All language subtitles for The.Wonderland.Massacre.and.The.Secret.History.of.Hollywood.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH[EZTVx.to]

♪♪

[siren wails]

[Connelly] Los Angeles--

a city infamous
for its music and movies...

[man] Action!

♪♪

[Connelly] ...is also
defined by its murders.

[gunshot]

[scream]

It seems to set
the City of Angels apart,

capturing the world's attention.

The randomness of murder
plays out

beneath the bright lights
of Hollywood,

the boulevard of broken dreams,

and seeps into the veins
of the American zeitgeist.

I'm Michael Connelly, and I
came here nearly 40 years ago,

drawn by the movies, the music,
and, yes, the murders.

This dark pantheon
includes the Black Dahlia,

the Hillside Strangler,
the Manson case,

the O.J. Simpson case,
the slaying of Biggie Smalls,

just to name a few.

But perhaps no other case
symbolizes an era in Los Angeles

more than
the Wonderland massacre.

[man] Okay, cameras rolling.

[newscaster] Four murder victims
were found today

in a posh Hollywood Hills home.

Police said all four had been
beaten to death in a struggle

that splattered the interior
of the house with blood.

[newscaster #2]
A Manson-like mass murder.

[Connelly] The tentacles of the
case would ensnare a porn star,

a corrupt judge,
and drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Multiple celebrities
would be swept into the story

by Liberace's boy toy,
enigma Scott Thorson.

♪♪

To this day, no one has been
held directly accountable.

For many, including me,

it has been
a decades-long obsession.

♪♪

[birds calling]

[rustling]

I used to walk by this house

when I lived in Laurel Canyon,

and so it was always kind of
a place of fascination.

This story ostensibly is about
a massacre in a house in 1981,

but it's one of those rings that
keeps going out into society.

By day, my job was working
as a crime reporter in L.A.,

and I was writing about murders
all the time.

And then I moved into this world
where I'm writing novels,

and there's aspects
of this story

that I don't think
would work in fiction

because you actually have to be
more believable in fiction.

When you're
a newspaper reporter,

you can build sources.

You build sources through trust.

You build trust through accuracy
in your stories.

I did that for a long time
as a journalist,

but then when I was out of it,
you know, writing fiction

and trying to make my fiction
as real as possible,

doors opened open for me,
and one of the people

who opened one of those doors
was Rick Jackson.

[crew] Detective Rick Jackson.
Marker.

You've worked
a lot of cases.

Was there any case that had this
kind of longevity in your life?

There are cases like that
that continue

to rear their heads
because of bizarre reasons,

but this has kind of
set the bar, really,

as far as things
in my career.

To me,
it feels like a story

that could only be told

through the lens
of Los Angeles.

Yeah,
it's a Hollywood story.

♪♪

It's glitzy,
yet it's really dark, too.

Laurel Canyon--
that was my old patrol area.

Laurel Canyon and the hills

on both the east
and the west side of Hollywood.

So, I was up there a lot.

It's a beautiful,
natural setting.

Rustic.

The aftermath of the hippie era
goes on up there.

It's always been connected
to creativity,

obviously music.

[Connelly] The music that really
was important to me growing up

seemed to all come
out of Laurel Canyon.

I think there's
a real connection

between music and writing.

Yeah, it was
a great setting for all that.

And then along comes

this brutal, brutal,
brutal murder.

[man] There's quite
a lot of blood spattered

upon the--the records.

[Connelly] This was
the end of a generation

of inspiration and innocence.

[man] Apparent
narcotics paraphernalia

is evident on the coffee table.

And it was all
kind of fueled by these drugs

that were designed to addict.

People still know about
this case 40 years later.

How much does it bother you

that people got away
with murder?

You're retired from the LAPD,
but you're a volunteer,

still closing cases.

Do you think
it's worth opening it again?

[Jackson] It's not too old
to look at it again.

Almost like Harry Bosch
in the show,

where you spread
everything out.

We do this kind of stuff
all the time

40, even 50 years later.

It's the heat
of a cold case.

You get that rush.

Right away, you're into it,
and you treat it

just like a case
that happened the day before.

♪♪

[Connelly]
So, what happened about 4:00

when you came to work
on July 1, 1981?

[Jackson] It was right close
to the 4th of July weekend.

There were no detectives
around at all,

but there was word
in the station that

a multiple murder had taken
place up in Laurel Canyon.

So, I thought, well,

I'm now officially
working detective, so I should

go up there
and protect the crime scene,

you know, not letting captains
or other people

that shouldn't go
in there just to

be a lookie-loo.

The first officer
at the scene

made entry through a door
in the back.

They could hear moaning.

[faint moaning]

They weren't sure
it was an animal inside

or something
that was wounded.

It was kind of a haunting
description he provided of...

you know, making entry
into that place.

But I never went inside
'cause I knew this case

was gonna go to downtown--
robbery homicide.

So, once the other detectives
got there,

I left.

[crew] Detectives Tom Lange
and Bob Souza. Marker.

[Lange] We were on call-out
that weekend.

It was gonna be
the 4th of July.

But murders don't occur between
9 and 5, Monday through Friday.

Tom got there about a half-hour
before I did, I think.

I was still fighting
holiday traffic.

