Remember me?. Based on my research, "Wonderland"arrives closest to the truth but in both films an apologist's tone creeps in with reference to Holmes. Shed driven out from Miami with her father and younger sister. A look at years past when snows creeped into our citified neighborhoods, away from the mountains and foothills. Ron Launius had an extensive criminal history before coming to a bloody end. Holmes, 37, was formally charged with four counts of murder and one of attempted murder following his arrest last December in Miami. Holmes went on to make more than 2,000 movies. Nash knew the Wonderland people. An argument ensued. I know Eddie. He showed Chinn his portfolio of stills, then stripped. 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. On April 29, 1986, fire tore through Los Angeles' Central Library more than one million books were damaged or destroyed. Facilitating a sense of purpose. Jobs People Learning Dismiss Dismiss. You talk to Nash, whatever, you tell him you got to take a piss. In the face of a drier future, that iconic piece of Americana is on its way out in Southern California. One of Nashs friends and overnight guests was, according to a law-enforcement official, an Israeli with a military background, the so-called reputed godfather of the Israeli Mafia. A report by the California State Department of Justice revealed that the Israeli Mafia was active in California during the late Seventies and early Eighties and was involved in drugs, arson, extortion, gunrunning and a number of murders, including the death and dismemberment of two Israeli nationals at the plush Bonaventure hotel in downtown L.A. During his six or seven years of heavy drug use, said the attorney, Nash lost over a million a year directly attributable to drugs. We want to hear it. Hed come home from one of his movie premires, take off his boots, peel down his socks and take out a wad of large bills. How you doing, John? said the man in the gray suit, leaning over the safety rail of the bed. 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. These are my tools, I use them to make a living. And then, just as we got to this intersection, he slammed on the brakes. You want to play baseball? hed ask his ever-present guests, lighting his butane torch, offering a hit off his pipe. On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith told . Nash and Holmes had met three years earlier at the Seven Seas. The cast of characters would go from two or three to ten or more. All Rights reserved. For her sister Terry, who was fourteen and overweight, he brought what he called Terry food, pounds and pounds of candy. Around that time, he also began developing complications related to AIDS. He said, They stuck a gun to my head and they made me go back in (to the Wonderland Avenue house) and open the door. Thats what he told me. She even had to have part of her skull surgically removed as a result of her injuries. Whos Mary? Holmess parents separated when he was three, and Mary moved the family into a housing project in Columbus. Nash was acquitted. He has just published his latest project about one of Los Angeles's most well known murder cases in the 80s. Their association ended in one of the most brutal mass murders in the history of Los Angeles. The Week in Photos: California exits pandemic emergency amid a winter landscape, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, David Lindley, guitarist best known for work with Jackson Browne, dies at 78, Best coffee city in the world? They sat around a glass table in the breakfast nook. Launius estranged wife, Susan, who was visiting, survived the assault but suffered severe head injuries. Armed guards in the lobby, in the hallway. I told where the robbers lived and how to get there. 1-20 of 285. Show your appreciation with the gift of Flickr Pro. Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence? ''Wonderland,'' directed by James Cox, is part of a curious, somewhat unsavory subgenre of movies that involve washed-up, sort-of-famous people and death by bludgeoning. Bring me their eyeballs in a bag, and I will forget what you have done to me! He knew we wouldnt have a life together.. Diles shoved, Holmes skidded across the carpet. Then another. Launius' wife, Susan Murphy, also claimed that she and Launius were involved in a drug deal gone wrong in Mexico in 1972 or '73, during which she was taken hostage but saved by her husband when he killed her captors. 