Another British Documentary With Rare Footage
This is a different documentary that I have never seen before. It is not to be confused with the other British documentary that most of us have seen on YouTube. It is good resolution and very clear… and has great unseen footage and interviews. I was going to wait until Monday, but I have other stuff to post next week. The Wonderland stuff starts at about the 30 minute mark. Please post in the comments if you know anything about it.
In this documentary, you get to see:
- Video snippets of Eddie Nash walking around and being hounded by the press. That smirk is undeniable!
- Alternate views of Eddie’s house- very good angles and views
- Video of John being led out of court or jail in a parking lot in handcuffs
- Prosecutor Ron Coen showing where Holmes bloody palm print was on the bed
- More interviews with Det. Tom Blake
- Interviews with who I think is Nash cohort and Holmes’ friend, Hal Glickman (who was a bail bondsman)
- Pre-trial and trial footage from court
- Talk of Holmes’ hunger strike while in jail on contempt charges. “He went on a hunger strike…and gained weight. He fasted between meals” –Ron Coen
- Laurie Holmes talks about John’s mortal remains and how they were spread off the coast of Oxnard or Santa Catalina with his immediate family present
- Warning! Nudity
localarts, 
switzerland avenue, and 8 others are discussing. 
Bobby 10:19 pm on December 20, 2013 Permalink |
Just got through watching it – nice doco with lots of archival footage I’d never seen before. It was also great seeing Ron Coen showing the exact location of the hand print on Launius’s bed frame. No mention of David Lind though as they really wizzed through the Wonderland chapter. Regardless, a great find John!
Jill C. Nelson 5:11 pm on December 21, 2013 Permalink |
This is “XXXL: The John Holmes Story” released in the U.K in 2000. Lots of footage from “Exhausted” here. The documentary was/is not legally designated for release in the United States or Canada.
“Holmes bloody palm print was on the bed.”
Again, it’s important to note that the palm print was not bloody.
Ken D. 6:06 pm on December 21, 2013 Permalink |
Yes Jill,you are correct….. Had the palm print been bloody Holmes most likely would not have beat the charges. During his trial his lawyers contended that with as much time as Holmes had spent in the house prior to the murders,it would not be unsusual at all for the palm print to be there and other places in the house. Had it been bloody,they would not have been able to argue this….
scabiesoftherat 1:05 am on December 24, 2013 Permalink |
Two things struck me as being odd about this. Amerson says John went to his house covered in blood and Sharon says the same thing. I mean, which is it? Also, the palm print for the prosecution is/can be a carrot before the cart type deal when it comes to a jury. John was in that house so much, yet they decline to tell how many OTHER places his fingerprints/handprints were because to do so would knock the wind out of their sails, so to speak. That would be rather anti-climactic to a jury. Just a thought. (That, of course, is not to say that I think John was innocent. I just think holmes got damn lucky that the print WASN’T bloody….considering the amount of blood Amerson and Sharon said he had on him…if one or the other actually saw him that morning. They probably all went out to breakfast.)
Just a thought.
PS. That pinky ring on Tom Blake. LOL. What was the cameraman’s thought process about that one? LOL
(“….must get shot of that ring before we leave,….the boys in editing won’t believe this….”)
Sorry. I digress. That was the strangest camera shot of the whole documentary,….you know, except for when holmes stood up pulled his junk out in front of that woman. It was then that I thought, “Oh, shit,…this IS German TV.”
Awesome documentary though. Wish I knew who the guy with the parrot on his head was. (Good Lord. Never, ever thought I would write a sentence like that.)
Ken D. 1:58 am on December 24, 2013 Permalink
Bill Amerson is a well known bullshit artist so I would tend to think that it was him who was lying about a bloody John Holmes coming to his house that morning.
Jill C. Nelson 7:14 am on December 24, 2013 Permalink
“Awesome documentary though. Wish I knew who the guy with the parrot on his head was.”
That was Joel Sussman, a first rate photographer and one of Holmes’ closest friends.
criticextraordinaire 1:54 pm on December 24, 2013 Permalink
I’d love to see Amerson do an interview for this blog. Heck, it would have to be a SERIES of interviews since he has so much material for sure. Joel Sussman would be another great interview and I’ll bet he would be willing. Something tells me that Amerson would want to be paid.
scabiesoftherat 11:44 pm on December 24, 2013 Permalink
Thank you Ken and Jill for the answers to my questions. Much appreciated.
PS. Good find, John. As usual.
