1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,720 Speaker 1: Greetings, mister and missus, Hollywood and true crime fans, happy 2 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:08,119 Speaker 1: to be in your headphones this week for another dip 3 00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:11,880 Speaker 1: into the Hollywood Land archive. This time we are revisiting 4 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: our story on the Wonderland Murders in John Holmes. Now, 5 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:20,560 Speaker 1: this story, it's always intrigued me ever since I saw 6 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: the film Boogie Nights and Theaters back in nineteen ninety seven. 7 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,319 Speaker 1: I knew that that robbery scene toward the end of 8 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: the second act with the dude in the robe and 9 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: the firecrackers was based on something true, but I didn't 10 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:34,959 Speaker 1: know what at the time. And well, this story we're 11 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: about to tell you is the basis for that electric, 12 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 1: intense part of Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece. The truth of 13 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,479 Speaker 1: this story is stranger than the fiction that we watched 14 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:49,479 Speaker 1: on screen, and I hope you dig it. Let us 15 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:51,800 Speaker 1: know in our bonus Rap Party episode. Give us a 16 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:54,280 Speaker 1: call or send us a text at six one seven 17 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: nine oh six sixty six three eight and you might 18 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:59,160 Speaker 1: hear yourself on the bonus episode coming up right after 19 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:03,240 Speaker 1: this episode on the Wonderland Murders. So strap yourself in 20 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:06,759 Speaker 1: for John Holmes, Eddie Nash and a bunch of Bad, Bad, 21 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: Bad in this episode of hollywood Land. 22 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:15,560 Speaker 2: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 23 00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:17,880 Speaker 2: Please check the show notes for more information. 24 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:41,959 Speaker 1: Hollywood Land is a production of Double Elvis. 25 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 2: Counters Nger, you're the smartest man, Ammathe, Come right in. 26 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 1: You're welcome to anything in the house. Be hungry. Well, yes, 27 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: I was just out trying to steer up an appetite 28 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:47,320 Speaker 1: for breakfast. Welcome right in, and well sieve we can't 29 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,400 Speaker 1: scare up a breakfast for your appetite. I know while 30 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: enjoy it. The stories about John Holmes are insane. He 31 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 1: appeared over two thousand adult films with his famously freakish 32 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: large unit that measured over a foot in length. At 33 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: the height of his fame, he raked in three grand 34 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: a day and by his own cow, he reportedly slept 35 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: with over fourteen thousand women, and in times of desperation, 36 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,640 Speaker 1: he ran drugs for the Wonderland Gang, a motley crew 37 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: of junkies and cons who stole from other junkies and 38 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: cons in Los Angeles in order to support their own habits. 39 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,360 Speaker 1: By the early nineteen eighties, his freebase habit had become 40 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:36,640 Speaker 1: so devastating that he could no longer get hard, and 41 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: John Holmes wanted to get hard again. Through it all, 42 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 1: John Holmes made great films. I don't know. I've never 43 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:46,959 Speaker 1: seen a John Holmes movie, so I can't really say. 44 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:48,919 Speaker 1: But the clip I played for you at the top 45 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: of the show that was definitely not from a great film, 46 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: And that was a fair youse sample from the Library 47 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: of Congress of Steve Porter and Ernest Hare in a 48 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine vaudeville production of The Arkansas Traveler. I 49 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:04,799 Speaker 1: played you that clip because I can't afford the rights 50 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: to sample Richard Lester's Superman two. 51 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 2: And why would I play. 52 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 1: You that specific slice of Daily Planet Celluloid Cheese. 53 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 2: Could I afford it? Because that was. 54 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: The number one movie in America on July one, nineteen 55 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: eighty one, and that was the day that the Wonderland 56 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:26,839 Speaker 1: Game were bludgeoned to death inside their house in Los Angeles. 57 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:30,720 Speaker 1: A murder is so gruesome that investigators had to literally 58 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:33,040 Speaker 1: scraped the bodies of the victims off. 59 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 2: The walls and the floors. 60 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: On this episode, freakishly large units freebasing a brutal murder 61 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: scene in John Holmes, I'm Jake Brennan and this is 62 00:03:47,520 --> 00:04:18,440 Speaker 1: Hollywood Land June twenty ninth, nineteen eighty one, a ranch 63 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:21,920 Speaker 1: style house in Studio City, California, just over the hill 64 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: from Hollywood, eight thirty am. The guy wearing nothing but 65 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: comfy sweats was bigger than the smashing grab man had expected, 66 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,279 Speaker 1: six feet four, three hundred pounds easy, but of his 67 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:36,840 Speaker 1: height and weight were a clear advantage over the would 68 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 1: be thieves normal sizes. The fact that he was holding 69 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:41,919 Speaker 1: a breakfast tray in his hands put him at a 70 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: serious disadvantage because the smashing grab guys. The three guys 71 00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:48,720 Speaker 1: who had slipped into the house through a sliding glass 72 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: door that had been left ajar and then made their 73 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 1: way swiftly down the hallway and into the living room. 74 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:58,880 Speaker 1: Those guys were strapped three fifty seven magnums in one hand, 75 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:02,440 Speaker 1: bogus police banded in the other. They yelled some bogus 76 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: shit about being the fuzz, which they obviously weren't. One 77 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,000 Speaker 1: look at their frazzled hair, bloodshot eyes, and track marked 78 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,920 Speaker 1: arms was a dead giveaway that they were desperate junkies 79 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:14,520 Speaker 1: who had just woken up from their latest nod off. 80 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:18,839 Speaker 1: Comfy sweats dropped the breakfast tray and shot a glance 81 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:21,240 Speaker 1: towards his bedroom where he had left his nine millimeter. 