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Chapter 1: What events led to the murder of Johnny Stompanato?
A sea of paparazzi swelled around Lana Turner's mansion, and L.A. Police Chief Clinton Anderson was right in the thick of it. The chief was probably annoyed he wasn't the first one there, but it's to be expected for a Hollywood legend's house. Besides, he had bigger fish to fry. Inside, someone had been murdered.
To make matters worse, it wasn't Lana that let the police chief inside, but her lawyer and a celebrity fixer, experts in covering up the crimes of the rich and famous. Chief Anderson was outraged. From here on out, he knew that anything he saw had to be taken with a grain of salt. And what did he see? Lana Turner's mobster boyfriend dead on her bedroom floor, fatally stabbed. And the killer?
Lana's teenage daughter. But as Chief Anderson learned later, the fingerprints on the murder weapon were smudged off. Plus, the victim was killed by some accounts two hours before Chief Anderson arrived. Chief Anderson likely looked at the movie star, the daughter, and the fixers, wondering, are they telling the truth or are they protecting someone?
Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. New episodes come out every Wednesday. We'd love to hear from you, so if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts, or check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. This episode contains discussions of murder, intimate partner violence, child abuse, abortion, and sexual assault.
Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. To get help on mental health and domestic violence, visit Spotify.com slash resources. Stay with us.
Like many podcasts, The Y-Files covers conspiracies, aliens, time travel, ancient civilizations. Some are very serious about this stuff. They believe every detail, even if they don't quite add up. Others tear a story apart. What fun is that? The Y-Files is different. First, we explore the mystery.
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Chapter 2: What was Lana Turner's relationship with Johnny Stompanato like?
Then, together, we separate fact from fiction and see what's left. Some legends can't be debunked, and those are my favorites. The Y-Files is on Spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts. The X-Files said the truth is out there, but the Y-Files, the truth is right here.
March 26, 1958, the 30th Academy Awards in Hollywood. Just like today, the Oscars were filled with glitz and glam, stars sparkling on black and white TVs across America. Legendary Western cowboy John Wayne announced that Joanne Woodward had won for Best Actress. She couldn't help but run to the stage to accept her win.
Watching her in the audience that night was one of the other Best Actress nominees. old Hollywood legend Lana Turner. For the last 20 years, she'd climbed her way up in the movie biz, becoming the era's number one femme fatale. From her beginnings at age 16 to her star turn in the 1946 classic The Postman Always Rings Twice, she was always recognized for her beauty. and not just in the U.S.
Eva Perón, the First Lady of Argentina, modeled herself after Lana, copying her makeup and fashion. Speaking of Lana's good looks traveling the world, her pinup poster was a staple for World War II soldiers abroad. They loved her after she offered a kiss to anyone that bought $50,000 in war bonds. That's about $995,000 today. What a kiss. She raised millions for the U.S. defense budget.
And now, Lana's career had reached a pinnacle. Tonight was her first Oscar nomination. And while she didn't win, that didn't stop Lana from shining in a strapless mermaid dress, especially in the eyes of her date. Her 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane. Lana was absent for much of Cheryl's childhood, handing the girl off to nannies and grandparents.
Cheryl felt like she had to fight for her mother's attention, leading to a tumultuous relationship. However, thanks to a recent trip to London, they were on the upswing. The happy times allowed Cheryl to be in awe of her mother. Her radiance, her poise, her command of the room. Cheryl wanted to give her mother an excited, affectionate kiss that night, but Cheryl knew better.
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Chapter 3: How did Cheryl Crane become involved in her mother's dangerous situation?
You never risk messing up the Lana Turner's hair and makeup. she wasn't the only one in awe of lana that night sean connery whispered into cheryl's ear that's what i call a star but not everyone that evening looked at lana with admiration when the mother and daughter arrived at their hotel suite after the awards Lana stepped into her separate bedroom.
She turned on the light and found a tall, frightening figure sitting on the lounge chair, waiting for her. It was Lana's boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, a handsome man with dark hair and a Marine Corps physique. People around LA knew him as Mickey Cohen's bodyguard, but Lana knew him as the boyfriend she couldn't leave. No one knew that Johnny regularly beat Lana.
In the year they'd been dating, he'd threatened her life, her beauty, and even her family. He once told Lana that if she ever left him, he'd have Cheryl kidnapped or killed. Who knows how long Johnny waited in the hotel room that night, stewing in his anger. Lana knew an argument was coming just by the furious look in his eye. She also knew that Cheryl would be able to hear them from her room.
At this point, Cheryl was oblivious to the abuse. she actually liked johnny lana wanted it to stay that way she tried to quell the fuming mobster they'll talk tomorrow she was tired from the festivities she needed to go to bed and so on and while she hid her shaking hands she then told johnny it was time for him to go home His response was a slap to the face, followed by fists.
