Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Eddie Nash. The frail, shrunken alleged hoodlum tested positive for tuberculosis when he was taken to federal court for a bail hearing May 22. Click to reveal A key player in the incident, adult film performer John C. Holmes, was later acquitted of the murders. Yes, they get approached about it all the time, but other than that, they have nothing to say. He told me that he had set up the robbery. Liberace's former lover shares what he saw the night of the murders and why he thinks law enforcement should keep working on the case. In 1995, in a broad series of raids targeting alleged organized crime figures, federal agents armed with search warrants raided Nash's house and confiscated what was thought to be a cache of methamphetamine. It'll be tough to get a conviction if Nash is taking a dirt nap. Could it kill him? There was a lot of screaming going on, Holmes told his wife. "He was, in my opinion, an inveterate liar, or at least a colossal bullshit artist." I know Matt Damon. We share yesterday, to build meaningful connections today, and preserve for tomorrow. One was abruptly interrupted on the morning of July 1, 1981, when a shaken John Holmes crawled into their Glendale bedroom, bleeding, and told his wife that he had been in an accident. 'To get Holmes to work,' they said, 'you have to leave a trail of freebase from the bathroom to the bedroom.'". Where was Eddie born and where did he live? Then, learn about nine famous deaths that shocked old Hollywood. Those unfamiliar with his name and his alleged links to the Los Angeles underworld will doubtless recall Alfred Molina's brilliant characterization of him in Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997, polyester-bound tour de force "Boogie Nights. She flew over 2,000 miles in just under 15 hours. Cocaine, heroin, opium, alcohol, marijuana . Wonderland was payback for the home invasion and robbery, claimed prosecutors. The Biography section is collaborative, where we work together to present the facts. That version of the story, Sharon Holmes said, is fiction. By the mid-seventies, Ed Nasrallah changed his name to Eddie Nash and made a small fortune. He went on to appear in several more porn flicks, even after discovering he was HIV-positive. In exchange, he received a four-and-a-half year prison sentence (including time already served) and a $250,000 fine.[13]. It doesnt help that hes someone who sounds like hes lying, even when he isnt. Still, Nash's sketchy health has left both his defense and the U.S. Attorney's office wondering whether he can survive a trial. He claimed he was then held at gunpoint and forced to watch the quadruple murders. At one point, one of the Wonderland Gang's member's guns went off, grazing Nash's bodyguard's face. Nash passed away on August 9, 2014, at the age of 85. Eddie Nash of Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan was born on April 4, 1932, and died at age 52 years old in February 1985. He is buried in Culver City, California, at Holy Cross Cemetery. These photos, dating from the 1800's through the early 1900's, are of those who have sworn to serve and protect. Another woman who had a lengthy intimate relationship with Holmes told The Times recently of a separate, parallel admission made by the actor shortly after the killings, an account she gave to police in 1981. or visit Help / Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) to discover more about the community. A Plea Deal In 2000, Eddie Nash would be arrested again, this time with Superior Court charges of drug dealing, racketeering, tax evasion, and conspiring to commit the Wonderland murders. Eddie Nash, born Adel Nasrallah in Palestine, arrived in Los Angeles in the 1950s and quickly went from selling hot dogs on Hollywood Boulevard to owning multiple businesses, including restaurants, strip bars, and clubs, per Rolling Stone. ", In his audio commentary on the New Line DVD release of his film, Anderson admits that Molina's Rahad Jackson is as much Eddie Nash as Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler is John Holmes. During the filming of the porn-industry panegyric to him titled "Exhausted," Holmes says he was barely present: "In the middle of a scene, I would disappear for long stretches, but my co-workers knew where to find me: in the bathroom doing freebase. On June 29, 1981, the Wonderland Gang entered into Nash's home via the unlocked sliding door, held Nash and his bodyguard at gunpoint, and stole Nash's drugs, jewelry and money. After emigrating from Palestine to California in the 1950s, he briefly ran a hot dog stand before transforming himself into the owner of a sprawling nightclub empire. The shooter was tried, convicted, and hung in November 1949. After the trial ended in a hung jury, they were retried the following year and were later acquitted. In some ways, a lot has changed but the duties of these men and women have remained the same. In the 1970s, Holmes was often called the "king" of adult movies. Matt Damon played him opposite Michael Douglas in the 2013 HBO movie Behind the Candelabra, based on Thorsons tell-all book by the same name about his relationship with the famous pianist. According to Salon , Nash was the kind of guy who had $1 million in cocaine stashed in his house, which he eventually went to prison for. The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History