Cheryl Crane Defended Lana Turner

In 1958, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane stabbed Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of her mother, Hollywood actress Lana Turner, at Turner’s rented home in Beverly Hills, California. Stompanato, a former Marine and Los Angeles crime family associate, had a violent relationship with Turner and allegedly threatened to kill Turner, Crane, and Turner’s mother during a bedroom argument. Crane heard the fight, grabbed a kitchen knife, and later said she acted to defend her mother. A coroner’s inquest ruled the death a justifiable homicide, and Crane was cleared of wrongdoing.

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