Lets face it, Amerson says, John was a product. On Christmas Day 1980, hed even presented Jeana. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. 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. Things started to click. He showed Chinn his portfolio of stills, then stripped. How do other people see you? He was also a drug dealer and a heavy user. He graduated from UCLA with majors, variously, in physical therapy, pediatric physical therapy, medicine and political sciences. Just blood. Now the police wanted Holmess testimony. He also renovated the house, outdoing himself in the master bathroom, recreating a backwoods outhouse, complete with a quarter-moon cutout, a shingled roof over the bathtub and a rough-hewn box around the commode. Thats what its all about. John was gone now more and more, making films in Europe, San Francisco and Hawaii, doing private tricks, traveling to film openings across the country. Sports promoter Vic Weiss was found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls Royce in a Hollywood hotel parking lot in 1979. Almost everything publicly known about porn king John Curtis Holmes is apocryphal, anecdotal, secondhand or informed by conjecture. Holmes hired the sisters to do gardening around the complex. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics from Emory . Once, Sharon says, he got a human head from UCLA. Hed have me make these peanut-butter chocolate-chip brown-sugar butter cookies. Everybody at the hotel got to know us, Jeana says. 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. John Curtis Holmes had the longest, most prolific career in the history of pornography. Names of mobsters, drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps. Show your appreciation with the gift of Flickr Pro. Her brother Chris, 16, lived in Oregon. It began, according to Thorsons book, Behind the Candelabra, when Liberace ordered him to have cosmetic surgery. He wore the buckle when he and Sharon sold bumper stickers door-to-door. He wouldnt even let me meet the people he worked with.. Tom Mix and Harry Houdini once lived there among the quail and scrub pine and coyotes. John was terrified that I was going to confront her. We want to talk to you about Eddie Nash, said McClain. Mismanagement, Sloppy Hiring Practices, Lack Of Transparency. (John) was so much of a liar . I trusted you! I played in the water. Overdue book returned to Massachusetts library after 56 years. 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. A sunny room in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, California. 22nd Emmys Golf Classic. Dear reader, we're asking you to help us keep local news available for all. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Nash had clubs of all kinds; he catered to all predilections. Get em, boys!. On July 10th, Police knocked down the door of their motel room and arrested Jeana and Holmes. He did not testify at his trial, and his later secret testimony before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury remains sealed. What he may have been referring to was the imprisonment, that very same morning, of Eddie Nash, on charges of dealing drugs. She survives and is questioned by Nico and Cruz in her hospital bed. Thorson had driven from Lake Tahoe to score from Nash. The Seven Seas was a bus-stop joint across Hollywood Boulevard from Manns Chinese Theaters. Susan Lanius (unlucky) wife of Ron Lanius played by Christina Applegate in the movie Wonderland. Sharing the house with Miller and DeVerell was Ronald Launius, 37. Four inches around!, Thats great, said Sharon, turning a page of her magazine. In the face of a drier future, that iconic piece of Americana is on its way out in Southern California. I marketed him. Eddie Nash assumed he deserved a certain amount of respect, says one denizen. In a career that would span twenty years, Holmes made 2274 hard-core pornographic films, had sex with 14,000 women. He wasnt threatening. Liberace called him Booper, treated him like a son, a lover, a pet. 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. Susan Launius - Remote Medical Transcriptionist - LinkedIn A naturalized American, Nash came to California from Palestine in the early Fifties. 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. It was amazing, the haphazard way in which people would come and go. The bride wore white. What's your favorite movie(s) or TV show(s) that are based in LA? No drugs. Ronnie Launius - Ancestry.com All three of them are sleeping in the same bed. Thorson, who was waiting to be sentenced on a drug-related armed robbery, had sought a deal with police. It's a yellow - sometimes green - vehicle with four tires and a Middle Eastern man behind the wheel. Over the years, theyd become like mother and daughter. Its the cops.. Nash shut the bedroom door. I said yes. Now, as McCourt turned right, off Laurel Canyon Boulevard onto Dona Pegita, he saw Holmes driving back toward them. jaydubya2009 10y. When Holmes returned to his car hours later, two armed men ordered him to drive to Nashs home, he said. I was involved. 