Billy London Murder, A West Hollywood Cold Case, Heads To SXSW

A new documentary from Rachel Mason, the filmmaker behind “Circus of Books,” has been picked for a world premiere at SXSW in March.

The film is called “My Brother’s Killer.” It focuses on the 1990 killing of Bill Newton, better known to many in the late 80’s gay porn scene as “Billy London,” and why the case stayed unsolved for decades

Mason’s name is already familiar to many in West Hollywood. “Circus of Books,” the film about her parents’ iconic shop on Santa Monica Boulevard, did more than document a business, it captured a piece of West Hollywood history seldom done before. “My Brother’s Killer” lives in a similar orbit, but is built around a single macabre story with no clear ending. Until now.

Pain, Porn and Parties

Billy was only 25 when he was murdered. He came to West Hollywood by way of Wisconsin, after a rough childhood. His boyfriend at the time, Marc Rabins said he ran away and tried to start over, after showing up at his father’s door and his father calling him a faggot and basically told him to get lost. Newton’s younger sister, Michele Oliver, described their father as a “man’s man,” with expectations Newton could not meet.

When he got to West Hollywood, he was attempting to stitch together a life in a city that could be both welcoming and ruthless. He bopped around the scene, including working at the Hollywood Spa, eventually finding his way to shooting porn as a way to make ends meet. People who knew him described him as someone who could be light and funny, but was also clearly struggling. He had dreams, like most of us do, and talked about building a small business someday. Something along the lines of interior design, artwork or writing, whatever he could turn into work. 

His personal life was complicated, too. Rabins talked about their relationship and the world they were in. There was affection there, and also the party cycle that was everywhere in that era, including meth. And all of it was happening in the shadow of the AIDS crisis, when loss was constant and your future was anything but guaranteed. 

October 1990, Then He Was Gone

By October 1990, Newton and Rabins were living apart. Oliver said Newton was tired of Los Angeles and was planning to leave for a while, heading to Las Vegas to stay with her while he helped their mother settle into a new place.

Rabins said the last time he saw Newton was after they shot a video and went to dinner. Rabins dropped him off at the home of friends where he was staying.

Two days later, Newton’s head was found in a dumpster in an alley off Santa Monica Boulevard near La Brea Avenue, discovered by a person digging through trash. His feet were also recovered. Most of the rest of his body was never found. The case went cold.

How Mason’s Film Tracks The Long Route To Some Answers 

Mason told the LA Times she learned about Newton’s murder while doing research around West Hollywood history for “Circus of Books.” She later came back to it as its own project and began gathering interviews and material. Other people were digging too, including authors Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn, who covered the case on their podcast “The Dinner Party Show.”

Mason’s persistence for information eventually connected her with Clark Williams, a guy from Wisconsin, born the same year as Billy and who told her his life lined up with Newton’s in unsettling ways, same region, same time period, same escape to a bigger city. Williams began doing a deep dive into names around the case and into adult film credits from the period.

The Confession 
Williams’ work pointed detectives toward DarraLynn Madden, a former adult film performer now serving a life sentence in Oklahoma for killing another gay man years after Newton’s death. LAPD homicide detectives traveled to Oklahoma to interview Madden who is now trans. In the documentary, Det. John Lamberti describes getting a confession. The film also includes an on-camera interview Mason arranged with Madden describing the killing in gruesome detail. 

In the film, Madden claims spotting Newton with a group of skinheads and targeting him. Madden says she approached him, made it clear he was coming with them, and steered him toward a car. Madden claims Newton was then beaten by the group and mocked while he was intoxicated. Madden goes on to describe strangling him with a cord. Afterward, Madden says the group decided to dismember Newton to remove the body from the apartment without drawing attention.

Local Filmmaker Makes A Difference 

Mason is not an outsider dropping in for the grisly parts. Her family’s bookstore, and the “Circus of Books” film that came out of it, are part of how West Hollywood’s LGBTQ history has been documented and remembered. “My Brother’s Killer” is another piece of that record, one that pulls Billy London back into focus as a person who lived here, worked here, and was lost here. In my opinion, this story needed to have someone like Mason at the heart of it to make a meaningful difference. She did. 

A Hate Crime Not a True Crime

What happened to Billy was not random. It was a hate crime, carried out because he was gay, at a time when violence against queer men was common and often minimized. He was not a symbol or a cautionary tale. He was a 25-year-old who had survived a rough childhood, made his way to West Hollywood looking for a place to belong, and talked about a future that included work, creativity and something of his own.

Mason’s film, and the work of the people who refused to let his case disappear, does not change the outcome. But it restores something that was taken early on. It puts Billy back in the center of his own story, not as a rumor or a crime scene detail, but as a person whose life mattered, and whose death is finally being treated with the seriousness and dignity it always deserved.

The film premieres at SXSW in March.