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. He knew he was dying. You cannot merge a memorial into itself. Youve got to be joking. This anecdote right there tells me that Launius has a body count. John leaned up against the back bumper, smoking a cigarette. here. This is Susan Launius. Only Launius' wife Susan survived the attack, allegedly masterminded by organized crime figure and nightclub owner Eddie Nash. It was amazing, the haphazard way in which people would come and go. Both cars slowed, pulled even in the middle of the street. I watched them beat them to death., It was them or me. John and Laurie stayed home a lot and watched videos. Officers made casts of the victims' wounds to help determine the weapon or weapons used in the attack. The video boom was just beginning, and Holmes became a kind of Marlon Brando of porn. He was also a drug dealer and a heavy user. She wasnt happy. I said, John, how could you? I have been fascinated by the Wonderland case ever since co-producing the documentary Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmesin 1999. Youre probably going to be saving him.. Susan A. Murphy Launius, 30, while not an official member of the gang, was married to gang member Ron Launius and had a drug habit. All three of them are sleeping in the same bed. There never was a sexual relationship between us. Wednesday afternoon, July 1st, two days after the robbery. Here's Why It's Especially Dangerous To Hike SoCal Mountains Right Now, How 4 Words Upended A University's Journalism Program, And Stirred A Reckoning Over Race, What A Popular Yoga Teacher's Descent Into Conspiracy Theories Says About The 'Wellness To QAnon Pipeline', Ancient Lung Disease Strikes Countertop Cutters In LA, The Groundbreaking Suicide Squad That Tested Early Rockets And Flirted With The Occult. They needed a score. He introduced him to all his guests. From then, wrote Schuyler, in a letter to a judge many years later, Ed Nasrallah began a courtship that was as old-fashioned as they come. There was a telephone at the entrance, an electronic deadbolt on the gate, two pit bulls sleeping on the steps. Over the years, theyd become like mother and daughter. Lets talk about your latest book, Long Time Money and Lots of Cocaine. Why did you package the transcript of John Holmes preliminary hearing in the Wonderland murders? A girl entered stage right. He lost his virginity at the Florida house, when he was six, to his Swiss nursemaid, Frieda. When asked by Holmes' attorney what she remembered after that, she replied, 'nothing.'. His business empire totally atrophied as a result of the coke. He has a fascinating style and I liken him to Raymond Carver if Carver had decided to write about L.A.'s slumming angels. John? She walked the streets, tried to think. He served in the signal corps, spending three years in Nuremberg, Germany. We have never heard the whole truth (about the killings) and we never will hear the whole truth, said attorney Earl L. Hanson, who, along with partner Mitchell W. Egers, successfully defended Holmes against the murder charges. He spent his early life in Tennessee and Georgia, and graduated from Spalding High School in Griffin, Ga. Do you find the threat of earthquakes preferable to the threat of hurricanes and long winters? Meanwhile, Jeana called Holmess answering service and left the number. March 3 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts library said a book was recently returned with a note apologizing for the tome being 56 years overdue. You know, says Detective Lange, theres no mystery here. Miller, De Verell and Launius needed drugs every day. Holmes drove to Nashs again to make sure the sliding door was still open. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. Five men and two women were meeting in the breakfast nook, sitting in swivel chairs, leaning against walls. 1947 was a pivotal year in L.A.'s history. Theres no mystery. 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. ', Nash is said to have had political, police and crime connections. He said, Im gonna die! and drove off., When he came back, says Laurie, he was laughing about it. Launius served 4 years and was released in 1978. Launius and four of his associates were found dead in their townhouse on Wonderland Avenue, in Laurel Canyon on July 1, 1981. 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. After a while, I said I didnt want to go out on the beach anymore. Writer and documentary producer. . The pivotal event in porn history was the release of Deep Throat, starring Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems, in 1972. Dole said there's no question that Trump lost his reelection race - narrowly but fair and square. Now it was midnight in the parking lot at the Safeway in Glendale. Shed gotten a job at a nursing home and was paying her mom rent, trying to rebuild her life. As much as I like "Boogie Nights", it remains a fairly superficial movie. He quickly racked up a rap sheet, including gun and drug charges. 