Eva Gabor (February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was best known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, and as a voice actor in three Walt Disney Pictures animated feature films. Gabor had success as an actress in film, Broadway and television. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa Gabor and the late Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.
Marriages
Like her sisters, Eva Gabor was known for her string of marriages; she had five:
1.1939–1942: Eric Drimmer, a Swedish physician
2.27 September 1943–1950: Charles Isaacs
3.8 April 1956–1957: John Williams, an American physician
4.4 October 1959–1972: Richard Brown
5.21 September 1973–1983: Frank Gard Jameson
All of the marriages were childless.
Death
Eva Gabor died on July 4, 1995, aged 76, from respiratory failure and pneumonia in Los Angeles, California, following an accident in which she lost her balance and fell into her bathtub in Mexico, where she had been on vacation.
Although the youngest of the three sisters, she was the first of them to die. On April 1, 1997, her 102-year-old mother, Jolie, died, unaware of Eva's death. On June 6, 1997, her eldest sister Magda died from renal failure.
Interment
Eva Gabor is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California. She is buried near her Green Acres co-star Eddie Albert, who died on May 26, 2005, at the age of 99.
Ross Martin (March 22, 1920 – July 3, 1981) was an American Emmy-nominated actor known for playing Artemus Gordon in the western TV series The Wild Wild West, starring Robert Conrad, and Andamo on Mr. Lucky, starring John Vivyan.
Martin was born into a Jewish family as Martin Rosenblatt on March 22, 1920, in Grodek, Poland, but grew up on New York City's Lower East Side. He spoke Yiddish, Polish and Russian before learning English and later added French, Spanish and Italian to his repertoire.
Despite academic training (and honors) in business, instruction, and law, Martin chose a career in acting. He made his Broadway debut in Hazel Flagg in 1953. He appeared three times on the NBC public affairs television series The Big Story in 1954 and 1956. Martin's first film was the George Pal production Conquest of Space, followed by a brief, but memorable appearance in The Colossus of New York (1958), as the scientist father of Charles Herbert. In 1959 Martin appeared in Alcoa Presents - One Step Beyond in the episode Echo. Soon after, he caught the eye of Blake Edwards who cast him in a number of widely varied roles, Mr. Lucky and Experiment in Terror, culminating with a role in The Great Race, as the smoothly villainous Baron Rolfe Von Stuppe.
After his performance in The Great Race, CBS cast him in what was to become his most famous part, Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West, opposite Robert Conrad, formerly the principal star of the ABC detective series, Hawaiian Eye. Martin's character, a master gadgeteer and disguise artist, fitted Martin perfectly. Unknown to most, Martin created most of his disguises for the show and most of the cast had no idea what he'd look like until seeing him during the shooting of the episode. The recent DVD release of the first season of the series includes a recently-discovered pre-production sketch Martin had made of his very first make-up design for the pilot episode. Another episode revealed another of Martin's talents, that he was a concert-trained violinist. Martin was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series for the fourth and final season of Wild Wild West (1968–69).
In 1967, he married Olavee Grindrod and adopted her two children. He'd had a daughter with his first wife. Martin suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1968, forcing The Wild Wild West to temporarily replace him with other actors, including Charles Aidman, William Schallert and Alan Hale, Jr. (the series was cancelled the following year).
He appeared as a guest star in several programs from the 1950s to the 1970s, including Honestly, Celeste!, Sheriff of Cochise, Wonder Woman, Sanford and Son, Columbo, The Twilight Zone, The Law and Mr. Jones, Night Gallery, Mork &Mindy, Hawaii Five-O, Charlie's Angels, voiced Agent 000 (pronounced "Oh-Oh-Oh") in The Robonic Stooges and appeared in the game show Your First Impression.
Martin starred in a 1973 made-for-TV movie, The Return of Charlie Chan, portraying famed Asian detective Charlie Chan as a retiree forced to return to detective work. Although the movie received ratings more than sufficient enough for a regular series to be ordered, intense pressure from Asian actors' groups who protested an Occidental playing an Oriental character caused plans for such a series to be discarded.
