Crime Weekly - S3 Ep298: Johnny Stompanato: The Actress, The Gangster, The Girl (Part 3)

Episode Date: May 2, 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.  CLUES - If you love unraveling mysteries and dissecting the unexpected, CLUES - hosted by Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore - is your new obsession. Check them out every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts! 2. https://www.Ollie.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 60% off your Welcome Kit! 3. https://www.ZipRecruiter.com/CrimeWeekly - Try ZipIntro for FREE! 4. https://www.SimpliSafe.com/CrimeWeekly - GET 50% off a new system with a Professional Monitoring Plan!

Bettering your business takes working with the best. With the James Hardy Alliance, you gain access to leads, training, networking, and support from the number one brand of siding in North America. Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy Alliance today. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Levasseur. So we are diving into the third and final part of the Johnny Stompanato and Lana Turner case. And before we do, I just want to apologize for my appearance. I was in Florida for a week for a film festival, and I just got back into town at 3 o'clock this morning.

And right before I got on the plane, I went in the ocean one more time, and everything – yeah, I pretty much just look like I just rolled off the beach, and I have not had a chance to shower. Jesus. Yeah, you really do look like shit tonight. I'm kidding. My hair is just all like salty and stiff. Well, at least one of us look good. Well, listen, I'm also probably the only person who goes to Florida and comes back paler than she was before because I doused myself in sunscreen. So I'm tanner than you right now. Although I have zero tan. Mine's a spray tan. Is it really? Super weird.

Had to do it. TV, TV, baby. Got to do it. So do you remember that Friends episode where Ross goes to get a spray tan? I didn't watch Friends. Oh, so I really, I didn't either. It was just like play reruns, you know, and I just remember this one episode and he's in the spray tan and you know, because get spray tans but it tells you like turn now turn now and then he would it would say turn now and he would turn and then it wouldn't spray so he'd turn back and then it would spray and so he just got like

orange pivot pivot i mean listen i i'm not doing too bad right now because i've been out in the sun for for telling the softball but yeah there's a little bit of enhancement there although that was like a week and a half ago so it might be gone gone by now. It might be gone right now. I guess Brayton once and then it just like came off in weird spots. Yeah. Sometimes I feel like I'm translucent on TV. So I got to I got to do something about it. But I am happy I said it on Crime Weekly News. And by the way, you should go check out the Crime Weekly News this week. We have our listens and views are a lot lower when we put those videos out. But this week we talk about the potential serial killer in New England. A lot of you were requesting this. We had hundreds

of emails and DMs about this. So if you're interested in that, whether you're from the New England area or you're from some other part of the country, because everyone's kind of enamored by this right now, it's being covered by a lot of media outlets. Head on over to that video. It just came out or you can listen on audio. We break it down. We talk about the potential that there is a serial killer. When we give our opinions on it, we won't spoil it for you here. But I was saying in that video how I'm happy to, you keep apologizing for me.

It's like, oh, Derek doesn't feel well. And it feels like one of us is always sick. But, you know, although we may not be looking our best right now, I feel good again, which is like amazing. I can tell you feel much looking our best right now, I feel good again, which is like amazing. I can tell you feel much better. I feel great. I feel great. It's so like it's such a dumb thing to say, but you don't appreciate your hearing until you don't have it.

And then also like your voice. It just it's great. It's great. I'm happy to feel good again and not feel like I'm sitting here and I just got hit by a truck. So awesome. I mean, I'm exhausted and I'm pretty sure I smell, but yeah. I mean, that's why I'm glad we're doing this over Zoom. It's great.

We haven't talked much. You were down at the film festival. I was doing America's Most Wanted, but thank you for everyone who watched. And now we're back. Yeah. We're back and we're doing it. Yeah. Also shout out to Panama City, Florida, which is a place in Florida I've never been,

but not one single person there is mean. Everybody is the nicest person ever and it's beautiful. And so shout out to Panama City, Florida and whoever hasn't been. Probably the best beach that I've ever seen in the United States. You should just pay for everyone to go. I'm saying, I think we should do like a cool like dolphinphin Watch cruise, Crime Weekly Dolphin Watch cruise. There's no connection to crime, but we all need a break. We all need a break. All right. Let's dive into this. Let's do it. Okay. So, I mean, we're here at the end with Johnny Stompanato. We're going to talk about the actual murder right now. And if you had asked Lana Turner, if you had asked Cheryl Crane, they would tell you that it all started the night of the Academy Awards, a week before Johnny Stompanato's death.

Lana and Johnny had flown back to L.A. from Acapulco after being in Mexico throughout most of January, all of February, and a good portion of March, and a barrage of reporters were on the runway to greet the seemingly happy couple as their plane landed. Stampernado had arranged this impromptu press attack, and he was in his glory as he stood next to Lana, each picture being snapped, just legitimizing his role as her boyfriend, despite the fact that she had always tried to hide him from the public. Now, he wasn't just on the arm of Lana Turner's silver screen starlet, he was on the arm of Lana Turner, Oscar nominee, and she was slated to also present the award for Best Supporting Actor that night.

The papers were talking about Lana and Johnny even before they returned from Mexico, thanks to his little press stunt in Denmark. On March 25, 1958, the Sentinel printed an article that said, quote, Lana Turner's boyfriend, Signor Stampanato of Italian descent and from Beverly Hills, I actually went through newspapers.com to find this. I hadn't really seen it anywhere else, but I was just laughing so hard because we know what Lana was going through in Mexico, right? She's like basically a prisoner there. She keeps trying to get back to LA and he's like, no, we're going to stay here. I'm going to keep you isolated. And the papers are like, Johnny Stampanato of Italian descent.

Senor Stampanato. Senor Stampanato of Italian descent from from beverly hills first of all he's not even from beverly hills he's uh from woodstock illinois but nobody knows who he actually is the and and back then they didn't have like social media or you know like background checks so basically whoever you said you were you just were and they're all trying to figure out who he is they're like oh is he a an antique collector is he a toy manufacturer they don't out who he is. They're like, oh, is he an antique collector? Is he a toy manufacturer? They don't know who he is. And they're like, oh, he looks so manly in his bathing trunks.

Yeah, I mean, I mentioned it on Crime Weekly News. I don't want to fail to mention it here. Stompanato crushed. He stomped out Frank Sinatra in our comments. He stomped Frank Sinatra, yeah. It was not a fair fight. No, no, no, no. I mean, it can't be. You said someone

else, though. Dean. Who'd you say? Dean Martin. Dean Martin smashed him, though. People were like Dean Martin. I mean, it's Dean Martin, dude. Yeah. Luck be a lady tonight. I mean, listen, that's great, but can't change the fact that Sean Connery beat him up for and change the fact that Sean Connery stomps them all. He stomped them all. Yeah. So what is also interesting, though, is when the papers printed news of Lana's return to the States,, telling the Los Angeles Times, quote, there is definitely no romantic interest between us, end quote. So they get back from Mexico.

They land. Johnny's like, ha ha, look, it's my girlfriend, Lana Turner. And she walks up to the reporters. And she's like, yeah, that's not my man, okay? So I don't care how manly he looks in his bathing trunks. Y'all can have him, right? It's a tough one. That's a tough one for Johnny.

Well, at that time, Lana had been living out of the Bel Air Hotel as she was between houses. So one of her first orders of business when she was back in L.A. was to find a home, which she did very quickly. It was a two-story, black, shuttered, colonial mansion located at 730 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, and her move-in date was April 1st. This would be the house that Johnny Stompanato died in. So the 30th Academy Awards would be held on Wednesday, March 26th at the R.O.K.O. Pantages Theater, and right up until the last moment, Johnny believed he would be Lana's date that night. When she finally told him that she would be accompanied by her mother Mildred and her daughter Cheryl, he was obviously upset and reportedly said to her, quote, I'm good enough to fuck you, to make love to you, to hold you in my arms all night,

but I'm not good enough to be photographed with you walking the red carpet, end quote. It's like, dude, this is what women have been dealing with since the dawn of time, my friend. How does it feel to have the shoe on the other foot, Johnny? Yeah, it is. It is interesting, the irony of it all, because this guy is someone who just takes what he wants. And in the industry that he's in, I say industry lightly, you know, they just go out and take what they want, right?

And they just, they're just, it's all about power and just implementing that with whatever means necessary by force, you know, just by intimidation. But when it comes to Lana, he can't really do that, right? Like he wants her to want him. And so I'm sure it's an ego, you know, to shot to the ego form that she's not reciprocating his feelings. Yeah. So this is a man who probably doesn't hear the word no a lot.

He definitely doesn't. That's my point. And not because he's so manly looking in his bathing trunks, but because he's dangerous and violent and people who he works with in a business level know, like if I don't give this person what he wants, I'm going to get killed or maimed or whatever. There's a big shadow behind it, right?

That shadow is Mickey Cohen. Yeah. But Mickey Cohen ain't going to help him with his girl. Yeah. Well, technically, Mickey Cohen is dangerous and violent. Johnny Stompanato is dangerous and violent. And Johnny's threatening Lana like, well, if you don't do what I want, I'm going to kill your mother. I'm going to kill your daughter. I'm going to cut your face up, et cetera, et cetera. But at the same time, it's this very fragile balance of I'm not trying to get money out of

you. I want you. And if I kill you or cut your face up, I'm ruining what I believe to be my possession. So it's a, you know, he can only push it so far. And maybe she, you know, she kind of knows that as long as she keeps him happy, appeases him, tries to buy time. If he kills her, then he loses her. Exactly. So he can't do that. And I think I, I'm pretty sure you told us that might might have been last episode, but there was a time where when Frank Sinatra was in the picture, Stompanato went to Mickey and said, hey, do something about this.

Get your boy off my girl. Well, no, Frank went to Mickey Cohen because Stompanato was cozying up to one of his girls. Got it. And Mickey Cohen was like, I don't know what you want me to do, man. It's none of my business. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

That's what it was. But yeah, it's tough. He's in a real weird spot here because he wants her. And the worst part is if she did reciprocate, he probably wouldn't want her anymore. He'd be cheating on her and doing everything else because that's the way that works. Well, he'd still want her. He would just want everything else too. Right.

