The Wonderland Murders - Part 2 - Killer Queens: A True Crime Podcast

On July 1st, 1981, workers for a moving company heard noises coming from the house next to the one they were working at and saw a few men running from the house. When they went to investigate, they stumbled upon one of the most gruesome crime scenes that L.A. County has ever seen. Inside the home, the police found 4 bodies, beaten almost beyond recognition, and a 5th person, barely clinging to life despite her severe injuries. The Wonderland Gang, as they were known, had been attacked during the night as payback for their actions against nightclub owner Eddie Nash only days before.

For part one, click here!

The Wonderland Murders Part 2

Let’s start with a quick recap of part 1.

The Wonderland Gang is a low level local “gang” that mostly dealt drugs out of their Laurel Canyon Hills home on Wonderland Ave. They were also heavy drug users and would often break the drug dealer’s cardinal rule of, “Don’t get high on your own supply.” The gang’s other way to make money was to break into people’s homes, impersonating police officers, and take anything they could sell for cash. They had one customer / friend in the form of porn star John Holmes.

Throughout the 70’s John Holmes was on top of the world. He was making more money than he would have ever thought possible. After a few years in the adult film industry, Holmes developed a huge drug habit / dependency. This led him to become “friends” with the Wonderland Gang. He was also friends with another, much larger drug dealer in the area, Eddie Nash, or “The Nash.”

Eddie Nash was the owner of several bars / clubs / restaurants at the time. The Nash also ran a drug business and like the Wonderland Gang, he was a heavy user of his own supply. Nash treated Holmes like a brother and would often front him drugs which he knew Holmes would never be able to pay him back for.

Holmes was in debt to the Wonderland Gang and in order to pay off his debt, he came up with a plan to rob his friend, Eddie Nash. The gang put their plan into action on June 29th, 1981.

When it was over, it’s estimated that they made off with around 1.3 million dollars in cash, drugs, and jewelry.

Holmes & Nash

After the robbery, the gang gets back to the house on Wonderland Ave and begins to sort through all of their newly found possessions; cash, drugs (cocaine, heroin, quaaludes), jewelry, and the antique guns that Launius had sold to Nash previously. While they were going through everything they had taken, the gang decided that they would short Holmes on his cut. Their thought was that since they had given John the $400 to go to Nash with in the first place and then he got to stay there and do all kinds of drugs while they waited, that he deserved less of a cut. They also factored in what he owed them originally, and said that the fact that he wasn’t there for the actual break in meant he should get less.

Obviously, John was pissed when this happened, but what could he do? Normally, he would probably go to Nash and ask for help, and Nash would send a few of his guys with Nash and “clear things up.” In this case, John just has to suck it up and move on. So, John has some cash and some of the jewelry that was taken from The Nash. What’s his next step?

There are 2 different versions that we’ve found of what John did next.

The first version is that John knows that Nash will figure out he was involved. So, the day after the robbery, John goes to Nash’s home, just to pop in and say hi. Essentially, John is trying to make it seem like he had no idea and was just coming by like he normally would, making himself appear innocent. Shockingly, Nash doesn’t believe him.

The second version of the days following the Nash robbery as told by a witness, Scott Thorson.

Scott Thorson wrote in his 1988 memoir, “Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace,” that he was at Nash’s home when John Holmes was brought there. He said that he saw Nash order Gregory Diles to go out and find John. Nash suspected that John had something to do with the robbery from the start. There were very very few people who knew about the safe that Nash kept hidden away in his room, but John Holmes was one of them. That goes to show you what Nash actually thought of John, when he called him his “brother,” he actually meant it. The betrayal that John committed couldn’t go unpunished.

Gregory Diles went out to the streets and began his search for John. Eventually, he found John walking around town. Some accounts say that when Diles found him, John was actually wearing some of the jewelry that they had stolen from Nash. Diles quickly grabbed John and escorted him back to Nash’s home.

