Hollywood & Crime: John Holmes and the Wonderland Murders

(This piece is, as you can imagine, NSFW. You have been warned.)

On July 1, 1981, four people were murdered at 8763 Wonderland Avenue, a rented townhouse in Laurel Canyon: William “Billy” Deverell, Ron Launius, Joy Miller, and Barbara Richardson. They were thought to have been bludgeoned to death with hammers and metal pipes. The case technically remains unsolved to this day, but the involvement of a sleazy night club drug lord and one of the most famous adult film actors of all time has made it the stuff of Hollywood lore.

John Holmes had a really big... presence. Born in Ohio and raised in a troubled household, he moved to Los Angeles in the ‘60s and took odd jobs to support himself and his wife, Sharon. After suffering multiple health issues from his work in a meatpacking warehouse, John needed a new job. The legend goes that, while using the urinals in a club he frequented, a photographer caught sight of his unit and asked him to do some nude modelling. Within a couple of years, John Holmes was one of the biggest stars in porn.

(Image via IMDb. Not gonna lie, finding SFW images for this piece was hard, but I did it!)

And yes, we also mean that literally.