She would be a part of it. She would be his possession. But the fact that she doesn't want him only makes him want her more. Yeah. Weird. Weird, weird, weird. So Lana told Johnny, listen, it's nothing personal. It's your affiliation with Mickey Cohen, which the press has gotten wind of. I think Lana planted that, by the way. Oh, no doubt. Probably she had some moves with that. She isn't a rookie in this game. Yeah, she's not dumb. Okay.

And she's in Acapulco with him. And the papers are like, oh, Johnny, Senor Stompanato of Italian descent. And then by the time they get back in L.A., they're like, oh, he is a former associate of Mickey Cohen's. I think she had one of her people plant that so that she could tell him, hey, you know, it's not you. It's just you're now affiliated with Mickey Cohen. And the press got wind of that. And that's preventing me from bringing you as my date. Yep. Sorry. Can't help you. Don't blame me. Blame the media. You have to understand how this looks, right? And although Johnny sulked and used guilt trip

after guilt trip, Lana would not give in. So that night, she goes to the Academy Awards. It was a magical night, and Lana was glowing as she walked up on the stage to present the award for Best Supporting Actor. Lana Turner. Thank you so much. Well... Oh, but Jimmy, don't leave, please. Oh, why? Are you nervous? No.

It's just that I like you. Oh. Well, now I'm nervous. Well, go ahead. And the winner is... Red Butt News from Sallamara! You know what's so fascinating about that clip? Is it Jimmy Stewart?

Because, oh my God, Jimmy Stewart, man. I'm right here. Can we go easy? I mean, I'm just feeling really insecure. I don't find Jimmy Stewart attractive. I don't find Jimmy Stewart attractive per se. He's just so comforting, okay? There's something about him that it's like,

it's a wonderful life. I'm sure it was a bit. Well, no, it's a bit. Yeah, she's, you know, she's the- But I'm sure Johnny didn't like that. Oh, yeah. But my point that I was going to make, just everybody, celebrities, everyone you know of,

you see a certain personality in front of the camera. We all have shit going on behind scenes, right? And it's even in that moment, you're giving us the backstory of what was happening and transpiring in her life right up into that moment. You wouldn't know it from that clip. Nope. Nope. That's the thing. You, you look at people and public figures and you have this idea like, look at her. Her hair is perfect. She's glittering in her gown. She's got this jewelry. She's smiling so brightly. She seems like she doesn't have a care in the world, all cute and flirtatious. And this is what's going on behind the scenes. You just never know.

Never know. Never know. Got this crazed gangster behind the scenes who's basically stalking her at this point. That's really actually been something that in the past few years, I've kind of taken on to me because I would get upset with people. I'd go out and a car person, for instance, they try to charge you too much. And then they're like, oh, I made a mistake. And I used to get upset and I'd be like, I'm calling somebody and I'm going to make sure you don't get away with this. And now I'm like, I don't know what's going on. His wife could have be fighting with him. Maybe his kid's sick.

Like maybe he just made a mistake. He's not thinking clearly. Like, I don't know what's going on in somebody's life and I'm just not trying to make it worse. Yeah. This just happened to me a few days ago, by the way, the car thing. I was like, is this coming? Is this derived from a recent experience? I, that's all I had was, yeah. Dude charged, dude told me I was going to pay a certain thing. It was way too specific. I went to go pick up my car and it was like $2,000 more. And I was like, are you insane? And I like felt it.

And then he was, he argued with me for like 15 minutes. And he was like, oh man, I made a mistake. And after, and I left, I was like, I'm going to call it because this is stressful what he just did to me. And what if I just paid it and I'm going to call somebody. And then I was like, nah, I don't know what's going on in his life, man. I got to just back off. It's no harm, no foul. You might have a Johnny Stompanato behind him. Anything. I was thinking maybe his kid's sick in the hospital. I don't know. It's not worth it.

No harm, no foul. Move on. Moving on. Yeah. So we've got Lana up here. She's giving this award for Best Actor. But sadly, Lana lost the Best Actress award to Joanne Woodward. But she still enjoyed her evening thoroughly. And afterwards, she, her mother Mildred, and her daughter all attended the after party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel where Sean Connery was seated at their table. And the dashing future James Bond danced with Cheryl Crane, causing the young teen to blush ferociously. And then Lana Turner, she was like, can I cut in? And Sean Connery was like, sure, thinking that she wanted to dance with him.

And instead, she danced with her daughter. And they basically danced for the next hour together in a rare moment of just affection and happiness. And at the end of a long night with their faces aching from smiling and their feet throbbing from dancing, Lana and Cheryl entered their suite at the Bel Air Hotel to get some rest. Because remember, they don't move into the new house for another few days, for about a week. So they go home to the Bel Air Hotel where they've been staying, and the two spent some time in Cheryl's room. They recounted the events of the night. They laughed. Lana brushed Cheryl's hair, helped her get into her pajamas, her darkened room, and he was ready for a fight. So basically, what Johnny was mostly pissed about, obviously, she didn't bring him as her date.

Of course. But she explained that away. And he was like, well, you're not going to the after party without me. If you just need to go to the Academy Awards and you come home to me, we have a deal. You don't do things without me. And she was like, yeah, yeah, I'm not going to go to the after party. But she did, obviously. And so he was pissed. He was very, very mad. In a interview years later with Larry King, Cheryl Crane would say that this was the first night she heard a violent fight between her mother and Johnny. That night, according to Lana, Johnny screamed and swore at her. He slapped her across the face. He slammed her head into the wooden frame of her closet door

and then punched her with a closed fist, causing her to fall to the floor. Stompanato then picked Lana up, threw her on the bed, pinned her down, and screamed in her ear that she was never going to leave him to go anywhere again from now on. Anywhere Lana went, he would be with her. And he'd let her get away with it this time, but it was never going to happen again. The next morning when Cheryl saw her mother, Lana's face was swollen and bruised, and Cheryl asked her what was going on. In her interview

with Larry King, Cheryl said, quote, awful fights, screaming and yelling and smashing glasses and just, you know, things I wasn't used to hearing. And she finally sat me down and told me the whole story about having him thrown out of England when she was filming because he beat her so badly. How he had threatened her life, my grandmother's life. She couldn't get him out of the house. She couldn't get rid of him. And my reaction was, well, mother called the police. And of course, that was the last thing in the world she would do because publicity, you know, I mean, it would have been, she felt, the end of her career, end quote. Lana also confided in her mother Mildred about Johnny's abuse and the threats he had been making. And Mildred actually placed a call to Clinton Anderson, who at that time was the Beverly Hills police chief.

Anderson was also a family friend. Now, this is where it gets kind of sketchy as far as the investigation into Johnny's death go, because he was. The chief of police in Beverly Hills was a family friend. Not only did he know Lana, but he was a frequent visitor at her ex-husband Stephen Crane's restaurant. Stephen Crane is Cheryl's father. Stephen Crane had a very wildly popular restaurant called the Luau, and the chief of police, Anderson, he would go there and he never paid, and he was there all the time. So he's a family friend. Mildred called Anderson, and she told him about Johnny's abuse and the threats he had been making. And Anderson was concerned, but he told Mildred he couldn't do anything unless Lana filed a complaint herself, which she never did. So this is actually important, though, because this kind of shows proof that something was happening, that it wasn't just like Lana and Cheryl

decided to stab Johnny Stompanato one night and then pretend that there was abuse happening. This was a, you know, pre his death, somebody calling the chief of police and saying, hey, there's abuse happening. Now, you could say that that was a form of premeditation. Maybe they knew what they were going to do. And so they're kind of setting it up and setting the narrative. But this call did happen. Clinton Anderson accounts for it. And it kind of helped him during the investigation into Johnny's death because he had already known that there was abuse happening. So it wasn't as hard for him to

believe when Lana and Cheryl told him what had happened. And this call went directly to the chief? Yeah. Family friend. Which does not help their case. Right. Right. I just wonder who made that call. Like you said, premeditation. Mildred. Mildred made the call. So Lana's mother. Yeah. And Clinton Anderson was like, yeah, this sounds terrible, but like, I can't do anything unless the actual victim is kind of calling me and telling me what's going on. I could see both sides to this, right? Like we're going to go into it and we can kind of break it down as we go, but I can see both sides to it. If you're in the camp of this was a premeditated murder and we're going to talk about that tonight, then this would be a form of like,

hey, setting up an alibi beforehand. Like there's already been accounts of abuse before the murder took place. However, it could also be exactly what it looks like where the abuse has been going on for a while now, and now it's happening around the child. And finally, Mildred, the mother stepping up and saying, hey, enough is enough. And she's calling someone that, again, is a family friend. And it just happened to align. It just happened to be the case, not knowing what was to come. So again, you can interpret it whatever way you want. I think it works both ways. Or you could say Clinton Anderson lied about Mildred calling a week prior because he's a family friend. Right.

I mean, we are talking a little while ago, too. It would be harder to confirm phone records, et cetera. Almost impossible, yeah. But yeah, I mean, that'd be a little bit more out there. But can I sit here and say it's not possible? Of course not. No, no. It would be a he said, she said, but he, the person saying it was the police chief of the Beverly Hills Police Department. Yeah. Pretty good source at the time, especially at

that time where if like the chief says something, it's, it's rock solid. Yeah. That's, that's, that's Bible. So we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Hey listeners, it's Stephanie Harlow and Derek Levasseur. And if you're enjoying Crime Weekly, we've got something you need to check out. It's the brand new Crime House original series, Clues, hosted by Morgan Absher and Kaylin Moore. And if their names sound familiar to you, that's because Morgan hosts the podcast, Two Hot Takes, and Kaylin hosts the podcast, Hearts Start Pounding. And they're coming together to host this new series, Clues. Every Wednesday, Morgan and Kaylin take you deep into the world of the most notorious crimes ever, where a single clue can crack a case wide open.

