June, 1989 – Rolling Stone Cover “The Devil & John Holmes”
Also, I am looking for this gem from High Society in 1984. Image censored by me. “I Was John Holmes Cellmate! – Insider Exposes the King of Porn” I wonder what that is all about.
August, 1984.
The Devil and John Holmes by Mike Sager
Click here to read the article. I only buy Playboy, High Society, and Rolling Stone for the articles 😉
James, 
localarts, 
That Guy, and 4 others are discussing. 
kdimmick 10:00 pm on March 4, 2014 Permalink |
I remember that issue. As far as I know the Mike Sager article was the first time the whole story of the murders was told to the world.
Damn……Uma Thurmon was young in that picture. LOL!
localarts 7:43 am on March 5, 2014 Permalink |
I still have that issue, wish I had taken better care of it. It was actually the June issue of Rolling Stone. My copy has Paul McCartney on the cover dated June 15, 1989. On the left hand side of the cover it reads:
“To Live And Die In LA The Tragic Story Of Porn Star John Holmes” Sager did a really nice job.
John 8:22 am on March 5, 2014 Permalink |
Thanks man, I found it and replaced the cover image. Good stuff.
John 9:26 am on March 5, 2014 Permalink |
Mike also is the first writer to mention the baking soda rip-off for $250K. If they had that type of cash, the Gang would not have needed to rob Nash. Also, what type of drug deal goes down where nobody samples the goods? If a dealer shot up the outside of Gary Fontenot’s house over $3,000 worth of crack smoked up by Dom Fragomeli, then I can imagine what angry dealers would have done to Wonderland. That electronic gate would not have saved anybody.
criticextraordinaire 6:03 am on March 6, 2014 Permalink
Hitting Nash was not about money, it was about power. Ronnie’s brazen robberies were about letting everybody know that he was top dog. The dope, money, and guns were just gravy.
Unfortunately for him, there is ALWAYS somebody bigger than you and that was his downfall.
James 9:11 pm on December 16, 2014 Permalink
I never believed that story. They ripped off $250k with baking soda? Although, I guess they could have had one sample bag and lots of baking soda. It doesn’t seem plausible. Has anyone checked that story? Where did that one originate? I will say that when you get into the drug world, especially back in the early 1980’s, dealers were ripping everyone off. There is so much fake drugs out there… You would be shocked to learn about how many drug dealers knock off drugs, sell fake drugs ect. Now the big thing is research drugs that are cheap being sold as real drugs. There is no honor in the drug world. I am so far removed from the party world that my only resource for this is the drug testing services available. Check this site out: https://www.ecstasydata.org/
This site will give you an idea of what is out there now. It is pretty sad. If you take drugs now, you’re basically poisoning yourself. Although, Ron Launius got sold “Make you crazy dope”. So I guess this behavior comes with drug dealing generally. I guess it always did. There has to be a better way.
localarts 12:53 pm on March 5, 2014 Permalink |
Yeah, this is where the contract on their lives originated from. Maybe it was really 2,500? who knows. Remember David Lind was invited down to Wonderland because they needed an extra hand, business was really booming.
I doubt very seriously the gang was broke or hard up for cash.
Jill C.Nelson 9:48 am on March 6, 2014 Permalink |
“On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 1st, 1981, Eddie Nash was again consuming drugs at an alarming rate. He’d been ripped off for eight pounds of cocaine, but the Wonderland Gang hadn’t found his private stash, and now he was bubbling his glass pipe furiously. He’d sent two of his minions out to score more drugs, but they hadn’t yet returned.Two customers waited. They did hits off Eddie’s pipe, eyed the door.”
“Thursday, July 2nd, 3:30 a.m. Sharon Holmes switched on the porch light, spied through the peephole. Christ, she thought, John. She hadn’t seen him in three months.”
Mike Sager is an extremely gifted writer and journalist. Many years ago, after I first read this piece, I purchased his book “Super Freaks” — many of you have probably also read the book. From cover to cover, it’s a riveting, excellent collection of infamous celebrity and crime stories. The only issue either one of us had with Sager’s reconstruction of the Nash robbery and the Wonderland murders in this article is that the timeline is inaccurate. On the afternoon of July 1st when Sager has Nash sucking on a crack pipe, the murders had already been committed. Lange was the first detective at the crime scene around 4:00pm that afternoon. Likewise, according to one of Sharon Holmes’ accounts, John arrived at their house early in the morning on July 1st after the murders, not on July 2nd. I realize I am being nitpicky, but I do feel that it’s important to have accuracy particularly with timelines. At least as much as is possible based upon the information that is available.
Apart from that, John, you do a superb job with this website. 🙂
John 10:12 am on March 6, 2014 Permalink |
Thanks Jill for contributing. There is always more to find out, and when peripheral characters show up in the story, often their stories are worthy of investigation too. So many characters!
localarts 10:37 am on March 6, 2014 Permalink |
Here at the Wonderland Institute of Criminal Studies, there are never any graduates, because the learning never stops!
localarts 8:01 am on March 26, 2014 Permalink |
Saw a bio on Mickey Cohen last night. I remember Roger Jacobs said Nash was the biggest gangster LA had seen sense the days of Cohen. If that’s the case, I don’t believe people realize how powerful Nash really was. Anyway, I found it interesting that Cohen served time at McNeil federal prison, the same place Launius served time. I guess all roads lead to Puget Sound…
That Guy 1:03 am on June 5, 2014 Permalink |
Hi John, I recently ran across some photos taken from the crime scene video and re kindled my interest in the Wonderland story and I started searching the web and finding your stuff regularly/mostly. You’ve answered about any question anyone could have and even the mild curiosities that go along with it. One of the things bugs me and I haven’t seen any information on is what Nash might have recovered from Wonderland the other thing that bugs me is something that appears to be a contradiction. The gang is supposed to be a bunch of drug addicts that party hard all the time but in the crime scene video it appears that those people were in bed asleep or on the couch asleep. BD appears to have gotten up and put on his pants to go investigate noises. People who love coke don’t steal sacks full and do allot of sleeping in the next few days. Even if heroine was the drug of choice for Ron and BD it would take allot of discipline not to dabble in this free coke. It doesn’t match the statement that McCourt made about leaving because of everyone being fd up. Just wonderin if you have any theories on this or if I missed some info somewhere?
localarts 11:17 am on June 6, 2014 Permalink |
Tracy McCourt left because he stated he saw a Lincoln Continental that looked just like the one parked at Eddie Nash’s place pull up outside of 8763 . He said he got nervous and tried to warn everybody but they were too wasted and wouldn’t list or something like that.
McCourt’s testimony is solid with the facts as we know them. Launius was already making arrangements for the sale of dope they stole from Nash and the jewelry had already been fenced. They were all addicts as you say but at the same time, this was a drug operation they were running. Everything is open to speculation but if you read McCourt’s account very carefully, everything starts to fall into place. You can even tell when David Lind is lying by referencing McCourt’s Testimony. Both McCourt & Lind were given full immunity. The difference being, Tracy was a bit naive and really had no reason to lie about anything.
Just my opinion but I would say Launius, Deverell, Miller & Lind were all getting juiced up on that veil of heroin they stole.
Remember, they were all passed out prior to the Nash robbery except Lind and they all partied after the robbery. If there’s anybody that would have more insight, it’s John!