Johnny Stompanato

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johnny Stompanato, Jr. aka Handsome Harry, John Steele and Oscar (October 9, 1925 – April 4, 1958) was a former United States Marine who became a bodyguard/enforcer for gangster Mickey Cohen. He was also the boyfriend of actress Lana Turner,

Contents 1 Early Years 2 Wartime Service 3 Marriage 4 Boyfriend to a Star 5 Public Murder Trial 6 See also 7 In popular culture 8 References

[edit] Early Years

John "Jackie" R. Stompanato was born into an Italian-American family in predominantly Irish-American Woodstock, Illinois. Stompanato was the youngest of four children; his brother Carmine, as of 2006, still lived in Indiana and served as a Presbyterian elder. His father John Sr. was a successful barber and dabbler in real estate. The Stompanato family lived in a big clapboard house on Blakely Street with a much envied garden with a florid statuary. John's mother died after his birth and his father remarried a woman named Verena Freitag.

[edit] Wartime Service

Accounts differ as to whether Stompanato got into trouble as a child. However, in 1940, after his freshman year at Woodstock High School, his father sent Stompanato to Kemper Military School, a strict boys' school in Boonville, Missouri. He still had discipline problems at Kemper, but graduated at age seventeen. In 1943 Stompanato joined the U.S. Marines. He saw action in the South Pacific theater at Peleliu and Okinawa, then landed with the Marines in China in 1945.

[edit] Marriage

Stompanato later claimed that he stayed in China after the war, operating night clubs and going bankrupt in the process. He may have also worked as a minor bureaucrat at a U.S. government office in Tianjin, China. While working for the government he met and married a Turkish woman who was six years his senior, converting to Islam. Soon the couple returned to Woodstock, Illinois, where Stompanato's son, John Stompanato III, was born. Stompanato worked as a bread salesman for a few months before leaving for Hollywood, California.

[edit] Boyfriend to a Star

In Los Angeles, John 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. When he started dating Lana Turner he wore a heavy gold-link bracelet on his wrist with "Lanita" inscribed inside. Turner's daughter to second husband J. Stephen Crane, Cheryl Crane, described Stompanato in her autobiography, Detour: A Hollywood Story (1988) as having:

"...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."

However, the reality was that Stompananto was very jealous and possessive of Turner and severely abused her on many occasions. Turner attempted to end their relationship several times, but he always convinced her from doing so. During one incident, Stompanato stormed onto a movie set, and pointed a gun at actor Sean Connery, her costar in Another Time, Another Place, only to have Connery take the gun from him, beat him, and force him from the movie set. [1] [2]^[1]

[edit] Public Murder Trial

On April 4, 1958, Johnny Stompanato was stabbed to death at Turner's Beverly Hills, California home. The assailant was Turner's then teenage daughter, Cheryl. The girl claimed that Stompanato was attacking her mother and she had to defend her. The courts agreed, ruling Stompanato's death to be justifiable homicide. After the ruling, Stompanato's family sued Turner for $7 million; gangster Mickey Cohen supposedly paid the family's legal costs. The case was finally settled out of court.

There have been endless rumors since 1958 that Turner was the actual killer. Her daughter supposedly took the blame because she was a minor and would face minimal judicial punishment under the circumstances. However, there is insufficient evidence to prove such claims. ^[2]

Johnny Stompanato is interred at Oakland Cemetery in Woodstock, McHenry County, Illinois.

[edit] See also

Hollywood's Celebrity Gangster. The Incredible Life and Times of Mickey Cohen by Brad Lewis. (Enigma Books: New York, 2007. ISBN 978-1-929631-65-0)

[edit] In popular culture

• In the film adaptation of L.A. Confidential, Stompanato was portrayed by Italian actor Paolo Seganti.
• A previously announced film featuring Keanu Reeves as Stompanato has been cancelled. ^[3]
• While filming Another Time, Another Place, Lana Turner was rumored to be having an affair with her costar, actor Sean Connery. In actuality, there was no evidence of an affair. Nevertheless, one day an enraged Stompanato stormed onto the set and started arguing forcefully with Connery. Finally, Stompanato waved a gun in Connery's face. Connery took away the gun, beat up Stompanato, and kicked him off the set. After Stompanato's death, rumors flew that the mob held Connery responsible; the actor allegedly laid low until it blew over. ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}
• The Tom Russell song Tiajuana Bible was allegedly set around Stompanato's death

[edit] References