Crime Weekly - S3 Ep296: Johnny Stompanato: Mob Ties and Malicious Behavior (Part 2)

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Hollywood, 1958. Glamour. Fame. Scandal. But behind the velvet curtains of silver screen royalty, a violent storm was brewing. Johnny Stompanato- charming, dangerous, and deeply entangled with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars- would soon be found dead on the floor of a Beverly Hills mansion. Was it an accident based on a misunderstanding, a mother's desperate act, or something far more sinister? Today, we unravel the sensational murder that rocked Tinseltown, and left the world wondering what really happened behind Lana Turner’s closed doors. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25 Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: 1. https://www.PDSDebt.com/CrimeWeekly - Get your FREE debt assessment today! 2. https://www.Ollie.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY and get 60% off your first box! 3. https://www.FastGrowingTrees.com - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY and get an additional 15% off! 4. https://www.HelixSleep.com/CrimeWeekly - Get 20% off sitewide! 5. https://www.EatIQBAR.com - Text WEEKLY to 64000 for 20% off ALL IQBAR products and FREE shipping!

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Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I am Derek Levasseur. So today we're diving into part two of the Johnny Stapanato, Lana Turner, and Cheryl Crane sort of, I guess, true crime scandal, old Hollywood case. Yeah. It's got everything. We already kind of went through episode one, Lana's childhood, how she got to where she got, all her many husbands. Peaks and valleys of those relationships. Yeah. And her, you know, how she gave birth to Cheryl, her only living child throughout all of these marriages and relationships. And I mean, we have a lot to talk about today. So I think we

should just dive in. Do you have anything you want to talk about before we dive in? The only thing I'll say is, last week was a lot of information, and it wasn't necessarily about the crime, but that's what we do here. You're going to know everything about the case, and you have to understand the why and maybe the reasoning or the rationale

behind why these crimes are committed and thinking about who's involved with this, specifically Cheryl and Lana, you need to know the backstory. We're going to get to Johnny. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the specifics of the crime itself.

But sometimes, and it's daunting, it's tedious work specifically for you. It's a lot of work. I enjoy it. And then, of course you do. If you didn't, you wouldn't be doing it this long. Yeah, I like researching. And like you said, everything that, well, any, any, anything that happens to anybody in anybody's

life is going to eventually lead you to the place where you end up and it's going to be, you know, have an impact on the behavior you choose to, you know, engage in and who you become. So not only for storytelling purposes, when I'm investigating a crime and it's a serious crime and we're looking at potential suspects, it may not always tell you exactly what you need to know, but understanding these people's backgrounds can maybe give you a little bit of a hint of who you should be looking at. When you start to peel back the layers and you see what they've lived through or what has transpired in their life leading up to this, it may you some insight it may give you a motive so you got to do it again it's not always the most glamorous work obviously you enjoy it i like the pill the building of a puzzle as well so we have to do it so look at it as your detective in this case if you were investigating it these are the types of things you would have to look into before you even start diving into the crime itself. So that's all I wanted to say. You know who would do that?

John Douglas, Mindhunter. Derek Levasseur. Derek, Stephanie Harlow. Breaking Homicide. I'm saying that because there's no comparison, but I thought, you know, I want to put that out there. He's not saying he's on equal footing as John Douglas. I'm not saying that.

That's the next headline. Derek Levasseur thinks he's exactly like John Douglas. I think I'm better. No, he does something different. I mean, he's a profiler. Yeah, exactly. A profiler. That's what we're doing now, right? Yeah, he's not necessarily investigating the cases like that, but he's a G. He's great at what he does. So the more you know, the more you know. There you go. So let's dive in. Let's dive in.

So today we're actually going to be introduced to Johnny Snapinato. So we're going to see exactly what Lana Turner was dealing with in her short-lived relationship with him, which kind of brought all three of them, her and Johnny and Cheryl, into a place where his death would even be possible, honestly. And we are going to talk about Cheryl and Lana's relationship, which is also important. So let's talk about the way Cheryl Crane viewed her childhood and the constant revolving door of men that her mother brought into her life.

In her book, Detour, A Hollywood Story, Cheryl says, quote, Hollywood princess may be a time-worn phrase, but I guess it describes the life I lived well into my teens. Famous at birth and pampered silly, I was born in 1943 to Lana Turner, one of the most celebrated screen beauties of the time. My father, Steve Crane, a dashing but impoverished businessman whose restaurants finally made millions, both of my parents were driven personalities, vain, gifted, selfish, and wild. I was enthralled by them, but I lived at a distance, their princess in a tower, end quote. Cheryl explained how she lived in a large house in Bel Air, cared for by nannies and wet nurses because, quote, mother was not one to get herself involved in diapers and feedings, end quote. During her early childhood, Cheryl was never left alone, but she was always in the company of hired help, and her mother was either

off making a movie or on vacation with one of her new love interests. Even when she was in California and in the process of making a film, Lana would leave the house before Cheryl woke up and wouldn't return from the studio until hours after Cheryl had been put to bed. So there was actually stretches of days at a time where mother and child would not even see each other. If Lana was home, Cheryl would know that if the door to her bedroom was closed, it was a clear sign that Lana should not be bothered. In fact, Cheryl was not allowed in Lana's bedroom at all. It was like an inner sanctum. Cheryl was not allowed to go into her mother's bedroom. And Cheryl was absolutely in awe of Lana, though she described her as seductive and

untouchable. And she wrote, quote, the rare moments she sat by my Valentine bed, just the two of us, always wrenched my heart because they were too brief. They lingered in the air like the perfume she wore, a sweet floral scent named tuberose that defined her aura and filled my mind after she was gone. End quote. Cheryl recalls a time when a fan of Lana's sent Cheryl a three-foot-tall doll, which was designed to look exactly like Lana Turner, and this doll became one of Cheryl's most prized possessions. She called it her mommy doll, And this is going to pop back in. The mommy doll is going to pop back in. But yeah, it's pretty sad. The way that

Cheryl kind of really loved Lana, admired her, wanted to be close to her. But who Lana was and what she did for a living and kind of the life she had chosen to lead was not conducive to what Cheryl wanted and what most children want from their mother, which is just them to be there. Yeah. And we hear this a lot. And some of it is things that can be controlled as working parents ourselves. Sometimes you have to work, you have to go do things and it doesn't allow you to always be there for your kids when you need them. And I know we've talked about this so many times, how crushing it is and how bad we feel. We were talking about it today or

earlier today before we started recording. It's a balance between providing for your family and being there for them when they need you and you don't always get it right. And it seems like Lana may have been going through a little bit of that. And based on how we ended last week's episode, it does seem like Lana really did care for Cheryl and she loved her and she wanted to be there for her. And when Cheryl brought what had happened to Lana's attention, apparently she addressed it right away. So- We are going to talk more about that as we are. We are. But yeah, I mean, listen, I don't love what I'm hearing. Obviously, it seems like it was more than just not being there when she needed it because she was a busy parent working.

I think there was a detachment there. I think when you're raised, the way you're raised is going to have a big part in how you parent, how you parent. So if Lana, we know Lana was raised in a foster situation for a while, kind of in a little bit of chaos. Yes. Without a father, then with a father, without a mother, then with a mother. And it didn't seem like maybe either of her parents as she grew were super affectionate or super, I guess, connected to what was going on in her life. Like they made sure she had food. Yeah, Lana did not have the best childhood. Yeah.

They made sure that she had a roof over her head and food and someone to care for her, but there wasn't like a huge concern about her emotional or mental needs. No, it's fair. And again, that's why it's so important to cover those things. You talked about that all last episode, starting with Lana as a child. And now when we say it here and you hear about how Lana treats her own child, you sit back and you go, makes sense. I get it. You know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. No. And how would she know how to be, you know, and I think that from Cheryl's perspective, like the way Cheryl describes her childhood and the way Lana describes Cheryl's childhood

are completely different. And I think all of us can sort of understand that. And even like, you know, sometimes I'll joke around with my mom and I'll be like, oh, remember when you did that? And she'll get offended. She'll be like, well, I guess I'm just the worst mother ever. I guess I'm just terrible, you know? And it's like, no, no, like I, you know, you're not perfect. I'm not perfect. Like I get it, but there's a certain defensiveness there where even if you know, hey, I dropped the ball or I messed up sometimes, you don't necessarily want that put in your face and you don't want that that put in your face and you don't want that really to be like talked about. It's kind of like, oh, it's in the past. For Lana,

I think she wanted to be this good mother, but not enough to actually do it in practice. You know, she hired people to raise her child because she probably thought they can do a better job than I can. Right. This is like like Cheryl said, didn't, she wasn't in the business of changing diapers and, and doing feedings. She was there. And that's the thing though, too. Like, yeah, we're both working parents, but there would never be stretches of time, days going by where I'm in the same city as my child, but because I'm on set or I'm this or that, like that, I'm not going to be able to at least like call them and say goodnight or put them to bed myself.

Not days at a time. That's insane to me. But once again, we also did acknowledge last episode, Lana Turner's incredible ability to compartmentalize. Yeah, you ain't kidding. What she experienced, absolutely. When she's at work and she's on set, that's where she is. That's all she's thinking about. And she's in character. She's really immersed in whatever she's at work and she's on set, that's where she is. That's all she's thinking.

And she's in character. She's really immersed in whatever she's doing. So it was tough for Cheryl, obviously. And Cheryl also remembered her grandmother. So Lana's mother, Mildred, was a huge part of her life growing up. Basically, Mildred became kind of like a Hollywood mom. When Lana started making it big, Mildred obviously benefited from Lana's new celebrity status and wealth and was kind of just always around. She had her own house that Lana had bought her, but she, especially when Cheryl was born, would spend a few days a week with Cheryl at Lana's house along with the nannies and nursemaids and all of these things. And Cheryl said, quote, as her parental influence on mother continued to wane during my childhood, she clung more tightly to me, I believe partly as a way of holding on. I became something of a link between them. Yet before long, Grant and I would both come

to feel spurned by the same woman, end quote,. Yep. So Cheryl recalled meeting Lana's husband, Henry Topping. Remember Henry Topping, Bob Topping? He was the rich one, the heir to the fortune, and his brother owned the New York Yankees. And she spent time with Lana and Bob Topping at his family's sprawling 500-acre estate called Round Hill. For a while, Cheryl called him Uncle Bob until Lana told her that they were getting married and Uncle Bob would now be her daddy. Cheryl said that the relationship between her mother and Topping threatened her. It made her feel like she was losing her mother again and she rebelled a bit. She did some things at that point to get Lana's attention, like throwing fits in Saks Fifth Avenue or climbing trees and getting dirty, which was expressly forbidden. Cheryl was never allowed to get dirty. And as the wedding day came closer,

Cheryl chewed two packs of gum and stuck the wad into her long, gorgeous curls, leading to her hair having to be cut very short, which obviously upset her mother. As we discussed in the first episode, during her marriage to Bob Topping, Lana suffered through another miscarriage, and after this, she and her husband took off to sail around the Caribbean on Topping's yacht for five months. During this lonely time without her mother, Cheryl developed an imaginary friend named Elizabeth. Cheryl wrote about Elizabeth, saying, quote, And she'd tell me not to be afraid of other kids at birthday parties. She was vividly real and got me through a lot of hard moments. I made space for her in my bed, at the table, and in the car. She lived with me in my room where we played house and spoke out loud to each other. End quote. As somebody who had an imaginary friend growing up, this is because Cheryl was lonely, basically.

