Eddie Nash (April 3, 1929 – August 9, 2014; né Adel Gharib Nasrallah) was a Palestine-born American nightclub owner and restaurateur in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted money launderer and drug dealer. Nash was allegedly the mastermind behind the Wonderland murders, but was never convicted, despite multiple arrests and trials.
Early life
Nash was born Adel Gharib Nasrallah in Mandatory Palestine. His family was Orthodox Christian Palestinian from the city of Ramallah, just outside Jerusalem, where Nash's family owned 48 hotels. In the early 1950s, Nash immigrated to the United States with only $7.
He briefly found work as an actor and stuntman, and was an expert horseman. In 1952, he appeared in a small role as a character named "Nash" in an episode of the Western series The Cisco Kid.
In the 1960s, Nash opened a hot dog stand called Beef's Chuck on Hollywood Boulevard. the Paradise Ballroom, the Seven Seas, Ali Baba's, and The Kit Kat strip club. Nash's clubs attracted diverse groups, as he operated clubs marketed towards gays, heterosexuals, teenagers, African Americans, and other target audiences.
Criminal career
According to police, Nash supplemented his income from owning dozens of Los Angeles nightclubs and restaurants by selling drugs to patrons. He rose to become a crime boss and drug kingpin who had affiliations with the Israeli mafia, the Armenian mafia, and Los Angeles crime family mobster Jimmy Fratianno.
Nash was notorious for his lavish lifestyle and excessive drug use. Despite his participation in illegal activity, Nash maintained a public image as a successful legitimate businessman.
Wonderland murders
Nash was allegedly involved in the quadruple Wonderland murders in 1981; the suspected motive was as a retaliation for the robbery of Nash's home perpetrated two days earlier by three to five men. A key player in the incident, adult film performer John C. Holmes, was later acquitted of the murders.
Nash and Holmes were well acquainted with each other; Nash enjoyed introducing his countless houseguests to Holmes, who was infamous for playing the X-rated movie character "Johnny Wadd."
However, by 1981, Holmes had become desperately addicted to freebasing cocaine, and as a result, his career had declined due to chronic impotence. In order to settle a substantial debt to drug kingpin Ron Launius, leader of the widely feared Wonderland Gang which dominated the Los Angeles cocaine trade, Holmes helped the group plan the invasion. Holmes went to Nash's home on the morning of the attack to leave a sliding door unlocked so the Gang could enter the home. On June 29, 1981, the Wonderland Gang entered into Nash's home via the unlocked sliding door, held Nash and his bodyguard at gunpoint, and stole Nash's drugs, jewelry and money. At one point, one of the Wonderland Gang's member's guns went off, grazing Nash's bodyguard's face. Nash was then made to beg for life on his knees, an act that he found humiliating. Nash quickly suspected John Holmes was involved in the robbery as he had been at Nash's home the morning of the robbery. The following day, a friend of Nash's confirmed his suspicions after telling him he had seen Holmes wearing some of his stolen jewelry.
Nash's bodyguard, Gregory Diles, was arrested on suspicion of murder but was later released due to insufficient evidence. A police search of Nash's home days after the murders revealed a large amount of cocaine. Nash was sentenced to eight years in prison, but a judge released him after just two, purportedly due to Nash's poor health. An associate of Nash later admitted that they had bribed the judge with about $100,000.
Bautista murders
On September 6 or 7, 1984, Nash's former lover Maureen Bautista and her son Telesforo were stabbed to death by Hells Angels biker Robert Frederick Garceau.
Garceau was turned in to the police after he murdered Greg Rambo, who had helped him dispose of the Bautistas' bodies. Rambo's wife, Susan, knew of the Bautista murders and talked to the police under an agreement of immunity.
During the trial, Susan Rambo testified that Harlyn Codd had told her Nash was Telesforo's father, and that Nash once had paid Garceau to fulfill a contract but that Garceau had failed to perform and, as a result, Nash was "looking for" Garceau. Garceau died from cancer on San Quentin's death row on December 29, 2004.
Acquittal and conviction
Authorities accumulated enough evidence to bring Nash and Diles to trial after Scott Thorson began providing investigators with new information.
In 1990, Nash was tried in state court for having planned the Wonderland murders; the trial resulted in an 11–1 hung jury. Nash would later admit that he had bribed the lone holdout, a young woman, with $50,000. The retrial ended in an acquittal.
Throughout the 1990s, law enforcement figures continued to hound Nash, who had been referred to in various print media as "the one who got away". In 1995, in a broad series of raids targeting alleged organized crime figures, federal agents armed with search warrants raided Nash's house and confiscated what was thought to be a cache of methamphetamine. To the chagrin of law enforcement, the "meth" turned out to be a cache of mothballs, and no charges were filed against Nash.
- In the movie Wonderland (2003), Nash is portrayed by actor Eric Bogosian.
- In the biographical film Behind the Candelabra (2013), Nicky Katt portrays Mr. Y, a pseudonymous depiction of Nash's role in the life of Scott Thorson.