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. Harold drank a lot. Alex Murdaugh Found Guilty of Murdering Wife and Son The Top 5 newsletter catches you up with LAs top 5 stories in just 3 minutes. Aftermath Lind and McCourt were both away from the scene at the time of the murders, so they were able to survive unharmed. For many months he took me out to dinner, introduced me to his mother and other relatives. You had an accident in the Malibu?. At the moment that Diles barged through the door with Holmes in tow, Thorson was with Eddie in his bedroom, doing hits. In a way, Holmes was everymans gigolo, a polyester smoothy with a sparse mustache, a flying collar and lots of buttons undone. National Park Service: 'Never push a slower friend down' in a bear encounter, March 2 (UPI) -- The National Park Service offered some sage advice for park visitors who encounter bears: "Never push a slower friend down. 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? Isnt that where John gets his drugs?. We were real friendly. 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. Holmes was an inveterate collector of junk. . I suspect that Launius may have been involved in other violent crimes. I said No and I meant it., Over the next year, Nasrallah brought her grape leaves, hummus, pots of Turkish coffee. Whatever. She told him to get the fuck out of my life. He couldnt call Jeana. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time Invalid memorial. On the day of the robbery Holmes still hadnt come back. They called it Louise. With the release the same year of The Devil in Miss Jones and Behind the Green Door, porn became part of popular culture. Holmes was wearing a ring that had been stolen from the boss. He took over the kitchen. 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. Their attorneys question the credibility of prosecution witnesses and maintain their clients innocence. Because hed already been tried, Holmes would not be able to invoke the Fifth Amendment. . He was marketing Holmess old films on video. Now he never went anywhere without his brown Samsonite briefcase. He could repair anything, liked sketching and working in clay. Susan Launius Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family Holmes slept fitfully for a few hours, Sharon Holmes said, and moaned about blood and pain. Now he was a drug delivery boy for the Wonderland Gang. Or perhaps he had flown from Las Vegas. When I refused, he said, Dont come back to California or I will have two men waiting at the airport to kill you, and I will have your parents killed. This anecdote right there tells me that Launius has a body count. There was a telephone at the entrance, an electronic deadbolt on the gate, two pit bulls sleeping on the steps. In the end, Deep Throat was massively consumed by an enthusiastic public. He worked for others for a time, then opened Beefs Chuck, a hotdog stand on Hollywood Boulevard. She was a teenager, and her parents had just divorced. These five measures map closely with . Susan Goldberg, MBA Expand search. She was thin, blond, foulmouthed, a heroin addict with seven arrests. She'd gone into the pregnancy with a plan, knowing Black mothers like herself were at higher risk. 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. 'I was laying down on the bed. Hours passed, John woke. In the still unpublished official version of his life, Holmes is quoted as saying that he was held at gunpoint at another house while the killers, whose names he did not know, went to the home on Wonderland Avenue. Jeana said nothing. Im going to quit. She was scheduled to appear in court this month on drug charges. There was a garage on the first floor; the second and third floors had balconies facing the street. About this time, Sharon says, Holmes began working as a courier for the Mob. 'We'll probably find a real motive,' he said. She was nowhere to be found. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love my daily morning newsletter, How To LA. By contrast and comparison, the Manson killings of 1969 were resolved. They opened the security gate, and the four of us went up the stairs, and when the door opened, they forced their way inside. But I had no reason to confront her. Though Holmes had left Wonderland at midnight, he had stayed at Eddie Nashs for six hours, smoking up the $400 hed taken to spend, helping himself to a little more of Nashs largess. British bus driver stops to give loose sheep a lift. His voice had a smooth Arabic lilt. Could Ron Launius (victim of the Wonderland Murders of 1981 - reddit First his forehead, then his cheeks, then his neck. It helps that Susan Boyle has made her Asperger's public. Web Design & Digital Marketing . Anyway, Launius, Billy Deverell, and David Lind were robbing a ritzy house in L.A. I had to take them there., I took them there. The consumption of alcohol and drugs was an ongoing, everyday affair, says an attorney who is a longtime acquaintance of Nashs. The top story was something about a mass murder. After his release, Nash told a friend that jail had saved his life. She didnt have any money. Whos Mary? He panicked, walked in circles around the doctors office, threw his briefcase down. One woman survived the attack. 