No, they don't want to discuss the murders, the man says. Gregory Dewitt Diles was born in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California in 1948. Where we share what we remember to make discoveries and meaningful connections with others. They've got him in horrible, almost medieval conditions. In 1932, in the year that Eddie Nash was born, five years to the day after Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart flew solo from Newfoundland to Ireland, the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo and the first to replicate Lindbergh's feat. Its quite a trick, France beefs up security amid unrest sparked by fatal police shooting of 17-year-old. According to court testimony, Nash had a thing for young girls, whips, and Russian roulette. Garceau was convicted of all three murders and sentenced to death. Then in 2000, after a four-year joint investigation involving local and federal authorities, Nash was indicted on federal charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for drug trafficking and money laundering, conspiring to carry out the Wonderland Murders, and bribing one of the jurors of his first trial. television plans to air the two-hour-long special "John Holmes and the Wonderland Murders: The E! Nash worked tirelessly, cooking, waiting tables, and running the show. They proceeded to beat John Holmes. When we share what we know, together we discover more. Launius estranged wife, Susan, who was visiting, survived the assault but suffered severe head injuries. So, theoretically, it could affect us.". Submit a correction suggestion and help us fix it! He was very distraught, Thorson says. . When Liberace insisted that Thorson as his son get cosmetic surgery to look like him, the doctor gave him a nose job, sculpted cheekbones, and a chin implant (which he later had removed); he also started Thorson on a weight-loss plan that included pharmaceutical cocaine, quaaludes, and Demerol. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time She flew over 2,000 miles in just under 15 hours. . Select the next to any field to update. What were Holmes and Nash to each other? . The feds also claim, among other things, that Nash bribed the lone holdout on his 1990 jury. Nash was eventually sentenced to 37 months in prison after a RICO conviction that included conspiracy to commit the Wonderland murders, but no one who swung the blunt metal objects the pipes or the hammers was convicted. Add family and friends whose lives he impacted. All rights reserved. in Hollywood, California, Scott Thorson, Last Living Wonderland Murders Witness, Is Finally Free, Titan Crew Dead From Catastrophic Implosion, Searchers for Titanic Tourist Sub Heard Banging From Area, Internal Comms Reveal, 40 Hours of Air Remains as Search for Missing Titanic Explorer Continues, The Wonderland Murders & the Secret History of Hollywood, The Battle for the Future of Psychedelics, Grady Kurpasi Went to Ukraine to Fight. In the 1970s, Eddie Nash was the wealthiest and most dangerous gangster operating on the West Coast. . After the sun came up, police found a bloody crime scene inside a house 8763 Wonderland Avenue, the known residence of the Wonderland Gang, a group of drug dealers. Nash ordered his men to beat Holmes, but spared his life when Holmes identified the Wonderland gang as the thieves. Because of the abuse, Nash was missing part of his sinus cavity, one of his lungs had been removed, and he had a steel plate in his head. Copyright 1999-2023 AncientFaces, Inc. All Rights Reserved. She was a heroin addict and a mom, and both Miller and her lover, Billy DeVerell had previous arrests for drug related crimes. Introducing John Holmes The drug he used most often was freebase cocaine, and there are reports that he mixed the crack with heroin on occasion. Rambo's wife, Susan, knew of the Bautista murders and talked to the police under an agreement of immunity. Haltingly, Holmes confessed to his wife that he had played a central role in four brutal murders earlier that month in a drug dealers hillside home in Laurel Canyon. Detroit Based Hip Hop Mogul Brian Brown Is Allegedly One Of The Midwest's Biggest Heroin Dealers. Hes seen some things. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. He briefly found work as an actor and stuntman, and was an expert horseman. Holmes owed Nash and the Wonderland crew a huge sum of money, and so to pay off his debts he became a delivery boy for the Wonderland Gang. Holmes, who died in 1988 from AIDS-related complications, is mentioned as a co-conspirator in a 16-count federal indictment alleging that his old buddy Eddie Nash led a racketeering enterprise for a quarter century and participated in the Wonderland murders. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. John Holmes in hock to one of the apartment's residents, a drug dealer named Ronald Launius had helped plan the armed robbery of Nash, Holmes' friend and drug supplier, although he didn't participate in the actual crime, according to Crime Library. Together, the womens descriptions of what Holmes told them largely corroborate the Los Angeles Police Departments theory of what happened on Wonderland Avenue. in the family tree section to add relatives, or press the "X" Why Eddie Nash Was Acquitted Of The Wonderland Murders, "John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches,". When you share a memory, or just show that you care by interacting with the biography, He served four and a half years in prison. Like their pets -- those ubiquitous golden retrievers with pelts so shiny, teeth so white that they hardly notice the collars around their necks. And I took a Lear jet into Burbank and I met with Eddie Nash., When Thorson arrived, however, Nash had neither drugs nor money. I was scared to death. Nine days later, Holmes was picked up in a Sherman Oaks motel in the company of Jeanna Sellers, a 20-year-old neighbor. The company no longer exists and the domain name was sold 25 years later. He reigned supreme for many years in this industry.". He was the first male adult film superstar, whose physical size became legend. The flag was changed to display 49 stars. Fellow porn legend and former magazine publisher Gloria Leonard takes a dimmer view of Holmes. Prosecutors believed Nash had ordered the murders of the residents of the Wonderland Avenue home in retribution for having robbed him at gunpoint of more than $1,000,000 in cash, drugs, and jewelry a few days earlier at his mansion, per the Northern Nevada Business Weekly. So I was kind of making it up as I go along, getting Dirk into a similar situation that I'd read about with John Holmes. We were freebasing, and he was right. Addiction isn't new: medicines weren't usually patented (no one wanted to share the ingredients) - and they weren't regulated, either. In 1952, he appeared in a small role as a character named "Nash" in an episode of the Western series The Cisco Kid. We want to hear it. "There was an interest on Holmes' part toward Nash for the drug culture, and an interest from Nash toward Holmes for the adult-entertainment, fast-lane lifestyle," explains Bill Margold, a porn industry insider who knew both men. When prosecutors tried to nail Holmes for Wonderland in 1982, his lawyers argued that he was just another victim and that the real killers weren't on trial. A 100% free community where we remember people from our past. Although he was often away from home, I was his safe place, Sharon Holmes said. No CGI means the graphics look a little primitive now, but on television sets those days the pictures weren't great. His lawyer at the time argued it was for his personal consumption. At the height of his career, he was making up to . "There is a possibility that he will be too sick to go to trial. He said, They stuck a gun to my head and they made me go back in (to the Wonderland Avenue house) and open the door. Thats what he told me. Nash and Holmes were well acquainted with each other; Nash enjoyed introducing his countless houseguests to Holmes, who was infamous for playing the X-rated movie character "Johnny Wadd. [6] By the 1970s, Nash owned several nightclubs and restaurants in Los Angeles, such as the P.J. "I like how the story sort of naturally progresses," says Anderson. . They were probably considered dirtbags and drug dealers and Who cares? he says. Nash was then ordered to open his safe and ordered to beg for his life. I became the butt of jokes, which traveled around like wildfire. 1929) was a nightclub and restaurant owner in Los Angeles and is a convicted gangster and drug dealer; he is best known for his involvement in the quadruple Wonderland Murders. Nightclub owner Eddie Nash was arrested in 1981 . . The retrial ended in an acquittal. That's about the time he hooked up with the Wonderland Gang, a motley assortment of dopers and criminals. With Nash and Wonderland back in the news, interest is running high in Holmes and his involvement with the killings. And in this, it was like a revenge thing against drug dealers. Nash had allegedly planned to have Holmes killed as well, but he instead decided to use the Wonderland murders to "teach Holmes a lesson" by having him witness and allegedly partake in the event. (John) was so much of a liar . "A grand jury conducted an investigation and determined there was probable cause that Eddie Nash was involved in serious federal crimes," said Mrozek, defensively. I have to be honest, if I could catch him in a lie, that would have added entertainment value to the podcast. Actor: The Cisco Kid. Nash would later admit that he had bribed the lone holdout, a young woman, with $50,000. [15], A lengthy court appeal of Garceau's death sentence was begun, but in 1993 the California Supreme Court upheld the legality of what became known as "The Nash testimony. For something to become a really big media event, you need the idea that it could happen to anybody, he says. He also agreed to cooperate with law enforcement authorities. . They were one of the dominant cocaine dealers in L.A. at the time. But then in the summer of 1981, Holmes found himself deeply indebted to the leader of the Wonderland Gang, Ron Launius. Gregory Diles would die in 1997. Death. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. The twisting, narrow streets are filled with freshly washed BMWs, Mercedes and SUVs. There was not much use of social media in his time period. Indeed, there's something of a Dostoyevskian dilemma in Holmes' tabloid narrative leading to his downfall and to the killings at Wonderland Avenue -- the one that posits that unhappiness results from a multiplicity of options. In the early hours of July 1st, 1981, for the umpteenth time in his life, Scott Thorson found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. "[15][16] Garceau died from cancer on San Quentin's death row on December 29, 2004. Thom Mrozek, the flack for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, agreed that Nash's health is an issue. Bettmann/Getty ImagesJohn Holmes being arrested for the Wonderland Murders. During the trial, Susan Rambo testified that Harlyn Codd had told her Nash was Telesforo's father, and that Nash once had paid Garceau to fulfill a contract but that Garceau had failed to perform and, as a result, Nash was "looking for" Garceau. . Eddie Nash (b. "But a lot of details I'd forgotten. He was later acquitted of the murders, and he died from liver failure in 1997. Specifically, he was at a drug kingpins house when the man gave the order for one of Los Angeles most infamous mass killings: the Wonderland murders, where four people were beaten to death in a house in Laurel Canyon. They've been all over him like dogs on a meat truck since the '80s. In 1959, at the age of 27 years old, Eddie was alive when on January 3rd, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States and the first state not a part of the contiguous United States. But Israels creation in 1948 saw his family displaced to a refugee camp and his brother-in-law killed by Israeli soldiers. He said he was told he would be killed and people in the book would be killed if (Holmes) didnt do what (Nash) wanted. I'm not a doctor, I don't know. He went out of his life denying, said Sharon Holmes, (saying) I had no involvement., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Opinion: Californias pension funds are wrecking the planet and losing billions. In Nash's case, police and prosecutors tried three times. I was scared, he says. . I know who did it.. Nash agreed to a plea bargain agreement in September 2001, pleading guilty to RICO and money laundering charges. the heart becomes full Stephen Lemons is a freelance journalist and regular contributor to Salon. . Updated: November 7, 2011 Biography ID: 64887940 Eddie Nash (1931 - 1987) Born October 11, 1931 Death May 23, 1987 Summary Eddie Nash was born on October 11, 1931, and died at age 55 years old on May 23, 1987. The hearing was called off so Nash could undergo further tests in the San Bernardino County Jail to determine if the initial skin test was accurate. Because of the abuse, Nash was missing part of his. He became more withdrawn and reclusive, and rarely left his Studio City house. The Shocking Story Of Eddie Nash, The Palestinian Immigrant Who Became A Cocaine Kingpin. Recalling his experiences with Liberace and Nash, he talks as if hes recounting the plot of a movie youre already familiar with, dropping names and referring to tangential events without context. 2023 Celebrity Net Worth / All Rights Reserved. But the LAPD were so keen on resolving the Wonderland Murders that they even arrested Nash for possession of crystal meth in 1995 only for the drugs to be identified as a mothball. He owned teen dance clubs, nightclubs, and strip clubs like Kit Kat club, The Odyssey, and The Starwood. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7de5440a2f7dabd4 In the still unpublished official version of his life, Holmes is quoted as saying that he was held at gunpoint at another house while the killers, whose names he did not know, went to the home on Wonderland Avenue. Audrey Miller was leasing the house. In those early days in Los Angeles he even tried his hand at acting, but his hopes of becoming the next Warren Beatty or Paul Newman were short-lived. Those murders. "He was the King, and his transgressions off-screen have nothing to do with the legend he laid, literally, at the feet of a nation which gobbled him up in glee.". "The King was not -- from what I gathered during the time that I knew him -- a particularly violent man," says Margold in Holmes' defense. Police believed the brutality of the killings suggested a crime of rage and revenge. 1929 Disney Halloween Skeleton Dance Cartoon. 73 million people watched - although the Beatles couldn't be heard because of the loud screaming of the female teenage audience. Holmes was acquitted in 1982, but died in 1988 from complications related to AIDS. At least that's what they've tried to make it. An associate of Nash's later said that they had bribed the judge with about $100,000 to get him out. Now the feds are having a go at Nash, charging the ailing septuagenarian, who suffers from emphysema, with running a criminal enterprise of which the gruesome Wonderland slayings were just a part. Holmes, who died in 1988 from AIDS-related complications, is mentioned as a co-conspirator in a 16-count federal indictment alleging that his old buddy Eddie Nash led a racketeering enterprise. I dont know why they couldnt give him a longer prison term but they should have. Nash died in 2014. "It's basically the [story of] a young man with a dream who gets that dream, and it spirals out of control," Anderson concludes in an interview for Paley's "Wadd" documentary. Legacy's online obit database has obituaries, death notices, and funeral services for 13 people named Eddie Nash from thousands of the largest funeral homes and newspapers in the world. Then Holmes hit on a more direct way to make money. The killers beat Ron Launius, William Deverell (sometimes written DeVerell), Barbara Richardson, and Joy Miller to death, leaving Susan Launius, Ron's