At one point, the back of Lana's head slammed into the wall. It left her face swollen and her mind rattled and groggy. When the rampage ended, Johnny forced Lana into bed, where they both lay awake for the rest of the night. Lana frightened out of her mind and Johnny likely still seething. And in the other room was Cheryl, hearing the abuse for the first time.
As we mentioned, Cheryl liked Johnny. She appreciated that he didn't try to impress her like many of Lana's flings did. And more importantly, he had a horse. Cheryl was a horse girl, so that was all she needed to hear. However, after the Oscar night assault, the facade was broken. About a week later, Cheryl heard the couple arguing again.
After Lana convinced Johnny to leave, Cheryl finally asked her mother what was going on. Lana came clean. Cheryl insisted that Lana leave Johnny or call the police. However, Lana feared the publicity that would come with the police report.
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Chapter 4: What happened during the argument between Lana and Johnny on the night of the murder?
And it wasn't just a fear of embarrassment. In this era of Hollywood, the press had an intense amount of control over an actress's career. So did the movie studios, who had all of their stars sign morality clauses. If the press caught wind of a star doing anything that the public could deem immoral and, God forbid, make them not want to see their movie, the studio immediately fired them.
These clauses gave studios complete control over an actor's life. Even if a studio didn't like who you were dating, they could take you off a film and maybe even blacklist you. Lana had already felt the morality clause in action. She and Cheryl's father, Steve Crane, were separated when Lana found out she was pregnant with Cheryl.
However, the studio was afraid that a child out of wedlock could ruin Lana's box office numbers. So they insisted that she remarry Steve or she'd never work again. Steve and Lana remarried, then divorced again about a year later. But that wasn't even the worst of it. You see, Lana was married before Steve and in a similar situation, learned she was pregnant after her divorce.
This time, the studio forced Lana to have an illegal abortion. They hired a back alley doctor to terminate the pregnancy without anesthesia. And they took the doctor's fee out of Lana's paycheck. So it's no wonder Lana was afraid of bad press. However, her autobiography implies that things changed once Cheryl knew about the abuse.
Lana saw how afraid Cheryl looked when she learned the truth about Johnny. Cheryl seemed more afraid for Lana than for herself. Perhaps her daughter's fear of Johnny made her reconsider. Then a couple of days later, Lana caught Johnny in a lie, one that snowballed into an infamous night. April 4th, 1958.
There are many different narratives, takes, and interpretations, but we'll start with the official story taken largely from Cheryl's autobiography. That afternoon, one of Lana's friends told her he went to school with Johnny. Lana thought this was odd since Johnny was 43 and the friend was much younger. Well, as the friend revealed, Johnny was actually 33 years old, five years younger than Lana.
He'd lied to her. This was the last straw. Lana told Cheryl she'd end it with Johnny that night.
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Chapter 5: How did Cheryl Crane react to the escalating violence?
But she also warned her daughter she needed to be prepared for whatever happened. Quote, it won't be pleasant. Remember, Johnny had threatened Lana and her family's lives multiple times, and he was a mob bodyguard. Those threats were serious. Still, Lana canceled her and Johnny's plans to see a movie that night. Johnny came over to Lana's house, yelling and cursing at her for canceling.
Cheryl heard the shouting through her bedroom door, over the TV that she tried to focus on instead. They argued for an hour before Cheryl overheard Johnny saying, "'You're not getting rid of me that easy. I'll cut you up first.'" Alarmed, Cheryl rushed from her room. 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.
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Chapter 6: What were the immediate consequences following Johnny's death?
Johnny uttered his final words. My God, Cheryl, what have you done? He walked backwards. Cheryl's eyes never left his until she noticed the bloody knife still in her hands. Cheryl had just stabbed Johnny. The blade punctured his kidney into his vertebra and aorta. Horrified, Cheryl screamed, dropped the knife, and ran into her room. She feared Johnny would come after her.
But all that came was Lana's repeated screams for Cheryl's help. Cheryl fearfully tiptoed back into Lana's room, where Johnny still gasped for life. Lana was on the floor giving Johnny CPR. A realization sinking in, Cheryl ran back into her room. Trembling and sobbing, she called her father for help. Meanwhile, Lana called a doctor.
Soon, Cheryl's father, Lana's mother, the doctor, and a lawyer all arrived at the scene. Both Lana's mother and the doctor tried to resuscitate Johnny to no avail. Finally, anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours after the stabbing, depending on your source, they called the police. And with the police came Lana's greatest fear, the media.
One paparazzo even talked his way into the house, standing with the cops in the bedroom crime scene. Soon, the whole world would know Lana Turner's mobster boyfriend was dead, killed by her teenage daughter. Within days, the state charged Cheryl with murder. All eyes were on the coroner's inquest. Basically a trial. Think the old Hollywood equivalent of the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial.
Or maybe more appropriately, the OJ trial. Lana's testimony aired live on ABC. Audiences at home saw Lana detail Johnny's abuse. She also revealed to the world that Johnny was actually on his way out of the house when Cheryl killed him. Remember how Cheryl saw his hand raised above her mother, possibly with a weapon?
