A grisly quadruple homicide committed in the hills of Los Angeles' Laurel Canyon on July 1, 1981, the Wonderland Murders remain unsolved to this day.
Kevin P. Casey/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesThe house at 8763 Wonderland Avenue in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon, where the four brutal Wonderland Murders took place on July 1, 1981.
Today, 8763 Wonderland Avenue in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon is home to a nice split-level house with a carport, an iron-framework balcony, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Nothing on the outside suggests that on July 1, 1981, four bodies were discovered there, so beaten and bloodied that the LAPD compared the scene to that of the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family right nearby 12 years earlier.
To this day, the so-called Wonderland Murders remain some of the most disturbing in American history.
That summer night in the Hollywood Hills, three members and one associate of the Wonderland Gang, infamous in Los Angeles for dealing drugs and perpetrating armed robberies, were brutally murdered by unknown perpetrators. And though suspects would soon include everyone from local organized crime baron Eddie Nash to adult film star John Holmes, the case remains officially unsolved to this day.
This is the chilling story of the Wonderland Murders.
YouTubeA close-up of the address at the house where the Wonderland Murders took place, as captured by the evidence tech who processed the crime scene.
The Story Of The Wonderland Gang Before The Laurel Canyon Murders
Throughout the late 1970s, the house at 8763 Wonderland Avenue served as the home base of the Wonderland Gang, one of Los Angeles’ most successful distributors of cocaine. In fact, their growing operation had virtually cornered the market in the years before the Wonderland Murders brought everything to a sudden, brutal end.
The property was officially leased in Joy Miller’s name, but it was home to a rotating cast of characters. Miller was a long-time heroin user who had fallen in with the gang after separating from her wealthy husband and Beverly Hills life.
Police PhotoWonderland Murders victim Billy DeVerell was known as the second-in-command of the Wonderland Gang.
Joy Miller’s boyfriend was Billy DeVerell, the gang’s levelheaded second-in-command. Reports would later paint him as a reluctant criminal, one who regretted that his long track record of heroin abuse — and resulting arrests — made it difficult for him to find and hold other jobs.
There was nothing at all half-hearted about Ron Launius’ criminal enterprises, though. Launius was Wonderland’s king, and he was as cold as ice.
He had made a name for himself during the Vietnam War when he was dishonorably discharged from the army for smuggling drugs back to the United States in the bodies of dead servicemen.
Launius had already spent time in jail for smuggling and only narrowly escaped life imprisonment for murder when the prosecution’s star witness was killed in an accident. Police didn’t think they’d missed their chance, though; by the summer of 1981, just before the Wonderland Murders, Launius was a person of interest in as many as two dozen other homicides.
Police PhotoRon Launius was the leader of the Wonderland Gang, and one of four to die when they were murdered on July 1, 1981.
Ron Launius’ wife, Susan, also lived in the Wonderland house. A drug user like her husband, she largely absented herself from gang activities.
The most unusual member of the Wonderland household was John Holmes, the famous adult film actor, who was a frequent guest and often purchased or mooched cocaine from the gang.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesAdult film star John Holmes was later put on trial for the Wonderland Murders.
Cocaine wasn’t the Wonderland Gang’s only source of revenue. Heroin was their private passion and armed robbery their side gig.
Stealing from their rivals was both a source of income and an effective way to keep their competitors out of the game — until it backfired one terrible, bloody night.
The Brazen Crime That Led To The Wonderland Murders
On June 29, several days before the Wonderland Murders, four members of the Wonderland Gang robbed the home of notorious club owner and gang leader Eddie Nash.
Launius and DeVerell, disguised as police officers, led fellow gang members David Lind and Tracy McCourt into the rival leader’s home, where they handcuffed Nash and his bodyguard, Gregory Diles.
During the robbery, as Nash was being made to open the safe, Lind accidentally shot and wounded Diles.
They walked away, unrecognized, with at least $1 million in illegal drugs, cash, jewelry, and arms — the latter belonging to a collection the Wonderland Gang itself had sold Nash just days earlier.
Though police didn’t identify a suspect initially, Nash pointed fingers at several people he knew had been in his home the day of the crime.
At the top of his list was John Holmes, who had returned to the house three separate times just that morning — presumably, he suspected, to make sure the patio door by which the gang later entered was unlocked.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesScott Thorson at the age of 24 in 1983, two years after the Wonderland Murders.