I mean, we've all been there. I don't remember having an imaginary friend, to be honest. Oh, I did. I definitely, we've all been there. I don't, I don't remember having an imaginary friend to be honest, but I definitely talked to myself a lot. I talked to myself to this day. Oh, I talked to myself. Yeah, of course. But I mean, I had a friend, like when she said, oh, she was real to me. Like my imaginary friend was very real to me. Like to this day. Is that who I sometimes catch you talking to when we're together? No, like I, she's not around anymore. I don't know, man. When you get a couple of drinks in you. But I'm not talking to her. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. You just have a few drinks

in you too, so you don't realize. I'm like, oh, you're yelling at me? You've tuned me out even more. Yeah, no. I, to this day, sometimes I'm like, was she real? You know, like, was there actually a little girl with me sometimes? Because she made me do some things, man. Maybe she made me do some things like my grandfather had a wheelchair. What's the guy's name? Zach Baggins. Zach Baggins. Everything I hear is Zach Baggins. I think of Bilbo Baggins. But that's another thing we got to cover on Crime Weekly News. His partner just had a hit put on him. Really?

Yeah. The bald guy. I don't know the show, but the bald guy with the goatee. Does that sound familiar to you? Yeah. Why? Why? His girlfriend slash like fiance or maybe wife just got caught planning to have him

killed. Like she hired a hit man and it was like this whole crazy thing. Obviously, he divorced her, but like he was out filming. Wait, before or after the hit? After the hit. Okay. He was out filming the show and found out through law enforcement that she had currently hired someone to go to his hotel and kill him while he was sleeping. So her defense is going to be that one of the demons and spirits that inhabits the haunted houses he goes to, he brought it home with him and then it invaded her and made her do that. It's crazy.

We actually do. I don't want to get off the trail here, but we actually do have to cover. I thought you knew about it, but she's texting him after this happens when the hit doesn't happen. Like it's no big deal and stuff. And so it's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah.

Look at texting him. Like, I mean, you understand, right? No, she was texting him like, I love you. And they're hanging out. Like, she just like the hit didn't went, go down the way she wanted. So he was still alive and she just carried on.

Like nothing was wrong. Damn. Yeah. Damn. Well, let me tell you my imaginary friend story. Okay. And this is the last time I will ever say it out loud.

So my dad, my grandfather had a wheelchair and he, in order to get upstairs because my grandma because my grandparents lived in an old house, they couldn't refurbish and make sure he stayed. So in order to get upstairs, they had this wheelchair thing. And he would like sit in this chair and it would bring him up the stairs. And then you would bring his wheelchair up and then you would take him in his wheelchair to his bedroom. It was very cool. Have you ever seen these?

They're like chair lifts. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So my imaginary friend, she was like, you should slide down this thing because the chair was at the top. And so the whole rail part was just wide open. Like, this will be fun. Slide down the stairs. But there's like machinery and stuff at the bottom of it. Okay?

Yeah, the motor. So that really was not a comfortable situation. It was fun for about five seconds till I got to the bottom. And then that was painful in every single possible way. Like, and then I went flying. I went flying like 12 feet after. And then they were like, my mom, my grandmother were like, what the heck? And I'm like, my friend made me do it.

And like, she really did. She told me, she was like, everything's gonna be fine. Trust me. She did it a few times. I was like, that looks like so much fun. It was, it's really scary. The story explains so much. But listen, a lot of kids at that kind of age, they will create an imaginary friend for emotional regulation and companionship. So if they're lonely or if they're going through transitions, kids might invent a friend during a move, during a divorce of their parents,

during the birth of a sibling, even if they just are left alone for too long without any structure or mental stimulation. The friend then becomes a source of comfort and emotional processing. And I really do feel like that's what happened with Cheryl because she had nannies and stuff with her all the time. Like when I say Lana made sure she was never alone, I mean, a nanny would sit at the foot of her bed and watch her sleep all night. Wow. Yeah. So there's a level to that as well where you're around people all the time, but they're always adults and you don't feel safe expressing your feelings. So yeah,

Cheryl came up with an imaginary friend. Not hard to see why. So later in life, Cheryl would speak in interviews about their relationship with her mother. And she acknowledged that she understood Lana was a working mother, so she compensated, right? Meaning Cheryl had the best of everything. The best clothes, the best governesses, the best nannies, the best schools. Her nannies would be flown in from Ireland, England, because they wanted her to be a nice young woman. Scotland, you know, sometimes she had a German nanny.

There was always the best of the best. But it was kind of, yes, in compensation for like, hey, your mother's not here. And you'll have everything that you need, anything you could possibly ask for except for her. Yeah. And yes, as a child, Cheryl would have given it all up to have her mother with her more. But as we've already discussed, Lana Turner had learned that if she didn't make the money and take care of herself, no one else was going to do it for her. But it wasn't all bad. And Cheryl had some very treasured memories from childhood. Most of them include times when she was able to spend

time with her mother, a figure who to Cheryl was larger than life. And of course, I as a child took that to mean I was never to touch her. You know, it was off limits. Your mother was gone all week long when you were filming. She was a working mother. You know, they were unusual in those days. You also tell your reader about the agony of having been sent consistently to bed early. Yes. 6.30? Yes.

For your beauty rest. Yes. Do you see that now as let's get rid of this? No. You don this? No. You don't? No. You know, it was a different world then. And my mother, for all her faults, and she admits them herself, she did her best.

You know, she really tried to do her best. Yeah, pretty much what we described a few minutes ago. I don't think she holds any real resentment towards her. Lana has taken ownership of what she did. We talked about a working parent. Lana took her stuff very seriously. I don't think she was neglecting Cheryl in a malicious way. But yeah, her priority was her work.

There's no doubt about it. Yeah. And I mean, Cheryl tells a nice story of like it was her birthday. And the year before, they had been in a sort of flux situation. So they hadn't celebrated. And Lana promised her a big birthday. And then on the morning of her birthday or the night before, she was like, so they hadn't celebrated. And Lana promised her a big birthday. And then on the morning of her birthday or the night before, she was like, oh, sorry, we're not going to have a big birthday, but I'm going to bring you riding and we'll spend

the whole day together. And Cheryl was like, I don't even care about a party. I get to spend the whole day with my mother. Like, that's amazing. And then she took her to the stables and rode her out on our pony for a minute. And then all of a sudden, there was all these people there and it was this huge party. And Cheryl had mentioned to Lana a few weeks prior that she loved this actor

who was in a bunch of Western films. And Lana was like, oh, I know him. You know, cause she did. She was an actor. She knew him. And Cheryl was like, I didn't believe that she knew him. But then he came out on a horse. And I was just, she was like,

it was the best thing in my life. I got my mother. I got all my friends. I got this. Like it was the best day. And she still remembered it to was like, it was the best thing in my life. I got my mother. I got all my friends. I got this. Like it was the best day. And she still remembered it to that day, that birth to birth. So Lana tried. But do I think she was not maliciously neglecting Cheryl, but she definitely was neglecting Cheryl.

We've seen criminal neglect over the years of covering cases. This is not that. This is unfortunately, and a lot of you watching or listening to this can probably relate to it, where, you know, you have a parent that your work is, takes the priority because they look at it as, hey, listen, if you don't have this, you don't have nice things. You don't have any of that. So I have to make sure I can provide for you. Or it almost also sometimes feels like, because Cheryl said this too, and she'd be like, mommy, why aren't you with me more? It's like, who do you think pays for this big house? And who do you think pays for all these nice dresses? So

it's like, you have to kind of give her these things because if not, you don't have the excuse for why you're away so much. Yeah, that too. That too. So while married, Lana and Bob Topping had purchased a two-story home on Mapleton Drive in Holmby Hills off of Sunset Boulevard. This is where Lana would attempt to take her own life. The story we talked about last episode, this is where her husband, Lex Barker, would begin his abuse on her 10-year-old daughter. And as far as what happened at the hands of Lex Barker, according to Cheryl's book,

the abuse appeared to begin in March of 1954. Cheryl wrote that she was sitting alone by the pool, alone with her thoughts, when she glanced up and saw her stepfather staring at her from the top of the garden steps. And even though Cheryl was never allowed in the sauna, Lex took her by the hand and guided her into there. Once inside, he began touching her and exposing himself to her,

explaining that he was her father now, so it was his job to teach her about men. That was the first time, and as he left her in the sauna, Lex warned Cheryl not to tell anybody that this was their little secret out because most people wouldn't understand what they had just done. What an absolute scumbag. It's so great. It gets worse. Okay. So Cheryl wrote that afterwards, even though she had given up playing with dolls, she pulled her favorites down one by one from the shelves in her room, including her mommy doll. Quote, for a long while, as late day softened into twilight, we had a very nice tea party,

chattering away all manner of tales. Mommy, me, and my friends. End quote. Her dolls. Her dolls. The mommy doll, which she's using in place of Lana Turner herself. It's very symbolic. She's pulling her dolls down because somewhere in her child mind, she's 10 and a half years old, she realizes that what happened just stole a part of her childhood that she'll never get back.