I usually greeted Tom
with a joke.

And so when I finally pulled up
and I saw Tom on the sidewalk,

sleeves rolled up,
clipboard out,

his game face on,
I said, "Tom,

this isn't gonna fuck up
my holiday weekend, is it?"

And he didn't even smile.

[crew]
Okay, camera is rolling.

I remember the first thing
Tom said to me.

"You got
your galoshes ready?

I'm gonna give you
a walkthrough."

[Lange] We are
at 8763 Wonderland Drive.

[Souza] Tom had this great idea
to videotape it.

[Lange]
We are now in the residence.

The first level,
the living-room area,

wherein victim number one
was found.

There is evidence of ransacking
in this room.

The first thing
that struck me when I went in

is that this place is a mess.
It's been turned.

Apparent narcotics paraphernalia
is evident on the coffee table.

[Souza] It just smacked
of a drug rip-off.

[Lange]
Directly above victim one.

Barbara Richardson
was in the front.

She was lying on her side
below the sofa.

There was blood pooling where
she probably was first struck,

struck so hard that
she was knocked to the floor.

You could see
blood on the wall,

that tailed up the wall,

which indicates that
the, uh, the blood

was probably flung
from a murder weapon.

The throw pillow
on the south end of the couch

has a large bloodstain.

Not a spatter.

Definitely a soaking.

[Souza] There was more blood
in that scene

that I'd ever seen
at a crime scene.

[Lange] In front of you,
we have a west wall.

Blood splattered.

This was the location
that victim number two

was removed by a rescue unit.

Susie Launius--

she had been removed already
and taken to Cedars-Sinai.

So, she was at the hospital,

but I was told she was
not expected to live.

As we move to the south
in a southerly direction,

we have victim number three.

Ron Launius is lying in bed.

He'd been attacked
probably sleeping.

Apparent wounds to the head.

His skull was just in pieces.

Two hypodermic needles
are observed on the nightstand--

one in the drawer,
one on the nightstand.

On the east wall,

there's an apparent
pellet gun hanging, barrel up.

Blood splatterings
are evident on the south wall

above the victim's head

and the curtains to the west
and northwest of the victim.

Now entering the room

where we find
victims four and five.

Joy Miller was the person
who was renting the house.

Victim number four.

She was lying on the bed,

half out of the bed
and half in the bed.

Somebody took some kind of
a striking object to her head,

to the point where it was just
flattened from the eyes back.

There is extensive trauma to
the head of victim number four.

Once again, extensive evidence
of ransacking.

Panning towards the south,
we have victim number five,

located in
a partial sitting position.

Billy Deverell
was on the ground

leaning up against
a, uh, TV tray.

The TV was on.

He had defensive wounds
on his hands.

It was clear that he got out
of bed and probably fought back.

Again, extensive head wounds
are apparent.

A hammer is noted
in the corner of the bed.

Drawers have been...emptied.

The floors are extremely
blood-stained around the bodies.

We've got five bodies
in three different places.

So, the whole house
is a crime scene.

You're gonna have evidence
throughout the entire house.

These victims had been struck
by some kind of a bat or a pipe,

which means they probably knew
the people that did this.

-This is personal.
-Did you have a sense

that this
wasn't one maniac?

We never thought
that it was one person.

Three, four, maybe even
as many as five,

to be able to control that
whole house the way they did.

We agreed right away
that it was a get-back murder

just because of the--
the violence.

Four murder victims
were found today

in a posh Hollywood Hills home.

Los Angeles police say
the murder scene was so bloody

that the--and that the bodies
had been in there

for 12 to 15 hours,

found by neighbors in the house

located just blocks
from Governor Brown's home.

A fifth person
survived the attack.

She is now in critical condition
from severe cuts and bruises

on her head and neck.

The identities of the victims
have not been released,

but police say
they were not celebrities.

[Lange] We had probably
a hundred people

in the press
and the trucks and cameras.

And just about
two and a half miles

as the crow flies to the west

was the Manson killings

and Sharon Tate
right over the hill,

uh, which was, of course,
in '69, 12 years earlier.

♪♪

[Connelly] Okay, so, murder
marches on in Los Angeles.

But how soon did you arrive
at who these people were?

First thing you wanna do

is run their records
locally, federally,

to see what they are,
what they've been arrested for.

Turned out one of our officers

knew Ron Launius
as a murder suspect

on a well-known case--
the Vic Weiss case.

Weiss was a sports promoter
who was murdered,

found in
a Universal City parking lot

in the trunk of his car.

And Ron Launius
was one of the suspects.

[Connelly]
At the time of his death,

Ron Launius was associated
with several open murder cases.

He had already
served prison time

for trafficking heroin
and cocaine.

So, right out of the gate,

did law enforcement think
this was drug-related?

It was the cocaine salad days.
Let's face it.

We had Hollywood
on one side,

San Fernando Valley
on the other.

♪♪

[Connelly]
The male victims were part

of what became known
as the Wonderland Gang.

It was a loose affiliation
of thieves and drug dealers.

They sold drugs, but they also
stole drugs from other dealers.

It was a common practice,

given that no one involved
would actually call the police.

To infiltrate these gangs,

police officers
would go undercover.

