The Other Hollywood (52 page)

WORTHINGTON ESTATES, OHIO/TERMINAL
ISLAND PRISON, CALIFORNIA
1986–1987

RUBY GOTTESMAN
:
The MIPORN trial went on for years. And finally, when Norm Arno went to jail, they took everything from him. He got sentenced to five years on Terminal Island. Who gets five years for interstate transportation of obscene material? They picked on him because he had that big company, and they wanted to make an example of him.

TOMMY SINOPOLI
:
When Norm went to Terminal Island, VCX was the largest X-rated video company in the world, and it was a known fact that we started it together. I mean, I could have taken half the company, but after I spent a few hundred thousand dollars in court trying to get it back, I decided to just open up another company instead.

Did I ever call Lori and say, “Hey, this is half mine?” No. I didn’t want those associations in my life. I don’t think Lori Smith’s elevator went all the way to the top. I don’t think the lights were on in every room.

LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION
:
“Ms. Smith stated that her husband, Norman, was convicted in the distribution of pornographic materials and incarcerated in the Federal Correctional System on such charges. At this time, she began to believe that she was ‘the great prostitute,’ a reference to a chapter in the Book of Revelations. She began to believe that her children were ‘devils’ and that she and her children must die.”

RUBY GOTTESMAN
:
Norman made birthday parties for the kids. He’d hire a fire engine to come and take all the kids for rides up to the hills where he lived, you know? He was very nice with the kids.

But Lori, she was a wacko. She was completely out of it. And she had
no use for me because she read, in the MIPORN wiretaps, that I said she was nothin’ but a two-dollar whore.

Norm loved those kids. They were his whole life. I mean, the guy came alive when he saw those kids. When she killed the kids, that was the end of him. It was all downhill. And then they put her in an insane asylum.

LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION
:
“Ms. Smith stated that once, while in a parking lot, she saw a car with a vanity license plate of an Eagle and interpreted it to mean that she should ‘fly off a cliff.’

“She stated that as a result, she drove her Jaguar with her two children off of a cliff, but this, of course, did not result in the death of she or her children.”

RUBY GOTTESMAN
:
Lori was drivin’ a Jaguar or somethin’, and she crashed it, fell down a cliff with the two kids in it. Maybe a hundred feet down, she went. And nobody got hurt. Imagine that!

LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION
:
“Ms. Smith stated that she told hospital personnel that she lost control of her car, but that ‘people knew’ who she was and ‘were trying to take my children away.’ In a subsequent interview, Ms. Smith also indicated that while at the hospital, she attempted to drown her older son in a commode.”

RUBY GOTTESMAN
:
I didn’t visit Norm in Terminal Island—maybe I was mad at him at the time. Our friendship was hot and cold for a long time because of Lori. But I seen him right after that. I mean, he was terrible. He was drinkin’ a lot and everything. He didn’t shower; he didn’t shave. He missed Lori and the kids; he was lonely.

LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION
:
“Ms. Smith indicated that her ‘delusions’ persisted from September through May of 1985, and then ended. She stated that she ‘became normal again and moved to Ohio, but in the back of my mind I still thought such things.’”

WORTHINGTON ESTATES POLICE DEPARTMENT SERGEANT LAWLESS (CRIME AGAINST PERSON CASE REPORT)
:
“Approximately 3:35
P.M
. Sheryl A. Lang and her husband, Gerard Lang, approached this officer and advised that they were concerned about the welfare of Mrs. Lang’s sister, Lorene L. Smith, who lives at 6695 Hayhurst Street. I accompanied them to the Hayhurst address, and we checked around the house.

“Mrs. Lang stated she was willing to break into the house as we were getting no response at the door. I requested Lieutenant Hopkins to come to 6695 Hayhurst Street, and on his arrival we found a window unlocked on the northeast side of the house.”

