susan launius interview

Nils Grevillius, who's been working on a book on the Wonderland murders, talks in one interview about a robbery committed by the Wonderland Gang (the same robbery, in fact, that Launius got the antique guns that he tried to fence via John Holmes, which ultimately led to the murders). The complex had ten free-standing cabana apartments, built around a courtyard. Someone held a gun to my head. barry mcguigan, daughter funeral; susan launius interview During recesses in the trial, Nash would go out to his car and smoke freebase. Susan Launius Remote Medical Transcriptionist for Cardiology Center Of Amarillo Altus, Oklahoma, United States 95 followers 96 connections Join to view profile Cardiology Center Of Amarillo Altus. DeVerell, Launius and McCourt, all heroin addicts, were out cold. The cost of the ISBN - to get your title into other markets like Amazon and bricks and mortar book stores - comes out of the author's own pocket but that's a small price to pay, literally, for everything else Lulu does for authors, such as providing a storefront free of charge. She actually saw it. In the end, the most damaging evidence the prosecution could produce was a palm print on a headboard above one of the victims. And, as Holmess supply of coke dwindled, his conscience was overruled by his jones. He was also in Liberaces Las Vegas act. Police sources said Vlick, who is charged with plssessing drugs and stolen property, is a 'fringe guy' in organized crime circles. I told where the robbers lived and how to get there. The man was a poster child for sociopathic behavior. But before they headed east, Holmes paid a final, early morning visit to his wife. She was an associate of the Wonderland Gang, hanging around the Wonderland apartment, where she was savagely beaten by criminals with lead pipes on the night of 1 July 1981. 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. A pimp tried to pick her up. Drawings of the dog, of me. 'When you're talking about the star witness in a case like this I think you can safely assume that we've got her pretty well guarded,' a pllice spokesman said. There were two-way mirrors in the bedroom, anything you wanted would be made available. He made films nonstop, and he took eighty to ninety telephone calls a day. He always called Holmes my brother. Theyd known each other for three years. He was consuming it. She opened the door, folded her arms against her chest. Funny, she thought, no cuts, no abrasions. In a way, Holmes was everymans gigolo, a polyester smoothy with a sparse mustache, a flying collar and lots of buttons undone. Who talks about this person. On their first date, hed brought a bottle of Mateus and a handful of flowers. Didn't expect my day to start by downloading #microsoftedge or willingly going to #bing to see #openai's new #gpt4 model. John picked up Sharons two dogs and Thor from the kennel. I said No and I meant it., Over the next year, Nasrallah brought her grape leaves, hummus, pots of Turkish coffee. Nolan Miller 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. His old friend was happy to pick them up. Diles hit him again. When Amerson raised their rent to $400, they got their own place in Encino. The Starwood, on Santa Monica Boulevard, featured cutting-edge rock & roll. Susan Goldberg, MBA Expand search. In time, Holmes became known as the Errol Flynn of porn. He quit the ambulance service and got work stirring vats of chocolate at a Coffee Nips factory in Glendale. Jeana hung up the phone. They deserved what they got.. He and Sharon settled into a strange hybrid of domesticity. ', In time, John and Laurie moved in together at Amersons. Holmes had nothing to do and nowhere to go. In 1974, Sharon became the resident manager of a ten-unit apartment court in Glendale. . See that car over there? Launius actually went to shoot her and his partners had to stop him. I gave you everything!. 1-20 of 285. There were backhands, lectures, drunken rages. While Holmes was in jail, Amerson had started a company called John Holmes Productions. 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. Twenty minutes later, Holmes walked into the room. There was a lot of screaming going on, Holmes told his wife. You want me to call the press?. 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. He greeted reporters, had dinner with his lawyer, then called Sharon. Jeana packed her bag, gathered up Thor, put Johns gun in her pocketbook. A stairway, leading from the garage to the front door, was caged in iron. He was also a drug dealer and a heavy user. Susan Orlean tells the story of the suspected arson in The Library Book. 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. The sun was warm and diffuse. Holmes was crumpled on the floor. 7-year-old baseball umpire seeks Guinness World Record. Atkins was convicted for her involvement. He said that (Nash) told him if he ever talked to the police that (Nash) would kill someone in his family. The detective added that Holmes said he was there when the murders happened, but that he himself did not hurt anyone.. Jeana sat in the front seat, Thor in her arms. Some were quite attractive. A doctor of dubious practice prescribed a salad of different drugs to aid the weight loss. Why did you choose to publish the book on Lulu.com. More from Medium For years, a Boy Hung a Photo on his Bedroom. Holmes was telling people that doctors had removed sixteen feet of his large intestine. Holmes was wearing a ring that had been stolen from the boss. 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. All of them! He spent his early life in Tennessee and Georgia, and graduated from Spalding High School in Griffin, Ga. Suzanne Launius (A), 71 - Hawthorne, CA Public Reputation Profile at A California cop called him "one of the coldest people I ever met." The house at 8763 Wonderland rented for $750 a month.. Over the years, theyd become like mother and daughter. His surgery wouldnt heal up, either. 