[2] It is assumed that five people were targeted to be killed in the known drug house of the Wonderland Gang, three of whom—Ron Launius, William "Billy" Deverell, and Joy Miller—were present.
Only Launius' wife Susan survived the attack, allegedly masterminded by organized crime figure and nightclub owner Eddie Nash.
Nash, his henchman Gregory Diles,[3][4] and porn actor John Holmes were at various times arrested, tried, and acquitted for their involvement in the murders.
The Wonderland Gang was centered on the occupants of a rented townhouse at 8763 Wonderland Avenue, in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles, California: leader Ronald Lee "Ron" Launius; second-in-command William Raymond "Billy" DeVerell; DeVerell's girlfriend Joy Audrey Gold Miller, who was also the leaseholder for the townhouse; Tracy Raymond McCourt; and David Clay Lind.
Scott Thorson, a former boyfriend of Liberace who was in Nash's house to buy drugs, claimed he witnessed Holmes being tied to a chair and repeatedly punched and his family threatened until he revealed the assailants' identities.
[6][7] Around 4:30 a.m. on July 1, 1981, two days after the robbery, an unknown number of unidentified men entered the Wonderland Avenue townhouse and bludgeoned Launius, DeVerell, Miller, and Barbara Richardson (Lind's girlfriend who had been visiting) to death.
[citation needed] Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives Tom Lange and Robert Souza led the murder investigation and searched Nash's home a few days after the crime.
After his left palm print was found at the crime scene on the Launius' headboard, he was arrested and charged with four counts of murder in March 1982.
The prosecutor, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Ron Coen, attempted to prove Holmes was a willing participant who betrayed the gang after not getting a full share of the loot from the Nash robbery.