1. Background

2. Homicide

3. Legal proceedings
    Pre-hearing  Coroner's inquest 

4. Aftermath

5. See also

6. References

7. Sources

8. External links

On the evening of April 4, 1958, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane stabbed 32-year-old Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of her mother, actress Lana Turner, at Turner's rented home in Beverly Hills, California. Stompanato, an ex-Marine and affiliate of the Cohen crime family, had been in a year-long relationship with Turner which had been rocky and marked with physical abuse.

Crane and Turner alleged that Crane had stabbed Stompanato in the stomach when Turner was ushering him out of her bedroom during a violent argument. Crane had heard the fighting going on, and took a knife from the kitchen, planning to defend her mother. After Crane turned herself in to police in the early morning hours of April 5, she was interred in a juvenile hall. A coroner's inquest was held on April 11, during which the homicide was deemed justifiable, and Crane was exonerated of any wrongdoing. She was released from the juvenile detention center in late April, and placed under the guardianship of her grandmother.

Though Crane was cleared of wrongdoing, Stompanato's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking $750,000 in damages. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court in 1962 for a sum of $20,000.

Background

Turner began dating Johnny Stompanato in the spring of 1957; Stompanato, an ex-Marine, had close ties to the Los Angeles underworld and was an affiliate of gangster Mickey Cohen.{{sfn|Turner|1982|pages=200–203}} Turner and Stompanato carried on a relationship filled with violent arguments, physical abuse, and repeated reconciliations.{{Sfn|Feldstein|2000|p=120}}{{Sfn|Turner|1982|pages=160–191}} Turner also claimed that on one occasion Stompanato drugged her and took nude photographs of her while unconscious, potentially to use as blackmail.{{sfn|Turner|1982|p=205}}

In September 1957, while Turner was filming Another Time, Another Place in London, Stompanato disrupted the set and violently choked Turner.{{sfn|Turner|1982|pages=168–169}} Turner phoned Scotland Yard after the incident, and ultimately had Stompanato deported from the United Kingdom.{{Sfn|Fischer|1991|p=217}}{{sfn|Turner|1982|pages=169–172}} They subsequently reconciled, and spent January and February 1958 vacationing in Acapulco, Mexico, before returning to the United States.^[1] In March 1958, Turner attended the Academy Awards to observe her nomination for Peyton Place and present the award for Best Supporting Actor.{{sfn|Turner|1982|p=180}} Stompanato, angry that she had attended the ceremony without him, assaulted Turner when she arrived home.{{sfn|Turner|1982|pages=183–187}}

Homicide

Eight days after the Academy Awards ceremony, on April 4, at approximately 8 p.m., Stompanato arrived at Turner's rented home at 730 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, which she had just begun leasing a week prior.{{sfn|Turner|1982|p=190}}{{sfn|Morella|Epstein|1971|p=186}} The two began arguing heatedly in the bedroom, during which Stompanato threatened to kill Turner, her daughter, and her mother,{{Sfn|Feldstein|2000|p=120}} as well as threatening to cut Turner's face with a straight razor.{{sfn|Yapp|2006|p=278}} In the midst of the argument, Turner broke off the relationship.^[2]

Fearing that her mother's life was in danger, Cheryl, who had been watching television in an adjacent room, grabbed a kitchen knife and ran to Turner's defense.{{sfn|Morella|Epstein|1971|p=188}}^[3] According to Turner, Cheryl, who had been listening to the couple's fight behind the closed door, stabbed Stompanato in the stomach when Turner attempted to usher him out of the bedroom.{{Sfn|Lewis|2017|p=94}} Turner initially believed Cheryl had punched him, but realized he had been stabbed when he collapsed and she saw blood on his shirt.{{sfn|Lewis|2017|p=94}} Crane rushed and called her father in the melee,^[4] and Turner called for a doctor, who arrived at the house shortly after; the doctor attempted to revive Stompanato with an adrenaline injection and an artificial respirator.{{sfn|Morella|Epstein|1971|pages=190–191}} Unable to obtain a pulse, the doctor called for emergency services, and Stompanato was pronounced dead at the scene.{{sfn|Morella|Epstein|1971|pages=190–191}}

