The youngest son in the family, Nash arrived in America with seven dollars in his pocket. Jeana stood up, moved closer to the tube. At Christmas, they decorated it with colored lights. Tell the cops what they want to know, cause otherwise Johns going to be dead in a few days. The woman took her to her house, put her to work painting a wall. By the time they pulled into the apartment complex managed by Sharon Holmes, it had been decided. In your opinion, what's the best alternate route to the 405? It was owned by the pediatrician she worked for; she and Holmes lived rent-free in an adjacent house. Thorson had been addicted to cocaine for several years. He looked shocked. . He cut Holmes off, canceled his insurance. Diles hit him again. SIMON: For more than 40 years, people have been reading and performing Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day" to celebrate the winter solstice. 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. Then another girl, another. Launius punched Holmes in the stomach. 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. here. He worked for others for a time, then opened Beefs Chuck, a hotdog stand on Hollywood Boulevard. Overdue book returned to Massachusetts library after 56 years. That house, she thought. There was a garage on the first floor; the second and third floors had balconies facing the street. During one special engagement, Thorson danced with the Rockettes. 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. He had the biggest pile of coke Id ever seen in my entire life, says Jeana. John picked up Sharons two dogs and Thor from the kennel. Miller, De Verell and Launius needed drugs every day. Shed gotten a job at a nursing home and was paying her mom rent, trying to rebuild her life. She opened the door, folded her arms against her chest. After that I was his.. Where are you calling from? Holmes was telling people that doctors had removed sixteen feet of his large intestine. They were going underground. On April 29, 1986, fire tore through Los Angeles' Central Library more than one million books were damaged or destroyed. Net Worth in 2021. They came even though, at the time, there was no music industry in Los Angeles. The man in the suit was Los Angeles Police Department detective Tom Lange. Bring me their eyeballs in a bag, and I will forget what you have done to me! Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence? 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. The door was open. He was like the old John. Dickman and Throbbin, a lampoon of Batman and Robin. A girl from the dorm recommended him. Then he sat up. Anyway, Launius, Billy Deverell, and David Lind were robbing a ritzy house in L.A. With Holmes, it was like he was center stage and the lights and the camera were on, says a detective who was present. The house at 8763 had passed from a raucous group of women neighbors recall naked women being tossed from the first-floor balcony to the members of the Wonderland Gang. Susan Launius is beaten but not killed. There were backhands, lectures, drunken rages. I will kill your whole family! The Malibu was idling. He has just published his latest project about one of Los Angeles's most well known murder cases in the 80s. He told us certain things. Her brother Chris, 16, lived in Oregon. We sat on the rocks, the moon was just right. Let him scream? His lawyer hired a young associate to stick Nash with a pin whenever he nodded off in court. Run me a bath, will you? he said. The letters "IC" pronounced properly can say "icy" meaning very cold. He panicked, walked in circles around the doctors office, threw his briefcase down. Nolan Miller She told him to get the fuck out of my life. He couldnt call Jeana. Both cars slowed, pulled even in the middle of the street. When I got out, he said, Lets go, and we drove toward home. Jobs People Learning Dismiss Dismiss. Holmes let his hair grow, started wearing three-piece suits. Focusing on employee strengths. Nash was a big fan of porn. But its one thing to tell someone something, says Lange. He was in so much pain, you couldnt touch him. She hadnt seen him in three months. John Holmes died on March 13th, 1988. After she left, my husband called on the telephone at the farm and said to come home immediately. master splinter death. McCourt drove up the hill on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, across Mulholland Drive, over the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains, down into the Valley. Marriage & Divorce. John looked down at Sharon. Women asked him to deflower their daughters. Shed never seen him look scared before. John Curtis Holmes was born to Mary and Edward Holmes on August 8th, 1944, in Pickaway County, Ohio, the youngest of three boys and a girl. More from Medium For years, a Boy Hung a Photo on his Bedroom. We moved around a lot because the rent kept going up. Miss Miller's shiny white 1969 Mercedes 280 SL was used to deliver narcotics to her customers, detectives said. Remember Eddie? In time, Jeanas father went back to Miami and took Terry with him, and Jeana moved in with Johns half brother and his wife, David and Karen. For many months he took me out to dinner, introduced me to his mother and other relatives. On weekends they went to swap meets and yard sales. ''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. Men asked him to autograph their wives breasts. The complex had ten free-standing cabana apartments, built around a courtyard. Holmes muttered something to Nash about the gang. One search of the premises yielded a cardboard box containing 4,000 counterfeit Quaaludes. 