It began, according to Thorsons book, Behind the Candelabra, when Liberace ordered him to have cosmetic surgery. A host of musicians, actors and artists make their homes in the rustic canyon. Memorial ID. That first time, we didnt get to work together, says Laurie, but we were attracted. The door was open. He wanted to make a million dollars so we could just leave and be done with it.. What's your favorite movie(s) or TV show(s) that are based in LA? Launius' years of operation: 1972-1973 (after he returned from Asia and before prison), 1978-1981. Her brother Chris, 16, lived in Oregon. Inside was her husband, John. The police wanted to know who killed the Wonderland Gang. Holmess parents separated when he was three, and Mary moved the family into a housing project in Columbus. 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. runs a close second. I come back to Wonderland. His gay clubs were the first in L.A. to allow same-sex dancing. They mix poorly, and yet they're inexorably linked. John tried to make a deal with the cops. It sounds silly, but you know how you can meet someone for the first time and its like you know them already?, After the film, John and Laurie, who looked like Jeana, began dating. Also while in college, he said, he danced nude modern jazz ballet and drove an ambulance. It was dark, and there wasnt any traffic. Where are you calling from? Its like Raymond Chandler on crack. In California Valley Girls, for instance, he had one scene. For like three weeks, one of us had to be awake at all times. Launius is also known to have been an associate of Horace McKenna, a former CHP officer and strip club/nightclub owner with connections to prostitution, drug-smuggling, and gambling in the L.A. area. Now things were not so friendly. 1947 was a pivotal year in L.A.'s history. In the late Seventies, Los Angeles police averaged twenty-five drug busts a month at the Starwood. Class 1A. Holmes wouldnt tell. A sunny room in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, California. You know, says Detective Lange, theres no mystery here. Jeana said nothing. Usually, they smoked freebase and had sex. Come with us, Sharon., It can be the three of us, Sharon, like old times.. He never went home again. Others looked like theyd been sucking on the pipe a little too long. He began spilling to Blake in 1973, after he was arrested on a movie set. Behind him was his partner, Mac McClain. My husband hired a girl to follow us. 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. Launius, Deverell, and Miller, along with the girlfriend of an accomplice, Barbara Richardson, died from extensive blunt-force trauma injuries. One search of the premises yielded a cardboard box containing 4,000 counterfeit Quaaludes. Ill teach them a lesson! How you doing, John? said the man in the gray suit, leaning over the safety rail of the bed. Nash and Holmes had met three years earlier at the Seven Seas. Then he left.. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. Mary went to work on an assembly line at a Western Electric plant. He had ties to the criminal underworld and was known to be dangerous -- it just so happened that he crossed someone even more dangerous than himself, and lost his life for it. The murders are believed to be retaliation for the Wonderland Gang's robbing of Eddie Nash's home two days earlier. I said, Please, just let me get my clothes and my dog and well leave.'. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. Under Review. Or that show out of New York, you know, A Current Affair. Holmes was one of the greats in the business. . Ill pick you up.. Just blood. Now Holmes owed the Wonderland Gang, too. Everybody at the hotel got to know us, Jeana says. Holmes went on to make more than 2,000 movies. In the summer of 1981, Sharon Holmes said, she and John Holmes were living together as the managers of a small Glendale apartment complex. They were stupid. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. He graduated from UCLA with majors, variously, in physical therapy, pediatric physical therapy, medicine and political sciences. Rush hour was on. . He was like the old John. Amerson says Holmes spent most of his time playing cards and shooting darts. When asked by Holmes' attorney what she remembered after that, she replied, 'nothing.'. The 43-year-old actor died as a result of complications arising from his infection with the AIDS virus. Susan Launius. The couple ended up in Miami, at a small run-down hotel on Collins Avenue. The Hippie 'Flower-Child' Revolutionaries & Their Ties To The Military 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. Youve got to be joking. Hed have a big glass of milk, and wed turn on the cartoons, and then hed go to bed in Sharons room. At the moment, on this evening of June 28th, 1981, Wonderland Avenue was quiet. Court records and pllice statements indicated two of the four victims were under prosecution for dealing in cocaine, heroin and Quaaludes. John kept his porn money and spent it on himself. Chris didnt have a drivers license. His eyes were open, says Laurie, and it looked like he had looked up to Death