In Hollywood, unbelievable stories happen not only in front of the camera, but also behind it. GALA looks back at the most mysterious deaths and fates surrounding the dream factory. This time: the killing of Lana Turner’s criminal friend Johnny Stompanato.
On the evening of July 4, 1958, an argument broke out at the estate of Hollywood icon Lana Turner in Beverly Hills, California. A loud and physical fight broke out between the actress and her boyfriend Johnny Stompanato. When Turner’s partner, who works for the mafia, tried to attack the actress, her 14-year-old daughter Cheryl Crane intervened and killed the criminal with a knife that the teenager had previously fetched from the kitchen in a panic – or at least that is the official version.
However, a short time later, the theory emerged that Lana Turner had killed her lover herself and then asked her daughter to take the blame, because the teenager would face a lesser sentence for doing so. And this theory still holds true 66 years later – to this day. So what really happened?
Lana Turner was married eight times
Before we address this question, it is worth taking a quick look at Lana Turner’s life. Her career began in the 1930s and really took off a decade later. By the 1950s, Lana Turner had long since become one of Hollywood’s leading ladies. She enjoyed great success with films such as “The Three Musketeers,” “City of Illusions” and “Embers in the Ashes,” and even received an Oscar nomination for the latter.
Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato on vacation in Mexico 1958
© TT / imago images
However, Lana Turner is not only attracting attention with her acting talent – she is also making headlines with her love life. After alleged liaisons with Frank Sinatra, †82, or “Gone with the Wind” star Clark Gable, †59, married the actress a total of eight times. In 1957, she met and fell in love with Johnny Stompanato. The actress and the mobster entered into a relationship that would prove fatal for both of them.
Mobster Johnny Stompanato raises his hand against the actress
As Lana Turner describes in her 1982 autobiography “Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth”, Johnny Stompanato began sending her flowers in 1957 under the name “John Steele”. In the weeks that followed, he bombarded her with calls and gifts. Shortly afterwards, they began a relationship, and it was only much later that the film star realized that his new partner was working for Mafia boss Mickey Cohen. When she wanted to end the relationship, Stompanato did not allow it.
Lana Turner and Sean Connery in “Heart Without Hope”
© Everett Collection / imago images
He puts her under psychological pressure and also uses physical violence. Arguments break out again and again – which even Sean Connery, †90, is forced to witness. The mobster is convinced that the Scottish actor is having an affair with his girlfriend. He storms onto the set of the film “Heart Without Hope”, for which Connery and Turner are in front of the camera together. Author Casey Sherman writes in his book “A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime”, published in 2024, that Stompanato points a gun at Connery at that moment. The actor manages to take the revolver from him and hit him in the face, driving the gangster away. But Johnny Stompanato’s tyranny does not end there.
14-year-old Cheryl Crane initially goes to prison
On the evening of April 4, 1958, Johnny Stompanato also had a tantrum and is said to have threatened to kill Lana Turner, her daughter Cheryl and her mother Mildred. Shortly afterwards, a blade landed in his stomach and he died at the scene. According to biographer Sherman, Jerry Giesler, the Hollywood star’s lawyer, arrived at the Beverly Hills estate a short time later. Cheryl then confessed to the police that she had stabbed Johnny. “I stabbed him in the stomach with all my strength,” she is quoted as saying in the book. Cheryl was then put in prison – to her mother’s horror. Several days later, the 14-year-old was transferred to a youth detention center until the trial began.
Cheryl Crane (l.) is transferred from prison to a youth correctional facility on April 6, 1958
© Bettmann / Getty Images
Who really stabbed?
During the trial, Lana Turner testifies and claims that her daughter stabbed her to save her. Because of Turner’s fame, the case receives a lot of attention, and the media analyzes every detail. To many, Turner’s testimony seems like something out of a movie, which is why the theory arises that she killed her lover herself. This theory is also supported by the fact that Cheryl, as a teenager, can expect a much shorter prison sentence and, unlike an adult, cannot be sentenced to death. At that time, the death penalty was still being carried out in the US state of California. In the end, the act is classified as “justifiable killing” in self-defense, and Cheryl is released at the end of April and placed under the guardianship of her grandmother.
Lana Turner during her testimony in court
© Pond5 Images / imago images
“I firmly believe that Lana Turner killed Johnny Stompanato. I believe she did it to protect her family, her mother and her daughter,” said writer Sherman in an interview with “People”. Cheryl Crane, who is now 80 years old, spoke about Johnny Stompanato for the first and last time in 1988 in her memoirs “Detour: A Hollywood Story” and assured that she ended his life. However, this does not dispel the assumption that it was actually her mother – with whom she had a mixed relationship until her death in 1995 – who wielded the sword. For many, including Sherman, Lana Turner is a “feminist icon” who freed herself from the clutches of a violent man for the good of her family.
Lana Turner with her daughter Cheryl Crane in 1952
© Bob Beerman / Getty Images
It cannot be said with certainty whether Cheryl Crane or Lana Turner used the knife. What seems certain is that the act was self-defense – and that mother and daughter wanted to protect each other.
Verwendete Quellen: “Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth”, “A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime”, people.com, “Detour: A Hollywood Story”
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