Editing John Holmes (actor) (section)

== Career ==
=== Film career ===
{{blockquote|John Holmes was to the adult film industry what [[Elvis Presley]] was to [[rock and roll|rock 'n' roll]]. He simply was The King.|[[Cinematography|Cinematographer]] [[Bob Vosse]] in the documentary ''[[Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes]]''.}}

Holmes began his pornographic movie career in the late 1960s while he was unemployed and recovering from his [[pneumothorax|collapsed lung]]. He frequented a men's card playing club in [[Gardena, California|Gardena]] where on one evening, he allegedly met a photographer while standing next to him at a restroom [[urinal]] who gave Holmes his [[business card]], telling him that he could find work in the underground [[adult film]] business. From 1969, Holmes did nude modeling for underground adult magazines as well as occasional [[stag film]]s.

In 1971, Holmes' career began to take off with an adult film series built around a [[private investigator]] named Johnny Wadd, written and directed by [[Bob Chinn (film director)|Bob Chinn]]. The success of the film ''Johnny Wadd'' created an immediate demand for follow-ups, so Chinn followed up the same year with ''Flesh of the Lotus.'' Most of the subsequent Johnny Wadd films were written and directed by Chinn and produced by the Los Angeles-based company Freeway Films.

With the success of ''[[Deep Throat (film)|Deep Throat]]'' (1972), ''[[Behind the Green Door]]'' (1972) and ''[[The Devil in Miss Jones]]'' (1973), [[porn chic|porn became chic]] even though its legality was still hotly contested. Holmes was arrested during this time for [[Procuring (prostitution)|pimping and pandering]], but he avoided prison time by reputedly becoming an informant for the [[Los Angeles Police Department]] (LAPD).<ref name="library">{{cite web |title=John Holmes and the Wonderland Murders: Wadd the Informer |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/john_holmes/3.html |publisher=crimelibrary.com |access-date=May 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417013100/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/john_holmes/3.html |archive-date=April 17, 2008  }}</ref> Holmes' "handler" during his time as an informant was LAPD vice detective Thomas Blake. Of his involvement with Holmes, Blake said, "It was a pleasure working for him."<ref>Interview segment with Detective Blake in the documentary, Wadd:The Life and Times of John C. Holmes, 1998</ref>

By the late 1970s, Holmes was reputed to be earning as much as $3,000 per day as a porn performer.<ref name=amerson/><ref name=library/> Around this time, his consumption of [[cocaine]] and [[freebasing]] were becoming an increasingly serious problem. Professionally, it affected his [[Impotence|ability to maintain an erection]]. To support himself and his drug habit, Holmes ventured into crime, selling drugs for gangs, prostituting himself to both men and women, as well as committing [[credit card fraud]] and various acts of [[petty theft]]. In 1976, Holmes met 15-year-old Dawn Schiller, whom Schiller later claimed he [[Child grooming|groomed]], abused and forced into prostitution to support his drug habit.<ref>{{cite news|title=Holmes' Confession in Bathtub: Told Wife of Role in 4 Murders|date=April 14, 1988|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|author=Robert W. Steward|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-14-me-1912-story.html|access-date=September 21, 2015|archive-date=March 12, 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140312035115/http://articles.latimes.com/1988-04-14/local/me-1912_1_sharon-holmes|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The Devil in John Holmes|url=http://longform.org/stories/the-devil-and-john-holmes|author=Sager, Mike|work=Rolling Stne|date=May 1989|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150917214413/http://longform.org/stories/the-devil-and-john-holmes|archive-date=September 17, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=MacDonell, Allen|title=In Too Deep|work=Los Angeles Weekly|url=http://www.laweekly.com/news/in-too-deep-2137087|date=October 2, 2003|access-date=September 21, 2015|archive-date=November 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181103015233/https://www.laweekly.com/news/in-too-deep-2137087|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Number and gender of partners ===
In the 1981 biographical feature documentary ''Exhausted: John C. Holmes, The Real Story'', from director and Holmes confidante Julia St. Vincent, Holmes stated during an interview segment that he had had intercourse with over 14,000 women.<ref name=library/> The number had in fact been invented by Holmes on the spur of the moment to help salvage his waning image.<ref name=amerson/> The true number of women and men with whom Holmes had sex during his career would never be known. After his death, his ex-wife Sharon came across a [[Footlocker (luggage)|footlocker]], plated in 24k [[gold leaf]], which contained photographic references to Holmes' "private work" and which she burned.<ref name="autogenerated1998">{{cite book|title=''Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes''|date=1998|edition= Director's Cut|title-link=Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes}}</ref> Holmes' performances included at least one [[homosexuality|homosexual]] feature film, ''The Private Pleasures of John C. Holmes'' which was filmed in 1983.<ref name="crimelibrary.com">{{cite web |title=John Holmes and the Wonderland Murders: AIDS and Misty Dawn |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/john_holmes/11.html |publisher=crimelibrary.com |access-date=May 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024195434/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/john_holmes/11.html |archive-date=October 24, 2007  }}</ref>