and said, Here I am. It was the most peaceful look I ever saw in my life. They came even though, at the time, there was no music industry in Los Angeles. She was in intensive care with a severed finger and brain damage. Isamarie Perez, San Antonio Stacey vs. Brooke Alexander, McLeod; Wyndi Williams, Baird vs. Cassie Petty, White Deer; Kyla Coleman, Whiteface . This is Susan Launius. Jeana, Ive got to tell you. Bob Gregory, 62, went missing the same day as Sands. McCourt drove up the hill on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, across Mulholland Drive, over the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains, down into the Valley. The Wonderland Gang Murders: What You Need To Know | Crime News This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). He drove a forklift at a meatpacking plant in Cudahy until his lung collapsed from working in the freezer. On the morning of June 29, 1981, four men who lived at the Wonderland Avenue address entered Nashs house through a sliding glass door that had been left ajar by Holmes, according to trial testimony. No strings attached.. His last film was The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress, starring Ilona Ciccolina Staller, a member of the Italian Parliament. An argument ensued. Net Worth in 2019. I know Eddie. I will kill your whole family! Sports promoter Vic Weiss was found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls Royce in a Hollywood hotel parking lot in 1979. Holmes hadnt paid for the room. how much does a cfl general manager makeduskull evolution arceus They did hits off Eddies pipe, eyed the door. These are my tools, I use them to make a living. When Sharon and John were first married, she says, he was very naive, looking for the perfect relationship. John Holmes was famous, at least in some circles. how much does a cfl general manager make . In the face of a drier future, that iconic piece of Americana is on its way out in Southern California. Is this your brother? Holmes talked a while, looked Jeana up and down. Their attorneys question the credibility of prosecution witnesses and maintain their clients innocence. A bloody mess. She hadnt seen him in three months. And, as Holmess supply of coke dwindled, his conscience was overruled by his jones. He keeps a sawed-off shotgun under the blanket Here, this is Nashs room. The three went back to Sharons house. 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 was known as Eddie Nash. If you could live in any neighborhood or specific house in LA, where/which would you choose? He meant nothing to me in that way.. Record information. Browse by collection. But here we are. John picked up Sharons two dogs and Thor from the kennel. He had made a name for himself during the Vietnam War when he was dishonorably discharged from the army for smuggling drugs back to the United States in the bodies of dead servicemen. At home, Harold picked on John. Some heard a woman's screams coming from the house Tuesday morning, but ignored them in the belief someone was playing a joke, partying or having a nightmare. He didnt want part of him ending up in a jar somewhere. You knew these people.. Shed often take her son there for lunch. The Wonderland slayings remain, for all intents and purposes, an unsolved mystery and mysteries without a resolution tend to tantalize and give birth to myth and conjecture. Edmund Brown Jr. owns a house about a mile from the scene of the murders. Lets face it, she says. Susan Launius, 25, Ron Launiuss wife. Drugs, inattention, back taxes and lawyers fees had depleted his fortune. At night, she baby-sat for David and Karen. You said something about blood., Holmess eyes bulged. -, Press J to jump to the feed. Susan Launius - Net Worth March 2023, Salary, Age, Siblings, Bio 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. Invalid memorial. ''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. Holmes hired the sisters to do gardening around the complex. 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. A doctor of dubious practice prescribed a salad of different drugs to aid the weight loss. Atty. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics from Emory . DeVerell, 42, was also a heroin addict. At an alarming rate.. In 1960 he opened a hot-dog stand on Hollywood Boulevard. Diles hit him again. This anecdote right there tells me that Launius has a body count. They called it Louise. He wasnt specific, but it really didnt matter anyway. Read 'The Shortest Day' To Celebrate The Winter Solstice : NPR I really dont recall. Thorson was the live-in lover of the entertainer Liberace. I think L.A. should be broken up into a series of counties so we have better choices. Hed underestimated Nash once, but hed never do it again. 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. Let him scream? At Christmas, they decorated it with colored lights. 