Wonderland Gang

The Wonderland Gang was an organization of drug dealers who dominated the Los Angeles cocaine trade in the late 1970s and early 1980s. On July 1, 1981 the gang met its demise in one of the bloodiest mass murders in the history of California, now known as the Wonderland murders.

Members

Members of the gang included:

• Ronald Launius (b. May 18, 1944 d. 1981) (leader)
• Billy Deverell (b. February 14, 1937 d. 1981)
• David Clay Lind (b. October 24, 1938 d. 1995) (a former prison acquaintance of Launius)
• Joy Audrey Gold Miller (b. May 14, 1935 d. 1981) (Deverell's girlfriend)
• Tracy Raymond McCourt (b. February 20, 1949 d. 2006)

The Wonderland Gang mainly trafficked in the burgeoning cocaine trade of the era, but most of its members were actually heroin addicts. Drugs were regularly dealt from a residence at 8763 Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles. The two bedroom split-level house was leased in Miller's name. She, her live-in boyfriend Deverell, and Launius were the usual residents. Lind, ordinarily a resident of the Sacramento area, came to Los Angeles in the summer of 1981 at Launius' behest, to aid in their growing drug distribution business. Bringing with him his girlfriend Barbara Richardson, the pair slept on the living room sofa during their tenure at the Wonderland house.

Ron Launius

Launius was the leader of the Wonderland gang. He began his criminal career while serving with the US Armed Forces in Vietnam and, at the time of his death, was the suspect in 27 open murder investigations, including that of sports agent Vic Weiss. Launius was notorious for escaping convictions; when criminal charges were brought against him for the murder of a drug informant, the prosecution's star witness was summarily found shot to death, and charges subsequently dropped.

In addition to his reputation for murder, Launius also built up an image of himself as a ruthless mercenary, which helped solidify his leadership of the gang. In the mid 1970s, he was lured to Mexico and ambushed by members of a Mexican drug cartel, who stole $100,000 from him and kidnapped his wife. Launius returned to the United States, robbed two banks to come up with the ransom money for his wife, and returned to Mexico. Shortly after Launius returned to the U.S. with his wife, the men who had arranged for Launius to go to Mexico were found dead. Law enforcement considered Launius to be the prime suspect, but could never prove his involvement.

Launius partied as hard as he worked. In addition to dealing drugs, Launius also consumed them and drank to excess, fuelling his violent behavior. At the time of his death, Launius' lifestyle had begun to take its toll on him. His autopsy revealed cirrhosis of the liver, and numerous old and new intravenous drug injection scars, including some that were abscessed.

Originally reported to have been investigated for 37 murders rather than 27, the story was changed coincidentally with the disappearance of the 37th Marine's website from Riverside, California. Launius had been said to have been in the 37th Marines while in Vietnam, but now his saga has been changed; 27 murder investigations and an un-named military unit. Additionally, it was originally reported that he killed the Mexican kidnappers to free his wife; he did not rob any banks to ransom her, he killed her captors.

Billy Deverell

Billy Deverell, one of the oldest members of the gang, acted as Launius' right hand man and a voice of reason. Lind characterized him as an otherwise noble individual who had been lured into the drug world because of the easy money, and indicated that Deverell experienced periods of self loathing for his actions, during which he expressed a desire to leave drugs behind. In addition to dealing drugs, Deverell was also a heavy heroin user and had been arrested thirteen times in relation to his habit. The autopsy performed on him after his murder turned up numerous injection scars on his inner forearms, in addition to hyperplasia of the lymph nodes, a common sign of narcotics abuse.

David Lind

A member of the Aryan Brotherhood, David Lind was a biker gang member and heroin addict who befriended Launius when the two men served time in prison together. In 1981, at Launius' behest, Lind travelled to Los Angeles to join the Wonderland gang and assist them in running drugs. At the time of the Wonderland murders, Lind had been incarcerated several times for burglary, forgery, assault, and attempted rape. Lind's position in the drug underworld was and remains murky due to allegations by rival drug dealers that he worked as a police informant.