Death
He reprised the role of Artemus Gordon in a pair of Wild, Wild West television movies in 1979 and 1980, reuniting with his co-star Conrad. The films were highly rated and there were plans to revive Wild Wild West as a series, but Martin collapsed while playing tennis on July 3, 1981, and died from a heart attack, aged 61.
Martin is interred in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
Franklin James Schaffner (May 30, 1920 - July 2, 1989) was an American film director.
Early life
The son of missionaries, Schaffner was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in that country. He returned to the United States and graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he was active in drama. He studied law at Columbia University in New York City but his education was interrupted by service with the United States Navy in World War II during which he served with American amphibious forces in Europe and North Africa. In the latter stages of the war he was sent to the Pacific Far East to serve with the United States Office for Strategic Services.
Career
Returning home after the war, he found work in the television industry with March of Time and then joined the CBS network. He won directing Emmys for his work on the original 1954 CBS teleplay, Twelve Angry Men. Schaffner earned two more Emmy awards for his work on the 1955 TV adaptation of the Broadway play, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, shown on the anthology series Ford Star Jubilee. He won his fourth Emmy Award for his work on the series, The Defenders.
In 1960, he directed Allen Drury's stage play Advise and Consent. His first motion picture The Stripper was praised and he later directed The Best Man, The War Lord, and The Double Man, all of them got good reviews. They were followed up by the influential hit Planet of the Apes. His next film, Patton was a major success for which he won the Academy Award for Directing and the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. Jerry Goldsmith composed the scores for a number of his later films, including Planet of the Apes, Papillon and The Boys from Brazil. After Patton, Schaffner directed other films, but the later works were mixed, from good efforts like Papillon to critically blasted films like Yes, Giorgio and The Boys from Brazil.
Schaffner was elected President of the Directors Guild of America in 1987.
Personal life
Schaffner married Helen Jane Gilchrist in 1948. The couple had two children, Jennie and Kate.
Schaffner died on July 2, 1989 at the age of 69. He was released 10 days before his death from a hospital where he was being treated for lung cancer. Obituaries stated he died of cancer.
Schaffner is buried at Westwood Village Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
Critical perception
Screenwriter William Goldman identified Schaffner in 1981 as being one of the three best directors (then living) at handling 'scope' (epicness) in films. The other two were David Lean and Richard Attenborough.[1]
References
1.^ John Bradey, "The craft of the screenwriter," 1981. Page 168
Filmography
1963 The Stripper - feature film debut
1964 The Best Man - film adapted from a stage play by Gore Vidal
1965 The War Lord
1967 The Double Man
1968 Planet of the Apes - film won an Honorary Academy Award
1970 Patton - won Academy Award for Best Director and Directors Guild of America Award for Best Director
1971 Nicholas and Alexandra
1973 Papillon
1976 Islands in the Stream
1978 The Boys from Brazil - film stars Laurence Olivier in his final Academy Award-nominated acting role
1980 Sphinx
1982 Yes, Giorgio
1987 Lionheart
1989 Welcome Home
Betty Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American dancer, singer, and actress.
Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the Life magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World." Grable was particularly noted for having the most beautiful legs in Hollywood and studio publicity widely dispersed photos featuring them. Hosiery specialists of the era often noted the ideal proportions of her legs as: thigh (18.5") calf (12"), and ankle (7.5"). Grable's legs were famously insured by her studio for $1,000,000 with Lloyds of London.
Career
For her next film, her mother got her a contract using a false identification. When this deception was discovered, however, Grable was fired. Grable finally obtained a role as a 'Goldwyn Girl' in Whoopee! (1930), starring Eddie Cantor. Though Grable received no billing, she led the opening number, "Cowboys." Grable then worked in small roles at different studios for the rest of the decade, including the Academy Award-winning The Gay Divorcee (1934), starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, where she was prominently featured in the number "Let's K-nock K-nees."
