April 15, 2025 • 9 mins
The murder of movie star Lana Turner’s mobster boyfriend by her 14-year-old daughter was the biggest story in Hollywood in the late 1950s. But did young Cheryl really wield the knife? Or did she take the hit for her mother?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever had a friend or a family member
who got involved with somebody you just didn't trust, like
a real jerk. Well, now, imagine you're a fourteen year
old kid and your mom is a huge movie star.
She's beautiful, wildly successful, and has a passion for men
who aren't always great for her or you. Lana Turner
was red hot in the nineteen forties and fifties. In
(00:22):
addition to her yes eight marriages, she had a string
of lovers that included at least one very dangerous guy.
I'm Patty Steele. Did Lana's daughter Cheryl really stab her
mother's boyfriend to death? That's next on the backstory? The
(00:42):
backstory is back, all right, We got to dig into
one of Hollywood's wildest scandals. It's all about a glamorous
movie star, her mobbed up boyfriend, and her terrified teenage
daughter who allegedly wound up clutching a carving knife. So
how did Johnny Stampinado wind up stabbed to death in
(01:03):
the pink bedroom of Lana Turner's Beverly Hills home. It
was the biggest story in Hollywood for a while, equal
parts tabloid feeding frenzy, know how that goes courtroom drama
and psychological thriller. Okay, let's head back to nineteen fifty seven.
When it all began. Lana Turner was not only one
of the biggest stars in Hollywood, she was also one
(01:25):
of the highest paid. Known as the original platinum blonde
sweater girl. She was beautiful, vulnerable, and a tiny bit tragic,
and she was a terrific actress because of it. Why tragic?
Her personal life was filled with heartbreak, abuse, and scandal.
And that's where Johnny Stompinado comes in. Lana is filming
(01:47):
a romantic comedy and suddenly starts receiving tons of flowers
and on set telephone calls from Johnny, who called himself
John Steele. No relation, I promise anyway. John He's a
former marine with nineteen fifties movie star, looks kind of
a big, bulky guy, you know. He starts sending Lana
(02:08):
lavish gifts as well, and she's really intrigued. What she
doesn't know is since leaving the Marines, he's become an
enforcer from a guy named Mickey Cohen, one of LA's
most notorious mob bosses. So this good looking, slick and
intriguingly dangerous guy manages to worm his way into Lana's
life and of course, her bed. It all starts as
(02:31):
a fun, whirlwind romance, but it quickly starts turning dark.
Problem is, Johnny is fiercely possessive to the point of violence,
and he's demanding Lana is paying his rent, his debts,
including his gambling losses. The more controls she gives him,
the more he wants. He wants to control her entire life.
(02:51):
He actually forbids her from speaking to other men, even
her co stars. It's early nineteen fifty eight. Now their
relationship has turned into a storm of screaming fights and threats,
but then passionate reconciliations. Lana's teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane is
watching this all unfold. She's just fourteen years old, a
(03:14):
kid growing up in the shadows of old Hollywood. She's
already been through plenty of trauma. Where it was she
was molested by Lana's fourth husband, actor Lex Barker, when
she told her mom, Lana pulled a gun on Barker
while he slept. They divorced, but the damage to Cheryl's
psyche was done. When Johnny Stamponado first came into their lives.
(03:36):
Cheryl saw him as a cool older guy. He let
her ride his horse, he gave her a part time job,
But what about his temper? His explosive jealousy disturbing to
say the least. Fast forward to April fourth, nineteen fifty eight.
That night, Lana tells Cheryl she's ending it with Johnny.
She's done with him. He's dangerous and she needs him gone.
(04:00):
Oscar season and Lona, always aware of her press, needs
her life under control. But there's a problem. Johnny is
not good with rejection. So it's about eight o'clock on
this good Friday evening. Johnny shows up at Lana's house.
He's in a furious rage. There's no pop Rossie outside.
