Silver Screen Stabbing: Did a Starlet Cover Up a Gangster's Murder?

In 1958, movie star Lana Turner was trapped in an abusive relationship with mafia bodyguard Johnny Stompanato. Until her teenage daughter Cheryl Crane ended the couple’s last argument by fatally stabbing Johnny. But many wondered: how did a teenager overpower a gangster? Or was Cheryl taking the fall for her famous mother? Keep up with Conspiracy Theories! Instagram: @⁠theconspiracypod⁠TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@conspiracy.pod⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:07Speaker 00

  A sea of paparazzi swelled around Lana Turner’s mansion. And LA Police Chief Clinton Anderson was right in the thick of it. And 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

• 0:52Speaker 00

  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?

• 1:35Speaker 00

  Or are they protecting someone?

• 1:40Speaker 00

  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 TheConspiracyPod. 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/resources. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Petivity. Every cat has a few unsolved mysteries.

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• 4:16Speaker 00

  March 26th, 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. Now 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.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  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 US. Eva Peron, the first lady of Argentina, modeled herself after Lana, copying her makeup and fashion. And speaking of Lana's good looks traveling the world, her pin-up poster was a staple for WWII 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!

• 5:43Speaker 00

  She raised millions for the US 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.

• 6:08Speaker 00

  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. You never risk messing up the Lana Turner's hair and makeup. She wasn't the only one in awe of Lana.

• 6:51Speaker 00

  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.

• 7:33Speaker 00

  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.

• 8:19Speaker 00

  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.

• 9:03Speaker 00

  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,

• 9:46Speaker 00

  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. 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.

• 10:30Speaker 00

  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.

• 11:14Speaker 00

  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

• 11:57Speaker 00

  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.

• 12:41Speaker 00

  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.

• 13:00Speaker 00

  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,

• 13:42Speaker 00

  "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.

• 14:24Speaker 00

  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.

• 15:06Speaker 00

  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." Johnny uttered his final words.

• 15:49Speaker 00

  "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 vertebrae 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.

• 16:32Speaker 00

  Lana was on the floor giving Johnny CPR. 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. And 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.

• 17:13Speaker 00

  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.

• 17:57Speaker 00

  She also revealed to the world that Johnny was actually on his way out of the house when Cheryl killed him. And 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. 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.

• 18:38Speaker 00

  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.

• 19:23Speaker 00

  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.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  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. And 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.

• 20:25Speaker 00

  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 did.

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• 21:57Speaker 00

  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. 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.

• 22:38Speaker 00

  She nervously ordered him to only talk to her, while Lana would tell him everything he needed to know. Chief Anderson insisted that he needed Cheryl's testimony, so Lana acquiesced, but not quietly. At one point, when Cheryl was telling Chief Anderson about stabbing Johnny, Lana 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.

• 23:22Speaker 00

  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

• 24:06Speaker 00

  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."

• 24:50Speaker 00

  And 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? Now, 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.

• 25:34Speaker 00

  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?

• 25:55Speaker 00

  Mickey thought something was being covered up, and he had a theory. Lana committed the crime after catching Johnny in bed with the underage 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. being in bed with Cheryl, for Lana to sneak up on him. However, it does make me think of two other incidents, examples that show Lana would

• 26:35Speaker 00

  be capable of murdering anyone who harmed her daughter. Before dating Johnny, Lana was married to her fourth husband, actor Lex Barker. He was perhaps best known for playing Tarzan in a series of 1950s films. What wasn't known was that for about three years, Lex violently sexually abused Cheryl. It started when Cheryl was just 10. When 13-year-old Cheryl finally told her mother, Lana went into her bedroom. She saw Lex sleeping and picked up a revolver. Lana put the gun to his head.

• 27:18Speaker 00

  She held it there, debating if she would pull the trigger. But according to Cheryl's autobiography, Lana thought, "Is this rat worth the rest of my life in prison, the end of my career? What if I turned him in?" But the headlines! Lana lowered the gun and proceeded to kick Lex out of the house. Cheryl speculates in her memoir that Lana didn't turn him into the police for the same reason she didn't shoot him. Her image was more important than justice. However, this wouldn't be the last time Lana almost killed Lex. A short time later, Lana drove Cheryl to a dentist appointment, but as she parked

• 28:01Speaker 00

  the car, a hand shot into the window, grabbing Lana's steering wheel. It was Lex, shouting at the pair. He ordered Cheryl to tell Lana she was lying. Lana threatened to run Lex over. He replied with an icy stare towards Cheryl. So... Lana floored it. Lex clung to the steering wheel, dangling out of the car's window for several feet, before letting go and crashing into the asphalt. Lana left him in the road as they drove away. Now, Lex survived the tumble, but these instances show how far Lana would go to protect her daughter.