In the late 1930s, Grable signed a contract with Paramount Pictures, starring in several B movies, mostly portraying co-eds. Despite playing leads, the typecasting proved to hurt her career more than it was helpful.[4] In 1939, Grable appeared with her then husband, Jackie Coogan (married in 1937), in Million Dollar Legs, from which her nickname is taken. They divorced later that same year (October 1939). After small parts in over 50 Hollywood movies through the 1930s, Grable finally gained national attention for her stage role in the Cole Porter Broadway hit Du Barry Was a Lady (1939). When her contract at Paramount expired, Grable decided to quit acting, being fed up with appearing in college films. In a 1940 interview, she said:
"I was sick and tired of it. I'd made up my mind to leave show business altogether. So I retired - and then came an offer, unsolicited, to go on a personal appearance tour. I went. Next thing I knew, Mr. Zanuck had seen my picture in the paper and offered me a contract at a lot more money. I took it. Then came Buddy DeSylva with a part in his Broadway show Du Barry Was a Lady. Mr. Zanuck said I could take it if I wanted to. I did. The show was successful. Then as if all this weren't enough, Alice Faye fell ill just before [Down Argentine Way] was to start and I was drafted to fill her shoes. If that's not luck I don't know what you'd call it. But that's how it's been all my life. I've had contracts with four studios in 10 years and each time I left one or was dropped. I stepped into something better."[5]
Grable became 20th Century Fox's top star during the decade. She appeared in Technicolor movies such as Down Argentine Way (1940), Moon Over Miami (1941) (both with Don Ameche), Springtime in The Rockies (1942), Coney Island (1943) with George Montgomery, Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943) with Robert Young, Pin Up Girl (1944), Diamond Horseshoe (1945) with Dick Haymes, The Dolly Sisters (1945) with John Payne and June Haver. Mother Wore Tights (1947), her most popular film, was with her favorite costar, Dan Dailey.
It was during her reign as box office queen (in 1943) that Grable posed for her famous pinup photo, which (along with her movies) soon became escapist fare among GIs fighting in World War II. The image was taken by studio photographer Frank Powolny.[6] It was rumored that the particular pose and angle were chosen to hide the fact that Grable was pregnant at the time of the photo.
Starting in 1942, Grable was named in the top 10 box office draws for 10 consecutive years. For seven of those ten years, she was top female-box office star. In 1943, she was named the #1 movie box office attraction. By the end of the 1940s Grable was the highest-paid female star in Hollywood, receiving $300,000 a year. Grable was even the heroine of a novel, Betty Grable and the House with the Iron Shutters, written by Kathryn Heisenfelt, published by Whitman Publishing Company in 1943. While the heroine is identified as the famous actress, the stories are entirely fictitious. The story was probably written for a young teenage audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.[7]
Her postwar musicals included: That Lady in Ermine (1948) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948) again with Dailey, Wabash Avenue (1950) (a remake of Grable's own Coney Island) with Victor Mature, My Blue Heaven (1950), and Meet Me After the Show (1951). Studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck lavished his star with expensive Technicolor films, but also kept her busy — Grable made nearly 25 musicals and comedies in 13 years. Her last big hit for Fox was How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe. Grable next starred in Three for the Show (1955) with Jack Lemmon; this film was one of her last musicals.
Grable's later career was marked by feuds with studio heads. At one point, in the middle of a fight with Zanuck, she tore up her contract and stormed out of his office. By 1953, Zanuck was grooming Marilyn Monroe to replace Grable as the Fox's resident sex symbol. Far from feeling threatened, on the set of How to Marry a Millionaire Grable famously said to Monroe, "go and get yours, honey! I've had mine." It was at this point that Grable lost her father 'Conn' Grable in 1954, at age 71.
Grable returned to the studio for one last film, How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955) with Sheree North. Following this, Grable hoped to secure the role of Miss Adelaide in the film version of the musical Guys and Dolls. However, when producer Samuel Goldwyn learned that Grable skipped a meeting with him because one of her dogs had taken ill, he became incensed and removed her from consideration. Vivian Blaine, who had originated the role on Broadway, was ultimately cast.
