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00:00In the late 1970s, hardcore porno star John Curtis Holmes was an icon of Hollywood success.
00:09Movies, money, sex and drugs.
00:12His cult status was assured until his involvement in one of the most horrific murders of the
00:22last 30 years.
00:24It was as though someone had walked through the house with buckets of blood sloshing them.
00:30The brutal slayings known as the Wonderland Murders were, for all intents and purposes,
00:35the results of Holmes' insatiable drug addiction and his utter lack of moral judgment.
00:40We will take you inside the world of John Holmes, a simple country boy who rocketed
00:45to fame by virtue of his physical abnormality.
00:48He had the biggest penis in adult films.
00:51It was amazing.
00:52It was a freak act.
00:53You'll see him swallowed whole by his alter ego, Johnny Wad.
00:57He took this character really seriously and he comes in and he says, John Holmes here,
01:01I'm Johnny Wad.
01:02You know I have a really big dick.
01:03You'll watch him fall head first into drug addiction.
01:06The only thing John wanted to do was to do cocaine.
01:10You'll see Holmes transform like Jekyll and Hyde into a twisted image of himself.
01:15As we were driving, he backhanded me, called me a liar and beat the crap out of me.
01:20Finally, you'll be taken step by step through the macabre events that led to a slaughter
01:25so perverse and evil, it shocked even the hardest homicide detectives.
01:29The first thing that struck me was this isn't just a killing, there's a message.
01:34This is a story of sex, drugs, money and murder.
01:37Of boogie nights gone bad.
01:39This is the story of John Holmes and the Wonderland Murders.
01:50In 1968, on the advice of a photographer, 24-year-old John Holmes started posing for
02:07adult magazines.
02:09John's unique physical feature made him a model in high demand.
02:12It was an unusual twist of fate for the skinny country boy.
02:16He doesn't have many options.
02:18He doesn't have many skills until he discovers that he can do something with his 13-inch
02:23penis.
02:25John was a sensation, an overnight star in the shadowy business of porn.
02:29I'm hoping the whole time that this is going to blow over and nothing's going to happen
02:36and it didn't.
02:37Holmes, in fact, wasn't satisfied with print work.
02:40He wanted to try film, so in 1970, John went to a casting call arranged by porno agent
02:45Reb Sowitz.
02:46I had an office on Las Palmas and three people one day came in the office.
02:53Two of them, I weren't sure what they were.
02:56And John wanted to make some money, wanted to make some loops.
03:01Loops were about 40 minutes to an hour worth of sex.
03:08In 1970, sexually explicit films were illegal.
03:11These loops were shown secretly at bachelor parties and all-male stag events.
03:16By the time John left the agent's office, Holmes had an offer to star in film loops.
03:20It was easy work.
03:22Show up, have sex and get paid.
03:24Holmes didn't find his work morally troubling, nor did he consider on-screen sex marital
03:29infidelity.
03:30One day he comes home and tells me that he's found what he wants to do now.
03:36And I said, John, I mean, you know, we're married.
03:44I'm not going out and fooling around and you're the male equivalent of a whore.
03:49And he said, we can't think of it that way.
03:51You know, it's like if I were a carpenter, this is my tool.
03:56In July 1972, porn exploded into the mainstream with the release of X-rated film Deep Throat.
04:03When Deep Throat came out, couples went, you know, I mean, middle-class couples lined up
04:07around the block to go see Deep Throat.
04:10Former porn star Gloria Leonard.
04:12Deep Throat absolutely started it all.
04:16Producers rushed to capitalize on porn's newfound popularity.
04:20Director Bob Chinn held open casting sessions and Holmes showed up at an audition.
04:25I took one look at him.
04:27He was skinny, scrawny guy with an afro hairdo.
04:34And he just was not attractive.
04:36I said, I don't think so.
04:37And he says, I think you'll reconsider.
04:41And he took his pants down.
04:43And I reconsidered.
04:45After 20 minutes scribbling on a napkin, Chinn created a character, porno private detective
04:50Johnny Wad.
04:51We got him to cut his hair a little, plaster it down with brilliantine and tried to make
04:59him look like a private eye.
05:00I just called him Johnny Wad because my partner, when he saw what John had, said, God, what
05:08a wad that guy has.
05:11Chinn was paid $75 to star as the title character in Johnny Wad.
05:15The film was shot in two days on a budget of $2,500.
05:19The Johnny Wad films made a lot of money.
05:21They were blockbusters in their day.
05:24Adult film director Jim Holliday.
05:26John Holmes became identified as Johnny Wad.
05:29And in fact, I'd say through the first half of the 70s, Johnny Wad was better known than
05:35John C. Holmes, the actor who portrayed him.
05:37He was often mistaken for the character.
05:40Despite their popularity, porn films were still illegal.
05:43It was sort of this dichotomy that people were lined up and it was legal to go see these
05:50films.
05:51But if you got caught in the act of making one of the films, you could go to jail.
05:54And people did.
05:56The pornsters hatched elaborate plots to evade the police.
05:59It was a guerrilla style of shooting.
06:02Nobody knew where we were shooting until the day came and we went from car to car.
