The Wonderland Gang Murders
The Wonderland murders, also known as the Four on the Floor Murders and the Laurel Canyon Murders, are four unsolved homicides that took place in Los Angeles on July 1, 1981. Investigators believe that the targets were the five Wonderland gang members named after Wonderland Avenue, where they rented a house. Yet, only three were there at the time of the assassinations, along with one known associate and the gang leader’s wife. That evening, unknown assailants broke in and bludgeoned four of the occupants to death with hammers and pipes, leaving the fifth barely alive.
The Wonderland Gang
The Wonderland members consisted of Ronald Lee “Ron” Launius, William Raymond “Billy” DeVerell, David Clay Lind, Tracy Raymond McCourt, and Joy Audrey Gold Miller. Known associates were Susan Murphy Launius, Ron’s wife, and Barbara Lee “Butterfly” Easton Richardons, David Lind’s girlfriend.
The Wonderland gang derived its name from Wonderland Avenue in Laurel Canyon, where the two-story townhouse leased to Joy Miller served as the gang’s headquarters. In addition to being regular drug users, the Wonderland gang also dealt in the Los Angeles cocaine trade of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1981, David Lind moved from Sacrament to Los Angles at Ron Launius’s behest, Wonderland’s leader. Ron wanted David’s help in growing their drug distribution empire. Ron and David had met while in prison, where the pair became friends. David brought his girlfriend Barbara “Butterfly” Richardson, and they crashed on the couch of the Wonderland house.
Ron Launius gained a dishonorable discharge from the United States Airforce during the Vietnam War for drug smuggling. The US government convicted him for smuggling heroin in the caskets of American soldiers. At the time of his death, police investigators across California had nearly 30 open homicides linked to Ron as the main perpetrator. Some in law enforcement commented that Ron was one of the coldest people they had ever met. David Lind once commented about Ron, “You could put a gun to his head, and his pulse would never break 70.”
Billy DeVerell was Ron’s second in command. A heroin addict, Billy liked the easy money dealing afforded him. Yet, he found a lot of what he had to do in the business didn’t sit well with his conscience and would sometimes become self-loathing, wishing to get out of the business and get clean.
David Lind was a heroin addict and member of the Aryan Brotherhood. When the murders occurred, David testified that he was in a motel in the San Fernando Valley on a binder with a male sex worker.
Tracy Raymond McCourt drove the stolen 1975 Ford Granda that carried the Wonderland Gang to Eddie Nash’s home the night of the home invasion. Tracy was initially flagged to be part of the robbery, but David took his gun away at the last minute and made him the getaway driver. David used to refer to Tracy as “Titmouse Tracy.”
Joy Miller was the leaseholder of the Wonderland house. Joy found her way into the Wonderland Gang through her heroin addiction. By the time of her murder, Joy had been arrested seven times for drug use and dealing with breast cancer. Six months before her death, she’d undergone a double mastectomy.
Barbara Richardson was only 22 when she died. She was sleeping on the couch at the Wonderland house. Along with David, Barbara was a police informant in Sacramento, California.
Susan Launius was married to Ron, the gang’s leader. She wasn’t an official gang member, but she was a heavy drug user. She was the only occupant of the Wonderland home to survive the attack. Her head trauma was so severe that part of her skull needed to be removed. She also lost part of a finger. She has no memory of the attack.
Of course, none of this justifies their murders.
The John Holmes Connection
An adult film star legend, John Holmes, was a frequent visitor to the Wonderland house to satisfy his cocaine habit. While Holmes wasn’t a gang member, he was well associated with Wonderland and Eddie Nash. At the time of the murders, Holmes’s career was a critical nose drive. He had become impotent from drug use and owed Wonderland a substantial amount of cash. To pay off his debt, Holmes agreed to help Wonderland rip off Eddie Nash.
The Eddie Nash Incident
On June 29, 1981, Ron Launius, Billy DeVerell, David Lind, Tracy McCourt, and John Holmes conspired to rob organized crime figure, Eddie Nash. Holmes set up the robbery. His plan entailed unlocking the kitchen door, giving the Wonderland Gang easy access. However, Holmes’s drug addiction made this simple plan harder than anticipated. He visited Nash’s home three times to get it right.
The frequent visits didn’t make Nash suspicious because he and Holmes were so close that Nash often referred to Holmes as “my brother.”
The robbery’s goal was to abscond with the piles of money, heroin, and cocaine Holmes claimed was locked in a safe stashed in Nash’s bedroom floor. While they were at it, Wonderland also felt it fair to relieve Nash of some antique guns that the gang had initially stolen from another underworld figure. They used Holmes as a fence to exchange stolen weapons for drugs through Nash during a dry spell. It appears Holmes may have botched the trade leaving him in deep shit with Wonderland. Holmes had pretty much burned every other dealer in Los Angeles, and Wonderland was the only dealer willing to supply him.
So why did Holmes visit three times?
The first time Holmes entered Nash’s house under the pretense of partying and buying drugs, he forgot to lock the door. He managed to unlock the door and returned to Wonderland but found the gang had shot up and were too high to rob a baby. By the time they had recovered, Holmes was afraid that the door had been re-locked. He returned to Nash’s home a third time to “buy” some crack cocaine and ensured everything was ready for the invasion.
With planning like this, what could go wrong?
