Johnny Stompanato homicide

Johnny Stompanato, 32, was stabbed to death by his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter on April 4, 1958. Cheryl Crane was cleared of any wrongdoing by a coroner’s inquest, but her mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her, her father Stephen, and Turner. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 1962 for a sum of USD 20,000. In 2007, Time magazine deemed the case one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.

About Johnny Stompanato homicide in brief

Summary Johnny Stompanato homicideJohnny Stompanato, 32, was stabbed to death by his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter on April 4, 1958. Cheryl Crane was cleared of any wrongdoing by a coroner’s inquest, but her mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her, her father Stephen, and Turner. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 1962 for a sum of USD 20,000. In 2007, Time magazine deemed the case one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century. The case was the inspiration for the novel Where Love Has Gone, as well as its subsequent film adaptation. In the spring of 1957, American film actress Lana Turner began receiving phone calls and flowers on the set from mobster and ex-Marine Johnny Stomp anato, using the name John Steele. Unbeknownst to Turner at the time, StompAnato had close ties to the Los Angeles underworld and was an affiliate of gangster Mickey Cohen. In September 1957, while Turner was filming Another Time, Another Place in London, he violently choked Turner before being forced off the set by her co-star, Sean Connery. They subsequently reconciled, and spent January and February 1958 vacationing in Acapulco, Mexico, before returning to the United States. In March 1958, Turner attended the Academy Awards to observe her nomination for Peyton Place and present the award for Best Supporting Actor. At approximately 8:00 p.m. on the night of the ceremony, the two began arguing at Turner’s rented home in Beverly Hills, California, which she had just begun leasing a week prior.

The argument escalated into a heated one, during which StompANato threatened to kill Turner. Crane had heard the fighting and took a knife from the kitchen, planning to defend her mother, but was urged to leave by Turner to leave the room by her daughter, who had been watching a television in the adjacent room. Crane turned herself in to police in the early morning hours of April 5, she was interred in a juvenile hall, and placed under the guardianship of her grandmother. The inquest was held on April 11, and the homicide was deemed justifiable, and Crane was released in late April, and put under her grandmother’s care. In later press, Turner claimed that on one occasion Stompenato drugged her and took nude photographs of her while unconscious, potentially to use as blackmail. The couple later reconciled and returned to the U.S., where they lived in California until Turner’s death in June 1958. Stompinato’s death has been subject of conspiracy theories that Turner had in fact stabbed him, and that Crane had taken the blame to protect her mother – though Crane has denied this. The murder has also been depicted in various media, and was the inspired for the book Where Love has Gone, and its subsequent movie adaptation, where Turner starred as the main character, Lana Turner, and Stomponato was portrayed as a mobster.