♪♪

[crew] Narcotics detective
Bobbie Eggar. A and C. Mark.

So, about 18 years
of working narcotics

during a pretty amazing
evolution of drugs.

What was that like?

We saw a lot. We went from
pills were the big issue

to marijuana
into a lot of cocaine.

Back in the day,
cocaine was very powerful.

Everybody that had money
had cocaine.

And it was your way
of showing people

that you were powerful
and you had money.

Tell us a little bit
about your undercover work.

What was your assignment
and how did you carry it out?

When I first
went to narcotics,

we tried to see
if we could infiltrate

the entertainment industry.

I mean, just playing a role

kind of enticed me.

Can I convince you
that I'm a drug dealer?

[Connelly] What was
your undercover name?

-Angela.
-And so was that when you were

doing the kind of personal buys
in the clubs and stuff?

Yes.

We were going
to bars, restaurants,

places that we knew a lot

of drug trafficking
was going on

kind of out in the open,

so we can become
friendly with them and

eventually make a buy
from them.

It was pretty cutthroat.

There was no loyalty
except to the drug.

The people involved
in those crimes,

which Wonderland was--
they were all users--

their only loyalty
was to that drug

because they needed it.

They'd do anything
to get that drug.

We're here on
the 8700 block in Wonderland,

just off of Laurel Canyon.

What we have --
four dead and one injured.

A neighbor heard what he thought
were screams

very early this morning.

My girlfriend woke me up
and said,

"Hey, there's something
going on."

And I was half-asleep
and just kind of said,

"Well, we've heard it before,
you know."

-[reporter] Screams? Uh...
-Yeah, really torturous screams.

So, the murders occurred
probably just after 4 a.m.

It was almost 4 p.m.

before anybody
did anything about it.

But in the meantime,
they had all these visitors

who just helped themselves
to whatever was left.

♪♪

In one instance,
the guy told us he went in there

and he stepped
right over Susie Launius,

and he heard her moan,

and somebody said, "Hey,
I think she's still alive."

And he said, "Ah,
she's gonna be dead anyway.

Let's just get outta here."

♪♪

[Jackson]
I never worked narcotics,

but in murder investigations,
quite a number, percentage-wise,

involve drugs somehow.

[Souza]
So, a couple of days later,

we're sitting
around the station,

and we got a call from a guy
named Fat Howard.

-[telephone rings]
-Tom took the call.

[Lange] He says,
"Well, I got a guy with me,

and, uh, he says he knows

some of the victims up there,
and--

and he's worried
about his girlfriend.

Maybe she was hurt
and in the hospital.

I think maybe
you ought to talk to him."

I said, "Okay, Howard. Fine.
Where are you calling from?"

He said,
"Well, I'm at the house."

I said, "Okay. What are you
talking about? Your house?"

"No. I'm at the--
at the Wonderland house."

I said, "You're at the murder
house where it just happened?

Well, where's your friend?"
He said, "Well, he's inside."

I said, "Oh, shit."

So, I grabbed Bob, and we
beat it back up to the house.

♪♪

The tape has been ripped down.
The door is wide open.

So, we went in the front

with weapons out
because we don't know

what we're dealing with in here.

Not everybody
cracks into a crime scene

where four people
had been murdered

and just walks right in.

It just takes a set of nuts
to do something like that.

[man] It smelled like death.
I saw a lot of blood.

I saw where everybody
was murdered.

I saw the place
my girlfriend was.

There was this
huge blood spot there.

That didn't make me feel
too good.

It just, you know,
it just was bad.

[Lange] So, we walked in, and we
hear some movement in the back,

and there's some guy back there
on all fours

picking up pills
and stuffing them in his pocket.

We had to yell at him
two or three times.

He was--He was so engrossed
in what he was doing.

-[Lange] Yeah.
-Finally I yelled,

"Police officers! Freeze!"

[Lange] Come to find out,
it's David Lind.

[Connelly] David Clay Lind
was a biker, heroin addict,

and a member of the Aryan Nation

who had befriended the leader
of the Wonderland Gang,

Ron Launius, when they were
in prison together.

[reporter] One of the victims
was bailed out of jail

on car-stealing charges

by this man, Howard Harry Cook,
a local underworld figure.

This man, David Lind,
a bounty hunter from Sacramento,

was away at the time
when the murders occurred,

but his 22-year-old companion
was killed.

[Connelly] Lind's girlfriend
was one of the victims--

Barbara Richardson.

For some reason,
he felt that she was still alive

because the media--
it had been reported

that one of the women
was still alive at Cedars-Sinai,

so he assumed it was her,
and it wasn't.

♪♪

But this was the first break
we had in this whole case,

so we ended up taking him
down to the station.

He knows the people.
He's been there before.

So, we're gonna be
straight with him.

We're not gonna lie to him.

We're not gonna play games
with him.

We're gonna be very honest.
I said, uh,

"Dave, Barbara's dead."
He went berserk.

Just yelling and screaming.

-[Souza] Absolutely.
-He throws a chair.

He starts taking all these pills
out of his pocket.

He's slapping them on the table
in front of us.

"This is a rainbow,"
and he puts it in his mouth.

Finally, he gets calmed down,
and we said,

"Do you want to tell us
who did it?