82 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: Then he looked over at the other man in the 83 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:26,080 Speaker 1: living room with the miss Boss, the thin one with 84 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: the curly hair, wearing nothing but blue underwear. Two of 85 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: the Smashing grab men were already on the blue Undie 86 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: stuard and they had one of the magnums to his temple. 87 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:38,960 Speaker 2: Where are the drugs? They were shouting, take us to 88 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:40,279 Speaker 2: the drugs, and. 89 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:43,440 Speaker 1: The third smashing grab guy was on comfy sweats, told 90 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 1: him to put his hands behind his back homelying with 91 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,440 Speaker 1: a pair of handcuffs, but his peace kept getting in 92 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: the way. Comfy sweats had thick wrists sweaty. The first 93 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:55,279 Speaker 1: smashing grab guy went over to help the third with 94 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,479 Speaker 1: the handcuffs and accidentally bumped into the hand holding the gun. 95 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: The gun went off, the bullet Gray's comfy sweats back 96 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:04,839 Speaker 1: and he began to bleed, and the sound of the 97 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:07,479 Speaker 1: gunshot blew some of the all Nighter free based sessh 98 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 1: from Blue Undy's brain, and he was quickly realizing that 99 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:11,679 Speaker 1: this wasn't a joke. 100 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:14,479 Speaker 2: These junkies were actually going to rob him. 101 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:16,919 Speaker 1: Do you know who I am Blue Undy's yell, his 102 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,800 Speaker 1: face getting hot and his temper getting marching orders from 103 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:21,000 Speaker 1: an ulcer in his stomach. 104 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:24,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, of course they did. The smash in Gravities knew 105 00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:25,960 Speaker 2: exactly who Blue Undis was. 106 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:32,719 Speaker 1: Adel Gharib Nasralla aka Eddie Nash, aka one of the 107 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,719 Speaker 1: most hard boiled, unfuck withable fuckers in this dirty, rotten 108 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: fuckhole of a city, Los Angeles, where fifty two year 109 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,360 Speaker 1: old Eddie Nash was living his version of the American dream. 110 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:45,919 Speaker 1: He came to La from Palestine in the nineteen fifties 111 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:48,800 Speaker 1: with nothing but a couple of bucks, and soon turned 112 00:06:48,839 --> 00:06:51,240 Speaker 1: those couple of bucks into a hot dog stand on 113 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: Hollywood Boulevard. Before long, he parlayed the hot dog stand 114 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,320 Speaker 1: into a resume of nightclubs on the strip, rock clubs, 115 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 1: gay clubs, black clubs, strip clubs, discos, places like the 116 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:04,840 Speaker 1: Star Ward, the Kitcat Club, the Seven Seas, Ali Babo's, 117 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,919 Speaker 1: the Paradise Ballroom, sold Out in the Odyssey, Places to see, 118 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: places to be seen, to dance, to grind pop, some ludes, 119 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:15,800 Speaker 1: let you freak, flag Fly, get some Strange. By the 120 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:18,840 Speaker 1: end of the seventies, Nash had more than thirty liquor 121 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: licenses on the books and was running drugs up and 122 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:24,760 Speaker 1: down the strip. Nash was king of Hollywood nightlife and 123 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:29,720 Speaker 1: godfather of Hollywood's underbelly. By nineteen eighty one, he was 124 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: worth over thirty million, and he had some serious shit 125 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:35,800 Speaker 1: locked inside a safe in his house on Dona Lola 126 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:40,040 Speaker 1: Place in the San Fernando Valleys studio city. So yeah, 127 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:42,560 Speaker 1: the smashing grab guy with the gun knew. 128 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 2: All about Eddie Nash. He just didn't give a fuck. 129 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:48,520 Speaker 1: He removed the barrel of the three fifty seven from 130 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:51,239 Speaker 1: Nash's temple and forced it inside Nash's mouth. 131 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:53,760 Speaker 2: He repeated the order, bring them to. 132 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:58,040 Speaker 1: The fucking safe now, motherfucker. The man with the gun 133 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:00,440 Speaker 1: was just as hard boiled as Eddie Nash. He just 134 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: didn't have a. 135 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 2: Thirty million dollar portfolio to. 136 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: Back it up. He was Ron Lanius, the facto leader 137 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 1: of the so called Wonderland Gang, a group of low 138 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:12,160 Speaker 1: level drug dealers who operated out of a house on 139 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,880 Speaker 1: Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. 140 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: The Wonderland Gang's mo was to steal from other dealers 141 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:23,760 Speaker 1: in gangs, Hence the pogus police badges and then sell 142 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:26,960 Speaker 1: the drugs themselves, thus ensuring a steady flow of cash, 143 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: smack and blow, while also keeping the product out of 144 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,720 Speaker 1: the hands of their competitors. Ron was probably the coldest 145 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:37,240 Speaker 1: of the bunch. A Vietnam vett who was dishonorably discharged 146 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:39,440 Speaker 1: from the US Army when he came back from the 147 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:42,559 Speaker 1: war with dope smuggled in the bodies of debt gis. 148 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: He was currently a person of interest in at least 149 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:48,920 Speaker 1: a dozen, if not two dozen, open homicides in La 150 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:51,960 Speaker 1: Ron was the kind of guy who thought a gat 151 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,440 Speaker 1: in the hand meant the world by the tail. Ron 152 00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:58,600 Speaker 1: lived in the Wonderland House with Joy Audrey Miller, a 153 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:01,520 Speaker 1: heroin addict who had set from her wealthy husband in 154 00:09:01,559 --> 00:09:05,320 Speaker 1: Beverly Hills, along with her boyfriend Billy Devero, who couldn't 155 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:07,800 Speaker 1: hold down a regular job due to his drug use. 156 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:11,680 Speaker 1: Ron and Billy were the two pulling off this heist 157 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:15,160 Speaker 1: to end all Heiss, along with the two other Wonderland regulars, 158 00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:17,599 Speaker 1: Tracy McCourt, who was sitting behind the wheel of the 159 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 1: getaway car outside, and David Lynde, the one who accidentally 160 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 1: shot the big guy in the comfy sweats. That guy 161 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:29,440 Speaker 1: was Eddie Nash's bodyguard, Gregory DeWitt Dials. The last time 162 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:32,199 Speaker 1: someone had tried to fuck over Eddie Nash, Dials chased 163 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:35,120 Speaker 1: the offending party from the Odyssey Nightclub in broad daylight 164 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:38,240 Speaker 1: on foot, across six lanes of traffic, and put every 165 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:41,320 Speaker 1: last bullet from his thirty eight into the deadbeat's hooptee. 