• 28:43Speaker 00

  Is it possible that she did catch Johnny abusing Cheryl and she went one step further than before? Or perhaps Johnny's threats to Cheryl's life finally made Lana snap? And if so, just like how Lana didn't want killing Lex to end her career, she wouldn't want killing Johnny to do the same. So Cheryl had to take the fall. Casey Sherman's book, which is a biography of Lana and gangster Mickey Cohen, presents another possible play-by-play. Some parts are the same as Cheryl's. Lana found out Johnny was lying about his age, they fought, Johnny threatened Lana's

• 29:27Speaker 00

  life, and Cheryl overheard while watching TV. However, in Sherman's telling, Cheryl never left her room. Johnny and Lana's fight traveled throughout the house, at one point stopping in the kitchen before winding up in Lana's bedroom. There Johnny threatened to mutilate Lana, her mother, and Cheryl. At that, quote, "Lana went black." In the kitchen, she'd picked up an eight-inch knife. She stabbed Johnny, killing him. After Johnny died, Lana called several people before the police. One of them was lawyer Jerry Geisler.

• 30:11Speaker 00

  He was Hollywood's go-to lawyer to get a celebrity out of trouble, especially murderers. Like I mentioned, murderers at the time could get the death penalty. But out of the 70 alleged killers Jerry defended, not a single one was executed, including mobster Bugsy Siegel and a famous boxer who had already confessed to murder. So if you wanted to get away with murder, Jerry was obviously your guy. Now, maybe Lana called him to protect her daughter. She never tried to cover up his presence at the crime scene. But Jerry called someone else to come over.

• 30:54Speaker 00

  A person both Cheryl and Lana's biographies never mention. Fred Otash. A notorious Hollywood fixer and former cop. And he was the inspiration for Showtime's anti-hero fixer Ray Donovan. He'd done cover-ups for Marilyn Monroe and Jimmy Hoffa. Again, Jerry could have called Fred to protect Cheryl. But Fred's biography, The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn, by Josh Young and Manfred Westfall, tells a different story. All based on Fred's private files. Now Fred was already well acquainted with Johnny before the murder.

• 31:38Speaker 00

  Cheryl's father, Steve, actually hired Fred to keep an eye on Johnny. Steve wanted to make sure she was safe. One day, Fred saw Johnny helping Cheryl ride his horse. He didn't like how Johnny's touch lingered on Cheryl's body. Johnny was being inappropriate. So Fred met with Lana to tell her. Lana was defensive at first, thinking this was some kind of smear campaign. Her ex-husband against her new boyfriend. However, she began to see the truth. This meeting supposedly prompted Lana to come clean to Cheryl about Johnny's abuse. Fast forward to the day of the murder.

• 32:22Speaker 00

  When Fred arrived and entered Lana's bedroom, he didn't see a young girl that just killed a man. He saw a guilty Lana Turner. But Fred took charge, told no one to move, and wiped Lana's prints off of the murder weapon. Both he and Jerry pleaded with Lana. Let Cheryl take the blame. She's a kid, they'll go easy on her. If you don't, you'll be executed by the state.

• 32:55Speaker 00

  Lana eventually agreed, and Jerry had Cheryl hold the knife. Now the prince would point to her. Fred's account doesn't speak for how Cheryl felt at this moment, but from what we know about her, it's possible she wanted to protect her mom from the death penalty. Taking the fall may have just been the best out of two terrible options. After everyone had their story straight, they finally called the police. But it wasn't over yet. According to Fred's files, three days later, Chief Clinton Anderson called Fred in for

• 33:38Speaker 00

  questioning and accused him of tampering with the crime scene. Chief Anderson knew Lana killed Johnny and that Fred put Cheryl's prince on the knife. He just couldn't prove it and was trying to scare Fred into confessing. Fred didn't take the bait and maintain the cover-up, but he did go straight to Jerry's office afterwards. Jerry turned gray when he told him Chief Anderson was on to them. And Jerry reportedly said, "There is no statute of limitations for murder. Do me a favor, Fred. Don't ever tell that story to anybody until I'm dead and buried."