Who did this, David?
You know. Tell us."

He starts talking right away.

"This got to be the robbery."

He tells us that
he and Launius and Deverell

went up and robbed
this dope dealer,

Eddie Nash, two days earlier.

And he's continually
taking pills.

"This is a dragonfly.

This is a Christmas tree.
This is a raindrop."

He's getting higher than hell,

and he starts to talk about
John Holmes, porn actor.

We knew the name.

♪♪

He says, "Holmes
kind of set this robbery up.

He left the back door open
for us to get in."

[Lind]
We entered a bedroom,

a guest bedroom,
by a sliding glass door

that had been left open
by John Holmes

the previous evening
for the purpose of the robbery.

I looked through the door of
the bedroom down the hallway,

and I could see Diles.

It was Nash's bodyguard.

[Lange] They got in
some kind of a struggle.

Lind had an accidental
discharge on his weapon

that grazed Greg Diles,

who was a big bodyguard
that Nash had.

I asked Nash
for the combination and/or keys.

He was rather reluctant
to give me that information,

so therefore I took the pistol
I had in my hand,

stuck it into his groin,

and then removed it and stuck it
in his mouth and cocked it.

Talked about putting his gun
in Nash's mouth.

Yeah, "One of them, it
had the son of a bitch down,

and I put my gun in his mouth
and he was crying and screaming.

And we got into his safe."

[Lind] And I told him
I wanted the information,

or I was gonna blow
his head off.

♪♪

[Lange] They removed dope
from the safe.

They said they got
about 100,000 bucks.

And they took all that loot
back to Wonderland,

where Holmes
was waiting for them.

So, that's the link-up.

That's where Holmes became
kind of a link between Nash--

But--But Lind's telling you
about this?

So, like, Lind appears
to be a gold mine.

-Oh, yeah.
-But it's all stuff

you have to follow up on,
but he laid out who robbed Nash.

-[Lange] Yeah.
-And who was it?

He told us what happened.

[Connelly] It was Launius,
Deverell, Lind, and...

[Lange] Lind, and Tracy McCourt

was the driver,
the getaway driver,

was in a car, stolen car,
out in front of Nash's house,

waiting for the three
to come out.

And Nash wanted these people
that did this, who robbed him--

he wanted them killed.

Every one of them,
he wanted dead.

He wanted revenge.

He wanted to get back
at these people.

[Connelly] You had not heard
the name Nash?

[Lange] No. First time
we heard any of this.

John Holmes, same.
We hadn't heard any of this.

This was a Scooby-Doo moment.
Believe me.

Scooby-Doo moment. Yeah.

This is how we got
the first break.

We found out how
this was probably motivated.

Now we know that
he's connected to Ed Nash.

And I knew Nash
from Hollywood.

He started
at a hot dog stand,

and that grew into, uh,

he became
quite a nightclub owner.

And it wasn't just
entertainment he was into.

He got into drugs as well.

[Connelly] Eddie Nash's
real name was Adel Nasrallah.

Born in Palestine,

Nash came to Los Angeles
in the early '50s

with dreams
of becoming an actor.

Here's my boy.
Nash, meet Mr. Butler.

-[man] Go!
-[gunshot]

[Connelly] Other than a single
episode of The Cisco Kid,

Nash's acting career
went nowhere.

♪♪

[Eggar] Eddie Nash wanted
to be an actor.

People come to L.A.

with that big dream.

So he's just another story on
the boulevard of broken dreams?

He was, uh,
just another story.

[Connelly]
Can you talk about when

Eddie Nash
got on your radar?

When I was working

that original undercover
assignment back in '75, '76,

it was the first time
I had ever met Eddie Nash.

He had many clubs
in the Hollywood area.

It was all about, "Look at me.
I own this place."

You know,
"You want to be somebody,

you need to align yourself
with me."

He was claiming Mafia ties.

He was claiming
Israeli Mafia ties.

Drugs were everywhere.

Eddie Nash was always around
in the clubs selling drugs.

He was arrogant.
Um, I thought he was dirty.

He had a bad smell.

I didn't like
being around him.

Did he ever get
suspicious of you?

Yeah, I was asked once
to do a smaller buy,

and he had his bodyguard,

Greg Diles,
put his hand on my back

like he was checking
for a wire or something.

You know,
you got power people,

you got celebrities.

Liberace was invested,

and John Holmes,
the porno king, was there.

Quite often, we would see him
out and about in Hollywood.

[horn honks, siren wailing]

[crew] Speed. Mark. Marker.

[Holmes] Keeping track of
the films and averaging out

how many girls you go to bed
with in each film helped a lot.

Just slightly over 14,000.

He was doing longer
feature films at that time.

This is when
he was being paid his most,

and it's at the same time
he started into drugs.

[crew]
Deputy D.A. Robert Schirn.

I knew John Holmes

because we had something
in the office

called the Pornography
Task Force.

♪♪

We'd meet
every couple of months

and discuss
the current trends

of the types of movies
they were making,

whether the movies were,
in fact, pornographic

and should be prosecuted.

♪♪

These meetings were some
of the best-attended meetings

because we'd show clips
from some of the new

pornographic movies
as part of our presentation.

♪♪

Oh, yeah, Johnny Wadd.