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. Along the way, in Colorado, Mr. The finish was drippy and streaked, but it didnt matter. But Holmes kept calling. Men asked him to autograph their wives breasts. The Story Of The Gruesome And Unsolved Wonderland Murders - All That's A year ago, shed been busted for dealing drugs out of the Wonderland house. In the late Seventies, Los Angeles police averaged twenty-five drug busts a month at the Starwood. One night Holmes told Jeana to meet him at the van. At home, Nash walked around in a maroon silk robe, or sometimes in bikini briefs, his body covered with a thin sheen of sweat. He wore the buckle when he and Sharon sold bumper stickers door-to-door. He said, Im gonna die! and drove off., When he came back, says Laurie, he was laughing about it. Before them were two pairs of handcuffs, a stolen police badge, several automatic pistols and a dogeared sheet of paper, a floor plan. We have never heard the whole truth (about the killings) and we never will hear the whole truth, said attorney Earl L. Hanson, who, along with partner Mitchell W. Egers, successfully defended Holmes against the murder charges. Edward, a carpenter, was an alcoholic. Called the Wonderland Killings, the brutal murder of 4 people in a Laurel Canyon home gained even more noteriety when authorities discovered that porn star John Holmes had played a mysterious role in the case.Age and Occupation: 46. John looked down at Sharon. I have been fascinated by the Wonderland case ever since co-producing the documentary Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmesin 1999. 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. Whatever. Your mother? Do you find the threat of earthquakes preferable to the threat of hurricanes and long winters? She didnt know what to do. Six months later, on September 8th, 1988, Diles and Nash were charged with the murders on Wonderland Avenue. Gov. Jeana leaned out the window, and they hugged. Two days later, Coen alleged that Holmes, acting on Nashs orders, led the killers to the Wonderland Avenue address and then helped murder the occupants. An ex-convict whod served time for burglary, forgery and assault to commit rape, Lind had been invited to town, he would later tell a court, to practice his profession, committing crimes. Class 1A. The jury found him innocent. James M. Eisenman, a Century City attorney who represents Holmes estate and his second wife, said he doubts Sharon Holmes story. When we came back, the door was locked, says Jeana. We scattered his ashes over the ocean.. He refused anyway. runs a close second. 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. Holmes broke into cars along the way. Holmes muttered something to Nash about the gang. master splinter death. He moved to a modest condo in Tarzana and set about rebuilding, taking college business courses at night. They moved to a house on five acres in wooded, rural Pataskala, Ohio. Tossing and moaning, punching and kicking. He keeps a sawed-off shotgun under the blanket Here, this is Nashs room. automotive swap meets in missouri 2022 - veasyt.immo By the mid-Seventies, Ed Nasrallah had become Eddie Nash and had amassed a fortune. The top story was something about a mass murder. Susan Boyle: my relief at discovering that I have Asperger's When he got out of jail, Holmes was jubilant. Almost everything publicly known about porn king John Curtis Holmes is apocryphal, anecdotal, secondhand or informed by conjecture. 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. Holmes told his wife that he was held against a wall, at gunpoint, while the three men beat to death Launius, 37; William DeVerell, 42; Joy Audrey Miller, 46; and Barbara Richardson, 22. In 1962 he joined the USAF and served in the Vietnam War, but was caught smuggling heroin and discharged in 1972. We were really broke. Later, the women dyed Johns hair black. Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. She told him to get the fuck out of my life. He couldnt call Jeana. John? The actors wife paused. The school was a block away from Nashs place. With all the publicity from the murders, John Holmes had achieved almost mainstream celebrity. There are other suspects that we feel are involved. They came even though, at the time, there was no music industry in Los Angeles. Eight years in prison, a $120,350 fine. The guest bedroom. How can you spell cold with only 2 letters? - Answers She was scheduled to appear in court this month on drug charges. . . These are my tools, I use them to make a living. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people living and working in L.A. who have never given thought to writing a screenplay. He panicked, walked in circles around the doctors office, threw his briefcase down. Laurie was nineteen; she came from a small town outside Vegas. They were stupid. And then, just as we got to this intersection, he slammed on the brakes. 