She Killed Her Mother’s Abusive Mobster Boyfriend
Tags: Babies, Babies Health, Health, Life, Coronavirus

True Crime, Film

She Killed Her Mother’s Abusive Mobster Boyfriend

Lana Turner on the set of her film, “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Photo source.

Lana Turner was the Hollywood glamour girl of the 1940s and ’50s. It’s Lah-nuh, not Lan-ah, she warned her fans; “Please, if you say “Lan-ah,” I shall slaughter you.”

At fifteen-years-old, Lana was discovered while playing hooky and buying a Coca-Cola at the Top Hat Malt Shop near Sunset Boulevard in 1936. It was William R. Wilkerson, the publisher of The Hollywood Reporter who approached the young girl and asked if she was interested in becoming an actress.

Lana would later be signed to Warner Bros by renowned film director Marvyn LeRoy, eventually moving with him to MGM. Lana quickly achieved stardom; she was known as a sex symbol, the all-American dream girl and she would later be known as the woman whose daughter murdered her abuser.

While filming The Lady Takes a Flyer in the spring of 1957, Lana began to receive gifts from an admirer, a man named John Steele. Beautiful bouquets of flowers turned into expensive engraved gold watches and portraits of Lana he had commissioned by a local artist. It was clear John was smitten with Lana and would do anything to gain her affection.

Johnny Stompanato and Lana Turner. Photo source.

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Johnny knew he would have had no chance with Lana had she known of his true identity.

Johnny Stompanato and Mickey Cohen. Photo source.

Lana was livid, she confronted Johnny and ended the relationship — or at least, she attempted to. Johnny was not exactly the type of man who would take no for an answer.

He wasn’t one to be scorned. He was the one who called all the shots.

Despite Lana’s attempts to end her relationship with Johnny, it continued, and soon, the flirty phone calls turned into violent arguments and physical abuse.

Lana and her daughter Cheryl as a child. Photo source.

Weeks would go by and more unfulfilled promises from Lana to her fourteen-year-old daughter Cheryl would be made, “I’m leaving him for good tonight,” she would often say before meeting with Johnny.

Cheryl would consistently witness Johnny’s acts of violence against her mother. She later stated,

“I saw for the first time what he looked like when he was angry. He seethed. He clearly hated her.”

Johnny went as far as drugging Lana and taking nude photographs of her, that he could later use as blackmail to keep her in the tumultuous relationship — and of course, it worked.

It was clear Johnny had an impenetrable hold on Lana, “Why don’t you just tell him to go?” Cheryl pleaded. “You don’t understand,” Lana would respond, “I’m deathly afraid of him — I’m terrified.”

Most likely in an effort to briefly escape Johnny’s abuse, Lana took a film role in London, but it didn’t help. Johnny flew to London and visited her on set uninvited. Many of Lana’s co-stars and even her makeup artist witnessed Johnny violently choke her during a heated argument. On another occasion, Johnny was caught trying to smother Lana with a pillow.

Johnny Stompanato’s mug shot. Photo source.

Lana tried everything she could think of to keep Johnny away from her. She had him banned from the set, she reported his abuse to the authorities, she even tried to have him deported.

This only angered Johnny more.

He returned to the set to confront Lana, this time armed with a pistol. It was Lana’s co-star Sean Connery who would ultimately wrestle the gun away from him and eject him from the premises.

Johnny would eventually be ordered back on a plane home to Los Angeles by the authorities.

In March of 1958, things had not gotten any better. One night, in particular, Johnny attacked Lana after arriving home from a film premiere. He was livid she had gone without him.

On April 4, 1958, everything would change.

Late that Friday evening, Johnny visited Lana’s home in Beverly Hills uninvited. There were no pleasantries; the two immediately engaged in a heated argument in Lana’s bedroom. For the umpteenth time, Lana pleaded with Johnny for him to leave her alone.

She wanted out, she had been wanting out for months.

Johnny scoffed at the idea Lana could ever escape his violent grasp. He threatened to kill her, her daughter and her mother.

All of a sudden, Cheryl, who had been listening to Johnny’s threats from the next room, lunged at Johnny and he hit the floor. At first, Lana thought her daughter had only punched him, it was then she saw the blood.

Photo source.

Fearing that her mother’s life was in danger, Cheryl stabbed her abuser with a large kitchen knife.

Due to Lana’s fame, the case quickly became a highly publicized media sensation. Johnny’s family filed a wrongful death suit of $750,000 against Lana, accusing her of being the true perpetrator; they claimed she killed their beloved Johnny and pinned it on her own daughter — who was a minor.

Of course, the accusation was never proven in court; the death was ruled a justifiable homicide after only four hours of jury deliberation. To them, it was clear Cheryl was only protecting her mother.

The Stompanato’s had no case — they knew it and later settled for $20,000.

Lana Turner and Cheryl Crane at the trial. Source.

All of a sudden, Lana was thrown in the midst of a dramatic scandal, her only daughter had undoubtedly suffered trauma from the experience and had to be sent to the Institute of Living — a psychiatric facility in Hartford, Connecticut, where she would wreak havoc and escape twice.

Naturally, Lana blamed herself for her daughter’s violent and misguided actions.

In 1988, Cheryl released a memoir titled Detour: A Hollywood Story where she spoke more in-depth about the sexual abuse she received as a child from the hands of her step-father and about coming out to her parents at the age of thirteen. Of course, in the ’40s and ’50s, homosexuality was unfortunately widely regarded as a ‘disease.’

Lana had a difficult time accepting her daughter’s sexuality. She thought she had done something wrong as a mother. It was with the release of Cheryl’s memoir Lana finally understood that her daughter’s suffering had been consistently overshadowed by her own. Like Lana, Cheryl too had been abused. She too had endured trauma. To the media, Lana was the ‘it’ girl, and Cheryl was just ‘Lana’s daughter.’

After Cheryl allowed herself to be vulnerable and speak honestly in her book, it was no longer about Lana. She was no longer just Lana’s daughter. She was Cheryl Crane. A model, a real estate broker, and an author.

Perhaps it is not so far-fetched that Johnny’s death brought Lana and her daughter closer together. If not for this traumatic incident, Cheryl may never have had the courage to write about her trauma, which would ultimately lead her to re-connect with her mother and strengthen their bond.

Jocelyn LeRoy and Cheryl Crane. Photo source.

In 2014, Cheryl married her partner of four decades, Jocelyn LeRoy; a woman who Lana referred to as her ‘second daughter.’

Thanks for reading! If you liked this story, consider subscribing to my (free) newsletter here. In the meantime, here are some more true crime stories you may be interested in:

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