• 34:23Speaker 00

  Jerry died about four years later. According to authors Young and Westfall, Fred told the truth to a handful of trusted confidants. But as it turns out, Fred wasn't the one Jerry needed to worry about talking. In 1996, Eric Root, Lana Turner's hairdresser, wrote a biography about his friendship with the star, and it includes a bombshell. According to Eric, one day years ago, he and Lana were watching a TV show about Hollywood scandals when Lana and Johnny's picture showed up on screen.

• 35:04Speaker 00

  Eric tried to turn the TV off so as not to upset Lana, but she wouldn't let him. She then said, "I killed the son of a bitch, and I'd do it again." "Whoa." Well, she allegedly then told Eric, "Tell the truth, so I can rest in peace. Don't let my baby take the rap all her life from my mistake." In later interviews, Eric claimed Lana caught Johnny sleeping with another woman in Lana's bed. It resulted in an argument where Johnny shook Lana violently. He screamed at her for not calling ahead of time. In an act of self-defense, Lana stabbed Johnny.

• 35:49Speaker 00

  Eric started writing his memoir when Lana died in 1995, and included the confession, "So she could rest in peace," as requested. However, Cheryl called his claim "far-fetched", and said it was, quote, "the only way he could get his book published." Perhaps she'd say the same thing about Fred Otash's account. Some may not believe a mother would make their daughter take the blame for a horrible crime. But remember, even in the official story, Cheryl wanted to protect her mother. And back when Lana found out Lex Barker had abused Cheryl, she put her career and reputation over justice for her daughter.

• 36:35Speaker 00

  But, of course, this is all just theories proposed after the fact by journalists, acquaintances, and even Mickey Cohen. They're all looking for answers to make sense of a shocking story. Well, maybe not all of them. Because while newspapers covered theories about Lana and Cheryl, one thing kept coming back up. Johnny was in the mob. Could they have been involved? That could explain why Mickey Cohen was so outspoken. He had to point fingers, so no one would get too close to finding him out.

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• 38:20Speaker 00

  When Johnny Stompanato died, mob boss Mickey Cohen was quick to talk to the press. He refuted the official story that Cheryl Crane stabbed him to protect her mother from Johnny's abuse. Mickey Cohen claimed that Johnny was never violent with Lana, and the two were madly in love. He didn't understand why Johnny was being made out to be a monster. But perhaps he just said this to cover up his own crimes. According to Johnny's FBI file, Johnny was Mickey's errand boy, bodyguard, a bouncer in his club, and possibly laundering Mickey's money.

• 39:01Speaker 00

  He was also Mickey's main man for blackmail. Mickey knew Johnny was, for lack of a better word, dreamy, and he knew how to seduce women. So they came up with a plan. Under the alias Johnny Valentine or John Steele, Johnny would target wealthy actresses and lure them into relationships. Or at least a few steamy nights. Once he gained their trust, he'd ask for money, just a hundred or two to spot him until next time. Then these loans would get bigger and bigger, sometimes as much as $5,000, the equivalent of almost $60,000 a day.

• 39:46Speaker 00

  When the women refused, he'd drop the lover act. Pay up, or the world will see pictures. You see, once Johnny seduced the women, he or one of Mickey's associates would secretly film or photograph them having sex. Through blackmail, they'd bleed the women for all the money they were worth. A slew of actresses were allegedly Johnny and Mickey's victims, including Marilyn Monroe. And Lana was unfortunately another one. And not only did Mickey secretly film the pair having sex, but Johnny also drugged Lana

• 40:28Speaker 00

  and photographed her sleeping naked. Mickey's blackmail plot began to unravel when Johnny's feelings for Lana changed. At some point, she stopped being a mark. Johnny was in love. Now that the relationship was real for Johnny, he tried to cut ties with Mickey. Seemingly by ghosting, i.e. he stopped hanging out with him, Johnny planned to cut ties completely by leaving the country. He made it all the way to New York before he gave up. Perhaps he knew that the mob could probably find him wherever he went, or perhaps he couldn't bear to leave Lana.

• 41:10Speaker 00

  It's unclear how she factored into his escape plan. According to one account, he claimed that he did somehow get out of the mob, but it meant he had to always keep a gun on him. You never knew when someone was gonna take you out. Supposedly, it would be a lower-ranked little guy mobster who'd kill him to make a name for themselves. But what if Johnny was actually afraid of Mickey? After all, if Johnny was ending the blackmail plot in the middle of scamming one of the biggest movie stars ever, Mickey could have been out a huge chunk of change.