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. When Amerson raised their rent to $400, they got their own place in Encino. Nash was very upset. Suzanne Launius's birthday is 03/24/1951 and is 71 years old.Suzanne calls Hawthorne, CA, home.Susan Launius are some of the alias or nicknames that Suzanne has used. By the mid-Seventies, Ed Nasrallah had become Eddie Nash and had amassed a fortune. See that car over there? I didnt know what was going to happen, but I knew what might, she says. I've always found the Wonderland story so intriguing. She was twenty, an army brat. So Holmes summoned his wife into the bathroom, drew steaming water into the tub, slipped in, and began to talk. He has a fascinating style and I liken him to Raymond Carver if Carver had decided to write about L.A.'s slumming angels. He knew that Nash had a lot more than that lying around the house. This stuff makes me feel funny too. Or perhaps he had flown from Las Vegas. John would just stay home. He sounded a lot like Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver and bore some resemblance to the actor who played him. For the latest national news from NPR and our live radio broadcast, visit LAist.com/radio. He lost his thumb and three fingers. After that I was his.. One of the customers was Scott Thorson. I ran out the door, down to the pool, and he ran after me, the fool. Nashs three coconspirators in the insurance scam were found guilty. He and Sharon settled into a strange hybrid of domesticity. Now she shook her head slowly, walked around the car to the passenger side. John Holmes, who was tried for and acquitted of the crimes, never told his wife the names of the assailants, she said. Nash would kill him and his family if he talked, he was certain of it. For the next three days, John, Jeana and Sharon were held in protective custody in a luxury hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Jeana was tucked into another hotel in the Valley. When you met with Eddie, you met at his place, on his terms. That evening, Chinn wrote a three-page screenplay; a partnership was born. Like all porn actors, John had been paid per day and had signed away the rights to his own films. The house at 8763 Wonderland rented for $750 a month. She'd gone into the pregnancy with a plan, knowing Black mothers like herself were at higher risk. His family had owned several hotels before the creation of Israel in 1948. Tell the cops what they want to know, cause otherwise Johns going to be dead in a few days. In a way, Holmes was everymans gigolo, a polyester smoothy with a sparse mustache, a flying collar and lots of buttons undone. dynamic programming cheat sheet Diles got seven years on charges stemming from the drug raids. Nash liked having him around. Barbara's cousin tells me this info. Like aliens or something. Holmes went to work for a construction company, painting a hotel down the strip. Just recently, he had begun training to be a uniformed security guard. I said No and I meant it., Over the next year, Nasrallah brought her grape leaves, hummus, pots of Turkish coffee. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Then, when Eddie Nash got out of jail, John was very, very worried. We believe when reliable local reporting is widely available, the entire community benefits. The guest bedroom. But the new accounts cast doubt on the story Holmes told a biographer before his death March 13. Captain Conan 10y. John Holmes didnt go to his grave with anything but a very bad case of AIDS. Since the late Sixties, Holmes had traded on his natural endowment. Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence? Change your mind. Susan Launius's income source is mostly from being a successful . Too bad youre so young, he said finally, then left. His drug of choice was freebase, home-cooked crack cocaine, and he was smoking it at the rate of two to three ounces a day. Its business.. Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores, the sheriff's prime suspect in the investigation into the disappearance of Kristin Smart, spoke to KSBY News on Tuesday for her first-ever media interview. There was one hitch. Jeana was scared to death. barry mcguigan, daughter funeral; susan launius interview Main Menu. Tom Mix and Harry Houdini once lived there among the quail and scrub pine and coyotes. [5] Barbara Richardson [ edit] Can I come in?, They went to the bathroom. Overdue book returned to Massachusetts library after 56 years. They opened the security gate, and the four of us went up the stairs, and when the door opened, they forced their way inside. He always had large quantities of coke, heroin, Quaaludes and other drugs at the house. Coughing into the microphone, Ricks called Nash a danger to the public and maxed him out. Holmes thought Nash was the most evil man hed ever met, but he couldnt quite figure him out, so he respected him. During the day, she worked in a nursing home. It was a simple ceremony. Holmes slept fitfully for a few hours, Sharon Holmes said, and moaned about blood and pain. Susan Launius - Remote Medical Transcriptionist - LinkedIn Tossing and moaning, punching and kicking. You want to play baseball? hed ask his ever-present guests, lighting his butane torch, offering a hit off his pipe. 10 Dec 2013. . They wanted to see Holmes. He played it for all it was worth, then he said he wouldnt testify. Edward, a carpenter, was an alcoholic. 