His legs and feet would swell up, his ears would bleed, he had infections in his lungs. What's different Thats bullshit. John, theyre coming, Laurie said in a stage whisper. By the Eighties, former California governor Jerry Brown was living on Wonderland Avenue, and Steven Spielberg was building on a lot not far away. The top story was something about a mass murder. Or perhaps he had flown from Las Vegas. Launius and four of his associates were found dead in their townhouse on Wonderland Avenue, in Laurel Canyon on July 1, 1981. 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. John tried to make a deal with the cops. Prioritizing employee development. . Recently, however, Holmess biggest commodity had been trouble. The Wonderland Gang. Holmes, in those days, was a string bean, six feet tall, 150 pounds, hair still cut in a military buzz. How you doing, John? said the man in the gray suit, leaning over the safety rail of the bed. The door was open. . An argument ensued. Apparently, Holmes had made good his promise and stopped doing drugs. John picked up Sharons two dogs and Thor from the kennel. McKenna was murdered in 1989 when ambushed while returning home in his limousine; his killer sprayed bullets into the vehicle, killing McKenna. There were contracts out on their lives. He refused anyway. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Tossing and moaning, punching and kicking. In 1973, in Yuba City, CA, Ron Launius and associate Carroll Evan Sherrill had taken some "bad dope" and Ron confronted another associate, Gary James Moore, whom he accused of being a "snitch" or informant. Alex MurdaughCalled 'Family Annihilator' by Prosecution in Murder Trial. His body was recovered near Mount Islip. 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. Harold drank a lot. They made a run to McDonalds for hamburgers. John Holmes, who was tried for and acquitted of the crimes, never told his wife the names of the assailants, she said. He wanted me to view his body and make sure that all the parts were there, says Laurie. When asked by Holmes' attorney what she remembered after that, she replied, 'nothing.'. When I come home at night, the tools stay on the job., You are having sex with other women, said Sharon. Every time you read something, they say its a big mystery. You talk to Nash, whatever, you tell him you got to take a piss. Shed driven out from Miami with her father and younger sister. In your opinion, what's the best alternate route to the 405? She was later unable to identify her attackers. Holmes rolled down his window, McCourt rolled down his. . Each time, drugs, money and weapons were seized. I believe that cocaine paranoia created within him the desire to stay within that closed environment that he had control over. She tells them (in a near comatose state) that she does not remember anything. 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. Sharon, a registered nurse, rummaged through a well-stocked medicine cabinet, brought out iodine and cotton swabs. He chewed gum and overacted. Soon after, the courtship of Jeana began. No one was injured. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Ronnie Launius (29045828)? Ill teach them a lesson! 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. Holmes broke into cars along the way. Each time, Nash made bail. 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. Who talks about this person. He went white. Although he was often away from home, I was his safe place, Sharon Holmes said. Someone held a gun to my head. 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. So much blood! Holmes was having a nightmare. He showed up at the house in the early evening. Isamarie Perez, San Antonio Stacey vs. Brooke Alexander, McLeod; Wyndi Williams, Baird vs. Cassie Petty, White Deer; Kyla Coleman, Whiteface . 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. Room service. He stayed in there like three hours, and Im just sitting there, you know, twiddling my thumbs. He could not be reached for comment on the killings. Kentucky man stops for breakfast, wins $50,000 lottery prize. 'I was laying down on the bed. Holmes slept fitfully for a few hours, Sharon Holmes said, and moaned about blood and pain. John Holmes didnt go to his grave with anything but a very bad case of AIDS. His mistress, Jeana, whod been with him since she was fifteen, was turning tricks to support his habit. In 1962 he joined the USAF and served in the Vietnam War, but was caught smuggling heroin and discharged in 1972. He seems like he was a crazy fucker. Now he was a drug delivery boy for the Wonderland Gang. Tell you its all clear. Jeana stood up, moved closer to the tube. Finally he came out and said, You know what? Focusing on employee strengths. Armed guards in the lobby, in the hallway. He said he was told he would be killed and people in the book would be killed if (Holmes) didnt do what (Nash) wanted. Porn star John Holmes in 1981, shortly after four people were bludgeoned to death in what came to be known as the Wonderland Murders. You cant be uptight about this, John said, a refrain she would hear for the next fifteen years. 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. Six months ago shed had a double mastectomy. It's a yellow - sometimes green - vehicle with four tires and a Middle Eastern man behind the wheel. Now he never went anywhere without his brown Samsonite briefcase. One of the customers was Scott Thorson. Holmes started in the business around 1968, a time when porn was just beginning to surface from the underground of peep shows and frat houses into mainstream acceptance. 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. He stared straight ahead, unblinking. 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. Edit your search. (John) was so much of a liar . What compels you to revisit the slayings and what does the story say about Los Angeles, in the 80s and now? By the mid-Seventies, Nash held thirty-six liquor licenses, owned real estate and other assets worth over $30 million. Jeana, Ive got to tell you. Sharing the house with Miller and DeVerell was Ronald Launius, 37. The car was on the other side of Santa Monica Boulevard, across six lanes of traffic. Holmes told his wife that he rode with three armed men to the address on Wonderland Avenue. One of the actresses in the cast was Laurie Rose. According to the law, he had to talk. An hour before, Holmes had run into Diles. 