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The Wonderland Murders · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty one, police responded to a townhouse in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Laurel Canyon neighborhood. There, they discovered one
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of the most savage crime scenes in the city's history.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Four people had been beaten and bludgeoned to death, and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: soon investigators began to uncover a web of information all
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: connected to a massive robbery from a drug lord that
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: had taken place just forty eight hours earlier. The investigation
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: that followed would eventually uncover a world of cocaine trafficking,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: organized crime, corruption allegations, and a famous porn star caught
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: between a violent gang of thieves and one of Los
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: angeles most feared drug kingpins. But no matter how much
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: investigators figured out, it would never be enough. This is
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the insanely brutal and unsolved story of the Wonderland Murders.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: My name is Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcast.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Warning the following material intend more mature audience listener discretion.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I felt like that intro had a lot going on there.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: You think, so, like, holy shit, there is a lot
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: going on in this case. It's a little bit hard
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: to keep track of a time, So I'm just giving
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: you a heads up on that, but there is definitely
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a lot going on.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just like going from one direction to
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the other. It almost felt like, what is that like
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a little ping pong machine or no pinball?
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Pinball, pinball machine.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: I was just going all over the place in that intro.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Ricocheted off this side, smacked that way and over here,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: and lights go blare. Yeah, I get what you mean. Okay,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: a little distraction, a little bit like WHOA a little
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: over stimulates. Over stimulus, over stimuli.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Over stimuli over Yeah.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Over stimulated. Let's just keep it simple.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: This is going to be an episode of out.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It might be. It might be I haven't had enough
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: coffee yet, so that I'm gonna blame it on that.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's kind of early, and our house is
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: scorching hot because we're finally getting some good ass weather.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: That's true. And being that we are in a tiny home,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: we can't have our AC running while we're recording because
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: it's too loud. So we're sitting here in an ac
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: list home that heats up way too fast. But we'll
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: crank it up when when we're done.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Let's just say that, Yeah, we'll live. It will be okay,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: it will be okay. I'm not going to do any
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: sort of fancy intro or leading us in in any
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: sort of slick way today. What I'm gonna do is
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I'm just gonna go right into Patreon and thank the
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: amazing people who signed up. So shout out to Sharon Sonia, Trish, Calinda, Denise, Brianna, Daniella, Crystal, Linda,
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Sarah Connor, Smith, Wicked, I love that, Moniker, Sheila, and
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Charity Porter. They all signed up this week over on Patreon.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: They're getting the exclusive behind the scene content, and not
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: only that over there, they're getting ads free.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Over there, they're going to be getting their names put
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: in an entry for some cool mercher giveaway at the
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: end of the month. They're getting a lot of awesome stuff.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: They're amazing people, So shout out to them.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: That's quite the list. That's freaking awesome, right.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I think the ads free is probably, in my opinion,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the biggest perk. You can listen to any of our
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: episodes completely ads free.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: That is definitely a perk, right.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you're one of those people where you're like, ah,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: these ads suck, totally get it. But there's an easy
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: way to just you know, get rid of those ads,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: just saying sign up on Patreon. But do you want
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to get into this episode?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: It's got an interesting name, and that's what highlighted it
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: for me right out of the gate, was the Wonderland Murders.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It's yeah, I honestly gravitate to ones that have interesting
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: names too, But then I don't know. I mean, most
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: of the time the name really does correlate, but sometimes
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: it's like, oh, why was it that name?
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: But yeah, this one, it doesn't really correlate. It's basically
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: because of the road that they were on. Oh that's
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: about it. Really, that makes sense though, I know. Right.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: So it's a very sensationalizable type name, the Wonderland Murders.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: It really grabs your attention, but it doesn't really have
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: a whole lot to do with this. Okay, it's yeah, yeah,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: we'll we'll talk about it, don't worry. But if you're ready,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: should I just get into it?
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: I think so?
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Okay. So, long before his name ever became associated with
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: one of the most notorious unsolved murder cases infe Los
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Angeles history, John Curtis Holmes was one of the biggest
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: stars in the film industry, or should I say the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: adult film industry. Yes, that's right. John was a porn star.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: During the nineteen seventies, John achieved a level of fame
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that few performers in that world ever experienced. He was recognizable,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: he was wealthy, and he was in constant demand. At
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the height of his career, he was reportedly earning thousands
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: of dollars per day. And remember this is the seventies. Well, yeah,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and he had become famous through his reoccurring roles as
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the private detective Johnny.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Wadd That was what the name he went by.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: That was one of his roles. Yes, the name of
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: his character, his performing character.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, I feel like I'm getting visuals that I do
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: not want right now, and I feel like that.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is true crime. Let's stay away
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: from the adult side of this now. For a time,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: it seemed that John had found both financial success and
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a very large degree of celebrity, fame that extended beyond
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: even the adult film industry itself. But behind the scenes, however,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: John was a man whose life was becoming increasingly unstable.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Born in Asheville, Ohio, on August eighth, nineteen forty four.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: John came from a difficult family background and spent much
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: of his childhood moving between relatives following his parents separations. Now,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: after serving in the United States Army and working in
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: a series of ordinary jobs, he married Sharon Gabini in
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, and by the end of the decade
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: he had entered the adult film industry and quickly became
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: its most recognizable figure. Now, the success he garnered was
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: certainly real, but it came with a lifestyle that would
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: eventually consume him. By the mid to late nineteen seventies,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: cocaine had become deeply embedded in the Hollywood night life.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: It flowed through clubs and private parties, with film sets
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and celebrity circles all taking part, and John he embraced
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: that culture completely. It started as a recreational drug for him,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: but that use gradually involved into a serious addiction that
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: affected nearly every part of his life. As John's dependence
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: on cocaine grew, the career that he once made you
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: know where he had wealth coming from it and fame,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: but it all became unraveled. Friends, colleagues, and people within
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the adult film industry later described a man who seemed
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: increasingly consumed by drugs and the constant need to find
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: money to support his habit, but the addiction affected him
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: more than just his personal life. Several accounts from people
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: who worked with him described growing performance problems during filming.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Years of heavy drug use reportedly made it more difficult
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: for him to maintain erections and complete scenes. If you
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: know what I mean now, He even sometimes required injections
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: or other assistants just to continue his work. Productions at
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: once could be completed relatively quickly often took longer, creating
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: additional costs and more time on set and frustrations for producers.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: At the same time, John was becoming less dependable too.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Those who knew him during this period frequently described a
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: man who would disappear for days at a time just
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to go chase drugs instead of work opportunities. He would
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: fail to follow through on commitments and occasionally arrive in
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: very poor condition. While he was not generally known for
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: violent outbursts or explosive behavior, many people found him increasingly
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: unreliable and very difficult to manage. By the end of
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies, John was no longer living like one
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: of the industry's biggest stars. The steady stream of work
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: that had once made him so wealthy was slowing down
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and drying up. Much of his time now was spent
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: just chasing drugs. The fame still remained, though, but the
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: success that had created it was rapidly fading. John was
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: no longer living like a successful performer. He was spending
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: much of his time high, looking for money, and surrounding
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: himself with people operating in the fringes of Los Angeles'
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: crime underworld. And someone he ended up spending a lot
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: of time with was a teenager named Don Schiller. Now
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: his relationship with her would later become one of the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: darker chapters of his life. According to Dawn, John entered
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: her life when she was still very young and gradually
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: pulled her into a world dominated by addiction, manipulation, and fear,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and she would eventually become one of the people who
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: witnessed John's decline firsthand and most closely see. By the
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: early nineteen eighties, the image of John Holmes that the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: public knew was becoming increasingly disconnected from reality. Man who
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: had once been one of the highest paid performers in pornography,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: was now supplementing his income through drug deals, introductions even
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: between buyers and sellers with petty crime, and whatever opportunities
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: he could find also in there.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm confused. I just have a really good question.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: So was he in a relationship with an underaged girl?