Having left movies entirely, she made the transition to television and starred in Las Vegas. It was in these transition years to stage, when Betty lost her mother Lillian in 1964, at age 75. By 1967, she took over the lead in the touring company of Hello, Dolly!. She starred in a 1969 musical called Belle Starr in London, but it was savaged by critics and soon folded.
Grable's last role was Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday, at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida in February 1973.[8]
Personal life
In 1937, Grable married another famous former child actor, Jackie Coogan. He was under considerable stress from a lawsuit against his parents over his childhood earnings and the couple divorced in 1939.
In 1943, she married trumpeter Harry James. The couple had two daughters, Victoria and Jessica. They endured a tumultuous 22-year marriage that was plagued by alcoholism and infidelity. The couple divorced in 1965. Grable entered into a relationship with a dancer, Bob Remick, several years her junior. Though they did not marry, their romance lasted until the end of Grable's life.
Death
Grable died July 2, 1973, of lung cancer at age 56 in Santa Monica, California. Her funeral was held July 5, 1973, 30 years to the day after her marriage to Harry James — who, in turn, died on what would have been his and Grable's 40th anniversary, July 5, 1983. She was interred in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California, in the Mausoleum of the Golden West, Sanctuary of Dawn section, with her mother Lillian, alongside her father 'Conn' Grable. Sister Marjorie Grable-Arnold joined them in their family crypt upon her death at 71, in 1980.
Among the Who's Who of Hollywood attending her funeral were Harry James, Dorothy Lamour, Shirley Booth, Mitzi Gaynor, Johnnie Ray, Cesar Romero, George Raft, Alice Faye and Dan Dailey. "I Had the Craziest Dream," the haunting ballad Betty introduced in "Springtime in the Rockies," was played on the church organ.
Posthumous recognition
Grable has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6525 Hollywood Boulevard. She also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians in 2009.
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy noted on National Public Radio's Morning Edition on April 23, 2007, in an interview with Terry Gross that Grable was his inspiration for founding the Playboy empire.
Footnotes
1.^ BettyGrable.net - Betty Grable Biography
2.^ http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=geolarson2&id=I224911 Worldconnect.rootsweb.com
3.^ http://grableonline.tripod.com/faq-2.html Grableonline.tripod.com
4.^ "Hollywood Overlooks a Best Bet In Betty Grable; Others Don't" by Jimmie Fidler, St. Petersburg Times, August 2, 1940, p. 13
5.^ "Betty Grable Says She's 'Plain Lucky'", Spokane Daily Chronicle, August 29, 1940, p. 16
6.^ FRANK POWOLNY - New York Times
7.^ Whitman Authorized Editions for Girls
8.^ Alhambra Dinner Theatre website: Inside scoop
Margaux Hemingway (February 12, 1954[2] – July 1, 1996) was an American fashion model and actress.
Early life
Margot Louise Hemingway was born in Portland, Oregon, and was the older sister of actress Mariel Hemingway and the granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway. When she learned that she was named for the wine, Château Margaux, which her parents, Puck and Jack Hemingway (eldest son of Ernest), were drinking the night she was conceived, she changed the original spelling from 'Margot' to 'Margaux' to match.[3] In addition to Mariel, she had another sister, Joan. She grew up on her grandfather's farm in Ketchum, Idaho. She struggled with a variety of disorders in addition to alcoholism, including bulimia and epilepsy. She allowed a video recording to be made of a therapy session related to her bulimia and it was broadcast on television. Due to dyslexia, she did not read many of the books her famous grandfather wrote. She once said, "I am not a Hemingway aficionado."