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. Everything from Volkswagens to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. The cast of characters would go from two or three to ten or more. John Holmes died on March 13th, 1988. Then, in the summer of 1985, John tested positive for AIDS. He invested in movies, leased office space to several porn-related operations. 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. She cleared her throat John?, You had this dream. In a recent interview with The Times, Sharon Holmes, who divorced the late actor in 1984, described for the first time the story her husband told her less than three weeks after the July 1 killings. During recesses in the trial, Nash would go out to his car and smoke freebase. They did hits off Eddies pipe, eyed the door. They wanted to see Holmes. 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. During one special engagement, Thorson danced with the Rockettes. He began spilling to Blake in 1973, after he was arrested on a movie set. It was like being in a movie or something., By late 1984, John was working as an executive at Amersons VCX films. June M. Schuyler, an elementary-school teacher from Santa Barbara, remembers meeting the nice-looking, very-light-skinned foreign man at Beefs Chuck. Now it was December 4th, 1981. I was really charmed, says Jeana. Usually, they smoked freebase and had sex. Marriage & Divorce. 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. U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current. You said something about blood., Holmess eyes bulged. He had set it up with the other people, the people that lived at Wonderland. He invited them in for coffee. 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. He played it for all it was worth, then he said he wouldnt testify. John was terrified that I was going to confront her. Dont worry.. Two years later, Ricks reduced Nashs sentence to time served, and Nash was released. jaydubya2009 10y. These are my tools, I use them to make a living. He served in the signal corps, spending three years in Nuremberg, Germany. 'I was laying down on the bed. He was very upset about the business. John continued to make films, but he made Laurie stop. Ron Launius had an extensive criminal history before coming to a bloody end. But before they headed east, Holmes paid a final, early morning visit to his wife. Finally, on the afternoon of November 22nd, 1982, Holmes relented and testified. Net Worth in 2019. Over the years, theyd become like mother and daughter. Major General William E. Overacker is chief of staff, Headquarters Military Airlift Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. General Overacker was born in Cleveland. The man who owned the house was named Adel Nasrallah. I'm comfortable speaking to 2,000 people about my work, but drop me into a cocktail party with 50 people, and I'm lost. Blond and bearded, Launius had served federal time for drug smuggling. James M. Eisenman, a Century City attorney who represents Holmes estate and his second wife, said he doubts Sharon Holmes story. Its the cops.. This stuff makes me feel funny too. So much blood! he groaned over and over. . He boiled it clean in a pot on Sharons stove. Blond and bearded, Launius had served federal time for drug smuggling. Change your mind. Nash would kill him and his family if he talked, he was certain of it. Once, Sharon says, he got a human head from UCLA. 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. By this time, Sharon had befriended Jeana. Mismanagement, Sloppy Hiring Practices, Lack Of Transparency. John and Jeana painted the Malibu gray with a red top. 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. he didnt know what the truth was anymore; about himself, about anything, Sellers said. So Holmes summoned his wife into the bathroom, drew steaming water into the tub, slipped in, and began to talk. His drug of choice was freebase; sometimes he mixed the crack with heroin. These five measures map closely with . When he became established as a porn star, Holmes said, he had a half dozen agents pulling in work for him. John leaned up against the back bumper, smoking a cigarette. Twenty minutes later, Holmes walked into the room. In the meantime, here's an interview with Bren: 1. 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. Not since she was home. She cut her eyes slowly, caught his profile. I know it sounds trite and predictable but "Chinatown" has to be the best L.A. movie ever made. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. . Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. Chris didnt have a drivers license. He would have to take them to the house.. susan launius interviewduskull evolution arceus. . He had a slight build, a pockmarked face, a record of thirteen arrests. He dunked his head, put a steaming washcloth over his face. Fine. 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. Show your appreciation with the gift of Flickr Pro. Susan Hayward. 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. March 3 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts library said a book was recently returned with a note apologizing for the tome being 56 years overdue. Lulu Press offers a very affordable set-up with generous royalties. I've endured both earthquakes and hurricanes. Thursday, July 2nd, 3:30 a.m. Sharon Holmes switched on the porch light, spied through the peephole. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. By the time it was released, in 1987, Holmess health had already begun to slide. A few months later, Jeana moved into the guest room of the house. At home, Harold picked on John. She had two daughters, had once been married to a Beverly Hills attorney. Dickman and Throbbin, a lampoon of Batman and Robin. Everybody at the hotel got to know us, Jeana says. For the first few months, while she was in Oregon with her mother, Jeana had refused to take Holmess calls. He was dying. He panicked, walked in circles around the doctors office, threw his briefcase down. 7-year-old baseball umpire seeks Guinness World Record. 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. Jeana packed her suitcase, gathered up her Chihuahua. Hed been turned on to the drug on a movie set in Las Vegas and had been smoking ever since.
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