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. A mother and daughter offered to help. Then he designed a massive gold and diamond ring in the shape of a dragonfly, and a gold belt buckle, measuring eight by five inches. At the hospital, as he came out of anesthesia, he said to Mary, Ill never have to work again. He didnt. There was a security system at the house. A few months later, Jeana moved into the guest room of the house. Now, in the breakfast nook, a tall, gaunt man with curly hair and a sparse beard pointed to the floor plan he had sketched. Four bodies. Now he was a drug delivery boy for the Wonderland Gang. That's not a stereotypical statement in the least. Videos . Two years later, Ricks reduced Nashs sentence to time served, and Nash was released. It had a pool and a sunken living room, a white stone faade. 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. I will kill your whole family! He wasnt threatening. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click Diles hit him again. We played our favorite songs, walked, talked. All Marriage & Divorce results for Ronnie Launius. He stared straight ahead, unblinking. Jeana Sellers (not her real name) arrived in Holmess life in 1976. One regular trick had him barge into her bedroom while she was watching TV, then tie her up and rape her. Ill teach them a lesson! We believe when reliable local reporting is widely available, the entire community benefits. It was like he was doing a movie. I suspect that Launius may have been involved in other violent crimes. Bring me their eyeballs! Sometimes he worked around the apartments as the handyman and gardener. Too bad youre so young, he said finally, then left. Youd walk into the house, there were various girls walking around in various states of undress. Number 8763 Wonderland Avenue had some history of its own: Paul Revere and the Raiders once lived there. 22nd Emmys Golf Classic. In February, Holmes was admitted to the VA hospital in Sepulveda. Then, says Laurie, the third time I went up there, he came up to me with the mirror and said, You want a hit? and I turned to him and said no. Sellers picked up a hitchhiker who was going to Glendale to see his girlfriend. On his sixteenth birthday, Holmes joined the army. Like aliens or something. There was shouting, laughing, rock & roll twenty-four hours a day.. Detectives said they had talked to Susan Murphy Launius, 29, at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where she is in critical condition with gashes in her head and neck. The murders, he said. Class 1A. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Sharons first act was to move Jeana out of Karen and Davids and into a garage apartment in the complex. Remember Eddie? This story has not been verified. In a career that would span twenty years, Holmes made 2274 hard-core pornographic films, had sex with 14,000 women. I was really charmed, says Jeana. Tabs. . Whos this in Montana? Sharon went to the bedroom, laid down, read a magazine. At Christmas, they decorated it with colored lights. 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. He came in, sat on a couch. 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. Nash hadnt slept in ten days. Jeana leaned out the window, and they hugged. 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. Nashs and Diless attorneys maintain their clients innocence and question the credibility of witnesses for the prosecution. Atty. He was great. Then he left.. The daughter had a kid and a job. A California cop called him one of the coldest people I ever met.. Schuyler said that Ed loved her son exceedingly and that he offered to fix it up for you to take him to a top brain surgeon. Ill have them on their knees! Nash ranted to Thorson. On Christmas Day 1980, hed even presented Jeana. February 1988, seven years after the murders. The case against Holmes was built largely on two pieces of evidence: An admission that Holmes allegedly made to Los Angeles Police Detective Frank Tomlinson after his arrest in Miami in December, 1981, and a bloody palm print left by Holmes on the rail of a bed on which one of the victims, drug dealer Ronald Launius, died. Your mother? Built in 1925, in the then fashionable Spanish Revival style, it sits in the leafy hills above the Los Feliz neighbourhood, at the fringes of Griffith Park and with a panoramic view of the city. Mismanagement, Sloppy Hiring Practices, Lack Of Transparency. Hed been with three governors, two of their wives and one senator, who was really a freak., Holmes said he owned ten different businesses, that he was a gourmet cook, that he had written twenty-nine books, including a how-to manual combining cooking and sex. She is the sole survivor of the brutal Wonderland attack the night of July 1, 1981; she suffered severe head injuries, amnesia, and a severed finger following the attack. or learn more. First, however, Thorson had to lose thirty