Holmes brother was pretty insightful in this doc.
criticextraordinaire 8:01 pm on December 21, 2013 Permalink |
First time I’ve seen this documentary. The things that struck me were:
1. Amerson trying to swing that bat in the cage was a riot.
2. Coen still can’t accept that he lost the case and that Holmes was found innocent.
3. David Bowman comes off as a complete butt munch.
4. “Here lady, let me show you my identification”
5. There was the one scene where the porn distributor talked about Holmes saying that having sex with some random porn star “was real”. Lori then got a very odd look on her face, almost a look of betrayal like maybe John had told her that “it was real”. That was a sad scene.
Mark C 6:01 pm on December 25, 2013 Permalink |
In a strange way I think through so many years of all the very well published & known lies & bull stories told by John Holmes himself through out his whole life, This only adds greatly to more of the mystery of this story.
Not only we got 1 huge unpunished unsolved multi person cold blooded murder case appears everybody even over seas are very interested in . Eddie was charged with Conspiracy to commit murder and not Capital Murder. I guess I might be wrong, But I feel its is still a open murder case on LA police record books, Thanks’ to John consent lying we have to work our way through all the huge collection of what really John told people and separate what was the real truth fact’s and what was a other one of his countless lies he was well known to tell.. Even without the multi-murder case on John’s record. I think John Holmes true life story could very well went down in history as he was one of the biggest and best liars this world ever known. Plus it would sell I think hugely at the box office.
I am all for a movie about the real true life story of Ronnie Launius that hopefully will end in a shadow of a arm and pipe coming toward Ronnie head while he sound asleep..
But come down to it. John Holmes true life story has never ever been put on film properly either . That Boogie Nights movie was just a movie that used only a small part of John life as a movie making idea and rest was made up. Wonderland a great movie in its own right but it only covered about a 1 year period in all these peoples life’s and not a long term life story of any of these people involved.
This case could have at least 2 separate very good movies story’s here.. I think they should not be combine these peoples life story into 1 movie. Both Ronnie and John both deserve a movie based on each of there own true life story ..
Even today I feel sure all the interest just in The John Holmes name you have a huge group of people waiting for his true life story movie to hit the big screen. We just have to face it John Holmes name collect interest in huge amount of the people not only in the USA, But world wide even today after 26 years after his death. It be very hard to even find a famous Hollywood Star that would draw all that much world wide attention after all these years.
Well Eddie Nash has really got a very interesting true life story too.
I feel sure they at least 2 maybe more very great true movie plots in these people who life’s came together very violently on a very hot summers night in 1981 in city of Angles .
This give anybody any great ideas, Don’t forget about me now!! I sure could help out in some manner and sure could use just a few extra dollars throw my way if our dream would come true on these movies idea. Nope don’t know 1st thing about movie business but I am a fast learner.
But this is just about a almost once in life time chance of finding 2 & maybe 3 people who true life stories would make such wonderful & great true life movies that are begging to be made.
criticextraordinaire 12:13 pm on December 27, 2013 Permalink |
Mark, I too would like to see a movie about Ronnie, but I’d prefer that it end just as he and the guys are leaving Eddie’s place, basking in their moment of (short-lived) triumph. Kind of a Butch-and-Sundance feel to it.
I can actually see the final shot. It is a freeze frame where you see Ronnie busting out the door at Dona Lola, looking like the cat that ate the canary; he’s slightly out of focus. Meanwhile, Eddie is in the background, sharp focus, with a look on his face that unmistakably portends the rest of the story. Roll the credits and the epilogue text.
mark c 8:24 pm on December 28, 2013 Permalink
criticextraordinaire I think you completely correct that would be a so much better ending for a Ronnie movie. Anybody served in Vietnam I always have the upmost very high regard for them. Lot of them guys when through a non-sleep 1 whole year nightmare that stays with them even today. I personally seen couple times what happens during them guys having flashbacks, Not a pretty site to see at all without going into much detail.
In Army supply Ronnie just might had to fill some tanks or bombs with agent orange or was standing right there supervising it to keep track of the gallons used.. You never really know the true process unless you was there.
Armed services are famous for what is it they call it ? something like SASFU or something like that. not a too pretty name that explains there daily grind.
But I feel the wonderland gang know who they was going to hit before hand. They just didn’t care or thought they could pull it off without major paybacks, I think I read they was moving elsewhere right after the heist anyway. I blame Holmes and his big line of BS for that mistake. Holmes wanted all the money & drugs but he sure made sure he would not be right there involved in the heist itself. He sat home with the girls . Mr. Lind just don’t want to get more any more dirty than he already was..
