno star John Holmes in the house the night she was attacked and four others were bludgeoned to death. It was amazing, the haphazard way in which people would come and go. Join now Sign in . John Holmes died on March 13th, 1988. He cut Holmes off, canceled his insurance. She came to the farm to find out if a certain man was with me. About this time, Sharon says, Holmes began working as a courier for the Mob. At the height of his popularity, he earned $3,000 a day on films and almost as much turning tricks, servicing wealthy men and women on both coasts and in Europe. The word in the industry was that he had colon cancer. Youre probably going to be saving him.. The house at 8763 Wonderland rented for $750 a month. . Like aliens or something. His family had owned several hotels before the creation of Israel in 1948. Later, the women dyed Johns hair black. She'd gone into the pregnancy with a plan, knowing Black mothers like herself were at higher risk. Hurricanes and tornadoes are scary as all hell because you usually have a few moments to contemplate what's about to hit you. Big Rosie, the manager, let Jeana work the switchboard and clean rooms in exchange for rent. I won't do an extensive write-up of the Wonderland Murders, as they've been written about on here before: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/430cdk/four_bloody_unsolved_wonderland_murders/. In the business she was billed as Misty Dawn, the anal queen of porn. Videos . Everybody at the hotel got to know us, Jeana says. That house, she thought. One search of the premises yielded a cardboard box containing 4,000 counterfeit Quaaludes. Then, when Eddie Nash got out of jail, John was very, very worried. I mean, come on: Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino - those are choices? Sharon had gone so far as to stop physical relations, but she couldnt bring herself to kick him out. Then I leave. John was a shy and lonely kid who kept to himself and had perfect attendance at Sunday school. he didnt know what the truth was anymore; about himself, about anything, Sellers said. John bought himself an El Camino pickup and a large diamond solitaire that became his trademark in films. With the preliminary hearing transcript, the Wonderland groupies for lack of a better term can get a glimpse into what really went down on the night of July 1, 1981, in the words of those who were there: Susan Launius, the sole survivor of the attack; David Lind, a slick, smooth-talking hood who was one of the trigger men in the robbery of reputed mobster Eddie Nash that preceded and instigated the murders; and Tracy McCourt, the petulant wheelman in the Nash heist.