by Legs McNeil
I was between a rock and a hard place.
“It’s Not Like You Said It’s Gonna Be”
LOS ANGELES
1981
DAWN SCHILLER: A week before the murders, John picked me up at the Burbank airport. Just as we were about to walk out the door he turned around, went over to the conveyor belt, picked up a bag that wasn’t mine, came back, grabbed my hand, and we walked out the door.
That was my first clue. Inside, my gut froze. I was thinking, “Oh shit, nothing’s changed.” But I had finally given in and come back.
John said he was off the stuff. And then we checked into this dive hotel on Ventura Boulevard and immediately got high.
DAVID LIND: I didn’t know who Eddie Nash was, but John suggested that Ronnie Launius, Billy Deverell, and I should rob him because Nash was in possession of a considerable amount of narcotics, cash, and jewelry.
DAWN SCHILLER: John didn’t have much coke, so he said, “Okay, I’m going to go take care of that, and then we’ll be out of here.” He promised he’d be back in the morning.
But he didn’t come back—and since I didn’t have any money, I got kicked out of the hotel.
I was literally standing on the street crying—with my dog in my suitcase—going, “Fuck, now what?”
A bunch of pimps and johns wanted me, and I contemplated turning a trick, but then, I was like, “I don’t want to have to do that again!”
DAVID LIND: John was in debt to Ronnie and Billy Deverell. He was also complaining that he didn’t have enough money to pay his film editors for his latest film—a documentary on him called Exhausted.
So John drew an entire diagram on a piece of paper of the inside layout of Eddie Nash’s house.
DAWN SCHILLER: I’m still crying when this lady pulls up in a white van, with a couple other people—young adults. She told me her name was Ivy, and asked me, “What’s the matter?” So I told her. Ivy said, “I’m a member of this Christian group, and we’re all going to paint this house. If you want to make some money and make some phone calls, I can help you out.”
I guess she wasn’t too threatened by a girl with a suitcase and a chihuahua. So I went with her. I left messages on John’s machine, then helped them paint this place, and spent the night at Ivy’s apartment.
TRACY MCCOURT: John and Ronnie were drawing up plans—you know, to find out where the bodyguard slept, where the guns were, how many windows were in the back of the house—the whole thing.
We made a couple of dry runs. But we had to call it off a couple of times. One time everybody was going to forget it, so me and Billy were going to do it. But John kept going over to Nash’s house and doing so much cocaine that he wouldn’t come out for three or four hours.
DAVID LIND: On Monday, June 29, 1981, Ron Launius provided John Holmes with money to purchase some narcotics from Eddie Nash.
TRACY MCCOURT: When we left Wonderland Avenue, we passed John on our way to Nash’s. He was driving down the hill, and we were going up. We stopped, and he told us, “GET HIM!”
So we went to the house, and—and got him.
DAVID LIND: At Nash’s there was a chain-link gate that we just pushed open. We went to the sliding glass doors, which were left open by Holmes, and entered the guest bedroom.
There was a doorway leading into the hallway, and I saw the bodyguard, Gregory Diles—a 300-pound black man—coming out of the kitchen with a serving tray in his hands.
I shouted, “FREEZE! POLICE! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!”
Then Ronnie and Billy threw down on Eddie Nash. I had a leather case containing a San Francisco police officer badge; we all identified ourselves as police officers, and we were all armed. So we lay Gregory Diles on his stomach to handcuff him. But while I was cuffing Diles, Ronnie bumped my arm, and the gun went off.
Eddie Nash immediately fell to his knees and asked Ronnie to say a prayer.
TRACY MCCOURT: I was sitting in the car waiting—when I heard a real loud noise and knew it had to be a gunshot. It sounded like a Magnum shot, but I calmed down by telling myself that any of the neighbors would have thought it was a load of lumber falling off a truck.
