susan launius interview

Ill have them on their knees! Nash ranted to Thorson. Holmes buzzed an outside intercom box and asked someone inside to let him in. Prioritizing employee development. I tried to shut his eyes like in the movies, but they wouldnt stay shut., Holmes didnt want a funeral, but he did have a last wish. John Holmes died on March 13th, 1988. Before them were two pairs of handcuffs, a stolen police badge, several automatic pistols and a dogeared sheet of paper, a floor plan. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. ''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. susan launius interview american airlines core competencies June 21, 2022. the most poisonous snake in the world . She opened the door, folded her arms against her chest. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Except for the . Can I come in?, They went to the bathroom. Whos this in Montana? They were living out of the trunk of his estranged wifes Chevy Malibu. Mary was a Bible-thumping Baptist John remembered screaming, yelling, his father puking all over the kids. Another woman who had a lengthy intimate relationship with Holmes told The Times recently of a separate, parallel admission made by the actor shortly after the killings, an account she gave to police in 1981. Her lover was Billy DeVerell. He sounded a lot like Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver and bore some resemblance to the actor who played him. Rush hour was on. Neighbors in the canyon, where a conversation at night can be overheard blocks away, said they were used to rowdy, all-night parties in the house. 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. Here he is, he has two women with him. Memorial has already been merged. John Holmes was a porn star. Salary in 2020. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics from Emory . There were piles of cocaine in front of you. Apparently, Holmes had made good his promise and stopped doing drugs. or learn more. The letters "IC" pronounced properly can say "icy" meaning very cold. Under Review. When you met with Eddie, you met at his place, on his terms. Sharons first act was to move Jeana out of Karen and Davids and into a garage apartment in the complex. It was 1.6 miles from Wonderland Avenue to Dona Lola Place, which was fortuitous, because the stolen Ford Granada driven by the Wonderland Gang was running on empty. Um, I lifted the trunk of the car, and I gave myself a nosebleed yesterday. In time, the surgery was completed, and Thorson was made into a young vision of Liberace. 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. With the preliminary hearing transcript, the Wonderland groupies for lack of a better term can get a glimpse into what really went down on the night of July 1, 1981, in the words of those who were there: Susan Launius, the sole survivor of the attack; David Lind, a slick, smooth-talking hood who was one of the trigger men in the robbery of reputed mobster Eddie Nash that preceded and instigated the murders; and Tracy McCourt, the petulant wheelman in the Nash heist. He wasnt threatening. This anecdote right there tells me that Launius has a body count. He was picking on a kid that didnt know any better. Do you find the threat of earthquakes preferable to the threat of hurricanes and long winters? Joy Audrey Miller, 46, held the lease. John was really sick by this point, says Laurie. In a way, Holmes was everymans gigolo, a polyester smoothy with a sparse mustache, a flying collar and lots of buttons undone. A day or two later, Holmes gave a compressed, but similar account of what happened to Sellers, she told The Times. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. I used to be a Web Developer in the Newsroom, now I spend my time in coffee shops researching murder. After Holmes negotiations for an immunity deal with police and prosecutors fell apart, the actor made plans to leave town with Sellers. Here, this back bedroom, thats Diless room, he said. Alex Murdaugh Found Guilty of Murdering Wife and Son The Kit Kat was a strip club. Anywhere on Los Feliz Boulevard adjacent to Griffith Park. Jeana packed her bag, gathered up Thor, put Johns gun in her pocketbook. Then, says Laurie, the third time I went up there, he came up to me with the mirror and said, You want a hit? and I turned to him and said no. I trusted you! The time was right, he told Lind. Atkins was convicted for her involvement. Well, kind of, Video shows Memphis jailers beating Black inmate before his death, Skin lesion removed from President Bidens chest last month was cancerous, doctor says, CPAC shows the GOP has deep divisions heading into 2024, Abortion clinics crossing state borders not always welcome. 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. Thursday, July 2nd, 3:30 a.m. Sharon Holmes switched on the porch light, spied through the peephole. But the new accounts cast doubt on the story Holmes told a biographer before his death March 13. This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Their association ended in one of the most brutal mass murders in the history of Los Angeles. 