pounds. Her brother was in town; something weird was going on. I believe that cocaine paranoia created within him the desire to stay within that closed environment that he had control over. At an alarming rate.. . On July 10th, Police knocked down the door of their motel room and arrested Jeana and Holmes. John had a van by then, and soon he began organizing camping trips with Jeana, Terry and Terrys boyfriend, Jose. When Holmes was eight, his mother married Harold, a manic-depressive who worked for the telephone company. John Holmes, who was tried for and acquitted of the crimes, never told his wife the names of the assailants, she said. The actors wife paused. With the release the same year of The Devil in Miss Jones and Behind the Green Door, porn became part of popular culture. John swung and knocked his stepfather out. . Going up there right now isn't safe, but here are some places where you can enjoy the view and snap a pic. There were piles of cocaine in front of you. The cost of the ISBN - to get your title into other markets like Amazon and bricks and mortar book stores - comes out of the author's own pocket but that's a small price to pay, literally, for everything else Lulu does for authors, such as providing a storefront free of charge. Latest Videos; Emmy Awards - Show Clips - Winnerviews - Presenterviews . They told him to make good. only "shadows". The letters "IC" pronounced properly can say "icy" meaning very cold. LOS ANGELES -- The lone survivor of the massacre of four people in the swank Laurel Canyon home of an attractive blonde woman suspected of dealing in drugs was under a 24-hour hospital guard Friday as the star witness in the case. If you could live in LA during any era, when would it be? Holmes was doing sex pictorials, dancing in clubs. After seven years, the district attorney was reopening the Wonderland case, based, in part, on testimony from Scott Thorson, Liberaces ex-lover. Before them were two pairs of handcuffs, a stolen police badge, several automatic pistols and a dogeared sheet of paper, a floor plan. Blood! This stuff makes me feel funny too. Early in 1983, Holmes was shooting Fleshpond at a studio in San Francisco. In 1974, Sharon became the resident manager of a ten-unit apartment court in Glendale. Though, she didn't survive unscathed. Two years later, Ricks was ordered held against his will for psychiatric observation. We had a big fight. Things started to click. John Holmes was a porn star. He began spilling to Blake in 1973, after he was arrested on a movie set. Will Orange County's Fledgling Clean Power Agency Survive? Sharon had been a virgin when theyd met. By Steve Helling. The Wonderland case was still open. He took a lounge singers approach to sex, deliberately gentle, ostentatiously artful, a homely guy with a pinkie ring and a big dick who was convinced he was every womans dream. He told me that he had set up the robbery. Then, when Eddie Nash got out of jail, John was very, very worried. Susan Launius, who lay wounded with severe head injuries for hours before being discovered in the house by neighbors last July 1, testified during Holmes' preliminary hearing that she could. They called it Louise. He weighed ninety pounds, his fingernails were two inches long. March 3 (UPI) -- Firefighters in Britain responded to a home to rescue a horse that had fallen into its owner's swimming pool and was unable to get itself out. So much blood! Holmes was having a nightmare. At home, Nash walked around in a maroon silk robe, or sometimes in bikini briefs, his body covered with a thin sheen of sweat. Now the police wanted Holmess testimony. On Mulholland Drive, silently watching as the city falls down and taking a naturalist's notes. We sat on the rocks, the moon was just right. Jeana dropped out of Glendale High School. We were like a normal couple. John was carrying two suitcases when he met her. 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. Considering employee opinions. Two customers waited. He showed up at the house in the early evening. Launius was a reckless thief and he went after wealthy targets, not just down-and-dirty drug dealers and bikers, so I'd look for possible victims with either have money or look like they have money, who turned up dead after a home invasion. Editors picks Holmes was crumpled on the floor. His words to me were Friends can get you killed. We were very careful. 