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. On the . This story has not been verified. The bodies were discovered by workmen next door; theyd heard faint cries from the back of the house: Help me. Theres a floor safe in the closet, right over here.. Nash hadnt slept in ten days. Sprinklers were ticking water across lawns. There was a lot of screaming going on, Holmes told his wife. During the day, she worked in a nursing home. John was a shy and lonely kid who kept to himself and had perfect attendance at Sunday school. The bride wore white. 26th Hall of Fame. By 1978, Holmes was freebasing cocaine all the time. The murderers were brought to justice. Holmes was crumpled on the floor. Alex MurdaughCalled 'Family Annihilator' by Prosecution in Murder Trial. Together, the womens descriptions of what Holmes told them largely corroborate the Los Angeles Police Departments theory of what happened on Wonderland Avenue. He spent his early life in Tennessee and Georgia, and graduated from Spalding High School in Griffin, Ga. One of the customers was Scott Thorson. Oh, shit, she thought, but she didnt say anything. 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. She was a teenager, and her parents had just divorced. Also while in college, he said, he danced nude modern jazz ballet and drove an ambulance. Mr. I said No and I meant it., Over the next year, Nasrallah brought her grape leaves, hummus, pots of Turkish coffee. They were living out of the trunk of his estranged wifes Chevy Malibu. Big mystery. At the same time, Holmes was acting as an informant on matters of porn and prostitution for Sergeant Tom Blake, an L.A. vice detective. This article is based on information obtained from interviews with more than seventy people including law-enforcement officials, porn-industry insiders, attorneys, court officials, family members and eyewitnesses connected with the Wonderland case. Unbeknownst to Sharon, Holmes had recently started in porn, following an encounter with a professional photographer named Joel in the bathroom of the poker parlor in Gardina. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. I said, Please, just let me get my clothes and my dog and well leave.'. A girl entered stage right. For her sister Terry, who was fourteen and overweight, he brought what he called Terry food, pounds and pounds of candy. No one was injured. Eddie Nash assumed he deserved a certain amount of respect, says one denizen. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Anywhere on Los Feliz Boulevard adjacent to Griffith Park. Now the police wanted Holmess testimony. In court testimony years later, he would say, in answer to this and many other questions, I dont recall. They opened the security gate, and the four of us went up the stairs, and when the door opened, they forced their way inside. When asked by Holmes' attorney what she remembered after that, she replied, 'nothing.'. Then she ran into a woman preaching fire and brimstone on a corner. Considering employee opinions. The drugs affected his penis; he couldnt get it up, he couldnt work in porn. At the moment that Diles barged through the door with Holmes in tow, Thorson was with Eddie in his bedroom, doing hits. All the sugar helped him come down. Five men and two women were meeting in the breakfast nook, sitting in swivel chairs, leaning against walls. We have estimated Susan Launius's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets. The floor plan before them showed a three-bedroom, high-end tract house on a cul-de-sac in the San Fernando Valley. Gregory DeWitt Diles, six feet four, 300 pounds, barged through the front door of the house on Dona Lola, dragging John Holmes by the scruff of his neck. Is this your brother? 1-20 of 285. Would Jeana want to be the live-in baby sitter? Sharon sat on the wood-covered commode. The motive is not suspected to be robbery as his diamond ring and watch were found on the body. You little Jeana stood, walked away. Lets face it, she says. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. Police sources said Vlick, who is charged with plssessing drugs and stolen property, is a 'fringe guy' in organized crime circles. Every time you read something, they say its a big mystery. He quickly racked up a rap sheet, including gun and drug charges. Please enter a valid Memorial ID. Neighbors in the canyon, where a conversation at night can be overheard blocks away, said they were used to rowdy, all-night parties in the house. Nash and Holmes had met three years earlier at the Seven Seas. On Mulholland Drive, silently watching as the city falls down and taking a naturalist's notes. House tossed by assailants. Three hours later, everyone was finally awake. He wanted witness protection, a new name, money, a home. 