WEPD LIEUTENANT HOPKINS (CRIME AGAINST PERSON CASE REPORT)
:
“Upon entering and unlocking the front door for Sergeant Lawless, a female voice called from the family room and said, ‘Who’s there?’ I entered that room and identified myself as a police officer and asked Lori Smith if she was okay, and she said, ‘Yes.’ She was smoking a cigarette and watching TV. I asked if her kids were okay, and she said, ‘No.’”

LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION
:
“Ms. Smith indicated at 5:46
P.M
. on Christmas Eve 1986, she took the children into the car in the garage and told them they were going to see their grandmother. As the car ran, one child, Jordan, complained of the smoke, and she had him come up to the front seat and sit with her. She said that after a period of time, the children lost consciousness.

“She then turned off the ignition of the car, got out of the car with the intention to open the garage door, but lost consciousness.”

WEPD LIEUTENANT HOPKINS (CRIME AGAINST PERSON CASE REPORT)
:
“I opened the southwest bedroom door and observed a small decomposed body in bed along the south wall. The body was covered to the neck with blankets and head exposed. I returned to the lower level and called for detective units.

“Upon Lieutenant Dayton’s arrival, this officer and Sergeant Mauger located another small decomposed body in the southeast bedroom.”

MIKE MAUGER (WEPD SERGEANT)
:
Lori Smith’s story to us was that she was getting ready to go somewhere for Christmas—that the children were outside in the garage, and apparently one of the children started the car. At the same time, somebody called, she got on the phone with them, started talking, and forgot about the children in the garage. She alleged the children succumbed to the carbon monoxide poisoning. She then took them upstairs to their beds and covered them up like they were normal sleeping children.

LORENE SMITH’S SANITY EVALUATION
:
“Ms. Smith stated that when she awoke, she found both children unconscious. She indicated that Jordan had expired and that Michael was comatose. She stated that she unsuccessfully gave Jordan mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

“She stated that she took Michael and put him on her bed, wrapping him in an electric blanket. She stated she put on the movie
Flash Gordon
for him to watch, as that was his favorite movie, in the hope that this would revive him. She also indicated that she would feed him small amounts of potato soup via an eye dropper.”

MIKE MAUGER
:
We went out to the garage. Normally, if there’s carbon monoxide poisoning, the garage is dark—black. But it wasn’t. And the first thing we did was look at the children to see if there was discoloration on the skin, but they had started putrefying. That’s how bad they were.

The story of carbon monoxide didn’t hold up because the chemical test we did showed no abnormal monoxide in the garage. What we believe was that she probably slowed their breathing by giving them some medication, and then smothered them. Possibly rolled pillows over their faces.

RUBY GOTTESMAN
:
When Lori killed the kids, Norm was devastated. He was, like, cryin’ all day. I mean, I had to go sit with him. He was saying, “How could she do that to the kids?” All that shit.

COLUMBUS DISPATCH
, JANUARY 13, 1987: FATHER RELEASED FROM PRISON FOR WORTHINGTON BOYS
:
“The father of two boys whose decomposing bodies were found last Tuesday in their Worthington home has been released from federal prison on a $100,000 bond so he can attend their funeral, Los Angeles officials said yesterday.

“Norman Arno, 59, of North Hollywood, California, was released Friday from a medium-security federal prison at Terminal Island, California. He has served four months of a five-year sentence for conspiracy to transport obscene materials across state lines.”

MIKE MAUGER
:
I thought this might have been a major suicide plan—that she was going to kill the children and then kill herself. As time went on, we started hearing about Norm Arno being locked up. Apparently, she had money; I mean, there was no doubt that somebody was taking care of the household. Did anybody talk to Arno? I don’t think they did. He may not have wanted to talk to us. I always thought that was really strange.

COLUMBUS DISPATCH
, JANUARY 14, 1987: CON WANTS TO TAKE SONS’ BODIES FOR CALIFORNIA BURIAL
:
“The father of two boys found dead in their mother’s Worthington home is prepared to fight for what he believes is his right to take their bodies to California for burial, a Los Angeles attorney said yesterday.”

