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Eddie Nash assumed he deserved a certain amount of respect, says one denizen. Launius' estranged wife, Susan, who was visiting, survived the assault but suffered severe head injuries. Go back to that house! Miller, De Verell and Launius needed drugs every day. I ran out the door, down to the pool, and he ran after me, the fool. I was there., It was my fault, John said, his eyes welling with tears. When Amerson raised their rent to $400, they got their own place in Encino. By the time it was released, in 1987, Holmess health had already begun to slide. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Ronnie Launius (29045828)? You cannot merge a memorial into itself. Finally, on the afternoon of November 22nd, 1982, Holmes relented and testified. 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. The murder weapon was a steel pipe with threading at the ends. Recently, Holmes had been drifting from job to job, trying to find a niche. He panicked, walked in circles around the doctors office, threw his briefcase down. 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. As the 1980s began, and Holmes became more heavily involved in cocaine, his absences grew longer. Nobody had gotten it yet, but it was still in the back of our minds. Nash was a big fan of porn. He knew he was dying. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news. He worked for others for a time, then opened Beefs Chuck, a hotdog stand on Hollywood Boulevard. Things started to click. He was like the old John. Holmes and Jeana watched from the bed. Ive waited outside that house. The poor girl was emaciated, Sharon says. Done. only "shadows". Above all, he said, he loved his work: A happy gardener is one with dirty fingernails, and a happy cook is a fat cook. His gay clubs were the first in L.A. to allow same-sex dancing. She was thin, blond, foulmouthed, a heroin addict with seven arrests. This was it. There were two-way mirrors in the bedroom, anything you wanted would be made available. Firefighters hoist horse stranded in backyard swimming pool. 22nd Emmys Golf Classic. 'When you're talking about the star witness in a case like this I think you can safely assume that we've got her pretty well guarded,' a pllice spokesman said. Laurie worked as a secretary. $1 Million - $5 Million. According to the law, he had to talk. jaydubya2009 10y. Im very lusty.. 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. Girls' Singles. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. I think they call it a taxi cab. Everybody was down there. Pharmaceutical cocaine was one of the ingredients. No strings attached.. Sydney Pollack's adaptation of Horace McCoy's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" 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.. The consumption of alcohol and drugs was an ongoing, everyday affair, says an attorney who is a longtime acquaintance of Nashs. signs you are both hiding your feelings. Whos this in Ohio? Nash screamed. An hour before, Holmes had run into Diles. John picked up Sharons two dogs and Thor from the kennel. The murders, he said. His clothes were ripped, he was bloody from head to toe. A sunny room in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, California. John bought himself an El Camino pickup and a large diamond solitaire that became his trademark in films. 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. Sellers picked up a hitchhiker who was going to Glendale to see his girlfriend. John was tired of the whole industry, she says. Tell me where you are. He didnt want part of him ending up in a jar somewhere. It was obvious from his comments that Ricks, a hard-liner, considered Eddie Nash a plague. Then, when Eddie Nash got out of jail, John was very, very worried. . After leaving California, Jeana and John had gone to Vegas, then Montana, then headed south, visiting the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert. Her husband watched from the closet. At night, she baby-sat for David and Karen. He wanted witness protection, a new name, money, a home. By the mid-Seventies, Ed Nasrallah had become Eddie Nash and had amassed a fortune. 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. Then Nash was arrested with three others on federal charges of racketeering, arson and mail fraud. Twenty minutes later, Holmes walked into the room. This story has not been verified. Everything from Volkswagens to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Others looked like theyd been sucking on the pipe a little too long. Coughing into the microphone, Ricks called Nash a danger to the public and maxed him out. Nash liked having him around. Reportedly, at the time of his death,[3] police investigators throughout California, largely in the Sacramento area, had 27 open homicide cases they believed were perpetrated by Launius. Are you awake? Holmess eyelids fluttered. Can I come in?, They went to the bathroom. Accident car um he stammered. Nash told a friend that he missed the moonlight and the olive trees of his homeland, that hed spent time in a refugee camp, that his brother-in-law was shot by Israeli soldiers. Id usually fall asleep on the couch.. Holmes was telling people that doctors had removed sixteen feet of his large intestine. He said, Would you make love to me? I literally shook to death. James M. Eisenman, a Century City attorney who represents Holmes estate and his second wife, said he doubts Sharon Holmes story. Later it was reported that Holmes interrupted his fast, ate a meal, then continued his fast. For her sister Terry, who was fourteen and overweight, he brought what he called Terry food, pounds and pounds of candy. The murders were so brutal that police were comparing the case to the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Manson Family. Nash was found guilty of possessing two pounds of cocaine for sale. Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. Susan Hayward. 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. Dole said there's no question that Trump lost his reelection race - narrowly but fair and square. 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. We moved around a lot because the rent kept going up. Nash was a drug dealer and a heavy user. He showed Chinn his portfolio of stills, then stripped. We scattered his ashes over the ocean.. I really dont recall. Thorson was the live-in lover of the entertainer Liberace. He moved to a modest condo in Tarzana and set about rebuilding, taking college business courses at night. . The 100 Best Albums of 2022. Launius' wife, Susan Launius, survived the attack, which is shocking given the crime scene photos and video. Nash was acquitted. He had twenty-seven fan clubs; people wrote for locks of his pubic hair. Arriving back at Wonderland just after dawn, Holmes announced the coast was clear. Hed been ripped for eight pounds of cocaine, but the Wonderland Gang hadnt found his private stash, and now he was bubbling his glass pipe furiously. 'We'll probably find a real motive,' he said. In truth, Holmes was operated on for hemorrhoids. Sharon stood with arms crossed. He even had the Holy Rollers sister smoking., In the morning, they went out to get food. Change your mind. She didnt know where. Then came the late-night news. One woman who had sex with Nash remembers a lot of temptation. By Steve Helling. Now Holmes owed the Wonderland Gang, too. Each time, Nash made bail. John Holmes, who was tried for and acquitted of the crimes, never told his wife the names of the assailants, she said. Nash reciprocated with a quarter ounce of coke. Some were quite attractive. His eyes blinked rapidly. Wearing jewel-bedecked livery, he would chauffeur Liberace onto the stage in a glittering mini-Rolls-Royce open the door, take his masters fur coat. Susan Orlean tells the story of the suspected arson in The Library Book. The man in the suit was Los Angeles Police Department detective Tom Lange. We want to hear it. John Holmes recounted how he led three thugs to the tightly secured drug house on Wonderland Avenue, escorted them in, and stood by as they bludgeoned the five people inside, spattering Holmes with blood. Later, in the Sixties, the canyon attracted writers and artists, rock stars and gurus. Drawings of the dog, of me. 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. The man who owned the house was named Adel Nasrallah. Where are you calling from? She came to the farm to find out if a certain man was with me. You sound close., Well, I, I, ah, came with a friend. The guest bedroom. The Interviews 25th Anniversary. By the time Johns half brother was born, John was spending most of his time in the woods, hunting, trapping, fishing, staying away from Harold. Nash loves me. The next day, while Holmes was at work, a delegation of residents came to see Jeana. Holmes finally called on the afternoon of the 29th, after the Wonderland Gang kicked him out. They deserved what they got.. Then he sat up. She paid for food and household expenses, did his laundry, cooked for him when he was home. I gave you everything!. On their first date, hed brought a bottle of Mateus and a handful of flowers. Minnesota officer removes jar from raccoon's head. While awaiting that trial, he was ordered by a judge to tell the grand jury what he knew about the Wonderland murders. I said, John, how could you? arcane traps mousehunt; digital readout for sliding table saw But Deputy District Attorney Ronald Coen said the prosecution would not attempt to prove Holmes actually killed the victims but was an accessory to the crime. Holmes, in those days, was a string bean, six feet tall, 150 pounds, hair still cut in a military buzz. It was really nice. Launius and four of his associates were found dead in their townhouse on Wonderland Avenue, in Laurel Canyon on July 1, 1981. Whatever. Writer and documentary producer. Jeana was doing freebase too, almost every night. On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 1st, 1981, Eddie Nash was again consuming drugs at an alarming rate. Just recently, he had begun training to be a uniformed security guard. A California cop called him one of the coldest people I ever met.. Her husband, Ron, 37, of the. The Kit Kat was a strip club. And, as Holmess supply of coke dwindled, his conscience was overruled by his jones. Their attorneys question the credibility of prosecution witnesses and maintain their clients innocence. 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. Youre probably going to be saving him.. There was a lot of traffic, all day, all night, says a neighbor. His black club was like a Hollywood Harlem, jazz and pinkie rings and wide-brimmed straw hats. Dead were Joy Miller, Billy DeVerell, Ron Launius, Barbara Richardson. He meant nothing to me in that way.. Nine days later, Holmes was picked up in a Sherman Oaks motel in the company of Jeanna Sellers, a 20-year-old neighbor. He was consuming it. They called it Louise. Launius was Wonderland's king, and he was as cold as ice. There was a lot of screaming going on, Holmes told his wife. You cant be uptight about this, John said, a refrain she would hear for the next fifteen years. He wouldnt even let me meet the people he worked with.. I was involved. Ron Launius was born in 1944 in Shawneetown, IL. John and Laurie stayed home a lot and watched videos. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Thank you for investing in your neighborhood. 