I feel sure Holmes made a key to that security gate for Wonderland House too.. More than likely within the first 5 minutes he first had a key to the gate, before they took it back away from him, I guess for smoking all that dope he smoked and he didn’t pay for. Plus all of Ronnie’s “Scum Bag Tax” . added up too.
I like that part about one of Holmes porn pal’s talking about Holmes telling people all the degrees he got from UCLA. The Closest Holmes ever got to UCLA was stealing stereos out of cars in the parking lot.
Nothing on TV tonight, I am going to watch Wonderland again!!
criticextraordinaire 8:25 am on December 29, 2013 Permalink
Well Mark, Johnny could not have gone on the actual Nash invasion. Eddie and Greg knew John so he would have been dead meat had he been there. (Although it ended up that way anyway, due to John wearing the jewelry the next day) The only way John could have participated in the actual invasion would be if they had agreed to kill Eddie.
Eddie didn’t know Ronnie, David, or Billy, which was odd given their alpha-dog status in the dope business at the time. John did go to Eddie’s THREE TIMES to make sure the sliding door was left unlocked for the guys though, so he certainly was an active participant in the heist, albeit in a clandestine role.
I can’t help but think that if they were doing the heist today, Tracy would have been driving a stolen SUV instead of that clapped-out Granada, and there would have been plenty of room for John to have waited with him in the car.
Whenever John smoked up that shipment he was supposed to deliver for the gang, I’ll bet Ronnie was absolutely furious. Due to Ronnie’s extensive experience in the Air Force logistics command, he knew this was going to throw off the production and inventory numbers, and he already had enough headaches managing his supply chain. Big mistake for Johnny.
localarts 1:01 pm on December 27, 2013 Permalink |
I can see this. Of course you would have to include the Lind & Deverell.
criticextraordinaire 4:48 pm on December 27, 2013 Permalink |
Oh absolutely. That was likely a big part of the dynamic. Ronnie and David each doing the Nash hit trying to prove just how bad ass each were. And Billy pretty much had to go along on the job after all that big talk he and Tracy said about “going it alone” on the job.
David might be a good subject for a flick too, what with his various brushes with famous people and situations. There’s still a small part of me that thinks he went into the WPP though.
John 10:50 am on December 28, 2013 Permalink
In the movie about Ronnie flick, you could have his character played by Ryan Gosling, that way women and teenage girls would go see it. Ron could break the fourth wall by winking at the camera at the end of key scenes, like a classic or bad Burt Reynolds comedy.
criticextraordinaire 11:18 am on December 28, 2013 Permalink
Well that approach could work, John… if the movie is done like “Goodfellas” and is told from Ronnie’s perspective. Occasionally the scene can stop and Ronnie offers his insight. “We got it all… the dope, the money, the guns. We had Johnny Wadd literally hanging out at our place. Even the vaunted Eddie Nash was on his knees to us. We ruled the world…”
I’d like to see Suge Knight play the role of Greg Diles. Cast Owen Wilson in the role of Holmes. I’ve got to think about the rest of the cast. For Ronnie I always wanted to go with Joe Elmore, the guy on Horsepower TV.
switzerland avenue 3:21 am on December 31, 2013 Permalink
I would love to see a wonderland movie done in the way of “gone baby gone”. No famous actors, but capable of expressing the real side of drug consuming and trafficking. For the bigger budget version: Daniel Day-Lewis as Nash and send Paul Giamatti to that damn mask and let him do holmes’ last years…
localarts 6:25 pm on December 27, 2013 Permalink |
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of information about Lind. He may very well have been in the WPP. I know he went into hiding immediately after spilling his guts to Lange and Souza, Lind was picked up a month later by the LAPD.
I can definitely see the Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid angle, especially at the end. I would much rather see Ronnie go out in a hail of gun fire with the LAPD like Newman & Redford did at the end of the movie as opposed to having his brains beaten out of his skull while he was asleep. As Ronne & David burst out of the front door of Nash’s with Deverell not far behind, jefe de la policía (Daryl Gates) and the rest of the LAPD open fire and the rest is history!
russell White 12:19 am on December 29, 2013 Permalink |
Great new info John. Not sure how you are doing it, but I am blown away! I have been online for 10 years and never heard one bit about the dogs. Also, did you find out if Susan is still alive. When I talked to Nils last year, he did not know but doubted, based on her health.
localarts 1:29 pm on December 31, 2013 Permalink |
I can only imagine what the New Years Eve parties were like at Wonderland! It would probably take at least a week to recover.
Jude Falu 1:58 am on October 25, 2016 Permalink |
Wow! Thank you! I permanently wanted to write on my site something like that. Can I include a fragment of your post to my site?