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, him and Don were in a relationship. He
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: was still married to his wife, Sharon, but that relationship
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: was getting rockier and rockier and would fall apart right
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: around the same time that he and Don were actually
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: beginning dating and living together.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Holy Okay, well that's pretty gross.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, I don't want to say that I know
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: for sure that they were dating while she was still
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: a teenager, but that at least met and they were
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: hanging out a lot.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Then.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I know that they started dating around like the late
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: seventies and early eighties, So I just want to leave
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: it at that. I don't want to get into date
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: tales about someone potentially dating a teenager, you know what
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'd rather not think about that, so fair enough.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: But still, like, either way, like a grown ass man
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: hanging out with the teenage girls, probably not great.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely not great. Yeah, Now, John possessed one very
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: valuable skill that helped him survive during this period, and
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: that was that he knew people. He could move between
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: social circles that rarely interacted with one another. He knew celebrities,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: He knew nightclub owners, dealers, addicts, thieves, and career criminals
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: all alike, and that alone made him extremely useful. But
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: it also made him very dangerous. Now. As John's addiction worsened,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: he became less concerned with who he was dealing with
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and more concerned with what those relationships could provide. He
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: used his connections and acted as a middleman in drug transactions,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: connected buyers with suppliers, and spend increasing amount of time
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: around people whose lives to pay more on violence and intimidation. Now.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Among the most important of those connections was a wealthy
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: nightclub owner named Eddie Nash. Eddie operated in a world
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: far removed from the film industry that had made John famous.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: He controlled a network of very legitimate businesses while simultaneously
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: maintaining a reputation as one of the most powerful drug
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: traffickers in la something that was not so legit now.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: John and Eddie developed a relationship built largely around drugs, money,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and mutual convenience. John could introduce people, he could move information,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and help facilitate these deals, while Eddie could provide access
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: to the narcotics and cash that John desperately needed. And
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: around that same time, John also became increasingly involved with
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: a group of drug dealers and thieves operating out of
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a townhouse in Laurel Canyon. These individuals, who were known
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: as the Wonderland Gang, would soon become just as important
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: to John's life as Eddie, and what made John unique
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: was that he belonged to both worlds. He could spend
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: one day with Eddie and his associates, then spend the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: next at the Wonderland Gang house, using drugs and socializing
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: with them. Very few people were able to enjoy that
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: level of trust on both sides, and for a while
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the arrangement worked, John benefited from the connections, the drugs,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and the money, while people around him benefited from the
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: information and introductions that he was able to provide. However,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that very position that made John so valuable also made
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: him extremely vulnerable. He was one of the few people
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: trusted by both Eddie and the Wonderland Gang, and he
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: possessed information that connected the two worlds. So as long
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: as those two relationships remained stable, he benefited from them.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: But if anything were to happen, and something were to
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: go wrong, he would almost certainly become the first person
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: both sides looked to for answers, and by the summer
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty one, that possibility was no longer a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: hypothetical situation. See Eddie had spent years building a reputation
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: that inspired both admiration and fear. Born Abel Gharib Nosrala
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in Palestine, he immigrated to the United States and eventually
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: settled in Los Angeles, where he became involved in the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: nightclub business. By the late nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: he owned several successful clubs and had accumulated a substantial
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: amount of wealth. Officially he was a businessman, but unofficially
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: many believed that Eddie was one of the most significant
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: drug traffickers operating in La Now. Eddie's home reflected that success.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Visitors described expensive jewelry, large amounts of cash, firearms, and
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: significant quantities of narcotics moving through his orbit. He entertained celebrities, dealers, criminals,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and anyone else with enough money or influence to be
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: useful and protecting Eddie was someone named Gregory Dials, a
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: physically imposing bodyguard whose loyalty to his employer was very
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: well known. Now. Gregory had a reputation for violence and intimidation,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: making him exactly the sort of person that Eddie wanted nearby.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: All in all, Gregory was one of the most feared
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: men in Eddie's organization, and several miles away at eight
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: seven sixty three Wonderland Avenue in Laurel Canyon, that group
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: of drug dealers and career criminals had established themselves an
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: immodest townhouse to be known as the Wonderland Gang.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Here comes the address. You always know when Ben lays
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: down an address that shit's about to go down there.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: But I also just have to say, this is bothering
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: me because I'm not saying their career choices are great.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: But imagine making a thousand bucks a day, like you're
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: living the life.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thousand bucks a day nowadays.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Even and it's still like, but then you get addicted
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: to drugs and you're pulled into this terrible world. But like,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: if you didn't that didn't happen, like God, you would
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: just be like frickin' set I know one hundred percent,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Just listening to that sort of disappointing
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: to me.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: I guess for sure. Now I did say that the address,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: but I do want to clarify. It's the Wonderland Gang
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and they lived on Wonderland Avenue, So I mean the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: address is kind of correlation to their name, is a
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: correlation to anything else.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: I feel like that name is better than they are
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: going to most likely deserve.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Fair fair, But I'm curious on your theory of if
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I lay down an address, does that mean shit's about
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: to go down there?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: You think so. I think it's going to go down
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: at that address. Yeah, okay, you have you don't you
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: think that I didn't say that address strictly for the namesake?