MIKE MAUGER
:
We knew that Norm Arno came back here because we saw him. We knew he was doing federal time for pornography, so he probably did have somebody assigned to security, but I think he was a low-end security risk because it was Terminal Island, not some maximum-security prison.

COLUMBUS DISPATCH
, JANUARY 18, 1987: JUSTICE DEPT. MEMO DETAILS DAD’S PORNOGRAPHY DEALS
:
“Arno, who was divorced from Ms. Smith in 1983, adamantly believes his ex-wife is innocent of any wrongdoing in the boys’ deaths, one source said. The source said, ‘They may not be together, but he still loves her.’”

MIKE MAUGER
:
We got Lori Smith indicted for murder, but they found her not guilty by reason of insanity.

LOS ANGELES/MILAN
1988

LAURIE HOLMES (AKA MISTY DAWN, PORN STAR)
:
I met John Holmes on the set of
Marathon
in San Francisco—I think it was early 1983. I didn’t know what to think of him at first.

I thought, “Oh my God, John Holmes is going to be there!” I was nervous. I had driven up the coast with another L.A. guy, and when we got there he goes, “That’s John Holmes in that limo!”

I went, “John Holmes! Oh no! Should I bring my gun?” John had just recently gotten out of jail. I think he got out in November, and I met him in January.

RON JEREMY
:
I worked with Misty Dawn, aka Laurie Holmes, before John did. Misty and I did one of the greatest scenes of all time, and when we were shooting it, she says, “I’m doing a scene with John Holmes next week. I’m all excited. I heard good things about him.”

LAURIE HOLMES
:
I was immediately attracted to him. I walked up and said, “Hi, I’m Misty Dawn.”

He kind of looked at me. I thought, “Well, he’s kind of arrogant.”

It was a different crowd in San Francisco than what I was used to. It was kind of a weird scene—I’ve never been on quite a set like that before. Some of the girls got a little jealous of me, tried to accuse me of stealing things out of the locker room. I said, “Everybody and their mother has been in here. Why are you looking at me?”

They were a rough crowd. They wanted to cut my face up or something. And John took me under his wing and said, “No! You leave her alone.” Which made them really mad because then he locked me in his own dressing room.

BILL AMERSON
:
The first movie John made when he got out of jail was for Hal Freeman in San Francisco. That’s where John met Laurie Rose. Laurie was known as Misty Dawn, the butt-fucking queen of the porno industry. That was her specialty—doing anal sex with a number of guys, one after the other.

She said to Bill Margold—who was on the set—“I really want to meet John. And I really want all that in my ass.”

Bill told John. John thought it was amusing, thinking that it wasn’t going to happen. But off camera it did happen. Laurie fell in love with him.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
I fell for him, and he fell for me. But he didn’t let on that he really felt for me, which made me want him more.

John gave me his phone number back here in Los Angeles. He was living at Bill Amerson’s house. I waited four or five days and then I called him. I went up to see him for a few minutes. I knew he liked young girls, so I, you know, dressed as the young girl.

BILL AMERSON
:
My first contact with Laurie was on my birthday. My wife had gone out of town to visit her relatives in Arizona. I was watching a boxing match, and there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and there was Laurie Rose—wrapped in a red ribbon.

I said, “John’s room is the second door down that hallway.”

Then John asked me if she could move in and be, like, his housekeeper and his maid, and I agreed.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
Everybody always concentrates on the mistakes John made and not the person himself. Yeah, he got into drugs. Yeah, maybe he stole a few things, got mixed up with the wrong people. But that was only a part of his life, a part of the person. John had a heart of gold. He was a great person. I mean, he was great to me. That’s all I know.

BILL AMERSON
:
John liked Laurie because she could be
nasty
. That was his word. He said she was willing to try anything.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
I think John had an addictive personality. When he got into drugs, immediately he was addicted. He was addicted to scotch, that’s for sure. I’m not sure if that was to wash down the drugs, or if he liked the taste, or whatever. Definitely addicted to sex, there’s no denying that.