And so she's trying to like, for this day, as the day turns into night, she's trying to live in these last moments of innocence that were just stolen from her. So it's very sad. The next time it happened was the following month when Lana was at the studio and Lex snuck into Cheryl's room. He told her that he had been lucky like she was when he was her age, that an older woman had taught him about sex and he was grateful to this older woman

just like Cheryl would one day be grateful to him. On this night, Cheryl remembers that Lex Barker raped her. Like I said, she was 10 and a half. And before he left, Lex told Cheryl that this happened to a lot of girls, but the only reason she didn't hear about it was because girls who told were sent away to a place called Juvenile Hall. So the next day, Cheryl got in trouble with her nanny for getting her period and getting blood on the sheets, even though the blood on the sheets was not from her period. Cheryl said, quote, by a process I didn't understand,

I had been drawn into a conspiracy of silence about doing something painful and wrong with an adult I very much disliked. Still, I told myself the humiliation and hatred he had slammed into me would never happen again. It just couldn't, end quote. But it did. The abuse went on for three years. Cheryl would often watch her mother and Lex together and wonder if Lana was experiencing the same abuse or if she knew it was happening to her daughter. In January of 1956, Cheryl was sent away to Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, a private girls boarding school in Pasadena. She attended the school alongside Christina Crawford, Joan Crawford's daughter, who was a few years older than Cheryl and who had endured her own abuse and torture at the hands of her mother. Christina had been adopted by Joan Crawford in the 1940s at the height of

Joan's career. Outwardly, they appeared to be the picture-perfect Hollywood family, but behind closed doors, Christina later claimed the reality was very dark. In her explosive 1978 memoir, Mommy Dearest, Christina accused claimed the reality was very dark. In her explosive 1978 memoir, Mommy Dearest, Christina accused Joan of being physically and emotionally abusive, describing episodes of extended beatings, unpredictable rages, and relentless psychological control. Christina described Joan as a narcissistic alcoholic perfectionist who adopted children more for publicity than any maternal love. And this book shattered the pristine image of Joan Crawford and sparked widespread controversy, dividing Hollywood

and the public. Some close to Joan dismissed the memoir as exaggerated revenge, while others confirmed at least parts of Christina's story. Sharla herself claims that there were rumors of what Christina and her brother Christopher were enduring at the hands of their mother even then in the 50s. And after Joan's death in 1977, Christina and her brother Christopher were shockingly cut out of her will, which only deepened speculation about the dysfunction in the Crawford household. Christina went on to become an advocate for survivors of child abuse and spent much of her life speaking about the long-term effects of trauma. And Cheryl said that although Christina was not allowed to leave the school grounds per her mother's instructions, Cheryl herself was allowed to go home once a month where Lex continued to abuse her, even becoming so bold as to do it when Lana was in the room with her back turned.

So in February of that same year, Lana announced that after being one of MGM's top grossing stars for 18 years, she was leaving the studio and starting her own production company. So there's a lot going on here. Obviously, what Lex is doing to Cheryl is horrible. But like you said, we've seen criminal abuse. And I think what happened to Joan Crawford's daughter, Christina Crawford, and her brother brother Christopher, that was actual and real abuse and neglect and horrible treatment. But what was happening to Cheryl at the hands of Lex Barker was also horrible. That's criminal in nature as well, yeah. This is kind of what happens sometimes. What do they say? The incidence of child sex abuse goes

up dramatically when you bring in a male figure who's not related to your child by blood. Yeah. A lot of the cases that I covered as a detective involved the stepfather, the uncle, the friend of the father. It usually wasn't the father, not to say that doesn't happen. Of course, but not like as much experience. It's a father figure type, but it's usually not the biological father. Usually they're out of the equation, at least in my experience. And I mean, Lana was bringing in a lot of men to her children's lives and having relationships with them for months before she would even introduce her or introduce them to Cheryl. And by the time Cheryl was introduced to these people, it was like, okay,

now he's your dad and he's living with us. So they were basically strangers. What a nightmare for Cheryl. I mean, as a young child having to experience in that and not even having that close of a relationship with your mother where you can go to her and say, Hey, it's you and I, we're partners here. This is the outsider. And this is what's going on.

To think that the dynamic was so strained between them where this stuff was happening to her, but she didn't feel comfortable enough to go tell her mom initially. She didn't feel comfortable enough to tell anybody. And you got Lex threatening her like, oh, kids that tell go to juvie or juvenile hall and so she's afraid of that, right?

And knowing the relationship she has with her mother, she probably wasn't completely sure how her mom would react, which is maybe why she decided not to say anything initially. Well, you'll see, she says in the book, like she thought if she told her mom, her mom would be like, ew, I'm discarding you. Get away from me. Yeah, I can see it. Yeah. All right. Let's take predator hunting you. Silent, patient. It doesn't need a weapon. It uses interest rates, late fees, and collection calls.

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system where she had risen from a teenage discovery to one of MGM's most bankable stars. By the early 50s, though, the golden age of Hollywood was shifting. The old studio contracts were dissolving, and stars were beginning to realize they could carve out more creative and financial control by producing their own material. For Lana, it was also about protecting her relevance. She was entering her mid-30s, an age when Hollywood notoriously began to sideline its leading ladies.

Rather than be pushed out or typecast as a mother role to the new leading lady, Lana decided to bet on herself. She would form her company specifically to develop projects that suited her, stories where she could choose her roles, control the images she projected, and most importantly, share in the profits. In the winter of 1956, Cheryl spent Christmas in Acapulco with her mother and Lex, and she noticed a shift in their dynamic. Lana had become pregnant with Lex's child, and she had gone through another miscarriage the previous October,

even though Lex had bragged that he had the perfect blood to overcome Lana's Rh-negative issue. Cheryl said that she could tell her mother, who had three stages of love with all her husbands, she could tell her mother was kind of reaching that stage three. So stage one, Lana gave 200% and poured everything she had into her new man. Stage two, Lana would try to get her needs met after emptying her own cup completely. And if those needs were not met, she would move on to stage three, which Cheryl described as like a volcanic eruption of bitterness and blame. Lana would eventually always feel resentful that she'd given so much and sacrificed so much only to not have any of the men she loved return the favor.

One night, Cheryl heard her mother and Lex arguing loudly. And that night when Lex crept into her room, Cheryl stood up to him. She said that she had learned through the other girls at boarding school about something called statutory rape. And she told Lex, hey, I know what you're doing is wrong and you could get in trouble for it. She told him that she was not going to let him do it anymore and that she was thinking about telling somebody. And that night she paid for her words. But Cheryl had made the decision to speak the truth. And she started with confiding in her grandmother in February of 1957.

Mildred immediately picked up the phone and called Lana, telling her to come over. Cheryl said that she told her mother everything, and she was subjected to a barrage of questions before Lana was sure that she was telling the truth. In her book, Cheryl said, quote, Finally, seeming to be convinced, she squared her shoulders and breathed a long, resigned sigh. For a moment, she studied my face. Then suddenly, in an antic change of pace, she lifted her eyebrows and screwed her mouth into the frown of an imp. The tension was broken. We embraced each other in relief.

Mother had not rejected me after all. But the blank looks she exchanged with Gran said they didn't know what to do next. End quote. Cheryl said that Lana and Mildred talked until three in the morning and that her grandmother kept walking into her bedroom and waking her up to tell Cheryl not to think about it and to just push it out of her mind. Cheryl described how Lana handled Lex. She drove back to the Mapleton home and climbed the stairs to her bedroom where Lex was sleeping naked on top of the covers. Lana removed her revolver from the nightstand drawer and held it to his head as he slept. Realizing that Lex Barker was not worth prison, Lana retreated and waited until he woke up,

at which point she told him that Cheryl had told her everything, they weren't going to talk about it, but he had 20 minutes to leave or she was calling the police. The next day, Lana took Cheryl to the Beverly Hills Clinic where Dr. Faglin revealed that after a pelvic exam he had 20 minutes to leave or she was calling the police. The next day, Lana took Cheryl to the Beverly Hills Clinic where Dr. Faglin revealed that after a pelvic exam he had conducted, Cheryl had in fact been violently raped more than once, and she had been so injured to the extent that she should have gotten stitches. Grandma Mildred told Cheryl not to talk about it. Her father, Stephen Crane, when he found out, he told her not to think about it either, even though he expressed an intense desire to kill Lex Barker. Cheryl wrote, quote, in the 50s as it is today, but people were less inclined to report it back then. Nor did my parents make any special effort to get me to talk about what had happened, and they never considered

sending me to a psychiatrist for professional counseling. As mother explained it to me later, people don't see shrinks, period. Instead, I was urged to never think about it again, end quote. So of course, it's understandable that Cheryl would have acted out in the aftermath. There was an incident where she ran away from home. She actually ended up getting in a car with a strange man who said he was going to give her a ride to someplace safe. This strange man could have been a bad guy. We could be talking about Cheryl Crane's disappearance right now. But luckily, unlike Lex Barker, this man was not a bad guy. He drove her to the police station and she ended up back home safe and sound. But yes, she acted out.

And of course, mentally and emotionally, she's not going to be okay, especially when everyone around her is telling her, just forget about it. Push it down. Act like it never happened. So a couple of questions. You had mentioned earlier when she confronted Lex, she paid for her words. What did you mean by that? He raped her very violently that night. That night? Yeah. Even after she threatened for her words. What did you mean by that? He, he raped her very violently that night.

That night. Yeah. Even after she's threatened him. Okay. Okay. Uh, so obviously he wasn't going to stop by just her threatening him, which tells you what type of person he is. Um, I'm, I don't know how I feel. Well, I know how I feel about the decision not to turn Lex in. I don't agree with it. I don't agree with it at all. I'm not even trying to justify the decision not to turn him in, but I'm trying to understand the perspective of Lana as far as what she's involved in, what her career entails, and what something like this could do to not only derail her career, but completely uproot their whole financial certainty, which would affect her, which would affect Cheryl, would affect their futures. So you, I'm not saying it's a justification for it.

And that's a good enough reason. I'm just trying to understand where Lana's head would have been. And I also, without trying to paint her like this perfect person, I'm sure there was a selfish part of it as well, where it makes her look bad as a mother to have this stuff going on right under her nose and to not even notice it. It would definitely give some insight into who she is as a mother. And do you think people out there would be questioning her in that regard? Absolutely. So she should have turned him in, of course. To be fair, it could have been worse. I mean, we're not talking about Lana Turner living in Queens.

Nobody knows who she is. We're talking about Lana Turner, goddess of the silver screen. Reporters would have been in on it. Like Cheryl was likely would have ruined her career, would have ruined not just her career, but honestly, Cheryl's life. Right. So like maybe Cheryl doesn't want this information to be public. Like maybe she does want it to go to the police. But because it includes Lana Turner and Lex Barker, both very high profile stars, these freaking reporters, just like these idiots on the Internet, they don't care who's involved.

They don't care who gets hurt. They don't care. Cheryl gets hurt. This is a juicy story that they can use to sell papers, to sell tabloids. So now everybody knows what happened to Cheryl, even though she's 13 years old and she hasn't even processed it herself because she's not going through counseling. And all of her shame and all of this horrible thing is plastered all over every tabloid. She can't go to school anymore.