06:10And eventually to our location.
06:15It was a wild and woolly business with its own distinctive customers.
06:19Photographer Joel Sussman.
06:20There were times in this business when you'd work on a set and you'd look down below the
06:24camera and there'd be a mirror with coke on it.
06:26And everyone would come by and have a hit.
06:28It was just part of that process.
06:31Though cocaine was everywhere, Holmes did not touch the stuff.
06:34At first.
06:39John Holmes was an unemployed hick with two bad lungs and few prospects when fate in the
06:44form of an awestruck photographer walked into his life.
06:48What happened to John can be called a fairy tale.
06:50An X-rated fairy tale.
06:56When I first worked with him, the film Johnny Wad, he wouldn't even smoke marijuana.
07:01He smoked cigarettes, but he wouldn't touch grass.
07:06After a couple of films, I found out he smoked grass, which was cool.
07:09I did too, so it was no big deal.
07:16And then he started drinking.
07:18He never drank before.
07:20John was having the time of his life.
07:22His wife Sharon wasn't.
07:24She didn't like the porn business and she didn't like the drugs.
07:27The stress made her sick.
07:28I told him, I said, I can't accept this.
07:31What you are doing is making me ill.
07:34And I can't compromise.
07:36I won't compromise.
07:38I'll be your friend.
07:39I'll be your companion.
07:40I'll be everything but your lover.
07:43But John refused to give up porn.
07:46Holmes was addicted to the money, sex and adulation.
07:49He began to think of himself as Johnny Wad, the generous stud who protected the innocent
07:54from evil.
07:55John had a very strange ego.
07:56He needed to be constantly buoyed up because of his insecurities, of his own personality.
08:02Holmes created a romantic fictional past.
08:05The following is an excerpt from a 1982 interview with Holmes.
08:09I was going to UCLA and starving to death.
08:14What were you taking?
08:17Physical therapist and pediatrics while I wound up being.
08:20Former porn producer Julius St. Vincent.
08:23He lied about everything he said.
08:26I mean, he was nothing but a complete liar most of the time.
08:30His feelings were a lie.
08:32Everything that he said to people where he had been was a lie.
08:35Writer Mike Sager.
08:36There were really two John Holmeses, the one that he had manufactured and told the story,
08:42living a privileged childhood, losing his virginity to his French nanny.
08:47In 1975, Sharon was offered the chance to manage an apartment complex in Glendale, five
08:52miles from downtown Los Angeles.
08:55Sharon and John moved into a house on the property.
08:57A year later, Bill Schiller, his son and two daughters moved into the building.
09:02Dawn, the oldest daughter, appears in silhouette to protect her identity.
09:07When we were introduced, he kind of just looked me up and down and went, I said, what?
09:14And he said, too young.
09:16And he turned around and walked out the door.
09:18And that kind of really pissed me off, you know, initially.
09:21But it did make me notice him.
09:23Their affair began almost immediately.
09:26On one occasion, Holmes took her to see a Johnny Wad flick.
09:29We were seated and everybody who worked there made their turn walking past us at the aisle.
09:34And then when the first shots of him being naked showed up on the screen, I started laughing.
09:40And he nudged me in my ribs.
09:42And then he started laughing.
09:43And the both of us just giggled like little kids.
09:46And, you know, and that's pretty much how he broke me into the world, understanding
09:50the world of porno.
09:51John's wife, Sharon, was oblivious to the affair.
09:54He put up a real big wall regarding Sharon.
09:57Basically, he made her unapproachable to me.
10:00In 1977, Dawn's father left California.
10:04He sent Dawn's brother and sister to live with their mother.
10:07But Dawn stayed in Glendale.
10:09Holmes had her all to himself.
10:11By this time, Holmes was completely immersed in the porn business.
10:14He had like standing offers from people in Hollywood where they'd say, we'll give
10:18you $1,000 to do a video a day.
10:21So he got to that point.
10:22And I think at that point, he was bored.
10:26And that boredom eventually led him to drugs.
10:29Slowly the cocaine started coming into the picture.
10:32He would dish out a few lines and we'd stay up all night and, you know, walk the streets
10:38or something, or go camping and then come back.
10:43As the couple's cocaine use escalated, Dawn and John would go to Hollywood clubs to score
10:47drugs.
10:48This soon led to a meeting with one of Hollywood's most powerful men, club owner Adel Nazarala,
10:54also known as Eddie Nash.
10:55Eddie Nash was the godfather of Hollywood.
10:59He was a Palestinian national who moved to L.A. in the 50s.
11:03And by the 60s, he had a hot dog stand on Hollywood Boulevard.
11:07He quickly went from a hot dog stand on Hollywood Boulevard to owning all these nightclubs,
11:12gay nightclubs, black nightclubs, strip bars.
11:16He really controlled nightclub life in Hollywood.
11:20Eddie was a big-time club owner who lived a big-time drug-doing life, just as you imagine,
11:28you know, girls in the house, lots of sex, lots of people coming and going.
11:36You know, the Hollywood lifestyle of the drug era.
11:39Nash ran his drug operation out of his Hollywood home.
11:42One of Nash's customers was Scott Torson, the former lover of entertainer Liberace.
