The true nature and details of the Laurel Canyon murders remains unsolved to this day.Īfter his release from prison, Holmes tried to clean up his act and continue his porno career with a new generation of porno stars. Although found not guilty of the murders, he remained in jail on previous burglary and contempt-of-court charges until his release in November 1982. After a three-week, public trial, Holmes was acquitted on June 26, 1982. authorities, angered by Holmes' refusal to cooperate with the investigation, charged him with committing all four murders. Holmes was implicated in the crime but refused to tell police what he knew and went on the run for nearly six months with his teenage mistress, Dawn Schiller, before he was arrested while hiding out in Florida and returned to Los Angeles. The bloody crime made lurid headlines throughout Southern California and became known as The Wonderland Murders, after the street in the wooded Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles where the killings took place. A fifth victim, (Susan Launius, Ronald Launius' estranged wife), barely survived the attack and had no memory of the event. He was allegedly present at the drug-related torture and murders at a house in the hills above Hollywood of William Deverell, Ronald Launius, Joy Miller and Barbara Richardson-a group suspected by many in the drug underworld of specializing in ripping off drug dealers-by a gang of killers sent by a powerful local gangster named Eddie Nash. The lowest point in his life was when he was implicated in four grisly, drug-related murders on July 1, 1981. He was reduced to making money by robbing people's houses and stealing cars, as well as delivering drugs for the local gangsters. By late 1980 he was broke, most of the huge amounts of money he made having gone to feed his drug addiction. In the late 1970s Holmes developed a serious drug habit, which prevented him from performing in the on-screen sex he was famous for, resulting in his dropping out of the adult-film business. Better still were the big-budgeted pictures that co-starred some of the adult film industry's top leading ladies, including Marilyn Chambers, Seka, Annette Haven and even a young-and underage- Traci Lords.
His most famous character is probably Johnny Wadd, a lusty, always-on-the-make private detective he played in several crude porno films like Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here (1976), The Jade Pussycat (1977), China Cat (1978), Liquid Lips (1976) and Blonde Fire (1978), the last of which is considered the best of the so-called "Wadd films". His lucrative off-screen penis-for-hire business took him around the world.
His enormously long penis got him starring roles in over 2,000 loops, stag films and adult features in a career that spanned nearly 20 years (with a peak of a $3,000-a-day salary).
John was not lacking for work, bringing not only a professional attitude but also his legendary endowment (12-5/8" long, according to a Screw Magazine interview, while other stories put it at 13-1/2" long). His tall, slim build, curly light brown hair, a light mustache and bright blue eyes made him an instantly recognizable star.
By 1969, with the advent of X-rated porn films, Holmes moved into the movie business. Another story is that in 1967 Holmes was frequenting a men's card playing club in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena when a photographer for an underground magazine noticed his large "member" while standing next to him at a restroom urinal and gave Holmes his business card, telling him he could get plenty of work in still photo magazines. Unfortunately, his first check bounced and, after that, he always insisted on payment in cash. One story was that a female neighbor was making porno loops and advised Holmes he could make good money. In the late 1960s he gravitated to the underground porno industry.
After his discharge he moved to Los Angeles in 1964 where he married a young nurse, and worked odd jobs such as taxi driver, door-to-door salesman, postal clerk, temp worker, coffee vat attendant, ambulance driver and forklift driver. He was a bible student, but at the age of 16 dropped out of school, left home and enlisted for a hitch in the US Army, where he was stationed in West Germany for three years. Born John Curtis Estes on August 8, 1944, in rural Pickaway County, Ohio, the youngest of four children, porn legend John Holmes was raised by a religious fanatic mother named Mary and an abusive alcoholic stepfather named Harold Bowman.