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. Dont worry.. One woman who had sex with Nash remembers a lot of temptation. The drugs affected his penis; he couldnt get it up, he couldnt work in porn. 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. Sharon stood with arms crossed. Fine. Im very lusty.. We played our favorite songs, walked, talked. He lost his virginity at age twelve to a thirty-six-year-old woman who was a friend of his mothers. When asked to elaborate, the policeman explained: "A trash can only has two handles". Also while in college, he said, he danced nude modern jazz ballet and drove an ambulance. Theyd sold a pound of baking soda for a quarter of a million dollars. They were stupid. He was in so much pain, you couldnt touch him. 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. Youre probably going to be saving him.. (Taken from Wikipedia on Wonderland Murders). There wasnt any trouble. For his part, Holmes did anything he could for Nash. No longer the leading man, he was now the featured oddity. Shed driven out from Miami with her father and younger sister. 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. Ron Launius had an extensive criminal history before coming to a bloody end. Ive waited outside that house. A Prison Interview With Scott Thorson, Wonderland Murders Witness and Thorson had been addicted to cocaine for several years. He couldnt walk. Nash was a drug dealer and a heavy user. When he became established as a porn star, Holmes said, he had a half dozen agents pulling in work for him. 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. Big Rosie, the manager, let Jeana work the switchboard and clean rooms in exchange for rent. Atty. When he did coke, says Jeana, hed do it until it was all gone, and then hed scrape the pipe and smoke all the resin he could find, and then hed take a bunch of Valium. You know, says Detective Lange, theres no mystery here. 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. He wanted witness protection, a new name, money, a home. 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. If anything, one of the themes in Eddies life has always been control. Edmund Brown Jr. owns a house about a mile from the scene of the murders. You could walk up, whisper something in his ear, and hed make it available. When we came back, the door was locked, says Jeana. Editors picks 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. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. Then another girl, another. She didnt know what to do. He wasnt specific, but it really didnt matter anyway. His penis, he said, was bigger than a pay phone, smaller than a Cadillac., Holmess voice was sly and ingratiating. He was willing, even eager, to murder a helpless woman who was no physical threat to him. The master, the giver of hospitality. . I really dont recall. Thorson was the live-in lover of the entertainer Liberace. They took back his key to Wonderland, and Launius punched him out, then hit Holmes with his own blackthorn walking stick. He spent his early life in Tennessee and Georgia, and graduated from Spalding High School in Griffin, Ga. I called up and said I had some things for the people inside and to let me up. Los Angeles, Column: Did the DOJ just say Donald Trump can be held accountable for Jan. 6? He was great. Jeana sat in the front seat, Thor in her arms. 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. 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. Record information. . Holmes went on to make more than 2,000 movies. Do you find it challenging to make new friends here? With Holmes, it was like he was center stage and the lights and the camera were on, says a detective who was present. Let him scream? At the house, Holmes told his wife, Nash pored over Holmes address book, and stopped when he came to the pages that listed addresses in Ohio, where Holmes was born and where his mother and other relatives still lived. On April 29, 1986, fire tore through Los Angeles' Central Library more than one million books were damaged or destroyed. He was involved in one murder and a suspect in at least one more. He went fucking crazy, says Amerson. She came to the farm to find out if a certain man was with me. She reached up and took Johns chin in her hand, turned his head side to side. So you go in, Launius was saying to Holmes, reviewing the plan. Then he sat up. DeVerell, 42, was also a heroin addict. Their association ended in one of the most brutal mass murders in the history of Los Angeles. 