=== Drugs and the Wonderland murders ===
{{Further|Wonderland murders}}
In late 1980, a mutual friend introduced Holmes to Chris Coxx, who owned the Odyssey nightclub. In turn, Coxx introduced Holmes to [[Eddie Nash]], a drug dealer who owned several nightclubs, including the [[Starwood (nightclub)|Starwood]] in [[West Hollywood, California|West Hollywood]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.angelfire.com/mb/peejay/kingdong4.html|title=King Dong|page=4|access-date=September 20, 2015|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305134704/http://www.angelfire.com/mb/peejay/kingdong4.html|url-status=live}}</ref> At the same time, Holmes was closely associated with the [[Wonderland Gang]], a group of [[heroin]]-addicted cocaine dealers, so called for the [[rowhouse]] located on Wonderland Avenue in the [[Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles|Laurel Canyon]] neighborhood of Los Angeles, out of which they operated. Holmes frequently sold drugs for the gang. Gang members included [[Ron Launius|Ronnie Lee Launius]], [[David Clay Lind]] and their "[[Wheelman (driver)|wheelman]]" [[Tracy McCourt]].{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

After using more than his share of the Wonderland Gang's drugs,<ref name="In Too Deep">{{cite magazine|title=In Too Deep|magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref> Holmes found himself falling out of their favor. In June 1981, he told Launius and Lind about a large stash of drugs, money and jewelry Nash had in his house. Holmes helped to set up a [[Gregory Diles|home invasion and armed robbery]] committed on the morning of June 29. Although Holmes was not present during the robbery, Nash apparently suspected he had a part in it. After [[Forced confession|forcing Holmes to confess to his participation]] and threatening his life and those of his family, Nash dispatched [[Mob enforcer|enforcers]], accompanied by Holmes, to exact revenge against the Wonderland Gang.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

In the early hours of July 1, 1981, four of the gang's members were found murdered and a fifth severely beaten in the Wonderland Avenue rowhouse. Holmes was allegedly present during the murders and left a palm print (not "bloody" as Los Angeles media outlets covering the story erroneously reported) over one victim's [[Headboard (furniture)|headboard]], but it is unclear whether he participated in the killings. Holmes was questioned but was released due to lack of evidence; he refused to cooperate with the investigation. After spending nearly five months on the run with Schiller, Holmes was arrested in [[Florida]] on December 4, 1981, by former LAPD homicide detectives Frank Tomlinson and Tom Lange (the latter of whom later gained fame for his role in the [[O. J. Simpson murder case]]). Holmes was [[extradition|extradited]] to Los Angeles, and in March 1982 was charged with personally committing all four murders. After a three-week trial, Holmes was [[acquittal|acquitted]] on all charges except committing [[contempt of court]] on June 26, 1982.<ref>{{cite web |last=Scheeres |first=Julia |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/celebrity/john_holmes/10.html |title=Miami — The Wonderland Murders — Crime Library |publisher=Trutv.com |access-date=March 13, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103184736/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/celebrity/john_holmes/10.html |archive-date=January 3, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The murder trial was a landmark in the history of American trial procedure, as it was the first in which [[videotape]] was introduced as evidence.<ref>"Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes", statement made by his lawyer, Earl Hanson.</ref>