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: No, not when you say like the numbers too, Because
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: I feel like anytime you give us an ad address
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: with the numbers and everything and not just like a
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: street name, that something bad went down there. And this
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: has been in reports and stuff.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, well I'm going to keep going on
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: with the story. We'll see if your theory is correct.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, now you're making me second guess my theory well.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: This residence at eight seven sixty three Wonderland Avenue sat
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: along the winding roads of Laurel Canyon, an area once
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: famous for musicians and artists, but by the early nineteen
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: eighties it also contained its share of drug houses and
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: criminal activity. Neighbors would describe a constant and steady stream
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: of visitors arriving at all hours of the night. Cars
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: were coming in constantly, and drug transactions were extremely common.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Arguments occasionally even spilled outside, and that house had become
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a gathering place for people living on the edges of
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: la society. Now the undisputed leader of the group was
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: someone named Ronald Lee Linneus. Ronald was not simply a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: drug dealer, was an experienced criminal with a very long
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: rap sheet. People described him as intelligent, charismatic, and above
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: all else, fearless. He possessed the kind of personality that
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: naturally attracted followers, and several of the people around him
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: looked to him for direction. And unlike many attics who
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: drifted through the criminal world well, he tended to think
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: several steps ahead. He planned his jobs, he evaluated risk,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: and generally acted as the decision maker within the group,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and His close ally was William Billy de Veril. Billy
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: was also deeply involved in the gang's activities and was
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: often considered Ronald's second in command. Living with him was
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: his girlfriend, Joy Miller, whose name was on the lease
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: for the townhouse. Although she is sometimes overshadowed in retellings
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: of this case, Joy was an important part of the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: household and was closely connected to the people operating out
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: of Wonderland Avenue. Another key member was someone named David Lint,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: who was a longtime criminal. He was associated with a
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: reputation for being both intelligent and very unpredictable. Now David
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: would eventually become one of the most important surviving sources
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: of information regarding this story, though no one could have
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: known at the time. And completing the core of this
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: group was someone named Tracy McCourt, another associate who regularly
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: participated in the gang's criminal activities. Together, they supported themselves
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: through a combination of drug dealing, theft, burglaries, and armed robberies.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: But unlike some criminal groups whose operations focused primarily on narcotics,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: the Wonderland Gang had developed a reputation for stealing from
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: other criminals. Drug dealers were often considered their ideal targets
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: because they were less likely to report crimes or anything
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: that was stolen to the police, and that strategy worked
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: for them repeatedly. However, over time it seemed that it
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: created a very dangerous sense of confidence within them, confidence
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: that was also reinforced by their relationship with John Holmes. Now,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: John spent considerable amounts of time with the Wonderland Gang
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: at their house and was familiar with nearly everyone involved there.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: While he was not a formal member of the gang itself,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: he moved comfortably within their circle. He brought drugs there,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: he socialized there, and occasionally helped connect with opportunities that
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: might make the money. But as I mentioned, John also
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: had a very large social circle. He knew people outside
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the gang's immediate world, and one of those people was
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Eddie Nash. And as John continued moving between the two groups,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: information naturally flowed with him. The Wonderland Gang learned about
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Eddie's wealth, his expensive jewelry, his collection of drugs, and
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: the large amounts of cash that could sometimes be found
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: inside his residence. Not to mention that John knew the
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: layout of the house and understood exactly how Eddie operated,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: so gradually some members of the Wonderland Gang began viewing
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Eddie as a potential target. Now, the idea of targeting
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Eddie was extraordinarily risky, even among criminals. Eddie had a
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: reputation for being someone who should not be crossed at all.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Yet the more the gang learned about the money and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the drugs in his home, the more tempting the opportunity became. John,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: though understood exactly how dangerous such a plan would be.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Few people knew Eddie better than him, and few people
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: were more aware of how much wealth was sitting inside
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: his house. But here's the thing. Instead of discouraging the idea,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: John became increasingly involved in the conversation surrounding it. Then,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: by the final week of June nineteen eighty one, the
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: idea of robbing Eddie Nash had moved far beyond casual
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: conversation and a what if scenario. Members of the Wonderland
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Gang had spent enough time hearing about Eddie's wealth and
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: everything that was in his home, and the opportunity had
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: become too much to ignore. The robbery actually began to
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: feel achievable. So in the morning of June twenty ninth,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, the plan was finally set into motion.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Several sources placed John and Eddie's residence multiple times that day,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and various witnesses and participants would provide different accounts over
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the years, but the general belief among detectives was that
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: John somehow facilitated the gang's entry into the home, possibly
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: by leaving a sliding glass door on secured or open.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Later that day, Ronald Lee, Laneus, Billy Deverell, and David
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Lyndt made their move while Tracy McCourt remained outside. The
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: men approached Eddie's residence posing as law enforcement officers at first,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: which was a tactic designed to gain immediate control over
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the situation before anyone realized what was actually happening, and
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: that deception worked at least initially. Once inside, the robbers
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: confronted both Eddie and his bodyguard, Gregory, but a struggle
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: quickly erupted between David and Gregory, and during that confrontation,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: a shotgun was fired and the blast struck the bodyguard
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Gregory in the back in a direct hit, though the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: wound ultimately proved survivable. Now the shooting dramatically escalated the
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: seriousness of this crime, but despite the chaos, the robbers
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: maintained control over the situation. Eddie was then restrained and
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: forced to provide the combination to his safe, while the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: men systematically searched the entire home for valuables. Investigators later
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: determined that they escaped with cash, jewelry, firearms, cocaine, heroin, queludes,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and other property worth an estimated of one point two
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: million dollars.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Ooh, that is a lot for.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: The Wonderland Gang. It was an extraordinary score and easily
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the most lucrative criminal operation many of them had ever
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: participated in. And when the men returned to Wonderland Avenue,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: they were they had every reason to believe that the
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: robbery had been successful. They had all this stuff right,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: they won. The stolen property was then divided, drugs were consumed,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: and those individuals reportedly celebrated what they viewed as a
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: nearly perfect operation. After all, they just robbed one of
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: the wealthiest drug traffickers in LA and walked away with
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a fortune. What they did not know, though, was that
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the situation was already beginning to unravel, because, unlike typical
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: robbery victims, Eddie Nash did not need investigators to identify
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: likely suspects. And the thing is, the men who entered
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the home had demonstrated that they had some detailed knowledge
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: of his residence. They knew where valuables were located, they
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: knew about the safe, and they appeared to understand the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: layout of his home well enough to move through it
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: at least somewhat efficiently. And so because of this, almost immediately,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Eddie began focusing on the person most capable of providing
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: that information. John Holmes.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, he's smart. Yeah that he kind of noticed
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: all of this or picked up on this while they
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: were in there for sure.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Now, John was one of the few people who regularly
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: spent time with both Eddie and the occupants at Wonderland
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Avenue with the Wonderland Gang. He knew the victims personally,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: he knew the laird of Eddie's home, and he had
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: visited the residence multiple times on the day of the
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: robbery even and to Eddie, that combination was extremely difficult
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to ignore and exactly what happened next remains one of
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: the more disputed parts of this case, but most accounts
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: agree on the general sequence of events. At some point
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: following the robbery. John either returned to Eddie's residence voluntarily
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: or he was brought there by Eddie's associates, and once there,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: he was confronted about the robbery and his possible role
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: in it. But when I say he was confronted, I
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: don't mean he was sat down for a cup of
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: tea and politely asked. John was physically assaulted and beaten
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: while Eddie demanded answered about who robbed him.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I shouldn't laugh, but yeah, it was not going
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: to be a cup of tea.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Well I kind of painted that picture. It's
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: not a walk in the park. It's not a little
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: tea party, like, oh, do you know who did this?
