Wonderland Murders
Encyclopedia
The Wonderland murders, also known as Four on the Floor or Laurel Canyon Murders, occurred in Los Angeles in 1981, when four people were killed in a drug-related scenario involving porn star John Holmes
and was allegedly masterminded by Los Angeles
businessman and drug dealer Eddie Nash
.
was centered around the occupants of a rented townhouse at 8763 Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon
section of Los Angeles: Joy Audrey Gold Miller, William R. DeVerell (Miller and DeVerell were a couple), David Lind, and leader Ronald Launius. All four were involved in drug use and drug dealing.
On June 28, 1981, the group met with friends Tracy McCourt and John Holmes
, a porn star and known drug addict. They had decided to rob the home of Eddie Nash
, nee Adel Gharib Nasrallah, another drug dealer and wealthy owner of several Los Angeles-area night clubs. Holmes, whom Nash had befriended, visited the house, ostensibly to buy drugs. While at Nash's home, Holmes unlocked a back door; he then left Nash's home and reported back to the Wonderland gang.
The next morning, June 29, DeVerell, Launius, Lind, and McCourt went to Nash's house. While McCourt stayed with the car, a stolen Ford Granada
, the other three entered through the unlocked door. Invading
the home, the trio handcuffed Nash and his live-in bodyguard, Gregory Diles. During the course of the subsequent robbery, the group took money, drugs, jewelry, and threatened to kill Nash and Diles. They then went back to the Wonderland Avenue townhouse to split up the money.
Nash suspected Holmes had been involved and ordered Diles to bring Holmes to his house. Diles found Holmes on a street in Hollywood wearing one of the rings that had been stolen from Nash and brought him back to Nash. Nash directed Diles to beat Holmes until he identified the people behind the robbery; the beating was witnessed by Scott Thorson
, former boyfriend of Liberace
, who was making a drug buy at Nash's home.
In the early morning of July 1, 1981, two days after the robbery, the assailants entered the Wonderland Avenue house. DeVerell, and Launius were present, along with Launius' wife Susan Launius and Lind's girlfriend, Barbara Richardson. Each occupant present was bludgeoned repeatedly with what was later determined by the medical examiner and detectives to be a striated steel pipe. Susan Launius was the only one in the home who survived, albeit with serious injuries. A bloody handprint found at the scene proved John Holmes was present at the site of the murder. In court, he denied participation in the killings.
According to court testimony, David Lind survived because he wasn't at the house at the time of the murders, having spent the night at a San Fernando Valley motel with a prostitute and consuming drugs there. Shortly after the news media reported the murders, Lind contacted the police and informed on Nash and Holmes, thus giving them a start to their investigation.
detectives Tom Lange and Robert Souza led the murder investigation and searched Nash's home a few days after the crime. There they found more than $1 million worth of cocaine
, as well as some items stolen from the Wonderland house. Following arrest and conviction for the cocaine charges, Nash spent two years in prison.
As a result of the hand print found at the scene, Holmes was arrested and charged with four counts of murder in March, 1982. The prosecutor, Los Angeles District Attorney Ron Coen, attempted to prove Holmes was a willing participant who betrayed the Wonderland Gang after not getting a full share of the loot from the robbery of Nash's house. Holmes' court-appointed defense lawyers, Earl Hanson and Mitchell Egers, successfully presented Holmes as one of the victims, having been forced by the real killers to give them entry to the house where the murders took place. Holmes was acquitted of all criminal charges on June 26, 1982. Refusing to testify and cooperate with authorities, he spent 110 days in jail for contempt of court.
Holmes died six years later on March 13, 1988, as a result of AIDS
complications at a VA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Following his death, Holmes' first wife, Sharon Gebenini-Holmes, came forward, stating Holmes had come to her house the morning after the killings. With blood splattered all over his clothes, Holmes was personally uninjured; he did not give her any details to explain the condition of his clothing.
In 1990, Nash was charged in state court with having planned the murders and Diles was charged with participating in the murders. Thorson testified against them, but the trial ended with a hung jury voting 11–1 for conviction; the second trial in 1991 ended in acquittal. Diles died in 1995.
In 2000, after a four-year joint investigation involving local and federal authorities, Nash was arrested and indicted on federal charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
(RICO) for running a drug trafficking and money laundering operation, conspiring to carry out the Wonderland Murders, and bribing the sole holdout juror of his first trial. Nash, already in his seventies and suffering from emphysema
and several other ailments, agreed to a plea bargain
agreement in September 2001. He admitted to having bribed the lone holdout in his first trial, a young woman, with $50,000 and also pled guilty to the RICO charges and to money laundering. He admitted to having ordered his associates to retrieve stolen property from the Wonderland house, which might have resulted in violence including murder, yet he denied having planned the Wonderland murders. In the end, Nash received a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.
