Scott Thorson, the former lover of Liberace and a key witness in the trial for the 1981 killings known as the Wonderland Massacre, died in Los Angeles on Aug. 16. He was 65 and was a patient at a Los Angeles healthcare facility. Thorson had been suffering from cancer and a heart condition.
Thorson, who later legally changed his name to Jess Marlow, brought a $113 million palimony lawsuit against Liberace in 1982 that attracted a great deal of media attention. After the suit was filed, Liberace continued to deny he was gay and stated in court depositions that Thorson was never his lover. The case was settled in 1986; Thorson received $75,000 cash, as well as three cars and three pet dogs, valued at $20,000. Liberace died in 1987 of HIV/AIDS-related ailments.
In 1988, Thorson published “Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace,” a memoir about his time with Liberace. It included claims that the entertainer paid for Thorson to get plastic surgery, including a nose job and a chin implant, that made him look like a younger version of Liberace. During their six-year relationship, Thorson was part of Liberace’s Las Vegas act, appearing as his chauffeur — a gig that included driving the entertainer onto the stage, while outfitted in a rhinestone-encrusted uniform. Their relationship ended after Thorson got more heavily into drugs. He said Liberace bore some responsibility for his addiction, claiming that he began to abuse drugs after being prescribed quaaludes, amphetamine, cocaine and Demerol during recovery from the plastic surgery he underwent at the performer’s request.
“Behind the Candelabra” was later adapted into an Emmy-winning HBO movie of the same name. Steven Soderbergh directed the film with Michael Douglas starring as Liberace and Matt Damon appearing as Thorson.
His time with Liberace wasn’t Thorson’s only brush with notoriety during a troubled life. In 1989, Thorson became entangled in the trial of Eddie Nash, a nightclub owner and drug dealer, over his alleged role in ordering the 1981 murders of four people in a Laurel Canyon home on Wonderland Avenue. Nash was purportedly upset after the residents of the house had robbed his home, shooting a body guard. John Holmes, a porn star and drug addict, had been at Nash’s house on three occasions on that day, raising Nash’s suspicions. He ordered associates to question Holmes about who was behind the theft.
Thorson later testified that he was at Nash’s house conducting a drug purchase when he witnessed Holmes being beaten and threatened while tied to a chair until he revealed the identities of the thieves. Two days after the robbery of Nash, unidentified men entered a Wonderland townhouse armed with hammers and metal pipes.
Four of the people at the home, Ron Launius, William “Billy” Deverell, and Joy Miller, who were part of the robbery, and Barbara Richardson, the girlfriend of an accomplice, died of blunt-force trauma injuries. Susan Launius survived the attack. Though Thorson accused Nash of orchestrating the murders in court, the nightclub owner’s trial ended in a hung jury. He was never convicted and died in 2014. After the trial, Thorson said he entered federal witness protection and changed his name.
The Wonderland murders inspired a memorable sequence in “Boogie Nights,” in which Mark Wahlberg’s John Holmes-like porn star tries to rip off a drug-addled Alfred Molina, playing a character inspired by Nash. It is also the subject of a new four-part docuseries, “The Wonderland Massacre & The Secret History of Hollywood,” which was directed by Alison Ellwood. It begins airing on MGM+ on Sept. 8. The series was adapted from Audible’s “The Wonderland Murders and the Secret History of Hollywood,” a 2022 podcast that featured Thorson and author Michael Connelly.
Thorson struggled with alcohol and drug abuse throughout his life, and had multiple brushes with the law, including receiving a four-year prison sentence in 2008 after pleading guilty to felony drug and burglary charges.
Source Agencies