Early career as a model
At six feet tall, Hemingway experienced success as a model, including a million-dollar contract for Fabergé as the spokesmodel for Babe perfume in the 1970s.[4] Her lucrative contract with Fabergé was the first million dollar contract ever awarded to a fashion model.[5] She also appeared on the covers of Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, and appeared on the June 16, 1975 cover of Time dubbed as one of the "new beauties".[6] The September 1, 1975 cover issue of American Vogue christened Hemingway as "New York's New Supermodel."[7]
In an E! True Hollywood Story that profiled Hemingway's life, her mentor and close friend Zachary Selig discussed how he helped launch Hemingway's early career with his initial marketing and public relations work as she became a global celebrity, and he introduced her to yoga and the Solar Kundalini "Codex Relaxatia" paradigm as tools for success and to overcome some of her debilitating mental disorders. Selig and Hemingway spent time with the Hemingway family at their property in Ketchum adjacent to Sun Valley, where they both studied Solar Kundalini, yoga and meditation together. Hemingway would continue using these relaxation skills for the rest of her life.[8]
During the height of her modeling career in the mid-to late 1970s, Hemingway was a regular attendee of New York City's exclusive discothèque Studio 54 - often in the company of such celebrities as Liza Minnelli, Halston, Bianca Jagger, Andy Warhol and Grace Jones. It was at such social mixers that Hemingway began to experiment with alcohol and drugs.[9]
She made her film debut in the 1976 Lamont Johnson-directed drama Lipstick alongside her then fourteen year-old sister Mariel.
Personal life and later career
Her first marriage, to Errol Wetson, ended in divorce. They met when, at 19, she accompanied her father to the Plaza Hotel in New York City on a business trip, and four months later she moved from Idaho to New York City to live with Wetson as a guest at Selig's apartment at 12 East 72nd Street, a residence that was owned by heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. It was there that Selig made Hemingways's business and social introductions to his friends, such as Marian McEvoy, fashion editor at Women's Wear Daily; photographer Francesco Scavullo; fashion designer Halston; Vogue magazine fashion editor Francis Stein; and Jon Revson, Selig's cousin. Revson, a scion of the Revson family that created Revlon cosmetics, declined Selig's offer for Hemingway to endorse Revlon, whereas later Fabergé signed her on with the largest salary of its day. Revson did come to visit both Selig and Hemingway (with the Hemingway family in Ketchum, Idaho) to congratulate her after Hemingways's Time magazine cover appeared in June 1975. Marion Macelvoy quickly interviewed Margaux at a party given by Selig, which resulted in Hemingway's Women's Wear Daily front- and back-page story that launched Hemingway into the fashion limelight.[8]
On the rebound, Hemingway married Venezuelan Bernard Fauchier, and they lived in Paris for a year. She also divorced him in 1985 after six years. Like her grandfather, she experienced occasional bouts of clinical depression all through her life. After a skiing accident in 1984, she gained 75 pounds and became more and more depressed. In 1987, she checked into the Betty Ford Center. Making a comeback, Hemingway appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine in May 1990, and she asked Playboy to hire Selig as the creative director for her cover story. It was shot in Belize.[10]
Hemingway experienced familial dramas throughout her life. Her relationship with her mother, Puck, was fraught with tension, but they did reconcile prior to Puck's death from cancer in 1988. She also experienced intense competition with her younger sister Mariel, who received greater accolades for her acting. In the 1990s, Hemingway went forward with allegations that her godfather had molested her as a child; her father, Jack, and stepmother, Angela, resented the allegations and stopped speaking to her. Angela told People magazine, "Jack and I did not talk to her for two years. She constantly lies. The whole family won't have anything to do with her. She's nothing but an angry woman."[11]
She supported herself later in life by appearing in a few direct-to-video films, autographing her nude photos from Playboy magazine, and endorsing a psychic telephone hotline owned by her cousin Adiel Hemingway. Shortly before her death, she was set to host the outdoor adventure series Wild Guide on the Discovery Channel.