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. After seven years, the district attorney was reopening the Wonderland case, based, in part, on testimony from Scott Thorson, Liberaces ex-lover. (Wikipedia article on Wonderland Murders). Like all porn actors, John had been paid per day and had signed away the rights to his own films. Submissions should outline a mystery and provide a link to a more detailed review of the case such as a Wiki article or news report. Blond and bearded, Launius had served federal time for drug smuggling. During the dispute, Sherrill shot and killed Moore and Launius helped Sherrill dispose of the body and conceal evidence. Everybody was down there. (But) we have a certain set of rules to follow that the people who go out and perpetrate crimes dont.. For a time, John Holmes was silent. He cut Holmes off, canceled his insurance. I think L.A. should be broken up into a series of counties so we have better choices. The Four on the Floor Wonderland Murders True Crime Eversz is one of the best unsung novelists in the crime genre we have working today. Holmess character, said Al Goldstein in Screw magazine, was a thin, bony, trench-coated shamus, outrageously horny, bedding down with client and quarry alike. In Goldsteins opinion, it was a goofy, crudely made series, but it was wildly successful. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Ronnie Launius (29045828)? The next day, while Holmes was at work, a delegation of residents came to see Jeana. Susan Launius is beaten but not killed. Nash would kill him and his family if he talked, he was certain of it. A year ago, shed been busted for dealing drugs out of the Wonderland house. With all the publicity from the murders, John Holmes had achieved almost mainstream celebrity. Except for the . I gave you everything!. Police sources said Vlick, who is charged with plssessing drugs and stolen property, is a 'fringe guy' in organized crime circles. arcane traps mousehunt; digital readout for sliding table saw The jury found him innocent. runs a close second. He is from . We have lots of information about Suzanne: religious views are listed as Christian, ethnicity is Caucasian, and political affiliation is currently a registered Republican. She was later unable to identify her attackers. . I believe that cocaine paranoia created within him the desire to stay within that closed environment that he had control over. According to legend largely of his own making Holmes was born in New York and lived with a rich aunt whod been married fifteen times. Most people find it hard to believe, but I'm an introvert. February 1988, seven years after the murders. They mix poorly, and yet they're inexorably linked. Sydney Pollack's adaptation of Horace McCoy's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" Mr. Chris caught up. 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. John was doing a lot of drawing. L.A. is too far flung to be any kind of social magnet outside of one's own neighborhood and community. Jeana sat very still on the edge of the bed, watching a TV that was mounted on the wall. In addition, more than 3,000 pages of court and police documents and newspaper reports were reviewed. He even had the Holy Rollers sister smoking., In the morning, they went out to get food. Thanks for posting though. Holmes refused to testify. He stared straight ahead, unblinking. This was it. Susan A. Murphy married Ron Launius in Carson City, Nevada on 16 April 1971, and the two of them were heavy drug users. Not since she was home. Holmess parents separated when he was three, and Mary moved the family into a housing project in Columbus. Dismiss. He went white. His words to me were Friends can get you killed. We were very careful. Theres a floor safe in the closet, right over here.. Yeah, well, uh, he said. They made him beg for his life. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. John looked down at Sharon. 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. The armed intruders robbed Nash and his 300-pound body guard, Gregory Diles, of $10,000, two plastic sacks of cocaine and other property. Holmes, meanwhile, had gone back to making films. Sellers agreed to talk to The Times on the condition that the paper not reveal her true name. Everything from Volkswagens to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. We're in a period of seismic drought in L.A. Where do you want to be when the Big One hits? Nash knew the Wonderland people. They were going underground. Gov. Sharon sat on the wood-covered commode. His legs and feet would swell up, his ears would bleed, he had infections in his lungs. His family had owned several hotels before the creation of Israel in 1948. The 100 Best Albums of 2022. All the sugar helped him come down. Main Menu. Miss Miller's shiny white 1969 Mercedes 280 SL was used to deliver narcotics to her customers, detectives said. Why did you choose to publish the book on Lulu.com. Wonderland murders | Historica Wiki | Fandom Rush hour was on. Haltingly, Holmes confessed to his wife that he had played a central role in four brutal murders earlier that month in a drug dealers hillside home in Laurel Canyon. You cant be uptight about this, John said, a refrain she would hear for the next fifteen years. Holmes rolled down his window, McCourt rolled down his. You want me to call the press?. Holmes said hed had sex in airplanes, helicopters, trains, elevators, kitchens, bathrooms, on rooftops, in caves, storm cellars, bomb shelters in Europe, under a table in a restaurant filled with people, fifty feet underwater while wearing scuba gear. Her left leg is paralyzed because of the head injuries. I said, Please, just let me get my clothes and my dog and well leave.'. susan launius interview
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