Crimes of the Century - No. 7 - The Lana Turner Affair

THE LANA TURNER AFFAIR, 1958

Lana Turner reigned as one of Hollywood's box-office queens for more than two decades. Real life was much trampier. Her father, a miner in Idaho, was murdered after winning a craps game. She loved to hang out with men of ill repute and would eventually marry seven times. One marriage, to the actor Lex Barker, would end in 1957 after she accused him of molesting her daughter by a previous marriage, Cheryl Crane. 

True to her failings, she began a torrid and tumultuous affair with Johnny Stompanato, a man suspected of mob ties. When she tried to break it off, he grew violent. And on the night of April 4, 1958, Stompanato and Turner engaged in a ferocious argument at her Beverly Hills home, so violent in fact that 14-year old Cheryl ran for a knife and ended up stabbing Stompanato to death. 

The papers loved the story and the coroner's inquest was one of the most sensational legal hearings Hollywood has ever seen. Turner's tale on the stand was riveting: a wayward mother in distress and the faithful daughter who comes to her rescue. "I walked toward the bedroom door," Turner testified. "He was right behind me. And I opened it and my daughter came in. I swear it was so fast, I truthfully thought she had hit him in the stomach ... I never saw a blade." A Stompanato friend's outburst in court implied that it was Lana who wielded the knife, but the coroner declared the whole thing justifiable homicide. Turner's career flourished into the 1980s.

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As you read through the 25 crimes Time Magazine has selected, you will wonder which of them will remain in the popular, perhaps even the artistic imagination in the years to come? How will they be retold and with what kinds of lessons and cautions in mind?  Visit my blog every Saturday as a new crime will be posted each week.

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Go back and read the previous 6 crimes here.

What a Hot Mess: Monopoly Game Turns Deadly

OMG, if I was to name the number of times I played this game and wanted to rob my opponent, you'd think I was the 1%.  LOL. 

I remember this game being so competitive when I played it with my sister, friends or family.  We'd scream and yell at each other, because we wanted certain properties and couldn't get them.  All I wanted was the Railroads dammit!  And I didn't want to pass 'Go" and head straight to jail!

But not for Laura Chavez, she was sent to the slammer last Wednesday night for stabbing her boyfriend, Clyde "Butch" Smith with a kitchen knife.   She told the cops, "Yes, I fucked him up."  LOL. What a hot mess!

The woman's grandson who was playing with Chavez before the incident happened, told the officers that his grandmother had started arguing with Smith, because she felt "he was cheating at Monopoly."  The boy didn't witness the stabbing, because he was in bed.

But if you're a fan of the game, you would know that said cheating would likely involve either a) collecting $200 before passing “Go”; b) nipping some gold $100 bills from the bank; or c) landing on Baltic Avenue, but palming the Boardwalk property card.

And you'd think this was the only incident.  Hell No.  This has happened to other people.  According to following article:

This Monopoly-inspired attack is not the first incident of board game rage. In September, a Florida man allegedly choked his wife over a game of Yahtzee, and in 2009 a Michigan man went to jail for assaulting his Monopoly foe when she would not give up Park Place and the Boardwalk.

Mind-Boggling News: True Blood Amateurs Only Get Probation

Amanda Williamson, 21, and Aaron Homer, 24

Seriously?  Three years probation? Is that all you can do for aggravated assault? 

Two idiots who actually believe they're vampires, sucked the living blood out of this poor homeless kid back in October, in return for providing a roof over his head. When the poor guy (Robert Maley) didn't allow the couple (Aaron Homer and Amanda Williamson) to suck on his blood any longer, they stabbed his ass. Well not his ass, but you know what I mean.

 "I said no, and he flipped," Maley told police. "He said, 'I'm doing it,' and then boom . . . he stabbed me."  "They think they are vampires," said Maley of Homer and Williamson.

The story is insane. From the hidden knife in the couple's bed, to the 25 yr-old Maley running out the door bleeding profusely, and odd stories of paganism lead me to believe these fools belong in a sanitarium, not on our streets feeding on our friends and family.  And possibly our Pets!!!

Probation?  What is wrong with this picture?