DAVID LIND: Diles suffered some powder burns, which caused him to bleed. Then I finished handcuffing him, laid him on the floor, and put a throw rug over his head—so he couldn’t observe what we were doing.
Eddie Nash was on his knees, with his hands behind his head. Ron and Billy proceeded to take Nash into his bedroom, and I followed. Eddie was asked to lay facedown on the carpet. Ron proceeded to a wardrobe closet, where there was a floor safe—as we had been informed by John Holmes.
Bobby asked Nash for the key or combination—I don’t really recall which—and Nash told us the correct answer. Ronnie proceeded to open the safe and withdraw a half-pound storage ziplock bag that was approximately three quarters full of cocaine.
John told us earlier that there was also a laboratory vial, approximately eight to ten inches in length and half an inch in diameter, full of heroin—which he called “China White”—in the area of Eddie Nash’s dresser. We picked that up. There was also an attaché case full of money and jewelry. Holmes told us about that, too. We found everything.
Inside the attaché case was a considerable sum of money in twenties, fifties, and one hundred dollar bills, and a considerable amount of gold jewelry and diamonds.
Then, I taped up Gregory Diles and removed the handcuffs—because the handcuffs could have been identified by what was engraved on them—and went to the bedroom and taped up Eddie Nash and threw a sheet over him.
After that, as we were getting ready to leave, Ronnie pulled out a knife and started to cut Gregory Diles. I interfered and told him, “We’ve got everything we need here. Let’s go.”
Then, I opened the front door and signaled to Tracy McCourt. He started to back the vehicle up. Then, Ronnie and Billy and I went out the front door. Ronnie carried the attaché case, which had the bag of cocaine in it and the gray-green metal box, and I think he had the heroin vial in his pocket. I came out last carrying the two antique rifles, which were wrapped in white plastic like a shower curtain.
Then we all got in the car. Billy got in the front passenger side. Tracy McCourt was driving, and Ron and I were in the back. Then, we drove to the Wonderland Avenue house.
JOHN HOLMES: They robbed Eddie Nash and brought back heroin, cocaine, jewelry, ten thousand dollars in cash, and the antique guns.
DAVID LIND: John was waiting inside the door when we arrived. The first thing he wanted to know was exactly what happened. He seemed very excited about it. He was happy that we were able to accomplish what we had set out to do.
I told Ron not to tell him anything.
BOB SOUZA: Holmes was afraid of Ron Launius, the leader of the Wonderland Avenue gang. Launius called Holmes “donkey dick,” which would be a compliment to most guys, but the way Launius said it, it was an insult.
Launius used to say to Holmes, “Hey, show ’em your dick. Pull it out.”
Launius treated Holmes like a butt boy, and he was a tough son of a bitch.
DAVID LIND: Then, we went to Ronnie’s bedroom and put everything on the bed and of course there was quite a bit of excitement. I said, “Well, let’s get this thing over with.” We then proceeded to weigh out the drugs and to count the money.
There were five of us involved in the robbery. Ronnie Launius, Billy Deverell, and I were to receive 25 percent of what we took. And John and Tracy McCourt were to split the remaining 25 percent of the drugs and the money.
TRACY MCCOURT: When we got back to the house, I just started getting very nervous. I looked out over the balcony and saw a car that looked like the Lincoln Continental that was parked at Eddie Nash’s house. I told everybody about it, but they were so high and screwed up on drugs that they paid no attention. That’s when I got really nervous and decided to leave on my own.
DAVID LIND: Immediately after everything was divided up Tracy left the house. Ronnie and John and I were
in the living room—and John said that it still wasn’t enough money. He still didn’t have enough to pay his film editors and as there was a considerable amount of jewelry—still to be peddled to a fence—John was going to wait around for that money.
So Billy took the jewelry to the fence and came back a few hours later, in the early evening, with the money. Everybody was in a pretty good mood after the success of the incident, and we proceeded to just have a good time.
Then we used narcotics. Everybody did.
