L. A. Despair

About this book

Legendary noir author John Gilmore takes the reader on a mad, tumultuous all-night drive without remorse or pity, the high and low life of Hollywood and the City of Angels. Gilmore delivers a relentless panorama of sex, violence and death in five raw chronicles: Porn legend John Holmes and untouchable Los Angeles crime and drug impresario Eddie Nash--the unvarnished story of the sex-and-coke-laced Wonderland murders told from the inside out; "King of Western Swing" and early TV "fiddlin' cowboy" phenomenon Spade Cooley walks the line of nightmare, tragedy and murder; Hollywood's fallen angel Barbara Payton--hell-bent on descending from movie star sexpot to Tinsel Town's gutters and dumpsters; from gorgeous teensage Hollywood hooker to San Quentin's gas chamber--the infamous "Ice Blonde" murderess Barbara Graham; and highway hitchhike-killer Billy Cook unleashes his cold-blooded hate for the human race in one of the 20th century's most grisly crimes.--From publisher description.