The 2005 book Long Time Money and Lots of Cocaine by Rodger Jacobs
contains the complete transcript of the February 1982 preliminary hearing for Holmes.
An account of the Wonderland Murders and the life and death of John Holmes appears in L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times by John Gilmore.
John Holmes (actor)
John Curtis Holmes better known as John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd , was one of the most prolific male porn stars of all time, appearing in about 2,500 adult loops, stag films, and pornographic feature movies in the 1970s and 1980s...
and was allegedly masterminded by Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
businessman and drug dealer Eddie Nash
Eddie Nash
Eddie Nash is a former nightclub and restaurant manager in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted gangster and drug dealer; he is best known as the alleged mastermind of the Wonderland Murders.-Early life:...
.
Robbery and murders
The Wonderland GangWonderland Gang
The Wonderland Gang was a group of drug dealers involved in the Los Angeles cocaine trade during the late 1970s and early 1980s; their homebase was located on Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon area. On July 1, 1981 four members of the gang died in the Wonderland murders...
was centered around the occupants of a rented townhouse at 8763 Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was first developed in the 1910s, and became a part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923 ....
section of Los Angeles: Joy Audrey Gold Miller, William R. DeVerell (Miller and DeVerell were a couple), David Lind, and leader Ronald Launius. All four were involved in drug use and drug dealing.
On June 28, 1981, the group met with friends Tracy McCourt and John Holmes
John Holmes (actor)
John Curtis Holmes better known as John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd , was one of the most prolific male porn stars of all time, appearing in about 2,500 adult loops, stag films, and pornographic feature movies in the 1970s and 1980s...
, a porn star and known drug addict. They had decided to rob the home of Eddie Nash
Eddie Nash
Eddie Nash is a former nightclub and restaurant manager in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted gangster and drug dealer; he is best known as the alleged mastermind of the Wonderland Murders.-Early life:...
, nee Adel Gharib Nasrallah, another drug dealer and wealthy owner of several Los Angeles-area night clubs. Holmes, whom Nash had befriended, visited the house, ostensibly to buy drugs. While at Nash's home, Holmes unlocked a back door; he then left Nash's home and reported back to the Wonderland gang.
The next morning, June 29, DeVerell, Launius, Lind, and McCourt went to Nash's house. While McCourt stayed with the car, a stolen Ford Granada
Ford Granada (North America)
The Ford Granada was a mid-size car built and marketed by Ford Motor Company in North America from 1975–1982, along with its sister models, the Mercury Monarch, and Lincoln Versailles. The Granada was touted by Ford as a rival to the similarly sized Mercedes-Benz 280 of the time. The Granada and...
, the other three entered through the unlocked door. Invading
Home invasion
Home invasion is the act of illegally burgling or entering a private and occupied dwelling for the purpose of committing a crime Home invasion is the act of illegally burgling or entering a private and occupied dwelling for the purpose of committing a crime Home invasion is the act of illegally...
the home, the trio handcuffed Nash and his live-in bodyguard, Gregory Diles. During the course of the subsequent robbery, the group took money, drugs, jewelry, and threatened to kill Nash and Diles. They then went back to the Wonderland Avenue townhouse to split up the money.
Nash suspected Holmes had been involved and ordered Diles to bring Holmes to his house. Diles found Holmes on a street in Hollywood wearing one of the rings that had been stolen from Nash and brought him back to Nash. Nash directed Diles to beat Holmes until he identified the people behind the robbery; the beating was witnessed by Scott Thorson
Scott Thorson
Scott Thorson became famous for his relationship with and lawsuit against entertainer Liberace and his testimony against gangster Eddie Nash.-Relationship with Liberace:...
, former boyfriend of Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
, who was making a drug buy at Nash's home.
In the early morning of July 1, 1981, two days after the robbery, the assailants entered the Wonderland Avenue house. DeVerell, and Launius were present, along with Launius' wife Susan Launius and Lind's girlfriend, Barbara Richardson. Each occupant present was bludgeoned repeatedly with what was later determined by the medical examiner and detectives to be a striated steel pipe. Susan Launius was the only one in the home who survived, albeit with serious injuries. A bloody handprint found at the scene proved John Holmes was present at the site of the murder. In court, he denied participation in the killings.