From shocking murders to high-stakes trials, Clues unpacks the forensic evidence and obsessive sleuthing behind the investigations that still have people talking to this very day. Kaylin is your true crime expert breaking down the cold, hard facts of these cases, and Morgan is your internet detective going into full Reddit mode to uncover the theories and weird details you definitely haven't heard. Yeah, so if you're looking to add a new podcast to your weekly routine, follow Clues wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday. her new house, she was busy making preparations to move into this new home. And he was with her every step of the way, going to stores, ordering furniture, shopping for silverware, packing up belongings in the hotel room. And when I say shopping for silverware, they went to like this,

you know, home goods store. It probably wasn't a home goods store. That's just what we have now. But they went to like an actual fancy department store and they purchased plates and silverware and a new set of knives, a new fancy set of kitchen knives. And one night as Lana was packing up some final items and her daughter Cheryl was in bed, Cheryl was once again woken up by the sound of Johnny's voice screaming at Lana. Cheryl listened as Johnny told her mother that she would do what he said or he would cut her face up. Say that you could hear from outside the door that he was knocking her around. It was more than that, Phil. He was threatening her life. And this wasn't the first episode of this? No. And there was no doubt in my mind that he was serious. This man's voice in anger was so chilling.

Was he threatening to do it herself or to hire someone? Both. He said, when a man works with his hands, I will cut off his hands. You work with your face and I will destroy your face. And if I can't do it, I have friends who will. And your mother and your kid are next. Sounds like something a guy like Johnny Stompanato would say. Exactly.

Like a man works with his hands, I'll cut off his hands. Take his livelihood. Your livelihood is your beautiful face. You're an actress. I'll cut your face up. I personally, listening to her without any other context and without knowing her too well and her tells if she has any, I believe it. I have no reason not to believe her.

And yes, the people who think she did this on intentionally, they could make a very strong argument that this was made up after the fact. But as I sit here right now, no reason not to believe her based on her history. She's not known to be a liar, I don't think. No. And honestly, it's not like her and her mother had this amazing relationship. Yeah. No, I believe her. I believe her now as a, you know, a child going through something like that. It has to be very traumatic to hear those things. Not only what was it was happening to her mother,

but also the threats about them happening to her as well, potentially. And so kind of the hits with Johnny that week, the week between the Academy Awards and his death, it just, it's like, he was like, I don't care.

No holds barred. The mask is't care. He was spiraling. No holds barred. The mask is off completely, right? Well, he was losing control. And he did not like that. No, he knew he was losing her. Especially after they came back to L.A., right? They're in Acapulco.

He's got complete control over her for months. And he's in his glory. And then they get back to L.A., which is what she wanted. She's like, people are going to be around. He can't do this. He can't do this as much. Follow me around a hotel room with a gun all day. And that's exactly what happened. He had gotten used to that level of isolating her and having control. And now they're back and she's going to the Academy Awards and she's flirting with Jimmy Stewart on stage. And he did not like it. So they're not like it. Well, think about how it started, right? How we got here. It used to start with the love bombing, the flowers and all these different things, right? Just trying to where he's in control. He's in control, but he's willing to, you know, more bees with honey than you do with vinegar. But then when he realizes that's no longer working,

he resorts back to what he does with everyone else. I'm just going to use violence and threats of violence. And he tries and goes back and forth, right? I'm going to use threats of violence. And the next day I'm going to send you flowers and tell you you're beautiful and I love violence. And he tries and goes back and forth, right? I'm going to use threats of violence and the next day I'm going to send you flowers and tell you you're beautiful and I love you. And it's whiplash. It's a roller coaster. We see that today in a lot of domestic abusers. All the time.

Smacking you around one night and the next night they're buying you flowers. And then they act like nothing happened, by the way. Nothing happened. Yeah, it's crazy. And then you start to feel crazy, right? The victims are like, did what happened last night actually not happen?

Why is he not talking? Why is he acting like we're completely fine? And the victim starts to feel like they've lost their grip on reality, which is exactly what they want. This story would be much less believable if the quote unquote victim in this case, right, Johnny, wasn't someone who had this background. And we're not saying that because he had the background. No, no, but I'm just saying best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. And he was out there beating the shit out of people on a daily basis. He was an enforcer for Mickey Cohen.

Sometimes he used his looks. Sometimes he used his fist. This was not out of character for Johnny Stompanato. And when he couldn't use his looks, he would use his fists. Right. And I would love to go back and talk to some of his previous partners. Oh, we're going to hear from them. Okay. Well, there we go. And I'll say, I'll set it up with this. What type of characteristics did he display with them?

Did he display similar behavior like this? If they say yes, they have no reason to be lying for Cheryl and Lana. So I'm really, really interested to hear what they have to say when we get to that part. So on April 1st, Lana moved into the new house. And then three days later, on April 4th, she found out Johnny had lied to her about his age. He had told her that he was 43, but he was actually only 32 years old. And this really bothered Lana because she had specifically made it known to everyone that she did not want to date younger men. She didn't want to be seen as like this older, wealthy woman who was being taken advantage of and used. She felt like it would make her look like a fool. And she never wanted to look like a fool. So April 4th is an important date because it's also the last day of Johnny Stompanato's life.

That night, Lana had planned to have dinner with her makeup artist, Del Armstrong, and she had not included Johnny in these plans. And actually, the way she found out about his age was because Del had come over earlier that day to her new house to see it and everything. And he brought along a friend. And this friend had actually known Johnny from when they were in the military together. And he was like, oh, yeah, that's Johnny Stompanato. And, you know, Lana's like, yeah. And he's like, yeah, he's like, you know, he's 32. And she's like, no, no, he's in his 40s. And the guy's like, no, trust me, he's 32. And so then she finds out. And she, you know, obviously is going to sort of confront Johnny with this. So she's making plans to go to

dinner with Del Armstrong. She does not invite Johnny. This caused him to get aggressive again and remind her of their agreement. You don't go anywhere without me. You don't do anything without me. So as Johnny yelled and raged, Lana kind of, you know, accused him. And she was like, hey, you lied to me about your age. Like, you're really in no position right now to be throwing threats around. I can't even trust you, you know, besides the fact that you're violent, besides the fact, and you're lying to me as well. And so they're fighting, but Lana's like, hey, can you keep your voice down? We can talk about this because she didn't want her daughter Cheryl to hear because Cheryl's been hearing a lot now this week. And to this, Johnny's reply was, quote, let her listen. I want her to hear the truth about you, end quote. So at that point, Lana claimed she knew that a serious

fight was about to ensue. She went downstairs to make a drink. Johnny followed her downstairs, yelling at her the entire time. She made the drink. She went downstairs to make a drink. Johnny followed her downstairs, yelling at her the entire time. She made the drink. She went back upstairs. He followed her back upstairs, yelling the entire time. They both entered Lana's room. Johnny slammed the door behind them. Lana said that she heard a sound in the hallway outside of her room, a tinkling sound that she quickly realized was coming from the charm bracelet she had given her daughter that Cheryl always wore around her wrist. So Lana called out Cheryl's name. Cheryl, is that you?

Go back to your room, please. She said the tinkling sound of Cheryl's bracelet faded. And so Lana went into the sort of bathroom area. It wasn't a separate room. It's just kind of like a vanity area in the room. And she went in there and sort of sat on the vanity counter and lit a cigarette. Johnny followed her. So then she walked back towards the door of the bedroom and she opened it slightly as if to leave. But before she could leave, Johnny spun her around, slammed the door shut with his foot, started shaking her. Lana screamed at him, finally, to leave her alone, not to touch her. She told him she'd had enough and demanded that he get the hell out of her life. Since she was still close to the bedroom door, Lana heard the tinkling of Cheryl's bracelet again, and she yelled out to her daughter,

firmly instructing her to get back into her room. Johnny screamed at Lana that he was going to cut her pretty face, that no one would ever look at her the same again, and this threat was followed by a knock. It was Cheryl. She was worried to death about her mother, and she begged the two to stop fighting. Now, when this happened, Johnny let go of Lana, and he went to the closet. He started pulling out some clothes while he continued yelling at Lana. Lana told Cheryl through the closed bedroom door the fight was over and Johnny was leaving. In her book, Lana said, quote, Cheryl opened the door when she saw me sitting on the pink marble counter and John coming towards me, his arm upraised with something in his hand. She didn't grasp the fact that he was carrying clothes hangers over his shoulder, just that upraised, threatened hand and what appeared to be some kind of weapon, and he was right in front of me, his body unprotected. Out of the corner of my eye,

I saw Cheryl make a sudden movement. Her right arm had shot out and caught John in the stomach. I thought she'd punched him. There was a strange little moment locked in time as each stood looking at the other. Oh my god, Cheryl, John gasped out. What have you done? I darted forward off the counter, afraid that John was going to punch Cheryl back. Cheryl was backing up slowly, staring at John. John took three little circling steps away from her in slow motion. He didn't clutch his belly. He didn't cry out. Just those three little steps and then he fell backward like a board straight to the floor. His eyes were closed. Weird gasping was coming from his throat as though he couldn't breathe. At that moment, I realized suddenly what Cheryl grasped in her hand. It was a carving knife, one from the set

John had selected a few days before. End quote. So here is Cheryl explaining that night in her words and from her perspective. I went upstairs to do a book report. Mother came in and she said, I'm going to ask John to leave. She said, I don't want you coming downstairs, but if you hear us arguing, that's what it's about. So he gets back there they have a huge fight I can hear it it gets louder now I get a little nervous he said I'm going to if I have to I will destroy you I will destroy your face I will kill your mother I will kill your daughter you will never get away from me ran downstairs at the bottom stairs with the kitchen I don't know what I was looking for, but I saw a knife on the thing. I picked up the knife, ran back upstairs and suddenly the door burst open. Mother was there looking at me and John was coming toward

me. I stepped through the door. He ran into me and literally ran into the knife. To me, very believable. In fact, you could make an argument that if this was premeditated or even set up after the fact, that they could have come up with a better story that would have been worse for Johnny. They could have easily said he had a knife in his hand or he had something heavy in his hand,

a stick, a bat, whatever. Could have made something around the house where they could have planted it next to him and said he was about to hit her with this and Cheryl stepped in. By doing it this way and telling the truth, it does leave a lot of interpretation, right? Like the fact that she got it wrong.

