What do you think?
Rate this book
L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times
This singular book follows a mad, tumultuous landscape without remorse or pity, the high and low life of Hollywood/LA. Gilmore obsesses on a relentless panorama of sex, violence and death in five new chronicles of So Cal
*the sex-and-drug soaked Wonderland murders featuring porn legend John Holmes
*Sexpot Starlet Barbara Payton's hellbent descent into the gutters of Tinseltown
*the Hollywood Hooker who landed in San Quentin's gas chamber, the Ice Blonde Murderess Barbara Graham
For those already steeped in the canon of John Gilmore's work, this is the long-awaited true-crime capstone to a celebrated collection of works, a blood-and-semen-soaked noir trail of all-night diners, nightclubs and cheap motels.
*the sex-and-drug soaked Wonderland murders featuring porn legend John Holmes
*Sexpot Starlet Barbara Payton's hellbent descent into the gutters of Tinseltown
*the Hollywood Hooker who landed in San Quentin's gas chamber, the Ice Blonde Murderess Barbara Graham
For those already steeped in the canon of John Gilmore's work, this is the long-awaited true-crime capstone to a celebrated collection of works, a blood-and-semen-soaked noir trail of all-night diners, nightclubs and cheap motels.
342 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2005
33 people are currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
John Gilmore
80 books38 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
John Gilmore was born in the Charity Ward of the Los Angeles County General Hospital and was raised in Hollywood. His mother had been a studio contract-player for MGM while his step-grandfather worked as head carpenter for RKO Pictures. Gilmore's parents separated when he was six months old and he was subsequently raised by his grandmother. Gilmore's father became a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer, and also wrote and acted on radio shows, a police public service (the shows featured promising movie starlets as well as established performers like Bonita Granville, Ann Rutherford, the "jungle girl" Aquanetta, Joan Davis, Hillary Brooke, Ann Jeffreys, Brenda Marshall and other players young John Gilmore became acquainted with. As a child actor, he appeared in a Gene Autry movie and bit parts at Republic Studios. He worked in LAPD safety films and did stints on radio. Eventually he appeared in commercial films. Actors Ida Lupino and John Hodiak were mentors to Gilmore, who worked in numerous television shows and feature films at Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Universal International studios. During the 1950s, through John Hodiak, Gilmore sustained an acquaintanceship with Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood, then in New York, where Gilmore was involved with the Actors Studio, transcribing the lectures of Lee Strasberg into book form. Gilmore performed on stage and in live TV, wrote poetry and screenplays, directed two experimental plays, one by Jean Genet. He wrote and directed a low-budget film entitled "Expressions", later changed to "Blues for Benny." The film did not get general release but was shown independently. Gilmore eventually settled into a writing career; journalist, true crime writer and novelist. He served as head of the writing program at Antioch University and has taught and lectured at length.
John Gilmore was born in the Charity Ward of the Los Angeles County General Hospital and was raised in Hollywood. His mother had been a studio contract-player for MGM while his step-grandfather worked as head carpenter for RKO Pictures. Gilmore's parents separated when he was six months old and he was subsequently raised by his grandmother. Gilmore's father became a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer, and also wrote and acted on radio shows, a police public service (the shows featured promising movie starlets as well as established performers like Bonita Granville, Ann Rutherford, the "jungle girl" Aquanetta, Joan Davis, Hillary Brooke, Ann Jeffreys, Brenda Marshall and other players young John Gilmore became acquainted with. As a child actor, he appeared in a Gene Autry movie and bit parts at Republic Studios. He worked in LAPD safety films and did stints on radio. Eventually he appeared in commercial films. Actors Ida Lupino and John Hodiak were mentors to Gilmore, who worked in numerous television shows and feature films at Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Universal International studios. During the 1950s, through John Hodiak, Gilmore sustained an acquaintanceship with Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood, then in New York, where Gilmore was involved with the Actors Studio, transcribing the lectures of Lee Strasberg into book form. Gilmore performed on stage and in live TV, wrote poetry and screenplays, directed two experimental plays, one by Jean Genet. He wrote and directed a low-budget film entitled "Expressions", later changed to "Blues for Benny." The film did not get general release but was shown independently. Gilmore eventually settled into a writing career; journalist, true crime writer and novelist. He served as head of the writing program at Antioch University and has taught and lectured at length.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 30, 2025
Despair is definitely the right word. A harrowing trip into the uttermost depths of nihilism and inhumanity. The darkness is redeemed by Gilmore's empathy, literary skill, and brilliant use of choice quotes. A great read.