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Little John? No, this is you're telling me, and you're
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: telling me now, and the more you delay, the more
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get just fucked up. Now. Whether John immediately
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: gave up the name of the robbers or resisted before
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: eventually giving up their names remains unclear, but the situation
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: placed John in an extraordinarily dangerous spot. For years, he
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: had benefited from maintaining relationships on both sides. He bought
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: drugs from Eddie, socialized with Wonderland Gang, and often acted
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: as a middleman between people otherwise that had little contact
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: with one another, and once the robbery occurred, those relationships
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: became a liability. And most of all, John understood something
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: that many of the people in the Wonderland Gang may
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: not have fully appreciated, and that's that the robbery had
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: not simply cost Eddie money. It embarrassed him because a
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: group of a relatively small time amount of criminals had
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: entered his home, his personal residence. They shot his bodyguard,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: They forced him to give up the number to his
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: safe and left with property worth more than a million dollars.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: For someone whose reputation was built on power and intimidation,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: being one of the biggest drug kings kingpins in the area,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: the humiliation was likely just as significant, if not more
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: than the actual financial loss. Meanwhile, life at the Wonderland
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: House continued much like it always had. Visitors came and went,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: drugs were consumed, the stolen property was divided, and there
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: appears to have been very little effort to flee the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: city or disappear. Clearly, they weren't afraid, even though they
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: should have been. Many of the people living at Wonderland
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Avenue had spent years committing crimes and avoiding serious consequences
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to them. I guess it was just another dangerous situation
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: that may have not seemed like a dangerous one. Yet
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: there were signs that trouble was fast approaching. According to
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: various accounts, some of the stolen property had already begun circulating.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: One persistent story claims that John was seen wearing a
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: ring that was taken during the robbery. Although the exact
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: circumstances remain disputed, it is something that's out there, and
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: whether it's true or not, though it reflects a larger
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: problem facing the robbers, and that was that, unlike stolen
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: cash or narcotics, certain items could actually be immediately recognized.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Eddie knew precisely what had been taken from his home,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and recovering those items would inevitably lead him right back
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: to the people responsible. Now, during this time, John was
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: becoming increasingly nervous too. He was frightened, he was agitated,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: He had already taken a beating. And the thing is is,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: if he had identified the robbers, he had reason to
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: fear retaliation from the Wonderland Gang as being a rat.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: But if he hadn't, then he remains the primary target
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: from Eddie, he was in a lose lose situation, No kidding,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was he. Ever, years later, Eddie would admit that he
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: instructed associates to recover property stolen during that robbery. What
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: was never established, though, is exactly what he expected to
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: happen once those associates arrived at Wonderland Avenue. Now on
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the evening of June thirtieth, Ronald was home with his wife, Susan.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Billy was also at the residence with Joy, and also
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: spending the night was Barbara Richardson, the girlfriend of David Lynt.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Now David himself was actually elsewhere in la reportedly spending
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the night at motel, while Tracy McCourt was at his
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: own home. Now for reference, these are all members of
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: the Wonderland Gang, along with their part diners. As the
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: evening turned into the early hours of July first, the
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: occupants of the house settled in for the night, unaware
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: that the fallout from the robbery was about to reach
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: their front door. So your theory about giving that address,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: you may have been onto something.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm very aware I was on to someone.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: It was sometime during the early hours of July first,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, that the violence had been building since
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the robbery finally reached a climactic point. Exactly how many
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: people or attackers participated has never been established with certainty,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: nor has it ever been conclusively proven how they entered
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the townhouse, but over the decades, investigators, witnesses, and prosecutors,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: along with even defense attorneys, would offer competing theories about
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the details. What is now, though, is that sometime around
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: three am, a group of individuals entered the residents and
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: carried out one of the most brutal multiple homicides in
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles history. Barbara Richardson had spent the night in
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: the couch in the living room. She was not one
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: of the principal members of the Wonderland Gang. She was
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: David's girlfriend and happened to be staying in the townhouse
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: that night. While she laid there, she was attacked right
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: where she slept. She was immediately overwhelmed and beaten to
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: death with heavy objects, and she succumbed to blunt force
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: trauma to the head before she had any time to
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: even react. The attackers then moved through the residence towards
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the bedrooms. In one room was Billy and Joy. Billy
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: had participated directly in the robbery of Eddie two days earlier,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: while Joy was the lease holder of the townhouse and
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: one of the more permanent occupants there. Both were caught
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: by complete surprise and were also attacked. When police eventually
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: documented the scene, Joy was found on the bed, while
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Lee's body was located near the foot of it. A
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: clawhammer covered in blood was also recovered from the room
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: and would become one of the most recognizable pieces of
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: evidence in this entire case. Detectives quickly came to believe
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: that more than one weapon had been used during this attack. However,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: because of the injuries inflicted on the victims, signs showed
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: that many different objects could have been used for this
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: blunt force. Now, the final bedroom belonged to Ronald and Susan.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Ronald was the leader of the Wonderland Gang and one
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of the primary participants in the robbery, and if the
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: murders were indeed retaliation for what had happened at Eddie's place,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: few people inside the house would have been a more
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: obvious target. What happened inside that room was so violent
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: that it would remain burned in the memories of detectives
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: for the rest of their careers. In that final bedroom,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Ronald was attacked while in bed, leaving a gruesome scene behind.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: As the force used against him was extraordinary, Blood was everywhere,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: and the blunt force trauma was delivered excessively and primarily
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to his head. Investigators later described injury so severe that
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: they immediately understood this was not a simple killing carried
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: out for a practical purpose. Whoever attacked him didn't merely
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: intend to stop him, or incapacitate him, or even kill
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: him quickly. This assault continued well beyond what would have
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: been necessary to cause his death. His dead body was beaten,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: is what that means, and beside him was his wife, Susan.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Unlike the others in the house, though Susan somehow survived
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: this encounter, she suffered devastating injuries to her head and face,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: and sustained severe wounds to her hands while apparently attempting
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to protect herself during the attack. Her fingers in fact
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: was partially severed, and the damage to her skull was
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: so extensive that she would later require multiple surgeries, including
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: the removal of a portion of her skull, just to
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: relieve pressure caused by the injuries, yet despite all of that,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: she somehow remained alive. All of these attacks appeared to
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: have been carried out with a combination of hammers and
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: metal pipes, and investigators would later focus particular attention on
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the possibility that serrated metal pipes had been used because
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: of some of the victim's wounds displayed distinctive patterns consistent
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: with a cylindrical serrated object.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: Who this is completely savage.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Savage is a damn good word for it.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: It's also not super surprising, though, Yeah, like, how did
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: they think they were going to get away with this?