11:47It was just incredible.
11:48I mean, it was just a rotating door that never stopped.
11:53People in and out of all hours of the night, probably 50, 70 different people, just in
12:00and out, in and out, money, drugs, money, drugs, money, drugs, money, drugs, heroin,
12:06cocaine.
12:07It was just an incredible scene.
12:08It was something like out of Scarface.
12:11A scene complete with a well-armed 300-pound bodyguard named Greg Dials.
12:19Holmes and Nash quickly became friends and business associates.
12:22Nash had drugs and John had celebrity appeal.
12:25And I think Eddie Nash was a fan of John's.
12:28You know, John had cachet because he was the king of porn and famous, you know.
12:34And if you're a drug-dealing godfather of Hollywood nightclub life, you want a guy like
12:40John Holmes, or, you know, everybody's interested in him, you know, hey, here's my friend John
12:44Holmes.
12:46There was just one problem.
12:48Holmes was addicted to coke, and before long, he was in debt to Nash, and that debt would
12:53one day lead to murder.
12:58By 1979, John Holmes was not just abusing coke, he was selling it, and soon his young
13:03girlfriend Dawn was involved.
13:05Then at one point, I started weighing the cocaine for him and breaking them down into
13:10grams, you know, making the little gram packets.
13:13In 1980, Eddie Nash became addicted to a form of cocaine known as Freebase, author Niles
13:19B. Gravillius.
13:22I've interviewed numerous drug addicts.
13:24Many of them describe becoming addicted to base cocaine or crack cocaine with the first
13:29hit or the first use.
13:31And then the euphoria is never the same again thereafter.
13:35They're constantly chasing the first high that they ever obtained from that drug.
13:40Nash became so addicted to the drug that he began to isolate himself in his house.
13:44Scott Torson, Liberace's former lover, was one of Nash's customers.
13:48He'd never go to his clubs.
13:50The money was brought to him, the drugs were brought to him.
13:54He conducted everything out of his bedroom and the telephone.
13:58Soon John Holmes was freebasing as well.
14:01Holmes often dragged his girlfriend Dawn along to Nash's house.
14:05John used to make her wait in the car.
14:07You know, he basically treated her like a dog.
14:10And he would go in and use Freebase cocaine with Eddie Nash for literally days on end.
14:17He would come out and pretend to get something from the car and drop me a rock or two to
14:22keep me going while I was in the car.
14:27He carried around a briefcase with butane torches and cocaine and all his paraphernalia
14:33so he could Freebase wherever he went.
14:36So you know, when you're doing that, you know, when you have a little briefcase that you
14:41carry everywhere with you, with your Freebase pipes, you know, you're in it pretty seriously.
14:49John's habits started to affect his work.
14:52He never knew where he was.
14:54It was usually loaded.
14:56So he'd come in, I don't know if he was on Quaaludes or Coke or whatever it was.
15:03Former porn actress Sharon Mitchell recalls Holmes' behaviour.
15:07John was like one of the main stars of the movie and we had been shooting everything
15:11but his scene because we couldn't find him for the majority of the day.
15:14I went into the closet for some reason and he was in the closet getting high.
15:19I've been in the closet getting loaded all day long and was just terrified and just hiding
15:25and just in a real paranoid state.
15:28And that's when the seriousness of, you know, his addiction kind of affected me.
15:35The drug sapped John's strength and his desire for sex.
15:39And suddenly he can't maintain an erection because of his drug addiction.
15:44You're not going to have a career.
15:45I mean, that's why they're hiring.
15:47You know, you either can get it up or you can't.
15:51Unable to perform, John was blacklisted from the adult film business.
15:55But he needed money to feed his habit.
15:58He was starting to steal big things from the house.
16:01Half of my heritage from my grandparents disappeared.
16:05And I took to hiding things in strange places, you know, like pockets and coats and that
16:12kind of thing and darned if he wouldn't find them.
16:15In 1980, adult film star Gloria Leonard and her husband learned first-hand about Holmes'
16:20desperation.
16:22We stupidly made the mistake of telling him that we wouldn't be home till noon because
16:27we had a chore to do in the morning.
16:29When we did get home at noon, our house was emptied of everything.
16:35Not only all of our valuables, electronic equipment and jewelry, but virtually everything
16:41that looked like it could be worth more than three or four bucks, the toaster, the iron,
16:45the hairdryer.
16:47The drugs made Holmes paranoid and mean.
16:50It started off with, you know, backhand shots while we were driving, accusations of I only
16:57wanted the drug.
16:58I didn't love him anymore.
16:59I just wanted the drug.
17:00And, of course, I would deny it and I would cry.
17:05John's world was imploding.
17:07Desperate for money, he exploited his one asset.
17:10John began hanging out in gay nightclubs.
17:14A lot of gay men were attracted to John Holmes because he had a 13-inch penis and they wanted
17:19to hang out with him and give him cocaine and hopefully they could sleep with him.
17:23And I'm sure if you gave John Holmes enough cocaine, you could sleep with him.
17:27Holmes not only prostituted himself, but Dawn as well.
