A transgender convicted killer has confessed to the 1990 murder of gay porn star Billy London after a tip from an amateur web sleuth — but Los Angeles County’s woke District Attorney George Gascón has refused to file charges within the case that has haunted Hollywood for 3 a long time.
The death of 25-year-old London, whose real name was Bill Newton, rocked the close-knit gay community of West Hollywood when pieces of his dismembered body were present in a dumpster on October 29, 1990.
The murder case remained unsolved for greater than 30 years until the LAPD confirmed on Monday that they secured a confession from Daralyn Madden, who’s already serving a life sentence in Oklahoma in 2007 for the murder of two other men, the LA Times reports.
Madden, a former skinhead, now identifies as a Jewish woman, the publication noted.
LAPD Det. John Lamberti said the break within the case got here following a tip from stay-at-home dad and amateur sleuth, Clark Williams.
Williams discovered that Madden had previously claimed to have killed a person in LA when she was a self-proclaimed white supremacist and skinhead who led a second-life as a male pornstar named Billy Houston.
“It was a coincidence that I just couldn’t ignore,” Williams said about his discovery.
Williams told the Times he was drawn to the case due to the similarities he shared with Newton. Each are gay men who were born on the identical week in 1965 and grew up in northern Wisconsin before moving to larger cities.
In December of 2021, Williams joined the Facebook group, “The History of Gay WIsconsin,” where he found a post about Newton’s murder and have become fixated on the case.
“Something was propelling me, moving me to only get entangled in whatever capability that I could,” Williams told the Times. “What I actually desired to do was to assist tell Billy’s story, because I feel he reflected the lives of so many young gay men and teenagers who got here up in that point.”
While learning more from the Facebook group, Williams eventually tracked down Rick Paskay, who seemed to be the primary local sleuth who dug into the case after police got here up empty.
Paskay, who has since died, operated a skate shop in West Hollywood, but Williams uncovered that he was also a gay porn producer who worked under the alias Richard Lawrence at the identical time Newton was within the industry.
In researching Paskay and Newton, Williams eventually found Houston’s name, and that led to the reference to Madden.
Madden, meanwhile, pleaded guilty in 2008 to the brutal kidnapping and murder of Steven Domer and her own accomplice within the crime, Bradley Qualls, in Oklahoma City.
Madden told police she and Qualls were trying to kill a gay man as a part of an initiation into the Chaos Squad Skinheads gang, luring Domer to a secluded area before kidnapping him, beating him and strangling him together with his own coat hanger.
Police said Madden later shot and killed Qualls, fleeing the scene before police arrested her.
After learning about Madden’s past and her involvement within the gay porn industry in Hollywood, Williams found excerpts from against the law book, “American Honor Killings,” that contained an interview with Madden.
She told writer David McConnell that she not only killed Domer in Oklahoma City, but alluded to killing another person in Los Angeles.
“I noticed at that moment that I used to be in over my head,” Williams said, “and that I needed to get this information as soon as possible to Det. Lamberti.”
Lamberti said he had put Newton’s case back on the shelf just two weeks before Williams’ suggestions, with the brand new info reinvigorating his office after years of dead ends.
Lamberti and his partner, Det. Tamara Momayez, began digging into Madden and located the corporate she worked for was on Santa Monica Boulevard, with the constructing situated by the alley where Newton’s body had been found.
The 2 detectives made a visit to Oklahoma on January 4 after they discovered the skinhead they were in search of now identifies as an Orthodox Jewish woman.
“We’re talking to a one that has swastikas tattooed and can be wearing a knitted pink yarmulke,” Lamberti said. “The person we’re talking to is a gay porn actor, transgender skinhead, Nazi orthodox Jew. You write that down in a sentence, and it’s like, ‘What?’”
When discussing Newton’s case, Madden said she and her skinhead friends targeted the young porn actor for a robbery and to “beat the crap out of him.”
As an alternative, Madden said the robbery ended together with her strangling Newton to death, which matched the coroner’s findings.
Madden added that she believed Newton was high on the time, which also matches records that Newton had methamphetamine in his system after witnesses saw him leaving the Rage nightclub that day.
Lamberti said the circumstances and confession was enough for him to present the case to Gascón — however the DA’s office refused to file charges, citing a scarcity of evidence.
Gascón’s office didn’t immediately reply to the Recent York Post’s request for comment, and a representative for Madden couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Despite the DA’s decision, Lamberti said his office is officially closing the investigation and consulting Newton’s family.
Michele Oliver, Newton’s younger half sister, said she was pleased with the work of the detectives and sleuths who investigated her brother’s death.
“Having some type of closure helps,” she said, noting that Madden will die behind bars.
The grieving sister, nonetheless, still wanted answers as to why her brother was targeted and where the remainder of his body is, which has never been recovered.
Lamberti told the Times that Madden refused to say what her group had done with Newton’s body, telling officers “I’m not a snitch.”