Once Diles and John arrived at Nash’s house, Scott Thorson claimed that he saw Nash order Diles to take John to another room and beat him. Gregory Diles, took John to another room and went to work, beating John until Eddie Nash came in to question him.

Nash KNEW that John was involved and that John knew who else had acted against him. He just needed the names. This was the early 80’s, cell phones were as big as a Volkswagen Beetle, so John always carried a little black address book with him. Nash took this address book and started to flip through it, while holding a gun on John. At this point, Nash didn’t mince words. He told John simply and straight forward. Tell me who did this, or I will hunt down every one of your friends and family in this book and brutally murder them. Facing these threats, John had no choice and quickly gave up Launius and the Wonderland Gang. Although, I do feel like he would have eventually, without the threat to his family, based solely on the fact that shorted him his cut.

The Most Gruesome Crime Scene L.A. Has Ever Seen

In the early hours of July 1st, 1981, Eddie Nash put his plan for revenge into action. He told Gregory Diles to take John Holmes to the Gang’s house on Wonderland Ave and make things right. Gregory Diles took John and a few other people to the Wonderland home where John was supposed to get them inside.

As soon as they were in the home, the first person they come across is Barbara Richardson sleeping on a couch. She was beaten to death as she slept.

Next they found a bedroom where Joy Miller was asleep in the bed, and Billy DeVerelle must have heard something and gotten up. Joy was beaten with pipes and hammers until she was dead. Billy was also beaten with pipes and hammers. His body fell to the ground and he slumped over, leaning against a tv stand at the foot of the bed. Pipes littered the floor, and a bloody hammer would be found tangled up in the sheets of the bed. According to Holmes, he did not take part in this. He was just brought there to witness the carnage.

They moved to the bedroom where Ron and Susan Launius were sleeping. They attacked both with the pipes. Susan Launius was beaten almost to death. She would be the only person in the home that night to survive. She was left with severe head injuries and amnesia. She also lost a finger in the attack. She was found on the floor next to the bed.

Ron Launius was hit in the head with a pipe while he was sleeping. After Diles hit him a few times, it’s said that he then pulled a gun on John Holmes and gave him the pipe. He told John to then attack Launius. John attacked Ron Launius, caving his skull in with the metal pipe, hitting him over and over, until his head was essentially mush, leaving him almost unrecognizable.

When all was said and done, Billy DeVerell, Joy Miller, Barbara Richardson, and Ron Launius would all be dead. Brutally beaten to death, all their skulls caved in from the damage done by metal pipes and hammers. Susan Launius survived her vicious attack, with life altering injuries. 2 members of the Wonderland Gang were absent that night.

Tracy McCourt was at his own home that night. Although he was the getaway driver the night of the Eddie Nash burglary, he would not face Nash or his goons for his part. McCourt would eventually move away from L.A., to Colorado.

David Lind was also not at the house that night. He was off in the San Fernando Valley, in a hotel with a prostitute. They were on a drug bender, which ended up saving Lind’s life and keeping him safe from the attack that night.

Neighbors around the Wonderland Ave house would report that they heard screams coming from the home during the night. They never called the police because it was just par for the course when it came to the Wonderland Gang. They always had parties that lasted all night, and people were always screaming and yelling. Some neighbors said that they thought it was part of a “primal scream therapy,” that was popular at the time. One neighbor claims to have heard a woman scream, “Oh God, please don’t kill me,” but brushed it off and went back to sleep.

Before the police were called about the murders, there were other visitors to the Wonderland home. At one point, someone had come up and rang the buzzer and tried to buy drugs, but no one answered, so they left. Later in the day, more people came to get drugs, and noticed that the door was open. They went into the home and came upon the crime scene. They then proceeded to try to go through the home and see if they could find any money or drugs. When they were in the bedroom, Susan Launius began to stir and made noise, and the men ran out and down the road. When paramedics arrived, Susan had been there for over 12 hours, clinging to life.