17:30He ended up beating me so bad a bunch of times in order to get me out and turn tricks.
17:36He taught me what to do.
17:37He told me what to say.
17:38He told me what to be careful of.
17:40He told me how much.
17:42And then after I was done, I'd come back and give him the money and he'd beat the crap
17:47out of me.
17:48Afterwards, I'd come back and he'd put me in the bathtub and just scrub me with boiling
17:52hot water, just scalding water, and scrub me down.
17:56Though John tried to keep the cash flowing to feed his habit, he often fell short.
18:01His good friend, Eddie Nash, sold Holmes cocaine on credit, which John quickly used up.
18:07John became so desperate, he sold Dawn to Nash.
18:10One week after that, John sold Dawn to a female pimp who ran a brothel in the valley.
18:15Dawn finally realizes this is a bad, bad scene.
18:19And John's beating her up all the time.
18:22He's forcing her to have sex with people so they can get drugs.
18:26And she finally runs back home to, I believe it's somewhere in the Northwest.
18:31And she runs back to her mother.
18:33And she's finally away from John.
18:35John called Dawn constantly, begging her to return.
18:38She refused.
18:40Without Dawn and in debt to Nash, John needed a new source for money and drugs.
18:44He was taking to stealing luggage off the conveyor belt at LAX, you know, Los Angeles
18:51International Airport, in order to support his drug habit.
18:57January 1981.
18:59John was arrested while stealing a computer from a car.
19:02He was released on bail.
19:04To make matters worse, Nash cut off John's drug supply.
19:07Holmes' search for new drug connection led him to 8763 Wonderland Avenue and 43-year-old
19:13Joy Miller.
19:14Basically, Joy Miller was this affluent woman who became a heroin addict and, you know,
19:22took the long slide down.
19:25And she used her house on Wonderland Avenue to basically support this gang of heroin addicts.
19:39The house was green as stucco with a staircase outside encased in iron.
19:45And you had to push a button to get in.
19:49People would come and go from the house day and night.
19:52Again, that balcony came into play.
19:54They would just throw the drugs down and the money up.
19:57And basically, the Wonderland Avenue gang were a bunch of dope house rip-offs.
20:01They would get police badges and go rip off drug dealers.
20:05And then they would sell the drugs.
20:07So that's what they were known for.
20:09The drug gang included Miller's boyfriend, 43-year-old Bill Deverell, a crane operator
20:14from Los Angeles, 34-year-old David Lynn, 36-year-old Ron Lanius and 39-year-old Tracy
20:20Ray McCourt.
20:22Holmes befriended the gang.
20:24The hardcore criminals were not impressed by the fallen porn star.
20:27And they basically think he's a joke and they're making fun of him.
20:30And they're, you know, making him whip out his penis, you know, as a novelty.
20:35You know, they think this guy's a jerk, you know, but they keep him around, you know,
20:40as this kind of pet.
20:44In early 1981, John was given one last chance to work in his chosen profession.
20:49Former girlfriend Julius and Vincent hoped that John's comeback film, Exhausted, would
20:53save her production company from bankruptcy.
20:57He was very difficult.
21:00We sat a shoot up with about 25 crew members.
21:04He comes in late.
21:06He's a complete mess.
21:08We put him into makeup.
21:09He's franting and, you know, flipping out about everything that we wanted.
21:13He was totally incapable of working.
21:20But the producer had spent about $3,000 to secure this location.
21:27He was by the phone the whole time, waiting for a call.
21:29And when the call came, he says, I have to leave just for 15 minutes.
21:35I'll be back in 15 minutes.
21:36I've just got to go to a place nearby.
21:40It's on Wonderland.
21:51John Holmes hit rock bottom in 1981.
21:54Although his girlfriend had returned, his dealer had cut him off.
21:58His new drug connection mocked and ridiculed him, and his comeback sex film was a disaster.
22:04John thought he had fallen as far as he could.
22:08But he was wrong.
22:12While freebasing with Ron Lanius, Bill Deverell, David Lind, and Tracy Ray McCourt, Holmes
22:17laid out his plan for a score.
22:19It was a simple robbery.
22:21The victim, drug dealer Eddie Nash.
22:23On June the 28th, 1981, Holmes went to Nash's house on the pretense of scoring some coke.
22:30John goes there, spends a night freebasing cocaine with Eddie Nash, and before he leaves,
22:36he leaves the sliding glass door open so the gang can come to the house and go in through
22:42the sliding glass door and hold Eddie Nash up, basically.
22:48At 5 a.m., John returned to Wonderland, expecting the crew to immediately leave for Nash's.
22:54But they were too doped up to do anything but sleep.
22:57Finally, at 8 a.m., the gang got their act together and left for Eddie Nash's house.
23:02The drive lasted 10 minutes.
23:04The group entered Nash's house using the back door Holmes had left open.
23:10And they have San Francisco police badges, which they flash.
23:14And they say, this is a bust, you're under arrest, you know.
23:18And they quickly tie up Eddie Nash.
23:21Nash led the robbers to his secret stash.
23:24They found the safe where the $100,000 worth of cocaine and a vial of pure heroin was and
23:32about $100,000 in jewelry and cash, and they really got off with a big score.