A Little About Eddie Nash
Adel Nasrallah was a Palestinian-born LA nightclub owner and restaurateur and a money launderer and drug dealer. He is best known as the mastermind of the Wonderland Murders. Before leaving British Palestine for America, his 48 family-owned hotels were wildly successful. He later immigrated to the US with $7 and stayed briefly in a refugee camp. A master horseman, Narshallah worked as a stuntman and acted in films. One of his roles in The Cisco Kid billed him as Nash, and the name stuck.
Nash was the most prominent nightclub owner, had been under suspicion for multiple arsons, and regularly dined with the LA Fire Commissioner. He also referred to himself in the third person as “The Nash.” Red Flag City.
The Invasion
Ron Launius, David Lind, and Bill DeVerell broke into Nash’s home using the unlocked door. At the same time, Tracy McCourt waited outside in the stolen Ford Granada. In a blinding flash of forethought, the gang dipped their fingertips in “Liquid Band-Aid” so they wouldn’t leave fingerprints. I bet the folks over at Johnson & Johnson love that as a marketing ploy.
Once inside Nash’s home, the trio confronted Nash and his bodyguard, Gregory Niles. Pretending to be undercover cops, they managed to handcuff Nash and Niles. Still, David Lind accidentally shot Niles in the back after Ron Launius bumped into him. Niles was injured, but not fatally. They then forced Nash to open his safe. Wonderland’s theft of Nash’s private stash awarded them more than $1.2 million in cocaine, heroin, quaaludes, cash, antique guns, and jewelry.
The Wonderland Gang Murders
Shortly after the robbery, Holmes returned to Nash’s house. It’s unclear as to why he went back. Some reports claim that Holmes was trying to make himself look innocent. In contrast, others say that Holmes was taken forcibly to Nash’s by Niles, the bodyguard, after reports that Holmes was out wearing some of Nash’s jewelry.
Scott Thorson, who had been Liberace’s paid companion for several years, was buying drugs at Nash’s when he claimed Nash ordered Niles to pick up Holmes. Thorson then witnessed Nash order Niles to beat Holmes and threaten to kill Holmes’ family if he didn’t give up the people who robbed him.
Around 3:00 a.m. on July 1, 1981, two days after Nash’s home invasion, several unknown assailants entered the Wonderland house. Armed with pipes and hammers, the assailants bludgeoned Ron Launius, Bill DeVerell, Joy Miller, and Barbara Richardson to death. Susan Launius lived but lay critically injured for 12 hours before furniture movers working next door heard her moans and investigated.
Neighbors reported hearing screams coming from the Wonderland house but thought it was another drug-fueled orgy that occurred regularly.
The Suspects
In Mach of 1982, police arrested and charged John Holmes with four counts of murder. The critical piece of evidence linking him to the crime was his bloody handprint found at the scene. In June, Holmes’s trial ended in an acquittal. The three-week trial found that the assailants had forcibly taken Holmes to the Wonderland house. As a form of punishment, his kidnappers forced him to watch the murders. Holmes ended up spending 110 days in jail for contempt of court.
On March 13, 1988, John Holmes died from complications related to HIV/AIDS.
In 1990, the district attorney charged Nash with planning the Wonderland Murders. The DA accused Niles of participating. Both men were acquitted in 1991. Any other participants in the Wonderland Murders remain unidentified.
John Holmes’s Alleged Confession
In early July 1981, while in the bath, John Homes told his then-wife, Sharron, that he was the leading player in four brutal murders at a drug dealer’s home in Laurel Canyon. Holmes laid out how he escorted the thugs to the Wonderland house and stood by as they bludgeoned the five people inside, spraying Holmes with their blood.
Holmes never told his wife the name of the murders.
Another woman close to Holmes also recounted Holmes telling him a similar story.
Holmes didn’t testify at his trial, and his later testimony before a Los Angeles County Grand Jury remains sealed.
Investigators believe that Homes partook in the murders.
Eddie Nash’s Plea Deal
In 2000, police arrested and indicted Eddie Nash after a four-year joint investigation involving local and federal authorities. Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), Nash faced charges for leading a drug trafficking and money laundering operation, plotting the Wonderland Murders, and jury tampering during his first trial in 1991. By 2000, Nash was in his seventies and had emphysema along with a slew of other ailments. He agreed to a plea deal in September 2001, pleading guilty to RICO charges and money laundering. He also copped to jury tampering (but the statute of limitations had timed out) and to having ordered his underlings to recover his stolen property from the Wonderland house. This last act may have resulted in the murders. Nash maintained that he never planned the Wonderland murders. In exchange for a four-and-a-half-year sentence with time served with a $250,000 fine, Nash agreed to cooperate with investigators. He also agreed to cooperate with law enforcement authorities.
Wonderland Gang Murders in Popular Media
The 1997 file, Boogie Nights, is primarily based on John Holmes’s involvement in the Wonderland Murders.
Wonderland (2003) is a crime-drama film about the Wonderland Murders, starring Val Kilmer (as John “The Wadd” Holmes), Kate Bosworth (as Dawn Schiller), Dylan McDermott (as David Lind), Carrie Fisher (as Sally Hansen), Josh Lucas (as Ron Launius), Christina Applegate (as Susan Launius), Lisa Kudrow (as Sharon Holmes), Janeane Garofalo (as Joy Miller), and Eric Bogosian (as Eddie Nash), and directed by James Cox.
The Road Through Wonderland: Surviving John Holmes is a memoir written by Dawn Schiller, who, as a teenager, met Holmes and started a troubled relationship with him. Holmes groomed Dawn and regularly beat her, and pimped her for drugs and money. She later notified the authorities while the pair were on the run in Florida following the Wonderland Murders.
This article originally appeared on the Demiworld Podcast.
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