166 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,640 Speaker 1: That was the guy that the Wonderland Gang now had 167 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:47,640 Speaker 1: in handcuffs, bleeding from his back, laying on his stomach 168 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,679 Speaker 1: on the floor. Nash took Ron and Billy to be 169 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:53,360 Speaker 1: safe and opened it. And they took it all zip 170 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 1: block bags of cocaine, roughly eight pounds worth, five thousand quailudes, 171 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,719 Speaker 1: a kilo of heroin a briefcase filled with over a 172 00:09:59,800 --> 00:10:02,199 Speaker 1: hun under grand in cash and shiny. 173 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:02,720 Speaker 2: Jewelry to boot. 174 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 1: It was an epic score, ridiculously laughably epic. The gang 175 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:10,880 Speaker 1: made a clean exit out to the car where Wheelman 176 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 1: McCourt was waiting, and they headed back to Wonderland with 177 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:20,080 Speaker 1: the spoils. The one thing that made this job different 178 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:22,520 Speaker 1: from any of the others was that Eddie Nash wasn't 179 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:25,680 Speaker 1: the gang's typical mark. He wasn't lower on the Underworld 180 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:29,160 Speaker 1: totem Pole. In fact, not only was he higher, he 181 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:31,760 Speaker 1: probably paid for the totem pole and instructed where it 182 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 1: should be built in the first place. Eddie Nash stood 183 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,959 Speaker 1: in his blue undies, still tasting the stainless steel from 184 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: the magnum that had been down his throat, looking at 185 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: the sliding glass door that the thieves had used to 186 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:47,600 Speaker 1: come and go from his house. No one put a 187 00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:50,880 Speaker 1: gun in Eddie Nash's mouth and lived to tell about it. 188 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:53,920 Speaker 1: He thought about the last person to visit his house 189 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,800 Speaker 1: the night before, just hours before those junkie hacks burst 190 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: in with their big guns and their bogus police badges. 191 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 2: Eddie Nash knew exactly who sent him up. He knew exactly. 192 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:08,040 Speaker 1: Who led those junkies to his doorstep, to a sliding 193 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:11,080 Speaker 1: glass door that was left open on purpose, for the 194 00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 1: sole purpose to fuck him over. It was the guy 195 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:18,480 Speaker 1: they called Wad Johnny Wadd, Big bad John, the hard 196 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:21,680 Speaker 1: boiled private dick with the grade A meet. But Nash 197 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:24,960 Speaker 1: knew him by his real name, the biggest hardest name 198 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:54,880 Speaker 1: in adult entertainment, John Holmes. In nineteen eighty one, John Holmes, 199 00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:58,760 Speaker 1: the poster boy for pornographic cinema in the nineteen seventies, 200 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:01,880 Speaker 1: no longer saw name in big black letters on the 201 00:12:01,920 --> 00:12:06,560 Speaker 1: marquis of the Pussycat Theater. In fact, John Holmes's name 202 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:12,160 Speaker 1: was mud why because of two problems. The first problem 203 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:14,679 Speaker 1: was that he was in serious debt. He was in 204 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:18,120 Speaker 1: deep He owed money to the Wonderland Gang. He worked 205 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:21,560 Speaker 1: as their errand boy, running drugs around town, but seeing 206 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:24,320 Speaker 1: as he was a strong out junkie himself, he couldn't 207 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,080 Speaker 1: help but sample the merchandise. Pretty soon, he had sampled 208 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:31,640 Speaker 1: thousands of dollars worth, so the gang turned on him. 209 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:33,920 Speaker 1: They wouldn't let him visit their house anymore, and they 210 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: told him if he didn't get them their money too sweet, 211 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:37,840 Speaker 1: they'd go one step further. 212 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:39,640 Speaker 2: They would kill him. 213 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:42,439 Speaker 1: And seeing that his name wasn't on the Pussycat marquis 214 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:45,360 Speaker 1: no more, well, he had zero prospects to keep his 215 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: pockets lined in his freebase by pot. He was straight fucked, 216 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,520 Speaker 1: and not in a sexy porn scene kind of way. 217 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:55,800 Speaker 1: The reason his name wasn't on the marquee anymore was 218 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:58,920 Speaker 1: on account of the second problem. The second problem was 219 00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:02,079 Speaker 1: that he couldn't get hard any more. John Holmes, owner 220 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,319 Speaker 1: of the biggest and hardest dick in Hollywood, had gone soft. 221 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:07,880 Speaker 1: And there was a time when he bawled all day. 222 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,920 Speaker 1: He was a fucking machine, and a fucking machine. He 223 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:13,160 Speaker 1: fucked all day long with that legendary dick of his 224 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 1: on the set of whatever movie he was shooting true 225 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:18,800 Speaker 1: blue skin flicks like the Jade Pussycat or Liquid Lips 226 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 1: or Flesh of the Lotus. And then he turned tricks 227 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:24,400 Speaker 1: offset on his own time. He did it in bedrooms 228 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:27,760 Speaker 1: and bathrooms and planes and helicopters, on rooftops, on beaches, 229 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:30,439 Speaker 1: on kitchen counters. And there wasn't a moment day or 230 00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:34,040 Speaker 1: night that he wasn't spanking, spunking, smashing or banging. And 231 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:38,319 Speaker 1: John Holmes was just a country boy from Ohio, lanky, mustached, 232 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:41,239 Speaker 1: and kind of goofy looking. But he had one particular 233 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 1: piece of impressive equipment, an unbelievably large penis. Depending on 234 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:50,520 Speaker 1: who you ask, it measured between twelve and sixteen inches long. 235 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:53,720 Speaker 1: Some say it was as thick as an adult man's wrists. 