Over the years, theyd become like mother and daughter. His black club was like a Hollywood Harlem, jazz and pinkie rings and wide-brimmed straw hats. Susan Launius's income source is mostly from being a successful . 1-20 of 285. The couple ended up in Miami, at a small run-down hotel on Collins Avenue. First his forehead, then his cheeks, then his neck. Susan Launius is beaten but not killed. April Valentine died at Centinela Hospital. After bathing at Sharons, Holmes had come here, to this motel in the Valley. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. He wasnt threatening. He has just published his latest project about one of Los Angeles's most well known murder cases in the 80s. The door was open. You knew these people.. Christ, she thought, John. Florida woman runs ultra-marathon distances for 23 consecutive days. When asked by Holmes' attorney what she remembered after that, she replied, 'nothing.'. Jewelry, wads of money. He sent flowers, presents, photos of them with the dog. He was known as Eddie Nash. He thinks Im famous.. but who will buy LA's Los Feliz Murder House? - The Independent Eruption, a porn remake of Double Indemnity. At home, Harold picked on John. Finally he came out and said, You know what? Not only did the Black Dahlia murder occur in '47 but the town was full of soldiers returning from the war with scarred psyches. It sounds silly, but you know how you can meet someone for the first time and its like you know them already?, After the film, John and Laurie, who looked like Jeana, began dating. There were backhands, lectures, drunken rages. The man in the suit was Los Angeles Police Department detective Tom Lange. 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. The Most Measured Person in Tech Is Running the Most Chaotic Place on Theres no mystery. She walked the streets, tried to think. wikipedia.en/Wonderland_murders.md at main chinapedia/wikipedia.en One woman survived the attack. Finally he said, Ive got to tell you Ive been doing something else, and I think I want to make it my lifes work.. Or the local TV says its a big mystery. He said he was told he would be killed and people in the book would be killed if (Holmes) didnt do what (Nash) wanted. Launius' wife, Susan Launius, survived the attack, which is shocking given the crime scene photos and video. She was scheduled to appear in court this month on drug charges. He wanted new names for Sharon and Jeana, too. John? They sat around a glass table in the breakfast nook. In court testimony years later, he would say, in answer to this and many other questions, I dont recall. By the time it was released, in 1987, Holmess health had already begun to slide. On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith told . Hours passed, John woke. Hed been ripped for eight pounds of cocaine, but the Wonderland Gang hadnt found his private stash, and now he was bubbling his glass pipe furiously. The house at 8763 Wonderland rented for $750 a month. Sports promoter Vic Weiss was found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls Royce in a Hollywood hotel parking lot in 1979. I suspect that Launius may have been involved in other violent crimes. Theyd sold a pound of baking soda for a quarter of a million dollars. Sharon sat on the wood-covered commode. I have been fascinated by the Wonderland case ever since co-producing the documentary Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmesin 1999. Allan MacDonell October 2, 2003. No drugs. He stroked us, jacked us around. It's a yellow - sometimes green - vehicle with four tires and a Middle Eastern man behind the wheel. Holmes was wearing a ring that had been stolen from the boss. Then another. susan launius interview Four bodies. Sprinklers were ticking water across lawns. The top story was something about a mass murder. 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. . Nash and Diles were well known on Sunset Strip. Ive waited outside that house. At Christmas, they decorated it with colored lights. Names of mobsters, drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps. Tell you its all clear. 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. 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. They lived in London, Paris, Michigan, Florida. Please enter a valid Memorial ID. he didnt know what the truth was anymore; about himself, about anything, Sellers said. YouTube: Susan Wojcicki, YouTube's chief executive and one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley, is stepping down from her longtime role leading the internet's most popular video service. He began spilling to Blake in 1973, after he was arrested on a movie set. Now the police wanted Holmess testimony. 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. Following his arrest in Miami, Holmes was tried for the murder of the Wonderland Gang. I called up and said I had some things for the people inside and to let me up. automotive swap meets in missouri 2022 - veasyt.immo Hed have Jimmie, the cook, prepare these elaborate spreads. When Holmes returned to his car hours later, two armed men ordered him to drive to Nashs home, he said. Only Launius' wife Susan survived the attack, allegedly masterminded by organized crime figure and nightclub owner Eddie Nash. Learn more about merges. Ill have them on their knees! Nash ranted to Thorson. Thursday, July 2nd, 3:30 a.m. Sharon Holmes switched on the porch light, spied through the peephole. Her left leg is paralyzed because of the head injuries. It was Sunday evening and the drugs were gone, the money was gone, the situation was desperate. Ronnie Launius - Ancestry.com British bus driver stops to give loose sheep a lift. His attorney told reporters that hed changed his mind because of certain arrangements that had been made and certain circumstances that had arisen. The consumption of alcohol and drugs was an ongoing, everyday affair, says an attorney who is a longtime acquaintance of Nashs. They watched some more TV. Inside was her husband, John. Diles leveled a gun at his head. 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. But Deputy District Attorney Ronald Coen said the prosecution would not attempt to prove Holmes actually killed the victims but was an accessory to the crime. According to one Los Angeles law-enforcement official, Ed Nash was a very well-known figure in the Sixties around Hollywood with police, and it was never an antagonistic relationship.. Wonderland (2003) - Plot Summary - IMDb 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. There wasnt any trouble. The bodies were discovered by workmen next door; theyd heard faint cries from the back of the house: Help me. Dont worry.. I trusted you! The lone survivor of a bloody attack at a - UPI Archives He sounded a lot like Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver and bore some resemblance to the actor who played him. At home, Nash walked around in a maroon silk robe, or sometimes in bikini briefs, his body covered with a thin sheen of sweat. A California cop called him "one of the coldest people I ever met." The house at 8763 Wonderland rented for $750 a month.. He showed Chinn his portfolio of stills, then stripped. 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. The sun was warm and diffuse. I watched them beat them to death., It was them or me. There were seven of them meeting in the house on Wonderland Avenue, a jaundiced stucco box on a steep, winding road in the hills above Hollywood. They had a few questions for John Holmes. Which movie about the entire John C. Holmes story accurately captures the Holmes milieu- "Wonderland" or "Boogie Nights" ? 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. When theyd finish work, hed make sandwiches. You sound close., Well, I, I, ah, came with a friend. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click Police sources said Vlick, who is charged with plssessing drugs and stolen property, is a 'fringe guy' in organized crime circles. How students with Asperger's cope at university. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love my daily morning newsletter, How To LA. We were real friendly. Holmes rolled down his window, McCourt rolled down his. Nash and Holmes had met three years earlier at the Seven Seas. The master, the giver of hospitality. Sharons first act was to move Jeana out of Karen and Davids and into a garage apartment in the complex.