WHERE DID SCOTT THORSON GO FROM THERE ? : TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING ISN'T GOOD AFTER ALL

Of the many YouTube videos I watched, I thought this one would be the best to include here at Mistress Manifesto.  It's an interview in which respect is shown and Scott Thorson's intelligence comes forth. Scott Birmingham is given as a film critic.

Tantalizing isn't it, that Scott was working on another book?

I hoped he'd fins the peace within himself and the stability in life to keep writing it.

MICHAEL CONNELLY'S WONDERLAND MURDERS and THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD HAS BEEN TURNED INTO AN A FOUR PART DOCUSERIES

As part of my re-research, I found the podcast on YouTube and listened to it.  Scott spoke and was one of the people interviewed....  I thought this was an excellent podcast and have respect for Michael Connelly, who is also known for his many crime fiction books.

YOUTUBE : FULL AUDIOBOOK MICHAEL CONNELLY's WONDERLAND MURDERS AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD

MGM will air the series adapted from the book on September 8th... a couple days from now.

SCOTT THORSON : CRIME AUTHOR MICHAEL CONNELLY TAKES ON THE WONDERLAND MURDERS AND THORSON IS THE LAST MAN STANDING

I searching for more recent news of SCOTT THORSON, I found that he had done a number of interviews around the time of the film Behind the Candelabra. I watched numerous videos on YouTube, some that got clipped into Tik Tok as well. Most were ten or more years old and were repetitive of the information I already provided here at Mistress Manifesto. 

Liberace went out of his way to hide his homosexuality and therefore his relationship with Scott was also kept secret, which required lots of collaboration - from the media especially. So when Scott outed himself, he also outed Liberace. 

Where were we as a culture on the subject of the LGBTQ stars in the 80's? 90's. Ten years ago?  What about today when there are still many places where LGBTQ people do not dare be open?  I want to know if Scott Thorson was doubted because he was duped by a star? Or because he was and is not heterosexual? 

Best selling crime fiction author, Michael Connelly, has tackled the Wonderland Murders and his investigative take which includes Scott Thorson. Connelly's book is called The Wonderland Murders and The Secret History of Hollywood. In this YouTube video one investigator believed Thorson entirely and another thought Scott to be a liar.

Scott Thorson was put into a Witness Protection Program due to his testimony.

My libraries do not have a copy of this book but you can listen to clips of it on YouTube, as read by the author. There were three trials and no one was ever convicted of the murders which thus remain unsolved.

In this 2021 article that appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine, Scott Thorson says investigators should continue to work on the case.

ROLLING STONE - WONDERLAND MURDERS -THORSON

You may also be interested in: 

July 2016

PORN ACTOR JOHN C. HOLMES and Wife SHARON GEBENINI and MISTRESS DAWN SCHILLER Love Triangle Relationships Played Out Through The Wonderland Murders

C 2025 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

SCOTT THORSON ! LIBERACE'S BOYTOY REDUX : A YOUNG KEPT COMPANION - BROTHER - SON - LOVER

SCOTT THORSON has passed away.... on August 16th...

SINCE I FIRST HONORED SCOTT THORSON AS MANTRESS OF THE MONTH, HIS LIFE HAD BEEN A ROLLER COASTER RIDE!  Since the end of his relationship with the star Liberace (who died in 1987), he was a witness for the WONDERLAND MURDERS which was tied in with illegal drug dealers, got busted for illegal drugs, got financial help from unlikely but compassionate people, messed up again and spent years in prison, had worked on (and maybe published) another book, and outed himself as the lover of another famous person - MICHAEL JACKSON ! ***

I'll weave original posts that appeared here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO with the newer information.

SCOTT THORSON ! LIBERACE'S BOYTOY  (original post)

January 23, 1959 – August 16, 2024

Google Images

Scott is on the left in his chauffer uniform when he was part of Liberace's show.

 Ladies and Gentlemen! 

I've been meaning to include Kept Men in this blog, and recently I started thinking about Scott Thorson, who was involved with Liberace, the famous piano player and showman, whose clothing and outrageously rich life-style became as much a part of his act as his piano playing. 

Scott wrote a book with co-author Alex Thorleifson back in 1988, called "Behind the Candelabra" and I decided to re-read it.

Scott was born in 1959, and he's still with us, last I heard living with a common law wife (in the book he stated that he is bisexual) and through the years he's been struggling with drug addiction, and I suspect some emotional problems.

A movie is going to be made from the book after all these years, starting Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott.  I look forward to seeing this HBO production, because I always want to see what film makers do with a book which I found sincere and well written. 