He was actually holding a clothes hanger raised high so its suit jacket and shirt wouldn't drag on the floor.
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Chapter 7: What theories emerged regarding the true circumstances of the murder?
He'd finally listened to Lana. The detail racked Cheryl with guilt. Cheryl never appeared on the stand. Her lawyer convinced the judge that she had gone through enough already. Reading her police statement to the jury would be sufficient enough testimony. It was taken in the police station right after the murder and detailed how she stabbed Johnny to protect Lana.
And despite Cheryl's absence and the clothes hanger detail, the jury ruled that the killing was a justifiable homicide. Cheryl would not be sent to prison or, thankfully, to death. Though Cheryl's life would not be easy from here. The court ordered that she move in with her grandmother, and when threats of revenge came in from the mob, the police stationed an officer outside at all times.
Cheryl felt constantly judged. Being gossiped about as a teenager is hard. Imagine if it was about you being a murderer. One of the running jokes around school was that Cheryl was in charge of the cafeteria's knives. As the years passed, Cheryl struggled to find her place in the world. She spent time in institutions and psychiatric hospitals. Meanwhile, Lana's career stalled.
Movie offers were dropped thanks to the scandal. However, she'd eventually become top of the call sheet again in an odd niche, playing mothers who had tumultuous relationships with their daughters. The first of these films, ironically called Imitation of Life, became her career's biggest box office success. And eventually, Cheryl too found her footing again.
As an adult, she thrived in her father's hospitality business, moved to Hawaii, and in 2014, married her partner of 44 years. But the shadow of Johnny Stompanato's killing still followed her. She and Lana referred to the event as the paragraph, since any article about them included at least one paragraph about it. And some of these paragraphs raised an important question.
How did a 14-year-old manage to knife down an ex-Marine mafioso? Well, perhaps she didn't. Maybe her mom. On April 4th, 1958, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane overheard mobster Johnny Stompanato abusing her mother, Lana Turner. After an hour with no end in sight, Cheryl needed to protect her mom.
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Chapter 8: How did the aftermath of the murder impact Lana and Cheryl's lives?
She grabbed a knife and fatally stabbed Johnny in the abdomen. At least, that's the story both women told Police Chief Clinton Anderson when he brought them in for questioning on the night of Johnny's death. But according to the book, A Murder in Hollywood by Casey Sherman, Lana didn't want Chief Anderson to question her daughter at all. She nervously ordered him to only talk to her.
Alana would tell him everything he needed to know. Chief Anderson insisted that he needed Cheryl's testimony. So Alana acquiesced, but not quietly. At one point, when Cheryl was telling Chief Anderson about stabbing Johnny, Alana interrupted, adding that she didn't know what was happening. Perhaps it was just her nerves getting to her.
She likely hated seeing her daughter go through this terrifying ordeal. Or perhaps she wanted to make sure it was on the record that she wasn't involved, just in case this testimony was leaked to the press. In the end, both mother and daughter's testimonies matched up perfectly. Case closed. Chief Anderson dismissed them. Lana was free to go home.
Cheryl, however, needed to stay the night, locked up in the station cells. Lana was shocked. She didn't know Cheryl would be detained. According to author Casey Sherman, Lana thought this was not how it was supposed to go. Wait, pause. Not how it was supposed to go? What does that mean?
Now, Casey Sherman notes that Lana's lawyer didn't tell her that Cheryl would be jailed, so she was caught off guard, but supposed to go is a very specific phrase, almost like something wasn't going as planned. And that rumored plan is our first conspiracy theory. Many people, including Casey Sherman, believe Lana was Johnny's true killer and Cheryl took the fall. Why?
Well, at that time, murder was often punishable with the death penalty, but the court was much less likely to hand a death sentence to a minor. And it's not just a theory that formed in hindsight. Lana's televised testimony was questioned from the start. Some called her testimony the greatest performance of her life. One person in the courtroom said out loud, what an act she's putting on.
The papers ran pictures of her testimony alongside stills from her movies. specifically scenes where she was on the witness stand. These fueled the question even further, was she telling the truth or acting? There was one particularly well-known and outspoken critic of Lana's story, notorious mob boss, Mickey Cohen. Mickey was head of the West Coast mob and Johnny's boss.
He told the press Lana was lying about the abuse. She and Johnny were madly in love. And Mickey would know, since he and Johnny were close. He thought of him as a little brother. And he knew that he wasn't a weakling. He was an ex-marine trained in combat. Hell, he was even Mickey's bodyguard. So Mickey wondered, how the hell did a little teenager get one over on him?
Mickey thought something was being covered up. And he had a theory. Lana committed the crime after catching Johnny in bed with the underaged Cheryl. Was there any proof to this claim? Well, not exactly. According to author Casey Sherman, Mickey thought Johnny would have defended himself if he saw Lana and the knife coming, so he must have been distracted by something else, i.e.
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