The Wonderland Murders - July 1, 1981

Please leave any questions for me in the Comments. I will try to answer them. Because the case is now 30 years old, and for whatever reason, there is a lot of disinformation and just urban legends, bad facts out there. The info below is mostly from Wikipedia, but I cleared up some erroneous info and added more, like with Barbara Richardson and Ron Launius. Thank you and I hope you enjoy the video. --John


Victims: Ron Launius age 37, Joy Miller (age 46), Billy Deverell (age 44), Barbara Richardson (age 22)
Survivor: Susan Launius. Susan's only memory is of shadows and seeing an angry black man's piercing eyes, according to her courtroom testimony. She was dozing off when 3 men entered the room. Ron was asleep, probably didn't feel a thing.

Perpetrators: Eddie Nash ordered the attack. Alleged attackers at the home that night were his African American bodyguard and thug, Gregory Diles, his little brother Samuel Diles and one John Holmes, as well as possibly and quite likely one or two other black friends of Diles.

Ron Launius
A United States Air Force veteran of the Vietnam era, Ronnie Lee Launius served at bases in Texas, Thailand and California. Reportedly, at the time of his death, police investigators throughout California -- largely in the Sacramento area -- had open homicide cases they believed were perpetrated by Launius.[citation needed] In May 1974, he was arrested for and charged with the 1973 murder of a reputed police drug informant who had been killed over a botched drug deal. After a key witness for the prosecution died in an unrelated police shootout, the murder charges against Launius were dropped. That same year, however, Launius was convicted of smuggling heroin and cocaine across the US/Mexico border and eventually served three years out of an eight year sentence in a federal prison.[3]
Launius and his wife Susan were married in Carson City, Nevada on April 16, 1971. He is buried in Lodi, California.[4]
[edit]Susan Launius
While not an official member of the gang, Susan Launius was married to gang member Ron Launius and had a drug habit. She was the only survivor of the brutal Wonderland attack the night of July 1, 1981. Having suffered severe head-injuries and amnesia following the attack, Launius still resides in southern California.
[edit]David Lind
A member of the Aryan Brotherhood, David Lind was a biker gang member and heroin addict who befriended Launius when the two men served in prison together. In 1981, at Launius' behest, Lind traveled to Los Angeles to join the Wonderland gang and assist them in running drugs. At the time of the Wonderland murders, Lind had been incarcerated several times for burglary, forgery, assault, and assault with intent to commit rape. Lind's position in the drug underworld was and remains murky due to allegations by rival drug dealers that he worked as a police informant. Lind died of a heroin overdose in 1995.
[edit]Barbara Richardson
Like Susan Launius, "Butterfly" Richardson was not an official member of the Wonderland Gang. Richardson was a girlfriend of David Lind's at the time of their arrival at the Wonderland house, however, they were apparently not exclusive.[5] She was the youngest of the group at 22 years old. Her four tattoos were images of a flower, a mushroom, a butterfly, and Minnie Mouse.[6] Both Richardson and Lind were said to be police informants in the Sacramento area not long before they traveled to Southern California. Richardson possessed intravenous drug injection site scars as reported in her official autopsy. Barbara Richardson was from the Rancho Cordova area of Sacramento and attended Cordova High School, Class of 1977. She grew up in the suburbs and one wonders how she ended up with the biker and thug, David Lind.
[edit]Tracy McCourt
Little is known about McCourt other than he was the driver of the vehicle that carried the Wonderland Gang to Eddie Nash's home the night of the robbery. In the years after the Wonderland murders, McCourt was reported to have moved to Colorado. In 2001, he reportedly had been wanted by the Colorado Springs Police Department for "assault with a deadly weapon and failure to comply on the original charge of distribution of a Schedule II controlled substance".[8]

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Wonderland Gang
• composed of Ron Launius
• Tracy Ray McCourt
• David Lind
• Billy Deverell
• Joy Miller
• and John Holmes
• Barbara Lee Richardson

[09rockmusic]

Also, it now seems that the DMV or mugshot photo of the pretty brunette young lady, largely believed to be Barbara Richardson over the years, is really a picture of Susan Launius. I was told that on another forum from someone with knowledge about the case. Just FYI--

[1965guitarboy]

Whos is the Guy, on the right at 0.46?

[bmillerdrums]

cool vid. very spooky kind of music sets the scene very well

[chrismacciuss]

I think it is real easy to figure out how Butterfly linked up with him.He had a bike and drugs and was obviously someone people did not mess with and he was good looking as hell even for his age compared to her.And a young girl like her would have been motivated by the bad boy image. very informative .Some of those things I had not known about the victim's.I could not figure out why you were telling us about the race of the African American's involved until I found out Lind was in the Aryan.lol