Let me tell you a little bit about Scott.  I think you'll realize that though he was a Kept Man or Boytoy in a homosexual relationship with Liberace, he has much in common with many a Mistress / Mantress through history and today. 

First, he came from a disadvantaged background. Scott's mom was mentally ill and as a result he lived in a number of foster homes, not all bad, his last being a happy situation. As a foster child he had to work doing odd jobs and he started earning what he could at the age of 10.  His dream was to be a veterinarian. He met Liberace in 1977 and Liberace's oldest dog was ailing. As a couple and in the time they were together they would buy each other dogs and own more than two dozen.

Liberace was rich, famous, and powerful, and 40 years older than Scott, who was just 18  years old when they started. Within a month of their first meeting Liberace hired him but also made it clear sex and a very personal relationship was part of the bargain. 

Scott left his foster home and moved in with Liberace with their primary residence being Vegas. He was to learn that Liberace, his family, and his management, all did whatever possible to hide the the entertainer's homosexuality. (Maybe Liberace's mom never figured it out. Everyone else did.)

Scott was a known secret among many. 

Liberace had an active sex life and would die of AIDS, a disease that he did not get from Scott.

Scott's previous experience with relationships and sex was limited. He was not promiscuous, or into porn, and had not been a prostitute, but for a while he lived with an older gay brother in San Francisco and had teenage experiences. 

Liberace would come to dominate Scott's life. In order to be with him almost constantly, to travel and be part of Liberace's life, Scott had very little freedom, and few friends his own age. Financially he had a salary and was part of the fabulous show. Like many a person Kept by someone much wealthier than themselves, Scott found himself on a low but livable salary because he was gifted with jewels, clothes, and much else beyond that salary. 

To please Liberace, Scott had cosmetic surgery that included a chin implant, cheek bone implants, and a nose job.  Liberace wanted him to look like a son.

He also lost a lot of weight to be more in Liberace's image and likeness. As a result of legal prescriptions given by the doctor who performed the surgery, he became a drug addict. He's had a long struggle with addiction since.

Scott displaced the previous protégé and would be displaced five years later himself. 

Liberace talked adopting him and also supporting him for his lifetime.

When he found himself thrown out as the previous protégé had, he was confused and upset, and he sued.  Scott himself says this was no "Palimony" case....

Aren't you interested in learning more about SCOTT THORSON?

VARIETY on SCOTT THORSON and NEW FOUR PART SERIES ON THE WONDERLAND MURDERS - BROADCAST DATE SEPTEMBER 8th.

Missy

*** We'll get into the Scott Thorson - Michael Jackson relationship later this month!

C 2012-2025 All Rights Reserved Including International and Internet Rights.

First published October 3, 2012

So here we are in 2025...

First, because I wanted to read it, I searched for a copy of Scott Thorson's second memoir, which I believe to be entitled Shattered Candelabra or Beyond the Candelabra. I was unable to find it and do not know if it was actually published or distributed. Perhaps he is still working on another book - one that includes a relationship he had with singer Michael Jackson.

In 2013, the film Behind the Candelabra aired in May. It was based on Thorson's memoir but from everything I read, he was pretty much drummed out of having any input on the film. That might well have been because he was a felon behind bars for a drug possession conviction that included charges of burglary and that went on from 2008 - 2012. Towards the end of his prison sentence Thorson was diagnosed with cancer. (I do not know what his medical condition is now but wonder if it was a misdiagnosis.)

I personally loved the film and have seen it three times. It brought Thorson and his story to the people. I thought the film attempted to be fair in showing both the positive and negative aspects of his relationship with Liberace, who had gone to extreme lengths to hide his homosexuality, but died of AIDS.

Thorson was in serious trouble again when he got out of prison but got caught using someone else's credit cards. He was given five years probation.  At this time Dennis Hof, the then alive proprietor of the brothel called the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Nevada, and some of the prostitutes there, pitched in and provided over a hundred thousand dollars in bail money to get Scott out of prison. What?  Who? They only knew of him?

I was impressed!

It's my notion that, hearing of his story, knowing the ways of Vegas that most of us cannot, these Hof and some of his workers came forward because they understood that Thorson had been used up by Liberace and thrown to the street as a youth. Deserted, abandoned, and left fending for himself, after experiencing great wealth, but also accepting the control of his life - and even his face - by Liberace, Scott Thorson, who had been with the star from the age of 16 to 21 - I should say the underage of 16 - had not been educated for any career that could move him into a successful and self-sustaining life.