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. For extra money, Jeana solicited tricks on the beach. His bodyguard, Gregory De Witt Diles, was a karate expert and convicted felon who weighed a blubbery 300 pounds. These five measures map closely with . Holmess parents separated when he was three, and Mary moved the family into a housing project in Columbus. One woman survived the attack. Wonderland murders | Historica Wiki | Fandom Blond and bearded, Launius had served federal time for drug smuggling. A California cop called him one of the coldest people I ever met.. They came even though, at the time, there was no music industry in Los Angeles. He always had large quantities of coke, heroin, Quaaludes and other drugs at the house. He played it for all it was worth, then he said he wouldnt testify. Nash told a friend that he missed the moonlight and the olive trees of his homeland, that hed spent time in a refugee camp, that his brother-in-law was shot by Israeli soldiers. A house on Wonderland Avenue. They were married in August 1965 at Fort Ord, California. Holmes was to run it. Jeana packed her suitcase, gathered up her Chihuahua. At the hospital, as he came out of anesthesia, he said to Mary, Ill never have to work again. He didnt. What does the print-on demand delivery system offer over other, similar systems like iUniverse.com? here. They opened the security gate, and the four of us went up the stairs, and when the door opened, they forced their way inside. The consumption of alcohol and drugs was an ongoing, everyday affair, says an attorney who is a longtime acquaintance of Nashs. This time, the gang decided not to wait for his return. Eversz is one of the best unsung novelists in the crime genre we have working today. They were living out of the trunk of his estranged wifes Chevy Malibu. Los Angeles is often stereotyped as a hard place to find personal connections and make friends. Susan Hayward | Television Academy Interviews Miss Miller's shiny white 1969 Mercedes 280 SL was used to deliver narcotics to her customers, detectives said. The time was right, he told Lind. Susan Launius, who lay wounded with severe head injuries for hours before being discovered in the house by neighbors last July 1, testified during Holmes' preliminary hearing that she could. March 2 (UPI) -- A Maryland woman scored a $100,000 prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket less than 12 hours after she scored an $11,000 jackpot at a casino. She testified in a halting voice that the last thing she recalled was seeing shadowy figures in the bedroom where she lay with her husband. 'We'll probably find a real motive,' he said. Dickman and Throbbin, a lampoon of Batman and Robin. Since the late Sixties, Holmes had traded on his natural endowment. Ron Launius was born in 1944 in Shawneetown, IL. 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. They lived in London, Paris, Michigan, Florida. March 3 (UPI) -- A sheep spotted wandering loose on a British highway was given a lift back to its owner by a concerned bus driver on her first day on the job. In the car were De Verell, Launius, McCourt and a man named David Lind, a friend of Launiuss. When asked by Holmes' attorney what she remembered after that, she replied, 'nothing.'. He had twenty-seven fan clubs; people wrote for locks of his pubic hair. One woman who had sex with Nash remembers a lot of temptation. John was doing a lot of drawing. She was the sole survivor of the attack - suffering severe head injuries, amnesia, and a severed finger. Diles leveled a gun at his head. Her daughter was born by emergency C-section. He quickly racked up a rap sheet, including gun and drug charges. For the last several years, Nash had rarely left his white-stone ranch house in Studio City. A few months later, Jeana moved into the guest room of the house. She was moving to a house. In addition, more than 3,000 pages of court and police documents and newspaper reports were reviewed. A naturalized American, Nash came to California from Palestine in the early Fifties. His penis, he said, was bigger than a pay phone, smaller than a Cadillac., Holmess voice was sly and ingratiating. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. 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. At midnight, the Wonderland people scraped together $400, and Holmes, whose pretense for entrance would be buying drugs, drove off to Nashs house. So you go in, Launius was saying to Holmes, reviewing the plan. Women asked him to deflower their daughters. He was like the old John. Let him scream? I ran out the door, down to the pool, and he ran after me, the fool. Wed have dinner with other people at the hotel, go to movies. When Sharon and John were first married, she says, he was very naive, looking for the perfect relationship. Later, in the Sixties, the canyon attracted writers and artists, rock stars and gurus. Web Design & Digital Marketing 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. He wanted new names for Sharon and Jeana, too. In high school, Holmes said, he slept with all but three girls in his class. At 98 and facing cancer, Bob Dole reckons with legacy of Trump and ponders future of GOP. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Its business.. Sydney Pollack's adaptation of Horace McCoy's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" He boiled it clean in a pot on Sharons stove. He chewed gum and overacted. Sharon cooked dinner. Usually, they smoked freebase and had sex. dynamic programming cheat sheet In 1981, Ron Launius and his gang of thieves and drug dealers, with assistance from porn star John Holmes, robbed the home of businessman and gangster Eddie Nash. Too bad youre so young, he said finally, then left. Sellers had no particular plan; Glendale sounded just fine. He felt like he was an example.. 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. Im going to quit. When asked by Holmes' attorney what she remembered after that, she replied, 'nothing.'