Forest Lawn, Glendale
LOS ANGELES - The attorney who defended porn legend John Holmes in a 1981 murder case and won is dead. Earl L. Hanson's best remembered case in a career packed with high-profile cases was that of the late porn star charged with killing four in Laurel Canyon that year.
Hanson and his partner Mitchell Egers won a not guilty verdict in a three-week trial the following year, even though Holmes himself didn't testify. He did spend almost four months in jail because he refused to testify about the real killers, but in due course Holmes did talk to a grand jury.
Hanson told the Los Angeles Times after Holmes died in 1988 that the whole truth of the crimes might never be known. Two others were arrested subsequently for the crimes.
Hanson reportedly died April 1 of a heart attack while running in Glendale, something he did as a matter of routine. He is survived by his wife, Marina; three adult sons, Eric, Kevin, and Leif; and, his sister, Virginia Frier.
Hanson's defense of Holmes wasn't his only high-profile case. As a court-appointed lawyer, he had also defended William Bonin, the so-called Freeway Killer, charged with raping and killing sixteen boys in Los Angeles and Orange Counties in 1980. Bonin ultimately changed attorneys, confessed to 21 killings, and was convicted and executed for fourteen of the murders.
Egers told the Times he regarded Hanson as the best defense attorney in California as well as one of the best anywhere. He was a native of Los Angeles and a USC law graduate. A memorial service was scheduled at Forest Lawn Glendale for noon April 6.