Joy Audrey Gold Miller

Billy Deverell's girlfriend, and the individual who actually rented out the Wonderland house. A divorced mother with adult children, Joy was a heroin user who had fallen in with the Wonderland gang through her self-immersion in drug culture.

Barbara Richardson

While not an official member of the Wonderland Gang, Richardson was a girlfriend of David Lind's at the time, although it appears that they were not exclusive. She was the youngest of the group at 23 years old. Her four tattoos were images of a flower, a mushroom, a butterfly, and Minnie Mouse.

Both Barbara and Lind were said to be police informants in the Sacramento area not long before they traveled to Southern California.

Richardson also displayed a form of body art that the actual gang members also possessed - intravenous drug injection scars.

Criminal enterprises

The Wonderland Gang is mainly known for its drug sales, which concentrated on cocaine and the occasional heroin deal.

But like any modern business enterprise, the Gang was diversified. In addition to drug distribution, the Gang gained additional revenues through burglaries, and armed robberies of rival drug dealers.

Wonderland Murders

Main article: Wonderland Murders

Nash robbery

On June 29, 1981, the Wonderland Gang, including Tracy Ray McCourt, Ron Launius, David Lind, Billy Deverell, Joy Miller, and Barbara Richardson along with pornographic film star John Curtis Holmes, conspired to launch a brutal home invasion and robbery upon Eddie Nash, a reputedly powerful organized crime figure. During this invasion, Launius shoved a gun barrel down Nash's throat, and Lind shot Nash's bodyguard, Gregory Diles, in the back. Racial epithets were also hurled at Nash and Diles.

The robbery was an inside job of sorts, a setup. John Holmes was a close associate of Mr. Nash. Nash regularly referred to Holmes as "my brother". Early in the morning of the robbery, Holmes visited Nash's mansion ostensibly to party and to buy drugs. But on his way out, he left a patio door unlatched.

Holmes actually went to Nash's three times that morning. The first time, he forgot to unlatch the patio door. The second time he returned to the Wonderland hideout but some of the Gang members were extremely intoxicated from the heroin to which they were addicted. After the gang members revived, Holmes was worried that the patio door may have been locked again, so he returned to Nash's a third time, purchased some crack cocaine, unlatched the door, and notified the Gang that the home was ready for invasion.

Launius, Deverell, and Lind performed the invasion and robbery, whilst McCourt waited outside in a stolen Ford Granada and served as lookout. To avoid leaving any identifying traces, the men had previously dipped their fingers in a product known as "Liquid Band-Aid" so as to not leave any fingerprints behind.

The robbery was a seemingly successful haul for the Gang, as they made off with more than $1,200,000 worth of cocaine, heroin, quaaludes, cash, antique guns, and jewelry. But the events of the next two days would prove this to be a Pyrrhic victory.

Murders

Following the robbery, John Holmes ended up at Eddie Nash's home. Accounts of how Holmes arrived there vary; according to some sources Holmes went there himself to try and make himself appear innocent, whereas others claim Holmes was kidnapped by Nash's henchmen when they recognized Holmes wearing some of Nash's jewelry. Court testimony by Scott Thorson, reputed paramour of the entertainer Liberace, suggested that Holmes was brought to Nash's house and beaten until he confessed to planning the home invasion and identified the Wonderland Gang to Eddie's associates.

Around 3:00 in the morning on July 1, two days after the Nash robbery, a number of unidentified men entered the Wonderland house and bludgeoned to death Launius, Deverell, Miller, and Richardson; the weapons were believed to be hammers and/or lead pipes. Ron Launius' wife, Susan, suffered severe brain damage in the attack but ultimately survived and recovered, although she was left with permanent amnesia regarding the night of her attack. Neither Lind nor McCourt were present for the attack, as Lind was consuming drugs with a prostitute in a motel and McCourt was at his own home.

Although neighbors would later report having heard screams, no phone calls were placed to the police until 4:00 in the afternoon on July 1, 12 hours later, when furniture movers working at the house next door to Wonderland heard Susan Launius moaning and went to investigate. When questioned, neighbors said that the drug-fuelled Wonderland parties often included loud, violent screaming and disruptive noise, so that when they heard the murders occurring, they simply believed that another party was taking place. The house was notorious for round-the-clock mayhem and debauchery.