estranged wife, for dead after smashing in her skull, per Crime Library. Given everything, and the appetite to consume it, we could all end up in the same gilded gutter. He would also trade stolen goods for cocaine with Nash, and they became good friends. Biographies are our place to remember and discover more about the people important to us. Hed been robbed at gunpoint two days before. At Holmes murder trial, Tomlinson testified that Holmes told him that after the robbery had occurred at Ed Nashs house, that Nash had made (Holmes) tell him who the people were that robbed him. He has some bad press. COLEBROOK, N.H. -- Police have now arrested the daughter of a man whose grave was dug up last month and said the motive was her belief the "real will" would be. He was dangerous, but his most brutal act occurred in the summer of 1981 at his property in Laurel Canyon. I went back to the tape and he didnt say crack. Connelly says. He was an actor, known for The Cisco Kid (1950). Diles, infuriated by his injuries, was sent to kill the gang at their apartment two days later. 's club (shortly afterward renamed Starwood) in West Hollywood, the Soul'd Out club in Hollywood, the Odyssey disco,[8] the Paradise Ballroom, the Seven Seas, Ali Baba's, and The Kit Kat strip club. Eddie Nash was born on 3 April 1929 in Ramallah, British Palestine. I think if he would have done it in todays time, he would be jailed for it, he says. The police alleged he was also a major drug dealer, among other nefarious activities like pimping, arson, and fencing stolen goods. Nash was 72 at the time of his plea and in ill health and served less than five years before his release. Eddie Nash embodied the American Dream. Holmes, the story goes, set up Nash to be robbed, and took part of the loot. . When California tried Nash for Wonderland in 1990, he lucked out, or so it seemed, with a hung jury of 11-1. Garceau was turned in to the police after he murdered Greg Rambo, who had helped him dispose of the Bautistas' bodies. Nash did a couple of years in the state pen for possession of narcotics right after Wonderland. But this time, the crew decided not to wait for Holmes to come back. AncientFaces is a place where our memories & family stories live. we begin to show & tell who our loved ones were during particular moments in their lives. On 29 June 1981, he was grazed by shotgun fire from David Lind's gun during an armed robbery of Nash's home by the Wonderland Gang; Lind accidentally shot Diles when Ron Launius bumped into him. The day after the robbery, someone who knew Nash apparently spotted Holmes in Hollywood, wearing a piece of jewelry that had been stolen from Nashs home, he told his wife. He said, I had to stand there and watch what they did, Sharon Holmes recalled. [15] At trial, evidence was presented that Garceau murdered Bautista because she threatened to expose Garceau's drug operations to Nash, and Garceau killed her son because Telesforo had witnessed Bautista's murder. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. ", However, by 1981, Holmes had become desperately addicted to freebasing cocaine, and as a result, his career had declined due to chronic impotence. Most recently, in 1995, the feds hauled Nash away in his jammies for possessing crystal meth, but they had to let him go when it turned out the contraband in question was actually a mothball. Eddie is alive and kicking and is currently 5 years old. He was in debt to a group of drug dealers called the Wonderland Gang, named after the house they lived in on Wonderland Avenue in Los Angeles. Photos, memories, family stories & discoveries are unique to you, and only you can control. Crime author Michael Connelly, creator of the Audible podcast The Wonderland Murders & the Secret History of Hollywood, also struggled to trust what he was hearing from Thorson but found his stories checked out. The quaint little split-level home at 8763 Wonderland Ave. in Laurel Canyon seems perfect for the 40-something couple who inhabit it. Welcome to AncientFaces! He also admitted to jury tampering (for which the statute of limitations had run out) and to having ordered his associates to retrieve stolen property from the Wonderland house, which might have resulted in violence including murder, but he denied having planned the murders that occurred. The incident became known as the Wonderland murders, and involved the era's most famous adult film star, John Holmes. After the two failed criminal cases against Eddie Nash in the early 1990s, it looked like he would completely escape justice. Connelly thinks the fact that the killings revolved around the cocaine trade help. 51.13.82.112 But I think they deserve closure. It was obvious from the time we got in the house that we were over our heads.. But they feel exploited too. On May 19, 2000, a 16-count indictment including drug trafficking, money laundering, and bribery charges saw Eddie Nash arrested at his Tarzana, California, home. Born Adel Gharib Nasrallah on April 3, 1929, in Ramallah, Palestine, Eddie Nash belonged to a wealthy family that owned 48 hotels. Meet Big Nose Kate, The Tough-As-Nails Lover Of Wild West Outlaw Doc Holliday, The Harrowing True Story Of The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, Boris Yaro/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images.
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