. In the summer of 1981, Sharon Holmes said, she and John Holmes were living together as the managers of a small Glendale apartment complex. This story has not been verified. For like three weeks, one of us had to be awake at all times. Holmes refused to testify. Wearing jewel-bedecked livery, he would chauffeur Liberace onto the stage in a glittering mini-Rolls-Royce open the door, take his masters fur coat. Holmes was one of the greats in the business. The house at 8763 Wonderland rented for $750 a month. I watched them beat them to death., It was them or me. After a while, I said I didnt want to go out on the beach anymore. She even had to have part of her skull surgically removed as a result of her injuries. The Week in Photos: California exits pandemic emergency amid a winter landscape, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, David Lindley, guitarist best known for work with Jackson Browne, dies at 78, Best coffee city in the world? Jailers said other inmates were giving him candy bars. 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. I was just taken off my feet. ''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. His black club was like a Hollywood Harlem, jazz and pinkie rings and wide-brimmed straw hats. Minnesota officer removes jar from raccoon's head. After she left him, according to a court affidavit, I took the children to Oklahoma to my aunt and uncles farm, together with my parents. He told us everything initially, right after it happened. He was very possessive. He walked through the door, flopped on the bed, passed out. That house, she thought. Oh, shit, she thought, but she didnt say anything. [5] Barbara Richardson [ edit] He had ties to the criminal underworld and was known to be dangerous -- it just so happened that he crossed someone even more dangerous than himself, and lost his life for it. Thursday, July 2nd, 3:30 a.m. Sharon Holmes switched on the porch light, spied through the peephole. Come with us, Sharon., It can be the three of us, Sharon, like old times.. What now? she thought. Would Jeana want to be the live-in baby sitter? Six months ago shed had a double mastectomy. John? Hed underestimated Nash once, but hed never do it again. Go back to that house! . Wednesday afternoon, July 1st, two days after the robbery. U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current. Browse by collection. Get my property! susan launius interviewduskull evolution arceus. The Seven Seas was a bus-stop joint across Hollywood Boulevard from Manns Chinese Theaters. 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? Everything from Volkswagens to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Sharon, a registered nurse, rummaged through a well-stocked medicine cabinet, brought out iodine and cotton swabs. 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. Nashs and Diless attorneys maintain their clients innocence and question the credibility of witnesses for the prosecution. Nobody had gotten it yet, but it was still in the back of our minds. They picked up a six-pack, went to a park, sat by a pond. Deep in Laurel Canyon, the Wonderland Gang was planning its last heist. 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. He beat the shit out of me, then walked back up to the room. For her sister Terry, who was fourteen and overweight, he brought what he called Terry food, pounds and pounds of candy. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. A mother and daughter offered to help. When VCX cut off Holmess salary, Amerson put up money to start Penguin Productions. John eased into the tub. Hours passed, John woke. We were like a normal couple. He wanted to make a million dollars so we could just leave and be done with it.. One search of the premises yielded a cardboard box containing 4,000 counterfeit Quaaludes. John was tired of the whole industry, she says. Soon after, Detectives Lange and McClain called the hospital. 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 would lead, in the mid-Seventies, to Holmess most successful role, as Johnny Wadd, the hard-boiled detective, porns parody of Sam Spade. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Nashs house was raided three times. They told him to make good. They needed a score. Susan Launius, who lay wounded with severe head injuries for hours before being discovered in the house by neighbors last July 1, testified during Holmes' preliminary hearing that she could only recall seeing 'shadowy figures.'. John Holmes himself never offered a public account of what happened on that July night. His drug of choice was freebase; sometimes he mixed the crack with heroin. She hadnt seen him in three months. Holmes, 37, was formally charged with four counts of murder and one of attempted murder following his arrest last December in Miami. . John and Laurie stayed home a lot and watched videos. John Holmes, who was tried for and acquitted of the crimes, never told his wife the names of the assailants, she said. There was "a lot of screaming going. February 1988, seven years after the murders. The day after the robbery, someone who knew Nash apparently spotted Holmes in Hollywood, wearing a piece of jewelry that had been stolen from Nashs home, he told his wife. Holmes was doing sex pictorials, dancing in clubs. What really cracks me up is people believe he was a dope dealer. Which movie about the entire John C. Holmes story accurately captures the Holmes milieu- "Wonderland" or "Boogie Nights" ? Big mystery. Are you afraid its withering and dying? she said, laughing. That's not a stereotypical statement in the least. 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. How students with Asperger's cope at university. It had a tropical motif, a menu of special drinks, a Polynesian revue, sometimes belly dancers. Most people find it hard to believe, but I'm an introvert. Related Stories Remember Eddie? Miller, De Verell and Launius needed drugs every day. He told me that he had set up the robbery. Every time you read something, they say its a big mystery.