23:38Within 20 minutes, the thieves were on their way back to Wonderland, just one mile away.
23:42They only made one mistake, they didn't kill Eddie Nash and Gregory Dawes, they let them live.
23:47At Wonderland, the loot was divided, with John receiving far less than he thought he deserved.
23:52And I think Holmes is extremely upset because he set up this thing and he finds out that
23:57they, you know, got $100,000 worth of coke and here he's just got a few grams from it.
24:02Holmes took what little was offered and met up with Dawn in the San Fernando Valley.
24:08He came up into the apartment, of course we went into the bathroom again, and he uncovered
24:14one of the largest piles of cocaine I'd ever seen.
24:17He was very high, very haggard looking again, but very, very high.
24:22And he started dishing out the cocaine like nothing happened, like nothing changed.
24:28Later that morning, Nash and his bodyguard freed themselves.
24:31Eddie Nash was, again, a big drug-doer.
24:35He was a Palestinian with a lot of pride.
24:38He was kind of a godfather of his own world, and he was incensed, anyone is incensed when
24:46a robber comes in, but he was particularly incensed.
24:50Liberace's lover, Scott Torson, often traded Liberace's personal belongings for freebase.
24:55He claims to have been at Nash's house on the day of the robbery.
24:59He was very angry, and he told me that he had been robbed.
25:04And he had sent Dials out, because they found out that John Holmes had set the robbery up.
25:10That same evening, Nash's men tracked Holmes down.
25:13Torson was still at Nash's when John was dragged in.
25:16The next thing I know is that Dials had barged in the front door with Holmes by the back
25:24of the neck, marched him right into Nash's bedroom, and then that's when I was asked
25:30to leave, and so I went into the living room.
25:35And I could actually hear him, I mean, Nash had a violent temper.
25:41He was screaming, he was threatening to kill John, he was threatening to kill every member
25:46of his family.
25:48Dials was beating the hell out of him, he was slamming his body.
25:53You know, you could hear the furniture, you could actually hear him slamming him up against
25:57the walls.
25:58An hour later, Holmes was led out of the bedroom.
26:02Dials had him by the back of the neck, escorting him out.
26:06And Dials had a big, I don't know if it was a bat or a pipe in his hand.
26:11Dials allegedly borrowed Torson's car and drove over to the Wonderland residence with
26:15Holmes and two other men.
26:16It was now approximately 4am on July the 1st, 1981.
26:20Someone punched in the security code, and they said, who is it, and he said, it's John
26:25Holmes.
26:26And they let him in.
26:27They weren't suspicious at all.
26:28They were really not suspecting that they were going to be attacked.
26:33But they were attacked.
26:35Lind and McCourt weren't home.
26:37McCourt was staying at his own place, and Lind was on his way to appear before a Sacramento
26:41court.
26:42Barbara Richardson was watching television when the attackers entered.
26:46Unlike the others in the house, Richardson was not a drug dealer.
26:49He was there to visit David Lind.
26:52The three killers, carrying metal pipes, beat Richardson to death, then attacked Joy Miller
26:57and Billy Deverell, who were asleep in their bedroom.
27:00Finally, they set on Ron Lanius and his wife Susan, down from Sacramento to visit her estranged
27:05husband.
27:07As the killers moved through the house, they left in their wake a river of blood.
27:11Neighbors later reported hearing screams, but they chalked up the noise to normal drug
27:15dealing activities.
27:22It's very telling of the nature of Los Angeles and its people, at least its upscale people
27:27at the time, that when the screams were heard from the Wonderland house, that some of the
27:31neighbors reported later thinking that it was just primal scream therapy and not anything
27:37to do with crime.
27:38The beatings lasted well over an hour.
27:41The killers left only when they felt certain that everyone was dead.
27:44At about 5 a.m., the killers returned to Nash's house with Holmes.
27:48When they brought Holmes back, you know, I noticed that there was blood on Holmes.
27:54I noticed that there was blood on Gregory Diles.
27:58Holmes was upset and scared.
28:00John went to the only safe place he knew, his wife's apartment.
28:03It was early on the morning of July the 1st, just hours after the murders, when Holmes
28:08knocked on her door.
28:10He was bloody.
28:12Face, a lot of blood on the clothes, you know, that kind of thing.
28:17And I asked him what happened and he said, I had an accident.
28:22You know, and I said, well, how did you get here?
28:24And he said, well, the car's okay.
28:27And he said, I'd like to clean up and I need to, you know, change my clothes.
28:33Sharon ran John a bath and sat in the bathroom talking to him.
28:38I said, this isn't a car accident.
28:41What happened?
28:42And he said, well, I have to tell you, I saw four people murdered.
28:50Then it starts spilling out, you know, like, okay, it's confession time and you've got
28:54to get it all out because, you know, it hurts too much to have it there.
28:59As the sun rose over Los Angeles, four victims lay dead inside the house on Wonderland Avenue.
29:05Miraculously, one victim, Susan Danius, was still clinging to life.
29:09The crime was not reported to the police until the evening of the next day.
29:15Meanwhile, everybody in the world apparently went through that house.