There are words that were used there very carefully. He ran into the knife, right? That's how that's phrased, but- Because I think he's like turning towards her, not necessarily necessarily running into it but his back is to the door lana's in front of him facing cheryl the door opens cheryl has the knife yeah when he hears the door open this is all happening he turns yeah he turns and she's got the knife in front of her probably with an outstretched arm and maybe not so much that he ran into it, but maybe she went forward. He went forward. Boom. Ran into each other. Listen, I, um, without making this too much about me

and I've, I've talked about it before and let me start by saying, before I tell this story that me and my, my dad are on good terms now, but there was a point when I was younger where my mother and father were getting in some really bad fights and my mother, my dad had a drinking problem and she would come in and tell us, you know, stay in your room. Nothing you do about it. Don't worry about it. And, uh, I would hear those fights and I can tell you part of the reason I became a cop was because of this, but I wouldn't stay in the room. I would go out there and as the 14-year-old son, I would step in between them. And obviously, I'd be stepping in and facing my dad. And it never came to blows when we were kids, but it got pretty violent.

It got pretty hostile. And it was something that I could tell you what his breasts smell like to this day as far as that moment. It traumatized him. Did it smell like alcohol? Yeah, it smelled like alcohol. He wasn't the guy that I know, right? Right. But I can see these stories in my, and now luckily I didn't have a knife on me, but there were points where I contemplated because he was so much bigger than me, grabbing a baseball bat. I was playing a lot of baseball, grabbing one of

my bats or grabbing something to defend myself because he had the advantage. So to describe the story the way they did and what she was hearing, super relatable, not only to me, but I'm sure to a lot of people out there right now listening or watching this episode where they're going, yep, know exactly what that feels like. So is it out of the ordinary to think that this happened?

No, especially when we consider Johnny's background. But again, just to reiterate what I was saying, the fact that they told it exactly what it was with these coat hangers, which was basically a misinterpretation, could get them in trouble. And yet they still chose to tell that story, which to me gives it more credibility. And I know when you say this is relatable to a lot of people, I think you mean when they were kids and they had their parents fighting. Or even as adults, like maybe you're going through something now where you're arguing with your significant other and the kids, even though you tell you'd rather them stay

in the rooms and not hear it, they come running down the stairs. They come running out of their room because they hear mommy and daddy fighting and it's traumatizing for them to hear you talk to each other like that. And they, their children, it's, it hurts them. So they come out and they start crying and they get in the middle and sometimes it helps and sometimes it makes it worse. But, you know, just hearing this story and how she came up to Cheryl's room first to kind of give her like a heads up. This is where it was going.

If I had a dollar and again, good terms now. I had a dollar for every time my mom came into my room and said, hey, your dad's been drinking again. He's leaving. He's leaving. He's going. I don't care. And then within minutes- Because she didn't want anything to happen to you. She just wanted me to stay in the room and she was going to handle it. She didn't want you to get in between. Have you become collateral damage? And never listened.

Yeah, of course. Never listened. And that's my point with Cheryl, right? That's my point with Cheryl. She was told what was going to happen, but she hears mom needing help. How can you? How can you listen? Right. It's a natural reaction. So this all lines up for me. That's where I'm at in this story. Yeah, this story is aligning for me as well.

And like I said, so many others who grew up in tumultuous households. And you're especially probably a little boy when it comes to their mother. You said you were going to get a baseball bat, right? Oh, yeah. But Cheryl Crane, she's a young teenage girl, what, 90 pounds soaking wet. She's not going to get a baseball bat because it's going to be ineffectual against a grown man like Johnny Stompanato, who we know was strong and tall. So she's going to get a knife. She grabbed for what was closest.

So we believe that what Lana's saying has happened and Cheryl says happened, it's very relatable, believable. They could have come up with something way better, like, oh, he was punching her or he had his hands around her throat. But instead, he grabbed a knife. He had clothes hangers. So technically, he's leaving.

Now, did that mean he was leaving? No. Toxic people do this. I'm leaving. They start packing their clothes. He could have not been leaving. And it was just a ploy. But technically in that moment he was not threatening her. So they could have come up with a better story. Yeah. I mean, there's a whole different conversation to

have and I was saving it for the end, but we're going to talk about if this is justified or not, but we'll get there. But yes, for the point where we are right now, clothes hangers in his hand doesn't appear to be attacking her. And kind of over his back, over his back because he's got them like, yeah. Their words, he wasn't attacking her at that moment. It was all verbal. They could have said that he was to make it more believable, to make it look better. Yeah. But the series of events that happened after Johnny was stabbed, they have raised some questions.

Because Lana's first call was not to the police. In fact, four phone calls were made from that house back to back. And none of them were to the police. And we are going to talk about that when we come back from our next break. Anyone who has pets in their home knows that these pets are like their family. To me, my four dogs are my family. And that's why I want to make sure that they're getting the best nutrition possible. 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

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And Mildred's like, well, what the hell? What's going on? Why do you want his number? It's like, you know, late. What's going on? Where's Cheryl? Is everybody okay? So Lana's like, yeah, yeah, I just got something going on here.

I'll call you back. She hangs up. Now, Lana then called Dr. McDonald. She got his answering service. She left a message. He called her right back. She explained what happened, and he said, don't do anything. I'm going to be right over. Next, a phone call was placed to Stephen Crane, Cheryl's father, and reportedly, it was Cheryl who made this call, and Cheryl called Stephen, and she was like, I stabbed Johnny. I thought he was going to hurt my mother. And she's freaking out.

He said she was crying. She was sobbing. She was absolutely inconsolable. Lana then took a few moments to comfort a sobbing and shaking Cheryl. And while this happened, Lana's mother Mildred gets there. Not long after this, just within minutes, Dr. McDonald showed up at the front door as well. And he followed Lana up to the master bedroom where he informed her that Johnny Stompanato was dead. At some point, Stephen Crane also shows up. So you got a bunch of people here. None of them are police officers. And so we now have Dr. McDonald, who's attempting to revive

Johnny Stompanato with a syringe of adrenaline to the heart. And when that didn't work, Dr. McDonald told Lana to call Jerry Geisler. Jerry Geisler was one of Hollywood's most famous criminal defense attorneys, especially during the golden age of film. If there was a scandal involving a big star, Geisler was probably in the middle of it. Geisler sped over to Lana's. Well, his driver did because he was chauffeured, and when he got there, he took in the scene, and then he called Fred Otash, former LAPD officer turned PI, who was neck deep in the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. Think wiretaps, blackmail, and scandal cleanup. If Jerry Geisler was the legal face of Hollywood's

dark side, Otash was the guy in the shadows doing the dirty work. He was known as Hollywood's most feared P.I. because he had access to everything. Affairs, addictions, hidden children, mob ties, even murder rumors. He wiretapped phones, and he has even reportedly claimed to have bugged Marilyn Monroe's phone, as well as spied on her and JFK together. It's even rumored that he recorded the final hours of Monroe's life. Now, there's a book about Otash called The Fixer, Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn. I highly suggest that you read this book. Excellent. Derek, you would love it. Because when I was reading about Fred Otash, and it was like, LAPD officer turned PI, I was like a lapd officer turned pi i was like that would be derrick if he lived back then

you know yeah he was more into the kind of the scandal stuff i'm more you know that's your that's your stuff i just saw your face you know yeah that is what i like this is why i put your face there and i was like that would have been derrick man would be so cool so you but you would love this book because it's not just the marilyn monroe jfK when I'm laying in a hospital bed my for after my surgery I'll have something to listen to I have it on my kindle if you have a tablet I'll give you my sign I like audio stuff so maybe I'll just do the audiobook oh my god where are we as a society in the family here where are we as a society but yeah download the audiobook I'm gonna remind you remind you, seriously, you will love it. It is like from beginning to end, I was like, oh shit, what the hell? I like all this stuff. I was just dying. So this book was actually written by a guy named Josh Young and another guy named Manfred Westfall.

And they had access to Otash's extensive, never-before-seen files. Now what's interesting is according to this book, Otash already had some inside knowledge into Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato's relationship. In late 1957, he'd been called by Lana's ex-husband, Steve Crane, Cheryl's father, and Steve Crane requested a meeting. And during this meeting, Crane told the PI that Lana had a new boyfriend who was connected to Mickey Cohen. And Otash said he already knew who Stompanato was. Because remember, Otash has the dirt on everybody. He's specifically like following people around. Nobody asked him to do this, but he's following people around,

taking like videos of them, bugging their hotel rooms. He would like know they were going to be at a certain restaurant. And he would go and talk to the server and be like, oh, what table are you going to put them at? And he would make sure there's a recording device on the table. He had everything and no one asked for it. He just wanted it in case. I mean, it's a great way to make money, right?

Because if he happens to catch something, he has this treasure trove of blackmail where he can sell it to the highest bidder. But more importantly, if he knows like a particular person A has a problem with person B and he gets something on person B, well, then he knows he can go to person A and say, hey, you want to get back at so-and-so? I got just the thing for you. Exactly. He knew everything about everyone. So Steve Crane's like, hey, this guy, Johnny Stompanato. And Fred Otash is like, yeah, I already know who Stompanato is. And he was, quote, a complete piece of shit, end quote. So after what happened,

remember, with Lana's former husband, Lex, Stephen Crane was understandably worried about his daughter, Cheryl, and all the time that she was spending with this new man of Lana's. So he asked Fred Otash to spy on Stompanato. And Otash did this. He spied on Cheryl and Stompanato when Johnny would bring Cheryl riding on his horse, you know, and he was like, it's kind of weird.

Like they do seem to be kind of close. He's like touching her and he doesn't need to. So now Stephen Crane's freaking out, thinking that there's another, you know, Lex thing going on. And Otash claimed that he and Crane went over to Lana's to tell her that Stompanato was bad news. And Otash brought a file of information on Johnny, including his rap sheet.

And at first, Lana was pissed to be blindsided by this intervention. But then Otash told her about how Stompanato had embezzled several wealthy women already. And he said to her, quote, you think you're the first? Don't kid yourself, sweetheart. You think he wouldn't use your daughter? Think again. This is a man without a conscience. Is that what you want for your life?

End quote. So Lana took the file. She went through it while they sat with her. And then she was like, oh shit, this is bad. Not a good guy. And so she asked Crane and Otash what she should do. How could she get out? And Otash claimed he counseled her to not make any rash decisions or drastic moves.