In the early morning hours of April 5, Cheryl was surrendered at the Beverly Hills Police Department, where she was booked on a holding charge.{{sfn|Morella|Epstein|1971|pages=192–193}} An autopsy conducted shortly after revealed Stompanato's death was caused by a single knife wound that penetrated his liver, portal vein, and aorta.{{sfn|Morella|Epstein|1971|p=191}} In the interim pending further legal proceedings, Crane was interred in a juvenile hall.^[5][4]

Legal proceedings

Pre-hearing

On April 7, 1958, a juvenile pre-detention hearing was held under Judge Donald O'Dell, which was attended by Turner, her mother Mildred, and ex-husband, Stephen.^[5] The same day, Turner attempted to file an application for her daughter's release into the custody of her grandmother, Mildred.^[6] Turner's application was denied, however, as the judge felt that Crane would "be better protected by remaining in custody pending the hearing."^[6] A hearing was scheduled for April 24 to determine whether Crane remain a ward of the juvenile court.^[5][7]

Simultaneous to the pre-detention hearing, numerous love letters between Stompanato and Turner were published in the press.^[7]

Coroner's inquest

Due to Turner's high profile and that the killing involved her teenage daughter, the case quickly became a cause célèbre.{{sfn|Morella|Epstein|1971|p=195}} Over one hundred reporters and journalists attended the April 11, 1958, coroner's inquest, described by attendees as "near-riotous".{{Sfn|Feldstein|2000|pages=120–121}} A report of the inquest in The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that Turner's testimony was "the highlight of a circus-like hearing."^[8] Mickey Cohen, Stompanato's friend and associate, was called as the first witness, but refused to provide testimony as he feared he might be implicated in the crime,^[14] and also refused to identify Stompanato's body in photographs.^[9]

While Cohen was questioned, Stephen Trusso, a friend of Stompanato and spectator, interrupted the proceedings by screaming "I want to testify."^[10] He went on to claim that Crane killed Stompanato in a lover's quarrel because she was infatuated with him, and that she was jealous of her mother.^[9] Trusso's request to testify on the stand was denied by the judge.^[10] The second witness, Beverly Hills police chief Clinton Anderson, testified that he was "satisfied" with Crane's confession to committing the killing.^[14] Joseph B. Payne, a Beverly Hills police officer who was dispatched to the residence on the night of the killing, also testified; on the stand, Payne recounted his arrival at Turner's Bedford Drive home that night, where he was met by Turner's ex-husband and father of Crane, Stephen, who had placed a call to the police department himself.^[11]

Testimony was provided by Turner as well as Stephen Crane, and Turner's mother, Mildred.^[12] Stephen testified that he had received a frantic phone call from his daughter the night of the stabbing, and quickly drove to Turner's home.^[12] Mildred, whose own husband (Turner's father) was murdered in 1930, also briefly took the stand, but was so visibly upset that she was excused from further testimony.^[12]

Turner herself was noted by reporters as nearly collapsing at points during her testimony.^[13] Turner described the stabbing: "We had a violent argument, and then he went to the closet where he had a jacket and a shirt on a hanger...  He came to me like he was going to strangle me with the jacket...  I went to the door and as I opened it my daughter was standing there. She came in and everything happened so fast I thought she had hit him in the stomach. I never saw a blade."^[13]

Crane did not attend the inquest.^[14] In lieu of her absence, a written statement by Crane was read aloud, which recounted her overhearing of the argument, her acquiring the knife from the kitchen, and the eventual stabbing of Stompanato in her mother's bedroom.^[15] "He kept threatening her and I thought he was going to hurt her, so I went into the room and I stuck him with the knife," she said. "He screamed and asked what I was doing. I ran out of the room."^[15]