236 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:56,920 Speaker 1: It was an appendage so impressive and unbelievable that a 237 00:13:56,960 --> 00:13:59,960 Speaker 1: porn director created a character and wrote an entire movie 238 00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:04,079 Speaker 1: on the spot. When John dropped trout, imagine if you 239 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:08,280 Speaker 1: liw a cock that's not just impressive, it's downright inspiring. 240 00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 2: And the character's name was Johnny Wadd. 241 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:15,520 Speaker 1: That became John Holmes's big screen persona, a street tough 242 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:18,840 Speaker 1: detective who always got his man. He busted up criminal 243 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:22,720 Speaker 1: kingpins like this one guy they called Ringo, snubnosed handcannon 244 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: at his side, Johnny Wadd roughed up Ringo's lackeys, and 245 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:28,200 Speaker 1: then when he finally tracked down his nemesis, he got 246 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 1: to play the hard boiled, street tough badass, the guy 247 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,040 Speaker 1: who said things like there's only one thing I want 248 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:34,960 Speaker 1: to know from you, Ringo, and if you don't tell me, 249 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:38,040 Speaker 1: I'll take your fucking head off. And when Johnny Wadd 250 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:41,000 Speaker 1: wasn't busy getting his man, he was busy getting busy, 251 00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:45,680 Speaker 1: busy screwing every woman that crossed his path. John Holmes 252 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: was the first bona fide movie star of the burgeoning 253 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,880 Speaker 1: porn industry in the early seventies, arriving around the same 254 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:55,720 Speaker 1: time as Deep Throat, a controversial and incredibly popular film 255 00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:58,800 Speaker 1: that helped usher porn from stag party clips and private 256 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: booth loops to an actual cinematic industry. It was an 257 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:05,400 Speaker 1: industry that was so burgeoning that it was still a 258 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:09,600 Speaker 1: felony to produce pornographic materials. When Homes started his long 259 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:10,640 Speaker 1: career Forgive Me. 260 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 2: Early on, John was caught. 261 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:14,600 Speaker 1: Up in a bust on a movie set. They'd charged 262 00:15:14,680 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 1: him with pimping and pandering, and they let him off easy, 263 00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:20,720 Speaker 1: partly because the lapd vice squad convinced him to be 264 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:22,400 Speaker 1: their Johnny on the spot. 265 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 2: He'd prepared for that role. He was Johnny Watt after all. 266 00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:29,920 Speaker 1: In his films he wasn't always Johnny Wadd though, but 267 00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:32,800 Speaker 1: over the course of his career, John reportedly appeared in 268 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:36,080 Speaker 1: over two two hundred movies and claimed to have slept 269 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:39,280 Speaker 1: with fourteen thousand women. At the height of his career, 270 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:42,560 Speaker 1: he was pulling in three grand a day. His hard 271 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:45,200 Speaker 1: boiled private Dick persona, as well as his not so 272 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:48,800 Speaker 1: private actual heart Dick, became the stuff of legend. Even 273 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:52,600 Speaker 1: mythology agents lined up to find him work. His phone 274 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:55,520 Speaker 1: rang off the hook. Fans wrote asking for locks of 275 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:57,760 Speaker 1: his pubic hair. Women asked if he would take their 276 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:02,880 Speaker 1: daughter's virginity but not everyone was impressed. John's wife, Sharon, 277 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:05,520 Speaker 1: whom John had married when he was just twenty one, 278 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,800 Speaker 1: never understood why he quit his job driving a forklift 279 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,360 Speaker 1: at a meatpacking plant so that he could go, Okay, 280 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:13,040 Speaker 1: I'm not going to go for the cheap meat packing 281 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 1: double on tendre here. But believe me, it's so hard 282 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 1: not to shit. I just said hard, all right, forget 283 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:20,040 Speaker 1: I digress it anyway. John's wife could probably understand the 284 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:25,320 Speaker 1: career move into porn, but she didn't like it. It 285 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: was around that same time that John acquired a taste, 286 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: first for a scotch, then for pot, and then for cocaine. 287 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:35,400 Speaker 1: Coke was an occupational hazard for just about everyone in 288 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:38,840 Speaker 1: the porn industry. John became such a discerning freebaser that 289 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,280 Speaker 1: he carried around a suitcase filled entirely with pipes, torches, 290 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:45,640 Speaker 1: and the other paraphernalia. His habit was running in fifteen 291 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:48,640 Speaker 1: hundred a day. He lit up a pipe every fifteen minutes, 292 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:51,600 Speaker 1: and the more drugs he did, the more unreliable he got, 293 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:54,800 Speaker 1: the more violent and unpredictable he got, and the softer 294 00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:57,560 Speaker 1: he got. Soon he couldn't get it up anymore. In 295 00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:00,880 Speaker 1: the industry that once made him famous turned his blue 296 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:05,400 Speaker 1: balls black. That was his second problem, which was directly 297 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 1: related to the first problem, the debt he owed to 298 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:09,320 Speaker 1: the Wonderland Gang. 299 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:11,639 Speaker 2: He needed to find cash to pay. 300 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:18,160 Speaker 1: The gang back and fast. January nineteen eighty one, Marina 301 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:22,320 Speaker 1: del Rey, two am. John Holmes sat in his wife's 302 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:25,320 Speaker 1: Chevy Malibu in the parking lot of an apartment complex, 303 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:26,080 Speaker 1: killing time. 304 00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 2: He was high. 305 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:31,359 Speaker 1: He watched an LAPD patrol car slink by its parking 306 00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:35,320 Speaker 1: lights on. It disappeared down the street, probably trolling for 307 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:36,280 Speaker 1: someone in particular. 308 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:36,920 Speaker 2: John thought. 309 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:39,560 Speaker 1: He looked up at the apartment building and could see 310 00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:44,720 Speaker 1: silhouettes against the window blinds. Shit, he needed to fucking 311 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,840 Speaker 1: focus and get some fat stacks. The Wonderland gangs around. 