According to court testimony, David Lind survived because he wasn't at the house at the time of the murders, having spent the night at a San Fernando Valley motel with a prostitute and consuming drugs there. Shortly after the news media reported the murders, Lind contacted the police and informed on Nash and Holmes, thus giving them a start to their investigation.
Police action and trials
Los Angeles Police DepartmentLos Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
detectives Tom Lange and Robert Souza led the murder investigation and searched Nash's home a few days after the crime. There they found more than $1 million worth of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, as well as some items stolen from the Wonderland house. Following arrest and conviction for the cocaine charges, Nash spent two years in prison.
As a result of the hand print found at the scene, Holmes was arrested and charged with four counts of murder in March, 1982. The prosecutor, Los Angeles District Attorney Ron Coen, attempted to prove Holmes was a willing participant who betrayed the Wonderland Gang after not getting a full share of the loot from the robbery of Nash's house. Holmes' court-appointed defense lawyers, Earl Hanson and Mitchell Egers, successfully presented Holmes as one of the victims, having been forced by the real killers to give them entry to the house where the murders took place. Holmes was acquitted of all criminal charges on June 26, 1982. Refusing to testify and cooperate with authorities, he spent 110 days in jail for contempt of court.
Holmes died six years later on March 13, 1988, as a result of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
complications at a VA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Following his death, Holmes' first wife, Sharon Gebenini-Holmes, came forward, stating Holmes had come to her house the morning after the killings. With blood splattered all over his clothes, Holmes was personally uninjured; he did not give her any details to explain the condition of his clothing.
In 1990, Nash was charged in state court with having planned the murders and Diles was charged with participating in the murders. Thorson testified against them, but the trial ended with a hung jury voting 11–1 for conviction; the second trial in 1991 ended in acquittal. Diles died in 1995.
In 2000, after a four-year joint investigation involving local and federal authorities, Nash was arrested and indicted on federal charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization...
(RICO) for running a drug trafficking and money laundering operation, conspiring to carry out the Wonderland Murders, and bribing the sole holdout juror of his first trial. Nash, already in his seventies and suffering from emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
and several other ailments, agreed to a plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
agreement in September 2001. He admitted to having bribed the lone holdout in his first trial, a young woman, with $50,000 and also pled guilty to the RICO charges and to money laundering. He admitted to having ordered his associates to retrieve stolen property from the Wonderland house, which might have resulted in violence including murder, yet he denied having planned the Wonderland murders. In the end, Nash received a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.
Sources
Some of the events described here are covered from John Holmes' perspective in his autobiography Porn King: The John Holmes Story.The 2005 book Long Time Money and Lots of Cocaine by Rodger Jacobs
Rodger Jacobs
Rodger Jacobs is an American journalist, writer, author, film producer, columnist, playwright, editor and screenwriter.Jacobs has been a journalist for publications such as Eye Magazine, Hustler and PopMatters...
contains the complete transcript of the February 1982 preliminary hearing for Holmes.
An account of the Wonderland Murders and the life and death of John Holmes appears in L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times by John Gilmore.
Books and films
- The 1997 film Boogie NightsBoogie NightsBoogie Nights is a 1997 drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, the script focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, and chronicles his rise and fall from the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s...
is loosely based on the life of John Holmes including some of the events surrounding the Wonderland murders. - The Wonderland Murders are depicted in the 2003 film WonderlandWonderland (film)Wonderland is a 2003 American crime and drama film co-written and directed by James Cox, and based on the real-life Wonderland Murders that occurred in 1981. The film stars Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Dylan McDermott, Josh Lucas, Christina Applegate, and Tim Blake Nelson...
, starring Val KilmerVal KilmerVal Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
as John Holmes. - Three Dog NightThree Dog NightThree Dog Night is an American rock band best known for their music from 1968 to 1975. During that time the band charted 21 Billboard top 40 hits in America, three of which reached Number One...
singer Chuck NegronChuck NegronCharles "Chuck" Negron is an American singer-songwriter, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night, which he helped to form in 1968.-Biography:...
mentioned the murders in his autobiography Three Dog Nightmare. - The murders were ranked #7 in an E! Entertainment Television documentary, 20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders.
- In 2010, Holmes' former girlfriend, Dawn Schiller, released a memoir titled The Road Through Wonderland: Surviving John Holmes.
External links
- Wonderland Murders by Salon.com
- Press release by the LAPDLos Angeles Police DepartmentThe Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
News about Nash's federal conviction, February 13, 2002 - Interview with Scott Thorson
- Bad Eddie & Other No Good People, chapter from John Gilmore's L. A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes and Bad Times
- In Too Deep. In LA WeeklyLA WeeklyLA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, October 2, 2003