Lana Turner, Johnny Stompanato, and Cheryl Crane, 16 days before Stompanato's death
Date
April 4, 1958 (1958-04-04)
Time
c. 8:30 p.m. (UTC−08:00)
Location
730 North Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Cause
Stabbing
Motive
Self-defense
Deaths
Johnny Stompanato
Inquest
April 11, 1958 (1958-04-11)
Coroner
Charles Langhauser
Arrests
Cheryl Crane
Verdict
Justifiable homicide
Convictions
None
On the evening of April 4, 1958, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane fatally 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 the former had stabbed Stompanato in the stomach when Turner was ushering him out of her bedroom during a violent argument. Crane had heard the fighting and armed herself with a kitchen knife, planning to defend her mother. After Crane turned herself in to police in the early morning hours of April 5, she was interned 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 in late April, and placed under the guardianship of her grandmother.
Public response to the case was divisive, and numerous press outlets published articles criticizing Turner and likened her testimony during the inquest to that of a performance. Though Crane was cleared of wrongdoing, Stompanato's ex-wife filed a wrongful death lawsuit in June 1958 on behalf of herself and her son with Stompanato, against Crane, her father Steve Crane, and Turner, seeking $750,000 in damages. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court in 1962 for a sum of $20,000.
In the intervening years, Stompanato's homicide has been subject of conspiracy theories that Turner had in fact stabbed him, and that Crane had taken the blame to protect her mother, though Crane has denied this. Stompanato's killing has also been depicted in various media, and was the inspiration for the novel Where Love Has Gone (1962), as well as its subsequent film adaptation. In 2007, Time magazine deemed the case one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.
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