312 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,040 Speaker 1: Lannius was not one to mess around with that Psycho 313 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:53,320 Speaker 1: would most likely fuck homes with the cold barrel of 314 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,959 Speaker 1: his magnum before he blasted him away with it. He 315 00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,720 Speaker 1: opened up the door of the Chevy Malibu and stepped outside. 316 00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:03,159 Speaker 1: It was quiet, and the ocean side air was cold, 317 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:05,639 Speaker 1: and the jean jacket he was wearing only did so 318 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:09,359 Speaker 1: much to keep him warm. He started walking alongside the 319 00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:13,520 Speaker 1: cars parked in the lot, trying door handles, peeking inside windows, 320 00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:15,000 Speaker 1: and then he saw it. 321 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:16,760 Speaker 2: Fucking jackpot. 322 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:19,359 Speaker 1: Someone had left a computer in the back seat of 323 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:22,680 Speaker 1: their Volvo Sedan. Surely that thing would command a handful 324 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:26,199 Speaker 1: of dough. John tried the door and it was unlocked. 325 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:29,639 Speaker 1: He took another glance around the parking lot, still quiet, 326 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:32,840 Speaker 1: still nothing. He picked up the computer from the back seat. 327 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:35,400 Speaker 1: It was heavy as shit. He was a nineteen eighty 328 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:39,119 Speaker 1: one computer after all. He stumbled backwards, steadied himself with 329 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:41,240 Speaker 1: his right leg, and kicked the door closed with his 330 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:43,800 Speaker 1: left leg. He took a few eager steps back to 331 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:47,080 Speaker 1: the malleable. When he heard something. He stood still and listened. 332 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:51,439 Speaker 1: Rubber on gravel steady rolling. A car was creeping. He 333 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,199 Speaker 1: started to walk faster, now, his pace increasing with his 334 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,159 Speaker 1: pulse quickening. He was trying to balance the computer in 335 00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:58,840 Speaker 1: one arm so that he could open the door with 336 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,400 Speaker 1: the other. When the police these cars parking lights went 337 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:05,840 Speaker 1: full high. Being the patrol car was back, John was busted. 338 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:11,920 Speaker 1: Whether it was computers and cars, jewelry and friends' houses, 339 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 1: or unattended suitcases at the lax baggage claim, John's attempts 340 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:20,119 Speaker 1: at robbery were weak, sauce. He even tried turning tricks 341 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,240 Speaker 1: at the Hollywood nightclubs at Eddie Nash owned men. Women 342 00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:25,399 Speaker 1: didn't matter as long as they gave him some dollar 343 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:28,679 Speaker 1: bills for checking out his package, but few were interested 344 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:33,280 Speaker 1: in a flaccid has been Fortuitously, John's legend preceded him, 345 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:36,840 Speaker 1: and so when Eddie Nash encountered John stalking the floor 346 00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:39,639 Speaker 1: of his club, the Seven Seas, he didn't know that 347 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,240 Speaker 1: the porn star had gone soft. Nash was a beaver 348 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:46,560 Speaker 1: future connoisseur, and he was starstruck that Johnny Watt himself 349 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:49,920 Speaker 1: was hanging in his club. You like that, he asked John, 350 00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:52,040 Speaker 1: bobbing his head and yelling to be heard above the 351 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: din of the Commodore's Lady, which was pulsing from the 352 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:55,879 Speaker 1: club's sound system. 353 00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:58,600 Speaker 2: You liked that four on the floor beat shit? 354 00:19:58,720 --> 00:19:58,880 Speaker 1: Yeah? 355 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 2: John liked it, But he. 356 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:03,399 Speaker 1: Liked freebasing cocaine even more, And lucky for him, the 357 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,800 Speaker 1: only person in La freebasing more cocaine than John Holmes 358 00:20:07,119 --> 00:20:11,960 Speaker 1: was Eddie Nash. The unlikely duo began marathon freebase sessions 359 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:15,280 Speaker 1: at Nash's home in Studio City, over the hill from Hollywood. 360 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:18,160 Speaker 1: It was Eddie Nash, who bailed John out of jail 361 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:20,600 Speaker 1: when he was nick to Marina del Rey for jacking 362 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,959 Speaker 1: the computer from the backseat of the Vovo. Eddie Nash 363 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,280 Speaker 1: trusted John Holmes, and that gave John Holmes an idea, 364 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:29,800 Speaker 1: an idea that would enable him to put away the 365 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:33,640 Speaker 1: late night carthef's, put away the dance floor prostituting, put 366 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:38,200 Speaker 1: away the teenage girlfriend, SmackDown, and finally pay his debts. 367 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: He could leave the sliding glass door ajar at Eddie 368 00:20:41,119 --> 00:20:42,160 Speaker 1: Nash's house. 369 00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:44,280 Speaker 2: And give the Wonderland game the lay of the land. 370 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 2: And not only. 371 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:48,119 Speaker 1: Would he pay back his debt, they would all be kings, 372 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,160 Speaker 1: and best of all, he'd be hard again. 373 00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:55,119 Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this. 374 00:20:55,280 --> 00:21:04,840 Speaker 1: We're we're where. Scott Thorson was getting high with Eddie 375 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:07,960 Speaker 1: Nash in the bedroom of Nash's studio City House when 376 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: he heard the front door burst openly. He exhaled a 377 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 1: plume of smoke and looked. 