She's going to be made fun of. Kids are cruel. You know, it follows her forever now in this way when she's a grown woman who's discovered who she is who's processed through her trauma she writes about it in a book she gets to tell her story yeah i guess the way you just framed it sounds great i just wonder what cheryl was thinking at the time when she was 13 years old and to have to be continuously re-victimized every time she sees Lex's face on a TV. Yeah, for sure. I mean, to know this guy did this to her and he's out there smiling, laughing, living his life like nothing happened. I'm sure that wasn't easy for her. So

I would love the opportunity to sit down with Cheryl and ask her how she was feeling at that age. Because if I had to guess, it was probably a conversation where what you just discussed was discussed amongst Lana and Mildred and everybody else who was involved in this. And the decision was made not to say anything. But I do wonder if there was a part of Cheryl where she was really hoping that her mother would say, you know what? I don't care. I don't care how it affects my career. I don't care what it does to my profession and how people view me. That shouldn't have happened to you. This guy needs to pay. I'm here for you regardless of the outcome. And no matter what happens, we're going to be here for each other. Do I think Cheryl would have said,

no, don't do that? I don't. I think Cheryl would have been all for it. I think given how intrusive the media was back then, Cheryl as an adult probably reflected back and was like, I'm glad it didn't come out then because that would have followed me for the rest of my life. It wouldn't have just been something that I exposed in a book I wrote when I was an adult. This would have followed me for the rest of my life. Everybody would have known about it. Lana was a public figure. And because of her mother's public figure status, everything that Cheryl did would have been of interest to the media. It would have been a shame if Lex just had a bad accident. I think he died.

I think he died of a heart attack on the street not long after. That's called karma. But, you know, if his brake lines didn't work as he's going through the Hollywood Hills. Yeah. I mean, that's what I would have ideally liked to have seen happen. Not saying I condone that type of behavior. I'm just saying it would have been a damn shame. That's what Steve Crane should have done, went in and beat the shit out of that guy.

Just saying, if the brakes don't work or you take a long walk off a short cliff and you happen to wear concrete shoes that day. Yeah, he just disappears, right? They'd write a documentary about you. I mean, once Lana started dating Johnny Stompanato, she could have just been like, hey, get rid of this guy. Speaking of Johnny Stompanato,

is he coming into the story soon? He is now, yes. Oh, here we go. Nice segue. So enter Johnny Stompanato, right? On the heels of the already intense pain and suffering Lana and her daughter had gone through at the hands of men.

In one way or the other, so many in this story are victims of someone or something. But Stompanato is the technical victim in this murder case. He's the victim of murder. Yeah. Even though he's a scumbag. So we do need to understand him and where he came from in order to understand his motivations to even force himself into Lana's life in the first place. Now, from what we understand, it's widely believed that Johnny was either instructed or encouraged to get close to celebrities, especially lonely, wealthy women, as a way to curry influence, gather intel, and possibly engage in extortion.

Now, who would have instructed him to do this? None other than the illustrious Mickey Cohen. Meyer Harris Cohen was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, to a poor Russian Jewish immigrant family. After his father died, his mother moved the family to Los Angeles, seeking a better life. But instead of the American dream, Mickey found himself pulled into the streets, falling in with local gangs by the time he was a teenager. He was short, scrappy, and fearless, qualities that made him a natural in the rough-and-tumble world of Depression-era crime. In his early years, Cohen boxed professionally, which helped him build connections and discipline, but also got him noticed by East Coast mobsters. By the 1930s, he was running illegal gambling

operations in Cleveland and later Chicago, where he worked briefly for Al Capone's outfit. That stint connected him with major players in organized crime, but he really started making waves when he returned to Los Angeles in the late 1930s. That's when he began working under Bugsy Siegel, who was building a West Coast empire of gambling, racketeering, and Hollywood connections. Real quick, can I step in here? Little plug. There's a movie that's based on the biography of Mickey Cohen.

It's called Gangster Squad. Sean Penn plays Mickey Cohen. Have you seen it? Yeah. Okay. I like gangster movies. Okay, so for everybody else out there, Sean Penn is Mickey Cohen.

Ryan Gosling is in it. He's one of the detectives. And then Josh, is it Brolin or Brolin? Brolin. Brolin. Wasn't he married to Celine Dion? No. No, he's not married to Celine Dion. But he's Thanos. That's how a lot of people know his voice. But he's been in a lot of movies. He's the

sergeant in this movie. It is such a badass movie. If you're looking for something to do this weekend, get a bottle of wine, a little charcuterie board, pop on Gangster Squad. You can thank me later. Great movie. Wine and charcuterie board.

Who are you? Stephanie Harlow? I just, it sounds, I'm really, I'd really like one right now. I know, right? Like the whole olives and like salami thing would really, it would really go along with the olives. It's just charcuterie board. Nope. Just a bunch of meats and cheeses and like a honey.

Like, but I want like the honey that comes like with a little beehive thing. You know what I'm talking about? It's like the little, it's a little square cube. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. The, it comes with the comb, the honeycomb. The honeycomb. Yes.

A beehive. What am I talking about? The beehive. The honeycomb. Oh my God. I could go for one right now. Yeah. Pepperoni, salami.

Yeah. Pepperoni, salami. Maybe some nice Italian, crusty Italian bread. Oh my God, I could go for one right now. Pepperoni, salami. Pepperoni, salami, maybe some nice Italian, crusty Italian bread. Oh my God. Anyways. Mickey Cohen would approve. I might watch that movie this weekend. I got a flight. I'm going to pop it on the flight.

Yeah, I'm going to watch it again tonight. Great movie. So Mickey Cohen, he served as Bugsy Siegel's muscle and right-hand man, helping enforce order and shake down anyone who crossed the operation. When Segal was murdered in 1947, likely on orders from back east, Cohen was ready to take the reins. He inherited Segal's gambling interests, extortion rackets, and Hollywood production schemes, positioning himself as the new boss in town. Cohen was savvy. He understood not just the street game, but also the optics of power. He cultivated the media, gave interviews, played the part of flashy gangster with tailor-made

suits, big cigars, and a public persona that was part menace, part celebrity. He surrounded himself with actors, boxers, and starlets, and he turned his criminal operations into an empire built on gambling, loan sharking, and protection rackets, often extorting nightclubs and businesses across Los Angeles. When he wasn't behind bars, he loved the cameras. Newspaper photographers popping flashbulbs as he walked by. Television reporters popping questions. He was a guy who knew how to convert his everyday actions into front page stories. Pete Noyes, who retired from Fox 11 in 2008, tells me he remembers Cohen well. The media created Mickey Cohen.

He was a darling of the media. They loved it because everything he did was newsworthy. I could spit on a sidewalk and it'll be in the headlines. He was a cocky little guy. And there were the women in Mickey's life who went in and out of our news coverage, like his girlfriend and exotic dancer Candy Barr. There was stripper and eventual B-movie actress Liz Renee, who refused to testify against Cohen. She ended up spending a couple of years in prison herself.

And after his divorce, there was fiancé Sandy Hagan, almost three decades younger than Mickey. I'll work and I'll move up to San Francisco to be near him. They never married. There were always Mickey Cohen stories. We have over 25 years of them in our KTTV archives. Noyes and others have suggested that Cohen created his own mythology, epic stories, and reporters hung on to his every word when he talked about the underworld. There's a guy in Alcatraz that forged those papers out of Alcatraz.

There were many attempts on Cohen's life in many locations, even one at his popular clothing store on the Sunset Strip, another at his home in Brentwood. His every move was covered. My God, the media couldn't get enough. They covered him when he got himself a bulletproof car. Check out those incredibly thick windows. If bullets worried him, so did germs. He had this germ phobia, and he constantly was washing his hands.

We even found in our archives footage of that. Yeah, I'm definitely watching that movie tonight. I haven't seen any footage of the actual Mickey Cohen before this, so that was cool to see that. And I want to say Emma Stone plays the last girl that he doesn't marry, but he's dating in the movie. I could be wrong. The girl who was like, I'm going to move to San Francisco to be closer to him. Yeah, and she actually starts dating Ryan Gosling. There's something there with him as a detective.

I'm sure there's a little bit of creative liberty taken in the movie to kind of build that story up, but really good movie. And yeah, I can see from those clips and you do see it in the movie. He did. He was a character. He was someone who was out there. He wasn't in the shadows. He wanted people to know who he was. Well, a lot of those mob bosses did back then, man. It was weird. It was weird. I mean, it's like, I'm a criminal and I'm doing criminal things and you all know I am, but I'm also like taking pictures with Frank Sinatra, you know, it's just weird. Well, I mean, they, the mob back in the day, man, they really did control things and they weren't secretive about it. The mob still to a lesser degree, there is organized crime that's out there, but they're now in suits and ties and they're higher ups and businesses, they're CEOs, CFOs, and they do things a little

differently now. But yeah, back then it was people admired them. They wanted to be like them. That was the cool thing to be. Well, that's actually a very interesting transition to what we're going to talk about next, but first, let's take a quick break. If your dog could talk, they'd warn you about what's lurking in their bowl. Mass-produced kibble isn't just unappetizing, it could be a crime against canine health. Mysterious byproducts, unpronounceable preservatives, and who knows what fillers. Sounds more like evidence from a crime scene than dinner. But Ollie is here to crack the case on pet nutrition with fresh human-grade meals made with the highest quality ingredients. No mystery meats, no artificial junk, just real, minimally processed food made in U.S. kitchens.