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. Whos this in Ohio? Nash screamed. Launius punched Holmes in the stomach. Then he sold shoes, furniture, Fuller brushes door-to-door. His defense was simple: John Holmes was the sixth victim of the Wonderland murders, and Eddie Nash was evil incarnate. Ladies and gentlemen, his lawyer told the jury at the outset, unlike some mysteries, this is not going to be a question of Who done it? This is going to be a question of Why arent the perpetrators here? . Holmes slept fitfully for a few hours, Sharon Holmes said, and moaned about blood and pain. Now he was a drug delivery boy for the Wonderland Gang. The police wanted to know who killed the Wonderland Gang. This story has not been verified. (Taken from Wikipedia on Wonderland Murders). Do you find it challenging to make new friends here? He was known as Eddie Nash. Hed have me make these peanut-butter chocolate-chip brown-sugar butter cookies. 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. Laurie was nineteen; she came from a small town outside Vegas. Thank you for investing in your neighborhood. About this time, Sharon says, Holmes began working as a courier for the Mob. All Rights reserved. . They came even though, at the time, there was no music industry in Los Angeles. Jeana was somewhere downtown. During one special engagement, Thorson danced with the Rockettes. Room service. Each time, Nash made bail. He and Sharon settled into a strange hybrid of domesticity. We have estimated Susan Launius's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets. The Wonderland case was still open. Holmes broke into cars along the way. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click Chris caught up. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Nashs and Diless attorneys maintain their clients innocence and question the credibility of witnesses for the prosecution. During the day, she worked in a nursing home. Theres no mystery. (But) we have a certain set of rules to follow that the people who go out and perpetrate crimes dont.. Kentucky man stops for breakfast, wins $50,000 lottery prize. Meanwhile, Jeana called Holmess answering service and left the number. He stayed in there like three hours, and Im just sitting there, you know, twiddling my thumbs. We did it in the van. He told me that he had set up the robbery. She was thin, blond, foulmouthed, a heroin addict with seven arrests. She didnt know what to do. . He said, They stuck a gun to my head and they made me go back in (to the Wonderland Avenue house) and open the door. Thats what he told me. Isamarie Perez, San Antonio Stacey vs. Brooke Alexander, McLeod; Wyndi Williams, Baird vs. Cassie Petty, White Deer; Kyla Coleman, Whiteface . The bride wore white. The finish was drippy and streaked, but it didnt matter. By 1973, John and Sharon were sharing the same house, even the same bed, but they were no longer having sex. 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. Jeana was doing freebase too, almost every night. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/430cdk/four_bloody_unsolved_wonderland_murders/. One night Holmes told Jeana to meet him at the van. His family had owned several hotels before the creation of Israel in 1948. Its business.. Whos Mary? She tells them (in a near comatose state) that she does not remember anything. He said, I had to stand there and watch what they did, Sharon Holmes recalled. The Sellers would stay there. Blond and bearded, Launius had served federal time for drug smuggling. Murdoch has survived scandal after scandal. Listen, he said, grabbing her elbow. This button displays the currently selected search type. After a while, I said I didnt want to go out on the beach anymore. 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.'. Net Worth in 2021. But before they headed east, Holmes paid a final, early morning visit to his wife. Susan A. Murphy Launius, then 30, while not an official member of the gang, was married to gang member Ron Launius and had a drug habit. They opened the security gate, and the four of us went up the stairs, and when the door opened, they forced their way inside. Ive lived in L.A. since 1979 and currently reside in Glendale. Funny, she thought, no cuts, no abrasions. His penis, when erect, according to legend, measured between eleven and fifteen inches in length. A sunny room in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, California. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people living and working in L.A. who have never given thought to writing a screenplay. I called up and said I had some things for the people inside and to let me up. He showed Chinn his portfolio of stills, then stripped. LOS ANGELES -- The lone survivor of the massacre of four people in the swank Laurel Canyon home of an attractive blonde woman suspected of dealing in drugs was under a 24-hour hospital guard Friday as the star witness in the case. We went to a motel, had a nice reunion. While awaiting that trial, he was ordered by a judge to tell the grand jury what he knew about the Wonderland murders. Five men and two women were meeting in the breakfast nook, sitting in swivel chairs, leaning against walls. He wanted to be in charge. Or that show out of New York, you know, A Current Affair. He seems like he was a crazy fucker. He was sweet. Together, the womens descriptions of what Holmes told them largely corroborate the Los Angeles Police Departments theory of what happened on Wonderland Avenue. 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. Launius' years of operation: 1972-1973 (after he returned from Asia and before prison), 1978-1981. For the next three days, John, Jeana and Sharon were held in protective custody in a luxury hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Rodger Jacobs is an author, journalist, documentary producer, blogger and familiar gadfly in the LA blogosphere. In time, Jeanas father went back to Miami and took Terry with him, and Jeana moved in with Johns half brother and his wife, David and Karen. master splinter death. It was like being in a movie or something., By late 1984, John was working as an executive at Amersons VCX films. He drove a forklift at a meatpacking plant in Cudahy until his lung collapsed from working in the freezer. But Holmes kept calling. Dole said there's no question that Trump lost his reelection race - narrowly but fair and square. You want to play baseball? hed ask his ever-present guests, lighting his butane torch, offering a hit off his pipe. Recently, however, Holmess biggest commodity had been trouble. Is there something wrong? Nash was found guilty of possessing two pounds of cocaine for sale. Hed have a big glass of milk, and wed turn on the cartoons, and then hed go to bed in Sharons room. 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. We had a big fight. Jeana dropped out of Glendale High School. At home, Nash walked around in a maroon silk robe, or sometimes in bikini briefs, his body covered with a thin sheen of sweat. Show your appreciation with the gift of Flickr Pro. She was the sole survivor of the attack - suffering severe head injuries, amnesia, and a severed finger. Ronald S. Coen, now a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, argued that the fatal beatings were intended to avenge the humiliating armed robbery of Los Angeles nightclub owner Adel Nasrallah, also known as Eddie Nash. His black club was like a Hollywood Harlem, jazz and pinkie rings and wide-brimmed straw hats. Based on the material given to us by John Holmes (for the book), that version of the facts is not an accurate one, Eisenman said. He looked like a guy in a dive bar in El Paso, according to a neighbor. Holmes went on to say that he wanted to be best in the world at something, and that he thought pornography was it. A pimp tried to pick her up. Two years later, Ricks reduced Nashs sentence to time served, and Nash was released. And so the plan was fixed. By the time it was released, in 1987, Holmess health had already begun to slide. Holmes had nothing to do and nowhere to go. 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. Shed driven out from Miami with her father and younger sister. Basically, he said, Im going to have to run, Sharon Holmes recalled, And I said, Youre going to have to tell me. . Through his attorney, Nash has consistently denied any involvement in the Wonderland Avenue killings. Girls' Singles. Inside was her husband, John. He was dying. (Wikipedia article on Wonderland Murders). 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. After seven years, the district attorney was reopening the Wonderland case, based, in part, on testimony from Scott Thorson, Liberaces ex-lover. Holmes went on to make more than 2,000 movies. Ron Launius had an extensive criminal history before coming to a bloody end. There is a substantial audience out there hungry for information on the Wonderland murders. So I told him everything, John said. That first time, we didnt get to work together, says Laurie, but we were attracted. Both cars slowed, pulled even in the middle of the street. 7-year-old baseball umpire seeks Guinness World Record. Hed sent two of his minions out to score more drugs, but they hadnt yet returned. There were backhands, lectures, drunken rages. He did not testify at his trial, and his later secret testimony before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury remains sealed. On Mulholland Drive, silently watching as the city falls down and taking a naturalist's notes. This is Susan Launius. Almost everything publicly known about porn king John Curtis Holmes is apocryphal, anecdotal, secondhand or informed by conjecture. They lived in London, Paris, Michigan, Florida. They had a few questions for John Holmes. 