Biography
Dawn Schiller was the daughter of an American career soldier and a young immigrant from Germany. During the 1960s, her father served two tours in Vietnam and was seriously injured. After he returned to his family, they moved to Florida. However, her parents' marriage fell apart when she turned 15 and her father won custody. To start a new life, he moved to Glendale into an apartment managed by Sharon Holmes, wife of notorious adult film star John Holmes. Her father was traumatized by his experiences and distraught over his divorce. To make some extra money, she helped the Holmes' around the place, doing gardening and other odd jobs. John would often provide her with a drive to and from school and they became friends.
She initially wasn't taken with him, but he gradually won her over and they became lovers. At the same time, he started becoming possessive of her. At this time, Holmes was at the peak of his popularity among adult film fans, but he kept that life separate from his home life and young Dawn was never involved or knowledgeable about his film career. At one point, she actually moved in with Holmes wife, who not only tolerated the affair but helped her husband's mistress grow up and provide her with a home life. Holmes sank deeply into drug addiction and, to maintain control of her, got Dawn addicted, as well. In 1981, Holmes had become involved in grisly murders of a group of people who lived in Laurel Canyon on Wonderland Drive (Bill DeVerell, Ron Launius, David Lind, and Joy Miller). Holmes, who owed them money, had persuaded them to rob a gangster named Eddie Nash, whom Holmes had become friendly with. The robbery succeeded, but Nash had quickly learned of Holmes' connection to it. He forced Holmes to help his bodyguard and two or three persons (who remain unknown to this day) break into the house. I the house asleep were DeVerell, Lanius, Miller, and two other people who were visiting, Lanius's estranged wife Susan, and her friend Barbara Richardson. Nash's henchmen proceeded to savagely bludgeon them, with only Susan Lanuis surviving. Holmes told Dawn about it, claiming that he witness the murders but didn't participate. A short time later, facing murder charges, he skipped town and moved to Miami under an alias, and took the terrified Dawn with him. There, he forced her to commit prostitution, severely beating her multiple times. Finally, during the winter of 1981, she escaped from Holmes and turned him in to the police.
During this time, her father recovered from his depression and bought a hotel in Thailand. Fearing for her life, Dawn fled there and attended college, earning a degree in Gemology and learning to speak some Thai in the process. With the Wonderland Murder investigation dormant and Holmes dying of AIDS, she returned to Los Angeles with a new sense of confidence and purpose. For several years, she worked in the legal profession as a paralegal and law librarian. Finally, she moved to the Pacific northwest. She remains friends with Sharon Holmes, who was very kind to and protective of her during her involvement with her husband, and often seeks her advise. She is very active in helping abuse victims and also does volunteer work for drug rehabilitation and other community affairs. She recently finished a memoir, called "The Road Through Wonderland."