After four hours of testimony and approximately 25 minutes of deliberation, the jury deemed the killing a justifiable homicide.^[16]{{sfn|Turner|1982|p=203}}

Aftermath

Cheryl remained a temporary ward of the court until April 24, when a juvenile court hearing was held, during which the judge expressed concerns over her receiving "proper parental supervision."{{sfn|Turner|1982|p=203}} She was ultimately released to the care of her grandmother, and was ordered to regularly visit a psychiatrist alongside her parents.{{sfn|Turner|1982|p=203}}

Though Turner and her daughter were exonerated of any wrongdoing, public opinion on the event was varied, with numerous publications intimating that Turner's testimony at the inquest was a performance; Life magazine published a photo of Turner testifying in court with stills of her in court room scenes from three films she had starred in.{{Sfn|Feldstein|2000|p=122}} Columnist Florabel Muir wrote in the New York Daily News that Turner "played the most dramatic and effective role of her long screen career here today at the coroner's inquest."^[17] The scandal also coincided with the release of Another Time, Another Place, and the film was met with poor box-office receipts and a lackluster critical response.{{sfn|Valentino|1976|p=221}}

Stompanato's brother Carmine, who attended the inquest, alleged afterward that he felt Turner "failed to tell the whole truth," and that law enforcement had "made up their mind right from the start that Johnny deserved to die."^[18] Stompanato's family in Illinois subsequently sought a wrongful death suit of $750,000 ({{Inflation|US|750000|1958|r=-5|fmt=eq}}) in damages against both Turner and her ex-husband, Steve Crane. In the suit, Stompanato's son alleged that Turner had in fact been responsible for his death, and that her daughter had taken the blame.^[19] The suit was settled out of court for a reported $20,000 in May 1962.{{sfn|Morella|Epstein|1971|p=233}} A 1962 novel by Harold Robbins entitled Where Love Has Gone and its subsequent film adaptation were inspired by the event.{{sfn|Erickson|2017|p=119}}

See also

• Lana Turner in popular culture

References

Sources

• {{cite book|last=Erickson|first=Hal|year=2017|title=Any Resemblance to Actual Persons: The Real People Behind 400+ Fictional Movie Characters|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|ref=harv|isbn=978-1-476-62930-8}}
• {{cite book|last=Feldstein|first=Ruth|authorlink=Ruth Feldstein| title=Motherhood in Black and White: Race and Sex in American Liberalism, 1930–1965| year=2000| publisher=Cornell University Press| location=Ithaca, New York| isbn= 978-0-8014-8438-4|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Fischer|first=Lucy (ed).|title=Imitation of Life|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=1991|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey|isbn=0-8135-1644-7| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NxHbph9wFJsC&pg=PA3|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book| last=Lewis| first=Jon| year=2017| title=Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles| publisher=University of California Press| isbn=978-0-520-28432-6|location=Los Angeles | ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last1=Morella|first1=Joe |last2=Epstein |first2=Edward Z. |year=1971 | title=Lana: The Public and Private Lives of Miss Turner|publisher=Citadel Press|location=New York |isbn=0-8065-0226-6|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Turner|first=Lana|title=The Lady, the Legend, the Truth|year=1982|publisher=Dutton|location=New York|isbn=0-525-24106-X|edition=1st|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Valentino|first=Lou | year=1976| title=The Films of Lana Turner| publisher=Citadel Press|location=Seacaucus, New Jersey|isbn=978-0-8065-0553-4|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Yapp|first=Nick|year=2006|title=True Crime|publisher=Parragon Incorporated|ref=harv|isbn=978-1-405-48540-1|editor=Fletcher, Mark}}

External links

• [https://archive.org/details/LanaTurnerFBI/page/n29 Lana Turner FBI files] at the Internet Archive

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