1-20 of 285. Sharon had been a virgin when theyd met. Theyll never steal from anyone again!, Thorson was excused, and Nash closed the door. COOPER: (Reading) And when the new year's sunshine . In the end, both Diles and Nash went to jail. They came even though, at the time, there was no music industry in Los Angeles. He wouldnt even let me meet the people he worked with.. A house on Wonderland Avenue. At midnight, the Wonderland people scraped together $400, and Holmes, whose pretense for entrance would be buying drugs, drove off to Nashs house. His last film was The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress, starring Ilona Ciccolina Staller, a member of the Italian Parliament. 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). He wanted new names for Sharon and Jeana, too. Bring me their eyeballs! Joy Audrey Miller, 46, who rented the house, had a record of six arrests -- three for peddling dope -- and had been under surveillance since Jan. 7, 1980, by narcotics officers who saw her selling drugs in front of the house at least eight times, affidavits said. Jeana Sellers (not her real name) arrived in Holmess life in 1976. The couple ended up in Miami, at a small run-down hotel on Collins Avenue. His drug of choice was freebase; sometimes he mixed the crack with heroin. Susan Launius was severely beaten in her bed, but she narrowly survived, albeit with amnesia, head injuries, and the loss of a finger. Edit your search. In essence, what they wanted him to do was . I loved the schmuck. How could he rent a car? March 2 (UPI) -- A Minnesota police officer came to the rescue of a raccoon he spotted running around with a jar stuck over its head. The murders are believed to be retaliation for the Wonderland Gang's robbing of Eddie Nash's home two days earlier. In addition, more than 3,000 pages of court and police documents and newspaper reports were reviewed. The setup, the robbery, Nashs threat to kill his whole family, Sharon included. Called the Wonderland Killings, the brutal murder of 4 people in a Laurel Canyon home. Suzanne Launius's birthday is 03/24/1951 and is 71 years old.Suzanne calls Hawthorne, CA, home.Susan Launius are some of the alias or nicknames that Suzanne has used. 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. Inside were his drugs, his glass pipe, baking soda and a petri dish for cooking cocaine powder into rock base, a bottle of 151 rum and cotton swabs for lighting the pipe. Officers made casts of the victims' wounds to help determine the weapon or weapons used in the attack. House tossed by assailants. Its like being a carpenter. Sellers had no particular plan; Glendale sounded just fine. 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. After bathing at Sharons, Holmes had come here, to this motel in the Valley. By Steve Helling. He said he was told he would be killed and people in the book would be killed if (Holmes) didnt do what (Nash) wanted. We sat for a long time, and he was very, very quiet. For his part, Holmes did anything he could for Nash. John Holmes, who was tried for and acquitted of the crimes, never told his wife the names of the assailants, she said. 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. Someone held a gun to my head. He spent his early life in Tennessee and Georgia, and graduated from Spalding High School in Griffin, Ga. Here's Why It's Especially Dangerous To Hike SoCal Mountains Right Now, How 4 Words Upended A University's Journalism Program, And Stirred A Reckoning Over Race, What A Popular Yoga Teacher's Descent Into Conspiracy Theories Says About The 'Wellness To QAnon Pipeline', Ancient Lung Disease Strikes Countertop Cutters In LA, The Groundbreaking Suicide Squad That Tested Early Rockets And Flirted With The Occult. Another officer commented, upon hearing of Launius' death, "I suppose they won't need many pall bearers". 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. Id like you to meet Mr. John Holmes, hed say. His lawyer hired a young associate to stick Nash with a pin whenever he nodded off in court. Im very lusty.. But I had no reason to confront her. No one but Holmes has ever been charged in the murder case. She walked the streets, tried to think. Recently, Holmes had been drifting from job to job, trying to find a niche. Come with us, Sharon., It can be the three of us, Sharon, like old times.. Holmes told his wife that he rode with three armed men to the address on Wonderland Avenue. The cast of characters would go from two or three to ten or more. At night, she baby-sat for David and Karen. Then Nash was arrested with three others on federal charges of racketeering, arson and mail fraud. Holmes went to work for a construction company, painting a hotel down the strip. Finally, on the afternoon of November 22nd, 1982, Holmes relented and testified. He is from . Diles smacked Holmes, threw him across the room, shoved him against a wall. Its time, Holmes said, and then he smiled and raised his fist. Holmes rolled down his window, McCourt rolled down his. I loved him. . I will kill your whole family! Los Angeles, Column: Did the DOJ just say Donald Trump can be held accountable for Jan. 6? He wasnt specific, but it really didnt matter anyway. They made a run to McDonalds for hamburgers. I ran out the door, down to the pool, and he ran after me, the fool. 