He said, you just need to slowly ease Stompanato out of your life. You know, spend more time at work. Be as unavailable and busy as possible. And that's what she was trying to do. She's like going away for work. She's going to London. She could have filmed her movie with, what's his name? James Bond. I forget his name. Sean Connery. She could have filmed her movie with Sean Connery on

a soundstage in LA. She chose to do it in London. She's trying to stay away from him as much as possible. But obviously that didn't work. So this had happened at the end of 1957. Fast forward to April 4th, 1958, when Fred Otash got the call from Jerry Geisler that Johnny Stompanato had been stabbed to death in Lana Turner's bedroom. Otash said that when he arrived, he saw several cars parked outside. There was Geisler's limo and there was five other vehicles, one of which was Johnny's new Ford Thunderbird. He had just purchased it the previous week.

Otash said that when he got upstairs to the bedroom, he saw Johnny's body on the floor and a bloody knife on an adjacent marble dressing table. Now in the book, it says, quote, Otash couldn't help but notice there were only a few drops of blood dotting the plush pink carpet next to him, a clear indication the crime scene

had been tampered with, end quote. So Otash told everyone in the room, which at that point included Geisler, Lana, Cheryl, Mildred, Dr. McDonald, and Steve Crane, which is six people, by the way, before the police have even been called. He's like, hey, don't touch anything. And somebody called the police. And who ended up calling the police was Stephen Crane. Because remember, he's pretty tight with the chief of police of Beverly Hills Police, Clinton Anderson. So by the time Beverly Hills Police Chief Clinton Anderson arrived, Stompanetto had been dead for two hours, which is crazy. Yeah, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but not what you should be doing.

Law enforcement should have been called immediately. And it does open up a huge window where a lot can happen. And it raises questions as far as what transpired before police officers arrived. I will say I would go back to simply what the reasoning behind the stabbing was. If they were together two hours, you got high powered lawyer, PI, family members, friends, you get the whole neighborhood. If they had colluded together, I think they would have came up with a better story. I think Stompanato would have had a knife next to his body that they claimed he was holding at the time of the stabbing. I don't think after two hours, that would be the best reasoning for the stabbing you would come up with,

especially, like I said, with that high-powered attorney there. But as far as tampering with the scene, I guess I can understand how Otash may say that, although I will say not every scene is like the movies, depending on how he was stabbed and the way his body was laying. It could have pulled up inside of him instead of outside of his body.

Yeah, I would question the fact that there was only a few blood droplets, but maybe the knife was pulled out when he was already on his back and that would have caused the blood to stay internal. Everyone's different. Some people, I don't want to be too crass here, but some people spray when they get stabbed, depending on where they get hit. Some people don't.

Everyone is different. So I don't. Everyone is different. So I don't automatically think only a few blood droplets automatically means tampering with the scene. Now, if he told me there were spots where it was very clear that people tried to clean up the carpets and remove the blood, that would indicate tampering. But for me, there could be a reasonable explanation as to why there was only a few blood droplets. Okay. Well, allegedly, investigators noticed also when they got there, the surprising lack of

blood on the walls. And they said the walls of the bedroom were damp as if they'd been washed off. Additionally. That to me, just right there, that to me could suggest cleaning up the crime scene. Yeah. Well, additionally, Lana's bed had been stripped and the missing cover was nowhere to be found. Now, Jerry Geisler would allegedly tell friends later that it, quote, looked like a hog had been butchered in it, end quote. Now, this is just hearsay, okay, rumor.

Right. But that's what Jerry Geisler allegedly said. Additionally, even though the knife had been on the dressing table when Fred Otash arrived, when the police got there, it was found on the sink of the attached bathroom with the handle wiped clean of any fingerprints. The towels from the bathroom were all missing as well. And Anderson briefly spoke to both Lana and Cheryl at the scene and more extensively right afterwards at the police station. And Anderson said that when he asked Cheryl to tell him what had happened, Lana interrupted and said, don't ask her, ask me. End quote. And basically what Lana did was, and this was pretty consistent between Cheryl, Lana interrupted and said, don't ask her, ask me, end quote. And basically what Lana did was, and this was pretty consistent between Cheryl, Lana, and Anderson, the chief

police. She said, can I take this? Can I say that I did this? It was an accident. She didn't do it on purpose, but I don't want her name in the papers. It's going to be crazy. She's a kid. Can I just say that I accidentally stabbed him? And Anderson was like, no, you can't believe it. And if they had set this up, I don't think they would have put it on the kid. I think they would have went with her originally and just come up with a better plan. Now, with the few things you said after I said what I said, it does look like they cleaned up a little bit. Now, was that for malicious reasons to try to make it look better than it was? I don't know. I don't know what the rationale, maybe initially Cheryl and Lana had cleaned up a little bit before anybody got there because they didn't know what to

do. But I think maybe Mildred, you know, she's like a mom and she's all stressed out. And so she's there waiting for the police to show up. She's like, let me strip this bet. I don't know. I just, you know, Lana saying to the police chief, you know, can I take this? I don't think this is something that sounds like a plan. Sounds like people just thinking in the moment to me. Yeah. And I mean, but once again, you could say he's a family friend. He's just saying that they said that. Who knows? Yeah, of course. Absolutely. So what Cheryl and Lana told the police chief that night must have convinced him because the very next day he was talking to the press, referring to Stamppanato as a gigolo and revealing that he had been physically abusive to Lana Turner. Anderson said, quote, he acquainted himself

with females of wealthy means. He courts them and after he's deeply involved, borrows money and never repays the loan. When the victim's money is dissipated, he becomes interested in another woman. Usually he frequents expensive night spots to meet wealthy type females, end quote. So Stompanato's brother, Carmine, which is, of course, the most Italian name ever, Carmine Stompanato, he commented on this characterization of his brother saying, quote, I guess you could call Jack a gigolo, but you couldn't call him a hoodlum. He was never convicted of anything, end quote. He did plenty of stuff, but he was never caught. Anderson said that Cheryl and Lana told him this story. Cheryl heard the argument, went into the bedroom, and she said that Johnny

told Lana, I'll get you if it takes a year or a week or a day. I'll cut you up. I'll stomp you if I can't do it myself. I'll find someone who can. Cheryl then went into the kitchen, picked up the knife, returned to the bedroom, stabbed Johnny Stompanato. Now, when asked how little Cheryl could stab an angry Stompanato without bringing harm to herself, Anderson said, quote, it was just a hell of a surprise to him. He was standing up at the time, end quote. Jerry Geisler told the papers, quote, this is justifiable homicide. There, of course, can be no trial because of the girl's age. It will be handled by juvenile court, end quote.

Cheryl Crane was booked on suspicion of murder that night. It was made very clear to the public, like, she's not going to get special treatment. We're not going to, you know, let her stay home because of who she is and who her mother is. We're going to treat this as we would if it was anyone else. And so she was booked, put into jail with the intent of holding her overnight. And then the following day, a petition was filed to determine whether the case would be handled by a juvenile court or an adult court. Now, the arrest of her daughter was jarring to Lana, and she recalled this in her book, saying, quote, I rushed after Cheryl and the matron. Down a corridor, I saw the matron

waiting, and when I reached her, I saw Cheryl behind bars. That vision is one that will never go away. My child's face behind bars, end quote. The following day, Cheryl was transferred to the juvenile center in downtown LA, and a coroner's inquest was scheduled. Now, according to Fred Otash, a few days after the murder, he was summoned to the office of police chief Anderson, where he was accused of helping Jerry Geisler clean and stage the scene before law enforcement arrived. And Fred Otash was like, what? Like, yeah, I might do something like that, but I didn't in this case.

He basically told Anderson to take a long walk off a short bridge. Then he drove right to Jerry Geisler's office to let him know what happened. And he was like, do you believe this? Like what this freaking police chief is saying to me? Now, in the book, The Fixer, the authors claim that otash watched as the color drained from the lawyer's face and geisler said quote there is no statute of limitations for murder do me a favor fred don't ever tell that story to anybody until i'm dead and buried end quote and they found this story in otash's files now it's very well known that in 1958 many people people believed that Cheryl had taken the fall for her mother.

Cheryl was only 15. She would not face prison time. And there was a chance that Lana's career could withstand the scandal of her daughter stabbing her mobster boyfriend. But she would not be able to survive it if it came to the light that she'd been the one holding the knife that night. So we're going to come back to this later. But right now, we have to talk about Mickey Cohen and we have to take another break. We'll be right back. According to a recent ZipRecruiter survey, 76% of employers plan to expand headcount for 2025. That's a lot of hiring and a lot of time spent hiring. So if you're one of those employers who's ramping up hiring this year,

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Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash Crime Weekly. Zip Intro. Post jobs today. Talk to qualified candidates tomorrow. All right, so we're back to Mickey Cohen. Mickey Cohen was, I mean, this guy loved the camera, man. He was super involved and on the front lines you hear? Like Johnny Stompanato is dead at Lana Turner's house. So Mickey Cohen sped right over to Lana's where he was greeted by Jerry Geisler and informed that his friend's body was at the morgue.