On their way out, they yelled to some furniture movers next door that there were dead bodies in the home and they should call the police. The movers went to the house to investigate and were horrified at what they discovered. They immediately called the police, and shortly after, Wonderland Avenue was crawling with police and news reporters.

This case would fall into the laps of Detectives Tom Lange and Robert Souza. Tom Lange had been out at his ex-partner’s ranch riding horses when he got the call. He then called his partner, Souza, who immediately began to make his way to the crime scene as well.

The media immediately called it the “4 On The Floor” murders because of the police radio call that went out, “Four down at Laurel Canyon.” Both Lange and Souza knew that the media would be all over this case, because just over a decade before, the Tate-LaBianca murders had caused a frenzy. Tom Lange arrived at the crime scene before Souza. He got someone to follow him through the crime scene filming while he narrated what he saw and went over the crime scene. The footage is available to watch online, but is very graphic. Looking back, they would both say that the Wonderland Crime scene was the most brutal, gruesome, bloody crime scene that L.A. has ever seen.

As they’re going over the crime scene though, the police do find something of note in the bedroom where Ron and Susan were. On the headboard of the bed that Ron Launius was beaten in was a palm print. Detectives quickly sent that out to try to figure out who it belonged to. While they were waiting for that to come back, the next logical step was to try to find the other members of the Wonderland Gang who were unaccounted for, as they were the most likely suspect.

Detectives found David Lind and brought him in for questioning. Lind told them that he was not at the house that night, but he was in a motel in the San Fernando Valley making a drug deal…. And doing drugs with a prostitute. Obviously, this piqued the detective’s interest, so they pressed and asked more questions because they thought he knew more than he was letting on. After a little while, Lind gave in and told them about the burglary the gang had performed only 48 hours before the murders took place. He also told them that John Holmes was an accomplice in the robbery.

Now, police have someone they can take a closer look at. They have John Holmes who has been identified as an accomplice to the robbery, and they have drug / crime boss Eddie Nash, who would be looking for revenge.

Arrests Made

The police bring John in for questioning pretty quickly following their interrogation of Lind. At this point, they don’t know that the palm print belongs to him, but they are confident that he was there just based on what Lind told them. They question him for a while, but ultimately have to let him go because they didn’t have any real evidence against him.

John freaked out after he gets let go, and he and Dawn Schiller immediately leave town and begin a life on the run. For 5 months, they elude the police and end up in Florida. Once there, they stayed at a little motel and tried to keep it low key. But one night, John attacked her in public, and bystanders stepped in and stopped it. They asked if she wanted to leave and she did. Dawn turned John into the FBI, and he was arrested.

In December of 1981, the police arrested John Holmes for the murders of the 4 on the floor. He was charged with 4 counts of murder. Holmes claimed that he was there, but didn’t participate in any of the murders. The police knew John was there that night because the palm print on the headboard belonged to him. He would be extradited from Florida back to California. John refused to cooperate with the police investigation. They wanted to make a deal with him and go after Nash. John was afraid to make any type of deal though, fearing retaliation from Nash.

While they were trying to get his help, they set John up in a hotel with Dawn and his estranged wife, Sharon. John wanted them all to go into witness protection, but Sharon refused. She was just an innocent bystander in all of this. She would not uproot her life because John was a fuck up.

John’s trial in California started in March of 1982. The prosecution argued that the position of the palm print above Ron’s body clearly shows that while John was hitting Ron, he placed his hand on the headboard to steady himself. John used a court appointed defense team. They argued that John himself was also a victim in the case.

Their defense was that John was caught in between 2 drug dealers that both used him as a pawn. They said that the Wonderland gang bribed him with drugs to help them with Nash, which then caused him to be on Nash’s radar, since Nash thought he was an accomplice of the Wonderland gang. They also argued that since John was a known associate of the gang, that it wouldn’t be out of place for his hand print to be found in the house.

