Picture this: April 4, 1958, and the world is about to change for Cheryl Crane, the teenage daughter of Hollywood legend Lana Turner. In a moment that would become one of the most infamous scandals in Hollywood history, Cheryl found herself thrust into the spotlight after a shocking incident. As the door opened and flashbulbs popped like fireworks, the night erupted into chaos. "The pop-pop-pop of flashbulbs produced a moment of daylight," Cheryl recalls in her memoir Detour: A Hollywood Story. "The night was filled with the crackle of police radios, reporters’ shouts, sirens, and the rustling speech of onlookers." Her father slid her into the police car, and they sped off to the Beverly Hills Police Station, leaving behind a scene that would haunt Hollywood for decades.
It all began when mobster Johnny Stompanato, Lana Turner's volatile boyfriend, was found dead at the actress's home. What followed was an investigation that unraveled the dark side of Hollywood's golden era. The world learned about Lana's tumultuous relationship with Stompanato, his threats against her and her family, and Cheryl's desperate act to protect her mother. This scandal made headlines around the globe, painting a vivid picture of the dangers lurking beneath Tinseltown's glamorous facade.
The court ruled Johnny's death a "justifiable homicide," but the questions linger even today. More than six decades later, many still wonder if Lana herself killed her abusive boyfriend and let Cheryl, just 14 at the time, take the blame. "Her daughter was a minor, so she wouldn’t have suffered the same consequences in a prosecution," explains Josh Young, co-author of The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn, a book about Hollywood detective Fred Otash. Co-author Manfred Westphal adds, "Otash was brought in to clean up and help minimize the damage of what almost everyone there that night knew would become a tremendous scandal, which was Lana’s worst nightmare."
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When Love Turns Deadly: Lana Turner's Turbulent Love Life
It all started in the spring of 1957 when Stompanato, a bodyguard for mob boss Mickey Cohen, began showering Lana with flowers and gifts on the set of The Lady Takes a Flyer. Despite warnings from friends, Lana began dating him, falling deeply under his spell. "My darling," she wrote in a letter recounting the start of their romance, "when near me, you make most of those dreams come to life." But behind the scenes, things weren't as rosy as they seemed.
Some suggest Johnny's interest in Lana wasn't innocent. According to Casey Sherman, author of A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime, "Mickey Cohen and Johnny Stompanato targeted Lana Turner. They wanted to put her in a compromising situation that they could use to gain money from her estate." Lana later claimed Johnny drugged her and took nude photos while she was unconscious to use as blackmail. She wasn't alone; actresses like Kathryn Grayson, Ann Miller, and Marilyn Monroe were also victims of Cohen and Stompanato's schemes.
In late 1957, rumors reached Johnny that Lana was getting too close to her co-star Sean Connery while filming Another Time, Another Place in London. Furious, Johnny arrived on set armed with a gun, threatening the future James Bond. Sean quickly disarmed him, bending Johnny's wrist back until the gangster dropped his weapon, then punched him in the face in front of the entire crew.
By early 1958, tensions were at an all-time high. Lana took her mother, Mildred, and Cheryl to the Academy Awards instead of Johnny, hoping to distance herself from him. But upon returning home that night, Johnny attacked Lana, beating her severely, according to The Fixer. Author Casey Sherman says Johnny also threatened Cheryl and Mildred, adding, "I don’t think Johnny ever realized that Lana would have done anything to protect her family."
A Teenager's Desperate Act of Courage
On the fateful night of April 4, 1958, Cheryl heard her mother and Stompanato arguing for over an hour. Fearing for her mother's safety, she grabbed a kitchen knife and rushed to Lana's room. "I don’t think I consciously said to myself, 'Well, I’m going to stab him.' I didn’t. It was more something for protection," Cheryl later recalled. In her testimony, she said Stompanato chased Lana out the door and ran straight into her knife. "For three ghastly heartbeats, our bodies fused," Cheryl writes in Detour. "He looked straight at me, unblinking. 'My God, Cheryl, what have you done?'"