I don’t remember when John left. I do remember when I left. I left approximately nine or ten o’clock the next morning. That was the last time I saw any of them alive.
DAWN SCHILLER: The next day I painted the house again, and when I got back to Ivy’s apartment, John called and came over.
Ivy lived with her sister—who was not a Christian. Well, when John walked in, he asked if anybody wanted to do a line. Ivy didn’t say anything, but her sister said, “SURE!”
So John pulled out his briefcase, and there was the largest pile of cocaine I’ve ever seen in my life. It was the pile they ripped off from Eddie Nash. But I didn’t question it.
We spent the whole night, pretty much, in the bathroom. And John said, “This is how we’re getting out of here—this is our bank.” He said we needed to sell it—that’s what we’d use to get away. And Ivy’s sister was knocking on the bathroom door asking for more, you know? It happens to everyone who says “yes” the first time, ha, ha, ha.
John had a couple of Tarot cards in his briefcase; he used them for drawing out lines. After we all got high, John and I went to the store. When we got back we tried to buzz ourselves in, but Ivy wouldn’t let us back in.
She stood on her balcony, waving a Christian flag and swearing that John was the devil—because he had used a Tarot card to cut his cocaine with.
JOHN HOLMES: The only time I’ve been out of control was when I was freebasing cocaine. In less than two years I smoked away a couple of apartment buildings I owned, my house, my antique store, my hardware store, and my career.
I stayed up for as long as ten days at a time. If I ate at all, it was half a taco from the Taco Bell drive-through every four days. When I looked in a full-length mirror, what I saw could have been liberated the day before from a Nazi concentration camp. I went from 170 pounds to 142 pounds. I was so emaciated that I couldn’t shoot movies anymore. I hadn’t had sex in six months, and all my wealthy female tricks were gone.
DAWN SCHILLER: I don’t think Ivy knew who John was; she just thought he was the devil. Here she had done this Christian thing for me and opened the door to her house—and the devil came walking in.
Ivy kept waving the huge flag on the balcony, cleansing herself or something. I didn’t even know they made flags that big. John had wanted to use her apartment as a cover. Nobody knew we were there. It was perfect. But she wouldn’t let us back in.
Ivy was yelling from the balcony, “I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE! I KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO MY SISTER! GET BACK, SATAN!” And I’m like, “Can I have my dog and my clothes?”
Ivy brought them down in the elevator, handed them off, and then went back up without even looking at us.
JOHN HOLMES: Not only had I smoked away more than three-quarters of a million dollars, but also I had degenerated into a gofer—running around selling drugs to people that were so sleazy I would have crossed the street to avoid them in the past.
I sold five ounces of cocaine a day to rock stars, murderers, dentists, restaurant owners, burglars, Mafia hitmen, attorneys, producers, directors—anybody who was buying. I was paid each day with a marblesized rock of freebase, which was worth a thousand dollars. That adds up to $365,000 a year. I smoked it all.
I even had to borrow money for gas.
DAWN SCHILLER: After we left Ivy’s, we checked into this motel down the road and just got high. We got way high for about a week. It was another sleazy motel—but I was glad that there was a fast-food joint that sold hush puppies next door.
I think we slept for a little bit, you know, because we ate that chicken and those hush puppies, and we watched some TV. I’m not even sure if we had sex or not, but John left pretty quick because I know we didn’t have that pile of coke with us for very long. He packed it all up—I think he left me a little rock and a pipe and went out.
But this time the place was paid for, so I don’t know how long he was gone.
Nobody Waved Hello
LOS ANGELES
1981
CHRIS COX: I just got back in town on July 1, 1981. I was in Europe, and I had heard that something had happened over at Eddie Nash’s because I had called just to say hello.
Eddie was enraged; I could tell just by his tone on the phone that something had happened. And then I started hearing rumors that somebody had robbed his house.
At that time, it wasn’t known that John Holmes was involved in setting it up.