While he was on trial, John was housed in the “Keep Aways” section of the L.A. County jail. Essentially this is a section of the jail where celebrity or high profile people are kept. Example: Suge Knight and Chris Brown were both in cells next to Lonnie Franklin Jr. AKA the Grim Sleeper. Sean Penn was in the cell next to Richard Ramirez. John Holmes was beside both of the Hillside Stranglers, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi. Also on the celebrity row during Holmes’s stay were serial killers Patrick Kearney and Vaughn Greenwood.

John was acquitted of all charges on June 26, 1982. The only charge he was convicted on was for contempt of court, when he refused to provide evidence to the prosecution, for which he spent 110 days in jail. John Holmes’ trial was a landmark case, because it was the first trial to introduce videotape as evidence, since they included the crime scene walk-through as evidence. The jury felt like John was an unwilling participant in the murders, and forced to take part.

Days after the murders, the police searched Eddie Nash’s home. They found a large stash of cocaine, and Nash was sentenced to 8 years in prison. A judge released him after 2 years served. In 1990, Eddie Nash would be charged with planning the murders of the Wonderland Gang. He would face trial in the state court. The end result was a hung jury of 11-1.

An associate of Nash would reveal later that during his 8 year prison sentence, Nash bribed the judge that released him with $100,000 cash to let him go early. After Nash’s first trial for the murders, Nash admitted that he bribed the lone holdout with $50,000 cash. Nash would be retried for the murders but again was acquitted. Throughout the 1990s, police would go back to Nash over and over and try to pin whatever they could on him, the media referred to him as “The one who got away.”

It wasn’t until 2000 that something stuck. After a 4 year, joint investigation, Eddie Nash was arrested on RICO charges; for running a drug trafficking and money laundering operation, conspiring to carry out the Wonderland Murders, and bribing one of the jurors of his first trial. Nash was 70 years old at this point, and decided to plea out. He pleaded guilty to the RICO charges and the jury tampering. He also admitted that he ordered his men to go to the Wonderland house to retrieve his stolen property, which could have resulted in injuries. He received 4 and a half years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. Eddie Nash died on August 9th, 2014 at the age of 85.

Gregory Diles was charged in 1990 with participating in the murders, but was also found not guilty. He died of liver failure in January of 1997.

After John Holmes was released from jail in 1982, he tried to make a comeback in the porn industry. Obviously, his name didn’t have the same draw as it once did. When he did get a gig, it was for little more than just a brief cameo. In February 1986, 9 to 10 months after testing negative, John tested positive for HIV. He kept the positive result to himself and signed a contract to make 2 films with Paradise Visuals. They shot in Italy, and when they were released, it was revealed that John hadn’t told his co-stars about his test before having unprotected sex with them. This obviously caused quite an uproar, but John told the press that he was suffering from colon cancer.

In January 1987, John married Laurie Rose in Las Vegas, after telling her he had AIDS. During the last few months of his life, he stayed in a VA hospital. One day, the detectives from the Wonderland Murders paid him a visit. Their hope was that John would want to make some kind of deathbed confession. They asked him what happened and tried to get him to talk. He told them that he wasn’t feeling great that day, but he would write something for Laurie to give to them. They left empty handed. John died on March 13th, 1988 due to AIDS related complications.

In the weeks following the murders, Sharon (ex-wife) claims that John made a confession to her. She claimed that John was at her home getting a hot bath, and began crying and called her into the bathroom.

“There’s somebody out there who wants to kill me,” John told Sharon.
“Why?” she asked.
“The murders…I was involved…I know who did it,” was his reply.
Holmes went on to recount how he let three men into the home that belonged to the Wonderland Gang, escorted them in, and stood by as they savagely beat the five people inside the house.
“I had to stand there and watch what they did,” said John.
Sharon asked him how he could do that, saying “you knew these people.”
“They were dirt,” was his reply.

Sharon revealed this after John died.

To this day, the Wonderland Murders are officially unsolved, but everyone involved in the investigation strongly believes that it was the work of Nash, Diles, and Holmes.