His movies weren't the type
that we would want to prosecute,

but he was still probably
the biggest star at that time

in the porno movie industry.

He has a weapon.

[Schirn] So, Tom Lange

came to me and said,
"We have a witness

that we think can really help
solve our case."

They told me that Holmes was

right in the middle
of everything,

that he could connect
the Eddie Nash group

with the Wonderland group.

So, from the moment
Eddie Nash's name comes up,

what's--
what's the next move?

We wanted to talk to Nash
right from the beginning.

So, we approached
our lieutenant,

who went in
and talked to our captain.

Our lieutenant came
right back out, said, "No,

we don't want you
to talk to Ed Nash."

So, you're told
don't approach

Eddie Nash yet
or ever?

No, just, it was,
"Don't talk to him."

How did you get
around that?

Well, the sheriff's narcotics
had contacted us,

and they had
an undercover officer

that had bought dope
at Nash's house.

And once they had
that information,

they got a search warrant
for the house.

And once they had the warrant,
they contacted Tom and I

and invited us along because

they knew we were handling
that Laurel Canyon murder.

We had information
that, uh, Eddie Nash

was in possession
of a quantity of cocaine.

And, uh,
as a result of that information,

we obtained a search warrant.

[Schirn] I helped write
the search warrant,

and there was not mention at all
that there was

a murder being investigated
in the background.

So, I was sitting in a car

while the sheriff's bureau
was conducting a tactical entry.

They wanted to secure
the premises.

[Lange] Their tactic was
to surround the house,

knock out all the windows,
flash bang the front door.

This was a so-called
no-knock warrant.

It's about as no-knock
as you could get, I guess.

[Schirn] Suddenly,
we heard some gunshots

coming from the residence.

Diles opened up on the team,

fired on them
with a nine-millimeter.

So, they returned fire
with a shotgun.

Finally, they realized it was
the police and surrendered.

We found a quantity
of cocaine in the safe,

along with a number
of Quaaludes,

in addition to approximately
$6,000 in cash.

[Lange] So they called us in,

and we found a bunch of,
uh, affidavits and warrants

and other intelligence reports
beneath his bed.

So, it's pretty obvious
to us, then,

that he had somebody inside.

When does he know
you guys are on

to what happened
at Wonderland?

-Right then. No, he knew then.
-At that point.

He says, "What the fuck
are you guys doing here?"

"What are homicide guys
doing?" He knew then.

♪♪

[Schirn] When I was finally
allowed to go to the location,

the one suspect
that I saw was Greg Diles,

who was the 350-pound bodyguard
of Eddie Nash.

He was laying on a pool table
without any clothes on

and handcuffed
behind his back.

-[camera shutter clicking]
-[man] Hi, Greg!

♪♪

[Schirn] The case was assigned
to a deputy in my unit

named Ron Coen,

and he did file charges
against both Nash and Diles

as a result
of the evidence recovered.

[crew] Deputy District Attorney
Ron Coen, marker.

So, this massacre happens
in the, uh,

you know,
on Wonderland Avenue.

At what point
did that become your case?

It became my case
right after the first raid

on Eddie Nash's house.

Bob Schirn, my boss,

came in
and gave me the case.

The next day, Eddie Nash
was arrested for dope.

Diles,
not only for the drugs,

but he fired
at a deputy sheriff,

so it was assault
on a peace officer.

And later,
I basically had all cases

that dealt with Eddie Nash

and anybody that was
connected to Eddie Nash.

[Connelly] So you became
the Eddie Nash guy.

How big was Eddie Nash
that he would get a prosecutor

assigned to all things...

Well, he was suspected
to be a major crime figure.

And I was aware that he was
a suspect in the murders,

along with Greg Diles
and others.

And the issue was to try
and eventually get to that.

Okay, so where does
John Holmes come into this?

John Holmes was suspected
from the very beginning

of being involved.

Um, and the first I hear
about John Holmes,

uh, was from Tom Lange
and Bob Souza.

[Lange] Holmes was a linchpin,
number one on our list.

And so we put out
a warrant on him, did we?

Yeah, and he was hanging out
at these little dingy motels

all along Ventura Boulevard.
-Ventura Boulevard.

[Lange] Yeah, running around
with his girlfriend.

He was on the run,
basically.

He was on the run, basically,
'cause he knew what happened,

and he knew sooner or later
we'd be looking for him.

[Connelly] John Holmes'
mistress, Dawn Schiller,

learned of the massacre
at Wonderland

while hiding with John
in a motel.

[reporter] We have just received
tape from Los Angeles

on today's developments in
those gruesome murders in the...

[Schiller] I knew the house,

and my heart just went
into my gut

because I just knew
there was something wrong.

He got back,
and I didn't say anything.

He just looked exhausted.
He took, like,

a couple of Valiums and laid
down and went to sleep.

He tossed and turned
and he screamed, "Blood, blood!

There was so much blood."

That's when
the door was kicked in,

and we were arrested
by the police.

[siren wails,
police radio chatter]

[Connelly]
On July 11, 1981,

one day after the raid
on Nash's home,

and ten days after the murders,

Lange and Souza were told

that John Holmes was
being held in protective custody

at the Biltmore Hotel
in downtown L.A.

