Scott Thorson, Liberace’s former lover and a key witness in the trial of the 1981 murders known as the Wonderland Massacre, died in Los Angeles on August 16. He was 65 and a patient at a Los Angeles health facility. Thorson suffered from cancer and heart disease.

Thorson, who later officially changed his name to Jess Marlow, filed a $113 million child support suit against Liberace in 1982 that attracted widespread media attention. After the suit was filed, Liberace continued to deny being gay and stated in court testimony that Thorson had never been his lover. The case was settled in 1986; Thorson received $75,000 in cash and three cars and three dogs valued at $20,000. Liberace died of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses in 1987.

In 1988, Thorson published Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace, an autobiography about his time with Liberace. It alleges that the entertainer paid for cosmetic surgery for Thorson, including a nose job and a chin implant, that made him look like a younger version of Liberace. During their six-year relationship, Thorson was part of Liberace’s Las Vegas act and acted as his chauffeur – a job that involved driving the entertainer onstage in a rhinestone-encrusted uniform. Their relationship ended when Thorson became more heavily involved in drugs. He said Liberace bore some responsibility for his addiction, as he began abusing drugs after being prescribed Quaaludes, amphetamine, cocaine and Demerol while recovering from cosmetic surgery he had at the artist’s request.

Behind the Candelabra was later adapted into an Emmy-winning HBO film of the same name. Steven Soderbergh directed, Michael Douglas played Liberace and Matt Damon played Thorson.

His time with Liberace was not Thorson’s only brush with fame during a troubled life. In 1989, Thorson became involved in the trial of Eddie Nash, a nightclub owner and drug dealer. He was accused of ordering the murder of four people in a Laurel Canyon home on Wonderland Avenue in 1981. Nash was reportedly upset after the home’s residents robbed his house and shot a bodyguard. John Holmes, a porn star and drug addict, had been to Nash’s house three times that day, raising Nash’s suspicions. He ordered his staff to question Holmes about who was behind the theft.

Thorson later testified that he had been at Nash’s house to buy drugs when he witnessed Holmes being beaten and threatened while tied to a chair until he revealed the thieves’ identities. Two days after Nash was robbed, unknown men armed with hammers and metal pipes entered a townhouse in Wonderland.

Four of the people in the house – Ron Launius, William “Billy” Deverell and Joy Miller, who were involved in the robbery, and Barbara Richardson, the girlfriend of an accomplice – died of blunt force trauma. Susan Launius survived the attack. Although Thorson accused Nash in court of orchestrating the murders, the nightclub owner’s trial ended in a failed jury verdict. He was never convicted and died in 2014. After the trial, Thorson said he entered a federal witness protection program and changed his name.

The Wonderland murders inspired a memorable sequence in “Boogie Nights” in which Mark Wahlberg’s John Holmes-like porn star tries to rip off a drug-addicted Alfred Molina, playing a character inspired by Nash. It is also the subject of a new four-part docuseries, “The Wonderland Massacre & The Secret History of Hollywood,” directed by Alison Ellwood. It begins airing on MGM+ on Sept. 8. The series was adapted from Audible’s “The Wonderland Murders and the Secret History of Hollywood,” a 2022 podcast that featured Thorson and author Michael Connelly as guests.

Thorson struggled with alcohol and drug abuse throughout his life and had multiple run-ins with the law. In 2008, he was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to serious drug offenses and burglary, among other charges.