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. John was carrying two suitcases when he met her. . . Mary went to work on an assembly line at a Western Electric plant. When VCX cut off Holmess salary, Amerson put up money to start Penguin Productions. John eased into the tub. Its like Raymond Chandler on crack. Then he left.. Another victim, William DeVerell, 44, who lived at the house, had an arrest record in the 1950s, mostly for narcotics but had not been arrested in the recent case. Holmes muttered something to Nash about the gang. Holmes was one of the greats in the business. He went fucking crazy, says Amerson. 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. For like three weeks, one of us had to be awake at all times. Jailers said other inmates were giving him candy bars. By the time they pulled into the apartment complex managed by Sharon Holmes, it had been decided. . By the Eighties, former California governor Jerry Brown was living on Wonderland Avenue, and Steven Spielberg was building on a lot not far away. He took over the kitchen. The Sixties, the pill, free love, communes, wife swapping, the perverse creativity of mixed-media artists who were pushing the limit, trying to shock all of these things created an atmosphere in which porn could blossom. Hed come home from one of his movie premires, take off his boots, peel down his socks and take out a wad of large bills. I didnt want to believe Id fallen for a line again, Jeana says. John was into Save the Whales. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Inside was a painting by Rembrandt, a jade and ivory collection, sterling silver, jewelry and, most appealing of all, large quantities of money and drugs. March 3 (UPI) -- A New Brunswick couple who initially thought a burglar had broken into their home discovered the invader was actually a panicked deer. here. She was nowhere to be found. While Holmes was in jail, Amerson had started a company called John Holmes Productions. His eyes blinked rapidly. For extra money, Jeana solicited tricks on the beach. One of the actresses in the cast was Laurie Rose. Here's Where To Maximize The View (And Snap A Great Picture), A Los Angeles Family Seeks Answers And Accountability After Black Mom Dies In Childbirth, A Brief History Of Why It Does Occasionally Snow In LA. Laurie was standing at the door when Lange and McClain appeared down the corridor. He always had large quantities of coke, heroin, Quaaludes and other drugs at the house. Lt. Ron Lewis discounted speculation that the slayings could be 'random killings' such as the Tate-LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969. Nash was leafing through a little black book that Diles had taken from Holmess pocket. It helps that Susan Boyle has made her Asperger's public. John picked up Sharons two dogs and Thor from the kennel. Then what?, I leave the sliding door unlocked this one, said Holmes, pointing to the floor plan, here, in the back. She even had to have part of her skull surgically removed as a result of her injuries. John continued to make films, but he made Laurie stop. U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current. 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? We want to hear it. What he was famous for was his penis. Now Holmes owed the Wonderland Gang, too. Behind him was his partner, Mac McClain. He walked through the door, flopped on the bed, passed out. John? One summer day in 1968, Sharon came home a little early from work. Holmes was an inveterate collector of junk. He went to garage sales and bought old furniture. Mrs. Kraft was a former registered nurse at Memorial Hospital, former administrator at Memorial Convalescent Center and owner of Toddle Town Inc, comprised of Toddle Town, Toddler House and Learning Journey. There was a garage on the first floor; the second and third floors had balconies facing the street. . He beat the shit out of me, then walked back up to the room. The master, the giver of hospitality. He invited them in for coffee. Jeana said nothing. Shed gotten a job at a nursing home and was paying her mom rent, trying to rebuild her life. He played it for all it was worth, then he said he wouldnt testify. Caring about employees. All Marriage & Divorce results for Ronnie Launius. Holmes remained in jail, however, on his outstanding burglary case. Everybody was just shocked.. When Holmes was eight, his mother married Harold, a manic-depressive who worked for the telephone company. Get my property! Browse by collection. Get the fuck out of here! he screamed. Her husband watched from the closet. Holmes, 37, was formally charged with four counts of murder and one of attempted murder following his arrest last December in Miami. unsolved murders in texas 2019, tower hill insurance demotech rating,

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