Suspects

When the crime scene was discovered by the LAPD, there was no shortage of suspects, as the Wonderland Gang had made many enemies during its reign at the top of the LA cocaine trade. A contract was out on their lives as they had scammed a fellow drug dealer by selling him baking soda of an amount that seemed to be $250,000 worth of cocaine. But in the end police zeroed in on the murders as a "revenge hit" ordered by Nash.

Los Angeles County prosecutors made the decision to charge John Holmes with four counts of capital murder. David Lind was the lead witness for the prosecution, which was led by District Attorney Ron Coen. But Lind could testify to no more than the fact that the Gang had robbed Mr. Nash's house. In his testimony, Lind alleged that the entire Nash robbery was, in fact, concocted by John Holmes, as well as the Wonderland murders. As lurid as this testimony was, Lind had no testimony directly relevant to the commission of the Wonderland murders themselves, and there was no forensic evidence tying Holmes to the murder. Holmes' court appointed lawyers, Earl Hanson and Mitchell Egers, painted a successful defense about Holmes being the innocent victim who was forced against his will by the real killers to lead them to the Wonderland Avenue house. On June 25, 1982, Holmes (having never taken the witness stand to testify on his own behalf) was found innocent of all charges.

The Holmes trial was a milestone in American jurisprudence, as it was the first criminal trial in which videotape was introduced into evidence and played at the trial. The jury found no connection between the gruesome and bloody crime scene video and Holmes, however.

In 1989, a new witness came forward, Scott Thorson, the reputed paramour of the entertainer Liberace. Based on his deposition, formal charges were filed against Eddie Nash and Gregory Diles, his bodyguard. In court, Thorson testified that he was partying at Nash's home when John Holmes was brought in, and that Holmes was beaten severely until he confessed to his complicity, and that he identified the Wonderland gang as the perpetrators of the robbery.

Nash and Diles were tried in 1990 in an unusual proceeding in which two separate juries observed the same trial. The Nash jury returned a hung verdict, voting 11-1 to convict, and the Diles jury also returned a hung verdict, but with an 11-1 vote to acquit. As in the Holmes trial, David Lind recounted his testimony regarding the robbery of Nash.

In 1991 Nash and Diles were retried in a similar dual-jury proceeding, and this time they were both found not-guilty by 12-0 verdicts.

Nash later admitted to having bribed the lone holdout juror in his first trial, and to having ordered his associates to retrieve stolen goods from the Wonderland Gang. He denied having ordered the murders and received 4 and a half years in prison for unrelated charges. Police also suspected Diles' younger brother, Samuel, as being one of the assailents, however he was never charged.

After Holmes' death in 1988 from AIDS, his first wife, Sharon Holmes, came forward and stated that at around 5:00 AM on the morning of the murders, Holmes came to her house soaked in blood, claiming that as punishment for his involvement in Nash home invasion, he was forced at gunpoint to watch the massacre taking place which was committed by three of Nash's henchmen, but otherwise not participating in it. However no forensic evidence was ever produced that either Nash or Holmes was involved, with the exception of Holmes' handprint in blood on the bed where the body of Ron Launius was found.

Where are they now?

As of January 2007, the sole survivor of the robbery of Eddie Nash's mansion is Nash himself.

• Ronald Launius, Deverell, Miller, and Richardson all died in the 1981 massacre.
• John Curtis Holmes died in 1988 of AIDS
• David Clay Lind died of a heroin overdose in 1995. Rumours abound that Lind, in fact, is not dead and that his death was fabricated to accommodate his entry into the Witness Protection Program. While this theory has never been proven, it has some merit as his dual status as an Aryan Brotherhood member and frequent police informant would have put him in mortal danger.
• Gregory Dewitt Diles also died in 1995, from liver failure.
• Samuel Lawton Diles died in 2002 of unspecified causes.
• Tracy Raymond McCourt died of unspecified causes on October 18, 2006.

The other assailants who participated in the bludgeoning attack on the Wonderland Gang have neither been identified or prosecuted, so their fate and whereabouts are unknown.

See also

• The Yogurt Connection
• Hard and soft drugs