April 4, 1958: The Killing of Johnny Stompanato

Cheryl Crane

April 4, 1958: Cheryl Crane kills Johnny Stompanato, stabbing him to death in Beverly Hills. This was notable partly because the killer was only 14 years old – and because she was the daughter of actress Lana Turner.

Julia Jean Turner was born on February 8, 1921 in Burke, Idaho, and grew up in San Francisco. Her father was murdered when she was 9 years old, and it seemed to set the stage for the kind of life, and the kind of films, she would have. Her mother eventually took her to Los Angeles, and she attended Hollywood High School.

In 1937, William R. Wilkerson, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, saw her drinking a coke at the Top Hat Malt Shop on Sunset Boulevard. He offered to make her a star. Eventually, the story got twisted, so that it was by the better-known producer Mervyn LeRoy, at the better-known Schwab's Pharmacy, also on Sunset. Wilkerson introduced her to Zeppo Marx, the Marx Brother who left the act to become a talent agent. He introduced her to LeRoy, and the rest was history.

She became a "blonde bombshell," and her figure caused her to be known as "the Sweater Girl," a nickname she hated. She was briefly married to clarinetist Artie Shaw in 1940 (the 3rd of Shaw's 8 marriages), then married restaurateur Joseph Stephen "Steve" Crane in 1942 (the 2nd of Crane's 5 marriages). Their daughter, Cheryl Christine Crane, was born on July 25, 1943.

In 1946, Lana shifted from comedy to film noir with The Postman Always Rings Twice. She said, "I finally got tired of making movies where all I did was walk across the screen and look pretty. I got a big chance to do some real acting."

She divorced Crane, and eventually married 7 times. In between, she had flings with Frank Sinatra and Howard Hughes. In 1957, she started dating Johnny Stompanato, an enforcer for Mickey Cohen, the West Coast's leading gangster. In 1958, she attended the Academy Awards, nominated for her role in Peyton Place. Stompanato didn't go with her. When she got back to her house at 730 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, he hit her. It was one of many times he would assault her and she would forgive him and reconcile with him.

On April 4, 9 days later, he came to the house. They began arguing in the bedroom, and which Stompanato cut Turner's face, and threatened to kill her, Cheryl, and her mother. Cheryl, then 14, was in the next room. Hearing the threat, and presuming that, if he didn't carry it out now, he eventually would, she grabbed a knife, and stabbed him in the stomach. He died at age 32.

Three days later, at an inquest that was described by attendees as "near-riotous," the jury deemed the killing a justifiable homicide. Cheryl remained a temporary ward of the court, and was placed in a Los Angeles girls' reform school in 1960, for "psychiatric therapy." Six weeks later, she and 2 other girls escaped. They were caught. Five weeks later, she escaped again, this time with 2 different girls. Again, they were caught. Turner had her transferred to a psychiatric facility in Hartford, Connecticut.

When she was released, she went to work in her father's restaurant, and enjoyed the business. In 1970, she began a lesbian relationship with Joyce LeRoy (no relation to Mervyn), who encouraged her to become a real estate broker, and was accepted by Turner as a daughter-in-law.

After Stompanto's death, Turner's film career began to dry up, but she regularly worked in television and on stage. She died in 1995. Cheryl and Joyce married as soon as it was legal, in 2014, and, as of April 4, 2022, they live in Palm Springs, California.

Although Lana Turner, Cheryl Crane and Johnny Stompanato have been used as characters, or models for characters, in a few novels and movies, no movie has ever been made about the murder. For a while, there was talk that Catherine Zeta-Jones (famously brunette) would play Lana (famously blonde) in Stompanato, but that movie got "stuck in development hell," and never happened.

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April 4, 1958 was a Friday. There were no scores on this historic day. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA Finals were in progress, and the St. Louis Hawks went on to beat the Boston Celtics in 6 games. And the Stanley Cup Playoffs were in the Semifinal round. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, then the Boston Bruins beat the New York Rangers. In the Finals, the Canadiens won in 6 games.