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Exactly? They're playing with fire, and not only is he
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: getting retaliation, he's sending a message to everyone else too. Yeah,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: don't fuck with me? Is the message?
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Not really who they were dealing with.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Clearly they didn't think about it. Now. The clawhammer recovered
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: from the bedroom supported the theory that multiple weapons were involved,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: and what made the crime scene especially disturbing was not
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: simply the number of victims, but the sheer level of
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: force used against him, the amount of blood, the amount
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: of the amount of force. Everything was beyond graphic. Veteran detectives,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: crime scene technicians, prosecutors who later worked the case repeatedly
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: described the murders as among the most violent they had
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: ever encountered. Comparisons were frequently made to other notorious La
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: homicide scenes, including the Tate l'bianca murders, which were more
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: than a decade earlier, and those comparisons were not made
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: because the crimes were similar in motive or execution, though
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: they were made because of the experience. Investigators rarely encountered
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: that degree of blunt force trauma inflicted upon multiple victims
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: in a single location. And here's another note too. See
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: as detectives would later reconstruct the attack, they became convinced
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: that the killers did not simply enter, commit the murders
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: and immediately leave. The condition of the residents suggested that
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the attackers spent additional time inside the home after the
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: assaults were completed. Drawers had been opened, closets had been searched,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: property was removed, and various rooms appeared very much so ransacked.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: It seems as though someone had been looking for something
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: at the time, though investigators couldn't determine what they were
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: searching for as they were unaware of the robbery of
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Eddie Nash. What seemed clear however, was that the search
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: occurred after the violence, and the murderers and the ransacking
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: appeared to be part of the same operation. Outside the townhouse,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: the rest of Laurel Canyon remained largely unaware of what
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: had happened, although some accounts suggest that some screams or
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: disturbances may have been heard during the early hour mornings,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: but no emergency calls were made. The Wonderland House was
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: already known for late night activity and arguments and visitors
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: arriving at unusual hours, so even if neighbors did hear
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: something unusual, few would have had reason to immediately assume
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: that four people were being murdered. That unusual noise was
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: probably rather normal, and when attackers finally left, they left
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: behind a scene unlike almost anything investigators would encounter that year.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Four people were dead and one woman had been left
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: for dead but somehow still survived.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: You know, you have to be into some shady shit
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: when you get robbed. What did you say, one point
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: two million worth of stuff?
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Approximately?
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and detectives, investigators, police don't even know, Like you
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: didn't even.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Report this, Oh yeah, exactly.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I was just thinking about that. That's
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: wild because when you said that, like they weren't aware
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: of the robbery, I was like, oh my gosh, yeah,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: weren't aware of the robbery. But who the fuck does
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: not report that much getting stolen from them?
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Well, and that's what the Wonderland Gang operated on. That's
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: what they accounted for. They stole from criminals, They stole
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: from drug traffickers, drug dealers, people who would not report
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: the crime. So that's what they're relying on, is We're
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: going to steal from you and you're not going to
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: have anything to do about it. But what they didn't
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: account for was Eddie being as powerful as he was
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: and protecting his reputation as much as he needed to
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: revenge that he was going to do something about it. Yeah,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: unlike these other smaller criminals who couldn't or wouldn't.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: The murders are believed to have occurred sometime around three
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: am on July first, nineteen eighty one, and police would
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: not arrive until much later that afternoon. And as much
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: digging as I did, I could not conclusively find how
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: police learned of the murders. I've seen people and articles
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: claim that a phone call came in and report or this.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: That's the extent of anything I could find, and any
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: information surrounding that is not concrete, and the slightest all
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: I know is that there was a delay from when
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: the murder happened at approximately three a m. To the
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: police arriving sometime around the afternoon, and that delay would
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: become one of the most frustrating aspects of this entire investigation,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: which also leads me into other aspects and potential ways
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: that the crime could have been reported. See for nearly
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: twelve hours, the victims remained inside the townhouse while crime
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the crime scene sat largely unexamined right and during that time,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: investigators would later learn several people connected to the house
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: may have actually entered the residents before authorities ever were contacted.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Some reportedly saw evidence of the killings. Other allegedly removed drugs, moneies,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: or valuables before leaving, you know, getting the fuck out
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: of there, cutting their ties. And by the time the
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: police finally did arrive, detectives believed that the scene had
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: already been compromised and contained emanated.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's wild to think that someone would see this
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: kind of scene and then just get the stuff they needed.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: In peace out right, But that's the lifestyle, that's the organization.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: Holy huh.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: But perhaps the thing that's most remarkable, though, was Susan
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: who still remained alive throughout that entire period. She remained
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: beaten and bludgeoned, on the edge of death and sat
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: there in the home for almost twelve hours.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, probably listening to people come in and not
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: help her.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Potentially, yes, And despite suffering her catastrophic injuries, she survived
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: this entire time before she finally received medical attention, and
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: when medical emergency personnel arrived, emergency responders quickly recognize the
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: severity of her condition and rushed her to the hospital,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and doctors would ultimately save her life. However, the damage
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: was extensive, and her injuries aside, the most devastating portion,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: at least for investigators, was that she had no memory
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: of the attack itself.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Oh dang.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: The only surviving victim of the murder had become unable
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: to identify any of the people responsible.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Too bad. I'm also assuming the intention was for her
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: not to have lived, right like that?
