WONDERLAND (true crime, not the movie):
On the evening of July 1, 1981 four people were bludgeoned to death in a split-level home on a street in the Laurel Canyon section of Hollywood called Wonderland Avenue. Police believed they were murdered in retaliation for a robbery some days earlier of heroin, cocaine, jewels and cash belonging to underworld figure and drug kingpin Adel Gharib Nasrallah, aka Eddie Nash. The link between Eddie Nash and the people at 8764 Wonderland Avenue was 1970's porn super star John Holmes. By the late 1970's Holmes had a $1500 a day cocaine habit. Although he was a marquee figure in the porn industry and stared in over 2,500 porn films, his unreliability brought about by his addiction cost him work. Like the character played by Mark Wahlberg in "Boogie Nights" (who was based on Holmes), John Holmes was reduced to petty crimes including drug running to support his habit. It did not take long for Eddie Nash to figure out who had set him up. When the drug dealer found Holmes, he forced the porn star to lead Nash's thugs to the house on Wonderland Avenue. Holmes was then made to watch as each of the victims was brutally murdered.
The Los Angeles police video-taped the crime scene which was later submitted as evidence in the trial of Holmes. (This was the first time that video was introduced as evidence in a criminal trial.) Holmes was acquitted and died of an AIDs-related illness in 1998. Though Eddie Nash went to jail for unrelated narcotics possession following the murders (his attorney argued that the $1 million worth of cocaine was for his personal use), he has evaded conviction t wice for participating in the crime; once in 1990 because of a hung jury and again 1991 by acquittal. Nash was indicted in May 2000 on racketeering charges including the bribery of a juror in his 1990 trial.
BK - did you get the two disc edition which has the John Holmes documentary on it? That's the edition I'm looking for.