29:19When I say that, friends of the residents of the house, dopers, went through the house,
29:27stole the dope, stole some money, walked over the bodies and no one called the police.
29:32Finally at 3.52 p.m. on the afternoon of July the 1st, 1981, nearly 12 hours after the brutal
29:38assault, the crime was reported to the police.
29:42A woman's moans were heard by a mover who was working next door.
29:47He went to the house on Wonderland Avenue and found a woman beaten almost to death.
29:56Across town, John Holmes left his wife's house and made his way back to the Hollywood motel
30:00room where he'd left his 21-year-old girlfriend, Dawn.
30:05And he looked terrible.
30:07It was daylight when he came back.
30:10His eyes were bloodshot.
30:12His face was just pale and his demeanor was very dejected.
30:21Early next morning, July the 2nd, the cops caught a break.
30:24David Lind was a biker from the Sacramento area.
30:31David Lind revealed to us that he and Ron Launius and Bill Deverell had robbed a local
30:43purported narcotics dealer by the name of Ed Nash.
30:46He then brought up John Holmes and alluded to John Holmes being a so-called intermediary
30:54between the group up at Wonderland where the killings happened, the victims, and Ed
31:00Nash.
31:01The cops put out an all-points bulletin for John Holmes.
31:05Finally they tracked him down at the Hollywood motel.
31:08John was sitting on the bed facing the door and all of a sudden I heard this giant explosion
31:13and I thought it was a bomb.
31:14I jumped into his lap and grabbed a hold of him and we were pressed up against the wall
31:19and the police yelled freeze.
31:23John was booked but quickly released.
31:27Meanwhile John languished in jail overnight.
31:30The next day we got a phone call from John in jail and he said you have to get me out,
31:34you have to come up with a bail.
31:36He said they're going to kill me, I've had several death threats already.
31:40But before Dawn and Sharon could raise the bail money, Holmes apparently changed his
31:45mind.
31:46In exchange for witness protection, he would tell the cops everything.
31:49The police officers called Sharon and Dawn.
31:52They said they had John in protective custody.
31:54He was willing to give them some information but he wasn't going to do it until he could
31:57speak to both Sharon and I together.
32:00Dawn and Sharon both agreed to meet Holmes.
32:03Officers picked the women up, brought them to the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
32:08For the next couple of days we just kind of sat around very quiet.
32:11We all slept in the same bed with John in the middle.
32:14We had our meals served to us, you know, with guards with guns or cops with guns.
32:19John kept stalling the detectives.
32:21After two nights, the police switched hotels.
32:24By the fifth day, the police still weren't getting anywhere with John.
32:27He took full advantage of this type of treatment and essentially we never got out of him what
32:35we wanted to get out of him and what we knew that he had.
32:39Things broke down at that point.
32:40They didn't believe what he was telling them.
32:43They just basically brought us back.
32:46The cops set Dawn, John and Sharon free with a stern warning.
32:54John and Dawn were nearly ready to skip town but John wanted more money.
32:59Holmes was so desperate that he was willing to risk his life.
33:03John came up with the idea that Eddie Nash would possibly give us some money.
33:06We drove to the coffee shop just below Eddie Nash's house in Laurel Canyon and John
33:16concocted this plan.
33:18Incredibly, Holmes wanted to ask Nash for more getaway money.
33:22His insurance policy, an outrageous lie.
33:26His idea was to tell him that someone was waiting for him if he didn't show up in an
33:28hour, that this person had letters that was going to be mailed to all these other people
33:34with information about Eddie.
33:37Holmes left Dawn at the coffee shop.
33:39She grew more frightened and nervous with each long minute.
33:42Finally, after an hour and a half, John returned.
33:46Well, he said he went up and he approached Eddie about giving him the money and that
33:50Eddie said, why should I give you any money?
33:51Why shouldn't I kill you right here?
33:53And he said that a gun was put to his head and he was made to beg for his life.
33:59According to Holmes, Nash finally agreed to give him $3,000.
34:02John and Dawn were supposed to wait 30 minutes, then check Nash's mailbox.
34:08Inside was an envelope.
34:09There was half of what he'd asked for.
34:12So from there, we just started driving.
34:15The shaken couple made a beeline for John's sister's house in Montana.
34:20He thought it was safe, but the law was on his heels.
34:29Back in Los Angeles, the cops were turning up the heat on club owner Eddie Nash.
34:34By October 1981, LAPD criminalists connected John Holmes to the murder scene.
34:40His palm print was found in one of the bedrooms.
34:45Police knew from informants that one of the victims, Ron Lanius, had always been cruel
34:49to Holmes, forcing him to display his penis at parties, as if Holmes was a circus animal.
34:56There appeared to be sufficient evidence to file murder charges on Holmes.
35:02The cops now wanted Holmes badly.
35:04He'd never appeared in court on his 1981 computer theft charge, so they used this as a pretext
35:10for an arrest warrant.
35:11We got a phone call from Ohio, from his mother, saying that the police had just been there,
35:16and the FBI, and that they were looking for us, and that we were considered armed and
35:21drug crazed.