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. And the AIDS thing was just starting to come out. More from Medium For years, a Boy Hung a Photo on his Bedroom. Finally he said, Ive got to tell you Ive been doing something else, and I think I want to make it my lifes work.. Remember Eddie? In Too Deep. He remained addicted to coke. Six months later, on September 8th, 1988, Diles and Nash were charged with the murders on Wonderland Avenue. Do you agree with that assessment? He just stared. 7-year-old baseball umpire seeks Guinness World Record. Rush hour was on. Hey, its cool, said John Holmes, 36, the man with the plan. Joy Audrey Miller, 46, who rented the house, had a record of six arrests -- three for peddling dope -- and had been under surveillance since Jan. 7, 1980, by narcotics officers who saw her selling drugs in front of the house at least eight times, affidavits said. The aunt sent him to fencing school, dancing school, a school of etiquette. We did it in the van. ', In time, John and Laurie moved in together at Amersons. In time, Holmes became known as the Errol Flynn of porn. Eruption, a porn remake of Double Indemnity. As much as I like "Boogie Nights", it remains a fairly superficial movie. I loved the schmuck. You know, says Detective Lange, theres no mystery here. He wanted me to view his body and make sure that all the parts were there, says Laurie. John Holmes was a porn star. We were like a normal couple. 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. Now they had another idea. Jeana was somewhere downtown. Latinx Files: In praise of Jenna Ortega, Aubrey Plaza and moody, deadpan Latinas, Arizona governor wont proceed with execution set by court, Civilians flee embattled town of Bakhmut as Ukrainian pullout looms. Now the police wanted Holmess testimony. 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. In the face of a drier future, that iconic piece of Americana is on its way out in Southern California. 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. Would Jeana want to be the live-in baby sitter? Or the local TV says its a big mystery. ', Nash is said to have had political, police and crime connections. Thats probably why he always came back. Jeana said nothing. There was one hitch. Another woman who had a lengthy intimate relationship with Holmes told The Times recently of a separate, parallel admission made by the actor shortly after the killings, an account she gave to police in 1981. Not since she was home. 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. The letters "IC" pronounced properly can say "icy" meaning very cold. Early in 1983, Holmes was shooting Fleshpond at a studio in San Francisco. You talk to Nash, whatever, you tell him you got to take a piss. Lets face it, Amerson says, John was a product. February 1988, seven years after the murders. Four inches around!, Thats great, said Sharon, turning a page of her magazine. He introduced him to all his guests. . He wanted to be in charge. master splinter death. At an alarming rate.. Susan Launius Remote Medical Transcriptionist for Cardiology Center Of Amarillo Altus, Oklahoma, United States 95 followers 96 connections Join to view profile Cardiology Center Of Amarillo Altus. Jeana packed her bag, gathered up Thor, put Johns gun in her pocketbook. Holmes was one of the greats in the business. Holmes slept fitfully for a few hours, Sharon Holmes said, and moaned about blood and pain. 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. When I come home at night, the tools stay on the job., You are having sex with other women, said Sharon. She even had to have part of her skull surgically removed as a result of her injuries. Someone held a gun to my head. All three of them are sleeping in the same bed. 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. Updated on November 15, 2022 10:05 AM. Whenever he returned from days or weeks away, Holmes would bring gifts: stuffed animals, roses, a ring. ''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. A porn documentary of his life, made in 1981, was called Exhausted. Thanks for posting though. No drugs. The daughter had a kid and a job. I didnt want to believe Id fallen for a line again, Jeana says. These are my tools, I use them to make a living. His lawyer hired a young associate to stick Nash with a pin whenever he nodded off in court. I knew the whole picture, says Sharon. Earthquakes are sudden and arrive without warning, unless you monitor the USGS earthquake maps on the web every day - which I do. They came even though, at the time, there was no music industry in Los Angeles. Hed underestimated Nash once, but hed never do it again. The youngest son in the family, Nash arrived in America with seven dollars in his pocket. 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. One day in 1970, Holmes met Hawaiian producer Bob Chinn. Then Liberace would make a joke about having the only fur coat in the world that had its own limo. In the meantime, here's an interview with Bren: 1. But here we are. If you could live in any neighborhood or specific house in LA, where/which would you choose? Holmes hadnt paid for the room. Thread marks found on walls, skulls, skin. Holmes thought Nash was the most evil man hed ever met, but he couldnt quite figure him out, so he respected him. This means absolutely nothing to me. Her husband, Ron, 37, of the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles, was one of the victims. He has a fascinating style and I liken him to Raymond Carver if Carver had decided to write about L.A.'s slumming angels. Related Stories Get my property! 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/. 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.