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. 'I was laying down on the bed. He always called Holmes my brother. Theyd known each other for three years. Hed made all these people millions and millions of dollars. He was involved in one murder and a suspect in at least one more. Laurel Canyon had long been a prestige address, an earthy, woodsy setting just minutes from the glitter and rush of Tinseltown. Not since she was home. I wouldnt want to be operated on in San Quentin Prison, Ricks said sympathetically. Suspected burglar inside New Brunswick home was a panicked deer. Nils Grevillius, who's been working on a book on the Wonderland murders, talks in one interview about a robbery committed by the Wonderland Gang (the same robbery, in fact, that Launius got the antique guns that he tried to fence via John Holmes, which ultimately led to the murders). Mr. Thread marks found on walls, skulls, skin. Nancy J. Kraft, nee Launius, 69, of Smithton, Illinois, born Friday, August 4, 1939, in East Saint Louis, IL, died Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at Memorial Hospital in Belleville, IL. Even Near The Hollywood Sign, Authorities ID Man Arrested In Killing Of LA Auxiliary Bishop David O'Connell As Husband Of Housekeeper, Another Missing Hiker Has Been Found Dead In San Gabriels As Search For Actor Julian Sands Continues. It was 1.6 miles from Wonderland Avenue to Dona Lola Place, which was fortuitous, because the stolen Ford Granada driven by the Wonderland Gang was running on empty. 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. Launius' wife, Susan Launius, survived the attack, which is shocking given the crime scene photos and video. You little Jeana stood, walked away. By 1978, Holmes was freebasing cocaine all the time. Whenever he returned from days or weeks away, Holmes would bring gifts: stuffed animals, roses, a ring. . He would have to take them to the house.. Everything from Volkswagens to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. 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. They came from across the countryalthough the Washington, D.C. area was noticeably over-representedas well as from Canada and England, and, in at least one case, all the way from Nazi Germany. How can you spell cold with only 2 letters? - Answers Memorial has already been merged. She told him to get the fuck out of my life. He couldnt call Jeana. pillsbury company net worth; does gotomeeting work in china; tanner mark boots website Susan Launius | Historica Wiki | Fandom . Sherrill confessed to the murder some years later. With all the publicity from the murders, John Holmes had achieved almost mainstream celebrity. While Holmes was in jail, Amerson had started a company called John Holmes Productions. Through his attorney, Nash has consistently denied any involvement in the Wonderland Avenue killings. His penis, when erect, according to legend, measured between eleven and fifteen inches in length. He wanted witness protection, a new name, money, a home. There was a telephone at the entrance, an electronic deadbolt on the gate, two pit bulls sleeping on the steps. And then, just as we got to this intersection, he slammed on the brakes. He said he was told he would be killed and people in the book would be killed if (Holmes) didnt do what (Nash) wanted. In your opinion, what's the best alternate route to the 405? Ive lived in L.A. since 1979 and currently reside in Glendale. One woman who had sex with Nash remembers a lot of temptation. Ron Launius was born in 1944 in Shawneetown, IL. Soon after, Detectives Lange and McClain called the hospital. The buckle depicted a mother whale swimming in the ocean, her baby nursing beneath. If you were forced to live in a neighboring county, which would you choose? Two years later, Ricks was ordered held against his will for psychiatric observation. This would lead, in the mid-Seventies, to Holmess most successful role, as Johnny Wadd, the hard-boiled detective, porns parody of Sam Spade. Now he was a drug delivery boy for the Wonderland Gang. Mismanagement, Sloppy Hiring Practices, Lack Of Transparency. With the release the same year of The Devil in Miss Jones and Behind the Green Door, porn became part of popular culture. In the weeks before the killings, Coen told the jurors, Holmes ferried property stolen by the Wonderland Avenue gang to Nashs heavily secured home in Studio City, where he exchanged it for drugs. 