35:22The couple took off for Florida, acting less like fugitives and more like newlyweds, stopping
35:27at all the famous tourist spots.
35:29He was back to his old self.
35:31He was, you know, fun to be around.
35:34We stopped at places like the Grand Canyon.
35:36We stopped at the Petrified Forest.
35:38We did a bunch of fun stuff again.
35:40But when money ran out, Holmes returned to his old ways.
35:44He started committing petty theft and breaking into cars.
35:47In one vehicle, John found a gun, which he kept as protection.
35:51After three weeks, they reached their destination.
35:54We arrived at North Miami Beach on Collins Avenue, and we pulled up to a transitional
35:58hotel called the Fountainhead.
36:01John found work as a carpenter at a nearby construction site.
36:05It just seems really like a couple of few weeks, basically.
36:10And I suspected John was using again.
36:12He seemed more stressed out when he came back at night.
36:15Pretty soon, he started making suggestions about some of the hotels that were across
36:19the street.
36:20And pretty soon, he was making suggestions about, you know, well, if a girl was to walk
36:24on the beach, she could probably make some money.
36:27I kind of turned a deaf ear to that kind of talk.
36:29But Holmes' suggestion became a command.
36:32He insisted that I go out on the beach.
36:34I refused.
36:35And I started crying, and I said, no, I'm not going to do that anymore.
36:39And he ended up beating the crap out of me.
36:43Dawn worked the beaches of North Miami, using a hotel up the road to turn tricks.
36:49He'd take the money, and he'd put me in the bathtub and scrub me up.
36:51And basically, you know, he just cried a lot.
36:55He hated having me to put me out there, you know.
36:57He said, but we really needed the money, because we have to go.
37:01After weeks of working the beach, Dawn finally refused.
37:04He started to beat me up, and I ran out the door.
37:07And I ran all the way down by the pool, and he caught up with me by my hair and beat the
37:12crap out of me right in front of everyone who we lived with, or lived around.
37:17No one helped.
37:18John left a few hours later.
37:20That's the last time I saw John.
37:24Dawn moved in with a stripper friend and gave police the address of John's hotel.
37:29November 1981, LAPD officers finally found 37-year-old John Holmes hiding out in Florida.
37:36Holmes was arrested and returned to Los Angeles, where he faced a tough choice.
37:41Inform on Eddie Nash, or be charged with murder.
37:44But Holmes refused to cooperate.
37:46He was scared to death.
37:48On December the 8th, 1981, to pressure Holmes to change his mind, John was officially charged
37:54with murder.
37:55That same day, bodyguard Gregory Dials was arrested.
37:58But police were forced to release him because the DA's office felt there was insufficient
38:02evidence.
38:05Holmes, however, was kept in custody and placed in a special ward in the LA County Jail, a
38:11unit reserved for high-profile prisoners.
38:14Even among these infamous killers, John was a celebrity.
38:18I was excited.
38:20I had seen his movies in years past.
38:23Vonda Lear was John's jailhouse psychologist.
38:26And I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I should be excited to see this porn star.
38:31But he was a celebrity, and it was kind of a fun idea.
38:35Various deputy sheriffs were going to John Holmes, getting his autograph.
38:40Oh, my God, this was a murderer.
38:42He should be treated as a murderer.
38:44So I was a little bit nervous.
38:46Oh, my God, this was a murderer.
38:48He should be treated as a murderer.
38:49So I was upset at that.
38:51Holmes became a prison trustee.
38:53But moving around the jail delivering magazines was sometimes dangerous.
38:57One time, somebody tried to stick a pencil in his eye.
39:00And another time, they went after him with a shank, a little weapon, knife they had made.
39:07And so they moved John to a single cell.
39:10Though these incidents were never connected to Nash, they reinforced John's fears that
39:15even in jail, those who wanted him dead could kill him.
39:23After six months in jail, John Holmes' murder trial began on June 3, 1982.
39:29Screw magazine publisher Al Goldstein covered the trial for Playboy.
39:33The atmosphere in the courtroom was fascination.
39:36It's a murder trial.
39:38It's a celebrity murder trial.
39:41You've got a porn actor who not only is charged with murder, he jumps bail.
39:48He's in hiding for months.
39:50It was like a bad novel.
39:53A bad novel Los Angeles couldn't put down.
39:55Pat Morrison reported on the trial for the Los Angeles Times.
39:59There were so many things about this case that had not happened before
40:03or that caught the public's attention.
40:05For one thing, when this finally came to trial,
40:08it was the first time ever in the history of the American judicial system
40:12that videotape of the murder scene, the crime scene, was admitted as evidence.
40:18And what that videotape showed was this blood-strewn, upscale house
40:23in which four people had been beaten to death by steel pipes and baseball bats,
40:28another person critically wounded.
40:31Prosecutor Ron Cohen.
40:33It just showed how horrible murder can be.
40:36That was very, very strong.
40:38We knew what the murder weapon was because the bodies had threads on them.
40:42It was a pipe, a threaded pipe.
40:44The bodies actually on the wounds had the threads of the pipe embedded in them.
40:49It was blood all over.
40:51I remember I threw up twice.
40:54It was particularly gruesome.