Death
On July 1, 1996, one day before the anniversary of her grandfather's own suicide, Hemingway was found dead in her studio apartment in Santa Monica, California at age 42. She had taken an overdose of phenobarbital, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's findings one month later.[12] Though her death was ruled a suicide, family members disputed this finding.[13] Steve Crisman, Mariel Hemingway's then-husband in 1996, told People magazine that year, "This was the best I'd seen her in years. She had gotten herself back together."[14] On a December 22, 2005 edition of Larry King Live, however, Mariel said she now accepts the fact that Margaux committed suicide.[15]
Her remains were cremated and buried in the Hemingway family plot in the Ketchum Cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho.
Filmography
Lipstick (1976)
Killer Fish (1979)
They Call Me Bruce? (1982)
Over the Brooklyn Bridge (1984)
Inner Sanctum (1991)
Double Obsession (1992)
Deadly Rivals (1993)
Dangerous Cargo (1996)
Vicious Kiss (1996)
References
1.^ [1]
2.^ [2]
3.^ http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/03/arts/margaux-hemingway-is-dead-model-and-actress-was-41.html
4.^ Entertainment Weekly: Papa's Little Girl
5.^ Psychology Today. What Killed Margaux Hemingway?
6.^ Time Magazine Archives
7.^ Vogue cover scan. September 1, 1975 edition. Archived from Ebay.co.uk.
8.^ E! True Hollywood Story. Margaux Hemingway, season 1, episode 4. 1997.
9.^ Psychology Today: What Killed Margaux Hemingway?
10.^ Hemingway, Margaux "Papa's Girl." Pictorial by Arny Freytag. Playboy Magazine, Vol. 37, Issue 5. May, 1990. Pg. 126-135.
11.^ Schneider, Karen S. (1996-07-15). "A Life Eclipsed". People. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20141773,00.html. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
12.^ "Margaux Hemingway committed suicide, coroner rules". CNN.com. 1996-08-20. http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9608/20/hemingway.suicide/. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
13.^ Psychology Today. What Killed Margaux Hemingway?
14.^ Last Act, People, 1996-09-02. Accessed 2008-09-24.
15.^ "Larry King Live: Surviving Suicide of Loved One". CNN.com. 2005-12-22. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/22/lkl.01.html. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
The Wonderland murders, also known as Four on the Floor or Laurel Canyon Murders, occurred in Los Angeles in 1981, when four people were killed in a drug-related plot that involved porn star John Holmes (above) and was allegedly masterminded by businessman and drug dealer Eddie Nash.
Robbery and murders
The Wonderland Gang was centered around four people who lived in a rented house at 8763 Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles: Joy Audrey Gold Miller, William R. DeVerell (Miller and DeVerell were a couple), David Lind, and Ronald Launius, the leader. All four were involved in drug use and drug dealing.
On June 28, 1981, they were meeting with David Lind and Tracy McCourt, and John Holmes, porn star and known drug addict. They had decided to rob the home of Eddie Nash (below), another drug dealer and wealthy owner of several night clubs. Lind claims not to have known whom they were robbing. Holmes, whom Nash knew and liked, visited his house ostensibly to buy drugs. While doing so, Holmes scouted out the house and unlocked a back door. He then reported back to the gang.
The next morning, June 29, 1981, DeVerell, Launius, Lind, and McCourt went to the house. McCourt stayed with the car, a stolen Ford Granada, while the other three entered through the unlocked door. They took Nash and his live-in bodyguard, Gregory Diles, by surprise and handcuffed them. They stole money, drugs, and jewelry, and threatened to kill Nash and Diles. The group then returned to Wonderland Avenue to split up the money (shortchanging Holmes and McCourt).
Nash suspected Holmes had been involved and ordered Diles to bring Holmes to his house. Holmes was found on the street in Hollywood, wearing one of the rings that had been stolen from Nash. Nash had Diles beat Holmes until he identified the people behind the robbery. This was witnessed by Scott Thorson, alleged boyfriend of Liberace, who was picking up drugs at Nash's house.