• 41:49Speaker 00

  So perhaps Mickey, feeling betrayed and angry, took Johnny out. Well, it's not impossible. Perhaps he went to Lana's, knowing he would find Johnny there and confronted him. He could have threatened Johnny to go through with the plan, or maybe even pay Mickey the potential blackmail money he would be losing. Johnny, not wanting to look weak in front of his girlfriend, and with his notorious temper, could have fought back, until Mickey stabbed him. Since Mickey already had the illegal sex tape and photos, he could have used them to force Lana to take the fall. I say Lana because, why would he make the teenage girl do it?

• 42:32Speaker 00

  Well, perhaps Cheryl or Lana made that suggestion. Mickey wouldn't care, just as long as it wasn't him. And get this, according to author Casey Sherman, Mickey did actually show up at Lana's mansion on that infamous night. Now, he learned about Johnny's death after a reporter contacted him for a quote. Mickey rushed to Lana's, where Jerry Geisler told him that Johnny was already at the morgue. Mickey went there to officially identify the body for Johnny's family back home. But who's to say that Mickey wasn't really at Lana's from the very beginning?

• 43:15Speaker 00

  Killed Johnny, left or hid for Lana and Cheryl to take the blame, then showed up later with an alibi about a reporter. Stranger cover-ups have happened. Now, there's not much evidence to support this theory. However, it is interesting that Mickey paid for Johnny's funeral. Could this have been some act of retribution for Johnny's family? Some mobs have what's called a "death allowance", where they provide monetary support to the families of whacked mobsters. Some reports claim it could be up to $260,000.

• 43:53Speaker 00

  But while it's not unheard of for mobsters to do this for their victims, it's usually reserved for their own guys, so Mickey could have just footed the bill as his loyal boss, not as his killer. Plus, if Mickey did kill Johnny, he probably wouldn't have been so outspoken after his death. He'd want to keep quiet so as to not draw suspicion. But, as we mentioned, Mickey thought of Johnny as a brother and couldn't stand idly by as the press sullied his name. He even gave the press all of Lana's love letters to Johnny to show that he, quote, "wasn't exactly unwelcome company."

• 44:35Speaker 00

  And while Mickey did accuse Lana of killing Johnny, it wasn't his only theory. He believed it could have been rival mobsters, but he didn't ever seem to name anyone specific or explain their motive. While this theory was popular at the time, it was based less on facts and more on selling papers. The story of a movie star's daughter killing a mobster was already a tabloid goldmine. Add in that it could have all been a mob cover-up? The public ate that up. Who doesn't love a good mafia story?

• 45:15Speaker 00

  And in the end, that's partly why the story of Johnny's death grabs so much speculation. It's a great headline. It's why it always shows up as "the paragraph," as Lana and Cheryl called it. It's easy to forget that at the forefront was a mother and daughter, tormented by years of abuse and splintered by Hollywood expectations. The murder didn't make any of that easier. After Johnny's death, Cheryl self-medicated with pills. At the same time, Lana was drinking, and they seemingly couldn't come together and work on their relationship until decades later.

• 45:59Speaker 00

  By 1980, Lana quit drinking, and Cheryl was a thriving restaurateur in Honolulu. And the two began airing their grievances to each other. They talked about Johnny and the aftermath of the scandal, and reportedly, thanks to Cheryl's partner, they opened up about their love for each other.

• 46:20Speaker 00

  It was something Cheryl always wanted. She spent her childhood handed off to nannies and family, always vying for Lana's love and attention. She'd receive brief glimpses of it, like being her Oscar date, but now, decades later, it seemed to be staying. Lana was proud of who Cheryl became, just like Cheryl was always proud of her movie star mom. And both refused to let Johnny Stompanato separate them.

• 46:57Speaker 00

  Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday, and be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. If you're watching on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts. For more information on Fred Otash and his career as a fixer, amongst the many sources we used, we found The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn by Josh Young and Manfred Westfall, and Detour: A Hollywood Story by Cheryl Crane with Cliff Yar, extremely helpful to our research. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story, and the official story isn't always

• 47:41Speaker 00

  the truth. This episode was written by Brandon Rizzuto, edited by Maggie Admire, researched by Brandon Rizzuto and Maggie Admire, fact-checked by Sophie Kemp, and engineered, video-edited, and sound-designed by Alex Button. I'm your host, Carter Roy.

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