'They were feminists': Casey Sherman looks at Lana Turner, her daughter, dead gangster

SANDWICH — Crime photos from 1958 show mobster Johnny Stompanato stabbed to death on the pristine white rug in the home of Hollywood screen star Lana Turner.

“Where’s the blood? You don’t die from being stabbed in the stomach without bleeding on the rug,” true crime author Casey Sherman told a crowd of 100 or so at Sandwich Public Library in a Feb. 29 presentation about his latest book, “A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime.”

Cape native Sherman, a 1987 Barnstable High School graduate, is headed to the Orpheum Theater in Chatham on March 28. There, he will sign copies of his 16th book at 6 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. screening of Turner’s 1946 crime thriller, “The Postman Always Rings Twice.”

In explaining how famous "sweater girl" Lana Turner was, Sherman said, “I tell younger people who may not know her that she was the Taylor Swift of her time.”

Turner’s teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane, took the blame for stabbing Stompanato to protect her mother from a vicious beating from the gangster who claimed she was Turner's boyfriend, although she denied it. An inquest jury convicted Crane of justifiable homicide and was not criminally charged. At age 80, she still lives in Los Angeles.

Sherman found a score of details that didn’t fit that scenario, which mother and daughter maintained over the decades to come.

“Jerry Giesler (Turner's lawyer) didn’t write about it in his autobiography so why didn’t he mention the biggest case of his career?” Sherman asked, immediately answering that with no statute of limitation on murder, Turner — who lived until age 74 in 1995 — could have still been charged.

The biggest piece of evidence Sherman found was the FBI file on Mickey Cohen, a highly placed gangster in 1940s Hollywood.

“It was all mobsters who wanted to be movie stars, movie stars who wanted to be mobsters,” Sherman said.

Discovered at age 15

“A Murder in Hollywood” starts with Turner’s background, including her father’s violent death and how a talent agent reportedly discovered her in a coffee shop at age 15.

“I was horrified at how the studio system treated its young stars,” Sherman said, saying their childhoods were stolen by studio execs who fed them amphetamines to keep them working and slim and who insisted female stars marry (Turner wed seven times) rather than date.

Sherman said that by the book’s end, he found he loved Turner and her daughter for their spirit and courage in breaking free of a system in which gangsters and studio executives abused them.

“Creating her own production company, when she was the only woman to do so besides Lucille Ball who worked with her husband, was very impressive.”

“They were feminists,” Sherman said, calling Turner and Crane precursors of the “Me Too” movement, which saw many modern actresses speaking out against abusive powerful men. “They owe a debt of gratitude to Lana Turner, who did something way back in 1957.”

Sherman's background as an author

Sherman is the author or co-author of several books, including "A Rose for Mary" about his aunt who was the last and youngest Boston Strangler victim, "The Finest Hours" with Michael Tougias, "Boston Strong" and "Hunting Whitey" with Dave Wedge. "A Murder in Hollywood" is dedicated to Sherman's brother, Todd, who died in December 2022 after publishing "Into the Realm" under the pen name Todd Forrest.

Sherman is working to get several of his books, including "A Murder in Hollywood," made into films or TV series.

"I think Margot Robbie would make a great Lana or Anne Hathaway would make a great Lana as well," he said.

Gwenn Friss is the editor of CapeWeek and covers entertainment, restaurants and the arts. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her or X, formerly Twitter: @dailyrecipeCCT

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Writer says Hollywood icon Lana Turner was a pioneer, maybe a murderer