L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times
by Amok Books

	L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times
	Customer Rating: Sales Rank: 44395 Available from Amazon
	$13.57

Book Description

This singular book follows a mad, tumultuous landscape without remorse or pity, the high and low life of Hollywood/LA. Gilmore obsesses on a relentless panorama of sex, violence and death in five new chronicles of So Cal sickness: <P>*the sex-and-drug soaked Wonderland murders featuring porn legend John Holmes <P>*Sexpot Starlet Barbara Payton's hellbent descent into the gutters of Tinseltown <P>*the Hollywood Hooker who landed in San Quentin's gas chamber, the Ice Blonde Murderess Barbara Graham <P>For those already steeped in the canon of John Gilmore's work, this is the long-awaited true-crime capstone to a celebrated collection of works, a blood-and-semen-soaked noir trail of all-night diners, nightclubs and cheap motels.

Reader Reviews

I bought the book mainly for the chapter on the infamous Wonderland murders in 1981. And while the author's prose is, as some have stated, sparkling, I have to say that I stopped reading after finding numerous factual errors in just this chapter. Luckily for me, it was the first one.

For instance, two pictures of dead victims at the crime scene (Ron Launius and Joy Miller) were incorrectly labeled (names transposed), despite the fact that the photos in the book were still shots captured from the famous LAPD crime scene video, where detectives walked through the house and identified exactly the room they were in at the time.

Susan Launius was found alive in the same room with her dead husband, not, as the author writes, in another bedroom.

Perhaps most unsettling was the author's version of the murder event itself. Given the fact that Holmes never testified at any legal proceeding, and despite the fact that none of the actual killers were identified, it's obvious the author invented the whole dialog.

These are just a few examples of what caused me to discard the whole book.

Moreover, I believe it was a wasted opportunity. There has not been a serious literary treatment of the Wonderland murders. "Four on the Floor," a book by the two investigating detectives, apparently was never published. "Long Time Money and Lots of Cocaine" is merely a reprint of the transcript from John Holmes's preliminary hearing.

Ironically, the most informative source on the crimes is the 2003 movie "Wonderland" starring Val Kilmer.