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the intention I'm assuming was for her to be killed. Yeah, okay,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: but she somehow managed to survive. They left her for dead,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: but she didn't die. As homicide detectives began processing the townhouse,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: they would describe the Wonderland residence as one of the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: most disturbing scenes that they had ever encountered. Blood was splattered, smeared,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: pooled all throughout multiple rooms of the residents, with walls, betting, furniture,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: and floor all bearing evidence of this attack. Detectives began
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: documenting the scene room by room and the fact that
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: so much had been disturbed, with so many drawers being opened,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: closets being disturbed, personal belongings being scattered, it all suggested
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: someone had spent time looking for specific items after the
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: assault was complete, and that observation immediately raised questions about
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: the motive behind this and as investigators worked to identify
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: the victims and reconstruct everything, they uncovered a development that
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: immediately changed the direction of their investigation. They learned that
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: several people that were connected to the Wonderland House had
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: allegedly participated in a major armed robbery just forty eight
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: hours ago, and the victim of that robbery was, of course,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Eddie and Ash. This discovery immediately caught investigators' attention. The
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: timing was way too difficult to ignore, and less than
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: two days separated the robbery from the murders themselves, with
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: several of the men believed to have actually participated in
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: the home invasion now being killed, and if the murders
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: were connected to that robbery, investigators wondered whether the attackers
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: had been searching the property for stolen things in this
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: residence right trying to recover the cash or jewelry or
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: whatever it was. So as detectives dug deeper into the
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: background of the victims, they also discovered they were dealing
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: with an exceptionally complicated environment. The townhouse functioned as far
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: more than just a home. It was in itself effectively
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: a drug house, with a constant stream of visitors moving
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: through the property at all hours, and that reality complicated
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: the investigation considerably, making it difficult to determine which fingerprints
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: or anything or other pieces of evidence were connected to
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: the murders and which were simply remnants of everyday activity.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Even so, investigators eventually identified one piece of evidence that
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: stood out see Inside one of the bedrooms, detectives recovered
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: a palm print, and when the print was analyzed, it
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: matched to John Holmes. Now through reputations and witness accounts,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Detectives already knew John was associated with both the Wonderland
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Gang and Eddie Nash. He was one of the few
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: people with close ties to everyone involved. Now, the palm
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: print did not prove he committed a murderer or any
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: sort of crime. John was, of course a frequent visitor
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: to the home. He had legitimate reasons for being inside
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: that house earlier at many points in time. However, it
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: gave investigators something they desperately needed. So he combined with
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: witness statements and the emerging story surrounding the robbery of
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Eddie Nash, the palm print placed John squarely at the
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: center of the investigation. It was a tangible connection, and
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: at the same time, detectives were learning more and more
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: about what had just happened two days earlier. Everywhere they turned,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: the same name kept resurfacing the robbery of Eddie Nash.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: The more investigators learned about that home invasion, the shooting
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: of Gregory Dials, the bodyguard, and the enormous amount of
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: property that had been stolen, the more difficult it became
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: to view the murders as an isolated act of violence.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: There was clearly a line between these two. So by
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: the end of the first phase of the investigation, detectives
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: were becoming convinced that the answers to the Wonderland murders
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: would not be found solely inside this townhouse. To solve
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: the case, they would need to understand what had happened
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: before the murders. So detectives found themselves trying to untangle
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: a web of relationships that connected drug dealers, nightclub owners,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: career criminals, porno film stars, and some of the most
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: notorious figures operating in LA at the time. And the
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: deeper they dug, one more name kept appearing over and over,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: and that was John Holmes. He knew the Wonderland Gang,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: he knew Eddie Nash, and he was one of the
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: few people trusted by both. The pomp print recovered from
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the bedroom was not enough on its own to support
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: a murder conviction, but it reinforced everything. So the question
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: was no longer was John connected to the story? The
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: question was how deeply involved was he? And as investigators
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: continued digging, they also began hearing increasingly troubling accounts what
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: happened after the robbery of Eddie Nash. Several witnesses described
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: John being confronted by Eddie. The details varied from one
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: account to another, but the general narrative remained surprisingly consistent.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: John either returned to Eddie's home voluntarily or was brought
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: there by Eddie's associates, and once there he was accused
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: of helping orchestrate the robbery. He was beaten and pressured
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: to reveal who was responsible. Among the most significant witnesses
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: was Scott Thorson. At the time, Scott was best known
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: as the former companion of the entertainer Liberis, who was
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: a musical stage performer. Now, his connection to the case
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: seemed so unusual that some investigators really struggled to even
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: believe it. Yet, Scott maintained that he happened to be
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: at Eddie's residence on business unrelated to the robbery when
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: John was actually brought in for that questioning. So Scott
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: witnessed John being assaulted while Eddie demanded answers, and according
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: to his account, the atmosphere inside the home became increasingly
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: tense as Eddie sought information about the people who were
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: responsible for robbing him, and Scott would eventually claim that
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: he heard Eddie order retaliation against those people who were involved.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: What just a web of shit these investigators had to
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: go through, no kidding, to figure this out like this
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: would not be easy, No, not at all. Good work
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: that they're doing here to get to the bottom of
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: all of this.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: It's extremely convoluted, and the thing is you're dealing with
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: people who don't want to talk or trust the police
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: at all. They're keeping things hidden, so it makes it
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: that much harder, no kidding. Now, not everyone accepted every
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: detail of Scott's story, though, but investigators found portions of
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: his account very difficult to dismiss. More frequently, it aligned
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: with what they were actually already suspecting about the sequence
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: of events. And meanwhile, detectives were gathering information from other
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: crucial sources too. David, for example, Unlike most of the victims,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: David had survived. He was a member of the Wonderland Gang,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: and he survived because he was not present at the
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: home at the time the murders occurred. He wasn't there,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: and as one of the participants in the robbery directly,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: he possessed first hand knowledge about many of the events
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: detectives were trying to reconstruct. Now, David's relationship with investigators
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: would prove rather complicated. At times he cooperated, at other
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: times he was rather guarded. But nevertheless, the information he
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: did provide help detectives better understand the internal dynamics of
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: the Wonderland Gang and the planning of the robbery, and
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: the role John played connecting various individuals through David and
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: other witnesses, investigators developed a clearer picture of how the
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: robbery had unfolded and why the victims may have been targeted,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: and the emerging narrative was not that of a random massacre,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: but rather a calculated act of retaliation tied directly to
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: the robbery of Eddie. Now A, police continued pursuing leads.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: John himself became increasingly difficult to track. Shortly after the murders,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: he left California. Traveling with him was his now partner, Don,
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: who had spent years living with him in this increasingly
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: chaotic world. According to her later accounts, John was behaving
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: erratic in the aftermath of the murders. He appeared frightened, nervous,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: and deeply concerned about what might actually happen next. Soon
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: the pair eventually made their way to Florida, and from
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: an investigative standpoint, leaving the state after becoming connected to
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: a quadruple homicide was heartily innocent behavior. Detectives began working
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: to try and locate him and determine whether he possessed
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: any information capable of breaking this case wide open. While
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: they pursued John, another witness quietly emerged in the background too.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: That person was John's first wife, Sharon Holmes. Now, Sharon
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: had remained connected to John despite years of turmoil, addiction,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: and infidelity, and shortly after the murders she acknowledged that