(04:20):
It's just a quiet Beverly Hills street in early spring,
but there's a storm brewing inside the house. Lana and
Johnny start arguing viciously. He threatens to ruin her. He
says he'll disfigure her face, kill her mother, and kill
her daughter Cheryl. Cheryl is upstairs doing homework, but she
(04:41):
hears every single word. Understandably, she panics and runs to
the kitchen. She grabs the first big knife she can
find and sneaks back to her mother's bedroom door. Later,
Cheryl said that Johnny was coming at Lana with his
arm raised. Cheryl thinks he has a gun, so she
lunges out him and plunges the knife into his stomach.
(05:03):
He's in shock. He staggers backward and says his last words,
my god, Cheryl would have you done. Minutes later, he's dead.
You can imagine the aftermath. It's pure chaos. Lana is
intent on taking the blame. She begs the cop, saying,
please let me say I did it, But Cheryl has
already confessed to her father, saying I did it, Daddy,
(05:26):
but I didn't mean to. He was going to hurt mommy.
Fourteen year old Cheryl is booked at the Beverly Hills
Police Department and they hold her in juvenile detention. Reporters
are everywhere. Of course, Lana hires the best of the best,
big time Hollywood defense attorney Jerry Geisler, who's already defended
Errol Flynn on statutory rape charges, as well as mobster
(05:49):
Bugsy Siegel. Over one hundred journalists show up for the
coroner's inquest. Their lawyer Jerry took control. He coached Cheryl
on what to say, and he prepped Love as well.
The inquest began on April eleventh, nineteen fifty eight. The
first witness called was the Mafia boss of Bosses, Mickey Cohen,
(06:09):
but he refused to testify. But then Lana testified. Some
called it the greatest performance of her life. She talked
about watching Johnny die and she said it was clear
her daughter was just trying to protect her. Reporters said
that during her testimony, Lana almost collapsed from anxiety. She
described the scene Johnny coming after her as she opened
(06:32):
the bedroom door and Cheryl rushing in. She said she
never saw a knife and thought Cheryl had just punched
Johnny in the stomach. After four hours of testimony, the
coroner's jury took twenty five minutes to declare the killing
a justifiable homicide. Cheryl was held by juvenile authorities for
a couple of weeks and then released to her grandmother.
(06:55):
Now there was one popular story among some conspiracy theorists.
They believe that Lana was the one who'd done the
stabbing and was letting her daughter take the fall since
she was only fourteen. Either way, Lana's image had taken
a hit. Love letters between her and Johnny were leaked
to the press, disturbingly showing she had enjoyed his rough
(07:16):
treatment of her. The rumors lasted for years. Some thought
Lona had basically sacrificed her daughter's innocence just to save
her own career. There was even a story that Lana
had killed Johnny because he was trying to blackmail her
with film footage from a hidden camera. The murder of
Johnny's Stompinado was more than a tabloid sensation. It was
(07:38):
kind of a snapshot behind the scenes of Hollywood's golden
age at its darkest. So what were their lives like afterward?
Lana continued to act, even appearing in the nineteen eighties
nighttime soap Falcon Crest, but after a lifetime of chain smoking,
Lana Turner died of throat cancer in nineteen ninety five,
(08:00):
was seventy four years old. Meantime, Cheryl spent years in
and out of mental health facilities, although she stayed close
to her mother. Later, she wrote several best selling books
and said she and her mom had handled the Johnny
Stomponado experience differently. She'd walked through the fire, and her
mother had hidden behind the glitz of being lt a
(08:22):
Hollywood goddess. In twenty fourteen, Cheryl married her partner of
forty years. She's now eighty two years old. Sadly, after
everything she'd gone through with her mother and her mother's
eight marriages, including the abuse she'd suffer from at least
two of the men, Lana had left the bulk of
her one point seven million dollar estate to her housekeeper,
(08:45):
with just fifty thousand dollars going to her daughter, Cheryl Crane.
Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty's deal, follow or
subscribe for free to get new up episodes delivered automatically,
and feel free to dm me if you have a
story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
(09:07):
Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Durand Group and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser,
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
(09:28):
comments and even story suggestions. On Instagram at real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
to the backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.
