According to one eyewitness, Diles once chased a man out of the Kit Kat and emptied his .38 revolver into the mans car. Holmes, in those days, was a string bean, six feet tall, 150 pounds, hair still cut in a military buzz. He cut Holmes off, canceled his insurance. Launius was Wonderland's king, and he was as cold as ice. Holmes thought Nash was the most evil man hed ever met, but he couldnt quite figure him out, so he respected him. Hanson said Holmes never told his attorneys what happened the night of the killings. WEARS WAR has moved to a new website! - WordPress.com 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. What's your favorite movie(s) or TV show(s) that are based in LA? Hed sent two of his minions out to score more drugs, but they hadnt yet returned. There was a security system at the house. They made a run to McDonalds for hamburgers. Girls' Singles. Survivor under guard as star witness Death in the Fast Lane Here he is, he has two women with him. He was great. 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. 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. The word in the industry was that he had colon cancer. Diles shoved, Holmes skidded across the carpet. Nash was acquitted. I had to let her know there was another world out there, that John was not God Almighty. Writer and documentary producer. Listen, he said, grabbing her elbow. 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 and Jeana painted the Malibu gray with a red top. Atty. Or that show out of New York, you know, A Current Affair. He boiled it clean in a pot on Sharons stove. Wonderland Gang - Wikipedia Ive been expecting you, he said. He quit the ambulance service and got work stirring vats of chocolate at a Coffee Nips factory in Glendale. Sharon sat on the wood-covered commode. March 2 (UPI) -- A Maryland woman scored a $100,000 prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket less than 12 hours after she scored an $11,000 jackpot at a casino. Amerson, meanwhile, accused his friend of embezzling $200,000 from the company. After a while, the news. 1947 was a pivotal year in L.A.'s history. Just after the murders, Nash and Diles had found themselves in a world of shit. Youd walk into the house, there were various girls walking around in various states of undress. Then she ran into a woman preaching fire and brimstone on a corner. Except for the . I said, John, how could you? When Sharon and John were first married, she says, he was very naive, looking for the perfect relationship. Ten inches long! . Whos Mary? . 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. Six months later, on September 8th, 1988, Diles and Nash were charged with the murders on Wonderland Avenue. March 3 (UPI) -- A New Brunswick couple who initially thought a burglar had broken into their home discovered the invader was actually a panicked deer. It was Thursday, July 2nd, 1981. During the day, she worked in a nursing home. Jeana Sellers (not her real name) arrived in Holmess life in 1976. The bride wore white. Arriving back at Wonderland just after dawn, Holmes announced the coast was clear. So much blood! Holmes was having a nightmare. There was one hitch. I trusted you! When he got out of jail, Holmes was jubilant. He had twenty-seven fan clubs; people wrote for locks of his pubic hair. An argument ensued. Lets face it, Amerson says, John was a product. March 3 (UPI) -- A 7-year-old Louisiana boy with a firm grasp of baseball rules is seeking a Guinness World Record as the world's youngest umpire. At home, Harold picked on John. By this time, Sharon had befriended Jeana. He said, Would you make love to me? I literally shook to death. Up to this time, Holmes had been doing mostly photo layouts, stag films and 8-mm bookstore loops. Hurricanes and tornadoes are scary as all hell because you usually have a few moments to contemplate what's about to hit you. By June, she was thinking, Well, Im not doing anything here. On June 27th, two days before the robbery at Nashs, she flew to Los Angeles. All Rights reserved. I had to take them there., I took them there. Caring about employees. 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. 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. After seven years, the district attorney was reopening the Wonderland case, based, in part, on testimony from Scott Thorson, Liberaces ex-lover. His old friend was happy to pick them up. Jeana said nothing. Holmes nodded his head, put out his cigarette, closed his eyes. Theyd been married sixteen years. . Record information. The jury found him innocent. 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. Four bodies. His drug of choice was freebase; sometimes he mixed the crack with heroin. Going up there right now isn't safe, but here are some places where you can enjoy the view and snap a pic. The first man to win the X Rated Critics Organization Best Actor Award, Holmes was an idol and an icon, the most visible male pom star of his time. She was nowhere to be found. They went to the beach. Management asked Jeana to leave. Nobody ever came over, says Laurie. He is from . Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Then he left.. Behind him was his partner, Mac McClain. The Top 5 newsletter catches you up with LAs top 5 stories in just 3 minutes. When VCX cut off Holmess salary, Amerson put up money to start Penguin Productions. Holmes talked a while, looked Jeana up and down. When I come home at night, the tools stay on the job., You are having sex with other women, said Sharon. That house, she thought. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. Just recently, he had begun training to be a uniformed security guard. Launius served 4 years and was released in 1978. Hours passed, John woke. Holmes remained in jail, however, on his outstanding burglary case. During recesses in the trial, Nash would go out to his car and smoke freebase. Sharon had been a virgin when theyd met. Suspected burglar inside New Brunswick home was a panicked deer. . He felt like he was an example.. He told us everything initially, right after it happened. . Funny, she thought, no cuts, no abrasions. Mary was a Bible-thumping Baptist John remembered screaming, yelling, his father puking all over the kids. Everything from Volkswagens to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. In a way, Holmes was everymans gigolo, a polyester smoothy with a sparse mustache, a flying collar and lots of buttons undone. I come back to Wonderland. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. I will kill your whole family! Wonderland (2003) - Plot Summary - IMDb A look at the notorious convicted murderer's life in prison after she drowned her two sons in 1994. Hed have me make these peanut-butter chocolate-chip brown-sugar butter cookies. Jeana leaned out the window, and they hugged. The cast of characters would go from two or three to ten or more. DeVerell, Launius and McCourt, all heroin addicts, were out cold. We closed up the office and went to the beach. After bathing at Sharons, Holmes had come here, to this motel in the Valley. He panicked, walked in circles around the doctors office, threw his briefcase down. 1-20 of 285. A day or two later, Holmes gave a compressed, but similar account of what happened to Sellers, she told The Times. The master, the giver of hospitality. . Im going to quit. Im very lusty.. The Story Of The Gruesome And Unsolved Wonderland Murders - All That's By the time they pulled into the apartment complex managed by Sharon Holmes, it had been decided. Laurie was standing at the door when Lange and McClain appeared down the corridor. I believe I was watching TV and it seems like a bunch of people were coming in and out,' Mrs. Launius said. 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. Bring me their eyeballs in a bag, and I will forget what you have done to me! When I got out, he said, Lets go, and we drove toward home. The Devil and John Holmes - Rolling Stone He looked shocked. Number 8763 Wonderland Avenue had some history of its own: Paul Revere and the Raiders once lived there. They mix poorly, and yet they're inexorably linked. A sunny room in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, California. He knew we wouldnt have a life together.. April Valentine died at Centinela Hospital. 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. It was dark, and there wasnt any traffic. 22nd Emmys Golf Classic. I was working as a computer programmer. Where are you calling from? To get better results, add more information such as Birth Info, Death Info and Location even a guess will help. A California cop called him "one of the coldest people I ever met." The house at 8763 Wonderland rented for $750 a month.. We're in a period of seismic drought in L.A. Where do you want to be when the Big One hits? This time, the gang decided not to wait for his return. Hed been in jail eleven months in all, 110 days on the contempt charge. She hadnt seen him in three months. Ill have them on their knees! Nash ranted to Thorson. We moved around a lot because the rent kept going up. At the moment that Diles barged through the door with Holmes in tow, Thorson was with Eddie in his bedroom, doing hits. 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. No one but Holmes has ever been charged in the murder case. He looked like a guy in a dive bar in El Paso, according to a neighbor. By the Eighties, former California governor Jerry Brown was living on Wonderland Avenue, and Steven Spielberg was building on a lot not far away. 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. Remember me?. Once, Sharon says, he got a human head from UCLA. After his release, Nash told a friend that jail had saved his life. The 43-year-old actor died as a result of complications arising from his infection with the AIDS virus. Eversz is one of the best unsung novelists in the crime genre we have working today. Prioritizing employee development. Thorson, who was waiting to be sentenced on a drug-related armed robbery, had sought a deal with police. Because hed already been tried, Holmes would not be able to invoke the Fifth Amendment. On the day of the robbery Holmes still hadnt come back. Thread marks found on walls, skulls, skin. He was very possessive. She was thin, blond, foulmouthed, a heroin addict with seven arrests. He was willing, even eager, to murder a helpless woman who was no physical threat to him. 02:26. For extra money, Jeana solicited tricks on the beach. Her daughter was born by emergency C-section. Do you find it challenging to make new friends here? John continued making films for a while. Sports promoter Vic Weiss was found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls Royce in a Hollywood hotel parking lot in 1979. Four inches around!, Thats great, said Sharon, turning a page of her magazine. John Curtis Holmes had the longest, most prolific career in the history of pornography. He treated me very special. John was thirty-one, she was fifteen. . John said he felt like he was chosen to get AIDS because of who he was, how he lived. Through his attorney, Nash has consistently denied any involvement in the Wonderland Avenue killings. Is there something wrong? February 1988, seven years after the murders. He thinks Im famous.. She tells them (in a near comatose state) that she does not remember anything. March 2 (UPI) -- A Florida woman earned a Guinness World Record when she completed 23 ultra-marathon runs -- 31.1 miles -- in a 23-day period. He thought one porn person in the family was enough, she says. In the end, both Diles and Nash went to jail. but who will buy LA's Los Feliz Murder House? - The Independent (Taken from Wikipedia on Wonderland Murders). The floor plan before them showed a three-bedroom, high-end tract house on a cul-de-sac in the San Fernando Valley. ''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. John was into Save the Whales. Jewelry stores, convenience stores, private homes they would try anything, as long as it meant money or drugs. It was a strange and violent time and men wore double-breasted suits and snap-brim Fedoras.