Revenge Cited as Motive for 4 Homicides

A key prosecution witness testified Tuesday that he heard convicted cocaine trafficker Adel (Eddie Nash) Nasrallah vow to “have the people on their knees” for having robbed him of $1 million in drugs, money and jewelry in 1981.

The witness, Scott Thorson, said at a Los Angeles Municipal Court preliminary hearing that Nash told him he sent his bodyguard, Gregory D. Diles, to a home in Laurel Canyon to retrieve the loot.

A short time later, two of the alleged robbers and two other people were found beaten to death in the home on Wonderland Avenue.

Nash, a 59-year-old one-time Hollywood nightclub owner, and Diles, 40, are accused of the four murders in retaliation for the robbery at Nash’s Studio City home on July 1, 1981.

It is one of the oldest pending mass murder cases in Los Angeles County.

In 1982, the late pornographic movie superstar John C. Holmes was prosecuted in the slayings and acquitted. Afterward, officials said they knew the identities of the killers but lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute them.

But murder charges were filed against Nash and Diles in September, 1988, after prosecutors came up with new information, primarily from Thorson, a former lover of the late entertainer Liberace.

Thorson, 31, is an inmate at Los Angeles County Jail awaiting trial on charges of receiving stolen property.

He testified Tuesday that he met Nash in mid-1981 and began visiting his home frequently to buy cocaine. He said Nash was “very upset” about the robbery and had sent Diles out to find Holmes, whom Nash suspected of being an accomplice in the theft. A short time later, Thorson said, Diles returned with Holmes.

“Diles had him by the back of the neck,” the witness recalled.

‘Eddie Was Screaming’

Standing outside Nash’s bedroom, Thorson said, he could hear Nash threatening Holmes and banging him against the wall.

“Eddie was screaming at the top of his lungs,” saying he would have Holmes and his family killed unless Holmes took Nash to those who had robbed him, Thorson testified.

“I’ll have those people on their knees,” Nash vowed, according to Thorson.

When Nash, Diles and a disheveled Holmes emerged from the bedroom, Thorson said, Nash told Diles and Holmes to go retrieve the stolen goods.

“When I’m through with them, they’ll never steal again,” Thorson quoted Nash as saying.

Later, apparently after the killings, Thorson said Nash expressed his regret at the “bloody mess.”

Thorson quoted Nash as having said that “the whole thing had gotten out of hand.”

According to Thorson and other witnesses, Holmes had participated in the planning of the robbery of Nash’s home. The actor died of complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in March, 1988.

Two of the other robbery participants were not in the Wonderland Avenue home when the killings occurred and are expected to testify if Municipal Judge Marion L. Obera finds sufficient evidence to order a trial for Nash and Diles.

Survivor Recalls Little

The homicide victims were William DeVerell, 42 and Ronald Launius, 37, both of whom had participated in the robbery; and Joy A. Miller, 46, and Barbara Richardson, 22, who were apparently visiting the Laurel Canyon home. Launius’ wife, Susan, was seriously injured and says she remembers little of the attack.

Thorson sued Liberace in 1982, claiming that in return for being the entertainer’s former live-in chauffeur, travel secretary, animal trainer and lover, Liberace promised him $70,000 a year for life, plus up to $30,000 a year for pet care and use of one of his homes.

Liberace, who died in February, 1987, of complications of AIDS, denied there was such an agreement. The suit was settled in 1984 out of court.