Have you ever had a friend or a family member
who got involved with somebody you just didn't trust, like
a real jerk. Well, now, imagine you're a fourteen year
old kid and your mom is a huge movie star.
She's beautiful, wildly successful, and has a passion for men
who aren't always great for her or you. Lana Turner
was red hot in the nineteen forties and fifties. In
(00:22):
addition to her yes eight marriages, she had a string
of lovers that included at least one very dangerous guy.
I'm Patty Steele. Did Lana's daughter Cheryl really stab her
mother's boyfriend to death? That's next on the backstory? The
(00:42):
backstory is back, all right, We got to dig into
one of Hollywood's wildest scandals. It's all about a glamorous
movie star, her mobbed up boyfriend, and her terrified teenage
daughter who allegedly wound up clutching a carving knife. So
how did Johnny Stampinado wind up stabbed to death in
(01:03):
the pink bedroom of Lana Turner's Beverly Hills home. It
was the biggest story in Hollywood for a while, equal
parts tabloid feeding frenzy, know how that goes courtroom drama
and psychological thriller. Okay, let's head back to nineteen fifty seven.
When it all began. Lana Turner was not only one
of the biggest stars in Hollywood, she was also one
(01:25):
of the highest paid. Known as the original platinum blonde
sweater girl. She was beautiful, vulnerable, and a tiny bit tragic,
and she was a terrific actress because of it. Why tragic?
Her personal life was filled with heartbreak, abuse, and scandal.
And that's where Johnny Stompinado comes in. Lana is filming
(01:47):
a romantic comedy and suddenly starts receiving tons of flowers
and on set telephone calls from Johnny, who called himself
John Steele. No relation, I promise anyway. John He's a
former marine with nineteen fifties movie star, looks kind of
a big, bulky guy, you know. He starts sending Lana
(02:08):
lavish gifts as well, and she's really intrigued. What she
doesn't know is since leaving the Marines, he's become an
enforcer from a guy named Mickey Cohen, one of LA's
most notorious mob bosses. So this good looking, slick and
intriguingly dangerous guy manages to worm his way into Lana's
life and of course, her bed. It all starts as
(02:31):
a fun, whirlwind romance, but it quickly starts turning dark.
Problem is, Johnny is fiercely possessive to the point of violence,
and he's demanding Lana is paying his rent, his debts,
including his gambling losses. The more controls she gives him,
the more he wants. He wants to control her entire life.
(02:51):
He actually forbids her from speaking to other men, even
her co stars. It's early nineteen fifty eight. Now their
relationship has turned into a storm of screaming fights and threats,
but then passionate reconciliations. Lana's teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane is
watching this all unfold. She's just fourteen years old, a
(03:14):
kid growing up in the shadows of old Hollywood. She's
already been through plenty of trauma. Where it was she
was molested by Lana's fourth husband, actor Lex Barker, when
she told her mom, Lana pulled a gun on Barker
while he slept. They divorced, but the damage to Cheryl's
psyche was done. When Johnny Stamponado first came into their lives.
(03:36):
Cheryl saw him as a cool older guy. He let
her ride his horse, he gave her a part time job,
But what about his temper? His explosive jealousy disturbing to
say the least. Fast forward to April fourth, nineteen fifty eight.
That night, Lana tells Cheryl she's ending it with Johnny.
She's done with him. He's dangerous and she needs him gone.
(04:00):
Oscar season and Lona, always aware of her press, needs
her life under control. But there's a problem. Johnny is
not good with rejection. So it's about eight o'clock on
this good Friday evening. Johnny shows up at Lana's house.
He's in a furious rage. There's no pop Rossie outside.