June 7, 2021
Take the title of this book very seriously. These stories will make you question any thoughts of empathy you might have for your fellow humans. Gilmore goes deep into the darkness and you will feel every minute of the trip. This dude is dark. Let's review what we are working with here. We have John Holmes, a piece of crap human who got lucky because of the size of his junk, and proceeded to go from making $500,000 a year to becoming a worthless crackhead involved in a brutal murder, pimping a minor, and taking out a couple of porn actresses by making more movies after he contracted AIDS. To the day he died, he whined and bleated about nothing being his fault. He had no choice. A real piece of crap human who got off way to easy. We have Barbara Payton who appears to have been ground up by the Hollywood meat grinder. I have a little sympathy for her, but she was no innocent and seemed to gleefully participate in her own downward spiral. Sometimes you have to take your head out of your ass and realize what's heading for you. The thrill kill child killer Cook should have been taken out back and double tapped on the spot. A evil person from childhood on. Spade Cooley beat his wife to death, burned her with cigarettes, sodomized her with a broom stick and made his 14 year old daughter witness part of this. He was supposed to serve life in prison, but only served a few years and promptly dropped dead of a heart attack after a comeback performance insisting everything everything was her fault and he loved her SO MUCH. There are numerous photos of dead kids and other bloody crimes scenes. You have been warned. This is a nasty, nasty trip into darkness.
February 24, 2015
Crazy, trippy, sexy, violent, disturbing.
All these adjectives come to mind when thinking of the book. Gilmore is a master of true crime writing, and this book does not disappoint. It covers the collapse of porn star John Holmes, the fall of the beautiful Barbara Payton, the sociopathic murders of Billy Cook, the death sentence of Barbara Graham, and the grizzly murder of Ella Mae by her husband Spade Cooley. Basically, it takes a bunch of LA dirt out of the shadows and puts it in a book binding.
Obviously, the writing is highly sensationalized. Gilmore did a great job digging up witnesses and transcripts, but there are definitely a few moments when you wonder if he's still on the ball or just indulging flights of fancy. The book is also very poorly organized. All the big stories are at the beginning, and it just seems to lose steam as you go on.
Still a good read. Would recommend to those feeling a bit morbid and interested in LA history.
All these adjectives come to mind when thinking of the book. Gilmore is a master of true crime writing, and this book does not disappoint. It covers the collapse of porn star John Holmes, the fall of the beautiful Barbara Payton, the sociopathic murders of Billy Cook, the death sentence of Barbara Graham, and the grizzly murder of Ella Mae by her husband Spade Cooley. Basically, it takes a bunch of LA dirt out of the shadows and puts it in a book binding.
Obviously, the writing is highly sensationalized. Gilmore did a great job digging up witnesses and transcripts, but there are definitely a few moments when you wonder if he's still on the ball or just indulging flights of fancy. The book is also very poorly organized. All the big stories are at the beginning, and it just seems to lose steam as you go on.
Still a good read. Would recommend to those feeling a bit morbid and interested in LA history.
October 30, 2008
Postcards from Hell, these little downtrodden showbiz vignettes of the not-so beautiful losers is absolutely gripping in its ugliness. Creepy bios include the Eddie Nash-John Holmes murder story;
Barbara Peyton, star of "Bride of the Gorilla" who took acting classes with Tony Curtis and earned his life-long hatred and later had a short-lived affair with Bob Hope;
killer Barbara Graham, subject of the Susan Hayward movie "I Want To Live";
country music bully Spade Cooley, who had a temper to beat the devil. If this book doesn't make you want to shower with a wire brush, nothing else will.
Barbara Peyton, star of "Bride of the Gorilla" who took acting classes with Tony Curtis and earned his life-long hatred and later had a short-lived affair with Bob Hope;
killer Barbara Graham, subject of the Susan Hayward movie "I Want To Live";
country music bully Spade Cooley, who had a temper to beat the devil. If this book doesn't make you want to shower with a wire brush, nothing else will.
June 7, 2021
Down and out in Los Angeles. Why is the stereotypical view of Los Angeles the noir vision: a corrupt city where dreams come to die? Slime triumphs over the sublime in other towns, but other towns don’t automatically bring to mind Potemkin villages, where a glittering façade covers a ghastly reality. But isn’t this just a media image? For the overwhelming majority of its inhabitants, LA is just their city, with its good and bad like any other. They may prize (or decry) it for many reasons, but not because it’s uniquely evil. They don’t live on the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.