Cohen tried to get into Lana's house to talk to her, but her attorney wouldn't permit it. So the mob boss got back in his car and drove to the morgue where he spoke to Johnny's stepmother, Verana Stompanato, in Woodstock, Illinois, over the phone. And Verana told the medical examiner that Mickey Cohen had authorization to identify her stepson's body. And after he had done that, Cohen made arrangements to have Johnny's body sent back to his hometown where he would be laid to rest. Mickey Cohen's reaction to Johnny's death was interesting because to hear him tell it, you would think that Johnny and Lana were madly in love, and as far as Cohen was concerned, they were a happy couple and Lana thought the world of Johnny. At first, he didn't really know

what had happened, but not long after identifying the body, Cohen was informed by Geisler what Lana and Cheryl had claimed happened, and Mickey Cohen wasn't buying it. Basically, Cohen knew how competent Stompanato was when it came to defending himself and others against violence. He had acted as Cohen's body guard after all. He was strong, athletic, six foot four, hypervigilant, and quick on his feet. Not only that, Johnny had survived combat in World War II, so Mickey couldn't possibly understand how he had been caught unaware by a tiny teenage girl. And to be fair, Mickey reportedly was genuinely torn up about what had happened to

Johnny. He was described as looking disheveled and unshaven in the following days, and he was said to have true tears in his eyes whenever Stompanato was brought up. But it also seemed as if he had an axe to grind, and he was on an almost fevered and irrational mission to destroy Lana Turner. Cohen went to the jail and caused a ruckus trying to get to Cheryl Crane's cell. A few days later, Jerry Geisler got a phone call with threats that there were men coming from out east to kill Lana. Later, Geisler, who had represented Bugsy Siegel in a murder case previously, said that he was accustomed to the kind of threats that came from organized crime,

but he was still very much on edge because Mickey Cohen was just so much more unpredictable than the regular mob boss. He was a wild card. But since he was clearly not emotionally okay, Jerry Geisler knew, like even Mickey Cohen being a wild card and being like unpredictable,

he can still do anything at this point. He's not emotionally regulated. He's very stressed out and nobody knew what he was capable of. So to get ahead of it, Geisler told the press about the threats and this infuriated Mickey Cohen even more. And for the next several days, he had his men roam around L.A. with a bottle of acid ready to throw the acid in Lana's face if they saw her. But luckily for Lana, obviously she's not going around town to restaurants. She's hiding from the press and the public at her home. So they did not see her. Now, after not being able to track Lana down and throw acid in her face, Mickey Cohen changed his methods. He next ordered some of

his minions to break into Stompanato's apartment and find a box that they had instructions to bring right back to Cohen. This box not only contained reportedly rolls of film, which would show many well-known women in compromising positions with Johnny Stompanato, but it also held dozens of letters that Lana Turner had sent to Stompanato. Cohen then made the decision to give some of these letters to a reporter named Walter Winchell, who then published them. Now, Mickey Cohen publicly proclaimed that his motive for doing this was to set the record straight on Johnny's relationship with Lana. He said, quote, I always liked the kid, even if he was in my pockets a lot. I was always loaning him money, but he was a nice kid. When her side put on the stuff that he was chasing her, it made me mad. He'd come over to talk to me, and in half an hour, she'd call him five or six times with a lot of silly love talk.

It was sickening to listen to, end quote. And the letters, at least the ones that were published, certainly did have a sickening aspect to them and did cast some doubt on Lana's claims that she was afraid for her life. On September 19th, 1957, just seven months before Johnny died, Lana wrote to him from Copenhagen, quote, My dearest darling love,

all I want to write and say is that I love you. It was so wonderful to hear your voice again, Daddy. Already, it seems like months we've been apart. Anyway, sweet love, remember how much you mean to me. And please be careful. I have so many things whirling around in my brain to write to you, but bear with me, my precious love. The next letter has to be better and longer, I promise.

Until then, keep your arms around me so close and kiss me as I do you a thousand times. So keep well, beloved, because I do worry so. Try to eat and sleep for me. Please. Love you. Love you. Dasi, which is Italian for kisses, signed, Lanita.

End quote. Another letter written from London on September 26th read, quote, Daddy, darling, how very lonely I am and only for you. I don't really give a damn about any others. I'm sitting upstairs with our records on and wouldn't you know it's raining. I miss you and need you so. Dearest love, whatever will I do over here without you? Exist? Yes.

But nothing. Nothing else. Beloved, I do love you terribly. The very same mutual love that you feel. I am your woman and I need you, my man, to love and be loved by you. Don't ever doubt or forget that. There's so much to say but it's easier when you're holding me all through the night all my loved signed lenita end quote

again from london on october 3rd lana wrote quote dearest precious heart love and lover sweetheart please keep well because i need you so and so you will always be strong and able to caress me hold me tenderly at first then crush me into your very own being all i want is for you to be strong and able to caress me, hold me tenderly at first, then crush me into your very own being. All I want is for you to be happy and relaxed and feel safe in my arms, my love. I love you so much, Angel, darling, end quote. And then on December 26, just a few months before Johnny died, and I believe after he had been removed from England, Lana wrote, quote, well, darling, to say how much you have been missed is impossible, end quote. Now, we do know that Lana claimed she was playing along and trying to keep Johnny docile while she bought time and figured out what to do. And I did read some

letters that Johnny sent Lana, and they're just as sweet and sickly and very gushy and lovey-dovey. So this could have been part of the ploy of keeping him docile and, you know, making sure he wasn't going to hurt anybody after she had him removed from London, et cetera, et cetera. But the content of the letters at that time in the media did not look good for her, even outside of the murder, right? Like even if he hadn't been dead and these letters came out that Lana Turner, this amazing high-powered, successful woman was writing to Mickey Cohen's hunchman, it just wouldn't have looked good for her.

So Mickey Cohen then flew to Woodstock, Illinois. He planned and paid for Johnny's funeral. And then he convinced the Stompanato family to sue Lana Turner on the grounds that Johnny's reputation had been besmirched. Carmine Stompanato angrily told the media that the letters showed that the relationship had been different than Lana had described. And he said, quote, my brother was six feet tall. He didn't drink. He stayed in good shape all the time. I just don't understand how a little girl like that would have taken him by surprise. End quote. He did drink. So I don't know how much Carmine knew Johnny, but he was drinking all the

time. However, Woodstock locals, I guess a bunch of people showed up to the funeral, by the way, because mostly they were just interested in Johnny Stompanato. They knew him when he was a kid, and now he's like Lana Turner's boyfriend, and all of a sudden there's all this glamour around him. Woodstock locals, especially the woman, remembered a Johnny Stompanato before the lights of Hollywood had touched him. And one woman was quoted as saying, I get a kick out of feeling a glamorous and wealthy movie queen was madly in love with him, and no girl around here would have him. He was considered trash, end quote. And another woman supported the image of Stompanato as a womanizer and a manipulator saying, quote, he was an operator with the girls. He was

doing that in high school, end quote. Basically, like he hasn't changed a bit. This is how he's always been. Yeah, no, it aligns. And I want to go back to what Mickey was saying, because I think the environment and the situation he described is exactly the type of situation that would catch someone like him off guard. Right. He's just going into these dangerous environments where he knows everybody in there could hurt him or kill him. He's got enemies all over the state. And so he's approaching everything with his guard up. I don't think in that particular circumstance, if that's what happened, he was walking through that house in fear of anybody,

especially not little old Cheryl. But when you think about the power dynamic in that house, he's king of the castle, right? He's not scared of Lana. He's not scared of Cheryl. And then you actually take into consideration the perfect storm of it all, right? He's arguing with Lana. And visually, if you're listening on audio you gotta try to picture this but if you envision yourself throwing a bag or a clothes hanger behind your back with clothes on it your elbow kind of goes up and to be honest with you your peripheral vision is blinded on that right side because now your elbow is blocking your face and you're you're losing one arm because there's some weight losing one arm and you're exposing

all your organs because now your arm is over your head, your ribcage, your heart, your lungs. Everything is even more accessible than it would be if your arms were down. It also increases your reaction time, right? If you have your hands in front of your body and someone comes at you with a knife, your natural reaction is going to be to block them or grab the hand with the knife or grab the knife itself. That's why as police officers, a lot of the times you'll see, even when police officers are interacting or having a conversation with someone that they were sent to for a call, usually if, again, if you're watching a video, you'll see this, the officer will have their hands like this in front of their face. And for audio listeners, kind of just like their hands together in front of their chest or in front of their face. So that way, if the person attacks them, their hands are in a better position to defend themselves. So all of these little things create a perfect storm where in any other situation, Johnny Stompanato would be able to defend himself against Cheryl and Lana at the same time. But when you think about the recreation that we showed here and how it could

have went down, not only are all these factors that I just described in play, but also he's potentially walking out of a door. And as he's doing so, Cheryl's walking into it. So she kind of startles him and gets him from around the corner. And if the first thing that he sees is the knife going into his stomach or into his chest. There's not much that he can do to defend himself. And it wasn't like he was stabbed multiple times where he was stabbed in the hand or the arm first, and she just got the best of him. Unfortunately for Johnny, it was a fatal stabbing. Just the one wound was ultimately what did him in. So when we think about this person, yeah, I'm sure if we had the chance to ask him,

Johnny would not say that this was the way he'd be taken out, but I do think it aligns. And then to add onto that, we think about his past behavior and all of this buildup to this moment where it's, it's going to be a justification for why it happened when it goes to court. You do have other women now coming forward, as we talked about earlier, saying that this is a similar MO that he's displayed with multiple women in the past. And the characteristics that Lana and Cheryl are describing, this behavior, is not out of the ordinary for Johnny. And if these women had come forward and said, yeah, we had never experienced anything like this at any point during our relationship, maybe this trial goes a different way. But it is something that has to be considered because these other women do not

have any skin in the game to lie for Lana. So the fact that they're saying this, it holds a lot of weight to me. Yeah. And I also do want to say about the letters and these things, it was a different time. So obviously back then those letters are going to look bad, but we understand more about toxic dynamics and manipulation and relationships and things now. And this is pretty common in a very like intense push-pull dynamic like they had. And even Lana said when we talked about it last episode, she was like, yeah, there was a part of me that was like drawn to him, but I knew he was dangerous. But I was drawn to him, but I knew he was dangerous, but I was drawn to

him, but I knew, you know, so it's like going back and forth. And she said she was in London, she was lonely, she had like moments of weakness, and she was like, hey, come on out, I'm lonely, because he made her dependent on him emotionally. And so she knows he's dangerous, she knows he can hurt her, and he will hurt her. But also, there's this other part of her that's like, well, I'm like, you don't even consciously know you're dependent on them emotionally. So this does not surprise me. But like I said, back then in the 40s, it would have looked terrible for her and people did judge her for it.

Well, I mean, sure, the letters are there and I didn't even I didn't even touch on the letters and I should have. But let's really call it what it is. The first letters that you talked about were seven months prior to this happening. And then the most recent letter, which was very short, which was in December, and I believe he was killed, you said in April, right? Yes. Yeah, April he was killed. So we're talking three to four months, maybe even a little bit longer than that, four to five months, really.

And, well, no, it'd be four months, right? How much can happen in a relationship in four months? They hadn't gone to Acapulco yet. Yeah. How quick can things turn where you're in love one minute, you're talking every day, you're texting each other and then something happens. It could be just something you find out or something that occurs during an argument and the vibe totally changes. The feelings totally change. And so, yeah,

in four months, could you go from these letters where maybe she did mean what she was saying to not being able to stomach the person and trying to get out of the situation? Yeah, I think that's very reasonable. So I don't, I don't put much weight into the letters.