[crew] Detective Mac McClain.
Marker.

Let's start at the beginning.

John Holmes is taken
into protective custody.

Just kind of talk me
through what happened.

I had heard about
the murders on the news,

but that was about
the extent of it.

And the next thing I know,
they call me and they goes,

"You're gonna be
in charge of the night watch

guarding John Holmes."

They said, "We're concerned
that Ed Nash and his people

might try to kill him,
so we want to protect him."

I had heard of him
even before the murders,

you know,
being this big porno star,

and he did this detective series
called Johnny Wadd.

But then I had heard from some
of the other policemen that,

you know,
he was hooked on drugs,

and he went downhill
from being a famous porn star

to just a drug addict.

I guess at that point,

they weren't looking at him
as a suspect.

They were looking at him
as a witness if he'd open up.

At that time, yeah.

I first reached him
at the Biltmore,

and they said
that he's up there

with his girlfriend
and his wife,

which I thought
was unusual.

Yeah, I mean, did you say,
like, "What?"

That's exactly what I said.
"What?"

John was trying to work out
a deal with the police,

and, you know, he called
and said, "Will you come?

Because I'll need you."

My private understanding
of our relationship

was that I was his mistress,
and we all lived together,

and that was that.

And I accepted that
that was good

because I loved Sharon
at that point.

I wouldn't want to be
without her.

[McClain] And they're ordering
lobster and steak,

and I go, "What?"

I goes,
"And you let them do that?"

He goes, "Yeah," and I goes,
"Well, that stops on my watch.

He's not gonna be getting
any steak and lobster."

For some reason,
I didn't trust him.

[Connelly]
While Mac McClain stood guard

at the Biltmore Hotel,
seven detectives,

including Tom Lange, Bob Souza,

and prosecutor Bob Schirn,
questioned John Holmes.

[Schirn] What Holmes told us
in the interview at the Biltmore

clearly establishes who was
involved in the robbery.

He was useful in the interview
to at least identify

David Lind, Ron, and Billy

as the persons who had
gone through Nash's residence,

robbed him,

and then in retaliation,
they got killed themselves.

So, he started off strong,
gave you stuff you needed.

You must have been
pretty hopeful.

[Schirn] Well,
he started off very well.

You know, John told us
he was buying dope from

both the Wonderland people
and from Eddie Nash,

and he bought more
than he could afford,

and that's what started
the, uh, bad blood.

But then he gave a story
that was just so unbelievable.

He was kidnapped
by two people

that coerced him into
going into the house

and leaving
the door unlocked.

But he never looked at their
face, could not identify anyone.

You could sort of tell that he
was just afraid to name names.

The one detective
who immediately

started asking questions
was Tom Lange.

He sort of challenged Holmes
through some of the answers

he had given us,
but Holmes kept saying,

"No, no, I'm being square
with your guys.

I'm telling the truth."

And so the officers asked

if Holmes would take
a lie detector.

And Holmes, with the advice
of his attorney,

said, "I will not take
a polygraph."

So, Holmes--
did he cooperate?

It seemed like there was
a long dance

where he was just taking
advantage of getting to stay

at the Biltmore
or something.

You just--You just said it.
He's taking advantage.

He's got the suite
at the Biltmore,

the vice president's suite.

He's--He's ordering
this expensive scotch.

The way you treat a dope addict
under these conditions,

is you don't put him up
in the vice presidential suite

and feed him steak and scotch

with his girlfriend
and his wife.

[Schirn]
After the interview was over,

you know, we all got together,
and one of the detectives

sort of said,
"What bullshit."

So, he ultimately refused to
cooperate, and he was cut loose?

-He was allowed to leave?
-Yes, yes.

And when he was cut loose
from the Biltmore,

where do you suppose
the first place he went?

We found him one hour later
at Ed Nash's house.

♪♪

[Souza] After he just told us
he was terrified of Ed.

Yeah, he's like,
"This guy is terrible.

He's a terrible guy, and I don't
want anything to do with him."

[Connelly] After the raid,
Eddie Nash's house

was under
constant police surveillance.

In addition to John Holmes,

there was another frequent
visitor--Scott Thorson.

At the time, little was known
about Scott Thorson,

other than that he was
Liberace's young lover

and a frequent visitor
to Nash's clubs and home.

[Lange]
We'd heard of Scott Thorson.

We knew that he was
at Nash's place early on.

He was somebody
that we wanted to talk to,

but we never got that shot,
never got that chance.

We didn't hear from him
for, like, eight years,

nine years later.

[Connelly]
It would be nearly a decade

before anyone discovered
what Scott Thorson knew

about the murders.

Back in 1981,
all law enforcement could do

was keep the pressure
on John Holmes and Eddie Nash.

So, someone overdosed
in the house and died.

♪♪

When someone overdoses
with drugs,

there's a good chance,
a great likelihood

that there's still drugs
in the house.

That's probable cause.
Let's make another raid.

We did another search
at the house.

Same routine,
this time with our own SWAT.

No shots fired this time.

They went in, got more dope,
got more money.

So, we had three
of these things now, and, uh...

[Connelly] But you weren't
allowed to talk to him?

You were just allowed to search
him, search his property?

Yes. "Don't talk to Ed Nash."