(04:20):
It's just a quiet Beverly Hills street in early spring,
but there's a storm brewing inside the house. Lana and
Johnny start arguing viciously. He threatens to ruin her. He
says he'll disfigure her face, kill her mother, and kill
her daughter Cheryl. Cheryl is upstairs doing homework, but she
(04:41):
hears every single word. Understandably, she panics and runs to
the kitchen. She grabs the first big knife she can
find and sneaks back to her mother's bedroom door. Later,
Cheryl said that Johnny was coming at Lana with his
arm raised. Cheryl thinks he has a gun, so she
lunges out him and plunges the knife into his stomach.
(05:03):
He's in shock. He staggers backward and says his last words,
my god, Cheryl would have you done. Minutes later, he's dead.
You can imagine the aftermath. It's pure chaos. Lana is
intent on taking the blame. She begs the cop, saying,
please let me say I did it, But Cheryl has
already confessed to her father, saying I did it, Daddy,
(05:26):
but I didn't mean to. He was going to hurt mommy.
Fourteen year old Cheryl is booked at the Beverly Hills
Police Department and they hold her in juvenile detention. Reporters
are everywhere. Of course, Lana hires the best of the best,
big time Hollywood defense attorney Jerry Geisler, who's already defended
Errol Flynn on statutory rape charges, as well as mobster
(05:49):
Bugsy Siegel. Over one hundred journalists show up for the
coroner's inquest. Their lawyer Jerry took control. He coached Cheryl
on what to say, and he prepped Love as well.
The inquest began on April eleventh, nineteen fifty eight. The
first witness called was the Mafia boss of Bosses, Mickey Cohen,
(06:09):
but he refused to testify. But then Lana testified. Some
called it the greatest performance of her life. She talked
about watching Johnny die and she said it was clear
her daughter was just trying to protect her. Reporters said
that during her testimony, Lana almost collapsed from anxiety. She
described the scene Johnny coming after her as she opened
(06:32):
the bedroom door and Cheryl rushing in. She said she
never saw a knife and thought Cheryl had just punched
Johnny in the stomach. After four hours of testimony, the
coroner's jury took twenty five minutes to declare the killing
a justifiable homicide. Cheryl was held by juvenile authorities for
a couple of weeks and then released to her grandmother.
(06:55):
Now there was one popular story among some conspiracy theorists.
They believe that Lana was the one who'd done the
stabbing and was letting her daughter take the fall since
she was only fourteen. Either way, Lana's image had taken
a hit. Love letters between her and Johnny were leaked
to the press, disturbingly showing she had enjoyed his rough
(07:16):
treatment of her. The rumors lasted for years. Some thought
Lona had basically sacrificed her daughter's innocence just to save
her own career. There was even a story that Lana
had killed Johnny because he was trying to blackmail her
with film footage from a hidden camera. The murder of
Johnny's Stompinado was more than a tabloid sensation. It was
(07:38):
kind of a snapshot behind the scenes of Hollywood's golden
age at its darkest. So what were their lives like afterward?
Lana continued to act, even appearing in the nineteen eighties
nighttime soap Falcon Crest, but after a lifetime of chain smoking,
Lana Turner died of throat cancer in nineteen ninety five,
(08:00):
was seventy four years old. Meantime, Cheryl spent years in
and out of mental health facilities, although she stayed close
to her mother. Later, she wrote several best selling books
and said she and her mom had handled the Johnny
Stomponado experience differently. She'd walked through the fire, and her
mother had hidden behind the glitz of being lt a
(08:22):
Hollywood goddess. In twenty fourteen, Cheryl married her partner of
forty years. She's now eighty two years old. Sadly, after
everything she'd gone through with her mother and her mother's
eight marriages, including the abuse she'd suffer from at least
two of the men, Lana had left the bulk of
her one point seven million dollar estate to her housekeeper,
(08:45):
with just fifty thousand dollars going to her daughter, Cheryl Crane.
Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty's deal, follow or
subscribe for free to get new up episodes delivered automatically,
and feel free to dm me if you have a
story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
(09:07):
Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Durand Group and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser,
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
(09:28):
comments and even story suggestions. On Instagram at real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
to the backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.
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