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: John knew the victims and had spent time at Wonderland Avenue. However,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: it was years later that she would make the statements
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: that transformed her into one of the most controversial figures
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: associated with this case. Now, this is very important here,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: but I do want to clarify. I'm mentioning a bit
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: early in the timeline. I feel like it fits here,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: so we're going to talk about it, but it happens
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: much later. We'll talk about it in a bit too.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: So according to Sharon, John arrived at her home on
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: the morning of July one, nineteen eighty one. He was
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: visibly shaken and he had blood all over his clothing
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: she claimed. He later admitted to being present during the
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: murders and described accompanying several men to the Wonderland home.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: According to Sharon's account, John insisted he had not participated
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: in the killings themselves elves, but he was there to
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: witness the attacks first hand. Now, these allegations were explosive.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: They appeared to support the theory that many investigators already
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: were working with that John had been present during the murders,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: but he may not have necessarily been one of the
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: individuals who carried out the violence. But the problem was
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: that timing that I mentioned. See this. A detailed account
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: from Sharon emerged years later after John had already died,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and detectives could not confront him with the allegations. They
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: couldn't test his response or compare his version of events
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: like against hers. They couldn't see those true or false.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: So as compelling as this information seemed, it was very
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: difficult to verify conclusively.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: But it does kind of make sense that Eddie would
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: make him be a part of this, for sure, because
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: or else why wouldn't Eddie, you know, just kill him too, exactly.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Right, making a statement or whatever the case or you're
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: going to go and you're going to witness your button
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: die firsthand. You're going to go there and you're going
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: to help them find my stuff. Yeah, that sort of thing.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: But nevertheless, the weight of the evidence continued, pushing investigations
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: towards John. The palm print, the robbery, his connections to
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: both groups, the witness statements that were coming out in
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: his sudden departure from California heading over to Florida instead.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Each piece alone was insufficient evidence, but together they painted
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: a picture of a man who appeared to be far
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: closer to the murders than he was willing to admit,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: and by early nineteen eighty two, prosecutors believed they had
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: enough evidence to actually make a move, So in March
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty two, John Holmes was arrested and he
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: alone was charged with four accounts of murder. For nearly
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: nine months, detectives had worked a piece together one of
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: the most complicated homicide investigations in Los Angeles history. They
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: had uncovered the robbery of Eddie Nash, established John's connections
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: to both Eddie and the Wonderland Gang. They identified the
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: palm print, linking John to the crime scene, and gathered
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: witness statements suggesting he knew far more about the murders
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: than he was willing to admit. What they still lacked
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: was a witness who could definitively explain what had happened
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: inside the home during the early morning hours of July first,
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, and that problem would ultimately prove very
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: difficult to overcome. See. The prosecution's case against John centered
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: on the belief that he had at least played a
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: role in bringing the killers to Wonderland Avenue. Detectives suspected
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: that he had either accompanied the attackers voluntarily or had
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: been forced to assist them after being confronted by Eddie
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: and his associates. Regardless of which version is true, investigators
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: believed John had been present during at least part of
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: the attack, and proving that belief in court was another
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: matter entirely though. The defense, on the other hand, argued
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: that John's connection to the crime scene was explained extremely easily.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: He frequently visited that home, and he had known many
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: of the victims for years, so finding his palm print
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: inside the residence was hardly surprising, and furthermore, no physical
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: evidence conclusively established that he had participated in the killings themselves,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: and the claim about the blood and his clothes had
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: not even come out yet. At this point, the trial
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: attracted significant media attention, due in no small part to
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: John's notoriety. Reporters covered the proceedings extensively, and the public
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: followed the case closely. Yet, despite the attention surrounding the trial,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: prosecutors struggled to overcome the gaps in their evidence, and
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: after approximately three weeks of testimony, the jury acquitted John
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: on all four murder charges. For detectives who had spent
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: months investigating the case, the verdict was a major se
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: set back. While many continued to believe John knew the
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: truth about what had happened inside that home, suspicion alone
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: was not enough to secure a conviction, so the murders
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: remained unsolved. But although John avoided a conviction, his legal
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: trouble was not entirely over. He would later spend time
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: in jail for contempt after refusing to cooperate with aspects
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: of the investigation. Even then, though investigators hoped he might
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: eventually provide information that could identify people who actually carried
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: out the murders, but that hope never materialized. Over the
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: following years, John's health continued to decline, his struggle with
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: addiction persisted, and by the late nineteen eighties, he was
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: suffering from complications related to AIDS as well. Shortly before
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: his death, detectives attempted one final interview in hopes that
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: he might finally reveal what he knew about Wonderland, but
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: they left with little to show for it. According to report,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: John was heavily medicated, he was gravely ill and unable
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: to provide coherent answers. Whatever knowledge he possessed about the
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: murders remained locked away inside his head, and he died
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: on March thirteenth, nineteen eighty eight, at the age of
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: forty three. Now, ironically, some of the most significant allegations
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: connected to the case emerged only after his death, because
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: it was only a month later when his ex wife,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Sharon Holmes, publicly claimed that he came home covered in
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: blood the day after the murder. She said John told
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: her that he accompanied several men to Wonderland and witnessed
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: the killings, but she maintained he never identified the attackers
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: by name, and he insisted that he portrayed himself as
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: a witness rather than an active participant. Now, these claims
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: generated enormous attention, but it just arrived too late. Unfortunately
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: John was dead. There was no opportunity to question him further,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: to challenge his accounts, to determine precisely how much Sharon's
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: story could be verified. And like so many aspects of
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: the Wonderland case, the allegations raised important questions while proving
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: basically nothing.
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: It is kind of odd that she came out just
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: some months after he died, Like why didn't she come
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: forward earlier? Or was she just kind of worried what
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: or she didn't want to do it while he knew
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: she would, Or.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: It might have been trying to protect him, because if
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: she came forward with the information of him being covered
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: in blood, yeah, he's likely going to be convicted or pinpointed.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: So my guess, my best guess is that after he passed,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: he's no longer going to be in the line of fire,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: he can no longer be targeted. So that's when the
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: information came out.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, so clearly there was still like some love there.
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: She was trying to protect him.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Hey, I mean they may have been.
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: Mutual respect or something.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: They weren't together anymore by any means, but yeah, there
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: was there was at least still some sort of foundation
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: of a relationship, you know. So now, eventually the investigation
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: shifted back towards Eddy and his bodyguard, Gregory Dials. Prosecutors
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: believed the murders had been ordered as retaliation for the robbery,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: and spent years attempting to build the cakes around that theory. Witnesses,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: including Scott Thorston, testified about conversations and events that allegedly
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: took place in the aftermath of the robbery. The prosecution
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: argued that Eddie had directed others to recover his stolen
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: property and punish those responsible, and the results were mixed.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: One trial ended with a hung jury after a lone
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: holdout refused to convict. A second trial resulted in acquittals
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: for both Eddie and Gregory alike. Then, years later, another
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: surprising twist emerged. Federal authorities investigating Eddie's broader criminal activities
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: uncovered evidence that that lone holdout juror from the earlier
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: trial had allegedly been bribed.