378 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:14,120 Speaker 2: Out into the living room. 379 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,439 Speaker 1: Nash's bodyguard, Gregory de Witt Dials, the six foot four 380 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:19,960 Speaker 1: to three hundred pound guide who just a day earlier 381 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:21,960 Speaker 1: with stood a muzzle burn from the gun of the 382 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:26,840 Speaker 1: Wonderland gang lumbered inside. He was dragging John Holmes by 383 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:31,119 Speaker 1: his dirty shirt collar. Scott looked down at the gaudy 384 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:34,080 Speaker 1: sparkling rings on his fingers and pretended not to be 385 00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:37,399 Speaker 1: paying too much attention as Dials tossed John into the 386 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,960 Speaker 1: house and slammed the door behind him. John fell to 387 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:44,400 Speaker 1: the ground on his knees. His face was bleeding. Dials 388 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,040 Speaker 1: called out for Nash. Scott got a funny feeling, and 389 00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:51,240 Speaker 1: it wasn't from what he'd been smoking all morning. Something 390 00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:54,800 Speaker 1: bad was about to go down. He suddenly felt like 391 00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:59,119 Speaker 1: maybe he should make like a tree and split. Scott 392 00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:01,920 Speaker 1: had been having a conversation with Nash about getting involved 393 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:05,440 Speaker 1: with one of his many nightclubs. Scott knew all about 394 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:08,480 Speaker 1: Nash's dirty dealings, about how the clubs were really just 395 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,800 Speaker 1: fronts for money laundering and drug dealing. He knew that 396 00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:15,840 Speaker 1: at the star Ward alone, the LAPD averaged roughly one 397 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:19,879 Speaker 1: drug bust today. But nevertheless, he wanted a piece of 398 00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,880 Speaker 1: that action. He wanted in on the cut partners, club owners, 399 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:28,119 Speaker 1: Hollywood gangsters. These were the ideas that seemed fucking brilliant 400 00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:31,439 Speaker 1: when piles of cocaine were involved. Scott had been a 401 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:35,120 Speaker 1: regular at Nash's house ever since his lover, Liberaci, had 402 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:38,560 Speaker 1: thrown him out on his ass. After years of mink coats, 403 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:42,920 Speaker 1: first class flights, and chauffeuring mister Showmanship's rolls, Royce Scott 404 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:46,919 Speaker 1: was rousted by Liberaci's management and forcibly tossed from the house. 405 00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:51,399 Speaker 1: Drugs were to blame, mostly cocaine, which Scott had started 406 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:53,919 Speaker 1: taking in order to lose the necessary weight so that 407 00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,760 Speaker 1: he could get the plastic surgery that Liberaci wanted him 408 00:22:56,760 --> 00:23:01,080 Speaker 1: to get. Nash pitied him. Plus, Scott was handy around 409 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:03,720 Speaker 1: the house. He kept the place clean and returned for 410 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:06,800 Speaker 1: a place to hang. He was good company. Scott liked 411 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:08,879 Speaker 1: to get high, and he knew when certain moments called 412 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:12,399 Speaker 1: for him to make himself scarce. This was one of 413 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:16,280 Speaker 1: those moments. Scott excused himself from the bedroom just as 414 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,800 Speaker 1: Nash was coming out to the living room. How could 415 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,480 Speaker 1: you fucking do this to me? Nash was screaming. John 416 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,880 Speaker 1: Holmes stood up his hands held up in surrender in defence, Eddie. 417 00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,399 Speaker 1: Nash kept screaming, John was a rat. John was a 418 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,160 Speaker 1: fucking limpt dick rat Dials grabbed John by the arm, 419 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 1: not that he was going anywhere. The Nash told Dials 420 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:35,280 Speaker 1: to bring John into the bedroom. The three men closed 421 00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:37,920 Speaker 1: the bedroom door behind them. Scott sat out in the 422 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,080 Speaker 1: living room and listened through the paper thin doors. 423 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:42,640 Speaker 2: Nash lit into John again. He heard it all. 424 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,120 Speaker 1: Nash knew that John had left the sliding glass door 425 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:48,040 Speaker 1: open so that his junkie friends could get inside. And 426 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,720 Speaker 1: then John had been spotted the very next day strutting 427 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:53,760 Speaker 1: down the streets of Hollywood like Johnny Watt himself worring 428 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: Eddie fucking Nash just stolen fucking jewelry like it was nothing, 429 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,000 Speaker 1: like it didn't matter. But word got back to Nash 430 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,960 Speaker 1: that John was peacocking with Pilford Blake, and that's when 431 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,520 Speaker 1: he sent Dials out to pick him up. And now 432 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,280 Speaker 1: John was going to tell Nash exactly who robbed him, 433 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:11,760 Speaker 1: and that's what Nash was saying, and then John was screaming. 434 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:15,640 Speaker 1: Scott could imagine the Nash or Dials, or maybe both 435 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,000 Speaker 1: of them had a gun pointed at John's head. One 436 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,199 Speaker 1: of them was inflicting some serious pain. Maybe they were 437 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:22,439 Speaker 1: hitting him, or maybe they were slicing him up, cutting 438 00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:25,400 Speaker 1: the tips of his fingers off. He'd heard the stories. 439 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,600 Speaker 1: He didn't want to find yourself on the wrong side 440 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:31,159 Speaker 1: of Eddie Nash. A regular guest at Nash's house was 441 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,560 Speaker 1: in Israeli, a guy with great importance that Scott didn't 442 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: know personally, but everyone whispered that he was the quote 443 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,400 Speaker 1: unquote godfather of the Israeli mafia. And there were even 444 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 1: more whispers that the two were involved in threatening and 445 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:47,719 Speaker 1: extorting local businesses, and that they were behind the murder 446 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:51,080 Speaker 1: and dismemberment of two Israeli nationals at the Bonaventure Hotel 447 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:55,640 Speaker 1: in downtown LA John Holmes had found himself on Eddie 448 00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 1: Nash's wrong side. Scott could imagine that behind the bedroom door, 449 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,480 Speaker 1: John Holmes was no longer playing the role of Johnny 450 00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,600 Speaker 1: wadd He had flipped roles and now he was the 451 00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,280 Speaker 1: nemesis Ringo and Nash was. 452 00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,439 Speaker 2: Johnny Watt who fucking Robney? 453 00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:11,000 Speaker 1: Ringo? 454 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:12,120 Speaker 2: Ringo was whimpering. 455 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,640 Speaker 1: Now he had been so close to pulling this off 456 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:16,960 Speaker 1: if it hadn't been for Johnny Watt fucking. 457 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:18,920 Speaker 2: It all up? Where do the degenerate thieves live? 458 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:19,320 Speaker 1: Ringo? 459 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:21,760 Speaker 2: Johnny fucking Wad he always got his man? 460 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,399 Speaker 1: Ringo started his stutter under his breath, but there were 461 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:26,359 Speaker 1: no words, only the sound of pathetic drivel. 462 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:27,760 Speaker 2: You better fucking start. 