Stompanato's homicide has had an enduring presence in true crime popular culture and mythology, and was named one of the "crimes of the century" by "Time" magazine in 2007. Film historian Sam Staggs noted that it "belongs in the same pantheon of foul deeds as the Fatty Arbuckle rape trial in 1921, the ambiguous death of Marilyn Monroe in 1962, and the O. J. Simpson case of 1994–95."