DAWN SCHILLER: Gregory Diles picked John up at his answering service office on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. It had some catchy name like, “Just Listening,” or something like that. It was just this cell-block-looking building.
So John was picking up a stack of messages when Gregory Diles grabbed him. John said he got in the car, and “they” put a gun to his head.
John said “They.”
CHRIS COX: So I went to Eddie’s house, and, well, it was very tense up there. There was a lot of movement around in and out of the bedroom. I don’t recall if I saw Eddie or not—possibly, very briefly. But the mood—the feeling in the house—was like ice. You could cut the tension in there with a knife.
And John Holmes was standing over toward the dining room by the bar, looking very, very nervous.
Eddie was just not in a welcoming mood, so I didn’t stay there long.
JOHN HOLMES: The day after the robbery, I was tortured for fourteen hours by Eddie Nash and eight of his bodyguards, as sixty or seventy people walked through his house making their regular drug buys. I sat in a room off the entry hall, my hands bound with black electrical tape. Blood was pouring from my mouth where Eddie had hit me with a gun. Nobody waved hello.
CHRIS COX: Before I left Eddie’s house, I had a small conversation with John—but I don’t recall what it was. It just wasn’t an atmosphere where anybody was doing much talking. I know there was a rumor that John had been roughed up, but I didn’t see any bruises or anything like that; I didn’t see any evidence of that.
FRANK TOMLINSON (LAPD DETECTIVE, ROBBERY/HOMICIDE DIVISION): Right after the robbery, John Holmes said Eddie Nash held him at Nash’s house, took his address book and—right in front of him—wrote down the names of John’s family. John said that Nash told him that if he ever talked to the police, he would kill a member of John’s family.
John then said that Nash took him—at gunpoint—to the house on Wonderland Avenue and that John knew what was going to happen, but he had no choice—that he had to set things up and let them in.
John said that he was there when the murders occurred but that he himself did not hurt anyone, that he was just there.
SHARON HOLMES: It was the early morning—nothing was moving in the streets—when John came knocking at the door. I see very well in the dark, so I realized it was John. I just left the latch on the door, and asked, “Why are you here?”
This was the first time I had seen him, literally, since March. He asked if he could come in. That’s when I realized—from the night-light in the entryway—that he was covered in blood. It was in his hair, on his head, around his ears, all over his clothes—he wasn’t dripping, but you could tell something had happened. He mumbled about how he’d had a car accident. “Could you help clean me up?”
Dope that I am, I let him in the house.
He said, “I have to get into the shower.”
I figured he had a cut on his head, that that was where all the blood was coming from. But when we got into the bathroom, I realized he wasn’t bleeding, that the blood had come from somewhere el
se.
He said, “I need to get in the tub.”
This was classic John, from 1973 on—whenever anything unpalatable or difficult for him happened, he got into the bathtub. It was like Lady Macbeth washing her hands of the responsibility.
So he got into the shower—ran the water as hot as he could stand it—and kept dunking himself. Then I attended to the cuts on his face. He looked worse than I had ever seen him.
The bath water was pink. I mean, it was obvious there was a lot of blood there, but when he slid up the back of the tub, I’m not seeing anything that’s accounting for it. No wounds that would explain that amount of blood.
I said, “There wasn’t any accident. What happened?”
He looked me straight in the eye and said, “I was at a murder. Four people got killed, and somebody is after me.”
Of course, nothing was in the news by then—so I had no idea what he was talking about.
DAWN SCHILLER: I was watching the news in the motel room—John wasn’t back yet—and they were pulling the bodies out of the Wonderland Avenue house.
I knew that house. I’d sat in the car in front of that house many times. I’d seen those people go in and out. And my heart just went into my gut because I just knew.
I mean, it was all bad. John wasn’t there, and the big pile—it was adding up.
SHARON HOLMES: John said, “Four people were killed in front of me.”
He was almost incoherent.