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That's O-L-L-I-E dot com slash Crime Weekly and enter code Crime Weekly to get 60% off on your first box. So the mob in Hollywood have always had a twisted kind of courtship because both worlds revolved around image, influence, and money. And they both knew how to craft a story, whether for the screen or the street. Hollywood, especially in its golden age, was a cash-heavy industry with shady bookkeeping and behind-the-scenes dealmaking. That made it the perfect front for mob money. Nightclubs, production companies, even film studios became places where organized crime could clean dirty cash, invest in something legitimate, or scam off the top. The mob owned nightclubs, casinos, and restaurants where actors, producers, and agents went to see and be seen. And that also

created a natural overlap. If you were a rising star, you had to go to these venues controlled by organized crime. And if you were a mobster, being seen with celebrities added polish and production. It blurred the line between what was criminal and what was cool. Additionally, Hollywood liked the edge the mob brought. Danger was sexy, especially in noir or gangster films. Mobsters, meanwhile, were obsessed with image. They wanted the clothes, the cars, the movie star girlfriends. They studied actors the same way actors studied gangsters. It wasn't just business, it was mutual aspiration. The mob also used Hollywood to gain influence over labor

unions, distribution routes, and even film content. Both the mob and the Hollywood elite ran on unspoken rules and unacknowledged truths. They protected their own, handled problems quietly, and knew how to manipulate perception. Scandal control, hush money, rebranding reputations, this was shared currency between them. And I'm sure that Mickey Cohen loved the image boost he received from rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, but he had another reason for wanting to get close to these people. Mickey Cohen ran bugging operations out of hotels and nightclubs he either owned or had under his thumb. Some of these venues were wired with hidden microphones and cameras, capturing celebrities and executives in compromising situations, sexual affairs, drug use, etc. These recordings were then

used for extortion, favors, or leverage. Cohen was also known to implant his underlings into the lives of certain starlets so that a sex tape could be secretly recorded and then used for Cohen's benefit. Now, Johnny Stompanato was born in 1925 in Woodstock, Illinois, to a middle-class Italian-American family. He was the youngest of four children, and his mother, Carmela, died six days after giving birth to him. But his father was a good father, actually. His father was a barber. The family maintained a modest, quiet life. However, Johnny was handsome, restless, and fiercely proud, and he always seemed to crave something more dangerous, more glamorous. By the time he was in high school, Johnny had impregnated two local girls, bringing scandal and shame to his family, who are well-respected and well-liked in their community. So a decision was made to send

him to Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri in 1941, just as America was getting geared up to enter World War II. After this, he joined the Marines, and he served during the war in the Pacific Theater. In March of 1946, Johnny was done with the Marines but remained overseas, traveling to China where he claimed he ran several nightclubs and sold underage girls for $5. In May of 1946, Johnny got married to Sarah Utush, a Muslim whose parents had immigrated to China where Sarah was born and raised. Stompanato, a good Italian boy who had attended Catholic church since childhood, quickly converted to Islam in order to marry Sarah, and he brought her back home with him

to Woodstock. Like many veterans, Johnny had trouble reintegrating back into civilian life, and it is said that he suffered from PTSD. Not long after his wife gave birth to their son, Stompanato abandoned them both and fled to Hollywood, a place that had always fascinated him. It is said that Johnny got the money to fund his trip out west from a man named Charles Hubbard, the heir to a British fortune, and the way he got the funds was not through friendship or a business deal, but by using his body. According to the book A Murder in Hollywood, the untold story of Tinseltown's most shocking crime, Johnny kept up his means of income when he arrived in LA. Quote, when he got to Hollywood, Stompanato bought a bikini swimsuit and took up position poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He quickly became popular with entertainers like Merv Griffin

and Liberace. Griffin reportedly propositioned Stompanato the first day he met him and soon became a weekly customer, while Liberace was rumored to have paid Stompanato as first day he met him and soon became a weekly customer, while Liberace was rumored to have paid Stompanato as much as $1,000 for one night of sex. But Stompanato did not consider himself a homosexual. He loved women and figured he was going to have to pay his dues in Hollywood like so many actors had before and since. He knew that his good looks and combat experience would open the doors of opportunity in Los Angeles. Stompanato played Mal Gigolo at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool by day and Sunset Strip tough guy by night. He had read stories about Bugsy Siegel and his takeover of LA and it gave him inspiration. He just needed the right mentor, end quote. I hate to say it, these stories, obviously there's

a lot of bad in it. It's not great, but I can see how so many movies and so many shows are based off of this stuff because it really does sound like something you would only see in a movie. But the reality is these people were living these lives every day. And it's, uh, it's crazy to think, especially then how prevalent it was where it was out there. It was for everybody to see. You knew the restaurants, you knew the bars, you knew where these guys hung out. Like they ran these places. And, you know, I can see the allure to it. Although at the core,

we know what these people were up to. A lot of people died at the hands of these individuals. So it's not something you want to glamorize, but you can see it. And the movies are good. And they're good because in reality, you know, this shit was really happening. It really was, man.

Like, and even Johnny Stompanato is like, all right, I know about, you know, Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen and I want to be a part of this. So what's he going to do? Well, he's going to just go up to Mickey Cohen and find someone who knows him, which is going to be easy. He's going to do it quickly. And then that person's going to be like, oh, hey, Mickey, by the way, there's this guy, Johnny Stompanato.

He's got some combat experience, might work in your outfit. Mickey Cohen's going to be like, come on, like, come around with me for a few days. Especially with Mickey being a boxer. He's going to gravitate towards that. Like he was a fighter himself. So like that's someone that's right up his alley. But yeah, I mean, what we were saying earlier, where now you see these criminals and they stay in the shadows for

the most part, but most people aren't trying to be like that. They don't idolize them. Where back in the day, yeah, you're looking at Mickey Cohen as your mentor. That's the world they were in back then. Absolutely. Right. And they didn't want to be the police, the chief of police. They wanted to be Mickey Cohen. And they wanted to be Mickey Cohen or they wanted to be Rhett Butler. You know, basically that was it. Yeah, okay. That's fair. So Johnny began working with Mickey Cohen.

And soon he had convinced the mob boss that he was trustworthy and could help protect him from the many and constant attempts on his life. Cohen saw potential in Stompanato, not as a strategist, but as a front man. Good looking, confident, and capable of intimidating people without ever raising his voice. Apparently Johnny was strong and tall. You know, he was like a tall, broad-shouldered, attractive man, but people could tell like he's got the capacity for violence inside of him. Johnny started working for Cohen as an enforcer

and liaison, often acting as muscle for Cohen's extortion and protection rackets, but his real value laid in how well he blended into Hollywood society. He was the perfect inside man, able to cozy up to actresses, charm nightclub owners, and sniff out potential leverage. Like any other gangster, Johnny had several aliases, from Johnny Valentine to Tommy Valen. When he began pursuing Lana Turner in 1958, he introduced himself as John Steele, but Lana was not the first actress he set his sights on. In February of 1949, the papers reported

a marriage between actress Helen Gilbert and Johnny Stompanato, who is described as a ceramics manufacturer in the articles. He was eight years younger than she was, and Helen actually had no idea what her new husband did for work, which is probably why their marriage lasted only five months before she filed for divorce. Johnny always had plenty of money. He just couldn't legitimately account where it had come from. He rented a palatial mansion on the ocean in Malibu. He drove a brand new Cadillac. And at any given time, he had thousands of dollars in cash bulging out of his wallet. And this was back in like the 40s and 50s where that was, I mean, it is a lot of money today, but it was a whole lot of money back then. Oh, yeah.

So not long after his divorce from Helen Gilbert, he used his means and good looks to secure a marriage to another older woman, actress Helene Stanley, who would eventually become the live model for Disney animators when they created their drawings of Cinderella, Princess Aurora, and Anita from 101 Dalmatians. While the two tied the knot in April of 1953, this union lasted for two years, but the marriage was said to have been plagued by troubles and violence from day one. When Stanley filed for divorce in February of 1955, she exchanged letters with a friend who told her

that they thought Johnny really cared about her, really loved her. And Helene Stanley's reply was, quote, he doesn't. All he cares about is what he can get out of me, end quote. The plan to set Johnny Stompanato on Lana Turner began when Mickey Cohen found out that Lana was no longer working under the protection of MGM, that she had struck out on her own, and that she was particularly vulnerable after her most recent failed marriage to Lex Barker. An aging actress in Hollywood with no studio and no husband but plenty of money would be a prime target for Cohen's extortion schemes. I'm not saying that she's aging. She's in her mid-30s. I know, I was like, damn. It's not me saying it. Relatively speaking, compared to what she's up against during that time, I think it's a fair assessment.

It's not the way it is now, though. I am so glad to say. No, look at Meryl Streep. Look at Nicole Kidman. Yeah, they're wiping the floor. Halle Berry. I mean, they wipe the floor with these younger actors, honestly. But no, for that time when everyone is about about it's about youth and it's about appearance and and also yes just just speaking of not necessarily new as far as age but just

new in the industry a fresh new face she had been in the industry at that point for how long decades two decades so i mean at that point she's i don't want to say old news but she's on the back nine and she knew that that's why she started her own production company yep yep but i don't mean to say she's aging obviously you're saying if you're over 30 you're old i'm older than she was at the time when they considered her to be an aging actress and so obviously i i'm with you a lot i i don't listen at the back in the day they didn't have all the botox and all that stuff where you could be in your 40s and still look 20 it just she looked great she did look great from the videos and pictures i've seen she looked amazing yeah even when in those interviews when she's like in her 70s she's still stunning it's crazy even all the videos of cohen's exes i'm like jesus man save some for the

rest of us well mickey cohen had money in danger but he wasn't a good looking guy was he i mean no i didn't i'm not seeing it in those videos i don't want to judge i know he wasn't a good looking guy, was he? I mean, no, I didn't. I'm not seeing it in those videos. I don't want to judge. I know he wasn't. He was like Danny DeVito, man. Danny DeVito should have played Cohen. I'm not Ryan Gosling, but, you know, he got an upgrade with the Mickey with the Sean Penn playing him.

That's what I'm saying. It should have been Danny DeVito, not Sean Penn. Oh, no, not Danny DeVito. More accurate, though, right? Oh, that's horrible. If he was here right now, you'd be dead. Who, Danny DeVito. More accurate though, right? Oh, that's horrible. If he was here right now, you'd be dead. Who, Danny DeVito or Mickey Cohen? No, if Mickey Cohen was here, you'd be dead.

Yeah, maybe. No, he would just have to like woo me to prove that he was still attractive. But that's what I'm saying though. He had- He'd send Johnny Stapanato after you. Yeah, he'd send Johnny Stapanato after me. Trust me, I am unwwooable at this point. No one can woo me.

So initially, the plan was to set up a situation where Johnny would seduce Lana and then convince her to take part in a threesome with himself and her good friend, Ava Gardner. Now, the whole Ava Gardner situation, this isn't even the script I wrote, but I know everything about this now. Ava Gardner was like with Frank Sinatra, who also had ties to the mob, right? He definitely did. I was just about to say that. So Frank Sinatra is kind of like stepping out on his wife. Ava Gardner is his girlfriend, like his number one girlfriend.

We've all seen Goodfellas, you know. We know that Friday nights are for the wives, Saturday nights are for the girlfriends, right? Yeah, and that still goes on to this day. So Ava Gardner was Frank Sinatra's Saturday night, and he was like head over heels in love with her. Johnny Stompanato starts talking to Ava Gardner. They got something going on. Frank Sinatra goes to Mickey Cohen. He's like, hey, call your boy Johnny off my girl, right? And Mickey Cohen basically was like, dude, I'm not getting involved in anyone's love life. He said, go back to your wife, Nancy, and shut the fuck up. Basically, like, I'm not doing nothing for you. Who do you think you are? You're Frank Sinatra.

I'm Mickey Cohen. I could have you killed right now. Don't come telling me what to do. Like, I'm your lapdog. My boy can talk to whoever he wants. Yeah. You might be you might be famous, good looking, but I can have you killed. Yeah. I'll have you buried, you know? And man, a side note. Talk about competition. You're talking to a girl and the other guy that you're in competition with is Frank Sinatra. Yeah, old blue eyes. But I mean, you look at Johnny Stompanato, you look at Frank Sinatra.

I'm sorry I'm taking Johnny. Really? Yes. Picture's up right here, Shannon. Throw him up. Frank Sinatra's like four foot eight. He wasn't that attractive, let's be honest. Frank Sinatra's like four foot eight. He wasn't that attractive.

Let's be honest. Oh, the slander. Those years. The mugshot of Frank Sinatra. I mean, listen, Frank Sinatra had that edge for like a Hollywood guy because he had mob ties and whatever and the whole Vegas thing. But like Johnny Stompinato was like six foot five, dark hair, Italian, rugged. You know, he had that like. All right. I want to hear you guys in the comments. six foot five, dark hair, Italian, rugged. You know, he had that like, all right,

I want to hear you guys in the comments. I think there's gonna be a lot of Frank Sinatra fans here who are, I mean, then on top of that, his voice. Was he even that good of a singer? Moving on, moving on.

I mean, it was all good, but like Dean Martin was a better singer than Frank Sinatra. Okay. Sammy Davis Jr. Far better than Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra. The Frank Sinatra fan club is going to be on Reddit tonight. I love Frank Sinatra.

I love his music. It's timeless. But was he even that good? I don't know. You know. But anyway, so Johnny Sampanato already had an in with Ava Gardner. And Ava and Lana are, like, tight. So Johnny was supposed to, like, set up this threesome to happen between Ava and Lana are like tight. So Johnny was supposed to like set up this threesome to happen

between Ava and himself and Lana and then film it, right? And then once they had that scandalous act on film, they could use it to scare Lana for as long as they wanted while they drained her for all her money, right? They can just hold that over her head indefinitely. She's never going to want that to get out, right? So in April of 1957, Lana was working on a movie for Universal Studios and she was in her dressing room and the studio switchboard basically called her and they were like, hey, you've got a call from somebody named Mr. John Steele. And Lana was like, I never heard of this person before. So tell this guy like I'm not accepting his call.

But the calls kept coming day after day. And eventually, Lana became curious. Who is this John Steele? What's up? So she asked the guy who's doing her makeup. She's like, hey, take one of these calls from this John Steele dude. Figure out what he wants from me. So Johnny Stompanato, who's going by John Steele, he told Lana through her makeup guy, all he wanted to do was send her flowers. And that seemed innocent enough. So she was like, all right, you can do that. And the next day, the flowers arrived to Lana's dressing room.

But just like the calls, the flowers kept coming. And Lana wrote in her book, quote, there were so many of them that they wouldn't fit into my dressing room. And what magnificent flowers, a vast variety of them, as luxuriant as they were profuse. There was a card, of course, with just the name John Steele and a telephone number. No other message. Now I was intrigued and certainly I was flattered. After Lex's behavior, this floral compliment was gratifying and ego boosting, end quote. At least she's honest and self-aware. So obviously it's all mysterious now. Who's this guy?

And Lana ended up calling John Steele and she was like, how the hell do I know you? And he's like, you don't know me, but I know your good friend Ava Gardner and I've always had a deep admiration for you. So Johnny tried to convince Lana to go out for dinner. She declined. He tried for lunch or drinks, even coffee. She said no and hung up. Not only did Stompanato continue to send flowers, but he began sending records of the exact type of music that Lana liked. I hope it wasn't Frank Sinatra songs. It probably was. You think so? I mean, that would be some savage, diabolical shit that he's sending the music of the other

girl's boyfriend. I mean, that's some deep shit right there. I've got you under my skin. Yep. Yep. All right. Let's take a quick break. And I'm going to tell you when we come back why Johnny knowing exactly what kind of music Lana liked was kind of creepy. Did you know Fast Growing Trees is the biggest online nursery in the U.S. with thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers? They have all the plants your yard needs like fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and so much more. And whatever plants you're interested in, Fast Growing Trees has you covered. Find the perfect fit for your climate and space. Fast Growing Trees makes it easy to get your dream yard. You can order

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Again, that's fastgrowingtrees.com, code CRIMEWEEKLY. Now is the perfect time to plant, so use our code to save today. This offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. All right, so John Steele, aka Johnny Stompanato, he's going to know a lot about Lana before they've even sat down and had their first date. And Lana said in her book, she wondered how he knew exactly what kind of music she liked. So she found out that he'd somehow gotten in touch with the person in charge of playing music on her sets and found out what type of music she liked. And this caused Lana to feel that whoever John Steel was, he knew what he wanted and he knew how to get things done.

When it should have made her feel like he was a creepy, creepy stalker. Because he was. So eventually Lana caved. And she agreed to meet this mystery man for a drink at her home. She had told him she was working that night and that he should call before he came over because she didn't know when she would be home. And maybe she'd get home and she'd be too tired and she wouldn't want any visitors. So he should call before he came. When she arrived to her house on that night, she saw a black Lincoln parked across the street. And not long after getting inside, she was told by her maid that a handsome man had arrived to call on her. And Lana's like,

what the hell? I told him to call, you know? So she still agrees to have a drink with him that night. She goes down into like the sitting room and she's like, was that you parked outside in the Black Lincoln? And he's like, oh yeah, it was. I was waiting for you to come home. And she's like, how the hell do you know where I lived? Right. Cause she was going to give him his ad, her address when he called. And he's like, oh, I just knew Ava told me blah, blah, blah. You know, he had, and he's like, I'm really sorry if that was like inappropriate. I just really wanted to see you. And she's like, okay, I'm flattered. So Lana agreed to still have a drink with him that night.

He was respectful. He didn't overstay his welcome. He wasn't there for long. So she agreed to have lunch with him. But she wouldn't even agree to have lunch out with him. She was like, come to the studio when I'm working. We can have lunch. Johnny shows up with her favorite lunch dish from her favorite restaurant.

How the hell did he know what that was? And he had a diamond watch with her initials engraved into the gold. Okay. And Lana's like, what the hell? This is crazy. She's like, I can't accept this. And he's like, you have to accept it. Like it's yours. I can't return it anyways. It has your initials in it. And she's like, okay, how does he know so much about me? Lana said, quote, he had the kind of dark, good looks that had always attracted me, and his attentiveness soothed the hurt of those last grim months with Lex. The gifts continued, a brooch, a bracelet, and then a ring, all in the same design. When I asked him, do you happen to have a money tree?

He replied, no, just the leaves. I became cautious about mentioning anything I liked for fear that he would give it to me, End quote. I mean, listen, this guy not only love bombed the shit out of Lana Turner, but he did so with the dedication and precision of someone who had perfected the craft. He must have researched the life of Lana Turner to the deepest levels he possibly could because it seemed like he knew everything about her, like he could anticipate her every need need and he made it appear as if they were like destined to be like soulmates he told her he had a horse named Rowena and she's like oh that's crazy it just so happens that Rowena was also the name of the horse that Lana had learned to ride side saddle on so this was like an important horse in her life and he's got a horse

named Rowena that's crazy he didn't have no horse named Rowena. I mean, he did, but he bought it specifically to tell Lana he had a horse named Rowena. That's crazy. Little things like that would pop up and make Lana feel almost like a deep, magical connection to the man she knew as John Steele. Lana claims she had no idea who her new boyfriend was, actually was, or what he did until a friend approached her and told her the truth. Now, some say the friend is Mickey Rooney. She's never identified this person. Oh, yeah, because they'd be dead.

Right. But the friend comes up and he's like, I don't know if you know, but this dude you've been hanging out with is Johnny Stompanato, you know, right hand man to Mickey Cohen. And yeah, that was kind of a huge wake-up call for her. And she's now going through in her head, like, how do I keep ending up with men who lie to me, who don't tell me the whole truth, who are not honest with me, and they spend so much time wooing me and getting me to fall in love with them only so that they can then use me and take advantage of me and then discard me.

This is what's going on in her head. Johnny Steele. Not the best name. John Steele's a great name. John Steele? Yeah. What would you like to be? John Lazor?

John Steele's awesome. It's okay. Do you remember? Did I ever tell you what my undercover name was? Was it Derek Steele? No. Derek Slade. S-L-A-D-E.

Why did I do you're going to laugh? Derek Slade D Slade I've never shown you the ID I have a full blown Rhode Island license It has a motorcycle license on it Damn Derek Slade drove a motorcycle?

I had a motorcycle license So yeah I had a motorcycle license, so yeah. I had a motorcycle license. It's just an M on the back of your license, bud. D. Slade. Dangerous man of mystery. John Slade. Lana, unfortunately, was not a big fan that she had met this man using an alias and he hadn't been

honest with her. Well, again, I had never known such generosity. And I was intrigued. Now, this is, I had never known such generosity. And I was intrigued. Now, this before I found out who he was. Sure. This is when you thought he was Johnny... John Steele.

And a dear, more thoughtful, considered gentleman I had not met. And he really and truly wooed me. And I was just overwhelmed so when my friend came to me and told me hey wait a minute here's who this guy

is I was too deep into it then that's when I tried to break it off because I didn't want anything to do with a mobster, gangster or anyone of that ilk did you think you loved him at the time you found out I was intrigued with him I would not so much of love as fascinated with him but I hadn't seen his dark side yet yeah that that's a great way to describe it, right? A fascination with the lifestyle. I think that's what a lot of people are drawn to when we talk about the mob.

They're fascinated with the lifestyle, the culture, the unspoken rules, the relationships that form and the code that they have within them, the rules that they won't break and the ones that they will, and yet they'll kill someone just for looking at them the wrong way. So it is a really fascinating world to live in. But when it's from a fictional perspective, when you think about the fact that this is real. Or it's just light and you're having fun. Yes.

But like she said, she wasn't familiar with the dark side. Now, on a side note, that's my first time seeing Johnny Stompanato or John Stompanato or John Stompanato. John Steele. Frank might have some problems. Yeah. Frank's got problems, man. Frank might have a battle here. If that, if that in the comments, I might be eating my words on this one. I can't even believe you made that bold statement before even knowing,

before even knowing what Johnny Stompanato looked like. I had to relook while the video was playing, I relooked up Frank Sinatra. I could be in trouble here. See, you remember Frank Sinatra, his old blue eyes, right? From this crooner. I just keep thinking about the mugshot photo. He looked great in that photo. But that photo that I just saw of Johnny Stompanato,

not looking good, Frank. I got your back, bro. But I might lose this one. Yeah. Well, you can also see why Lana kind of fell for him. Not only was he tall, dark, handsome, younger than her, his attention into her was very flattering. But he's also got his own money, a lot of money. And for the first time, really, besides Henry Topping, who ended up spending her money anyways, because he spent all of his, this man can provide for himself. He doesn't need her money. So there's going to be a draw there. But when Lana confronted Stompanato with this truth, she's like, why did you lie to me about who you were? He laughed it off. He was like, no, I didn't want you to know the truth,

because obviously I thought you would judge me, but it doesn't matter. I'm still the same person. And Lana told him, listen, we should just cool things off. Like take some space. He left again. And he said, quote, Lana, darling, just try to get away from me, end quote. This would become very prophetic. Was this like a joke or like a passive aggressive?