In the early morning hours of July 1, 1981, two days after the robbery, the house at 8763 Wonderland Ave. was entered. Miller, DeVerell, and Launius were present, along with Susan Launius (Ronald's wife) and Barbara Richardson (Lind's girlfriend). All five were bludgeoned repeatedly with striated steel pipes. Susan Launius survived with serious injuries, but the other four were killed. John Holmes was present at the site of the murder, as evidenced by his finger prints, but it is unknown whether he participated in any of the killings.
According to court testimony, David Lind survived because he was not at the house at the time of the murders having spent the night at a San Fernando Valley motel, consuming drugs with a prostitute. Shortly after the news media reported the murders, Lind contacted the police and pointed the finger at Nash and Holmes and gave them an initial start to the investigation.
Police action and trials
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives Tom Lange and Robert Souza, who led the murder investigation, searched Nash's home shortly after the murders. More than $1 million worth of cocaine was found and Nash spent two years in prison.
Holmes was then charged with committing the murders. The prosecutor, district attorney Ron Coen, tried to show Holmes as a willing participant who betrayed the Wonderland Gang after apparently not getting a full share of the loot from the robbery of Nash's house. Holmes' court-appointed defense lawyers, Earl Hanson and Mitchell Egers, successfully presented Holmes as one of the victims having been forced against his will by the real killers to give them entry to the house where the murders took place. Holmes was acquitted on June 16, 1982. He refused to testify and cooperate with authorities and spent 110 days in jail for contempt of court.[1]
Holmes died six years later on March 13, 1988 of AIDS at a VA Medical Center in Los Angeles. After his death, his first wife, Sharon Gebenini-Holmes, came forward, saying that he had come to her house on the early morning after the killings with blood splattered all over his clothes, but did not tell her any further details.
In 1990, Nash was charged in state court with having planned the murders and Diles was charged with participating in the murders. Thorson testified against them, but the trial ended with a hung jury voting 11-1 for conviction; the second trial in 1991 ended in acquittal. Diles died in 1995.
In 2000, after a four-year joint investigation involving local and federal authorities, Nash was arrested and indicted on federal charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for running a drug trafficking and money laundering operation, conspiring to carry out the Wonderland Murders, and bribing the sole holdout juror of his first trial. Nash, already in his seventies and suffering from emphysema and several other ailments, agreed to a plea bargain agreement in September 2001. He admitted to having bribed the lone holdout in his first trial, a young woman, with $50,000. He also pleaded guilty to the RICO charges and to money laundering. He admitted to having ordered his associates to retrieve stolen property from the Wonderland house, which might have resulted in violence including murder, yet he denied having planned the murders that took place. He received a four and a half year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.[1][2][3]
Books and movies
The 1997 movie Boogie Nights is very loosely based on the life of John Holmes including some of the events related here. The Wonderland Murders are depicted in the 2003 film Wonderland, starring Val Kilmer as Holmes.
Three Dog Night singer Chuck Negron mentioned the murders in his autobiography Three Dog Nightmare.
The murders were placed in the number seven slot in an E! Entertainment Television countdown of the 20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders.
Sources
Some of the events described here are covered from John Holmes' perspective in his autobiography Porn King: The John Holmes Story.[4] The 2005 book Long Time Money and Lots of Cocaine contains the complete transcript of the February 1982 preliminary hearing for Holmes.[5] An account of the Wonderland Murders and the life and death of John Holmes appears in L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes and Bad Times.[6]
References
1.^ Goldsmith, Susan (20 September 2001). "A Really Good Deal Ex-nightclub owner may serve only 37 months in Wonderland murders". New Times Los Angeles.
2.^ The Associated Press (12 October 2001). "Ex-Nightclub Owner Sentenced to Three Years in Prison".
3.^ Osterwalder, Joan (12 October 2001). "Ex-Nightclub Owner Sentenced to Three Years in Prison". City News Service.
4.^ Basten, Fred; Laurie Holmes and John C. Holmes (1998). Porn King: The John Holmes Story. John Holmes Inc.. ISBN 1-880-04769-1.
5.^ Jacobs, Rodger. Long Time Money and Lots of Cocaine.
6.^ Gilmore, Rodger. L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes and Bad Times.