But some did: the subjects of John Gilmore’s book. I knew that Barbara Graham wanted to live, but I now know why so many wanted her to die. I had a vague outline of the fates of John Holmes and Spade Cooley, but Gilmore fills in the blanks. I knew nothing of Billy Cook and Barbara Payton, and while I’m not sure if I’m better off for having Gilmore tell their stories, their stories were fascinating.
One question: is the author taking novelistic license when he recreates dialogue?
But some did: the subjects of John Gilmore’s book. I knew that Barbara Graham wanted to live, but I now know why so many wanted her to die. I had a vague outline of the fates of John Holmes and Spade Cooley, but Gilmore fills in the blanks. I knew nothing of Billy Cook and Barbara Payton, and while I’m not sure if I’m better off for having Gilmore tell their stories, their stories were fascinating.
One question: is the author taking novelistic license when he recreates dialogue?
July 3, 2022
There are five chapters in this book, each one filled with some real garbage, but I have to say that I found the last one, about Spade Cooley, most sickening. The crime itself is horrible, brutal and disgusting, but what almost had me putting down the book were his friends defending him, blowing off his murdering his wife like it was nothing ( of course it wasn't his fault). Here's a gem..."He stomped on her, gave her a couple of kicks, and that's a damned awful thing to do to a woman but there's no way of knowing you're gonna kill someone by stomping on them"...No mention of the other horrible injuries. Basically we're supposed to feel sorry for this worthless asshole. Sorry, no. I watched a Wimbledon match earlier featuring a spoiled little douchebag (tennis fans know), so I was already up in arms.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 19, 2021
Good read though gruesome in parts.
The part about Barbara Graham was especially illuminating as her part in a gruesome murder was glossed over and even romanticised by the Hollywood movie "I want to live." I guess many of even current Hollywood stars are on the same slippery path to drug addiction, chaos and downfall as the ones of former years.
The part about Barbara Graham was especially illuminating as her part in a gruesome murder was glossed over and even romanticised by the Hollywood movie "I want to live." I guess many of even current Hollywood stars are on the same slippery path to drug addiction, chaos and downfall as the ones of former years.
July 21, 2024
Some tales are better than others. A very pulpy and seedy read concerning the dark underbelly of the entertainment industry.
June 29, 2022
Great and Tragic
This is a well researched and thorough book examining several LA cases that don't get the attention like others, such as the Black Dahlia. This is great read and will not disappoint.
This is a well researched and thorough book examining several LA cases that don't get the attention like others, such as the Black Dahlia. This is great read and will not disappoint.
June 24, 2014
Well written with an engaging narrative, then takes a step backward via the sordidness. I could do without the author's self-distractedness regarding James Dean, that plays out like thinly veiled erotica. I was reminded of Milton Berle's self-serving autobiography in which he all but devoted an entire chapter to the fact that he bedded Marilyn Monroe – as if to etch it in stone for the Universe to acknowledge. Kudos to you for kissing James Dean, Mr. Gilmore... ? Not that demanding purity in the presentation of Hollywood morbidity makes any given reader a great saint.
July 17, 2011
If this is the sort of stuff you love, you'll love this stuff.
The John Holmes Wonderland Avenue murder case has always been up there with the Mansons as one of my favorite bedtime stories.
The life and violent times of Hollywood cowboy Spade Cooley is also a standout here, a mixture of low-brow, slow-down-by-the-car-crash voyeurism and new journalistic technique to make Tom Wolfe proud.
Cheers.
The John Holmes Wonderland Avenue murder case has always been up there with the Mansons as one of my favorite bedtime stories.
The life and violent times of Hollywood cowboy Spade Cooley is also a standout here, a mixture of low-brow, slow-down-by-the-car-crash voyeurism and new journalistic technique to make Tom Wolfe proud.
Cheers.
March 10, 2014
I only read this because one of the stories is about a friend of my parents (i can't say who, because then i'd have to kill you). but seriously...the book is great for Hollywood gossip, but a bit gruesome. If you like Sex, Drugs, and are interested in what happens to so many who go to Hollywood to seek fame, then this is the book for you. There are lots of sad stories here.
April 30, 2012
John Gilmore draggin dead people through the mud. Like a car crash, oh so hard to look away.
January 8, 2016
Needed - good trash for reading
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews