Johnny Stompanato
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| Johnny Stompanato | |
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 Stompanato with Lana Turner |
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| Born | October 10, 1925 Woodstock, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | April 4, 1958 (aged 32) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
John "Johnny" Stompanato (October 10, 1925 - April 4, 1958), also known as "Handsome Harry", "Johnny Stomp", "John Steele", and "Oscar", was a former United States Marine who became a bodyguard/enforcer for gangster Mickey Cohen. In 1958, after a tumultuous relationship with actress Lana Turner, he was stabbed and killed by Turner's daughter, Cheryl Crane.
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[edit] Early years
John Stompanato, Jr. was born into an Italian-American family in Woodstock, Illinois, the youngest of four children. His father, John Sr., owned a barber shop. His mother, Carmela, died shortly after his birth, and his father remarried, to a woman named Verena Freitag.[citation needed]
[edit] Wartime service
In 1940, after Stompanato's freshman year at Woodstock High School, his father sent him to Kemper Military School for boys in Boonville, Missouri, from which he graduated at age 17. In 1943, Stompanato joined the U.S. Marines; he saw action in the South Pacific theater, in Peleliu and Okinawa, and then landed in China with the Marines, in 1945.[citation needed]
[edit] Son
Stompanato's son, John Stompanato III, by his sole legal marriage, was born in Woodstock. Stompanato worked as a bread salesman for a few months before leaving for Hollywood, California.[citation needed]
[edit] Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, Stompanato owned and managed "The Myrtlewood Gift Shop" in Westwood, California. He sold inexpensive pieces of crude pottery and wood carvings as fine art. The few shoppers who entered the store were either served by a part-time clerk or ignored altogether.[citation needed]
When he began dating Lana Turner, he wore a heavy gold-link bracelet on his wrist with "Lanita" inscribed inside. Turner's daughter Cheryl Crane described Stompanato in her autobiography, Detour: A Hollywood Story (1988):
| “ | ... B-picture good looks... thick set ... powerfully built and soft spoken ... and talked in short sentences to cover a poor grasp of grammar and spoke in a deep baritone voice. With friends, he seldom smiled or laughed out loud, but seemed always coiled, holding himself in ... had watchful hooded eyes that took in more than he wanted anyone to notice .... His wardrobe on a daily basis consisted of roomy, draped slacks, a silver buckled skinny leather belt and lizard shoes. | ” |
On one occasion, the jealous Stompanato stormed onto a movie set in the UK and pointed a gun at actor Sean Connery, her costar in Another Time, Another Place, only to have Connery take the gun from him and force him from the movie set. Stompanato was deported for this offense, as unlicensed handguns are illegal in the United Kingdom.[1][2]
Rumors flew after Stompanato's death that the mob held Connery responsible; the actor allegedly laid low until things blew over.[3][4][5][6]
[edit] Death
On April 4, 1958, Stompanato was stabbed to death at Turner's Beverly Hills, California home. Turner's then teenage daughter Cheryl Crane claimed Stompanato had been attacking her mother and that she had stabbed Stompanato defending her mother. The courts agreed, ruling the death to be justifiable homicide. After the ruling, Stompanato's family sued Turner for $7 million. The case was eventually settled out of court for unknown terms.[citation needed]
Stompanato is interred at Oakland Cemetery, in Woodstock, McHenry County, Illinois. His grave is at 42°19′5.66″N 88°27′44.59″W / 42.3182389°N 88.4623861°W. He is buried between his mother, Carmela (1890–1925), to the north, and his father John (1890–1952) and his step mother Verena (1901–1967) to the south. His brother, Carmine (1912–1961) is buried across a small road, to the west of Johnny.
[edit] Sources
Brad Lewis, Hollywood's Celebrity Gangster: The Incredible Life and Times of Mickey Cohen (New York: Enigma Books, 2007) ISBN 978-1-929631-65-0
[edit] In popular culture
- Stompanato makes an appearance in the 2011 video game L.A. Noire as an associate of gangster Mickey Cohen.
- In the novel L.A. Confidential, Stompanato is one of the alleged gunmen in the Nite Owl Massacre, but is murdered before he can be prosecuted.
- In 1979 Rene Ricard wrote one of his most well known poems, The Death of Johnny Stompanato, published in Italian translation in 1981 and republished in Rene Ricard, Love Poems, CUZ Editions, 1999.
- In November 2009 a BBC Radio 4 original play, A Night with Johnny Stompanato, was first broadcast.
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Detour: A Hollywood Story by Cheryl Crane with Cliff Jahr (Arbor House/William Morrow, 1988)
