Holmes Told Author He Never Knew Killers’ Identities

The late pornographic film star John C. Holmes, a central figure in the brutal 1981 Laurel Canyon slayings, told his biographer that he was held at gunpoint at another home in the hours before the bludgeon murders and that he never knew the identity of the killers, The Times learned Monday.

Holmes died at 1 a.m. Sunday of pneumonia brought on by infection with the AIDS virus, the actor’s second wife, Laurie L. Holmes, said Monday.

An Army veteran, Holmes, 43, had been hospitalized with the fatal disease at the Veterans Administration hospital in Sepulveda since last November, his wife said.

The premier male pornographic film star of the 1970s and early 1980s, Holmes was acquitted in 1982 of the four grisly Laurel Canyon killings, which police believe were drug related.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald S. Coen, who prosecuted the case, told the jury at Holmes’ trial that authorities believed the actor was present during what Coen described as retaliation murders and that Holmes directly participated in at least one of the killings.

But jurors said later that the prosecution had never sufficiently backed that assertion.

In an as-yet-unpublished biography based on extensive interviews with the actor, Holmes, who did not take the stand during the murder trial, disputes the official account of his role, according to two sources who have seen the manuscript.

“John . . . did not know up to the time of his death who did the murders,” one of the sources said. “He was not there when it happened.”

The source added, “John was held at gunpoint at the home of one of the figures who has been mentioned in connection with the Laurel Canyon murders for several hours . . . prior to the killings on the date of the murders.

“After he was released from being held at gunpoint, he went to the . . . house (where the killings occurred), and he discovered the bodies.”

The source refused to provide additional details about the book and its contents.

Within the last six weeks, Los Angeles police detectives again questioned Holmes about the 7-year-old killings. But the actor either refused or was unable to answer their questions, a source close to Holmes told The Times. The renewed questioning was prompted by the appearance of a new witness in the case, whose identity has not been made public.

Attorneys James M. Eisenman and William D. Klibanow, who represent Laurie Holmes and her husband’s estate, confirmed Monday that a biography of the late actor has been offered to several publishing houses, but they declined to discuss its contents.

Laurie Holmes, 24, said her husband was first diagnosed as having been exposed to the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome in July, 1986.

“He had taken the AIDS test in 1985, and (it) was negative,” she said. “Then a year later, he was feeling very sick. . . . He went in for the AIDS test and it was positive.”

Between the negative and positive tests, Laurie Holmes said, her husband made about half a dozen films, all heterosexual, and they maintained a mutually monogamous relationship outside of her husband’s work.

“It’s my belief that AIDS is running rapidly through the adult entertainment business,” the actor’s wife said. “The adult entertainment industry is scared to death.”

Laurie Holmes said she met her husband in early 1983 while she was working as a pornographic film actress under the name “Misty Dawn.” She said she retired from the business at her husband’s request and recently has worked as a computer operator.

Laurie and John Holmes were married on Jan. 23, 1987, in Las Vegas, she said, six months after Holmes was told he had been exposed to the AIDS virus. She said she has tested negative for exposure to the virus.

Of her late husband, Laurie Holmes said, “He had a heart of gold. His dream (before his diagnosis) was that he just wanted to do a couple of more films and make some money, and we were going to disappear.”

The Laurel Canyon case began on July 1, 1981, when a neighbor discovered the badly beaten bodies of two men and two women on the floor of a home on Wonderland Avenue. A third woman was found barely conscious and badly maimed.

During Holmes’ trial, Coen, who is now a Superior Court judge, alleged that the actor, at the time heavily dependent on cocaine, took property stolen by the group living on Wonderland Avenue to the nearby home of Los Angeles nightclub owner Adel Nasrallah, also known as Eddie Nash. Nash, Coen said, gave Holmes drugs in exchange for the stolen goods, which the group then sold.

Authorities theorized that the killings were committed to avenge an armed robbery at Nash’s home two days before, during which intruders forced Nash to plead for his life at gunpoint.

Coen argued that Holmes set up the robbery at Nash’s home and then, when Nash discovered his involvement, led the killers to the Wonderland Avenue address at Nash’s behest.

After his acquittal, Holmes spent 110 days in Los Angeles County Jail for refusing to testify about the case before the county grand jury. He finally relented on the day that Nash was sentenced to eight years in state prison for possessing two pounds of cocaine, valued at an estimated $1 million. What Holmes told the grand jury has never been made public, but no one other than Holmes has ever been charged with the Laurel Canyon slayings.