Eddie Nash assumed he deserved a certain amount of respect, says one denizen. Lind and his girlfriend had come down three weeks earlier from Sacramento to stay at Wonderland. Now they had another idea. They were stupid. . Later it was reported that Holmes interrupted his fast, ate a meal, then continued his fast. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? This was it. There was shouting, laughing, rock & roll twenty-four hours a day.. So, how much is Susan Launius worth at the age of 70 years old? Mrs. Launius, whose husband, Ronald, was killed in the attack, told the court doctors removed a large portion of her skull during surgery following the beating. Laurie was nineteen; she came from a small town outside Vegas. He told us certain things. Holmes broke into cars along the way. It is such a quintessential L.A. story of the 80s: drugs, sex, excess, night clubs, gangsters, and porn stars. His business empire totally atrophied as a result of the coke. He cooked coke all night long. At the height of his popularity, he earned $3,000 a day on films and almost as much turning tricks, servicing wealthy men and women on both coasts and in Europe. His body was recovered near Mount Islip. 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. A California cop called him one of the coldest people I ever met.. He wanted new names for Sharon and Jeana, too. Then, when Eddie Nash got out of jail, John was very, very worried. At midnight, the Wonderland people scraped together $400, and Holmes, whose pretense for entrance would be buying drugs, drove off to Nashs house. This story has not been verified. Soon after, Detectives Lange and McClain called the hospital. Facilitating a sense of purpose. Their attorneys question the credibility of prosecution witnesses and maintain their clients innocence. 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. I knew the whole picture, says Sharon. I marketed him. Her husband, Ron, 37, of the. The murders, he said. Whatever. According to one eyewitness, Diles once chased a man out of the Kit Kat and emptied his .38 revolver into the mans car. A bloody mess. The final victim was Barbara Richardson, 22, Sacramento, Calif. Court records revealed that a codefendant in Miss Miller's narcotics case was John 'Ricco' Vlick, 53, who lives in a wood-shingled house only two blocks from the scene of the killings. John and Laurie stayed home a lot and watched videos. Jeana sat very still on the edge of the bed, watching a TV that was mounted on the wall. Atkins was convicted for her involvement. Firefighters hoist horse stranded in backyard swimming pool. Earthquakes are sudden and arrive without warning, unless you monitor the USGS earthquake maps on the web every day - which I do. During one special engagement, Thorson danced with the Rockettes. 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. Why? His penis, when erect, according to legend, measured between eleven and fifteen inches in length. They hadnt spoken in two years. Um, I lifted the trunk of the car, and I gave myself a nosebleed yesterday. She was later unable to identify her attackers. He invited them in for coffee. COOPER: (Reading) And when the new year's sunshine . His voice had a smooth Arabic lilt. Help me. A fifth victim was carried out alive. For the next three days, John, Jeana and Sharon were held in protective custody in a luxury hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He meant nothing to me in that way.. to tell them who it was, Sharon Holmes said. Most people find it hard to believe, but I'm an introvert. No one was injured. A stairway, leading from the garage to the front door, was caged in iron. 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. Then I leave. He looked shocked. What he was famous for was his penis. He had set it up with the other people, the people that lived at Wonderland. Nashs three coconspirators in the insurance scam were found guilty. But before they headed east, Holmes paid a final, early morning visit to his wife. The floor plan before them showed a three-bedroom, high-end tract house on a cul-de-sac in the San Fernando Valley. He couldnt walk. 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. Following his arrest in Miami, Holmes was tried for the murder of the Wonderland Gang. One woman who had sex with Nash remembers a lot of temptation. Together, the womens descriptions of what Holmes told them largely corroborate the Los Angeles Police Departments theory of what happened on Wonderland Avenue. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. Dismiss. From then, wrote Schuyler, in a letter to a judge many years later, Ed Nasrallah began a courtship that was as old-fashioned as they come. He went fucking crazy, says Amerson. Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence? 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. Why would I confront her? susan launius interviewduskull evolution arceus. Are you awake? Holmess eyelids fluttered. Jeana was somewhere downtown. 'I was laying down on the bed. He would have to take them to the house.. Sports promoter Vic Weiss was found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls Royce in a Hollywood hotel parking lot in 1979. His last film was The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress, starring Ilona Ciccolina Staller, a member of the Italian Parliament. The door was open. Not since she was home. She paid for food and household expenses, did his laundry, cooked for him when he was home. How could he rent a car? These are my tools, I use them to make a living. When Sharon and John were first married, she says, he was very naive, looking for the perfect relationship. . You just had to ask, and hed give., According to court testimony, Nash had a fancy for young girls, whips and a game with a revolver called Russian roulette. He did not testify at his trial, and his later secret testimony before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury remains sealed. When Amerson raised their rent to $400, they got their own place in Encino. The setup, the robbery, Nashs threat to kill his whole family, Sharon included. Hed messed up a delivery, had a big argument with DeVerell and Launius. Listen, he said, grabbing her elbow. We had a big fight. Finally, he replied: The murders . Jeana leaned out the window, and they hugged. Web Design & Digital Marketing arcane traps mousehunt; digital readout for sliding table saw Launius, Deverell, and Miller, along with the girlfriend of an accomplice, Barbara Richardson, died from extensive blunt-force trauma injuries. Coughing into the microphone, Ricks called Nash a danger to the public and maxed him out. During recesses in the trial, Nash would go out to his car and smoke freebase. Launius served 4 years and was released in 1978. 