Now, if you told me there was a letter a week before he was killed and Lana's painting this picture that things are all shitty and she's writing all these letters up till his death, I think that would be a worse situation for her. That would be a problem for me. There was a letter that obviously Mickey Cohen didn't have published where basically Lana was like, listen, like I need space. I need time to think. Let me have time to think, like, give me a minute to process. So she's definitely pulling back. And yeah, I totally agree.

And this was before Mexico. This was before Acapulco. This was before he held her captive for, you know, several months. A lot transpired between that four and five month period. And a lot ramped up, too, as we were talking about, you know, especially after the Academy Awards, like the mask was completely off. Went from flowers to physical threats of physical violence. We talked about that, right? The things change very quickly. Yeah, people get comfortable. Exactly. So we're going to take our final break and then we'll be right back and we're going to talk about the coroner's inquest. With longer daylight hours, you may be spending more time

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That's SimpliSafe.com slash Crime Weekly. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. So on April 11th, 1958, just eight days after the fatal stabbing of Johnny Stompanato, a formal coroner's inquest was held in a courtroom at the Hall of Records building in downtown Los Angeles. And it wasn't just any inquest. It was a full-blown media circus. Flashbulbs exploded and crowds of reporters jostled for position. Inside, the atmosphere crackled with tension, and of the 160 seats, 120 had been reserved for the press, with CBS and ABC announcing that they were going to broadcast the inquest live and put it out over the radio. The purpose of the inquest was to determine whether Johnny Stompanato's death was murder

or a justifiable act of self-defense by a terrified teenage girl. Presiding over the proceedings was Coroner Charles C. Langhauser, and the jury was made up of 12 people, 10 men and 2 women, regular citizens tasked with making sense of a tragedy straight out of a Hollywood script. One by one, witnesses were called to the stand and each added their own flavor to the unraveling story. It turned out that Stampernado was actually not in good health because during the autopsy, it was discovered that he was suffering from congenital polycystic kidney disease, and it was likely that he would have

died young. He probably wouldn't have even survived another 10 years, even if his life had not been ended by Cheryl Crane's knife. Coroner Langhauser testified that an entire team of doctors could not have saved Johnny's life. He'd been stabbed once in the stomach, and the knife had sliced through his kidney, struck a vertebrae, and then twisted upwards, puncturing his aorta. The coroner also said that based on the physical evidence and witness testimony, he believed that the stabbing was an impulsive, defensive action made by a frightened child. The fact that the murder weapon was an ordinary kitchen knife also suggested that the act of violence was impulsive and not planned or premeditated. Mickey Cohen then made his way to the stand.

Now, his job was basically to identify his old friend. But when he was presented with a photograph of Stompanato, Cohen smugly said, quote, I refuse to identify him because I may be accused of his murder, end quote. According to the mob boss, police chief Clinton Anderson had alluded to the extortion scheme that Mickey and Johnny had allegedly planned against Lana. And Mickey said, quote, If he can say that, he can say anything. And I'm not going to testify about anything. End quote. Mickey Cohen then left the courtroom, smiling at reporters as he went. Police Chief Clinton Anderson testified saying that Cheryl Crane had confessed almost immediately after the stabbing, and although she had been emotional, she had also been clear that she had done it to protect her mother. Cheryl's father, Stephen Crane, testified

that he'd received a call from Cheryl, who was hysterical, and told him that she thought Johnny was going to hurt her mother. Beverly Hills Police Officer Joseph Payne testified that when he had arrived at the scene, Cheryl and Lana were in shock. And Beverly Hills police captain Ray Borders testified about the consistency of Cheryl's story, that under questioning and re-questioning, it had not changed a bit. Cheryl Crane herself did not appear in person in court. Instead, a letter of her account that she had written was read out loud. And, she said, I didn't mean to kill him. It's not what I was trying to do. I was scared.

I wanted to protect my mother. I certainly didn't want him to be dead. Now, when Lana Turner testified, the whole courtroom fell into a hush. Mrs. Stark and I were grabbed inside a bar and seen as loud and shady as we were. But it was so quiet, I was truthfully watching it. We hadn't been this young. The friends of mine can remember the change he had. And they parted. I still never saw a blade. Mr. Stocking had grabbed me from here. For the record, did he have one? Yes, he had one? Yes, sir.

And when he dropped, his arms went out. But I still did not see the third with blood or a wound until I ran over to it. And I saw the sweater was cut, and I lifted the sweater up. And I saw this wound. I remember I was there hearing my daughter sobbing. Many have called Lana's time on the witness stand the greatest performance of her career. During and after the inquest, many members of the press and the public openly compared her courtroom testimony to her performance in Peyton Place, the film that had just earned her a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards a mere weeks before the killing.

She cried on the stand, trembled during her recollection of the stabbing, and at one point nearly collapsed. Some observers felt it was raw and honest. Others thought it was too perfect, as if performed for the cameras. One of the most infamous moments came when Life magazine ran a photo layout that included images of Lana Turner testifying side by side with publicity stills from Peyton Place in which she also played a distressed mother facing scandal testifying in court. Her testimony lasted 62 minutes and left the courtroom stunned. She described Johnny's collapse, the choking noises he made as he died, the blood pooling on the floor, the terror in her daughter's eyes. The implication from the media was clear. Was Lana acting or was she just living the role she had perfected on screen? Some saw her as a grieving protective mother caught in a nightmare, while others believed she was manipulating public sympathy,

a star playing the ultimate role to save her daughter and herself. After hearing the evidence, the jury retired to deliberate, and they were gone only 25 minutes before returning with their finding that the death of Johnny Stompanato was a justifiable homicide. Yeah, so a few things to unpack there. First off, I agree with people's sentiment on actors and actresses testifying. I kind of saw a lot of it with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, where these people are talented. This is what they do for a living. Not Amber Heard, though. She's not that talented. Oh, Jesus. Overall, they have the ability to turn it on. So as a detective, as a lawyer,

as a jury member, it's going to be hard to know what's true and what isn't because this is what they do every day. How many movies do we watch and we think that the character we're seeing is a real person like you know for i'll tell you a quick story like i watched warriors with uh i can't remember the second guy but uh who's the who's the guy who plays venom right now oh my god the fact i can't remember his name um that's tom hardy tom hardy right like when i that was a first my first experience with tom hardy i've never seen him in other movies so i watched him in that movie and I immediately looked him up thinking he was like a UFC fighter from somewhere in Boston or something like that. And he's this British guy, you know, like it just totally threw me off. So it's very hard to understand what's, you know,

fact from fiction, which is why you got to go back to the evidence in the case. Now I will say this moving forward, and I may be speaking out of my, you know what here, cause I don't know if it was on the table at the time when this took place, but, and this may surprise you and others listening to this, even though everything we have here, and I believe what Cheryl and Lana, I believe their version of it. Why wasn't manslaughter on the table? I don't know if that was an option at the time. Cause she was 14 or 15. You know. I don't think that was an option. It should be. I mean, if it was in the law at that point, it should have been on the table

because let's just break it down really quick here. What is manslaughter? We all know what it is. It's the killing of another without any malice intent, right? I don't think she planned on killing him. But when you think about what they described, she admitted that she wasn't intending on stabbing him. And yet she had the knife in her hand. She was going to defend herself, but she misinterpreted what was a violent act and which in reality it wasn't. And that's her own words. And you think about what the medical examiner said here, it all lines up. The knife goes in, in the stomach, which wouldn't be an area that you would stab if you were trying to intentionally kill someone. But as they described the knife twisted upward toward the aorta, which would suggest that

their bodies almost squished together with the knife in between them. And she's shorter than him. So it's kind of, yeah, going up. But as they're getting closer together and they bump into each other, the knife goes in and up because it's the blade, the handle of the knife is compressed against cheryl right and it goes up and unfortunately hits an a order which you you clip that you're done so it all lines up i believe the story but the reality is even though she didn't intend on killing him there wasn't really a self-defense situation there now and that's their words

not johnny's right they're saying well she thought he was going to hurt her mother so i understand that no that i understand that but you know it's in law enforcement like you have the person has to believe that their life is in danger i don't know how in that moment if she was clearly she didn't have an opportunity to see that her life was in danger right they ran into each other each other. It was an accident, right? Maybe she wasn't intending on stabbing that moment. She's saying because of what she heard that he was saying, I'm going to cut you. I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do that. And then she walked in. She thought he had a weapon in his hand that he was going after her mother. And the fact is for justifiable homicide, it's just that the subject believes that there's imminent or otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm. I can't wait for you guys to weigh in in the comments on this one. I really, and it could go completely in one direction and not where I'm at on this, but stop the video right now. If you're on audio, come over real quick, comment. I want to hear your thoughts or even just leave a review

and comment there, but don't rate your review based on if you agree with me or not. I see some people doing that, but overall one star Derek, you're wrong. I'm just giving another perspective here. I don't feel bad for Johnny Stompanato. I obviously wish this didn't happen. There's obviously a history of abuse that led up to this moment where Cheryl felt like she had to defend her mother. But I do think there's an argument to be made that you could have found her guilty of manslaughter. And I don't know if many people would have argued with that. I think it could also fall under that category. Obviously I wasn't there and perception is everything, but he had clothes in his hand according to the victims in this case. And so if she had taken an extra second, she would have been able to identify that this was potentially a guy who was leaving the residence.

He was grabbing his clothes and leaving. I believe based on her age, it's like you don't have the your brain's not like evolved enough for. How many kids do we send to prison for the same type of crime today? Now, now. People are tried as adults all the time. Yeah, I mean. I'm just saying, listen, it worked the way it worked. And I'll even say one more thing.

I knew the outcome of this. You kind of alluded to it, you know, in the beginning, but 10 men, two women on the jury. Well, that's because it's the 1950s. But I would just say this with less women on the jury, it could have went bad for Cheryl. I think with more women on the jury, it could have been worse for Cheryl. I guess that's true too.

I don't know if you've noticed. And women, like many, most of my followers are women and they're amazing, but nobody is meaner to women than other women. Not like physically violent, but nobody is meaner to women than other women. Not like physically violent, but like mean. Yeah.