463 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,640 Speaker 1: Talking, Ringa, I swart fucking god, I'll take a fucking head. 464 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:33,040 Speaker 2: Off, and Ringo had no choice. 465 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,880 Speaker 1: He'd been made. He should be glad that Johnny Wadd 466 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,399 Speaker 1: hadn't already put a bullet between his eyes. And then 467 00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: the words came, softly and slowly. Wonderland Avenue eight seven 468 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:50,280 Speaker 1: sixty three, Wonderland Avenue. Unlike an actual Johnny Wadd movie, 469 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:53,119 Speaker 1: the scene didn't magically cut to a sultry bang slash 470 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:55,200 Speaker 1: with a naked co ed, and there were no x 471 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,120 Speaker 1: rated night moves to balance out the fear and violence. 472 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:02,280 Speaker 1: There was only more fear and more violence. John begged 473 00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:04,480 Speaker 1: Nash for his life, had asked him what he could 474 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:07,080 Speaker 1: do to make it right. Nash thought for a moment 475 00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:10,080 Speaker 1: and then told John exactly what he could do. He 476 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 1: could go back to the house on Wonderland Avenue and 477 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,239 Speaker 1: cut out the eyeballs of every fucking person there, and 478 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: then put those eyeballs and fucking zip block bags, and 479 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,080 Speaker 1: then bring the eyeballs and the fucking zip block bags 480 00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:24,400 Speaker 1: back to Eddie Nash. That's what he could do better 481 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,960 Speaker 1: yet Eddie Nash would send a couple of guys over 482 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: with John cutting out eyeballs was a bit outside of 483 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,800 Speaker 1: John Holmes's wheelhouse. Scott began to tidy up the living 484 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,680 Speaker 1: room when the three emerged from the bedroom. He knew 485 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:39,240 Speaker 1: that Nash didn't give a fuck about the stolen drugs, 486 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,760 Speaker 1: or the cash or the jewels. Nash had plenty. 487 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:43,920 Speaker 2: More where all that came from. 488 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:46,879 Speaker 1: And the Wonderland gang had made off with eight pounds 489 00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: of cocaine, big deal. There was another million dollars worth 490 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:51,520 Speaker 1: of the shit hiding in the house that they hadn't 491 00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:55,360 Speaker 1: found and money. Money didn't grow on trees, but Eddie 492 00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,159 Speaker 1: Nash grew his own damn money. He would be just fine. 493 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,879 Speaker 1: It was the principle of the thing. It was about 494 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:06,120 Speaker 1: being disrespected, about being taken advantage of, about being made 495 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,679 Speaker 1: to look like a fool and in his own house 496 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:12,080 Speaker 1: by a gang of lowlife convicted criminals and dope ds. 497 00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:14,520 Speaker 1: And that kind of thing didn't sit well with a 498 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:18,080 Speaker 1: man like getting Nash. It was nearly three am when 499 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,480 Speaker 1: a couple of Edni Nash's guys stuffed John Holmes in 500 00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,840 Speaker 1: the backseat of a car and hit the road destination 501 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: Wonderland Avenue. The Wonderland Gang met their inevitable fate in 502 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,680 Speaker 1: the early hours of Wednesday, July first, nineteen eighty one. 503 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:53,520 Speaker 1: That fate came in the form of a couple of 504 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:59,280 Speaker 1: unnamed heavies carrying hammers and metal pipes. The unnamed heavies 505 00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,240 Speaker 1: woke the gang up from their deep smack slumber, and 506 00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,520 Speaker 1: they had John Holmes with them. They rang the doorbell 507 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:08,880 Speaker 1: at the locked door of eight seven sixty three Wonderland Avenue. 508 00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,879 Speaker 1: They let John do the talking, and they were buzzed in, 509 00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,119 Speaker 1: and the unnamed heavies tightened their grips on the hammer 510 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,359 Speaker 1: and pipe. They held the smooth end of the pipe 511 00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:22,240 Speaker 1: in hand so the threaded end would inflict maximum damage. 512 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,800 Speaker 1: They dragged John Holmes in by a shirt collar, always 513 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,359 Speaker 1: by the shirt collar. In the living room they found 514 00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:31,399 Speaker 1: Barbara Butterfly Richardson, a friend of the gang's, who was 515 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:34,040 Speaker 1: in the wrong fucking place at most certainly the wrong 516 00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:36,960 Speaker 1: fucking time, And one of the heavies held John against 517 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:38,560 Speaker 1: the wall with a gun to his head and made 518 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,280 Speaker 1: him watch. They brought the hammer and the pipe down 519 00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:44,240 Speaker 1: on Barbara's head. Blood splattered on the couch and spilled 520 00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,800 Speaker 1: on the carpet. More blood splattered all over the stack 521 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,520 Speaker 1: of records propped up on the floor. A hanging plant 522 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:51,760 Speaker 1: was knocked off its hook and crashed to the floor. 523 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,440 Speaker 1: In the bedroom they found Ron Lennius so this wife Susan, 524 00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 1: one of the heavies, held round against the wall with 525 00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,240 Speaker 1: a gun to his chest and made him walk. Finally, 526 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,680 Speaker 1: they brought the hammer and the pipe down on Ron's 527 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:07,360 Speaker 1: wife's head of final time, mercifully trying to end her horror. 528 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:11,320 Speaker 1: They didn't. She lived through the savage beating. Ron wasn't 529 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,440 Speaker 1: so lucky. He was next same feet piped to the 530 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:17,520 Speaker 1: head again and again, until Ron was dead, and the 531 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: couple's blood was splattered all over the pillow and the 532 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:23,160 Speaker 1: bed sheets and completely dolst the carpet. In another room 533 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:25,920 Speaker 1: they found Joy Miller and Billy Devero. They brought the 534 00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:28,760 Speaker 1: hammer and the pipe down on their heads too. Billy's 535 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:30,560 Speaker 1: head opened up and shot all over the wall and 536 00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:32,760 Speaker 1: sprayed a TV that was on next to the bed, 537 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:35,280 Speaker 1: and they tossed the bloodied hammer onto the corner of 538 00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,200 Speaker 1: the bed and propped Billy up against the wall on 539 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:39,959 Speaker 1: the floor, and they left the TV on and they 540 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 1: ransacked the place, opened every drawer and overturned every chair, 541 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:45,920 Speaker 1: found every last baggie of powder and every last stack 542 00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:48,880 Speaker 1: of dollar bills. They told John to beat it, fuck 543 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:55,120 Speaker 1: off dick Ford, and then they were gone. The scene 544 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:59,520 Speaker 1: at eight seven sixty three Wonderland Avenue was, in a word, gruesome. 