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. Laurel Canyon had long been a prestige address, an earthy, woodsy setting just minutes from the glitter and rush of Tinseltown. I viewed his body nekked, you know, and then I watched them put the lid on the box and put it in the oven. Everybody at the hotel got to know us, Jeana says. The police wanted to know who killed the Wonderland Gang. All Marriage & Divorce results for Ronnie Launius. The daughter had a kid and a job. The three went back to Sharons house. Meanwhile, Jeana called Holmess answering service and left the number. People are after John, and they think youre with him. He was frozen. 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. John said he felt like he was chosen to get AIDS because of who he was, how he lived. Editors picks She wasnt happy. Sharon cooked dinner. For the first few months, while she was in Oregon with her mother, Jeana had refused to take Holmess calls. The next day, while Holmes was at work, a delegation of residents came to see Jeana. Dear reader, we're asking you to help us keep local news available for all. They deserved what they got.. John? He was like the old John. Ron Launius had an extensive criminal history before coming to a bloody end. 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. They did hits off Eddies pipe, eyed the door. Everything from Volkswagens to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. For a time, John Holmes was silent. Eruption, a porn remake of Double Indemnity. 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. So much blood! he groaned over and over. I've endured both earthquakes and hurricanes. 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. She didnt know what to do. The Wonderland case was still open. Sharon Holmes said she is convinced that her former husband was at least present when the murders took place. On Christmas Day 1980, hed even presented Jeana. Youve got to be joking. I believe I was watching TV and it seems like a bunch of people were coming in and out,' Mrs. Launius said. So you go in, Launius was saying to Holmes, reviewing the plan. A porn documentary of his life, made in 1981, was called Exhausted. He has just published his latest project about one of Los Angeles's most well known murder cases in the 80s. Mary was a Bible-thumping Baptist John remembered screaming, yelling, his father puking all over the kids. Sellers agreed to talk to The Times on the condition that the paper not reveal her true name. Dismiss. Los Angeles is often stereotyped as a hard place to find personal connections and make friends. He also collected animal skulls. On Mulholland Drive, silently watching as the city falls down and taking a naturalist's notes. He is from . In the weeks before the killings, Coen told the jurors, Holmes ferried property stolen by the Wonderland Avenue gang to Nashs heavily secured home in Studio City, where he exchanged it for drugs. Id usually fall asleep on the couch.. Holmes let his hair grow, started wearing three-piece suits. At trial, his lawyer argued that the $1 million worth of coke was not for dealing, that it was strictly for personal use. Then what?, I leave the sliding door unlocked this one, said Holmes, pointing to the floor plan, here, in the back. Thats what its all about. Police sources said Vlick, who is charged with plssessing drugs and stolen property, is a 'fringe guy' in organized crime circles. Susan Lanius (unlucky) wife of Ron Lanius played by Christina Applegate in the movie Wonderland. Holmes, in those days, was a string bean, six feet tall, 150 pounds, hair still cut in a military buzz. A mother and daughter offered to help. Will Orange County's Fledgling Clean Power Agency Survive? After Holmes negotiations for an immunity deal with police and prosecutors fell apart, the actor made plans to leave town with Sellers. 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. Videos . here. He was great. 'We'll probably find a real motive,' he said. His eyes were open, says Laurie, and it looked like he had looked up to Death and said, Here I am. It was the most peaceful look I ever saw in my life. Blond and bearded, Launius had served federal time for drug smuggling. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents. Too bad youre so young, he said finally, then left. I trusted you! The consumption of alcohol and drugs was an ongoing, everyday affair, says an attorney who is a longtime acquaintance of Nashs. Sometimes he worked around the apartments as the handyman and gardener. Holmes was stealing luggage off conveyers at L.A. International, buying appliances with his wifes credit cards, fencing them for cash. First his forehead, then his cheeks, then his neck. At home, Nash walked around in a maroon silk robe, or sometimes in bikini briefs, his body covered with a thin sheen of sweat. When asked to elaborate, the policeman explained: "A trash can only has two handles". Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. His mistress, Jeana, whod been with him since she was fifteen, was turning tricks to support his habit. The woman took her to her house, put her to work painting a wall. Susan Launius, 25, Ron Launiuss wife. They had a few questions for John Holmes. She was in intensive care with a severed finger and brain damage. Nolan Miller James M. Eisenman, a Century City attorney who represents Holmes estate and his second wife, said he doubts Sharon Holmes story. 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. Her brother was in town; something weird was going on. You sound close., Well, I, I, ah, came with a friend. Holmes thought Nash was the most evil man hed ever met, but he couldnt quite figure him out, so he respected him. He worked for others for a time, then opened Beefs Chuck, a hotdog stand on Hollywood Boulevard. The Malibu was idling. She was the sole survivor of the attack - suffering severe head injuries, amnesia, and a severed finger. He was known as Eddie Nash. . Called the Wonderland Killings, the brutal murder of 4 people in a Laurel Canyon home. She walked the streets, tried to think. I said yes. Everybody was down there. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (But) we have a certain set of rules to follow that the people who go out and perpetrate crimes dont.. It was 8:30 Monday morning. They came even though, at the time, there was no music industry in Los Angeles.
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