Scott Thorson, the former lover of Liberace, had also been present at Nash’s house. Thorson claimed that Nash had been so convinced that Holmes was involved that he had made his injured bodyguard track him down and beat the assailants’ names out of him.
Though Thorson’s claims were never corroborated, in all likelihood they were true. That’s because just two days after Nash allegedly beat him for information about the assailants, the perpetrators were found brutally bludgeoned in their home in what’s known as the Wonderland Murders.
The Grisly Scene Of The Wonderland Murders Is Discovered
YouTubeAuthorities remove one of the bodies from the house following the Wonderland Murders.
At 4 p.m. on July 1, police received a panicked phone call from a pair of furniture movers. As they’d been working at the house next door to 8763 Wonderland Avenue, they’d heard desperate, pained moans coming from the drug house.
Investigators were then met with the horrible crime scene of the Wonderland Murders.
The body of Barbara “Butterfly” Richardson, David Lind’s girlfriend, was lying on the ground near the couch she had been sleeping on, covered in blood.
Police PhotoLaurel Canyon Murders victim Barbara Richardson, whose body was found on the floor of the living room at 8763 Wonderland Avenue.
Joy Miller was found dead in her bed, while DeVerell’s body was slumped at the foot, leaning against the TV stand. A bloody hammer was tangled in Miller’s sheets, and several metal pipes littered the floor.
In the neighboring bedroom, Wonderland Gang leader Ron Launius was dead, bloodied and beaten almost beyond recognition.
Perhaps the most horrifying sight in the discovery of the Wonderland Murders was Launius’ wife, Susan. She was found covered in blood on the floor next to the bed that held her dead husband’s body, her skull bashed in — but, miraculously, still alive.
The moans that the moving company had heard had been from her.
Though she’d survive the attack and make a full recovery, the brain damage she sustained left her with permanent amnesia, unable to recall the events of the Wonderland Murders.
The police searched the home and interviewed neighbors, who later admitted that they had heard screams in the early hours of the morning, around 3:00 a.m.
Police PhotoJoy Miller was found on her bed, near her boyfriend Billy DeVerell.
Given that the Wonderland Gang’s house had a reputation for loud and disruptive behavior at all hours, the neighbors had just assumed the gang was having a party and hadn’t bothered to call the cops.
Susan Launius had been lying on the floor alive, with her skull broken, for more than 12 hours.
Investigators Puzzle Over The Mystery Of Who Murdered The Wonderland Gang
Bettmann/Getty ImagesAdult film star John Holmes, dressed in a prison jump suit, leaves Superior Court on his way back to the Los Angeles County Jail.
The police search — documented in the gruesome Wonderland Murders crime scene video — revealed a bloody handprint on the headboard above the dead Ron Launius.
It belonged to John Holmes, who was arrested and charged with four counts of murder. The prosecution argued that he had retaliated against the Wonderland Gang after feeling slighted by the division of the spoils from the Nash robbery.
But the story wasn’t convincing; it seemed more likely to jury and public alike that the adult film star had simply been caught in the crossfire.
YouTubeDrug paraphernalia found at the Wonderland Murders house while authorities were investigating the crime scene.
Bribed with drugs by the Wonderland Gang to unlatch the Nash hideout door — a mission that took several trips — Holmes had made himself a target for Nash, who believed he was a Wonderland accomplice.
Nash’s men beat Holmes until he agreed to let Nash’s men into the Wonderland house.
Holmes was acquitted, though since he refused to give any evidence during his trial, he ended up serving 110 days in jail for contempt of court.
Attention in the Wonderland Murders next turned to Nash.
Suspecting Nash had murdered the gang for revenge, police questioned and eventually arrested the rival drug dealer. Charged with planning the murders, Nash was saved by a hung jury: just one juror stood between Nash and a guilty verdict.
Boris Yaro/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesEddie Nash was arrested at his Laurel Canyon home in connection with the Wonderland Murders.
Nash walked free until 2000, when he was charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. As part of a plea deal, he admitted to having bribed the single dissenting juror in the original trial.
He also confessed to ordering his men to repossess the stolen items in the Wonderland Murders house on the night of the slayings — though he never admitted to having ordered the murders.
Today, the Wonderland Murders are remembered as one of Hollywood’s most gruesome crimes — a horror story that has continued to haunt the area long after the bodies were buried.
After reading about the Wonderland Murders, check out the unbelievable true story of the Lizzie Borden murders. Then, find out where the members of the Manson Family are now. Finally, check out some of the most famous murder stories of all time.