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. Lind and his girlfriend had come down three weeks earlier from Sacramento to stay at Wonderland. What really cracks me up is people believe he was a dope dealer. For a time, John Holmes was silent. Up to this time, Holmes had been doing mostly photo layouts, stag films and 8-mm bookstore loops. It was Sunday evening and the drugs were gone, the money was gone, the situation was desperate. [5] Barbara Richardson Hed messed up a delivery, had a big argument with DeVerell and Launius. COOPER: (Reading) And when the new year's sunshine . Then hed swallow a few Quaaludes and return. We went on twenty-four-hour watch. When he became established as a porn star, Holmes said, he had a half dozen agents pulling in work for him. March 3 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts library said a book was recently returned with a note apologizing for the tome being 56 years overdue. Holmes muttered something to Nash about the gang. Would Jeana want to be the live-in baby sitter? In addition, more than 3,000 pages of court and police documents and newspaper reports were reviewed. Susan Launius was severely beaten in her bed, but she narrowly survived, albeit with amnesia, head injuries, and the loss of a finger. par | Juil 2, 2022 | mitchell wesley carlson charged | justin strauss net worth | Juil 2, 2022 | mitchell wesley carlson charged | justin strauss net worth A mother and daughter offered to help. His penis, he said, was bigger than a pay phone, smaller than a Cadillac., Holmess voice was sly and ingratiating. Everyone there was on some kind of slide. You could walk up, whisper something in his ear, and hed make it available. There was "a lot of screaming going. 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. At Holmes murder trial, Tomlinson testified that Holmes told him that after the robbery had occurred at Ed Nashs house, that Nash had made (Holmes) tell him who the people were that robbed him. After a preliminary hearing in January 1989, at which Thorson, among others, testified, Nash and Diles were bound over for trial this summer; they are currently being held without bail in the Los Angeles County Jail. Sharon stood with arms crossed. The time was 2:30 in the afternoon. There was a security system at the house. I had to take them there., I took them there. He was prepared to testify that Eddie Nash had sent Holmes and Diles to Wonderland Avenue and that Nash felt responsible for the bloody mess that resulted. There never was a sexual relationship between us. We have lots of information about Suzanne: religious views are listed as Christian, ethnicity is Caucasian, and political affiliation is currently a registered Republican. Five men and two women were meeting in the breakfast nook, sitting in swivel chairs, leaning against walls. In time, the surgery was completed, and Thorson was made into a young vision of Liberace. His bodyguard, Gregory De Witt Diles, was a karate expert and convicted felon who weighed a blubbery 300 pounds. Early in 1983, Holmes was shooting Fleshpond at a studio in San Francisco. His mistress, Jeana, whod been with him since she was fifteen, was turning tricks to support his habit. The Sellers would stay there. Jeana packed her bag, gathered up Thor, put Johns gun in her pocketbook. 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. During Holmes murder trial in 1982, then Deputy Dist. One of the actresses in the cast was Laurie Rose. John? If anything, one of the themes in Eddies life has always been control. I called up and said I had some things for the people inside and to let me up. Take care of him, Sharon said. A poster for the 1977 John Holmes film The Jade Pussycat., NBA 'Investigating,' Team Suspends Ja Morant After Allegedly Flashing Gun on Social Media, Alex Murdaugh Juror Says Cellphone Video, 'Big Liar' Testimony Led to Guilty Verdict, She Used the Bathroom And Became a Target of the Culture War, Here's How LaRussell and Intuit are Helping Independent Artists Understand How to Achieve Their Financial Ambitions, Alex Murdaugh Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder of Wife and Son, Glastonbury Co-Organizer Promises Female Headliners in 2024 After All-Male Top Billing This Year, See the Beths Deliver Refreshing 'Expert in a Dying Field' Mini-Set on 'CBS Mornings', Netflixs Sex/Life Is Back to Satisfy Your Softcore Desires. They were going underground. Holmes remained in jail, however, on his outstanding burglary case. Marriage & Divorce. Porn star John Holmes in 1981, shortly after four people were bludgeoned to death in what came to be known as the Wonderland Murders. Remember Eddie? He was held in the county jail for contempt. Whos this in Montana? Holmess half brother and his wife lived there; this little community was the personal fiefdom of John Holmes. The judge in the case was Everett E. Ricks Jr. His lawyer lent him a Volkswagen Beetle and $100, and Holmes showed up at his friend Amersons house. The man was a poster child for sociopathic behavior. Didn't expect my day to start by downloading #microsoftedge or willingly going to #bing to see #openai's new #gpt4 model. Diles smacked Holmes, threw him across the room, shoved him against a wall. After she left, my husband called on the telephone at the farm and said to come home immediately. Minnesota officer removes jar from raccoon's head. We were really broke. I loved him. myers park country club lawsuit; turkey hill frozen yogurt discontinued. Its like being married to a hooker., And so began the loops and the stags, and then Johnny Wadd was born. Wake him? He wanted to be the Arab man in his tent. 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. Nash shut the bedroom door. . Nobody ever came over, says Laurie.
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