545 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,200 Speaker 1: When the LAPD arrived on the scene, they had to 546 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,480 Speaker 1: think back to over a decade in the past, to 547 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:09,480 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine and the infamous Tate Lavianca murders committed 548 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,600 Speaker 1: by the Manson family to find crime scenes that came 549 00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:18,520 Speaker 1: close to comparable. Inside they found the bodies Ron dead, 550 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:25,600 Speaker 1: Billy dead, Joy dead, Barbara dead, Susan alive, just barely, 551 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,640 Speaker 1: with brain damage so severe that she could never remember 552 00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:31,840 Speaker 1: exactly who entered the house or what they did, and 553 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: John Holmes. John fucked off back home and took a 554 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:37,200 Speaker 1: bath to try to wash away the night. 555 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 2: He was able to. 556 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:40,120 Speaker 1: Get rid of the blood of the Wonderland Gang that 557 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:42,959 Speaker 1: had splattered all over his body, but he couldn't wash 558 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:46,080 Speaker 1: away the feeling that he was responsible for what happened 559 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:49,080 Speaker 1: in that house. The robbery had been his idea in 560 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,160 Speaker 1: the first place. If he hadn't left the sliding door Ajar, 561 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:57,400 Speaker 1: maybe four people wouldn't have had to die. In March 562 00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,600 Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty two, when the police finally arrested someone 563 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:04,200 Speaker 1: in connection with the murders, it was John Holmes. They 564 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:06,320 Speaker 1: had found one of his pom prints on the headboard 565 00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:10,120 Speaker 1: of Ron's bed. John's lawyer argued that the pom print 566 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,959 Speaker 1: was likely there from all the times John had visited 567 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:15,680 Speaker 1: the house, and not necessarily from the evening in question. 568 00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:21,200 Speaker 1: John refused to testify. He was eventually found innocent. He 569 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,240 Speaker 1: was no longer in anyone's debt. He no longer feared 570 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:26,520 Speaker 1: for his life in the eyes of the court. The 571 00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:30,880 Speaker 1: murders were not his fault, but he had nothing. His wife, 572 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:33,720 Speaker 1: Sharon wouldn't see him. His lawyer gave him one hundred 573 00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:36,600 Speaker 1: bucks in pity money in the keys to his VW Beadle. 574 00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:40,760 Speaker 1: He ditched the freebase and watched his freakish unch at 575 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,360 Speaker 1: its mojo back and that famously large Dick would ride again. 576 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,200 Speaker 1: He got in front of the camera and his name 577 00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:50,080 Speaker 1: once again graced the credits of adult films like Flesh 578 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:52,600 Speaker 1: Pond in The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empress. 579 00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:56,320 Speaker 1: The latter came out in nineteen eighty seven, which was 580 00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:58,480 Speaker 1: the same year that John, in the midst of a 581 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:03,680 Speaker 1: professional and personal rebus, received devastating news he was suffering 582 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:07,640 Speaker 1: from complications related to the AIDS virus. His legs couldn't 583 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,640 Speaker 1: carry him, his lungs turned on him, his ears bland. 584 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: John Holmes died the next year on March thirteenth, nineteen 585 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,640 Speaker 1: eighty eight, at the age of forty three, and then 586 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,920 Speaker 1: just months later, Eddie Nash and Gregory de Witt Dials 587 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,840 Speaker 1: were busted charged with the so called four on the 588 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:29,280 Speaker 1: Floor murders at Wonderland Avenue, and the jury would have 589 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:31,600 Speaker 1: convicted them too if it wasn't for the wonder or 590 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:34,440 Speaker 1: the Nash paid off for the fifty thousand dollars bribe. 591 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:37,280 Speaker 1: The bribe caught up to Nash nine years later in 592 00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:40,680 Speaker 1: two thousand, when he was arrested again for his involvement 593 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: in the Wonderland murders in particular, and for being a 594 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:46,000 Speaker 1: deadbeat evader of justice in general. He would serve a 595 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,520 Speaker 1: wapping one year in federal prison and pay two hundred 596 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:52,000 Speaker 1: and fifty grand And just like the Golden Rod of 597 00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:55,640 Speaker 1: Johnny wadd the Tale of the Wonderland murders soon engorged 598 00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:59,320 Speaker 1: into legend, an infamous legend that was very much real, 599 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 1: even if if it seemed make believe, the kind of 600 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:06,840 Speaker 1: legend that looms large, so large that it ought to 601 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:07,800 Speaker 1: be in pictures. 602 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:13,640 Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this is hollywood Land. 603 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,920 Speaker 1: Hollywood Land was created by Years Truly and is produced 604 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,800 Speaker 1: in partnership with Double Elvis. Follow like, rate, and review 605 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:36,120 Speaker 1: hollywood Land wherever you get your podcasts, and get in 606 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:39,480 Speaker 1: touch with us on social media at double Elvis. If 607 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:41,320 Speaker 1: you like hollywood Land, check out my other show, the 608 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,400 Speaker 1: award winning Disgraceland, which looks at the world of music 609 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:46,960 Speaker 1: through the lens of true crime. Just search for Disgraceland 610 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:55,720 Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. Good. He's a lot