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, not surprising at all.
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: Eddie eventually admitted to paying that juror approximately fifty thousand
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: dollars and later accepted a plea agreement involving racketeering and
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: money laundering charges.
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: Holy. I mean, it would probably have been so easy
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: for him to be able to do that.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Probably and even if he didn't bribe him to, hey
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: be like I'm just going to kill your family, then
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: like you know, like fear mongreen could have been part
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: of it too.
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: Woo.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: So as part of that agreement, he acknowledged directing associates
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: to recover the stolen property from the robbery. He admitted
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: it directly that he said, yes, I sent people to
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: go get my shit, but he never admitted though, to
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: ordering any sort of murder to occur. So for many
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: investigators involved, the plea agreement was something it felt frustratingly incomplete.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: Though it established corruptions surrounding the earlier trial and who
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: orchestrated the home invasion, but it still failed to answer
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: so the most important question in the entire case who
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: carried out the murders, And that question unfortunately still remains
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: unresolved more than four decades later. Many of the people
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: who might have known the answer, unfortunately have now passed.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: John Holmes, as I mentioned, died in nineteen eighty eight,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: David Lint died from a heroin overdose in nineteen ninety five,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: Gregory Dials died of liver failure in nineteen ninety seven,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Tracy McCourt died in two thousand and six, and Eddie
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: Nash himself died in twenty fourteen. As the years passed,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: the number of people capable of shedding light on the
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: case steadily diminished. Meanwhile, Susan Laannias lived with the consequences
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: of the attack that nearly killed her. Her survival remains
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: one of the most remarkable aspects of this entire story.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Despite suffering catastrophic injuries and spending hours trapped inside a
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: townhouse while she's sitting next to murder murdered husband in
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: a pool of her own blood and her head essentially
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: caved in. Yet somehow she survived, and those same injuries
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: that nearly took her life also robbed investigators of what
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: could have been the most important witness. She couldn't remember
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: what had happened, and that reality may be the cruelest
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: iron irony of this entire story. The attack left one survivor,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: but the trauma erased the very memories that detectives needed
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: most Now Today, investigators believe they understand much of the story.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: They know about the robbery, the relationships, they know about
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: the retaliation, and likely the motive. They know how the
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: conflict developed and why the violence followed. But what they
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: have never been able to prove exactly though, is who
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: entered the townhouse that day, in the early morning hours
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: of July first, nineteen eighty one, and delivered those fatal blows,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: killing four people. That small townhouse at eighty seven sixty
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: three Wonderland Avenue still actually stands in Laurel Canyon today,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: and to most people driving past, it is simply another
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: home tucked into the winding roads of the Hollywood Hills.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: Yet behind it its walls tell a story of one
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: of LA's most infamous unsolved crimes, one defined by violence, drugs, betrayal,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: and unanswered questions. Detectives have spent decades trying to identify
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: the killers, Yet despite all of the efforts, the central
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: mystery remains exactly where it was on the morning of
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: July first, nineteen eighty one. Four people were murdered, one
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: woman survived, and no one has ever been convicted of
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: carrying out the Wonderland murders. And that's the story of
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: the Wonderland Murders and the Wonderland Gang.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: What a story.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: It seems like something I mean, it's ironic saying this
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: because it took place in LA but it seems like
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: something taken directly out of Hollywood.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's a mild wild story. And I feel
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: like they know who did it basically, well, they know
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: an extent, but they just can't They just can't prove it.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they know who even did it,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: they know who orchestrated it. They know Eddie's responsible period.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: He even claimed he sent He admitted he sent people
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: there that day, but he claimed he didn't send anyone
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: to go kill anyone. Yeah, bullshit. But the question is, Okay,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: who did you send? No clue?
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean they probably have a tiny bit of
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: a clue, I bet you.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sure.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, how many people does Eddie have that kind
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: of influence over to be able to send them over
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: to murder?
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: Oh for sure? For sure. I mean maybe he fucking
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: just paid some random people within the drug world or
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: trafficking world or whatever too, right, Yeah, I'm sure they
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: have suspects, But they just don't know. They don't know
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: if it was three, four, five men, they don't know
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: if it was a dozen. They just don't fucking know.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: But there's I feel like, only so many people that
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: you could send over to a house that is going
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: to that savagely murder people. You know, like it was
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: people that you know were experienced in a way and
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: just didn't really care.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: That's definitely true. But when it comes to gang violence,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: you know, gang versus gang, or drug trafficker versu drug trafficker,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: or territory verse territory, those people can get violent very
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: fast for honestly just stepping on toes even and there
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: was a lot more than just stepping on toes in
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: the story.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, holy frick, what a wild ride that was. I mean,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: it's too bad that that many people lost their lives
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: and there's no one really to hold accountable. I mean,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: they weren't themselves, like I don't think the best of
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: people either, But that doesn't mean they deserved.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: This, Yeah for sure. But if there is one, if
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: there's one takeaway from this, kid's drugs are bad. Drugs
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: are bad. It literally fucked everyone up in this story.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: If John was just continuing to be at an adult
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: film star. Like you said earlier, he would have made
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: a thousand dollars a day. He would have been set
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: for life.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he could have had freaking homes all over the world.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. But instead he got wrapped up in it all,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: and then he ended up tying two gangs together with
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: a single connection, and then it all went spiraling out
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: of control, and four people are dead as a result,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: or four people are murdered as a result, once gravely injured.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, gangs are scary, Like, it's pretty scary. I don't
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: know all a frick Okay.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: I know. All I want is a little bit of
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: acreage with a little tiny farm and some chickens or
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: a couple of donkeys in a garden. You know. Yeah,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: sit back, drink some wine and just live my life.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: But then there's these people.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: Out there that's not good enough for this.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: It's not good enough. They want territory, they want money.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, hey, every hour power. Everyone has their own
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: you know, desires. I get it, but I don't know
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: that is just a world beyond me.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well doesn't really seem like that.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: Fun really, No, not really at all.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: Like you're just always having a look behind your back
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: and I don't know, and make sure you're protected and
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: I don't know. It just doesn't seem worth it to me.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: My anxiety would be through the roof. Every day I
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: bump into someone's shopping cart at the grocery store, I
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: feel bad for a week, you know what I.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: Mean, Like, Yeah, yeah, I guess it's not for us.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: Then I guess not. We'll stick with our chicken and
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: husky gang.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: Anyways, thank you for being here. We hope that you
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode. Yeah, I'm just gonna leave it at
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: that for now. Don't forget to check out Patreon. You
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: got ads free over there. You got cool stuff. Check
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: it out, and until next time, stay wicked.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: The thing
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: A thing, oh oh oh