It's a passive aggressive threat. Okay, okay. Yeah, like you ain't going nowhere. Okay, got it. So Lana said she tried to keep to her word. She tried to go no contact with Stompanato. He was not having it. He'd keep calling, especially if he saw in the papers that she was being seen out with other men.

And one night he climbed the fire escape outside of her apartment, broke in through a back door. Lana says he entered her bedroom as she was asleep in bed. He jumped in bed with her, held a pillow over her face face only to remove it when she was close to blacking out. She threatened to call the police, but she says that both she and Stompanato knew that she wouldn't do that because she was very concerned with her public image and wouldn't want the negative publicity. Lana Turner picks another winner, right? That's what the headlines would have read. They already talked so much about her poor relationship choices, about how she just couldn't keep a man, about how she kept marrying all these loser guys. And now she's dating a mobster and she has to call the police to have him removed because he broke into her house.

Like that's all she would have needed. Yeah. In her book, Lana is actually very honest with us and herself in a very raw and real way. She's super self-aware, most likely after decades of looking inward. She said, quote, there was another reason I didn't get help, though for a while, I couldn't even admit it to myself. His consuming passion was strangely exciting.

Call it forbidden fruit or whatever, but this attraction was very deep. Maybe something sick within me and my dangerous captivation went far beyond lovemaking. In fact, the sex was nothing special. Ouch. People have analyzed my attraction to John by pointing out that my father was an occasional gambler and that he was murdered. The connection seems obvious enough, but I can't say for sure it's valid. Most of what I felt at this time was fear. I felt trapped, and John took pains to

remind me that he had the power to harm me and my family. His threats were vague in the beginning, that rather than let me go, he would see me dead first." I mean, who knew it would ever happen like that? I was just playing for time to get rid of him. But every time I thought I was rid of him, he'd trap me again. If that hadn't happened the way it happened, how could you have gotten away? How would you have gotten away? I very well could have been dead or mutilated, really. He wasn't about to let me go. Or he would have had my daughter kidnapped or killed. I mean, it was that ferocious. And here I was just playing for time.

Somehow, somehow I could get through. Look, we are finished, you know. It didn't work. Couldn't buy it. To the outside world, Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato's relationship looked like the classic Hollywood romance. Glamorous, passionate, and picture perfect. Lana was the quintessential movie star, polished, poised, and heartbreakingly beautiful. Johnny, tall, dark, and handsome, with the look of a romantic lead, always impeccably dressed and often seen on her

arm at high society parties and at nightclubs, and to the press and casual onlookers, they seemed like a matched set. They were photographed often, sometimes laughing together, sometimes locked in dramatic poses that hinted at cinematic intensity. Gossip columns leaned into the spectacle, painting him as a rugged young suitor and her as the troubled but hopeful screen siren looking for real love. For a public hungry for fantasy, they embodied the kind of high-stakes romance, complete with highs and lows and tension that fell straight out of one of Lana's films. But nobody really knew who he was at that point. He was just like this guy, kind of like when he was married to the other two actresses.

Nobody really knew who he was. But as he spent more time with Mickey Cohen, they would kind of put two and two together. They'd figure out who he was. And Lana really never came right out in public and was like, this is my boyfriend. It was just somebody she'd be photographed with every so often. But there were signs if you looked closely that there was problems. Some of her friends said that Johnny was too controlling, too present, always hovering. Others noticed how Lana's sparkle seemed to dim when he was near. And around this time, Lana began to spread the word through journalists that she was working hard on her new production company and that she already had six

projects in the works. Johnny does not react well to the interviews she gives to the press. We're going to talk about that when we come back from our next break. So it's been so long because I've been sleeping on my Helix mattress for years now. And it has been a long time since I've slept on a regular mattress. And you would think that I'd forget how much it sucked sleeping on other mattresses. But I don't always sleep on my own bed at home. Sometimes I'm in a hotel. And then I remember very quickly why I switched to a Helix mattress at home.

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To get your 20% off, just text weekly to 64000. That's weekly to 64000. One more time. That's weekly to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. All right, so Lana's doing a press tour, basically.

You know, she's hidden up all these gossip columnists who really kind of owe her because they've put her personal life all over the place and gotten money from her spectacle of her life for years. And she's like, hey, I want to push my new production company. I want everybody to know what I'm doing. And then I'm striking out on my own and that I'm busy and I already have projects in the works. During one of these interviews, Lana also confessed

that she never wanted to get married again. And when Johnny read these articles, he was furious. Furious that Lana had all this work coming up, which would mean time away from him, and furious that she announced to the world she had no intention of ever taking another husband. The first film Lana's production company had planned was called Another Time, Another Place. This was a film she planned to shoot in England, where the story actually took place, not on a Hollywood set. Now, Johnny had assumed that he would be accompanying Lana overseas, but she firmly put her foot down.

In her head, she knew she needed the months-long break from Johnny, and she hoped that time and distance would remove him from her life for good. However, while she was away, she became lonely. She started talking to Stompanato on the phone regularly, and in a moment of vulnerability, she booked Johnny a plane ticket to England. Now, this is very common. He had formed within her. He had made her codependent, basically. He'd formed within her, knowing that she was having a rough time after her divorce,

knowing that her self-esteem was low. He came in. He showered her with gifts, showered her with compliments. And just the fact that he always wanted to be around her and he would get jealous and he wanted her all to himself, that in a way was flattering to Lana because nobody had ever really felt like that about her before. They kind of always just used her and then discarded her and ended up cheating on her. But he was just like passionately into her. So there was something there that drew her, but also she was codependent on his support. The fact that he's always there for her. So she calls him and she's in England. At first, she's just talking about how she's lonely. And he's like, I get it. You know, he's understanding. He's there for her.

He's kind. He's like, you shouldn't, you know, you're going to be fine. You're going to be home soon. And so she's like, oh, wow, how nice. I could use that support and that warmth here. She has him fly to England. Now, at first, things were fine. And Johnny was loving and supportive. But Lana didn't want him to come on set with her because she didn't want the publicity of him being there. And she'd have her driver take him around and bring him wherever he wanted to go. But quickly, Johnny became bored and then he started complaining that Lana was working too much, not paying attention to him. This quickly spiraled into an irrational jealousy and Stompanato demanded to know why Lana

hid him away like her dirty little secret. One Friday, Lana was exhausted after a long week on set. She was coming down with a cold. She went right home and got into bed so she could crash for the weekend and then get back to work with a fresh head on Monday. She wrote in her book, quote, John came up to my bedroom to nag me about his boredom and my reluctance to be seen with him in public. He began slinging preposterous accusations about why I wouldn't allow him on set. Finally provoked beyond toleration. I screamed at him, get the hell out of this room. I want you to pack your bags and go home.

End quote. Lana said that Johnny briefly left the room, but then he kicked the door in moments later and told her he didn't have to listen to her. Enough of this, her thinking she could tell him what was what. He was the man. He was strong. He's a gangster. And he could do whatever he want. He's not going anywhere.

As Lana reached for the phone to call someone, Johnny attacked her, grabbing her by the throat, cutting off her airway. One of the maids heard the commotion and ran in, intervening, which led to Johnny storming off. Lana's larynx had been so brutalized she wasn't able to speak and production had to be shut down for several days. Lana says that a few days later, Johnny came back to apologize, but she once again asked him to leave, at which point he directly threatened to have her mother and daughter taken care of, aka killed. Now, the day after this, Johnny somehow managed to talk his way onto the set of Another Time, Another Place, and he had a gun tucked into his

waistband. In a story that has become Hollywood lore, Stompanato threatened Lana's co-star, a young and up-and-coming actor named Sean Connery. Sean Connery. Yeah, nobody knew who Sean Connery was at this point. Legend. Another unattractive guy. Jesus, this whole series just makes me really self-conscious. I'm sorry. We talk about all these people, like we talk about all these stories, but then knowing who they are, it's intimidating. But carry on.

Sean Connery. Sean Connery. He's young. Pretty much one of his first films that he's starring in. He's starring across as her love interest. The story goes that Lana and Connery were filming a love scene. And as they kissed, Stompanato overheard a PA remarking on the amazing chemistry between the two actors, saying it looked as if they'd had plenty of practice. Stompanato gets pissed off.

He waited until the scene was over. Then he approached Lana and Sean Connery, waving the gun at Connery, pointing it at him and telling him to stay away from Lana. Sean Connery, like a boss, immediately disarmed Stompanato. He grabbed his wrist, twisted it behind his back until Stompanato dropped the gun. Connery then spun Johnny around a face and punched him in the nose and left him bleeding on the floor. How embarrassing. How embarrassing. Wait, so Sean Connery beat up johnny stop and auto yeah wow that's a legendary story right holy shit there's so many like stories from the old hollywood times that like were covered up and only came out later and like different memoirs and people like

talking about it so you how embarrassing i'm still in shock by that. Like Johnny Stompanato, this big bad mob guy. Sean Connery, this good looking actor who Johnny's probably thinking I could break his bones in a matter of seconds. No, Johnny's thinking I have a gun. This dude's not going to do nothing. Yeah. And Connery. Yeah. Wow.

I know. That is embarrassing. That could get you in trouble with your mob friends. If they ever heard about it. Mickey Cohen heard this story. That's not good. If Mickey Cohen heard the story, it's over for you. It's over for Johnny. He's hiring Sean Connery as his muscle.

So obviously, Stompanato would be deported after this because he had a gun, which is against British law. You're not supposed to just carry guns around England. And he was deported and like kicked out of the country. Now, after filming wrapped, Lana flew to Acapulco. This is a place she'd always gone to escape and unwind. She considered it like her safe place, her place of peace. Now, she had mentioned to Johnny in a letter that she was going to spend some time in Mexico because he kept writing her and he's like, when are you going to be back in LA so we can talk about this? She's like, no, when I'm wrapping this shooting, I'm going to Mexico for a little while. I need to unwind. I need time to myself.