Thorson had sued Liberace after their relationship and did win some money, far less than he asked for, and not an amount that would keep him living at all close to the lavish lifestyle he had experienced. He was not well emotionally or psychologically and, like many others, he probably used drugs to feel better at first, then due to addiction.

Because of his drug addiction - though one report is that he was encouraged by Liberace to get involved - in 1981, he had come in contact with a violent and powerful drug dealer in the Hollywood Hills - and pulled into a quadruple murder investigation of The Wonderland Murders. (Wonderland is the name of the street where the drug dealer had a house, the center of his operations. This drug dealer also happened to be a club owner locally.) Thorson was not innocent when it came to drug dealing but was innocent of the murders. Thorson was been given a new name and put into a Federal witness protection program because of his testimony.  At one point he got involved with some high profile televangelists.

Thorson's probation for lesser offences after all this required he stay off illegal drugs but he could not. Testing positive, being given chance after chance, he was arrested again and this time ordered to serve up to 20 years. He served seven and was let out in 2020.

To me Scott Thorson is a man whose life has been tremendously difficult and more than he could bear. And wherever he is at this moment, I sincerely hope he can turn it around.

I ask my readers this:

What happened when you were sixteen (or before you were twenty one and a legal adult in all ways) that effected your entire life? Where are you now because of it?  How has it made you the person you are today?

Missy

C 2012-2025 All Rights Reserved Including International and Internet Rights.

Information about Scott Thorson's life comes from multiple and often repetitive news articles.

You may also be interested in 

March 2020  HEIDI FLEISS : GIRL NEXT DOOR TO HOLLYWOOD MADAM TO BIRD SANCTUARY

July 2016   PORN ACTOR JOHN C. HOLMES and Wife SHARON GEBENINI and MISTRESS DAWN SCHILLER Love Triangle Relationships Played Out Through The Wonderland Murders

The SLOW SEDUCTION of DAWN SCHILLER from her book THE ROAD THROUGH WONDERLAND - SURVIVING JOHN HOLMES

THE ROAD THROUGH WONDERLAND - Surviving John Holmes
By DAWN SCHILLER, C  2010,  is published by Medallion Press

MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW and EXCERPTS

Dawn's childhood and early teens were colored by absent parents and living in a violent slum environment in Florida. Her mother was a German immigrant who'd married an American GI, came to America, and found herself working three waitressing jobs to support her three children. She and her children were abandoned as her Viet Nam vet husband, who had handled Agent Orange and got disfiguring cancer, became a hippie and traveled. Dad's return to Florida was only to admit that he had another woman and child in Thailand and to ask for a divorce. Oddly the children were asked which parent they would prefer to live with. Dawn and her younger sister chose their Dad because their stressed out hot tempered mother was sometimes abusive and their pot smoking Dad seemed so mellow. They wanted out and he talked California. 

Maybe it was fate but as they drove across the country, they chose to pick up a hitchhiker because he looked safe and like he had some pot. They were right and this hitchhiker took them to the place where he had a woman awaiting him, a loving woman named Harriet, who was unaware he had another woman too. Soon the hitchhiker was gone, leaving Dad to carry on an affair with Harriet, leading her on and making promises he never intended to keep because she provided a roof over their heads.  (Harriet would eventually go after Dad legally for Breach of Promise, having had to move back home with her parents.)

But perhaps what is more remarkable is that it was the mid 1970's Glendale, California, Harriet lived as a renter on a property described as a "court" with small cottages, and in one of them lived John C. Holmes, porn star, and his wife Sharon, who was managing the property, and in another, John's brother David and his wife Karen, who were financially dependent on John. Several of the renters at this property quickly understood that the family new from Florida were near homeless, destitute and hungry. They cared enough to allow Harriet her guests long term, other residents sent over food, and Sharon and John both came up with odd jobs around the property so that Dawn could make some money.

So far, so good, you think.
Then you ask, at what point was it that all this caring and sharing covered over the fact that an adult male, married and a star in the world of pornography, was seducing an underage female?  (Many adults suspected or knew something was up, and John's own brother and Sister in Law knew more than Sharon because they were in on the drug use!)

We know that Mom was left in Florida. Dad is gone a lot. It turns out that after he enrolled Dawn and her sister in high school, applied for government benefits, and went to the local VA for further skin cancer treatment, he also got himself a job and an apartment in Riverside, about an hour's commute south, and imported his long waiting Thai lover to be there. He would suddenly yank Dawn out of Harriet's with the lie that they were all going back to Florida. Dawn's sister did go. By this time John C. Holmes was so involved with Dawn Schiller that he conspired to get her back to Glendale, and he and Sharon helped the high school drop out, get full time work as a nurses aid.