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. According to one eyewitness, Diles once chased a man out of the Kit Kat and emptied his .38 revolver into the mans car. They wanted to see Holmes. First, however, Thorson had to lose thirty pounds. He greeted reporters, had dinner with his lawyer, then called Sharon. His attorney told reporters that hed changed his mind because of certain arrangements that had been made and certain circumstances that had arisen. His voice had a smooth Arabic lilt. There are other suspects that we feel are involved. Can I come in?, They went to the bathroom. They hadnt spoken in two years. jackson falls santa paula. And the AIDS thing was just starting to come out. After his release, Nash told a friend that jail had saved his life. Or perhaps he had flown from Las Vegas. Mrs. Kraft was a former registered nurse at Memorial Hospital, former administrator at Memorial Convalescent Center and owner of Toddle Town Inc, comprised of Toddle Town, Toddler House and Learning Journey. Theyd sold a pound of baking soda for a quarter of a million dollars. But Sharon Holmes and Jeanna Sellers insist that it is true. The cast of characters would go from two or three to ten or more. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. Lets face it, Amerson says, John was a product. The next day, while Holmes was at work, a delegation of residents came to see Jeana. With the release the same year of The Devil in Miss Jones and Behind the Green Door, porn became part of popular culture. Susan Launius was severely beaten in her bed, but she narrowly survived, albeit with amnesia, head injuries, and the loss of a finger. He was willing, even eager, to murder a helpless woman who was no physical threat to him. pillsbury company net worth; does gotomeeting work in china; tanner mark boots website She was the sole survivor of the attack - suffering severe head injuries, amnesia, and a severed finger. This time, the gang decided not to wait for his return. So, how much is Susan Launius worth at the age of 70 years old? He seems like he was a crazy fucker. 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. Holmes finally called on the afternoon of the 29th, after the Wonderland Gang kicked him out. But here we are. 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. Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. The murders are believed to be retaliation for the Wonderland Gang's robbing of Eddie Nash's home two days earlier. You cant do this to me, he said. Holmess half brother and his wife lived there; this little community was the personal fiefdom of John Holmes. What he was famous for was his penis. 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. Almost everything publicly known about porn king John Curtis Holmes is apocryphal, anecdotal, secondhand or informed by conjecture. 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. He had sex onscreen with two generations of leading ladies, from Seka and Marilyn Chambers to Traci Lords, Ginger Lynn and Italian member of Parliament Ciccolina. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. By the mid-Seventies, Ed Nasrallah had become Eddie Nash and had amassed a fortune. In jail, Holmes went on a hunger strike. . Recently, Holmes had been drifting from job to job, trying to find a niche. Eight years in prison, a $120,350 fine. She actually saw it. By 1973, John and Sharon were sharing the same house, even the same bed, but they were no longer having sex. He invested in movies, leased office space to several porn-related operations. Dismiss. The man was a poster child for sociopathic behavior. A porn documentary of his life, made in 1981, was called Exhausted. As much as I like "Boogie Nights", it remains a fairly superficial movie. We did it in the van. A sign on the box, written in blue Magic Marker, said, FOR DISTRIBUTION AT BOX OFFICE. It is such a quintessential L.A. story of the 80s: drugs, sex, excess, night clubs, gangsters, and porn stars. On July 10th, Police knocked down the door of their motel room and arrested Jeana and Holmes. He wanted to make a million dollars so we could just leave and be done with it.. Above all, he said, he loved his work: A happy gardener is one with dirty fingernails, and a happy cook is a fat cook. Jeana was afraid to look at John. 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. The jury found him innocent. We want to hear it. Its like being a carpenter. Listen, he said, grabbing her elbow. Jeana Sellers (not her real name) arrived in Holmess life in 1976. The 43-year-old actor died as a result of complications arising from his infection with the AIDS virus. We want to talk to you about Eddie Nash, said McClain. It was a big ordeal for him, says Laurie. Sharon was a nurse at USC County General, working on a team that was pioneering open-heart surgery. A California cop called him "one of the coldest people I ever met." The house at 8763 Wonderland rented for $750 a month.. . He was sweet. I called up and said I had some things for the people inside and to let me up. He remained addicted to coke. 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. The time was 2:30 in the afternoon. Here he is, he has two women with him. During Holmes murder trial in 1982, then Deputy Dist. Didn't expect my day to start by downloading #microsoftedge or willingly going to #bing to see #openai's new #gpt4 model. In time, the surgery was completed, and Thorson was made into a young vision of Liberace. 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. This button displays the currently selected search type. Thorson, who was waiting to be sentenced on a drug-related armed robbery, had sought a deal with police.