[Souza] I know
we could have gotten

some information out of him,
but we didn't know

what was really going on
behind the scenes at that point.

No. [chuckles]

But it was pretty heavy,
as we found out.

So, I mean, I'm the amateur
sitting outside this.

Did it occur to you that
he's got his hands

on somebody in the hierarchy...
-Oh, yeah.

...that doesn't want that
to come out.

-That's right.
-So, you cannot talk to him?

Probably. You know,
we haven't proven that.

We don't know for sure.

But it fits with some
of your assumptions, right?

It certainly sounds
pretty damn good to me.

[Connelly]
The three raids on Nash's house

resulted in Eddie Nash
and Greg Diles

being charged with possession
of controlled substances

with intent to sell.

[judge] The defendant
will be committed

to the custody of Sheriff
of Los Angeles County,

uh, pending the posting of bail

in the sum of $10 million
in this matter.

[Connelly]
During the bail hearing,

detectives Bob Souza and
Tom Lange were in the courtroom.

Lange testified as to why

he thought
Eddie Nash was a flight risk.

Approximately one hour
after Mr. Diles was booked,

Mr. Nash was observed

to leave his residence
with two flight bags in a run.

Mr. Nasrallah is
not going to flee.

[Connelly] In one of the many
surprising moves in this case,

Judge Ricks
cut the bail by half.

All right, I'll reduce it
to $5 million, then.

That pissed us off.
That was total bullshit.

It seemed that somebody else
had an agenda.

Said, "Well, how are we gonna
get to the bottom of this?

We need to know
what's going on."

So, this is the type of crap
that we were up with

and not used to.

[Connelly] Pending drug charges
brought by Ron Coen,

both Greg Diles and Eddie Nash
were released on bail.

Prohibited from questioning
Eddie Nash,

Lange and Souza decided
to question Susan Launius,

who had regained consciousness

and was being guarded by police
at the hospital.

[reporter] A female victim

found bleeding to death
for 12 hours in a bedroom

was taken
to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The 25-year-old woman
underwent four hours of surgery

to repair damage to her head,
neck, and one finger.

[McClain] After the Biltmore,

I was responsible
for guarding

the victim, Susan Launius.

We had a list of people that
were allowed to come in there,

and we were checking ID.

[Lange] She was our only link
initially to what was going on.

She was there.
That makes her a witness.

Not just a victim,
but a witness.

She may have seen something.
She may have heard something.

We don't know.

I found this tape recently going
through a box in my garage.

I didn't even realize I had it.
It's a three-minute cassette,

and it's the first attempt
to interview Susie Launius.

It's a couple of weeks later.

The doctor didn't want us
around her for a while

because she wasn't expected
to make it, and she did.

So, this is the first attempt
at just to try to --

try to get some direction
as to a suspect,

to see if she might have known
who did this

or if she could give us
anything at all.

[voice breaks]

She's getting stressed,
and that's about it.

[recorder clicks off]

We sound a little stern.

You know, we're trying to get
some information from her.

We wanted her to realize
that this is all business.

And, "I'm sorry you feel bad,

but can you remember
anything at all?" type of thing.

The last comment you heard,
she's really getting stressed.

And we knew we weren't
gonna get anything after that.

[Connelly]
With no new breakthroughs

from Susan Launius,
Lange and Souza reached out

to one of
their last remaining leads,

John Holmes' wife, Sharon.

So, we wanted to talk
to Sharon Holmes

because nobody had sat down
with a formal interview

other than this thing
at the hotel

where she wasn't talking
about anything to anybody.

We went to see Sharon
at her place.

We said, "Okay, when did you
first see John

after this happened?"

She says, "Well,
I think it was July 2nd

that he came to the house."

I said,
"Are you sure it was the 2nd?"

And she wasn't sure.
I think she was incorrect.

I think she meant he came
to the house on the 1st

because he was all bloody,

and he said if I could draw him
a hot bath, he'd take a bath.

So, he took all
his bloody clothing off,

and he took a bath
and everything else.

I'm thinking
this is really good stuff.

But she said she
would never testify,

she would never give us
anything on John, period.

♪♪

[Connelly] Despite hitting
roadblocks with witnesses,

Lange and Souza continued
to comb through the evidence,

building their case
with prosecutor Ron Coen.

So, what was your relationship
like with Lange and Souza?

They were--they are
the best investigators

I've ever worked with.

♪♪

And they knew the case
backwards and forwards.

[Connelly] And so, as these guys
are investigating

the quadruple murder,
updating you on what they got,

you kind of focused
on John Holmes.

From the start, was it,

how do we get John Holmes
to flip?

Or was it John Holmes
might be a murderer?

At that first interview
in the hotel room

when he had room service,
he was just playing the game,

but he was a witness.

And as the investigation
went on,

it looked like,
well, maybe he's a suspect.

So, did something happen
that changed the view

of letting Holmes be
running around out there loose?

[Lange] Once the palm print
became evident,

the case changed.

With the palm print
of John Holmes

on that bed railing,
in the position that it was

above the shattered skull
of Ron Launius,

who he hated and feared,
it was a big question--

what the hell is he doing there?

That was the game changer,
right?

That was the game changer
right there.

No longer was he a witness.

He was a suspect.
He was more than a suspect.