7-year-old baseball umpire seeks Guinness World Record. By this time, Sharon had befriended Jeana. Holmes buzzed an outside intercom box and asked someone inside to let him in. Jeana packed her bag, gathered up Thor, put Johns gun in her pocketbook. he didnt know what the truth was anymore; about himself, about anything, Sellers said. She opened the door, folded her arms against her chest. jackson falls santa paula. After Holmes negotiations for an immunity deal with police and prosecutors fell apart, the actor made plans to leave town with Sellers. It was a simple ceremony. By the Eighties, former California governor Jerry Brown was living on Wonderland Avenue, and Steven Spielberg was building on a lot not far away. Coughing into the microphone, Ricks called Nash a danger to the public and maxed him out. 'I was laying down on the bed. Sharon was a nurse at USC County General, working on a team that was pioneering open-heart surgery. I trusted you! I was there., It was my fault, John said, his eyes welling with tears. Management asked Jeana to leave. Do you agree with that assessment? In jail, Holmes went on a hunger strike. She didnt know where. The Seven Seas was a bus-stop joint across Hollywood Boulevard from Manns Chinese Theaters. The master, the giver of hospitality. Atkins was convicted for her involvement. He was freebasing one hit of coke every ten or fifteen minutes, swallowing forty to fifty Valium a day to cut the edge. Aftermath Lind and McCourt were both away from the scene at the time of the murders, so they were able to survive unharmed. And, as Holmess supply of coke dwindled, his conscience was overruled by his jones. I'll sidestep Nathanael West's blistering "Day of the Locust" to applaud some more recent works like Michelle Huneven's "Jamesland" and the Nina Zero private eye novels by Robert Eversz. After a while, the weather report came on. You sound close., Well, I, I, ah, came with a friend. His last film was The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress, starring Ilona Ciccolina Staller, a member of the Italian Parliament. Then, in the summer of 1985, John tested positive for AIDS. John was a shy and lonely kid who kept to himself and had perfect attendance at Sunday school. Charles Manson was deranged and messianic but John Holmes only cared about himself and didn't care who got hurt - or killed - in his never-ending quest to feed drugs and self-esteem into his wasted system. Holmes rolled down his window, McCourt rolled down his. I tried to shut his eyes like in the movies, but they wouldnt stay shut., Holmes didnt want a funeral, but he did have a last wish. An ex-convict whod served time for burglary, forgery and assault to commit rape, Lind had been invited to town, he would later tell a court, to practice his profession, committing crimes. Do you find it challenging to make new friends here? He meant nothing to me in that way.. He told us certain things. par | Juil 2, 2022 | mitchell wesley carlson charged | justin strauss net worth | Juil 2, 2022 | mitchell wesley carlson charged | justin strauss net worth Mr. After a preliminary hearing in January, Ed Nash and Greg Diles were bound over for trial this summer on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with the July 1st, 1981, killings. Please enter a valid Memorial ID. Under Review. I really dont recall. Thorson was the live-in lover of the entertainer Liberace. They picked up a six-pack, went to a park, sat by a pond. Thats what its all about. They deserved what they got.. You little Jeana stood, walked away. They went to the beach. Eddie Nash was a drug lord. Holmes hadnt paid for the room. John was doing a lot of drawing. Edward, a carpenter, was an alcoholic. He was sweet. There were contracts out on their lives. Sharon had gone so far as to stop physical relations, but she couldnt bring herself to kick him out. The woman took her to her house, put her to work painting a wall. His penis, when erect, according to legend, measured between eleven and fifteen inches in length. All his lawyers I think he had maybe six or seven working on different things all his managers, employees, customers, everyone, would come to him. Police said Holmes was involved in an unreported robbery of cash and drugs at the Studio City home of nightclub owner Adel Nasrallah, also known as Eddie Nash, three days before the bludgeon slayings at a Laurel Canyon home. Launius actually went to shoot her and his partners had to stop him. The time was right, he told Lind. As night stretched into morning, Holmes had an attack of conscience, a glimmer of an understanding that knocking over Eddie Nash might lead to a lot of trouble. John and Jeana painted the Malibu gray with a red top. Nash was a drug dealer and a heavy user. He went out of his life denying, said Sharon Holmes, (saying) I had no involvement., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Texas congressman who broke with GOP is censured, Hong Kong court convicts activists behind Tiananmen vigil, Election conspiracies fuel dispute over voter fraud system, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, Californias snowpack is approaching an all-time record, with more on the way.