But she had not told him or anyone where she was going or when she would be there. So Lana landed in Copenhagen for her connecting flight to Mexico after she left England. And while she's sitting on the plane ready to get off to get on her other plane, a man boarded her plane and handed her a single yellow rose, telling her it was from a gentleman and leading her off the plane to the runway where she was met by none other than Johnny Stompanato. Not only had he followed her there, but he planned an entire press conference because standing behind him were a slew of reporters with cameras waiting to ask Lana questions while Johnny sat and watched. And now the reporters in Denmark would print that Lana Turner's boyfriend, Johnny

Stompanato, had made this romantic move of surprising her so that he could be at her side as she traveled. And after this, Johnny informed Lana that he was flying on to Mexico with her, saying, quote, you know in your blood, I'm never going to let you go, end quote. Now, the way Lana Turner tells it is that she didn't really have much of a choice. She feared scandal that might hurt her and her new production company, which she's banking on right now. She's poured a lot of money into this. It cannot be touched by bad publicity. She also feared a violent retaliation from Johnny and his mob friends. She said, quote, somehow I had to get rid of him without attracting the press or challenging his mean streak. I needed time to develop a plan and right now I needed some rest.

To me, that meant going to Acapulco, end quote. But in Mexico, things continued to escalate and actually got worse because he had her isolated there. Lana was booked into her usual suite at Villa Vera, but she informed Johnny that he was not going to be staying with her. He needed to find another hotel. Whatever the hell he did, she didn't care. He just was not going to be with her. Now, because it was the busy season in Acapulco, not only were there no vacancies at other hotels, but there weren't any free rooms at the Villa Vera. So the owner, Teddy Stouffer, would eventually arrange another quote unquote room from Stompanato. And he came in and he's like, oh, I got Johnny a room. And they lead Johnny off to go to his room. But within minutes,

Johnny came storming back into Lana's room, telling her like, they didn't get me a room. It's a utility closet with like a cot set up in it. There's no windows. There's not even a toilet, just a sink. They put a cot in this utility room for me and I'm not going to sleep there. I'm going to stay with you, right? The downfall of Johnny Stompanato is just fascinating to me so far, but continue. I mean, we went from being the right-hand man of Mickey Cohen to sleeping in a storage closet after getting beat up by James Bond. Sean Connery. Yeah. I mean, you know, you just told the James Bond origin story. This is how he got that role. Like someone on set saw that and said, that's James Bond. That's James Bond. I mean, that's how it happened. Clearly.

He was shaken, but he was not stirred. He was not to be stirred. No. So we don't really know where Johnny slept the night he stormed out. He went somewhere else for the night. But then the next day he came back to her hotel room in the morning and he was knocking. And she was like, go the hell away, dude. I'm trying to sleep. It's like 8 a.m. Leave me the hell alone. I'm exhausted. He kicked down the door of her hotel room. And basically, he was like, this is where I'm going to be. Do something about it. Now, within a few days, Johnny had convinced everyone at the hotel that he and Lana were together, and he was even able to secure a gun from the owner of the hotel, Teddy Stouffer, because he claimed that Lana was terrified of the large iguanas prowling the property. Lana wrote in her book, quote, with the gun in his possession, John grew bolder, especially towards me. Now he was carrying it around with him all the time, supposedly to deal with the iguanas that might invade my quarters, and he was becoming more insistent about sharing my bed or

else. I dealt with his threats in the wrong way, escaping him by drinking. If he made another threat, I took another drink. One evening, I was in bed, half reading, half dozing, believing John was in his room when suddenly he appeared at the foot of the bed, pointing the ugly snub-nosed automatic at my head. He had that purplish color in his face. Holding the gun on me, he got into my bed. If you're not going to be with me, you're not going to be with anyone else. I'm not kidding with this gun. Take your chance. I endured his lovemaking with no feeling whatsoever. The vodka I had drunk took care of that. He tried everything, even kindness, to win me over. And I kept thinking, I have to wait this out, end quote.

So it's getting bad. And like I said, he's got her at this resort. He's convinced everybody that they're together. And Lana's just being crazy. And she wants her own privacy. You know, she's a star. And sometimes she needs space. And that's why I need to have another room.

But like, she's my girl. And I need this gun to protect her from the iguanas. And he's really using the gun to keep her in check. Yeah. Yeah. No, 100%. This story has definitely taken a turn. And it's interesting that in the video that we were watching earlier, Lana kind of said,

you know, I wasn't aware of the dark side. And now we know what she was referring to. Yeah. Because I mean, you can even say like, oh, he's a mobster, a gangster. But like we said, during that time in Hollywood, they were glamorized. They were seen with stars and it was like, oh, he's a mobster gangster. That's what he does for a living. But you know, I'm sure he's not, he might be a good person still. He might not be a violent man, but now she sees now he is, he is violent and he's capable of not only using this violence to protect me,

but against me. And that's the last thing a using this violence to protect me, but against me. And that's the last thing a woman wants. No, no, of course not. No, like I said, the story is we're making light of Johnny Stompanato, but this is the other side to it. There's the thing that everyone's fascinated by. This is the reality of the situation. A lot of these people were not good guys. And if you didn't give them what they wanted, they would take it. And usually it was by force. Exactly. And that's why to this them what they wanted, they would take it. And usually it was by force. Exactly. And that's why to this day, there are still a lot of unsolved murders that fall at the feet of members of the mob. So yeah, there's two sides to the coin. There's the side

we see in the movies and how glamorous it was and how everyone wanted to be like that. And then there's the other side in the movies that we see where a lot of people were tragically killed because they just chose not to abide by whatever rules these members made up for them or because they just they they no longer had to use for them yeah exactly they found reasons oh they broke the code they gotta go and lana keeps trying to leave mexico because she's like okay if i can get back to la my family's there like the people i work for and work with are there. All my normal maids and house staff are there. He won't act this bad. He'll still be bad, but it'll only be if we're alone or if he gets me alone. But in general, I'll have more freedom and I'll be able to come up with a plan and figure out a way. I got to get back to LA, but he wouldn't let her. She's like, hey, we got to go back. And he's like, no, we need to stay here.

They ended up staying there, I think like two months, almost two months they were there in Acapulco with her trying to leave for the majority of the time. And Lana felt like a hostage. A phone call would finally give Lana the opportunity to get back to the States. And this call was from her agent informing her that she had been nominated by the Academy for Best Actress in Peyton Place. So by the time Peyton Place came out in 1957, Lana had been a star for over two decades and she was known for her beauty, glamour, and tabloid-fueled personal life, but not necessarily for being a serious actress. So when she delivered a nuanced, restrained performance as constant Mackenzie,

a repressed, emotionally conflicted single mother, it shocked people. It showed she wasn't just a pretty face or a scandal magnet. She had real dramatic chops. That nomination would be her first and only Oscar nod, and it represented a kind of legitimization. For Lana, it was proof that she could transcend her image, rise above the drama in her personal life, and be recognized as a serious artist. It should have been the greatest night of Lana Turner's life. But behind the scenes, her world was crumbling because her life also included Johnny Stampinato, a volatile, controlling mob enforcer whose jealousy knew no bounds. He hated the attention she would get from

this nomination. He did not want her surrounded by powerful men in tuxedos or by producers whispering about new scripts. He wanted her at home, in his sights and in his grasp, controlled, scared, submissive. Lana and Johnny would have many violent arguments leading up to the night of the Oscars. Some say he threatened to slash her face before the ceremony if she attended without him. Mickey Cohen had to reportedly warn him to back off, but Johnny didn't care. He'd gotten used to the power that came with being in Lana Turner's shadow. So while the rest of the world would see a woman glowing in designer couture, smiling for the cameras, Lana was living in a silent war. That night should have been her coronation.

Instead, it was the last breath before the scandal that would define her legacy. Just weeks later, Johnny would be dead, stabbed by Lana's daughter, Cheryl Crane, during a brutal fight. The headlines would scream, the studios would scramble, and Lana Turner would be pulled into the darkness of Hollywood's most infamous crime. Yeah, I'm not shocked to hear this. When you think about the evolution of their relationship, and this was only going to end one of two ways. Either Lana was going to be killed or Johnny was going to be killed.

That simple. One of them was going to die. The way this relationship was, Johnny was not going to let her out of it. She was not going to be allowed to see anybody else and to move on with her life. As long as Johnny was alive, Lana's life was over. He is.

So I could have seen this going the other way where all of a sudden Lana just disappears. That's also a common. Oh, absolutely. So the fact that it went this way is actually surprising because if you, if you told me this story and I didn't know why we were covering it and you asked me what I thought was going to happen based on everything that you just

described over the last like 15, 20 minutes, I would say, oh yeah, for sure. He's going to kill her. He's going to eventually kill her. He's already gotten close to it, putting the pillow over her head until she almost passed out, carrying the gun. I mean, it's a matter of time before he kills her. Holding a gun on her while he has sex with her, forcing her to be intimate with him. Yeah. I would have said it's only a matter of time she's going to die.

So the fact that we're here, it's an interesting turn of events. And I'm looking forward to diving into the specifics of the actual crime because now we're there. Now we're going to talk about the actual murder itself, who's responsible, how it happened, what we think about it, because now we have all the backstory. We have the context. And on the surface, it may not be a justifiably defensible killing, right? Maybe there wasn't a reason to kill him in that moment. But when you take in everything else that you described

tonight and everything leading up to this, it might make you feel differently. So I'm looking forward to hearing the specifics of the day in question, how it happened, how he ultimately was stabbed and why, at least on the surface, why we think that was at least what we've been told. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I think about Cheryl, her experiences with men up to this point, mostly Lex Barker, right? Yeah. And now she's hearing Johnny and her mother arguing. She's hearing that her mother's getting thrown around.

Yeah. In her head, she's thinking, my mother's in danger, alone with a man. When I was alone with a man, I was in danger. Now my mother's alone with a man, she's in danger. We can see how Cheryl's experiences shaped her decision in that moment. Oh yeah, for sure. This is all, I've said it multiple times, all of this is leading up to this moment. Lana's experiences as a child, how it kind of carried over to Cheryl. Now Cheryl,

as a child, what she's experiencing, these men in and out of her life how they've taken advantage of her she had enough she had enough and johnny he crossed the wrong person and whether it was lana or cheryl we're gonna find out and the irony is like johnny's probably crossed a lot of people in his days and maybe he thought in the back of his mind you know in in the life that i'm living it's very possible somebody could take me out in any moment. It's going to be a rival gang, another police officer, someone. I guarantee you he wasn't thinking it was going to be a Hollywood actress or her daughter. Or her teenage daughter, yeah. Right. So fascinating case so far.

I'm hooked. Let us know what you guys think in the comments about this case so far. I can't wait till part three. Any final words, Stephanie? No, I'm going to get started writing the script for the next episode. I can't wait. I can't wait till part three. Any final words, Stephanie? No, I'm going to get started writing the script for the next episode. I can't wait. I can't wait. Guys, that's going to do it for us. Everyone stay safe out there. We will see you next week. Have a good night. Bye.