Carter Roy

She saw Johnny following Lana up the stairs.

While Cheryl had heard Johnny's Oscar night tirade through the walls, seeing his rage in the flesh was different, beyond terrifying.

Her autobiography notes that Johnny's neck vein stood out and his hands at his sides clenched and writhed like a snake's tail in death.

To protect her daughter, Lana led Johnny into her own bedroom, but Cheryl could still hear the fighting through the walls.

Johnny threatened again, telling Lana he'd always find her.

He'd cut up her face so she'd never work again.

He'd attack Cheryl, too.

Panic raced through Cheryl's veins.

She needed to stop this, to call 911.

But that would end up in the papers and make everything worse.

She ran into the kitchen and grabbed a butcher knife, hoping to scare Johnny out of the house.

Cheryl went back upstairs, standing in front of the closed door to Lana's bedroom.

Johnny threatened to kill Lana again and again.

Cheryl pounded on the door, begging to be let in, begging to talk to them.

She pleaded with Johnny through the door to stop cursing and threatening her mother.

She gripped the knife in her hand.

Lana told Johnny to leave one more time and whip the door open.

Behind her mother, Cheryl saw Johnny, his hand raised high, holding something, a weapon, a gun.

Cheryl described a split-second impulse that sent her hand forward with the knife right as Johnny approached her.

As Cheryl put it, for three ghastly heartbeats, her and Johnny's bodies fused.