He was a defendant now.

As soon as that came out,
I had enough to charge.

He's a killer.
So, I filed the case.

As soon as it happens,
Holmes takes off.

So, Holmes' girlfriend, Dawn,
takes off with him.

We don't know where she is.

Within 24 hours of our
release from the, the Biltmore,

John and I took off.

We got to his sister's house
in Montana,

and she let us stay
for a couple days.

A couple days later,
we got a phone call

from his mother in Ohio,
telling us

the FBI was just there,
and they were looking for him.

So, where are we gonna go?

And I said,
"Well, I was raised in Florida.

Let's go to Florida."

Dawn's brother is concerned

that Holmes has been
beating up his sister.

He doesn't like Holmes.

He knows he's on drugs
all the time.

[Souza] And we convinced him
that her life was in danger.

So, we kind of won him over as
a friend, which paid off later.

So, we're in the office one day,
and he calls.

[telephone rings]

He says, "I heard
from my sister Dawn.

They're in Florida."

♪♪

[Schiller]
We made it down to Florida,

and we stopped at one
of the cheapest hotels there,

the Fountainhead Hotel.

And it was a, you know, rundown
kind of transition hotel.

♪♪

[Lange] So, it's decided
that we would go down there

and see if we could find John.

So, we find the hotel,

we set up around the hotel,

and we think that
it's gonna be a long night.

Well, it was only
about five minutes,

and there he is.

There's a party going on
next door.

We go in there. Oh, he's--

Now he's going into
his Johnny Wadd routine.

Speaking of business,
I'd like to get this over with

as soon as we can.

I have to get back to the hotel
and get some rest.

He's cocky
and all this other stuff.

We cuff him up, take him out.
The next day, we get on a plane.

[engine roars]

On the plane,
he's now gotten very quiet.

He's beginning
to realize what's going on.

He says, "I gotta tell you,
I had nothing to do

with any of this.
It was Nash. Nash did it all."

But we get an admission,
very important admission.

"Yes, I let him in."

So we land,
and Bob books him

for the murders.

[reporter] Los Angeles police

said today they have arrested
porno movie star John Holmes,

a suspect in a quadruple murder

in the Los Angeles area
this summer.

He was arrested in Florida
this weekend

by two Los Angeles
homicide detectives.

Holmes now faces murder charges
for the four bludgeoning deaths

that took place in
the Hollywood Hills last July.

Authorities say Holmes was
in the house the night

the four people were killed,
but they would not say whether

Holmes took part in the murders.

[Gates] We are taking our facts

and our evidence to
the district attorney tomorrow,

and hopeful that the
district attorney will see fit

to file a complaint of murder
on John Holmes

on--on that quadruple,
quadruple murder.

[Connelly] So, Daryl Gates
has a press conference

announcing the arrest,
and, um, that's pretty good.

I mean,
that's less than six months

from this
very complicated murder.

You've--You've made a case,
so you're feeling pretty good?

Oh, I'm feeling great.

Information came out
through Holmes' statement

that, uh,
shortly after the robbery,

Eddie Nash, uh,

forced Holmes to name
the perpetrators of the robbery,

had Holmes led at gunpoint
to the house

with unnamed killers.

[Connelly]
Did you all ever say, like,

"This is never gonna go
to trial.

This is an exercise
in squeezing Holmes

so he cooperates, and then
we take Nash to trial"?

Yeah.
We call it the domino theory.

We're gonna get Holmes,
we're gonna convict him,

and he's gonna make a deal.

We got the robbery laid out.
They had a good case.

♪♪

[Connelly]
But the Wonderland case,

shrouded in secrets,

was never going to be
an easy win.

♪♪

This is the secret history
of Hollywood,

that all these people move
on this underground level

and know each other
and connect, and to me,

it's always astounding 'cause
this is such a big place.

[Jackson] The interconnections
keep jumping out at you

much more than you'd
ever think they would.

It's like coincidence after
coincidence after coincidence.

At some point,
it's no longer a coincidence.

There are people
that just keep showing up.

I think we were talking
about this one day,

and then you mentioned
the name Scott Thorson.

You said something
along the lines of,

"You got to talk
to this guy."

And now here we are.

Yeah. [chuckles]

Just listening to him,

it's just--
you're gonna shake your head.

I mean, you can't help
but shake your head

when you hear his story.

[Connelly] Though never
implicated in the murders,

Scott Thorson,
a.k.a. Jess Marlow,

held the key to unlocking
the pieces of the puzzle.

[crew] Scott Thorson,
a.k.a. Jess Marlow, marker.

So, you're at the center.
You're the center of a wheel

of this story
that's gone 40 years.

And I know
it's 40 years ago,

but can you tell me what

Eddie said to Diles
when he said,

"Take John, go up to--
go back to Wonderland?"

"Kill these people."
He wanted...

He wanted them dead.
Eddie Nash was evil.

He didn't have a heart.

You know,
he wanted that revenge.

And he enjoyed everything
that happened up there.

That's when I really
got scared, you know,

uh, because I felt
that I knew too much.

So, you lived under
this threat or this fear?

Absolutely I did.

I was in the wrong place
at the wrong time, you know?

And so it scared the hell
out of me.

♪♪