HERE THEN is a progression of seduction, from DAWN SCHILLER's own book.

John, while Sharon was working full time, took Dawn and her younger sister to Zuma Beach - Pirates Cove - which was a nude beach and where Dawn and John were body painted.  (Page 115-116)  (They got naked, no touching.)

"John sees my father's lack of concern for my whereabouts and takes the initiative to ask me to join him for errands alone more often."  (Page 122) (This soon includes going to the beach, mountain hikes, and an overnighter camping trip, that included her sister and sister's boyfriend the first time, at Leo Carrillo State Park near Zuma Beach.)

John sets up her sister, who is a young teenager herself, to have a "private" conversation with Dawn about their age difference and what her true feelings are for him.  "Stunned I am frozen to my spot on the water bed.  John's delighted laugher trails behind him across the courtyard all the way to his door."  (Page 130)  (He's listening in and her younger sister seems to be the more mature one, who says she thinks John is acting like a high school kid.)  (Page 131)

John has her wait in the car as he goes into the Pussycat Theatre where his film THE AUTHOBIOGRAPHY OF A FLEA, a Victorian era piece, is playing, to buy tickets.  She is underage but together they see one of his porn films.  (Page 133)

He takes her to Zuma to "Make love" with him in the van.  While his moves are seductive and even gentle to start, and Dawn's not a virgin, "I close my eyes and silently let the terrible searing pain of finality wash over me with the crash of the ocean tide."  (138)  On the silent ride home, "Everything hurts and I can't walk."  (Page 139)  Three days later, Harriet takes her to a clinic for antibiotics.  Harriet seems to guess that Dawn has had sex.

Then, John gifts her a teddy bear and a birthstone ring.  (Page 141)

He takes her for a weekend to PALM SPRINGS where they stay as "Mr. and Mrs. Holmes" at the Biltmore Hotel in a private bungalow.  (Page 146)  (More sex.)

After Dad announces they are leaving the day before they are to go, he gives John a "murderous stare" and John calls Dad "a son of a bitch"  Then Dawn's sister, who is going back to Florida with her boyfriend, says, "John knows, the whole courtyard knows - what Dad is doing to Harriet... and everybody knows about you and John too."  (page 155)

Back alone to Glendale and the cottages, leaving Dad and his Thai lover in Riverside, John's brother and sister in law, in whose cottage she is staying temporarily, start providing food, and Sharon shows up with a casserole.  John, soon back from France, gives dawn "a thick platinum band lined with three large diamonds." as well as poetry he wrote for her that she thinks is beautiful.  (pages 178-179)

Sharon helps her get work at a local nursing home by providing Dawn some of her own old uniforms, sometimes drives her to work, and they rent her a room somewhere on the property that needs a lot of fixing up.  John brings furniture - antiques that he strips and refinishes.  Sharon brings in towels, sheets, comforters, silverware, dishware.  (Pages 179-180.)

AT THIS POINT THE SHARON, JOHN, and DAWN LOVE TRIANGLE BEGINS.

John takes Dawn to Barstow in a van to pick out a Boston Bull puppy to give Sharon as a gift.  (Page 182)

Sharon starts inviting her over to their place for dinner and treats her like family.  Sharon and John surprise her with a brand new 10 speed bike to get to work.  (Page 185)

John takes Dawn to Vegas on a Harley.  Sharon knows and advises them to take some water with them.  Brother David and sister in law Karen will be there too to gamble and drive them and the Harley back to LA.  (Page 187)

Sharon and John lower her rent because she is now collecting rent, sharing in the apartment management job.  (Page 193)

Has Dawn now become legally an emancipated minor?  (It doesn't say but if so, maybe that throws a different understanding into this situation.)  Dawn says in her book that her Mom now knows that John is her boyfriend and that John and Sharon just live together.  Turns out that Mom, her sister and younger brother are moving from Florida to Oregon.  Mom sends her bath mats and towels for her new place.

CHAPTER NINE is called IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO  (It's 1978 and Dawn is now about 18.)


The three of them spend most of their evenings at home, playing scrabble and rummy and listening to classical music.  Dawn is invited to move into their spare bedroom and give up the room she's been renting, and is being mentored by Sharon to pass her certification as a nurses aid. Sharon knows that John and Dawn are still going on weekend trips - the beach - the mountains - Palm Springs - Vegas - and usually declines to go.   When Sharon does go to Vegas with them, she's the one covering for her need for an ID because she's underage and the three of them share one king sized bed, with John in the middle.(Page 214)