BILL AMERSON
:
Laurie would sit in his bedroom for two hours while he was in the bathroom doing drugs. She didn’t like the fact that he used cocaine—she wanted him to just smoke pot—but I don’t believe that she got him off drugs.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
A lot of people who worked with John felt he was a mystery man—reclusive. I mean, could you blame him? He didn’t trust people very much. His thing was, “Friends will get you killed.” With me anyway, it was, “If they can get ahold of you, they can get to me.” That’s the one thing I admired about John: I knew without a shadow of any doubt that he would have taken a bullet for me at any time. As a woman, that made me feel good.

So, no, he did not trust people. Maybe he did ham it up a little bit when it came to the other male actors. He liked to be a prima donna—he
was
a prima donna—maybe it was his right to be one.

BILL AMERSON
:
All of John’s relationships were sexual. Even while Laurie was living with us he had a couple of mistresses—a producer and an actress.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
John had asked me to marry him back in the summer of 1983. We had gotten our own apartment. His whole plan was, “I’m getting older. I want to make a bunch of money and then I’m going to get out of the business, and we’ll go away.”

He had someplace picked out where we could get married and retire. But he would never tell me where it was, and I still don’t know.

Then—I guess it was 1984—he came home and said, “I’ve got something to tell you. My divorce was final today. I know you didn’t know I was married.”

I go, “No, I didn’t.”

He goes, “Well, that’s because there was no reason to bring it up. We’ve been estranged for years; and it’s just one of those things. We finally went through it, and it was no big deal.”

I said, “Oh, okay.”

BILL AMERSON
:
John and Laurie got married because John found out that he was HIV positive. You see, John and I initiated HIV testing for performers in the adult industry.

Prior to shooting
Rocky X
, everyone had to take an HIV test. And to show the performers that we were really serious, John and I took the HIV test together. And we both came back negative.

About four or five months later we took another one. We were going to do it every six months because we wanted to show the industry that we weren’t afraid of the tests and everything was okay.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
We lived in Encino for a long time. A typical yuck apartment, two bedrooms on Burbank Boulevard. Swimming pool, freeway behind us. Nothing special.

We watched a lot of movies. People think John Holmes was this big party animal—and I’m sure he was in his younger days—but he was just a homebody. We’d go to the mountains, parks, or movies, or whatever. He was a fine connoisseur of fine food or so he liked to portray himself. As long as he had his scotch and coffee it didn’t matter.

BILL AMERSON
:
My test came back negative; John’s test came back positive. I was with John at the doctor’s office when the doctor informed him that he was HIV positive and explained that he could live another fifteen, maybe twenty years if he changed his lifestyle. The doctor told him to stop smoking, drinking, and doing drugs. Start taking vitamins and watching his diet. John—being as reactive as he was—immediately doubled his drug usage. Started smoking five packs of cigarettes a day. Drank a quart of scotch a day and just didn’t give a shit about anything.

He knew he was going to die.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
John came back to the apartment in Encino, and he had that coldness about him, you know, that distance. He says, “I’m going to die.” And then he drove off. Bill Amerson told me, “John tested positive.”

Then he came back about half an hour later, and he was laughing about it. We took the rest of the day, went to the beach, and talked.

We didn’t have any sex after that. He was protecting me. But in his mind, to never have sex again was like the ultimate punishment. You know, why even bother breathing?

RON JEREMY
:
The next thing you know, Laurie married him.

BILL AMERSON
:
One afternoon I got a phone call from John, who was obviously stoned. Appeared to be out of his mind.

He said, “I think I got married.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “Laurie and I are in Las Vegas; and I think I got married a little while ago, but I’m not sure.”

Well, John was up to taking fifty ten-milligram Valiums a day. Which should kill some people, but it didn’t kill him. His cocaine elevated him so much that he needed that much Valium to come down.

It turns out they did, in fact, get married. Laurie had the idea that it was all a romantic thing. Laurie believed that John loved her. He may have told her that, but I never heard him.

TIM CONNELLY
:
When John came down with AIDS, everybody started thinking, How did he get it? Where did he get it? And we all knew he’d just gone to Europe, on this trip to go fuck all over Rome and Germany.

RON JEREMY
:
I had heard that John went to Italy knowing he had the virus. He couldn’t really get a job in America; he did a gay movie here. He supposedly got the virus when he was in jail; his male lover supposedly died of it. So he went to Europe to work with Cicciolina—the Italian porn star who got elected to the Italian parliament.

I knew he fucked Cicciolina because she told me about it when I was in Italy years later. And that’s kind of mean; that he knew he had it, and he went to work anyway.

CICCIOLINA
:
I had never met John Holmes; I didn’t even know who he was. There was a production company, I don’t remember the name, that had offices in Rome and in the United States, and they contacted me about a movie project involving some American talents. I agreed, and the day before production started they told me that I had to do this scene with this famous American actor that was hung like a horse.

TIM CONNELLY
:
The immediate suspicion was that John got HIV in Europe. But people who knew him a little better, who knew the history of him in the movies, knew he’d fucked this guy Joe Yale in the ass in a movie, and this guy was one of the first guys in gay porn to come down with AIDS and die. So he probably gave John the disease.

I immediately thought about intravenous drugs, transsexual hookers, you know. I mean, John Holmes was so out of his mind on drugs, and he fucked transsexual hookers. I mean, John was completely irresponsible in all areas of his life.

But I never really knew John to shoot drugs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody said that John would never touch a needle. I don’t know, but I never saw needle marks, and he never went out of his way to hide his arms, you know what I mean?

RON JEREMY
:
I asked a friend of John’s whether he’d known about the disease before going to Europe, and he said he did. So I said, “Why didn’t you stop him from going?”

He said, “I couldn’t.”

I said, “Why didn’t you call Italy and warn them what’s coming across the ocean?”

CICCIOLINA
:
The first impression I had was that he was a very sad man, very kind. Very skinny and tall. He looked very sick, but I thought he had a flu or something. I mean, I had no idea what kind of disease he had. He was really, really skinny, but I didn’t think he was seriously ill.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
After John was diagnosed, he really wasn’t working on films or doing anything. Then he was offered this film in Europe, and he
talked to me about it. It was a lot of money—money we could really use. Most of the actresses he was going to be working with were being flown out from here. The theory was that he had gotten AIDS from inside the business. He just figured, if they don’t get it from me or they don’t already have it, they’re going to end up with it anyway—ignorance on AIDS was even within the business at that time. So he decided to do it.

We needed the money; he needed the money.

CICCIOLINA
:
My role in the movie was very brief; I only had to be on the set for about a day and a half. I just had to do a sex scene with him, but the fact that he wasn’t feeling good caused a delay because he had serious problems getting an erection. When he finally got one, he could only stay hard for a short time, so we had to shoot the whole scene in just five minutes, and then edit it so that it looked longer.

TIM CONNELLY
:
The progression: Joe Yale, who fucked Holmes, gets AIDS. Then Lisa de Leeuw disappears, and we hear she has AIDS. Then John Holmes gets HIV, then AIDS. Then Lori Levine comes down with HIV and AIDS.

I mean, I don’t know who gave what to who, but you have to wonder.

LAURIE HOLMES
:
We had started the John Holmes Relief Fund. Caballero, the movie company, gave me a thousand dollars; a few other people—Suze Randall, Annie Sprinkle, probably about ten people—gave money. Not many, though. John was very hurt. He felt like people had turned their backs on him. His whole attitude was, “God, I’ve made all these people all this money, and they won’t return my phone calls.”

TIM CONNELLY
:
I don’t think it was indiscriminate sexual behavior among people in the adult film industry that gave John Holmes AIDS. I think it was irresponsible, drug-related behavior, addictive behavior patterns, and the way that carefree goes to careless. You get strung out on something, and then when you’re on a bender for three days doing crack cocaine, the only thing that might get your dick hard is a couple of transsexual hookers and some heroin, you know?