And judgmental. I don't know. I just wanted to play the other side of the coin here, be devil's advocate a little bit, because I could see this going both ways. If you had told me that Cheryl went away for a year or two, it wouldn't be a long time, right? But went away for this as it not being a justifiable homicide. I don't think it's first degree murder in any way, shape or form, but there could have been something where jury could have came back and said, yeah, we understand,

but you were wrong. You misinterpreted it incorrectly. He wasn't in danger. Verbal threats are not necessarily enough to kill someone. And she could have went to prison for a couple of years, but it worked out the way it did. The judicial system played out and that's where we are. I'm not saying I'm mad about that. I'm just discussing here. And I'd be interested to hear what you guys have to say, separating the fact of little young child girl in this situation in fear of her mom's well-being, Johnny Stompanato having his past. Just take it for what it is. Where do you fall on it?

I'm interested to hear everyone's opinions. Well, there is no such thing as a perfect victim. That's a great point. Johnny Stompanato obviously was far from one. He was violent, controlling, and carried the weight of his criminal past into every room he entered. But even in men like Johnny, emotion can coexist with dysfunction. Johnny's stepmother said, quote, my son loved Lana Turner. I think he planned to

marry her, end quote. And here's the thing. While Johnny Stompanato's relationship with Lana did begin under dubious circumstances initially marked by his and Cohen's plan for extortion, some do believe that during their time together, Johnny actually did harbor genuine affection for Turner. He wore a gold bracelet inscribed with the name Lenita, a form of endearment, suggesting a personal connection that went beyond mere manipulation. Letters exchanged between them showed what appeared to be true words of love and adoration on his part, and it is important to recognize that abusive relationships often involve cycles of control, affection, and reconciliation. While Stompanato's actions were undeniably abusive, the presence of affectionate gestures and repeated

reconciliations suggests a complex emotional entanglement. There's evidence that Johnny may have developed genuine feelings for Lana. However, this sentimentality was misguided on his part and overshadowed by the toxic and dangerous nature of their relationships. Based on the information we have about Johnny Stompanato's behavior, background, and psychological profile, it's reasonable to conclude that he was just far too emotionally unevolved to understand how to exist in a healthy relationship. He lost his mother at a very young age, and he gravitated towards the criminal underworld early on, especially in those times. Men who grew up without healthy emotional modeling often equated passion, jealousy, and control with love because that's all they knew

about attachment. As someone closely tied to organized crime, Johnny likely learned that relationships, romantic or otherwise, were about leverage, intimidation, and maintaining dominance. Vulnerability or open emotional expression would have been seen as weakness. Allowing Lana to have her own career and life where she could come and go and leave him and be out in the world where someone else might swoop in and try to woo her own career and life where she could come and go and leave him and be out in the world where someone else might swoop in and try to woo her would have felt like an action too risky to take. And it's likely that Johnny felt inferior to Lana. So he would have believed he didn't deserve her and she could have done better. And if he believed that, he would have felt that she

believed that as well, along with everyone who saw them together. In a way, this low self-confidence and self-worth would have put Johnny in a constant state of imposter syndrome, always waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Lana to realize that she could level up. It's very possible that he truly believed that by possessing Lana, isolating her and dominating her, he was not only showing her how much he cared, but keeping his prize, his possession, away from others. Stompanato stalked Lana on set, threatened her co-stars, and used threats of exposure and violence to maintain power. And in an emotionally healthy person,

love is shown through support, respect, and nurturing, but in someone like Johnny Stompanato, love becomes obsession and ownership. He may have genuinely cared for Lana in his own distorted way, but he was incapable of showing that love in a way to foster trust, safety, or partnership. Instead, his affection manifested as abuse, escalating tensions until it ultimately cost him his life. Even Johnny's ex-wife, who remember, he got her pregnant, brought her to Woodstock. She gave birth to a son, and then he left them to go to LA and be

a gigolo by the pool. Even she didn't remember him as an evil person, just an immature one, saying, quote, he had a good heart, you know, but he never grew up, end quote. So was Cheryl Crane the hero who saved her mother, or is there more to the story that will never see the light of day? In the years that followed, Lana Turner's career continued, though always followed by whispers of that night. And Cheryl Crane, the child who became infamous overnight, spent the rest of her life trying to step out from the long, complicated shadow of her family's tragedy. After the inquest, Cheryl did not return to normal life.

The court ordered that she be placed in the custody of her grandmother, Mildred Turner, and her relationship with her mother, Lana, became increasingly strained. She rebelled, running away from home multiple times, getting involved in minor incidents like joyriding, and became a fixture of LA's troubled youth scene. At the age of 17, Cheryl was sent to El Retiro School for Girls, a reform school in Sylmar. Six weeks later, she and two other girls climbed a 10-foot wall and ran away. She was eventually returned to the facility, but five weeks after that, she ran away again with two other girls. In January of 1961, Cheryl was released from El Retiro and began living with Lana and Lana's then-husband, Frederick D. May.

Now, apparently, Lana felt that her daughter was still traumatized from the incident with Stompanato, and she was sent away again, this time to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. Now, in early adulthood, Cheryl was tall and beautiful, and she briefly modeled before working for her father at his Rodeo Drive restaurant. She worked there as a hostess for several years before studying restaurant and hospitality management at Cornell University. were found in Cheryl's car, and she was detained by the LAPD. But this same year, Cheryl's life took a turn for the better. Marlon Brando, of all people, introduced Cheryl to model Joyce Leroy, and the two began dating. They would eventually become lifelong partners. Over the next several years, finally in a happy and loving relationship, Cheryl rose to become the vice president of her father's successful hospitality company until he closed his restaurant in 1979 and Cheryl and Joyce moved to Hawaii for some years before relocating to San Francisco, where Cheryl had a very successful real estate career. Cheryl says that from the age of six, something that she'd never had before and something she would never let go of.

In Cheryl Crane's book, Detour, A Hollywood Story, she wrote something very moving and very important. She said, quote, What strikes me now as I look back at that unhappy episode is how often, out of the best of intentions, we treat abused children in a way that only adds to their trauma. Why is that? At a moment when a child's greatest need is to feel loved and not blamed, he or she is so often ostracized or sent away. Why is it that at a time when a child is so desperate to understand what happened, when he or she should be encouraged to talk with someone he or she loves and trusts, the child is so often told to forget about the experience, to put it out of his or her mind. The fact is, without the right kind of attention, the abused child will continue to live on inside an apparently happy and well-adjusted adolescent

and adult. Unless that abused child is recognized and embraced, its cries will never be stilled. End quote. After Stompanato's death, there were still years of tension and heartache between Cheryl and her mother. And only when Cheryl began writing her book so long after, in 1986, did she finally hear her mother tell her, for the first time, how much she appreciated what Cheryl had done for her,

how she had saved all of their lives. Cheryl said that in this moment, she realized that although she had never heard the words said out loud, she had always sensed her mother's gratitude. And she and Lana cried and hugged each other after that. And Cheryl said, quote, I have no regrets about my childhood.

I think everything happens for a reason and life is seldom fair. I was blessed with great advantages and despite everything, I wouldn't change my parents if I could, end quote. Lana Turner passed away on June 29th, 1995 at the age of 74 from oral cancer. Her daughter Cheryl was at her side. In the last years of Lana's life, she and Cheryl became incredibly close finally. And Lana even started calling Cheryl's partner, Joyce or Josh, her second daughter. And apparently, Josh and Lana and Cheryl had many good and happy years of being a family together before Lana passed away.

In 2014, after having been inseparable for over four decades, Cheryl married the love of her life and they lived happily together. In an LA Times article, the couple's relationship was described as steady and adjusted, a role model for the LGBTQ community that Cheryl and Joyce surrounded themselves with in San Francisco. And today, Cheryl lives a quiet and private life with her wife, a world away from the tabloid chaos of her childhood. And that's a happy ending as far as I'm concerned. In the golden glow of Hollywood's heyday, Lana Turner was a star, luminous and untouchable, but behind the glamor was a woman searching for love, caught in a storm she couldn't control.

Johnny Stompanato was part of that storm, violent, possessive, but perhaps not without real feeling. And in the heart of it all stood Cheryl Crane, just a child forced to make an impossible choice. What happened in that bedroom on April 4th, 1958 shattered lives and exposed the high cost of fame, secrecy, and survival. It wasn't a movie, it was real. And no one, not the actress, not the gangster, not the girl, would ever be the same again. Damn.

It's a great ending right there. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm going to keep it quick because I feel like we broke down this episode and this case as we were discussing it tonight. It's already about an hour and 40 minutes in. What I'll say is this. Based on what I've read, based on what I see, based on past history, based on other accounts

from women who are involved in Johnny's life. I believe Cheryl and Lana, not just because they're just the mom and daughter and they're the innocent victims here, but because of the fact that we have past behavior that would suggest Johnny was capable of this. And then also just to not be too repetitive here, the explanation for the stabbing is such an, I guess, to be frank, a shitty explanation as to why you would do this. If with all these people involved, they would have came up with something much better because dead people can't

talk. You could have easily thrown a knife next to Johnny's body said he was, he was charging Lana with the knife. Cheryl stepped in case closed. There's no questions being asked, but giving this version, it opens up different, different sides to the story. And it also allows people to maybe not agree with Cheryl's decision to do this or how it

all went down, just like I discussed tonight. But where I stand on this one, I believe Cheryl and Lana and the judicial system heard the case and they agreed with Cheryl and Lana as well. I have no issues with it. This is a traumatic situation that Cheryl had to go through, not only in this moment, but from the child molestation that took place beforehand. And to hear all this story,

which I didn't want to interrupt, of how Cheryl overcame what she went through, which could definitely have gone the opposite way. It almost did, yeah. She was able to overcome her demons, and she's living a very fulfilled life at this time. And I'm happy for her. I'm happy for her and her family. So that's where I stand on it. I'm really happy for her. She, you know, everybody could say she was such privilege. You know,

she had so much money. Her mother was famous. It doesn't matter because as a child, all you do is seek attachment and connection and genuine love. And she really never was able to find that. And she finally did later in life. And not only did she find it with her wife, but eventually with the one person that she wanted it with more than anyone, which was her mother. And so I'm happy that at the end of Lana's life, at least she and Cheryl finally were able to love each other

in the way that mothers and daughters should. Well said. That's how we're going to end it on. Guys, we appreciate you being here with us for this three-part series. We'll be back with a new case next week. Until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon.

Bye.