40:56It was not just the murder of these people,
40:59but it was a murder that the perpetrators enjoyed doing.
41:03On June 7th, Susan Lanius, the medical survivor, took the stand.
41:08She would never be able to identify anyone.
41:11About as close as we got, she recalled noises, thumping noises.
41:18She recalled shadowy figures coming at her.
41:22Star witness David Lind linked John Holmes
41:25to the robbery at drug dealer Ed Nash's and the murders on Wonderland Avenue.
41:29He would not be bullied on the stand.
41:31He would not be intimidated by anybody.
41:34Without a doubt, I think David Lind initially was the strongest witness.
41:38The prosecutor seemed to have a strong circumstantial case against Holmes.
41:43Holmes claimed he was only present at the murders because he feared for his life.
41:48But according to Prosecutor Cohen, the distinction was irrelevant.
41:52Duress is not a defence to murder.
41:56Somehow the defence was able to argue it.
41:59Holmes' lawyers called no witnesses.
42:01But in their closing arguments, the defence attorneys repeated charges
42:05that the real killers who also threatened John Holmes were still at large.
42:09On June 25th, 1982, almost a year after the murders,
42:14John Curtis Holmes was found not guilty.
42:19I was so shocked when I was not guilty.
42:22And here I was, a young deputy district attorney,
42:26and I walk out into a milieu of TV cameras and lights,
42:29and I have microphones stuffed into my face saying,
42:33well, how do you feel?
42:35And the only thing I remember saying is,
42:37well, the sun will rise tomorrow, because I was too much in shock.
42:44Now a free man, Holmes had nothing.
42:47No career, no money, no women.
42:49So he returned to what he knew best, sex films.
42:53Former film actor Bill Margold.
42:55He came back, hail, hail, the king is alive.
42:57He was tired, but again, he was still able to function,
43:01because within the same time frame, Misty Dawn,
43:04on the set of Marathon in San Francisco, says,
43:06I can't wait to get that man up my ass.
43:08Porn star Ron Jeremy recalls it was a tense time for Holmes.
43:11He was afraid that there was people out to hurt him,
43:14because supposedly the whole thing between him and Ed Nash and Greg Dials.
43:17So he had a gun. He had a gun on him.
43:20His assistant Bill Emerson had a gun.
43:22All these guys are packing.
43:24In 1984, John also did something he'd never done before.
43:27He made a feature-length gay sex movie.
43:30John Holmes did a movie, a gay film,
43:32for a company called Paradise Visuals,
43:34and the actor he worked with in that movie supposedly got ill, too, from a virus.
43:38In July 1986, Holmes was diagnosed with AIDS,
43:42but he didn't let the disease stop his work.
43:44When rumours about his HIV status circulated around Los Angeles,
43:48John went to Italy and made films
43:50with the country's most famous sex star, Ciccolina.
43:53It really is a horror story.
43:54What makes it so horrendous is that, you know,
43:56John Holmes knew he had the virus,
43:58and he went across the ocean to work with Ciccolina.
44:01He actually had sex with her, and I talked to her years afterwards,
44:03and she thought he was a total creep for that.
44:06Detective Tom Lang also learned of John's illness.
44:09Lang hoped the spectre of death would cause Holmes to reveal the truth.
44:14He played it to the hilt all the way to the end.
44:17Never got a straight answer out of him.
44:20He was all crap right up to the moment he died.
44:26After the death of Holmes in March 1988,
44:29Diles remained under the watchful eye of the LAPD
44:32until he died of liver failure in 1997.
44:35That same year, a joint federal, state, and local task force
44:38began re-examining the Wonderland murders.
44:41As a result, in early 2000,
44:44a federal grand jury indicted Nash
44:46on charges of running a racketeering enterprise for 25 years.
44:52The 16-count indictment also accused Nash
44:55of ordering the Wonderland murders.
44:5971-year-old Nash was arrested at his home in Tarzana, California.
45:04Nash pled guilty to all charges
45:06and was jailed awaiting trial in 2001.
45:10John Holmes' ex-wife Sharon retired from a career in nursing.
45:14John Holmes' girlfriend Dawn pulled her life together.
45:17She is now sober, married, and a mother of a young child.
45:21Drug addiction is really powerful.
45:23It can change your life in an instant
45:25without you even being aware of what's happened.
45:28Not a lot of people make it.
45:30I consider myself one of the lucky ones.
45:33John Holmes was an addict who beat his girlfriend,
45:36a thief who got mixed up in a brutal murder,
45:38a porn star who continued to work even after he knew he had AIDS.
45:42And yet even today, he remains a hero to many.
45:45It's difficult to imagine the industry without him
45:49because everybody has aspired to be him.
45:51Because everybody has wanted to be the king,
45:53but there's only been one king.
45:55Others, including former porn producer Julius and Vincent,
45:58feel differently.
46:00He wanted the real person of you to show.
46:05He wanted to rip your heart out and find out what it was made of.
46:09He wanted your soul.
46:12If they think who he was and what he did
46:16and the sum total of his life was heroic,
46:20they're mentally defective.
46:22I'm sorry.
46:24I can't say anything else.
46:27.