Quick Facts
- NAME: Cheryl Crane
- OCCUPATION: Murderer, Writer
- BIRTH DATE: July 25, 1943 (Age: 69)
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Los Angeles, California
- ZODIAC SIGN: Leo
Best Known For
Cheryl Crane is the daughter of Hollywood legend Lana Turner. In 1958 when she was just 14 years old she committed murder, stabbing Turner's boyfriend after hearing him threaten to kill her mother.
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Play NowCheryl Crane. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 09:22, May 22, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-crane-235822.
Cheryl Crane. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-crane-235822 [Accessed 22 May 2013].
"Cheryl Crane." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 22 2013, 09:22 http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-crane-235822.
"Cheryl Crane," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-crane-235822 [accessed May 22, 2013].
"Cheryl Crane," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-crane-235822 (accessed May 22, 2013).
Cheryl Crane [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 22] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-crane-235822.
Cheryl Crane, http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-crane-235822 (last visited May 22, 2013).
Cheryl Crane. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/cheryl-crane-235822. Accessed May 22, 2013.
Synopsis
Cheryl Crane is the daughter of film actress and model Lana Turner and actor Jef Stephen Crane. Crane was the only child of Turner, whose promiscuity and seven different husbands led to a troubled upbringing. After her mother divorced her fourth husband, Lex Baker, she began a relationship with hoodlum Johnny Stompanato. In 1958 when she was just fourteen years old,
Crane overheard the man threatening to kill her mother and she stabbed him, killing him immediately. A judge ruled the incident justifiable homicide and she was sent to live at a home for troubled girls. She published her autobiography, Detour: a Hollywood Story in 1988.
Profile
Murderer, real estate agent. Cheryl Crane is the daughter of Hollywood legend Lana Turner and actor-restaurateur Josef Stephen Crane. The couple married in 1942 before discovering that Crane's divorce from his previous wife had not yet been finalized. They wed again in 1943, but the marriage only lasted a year. Cheryl was the only child of Lana Turner and had a troubled upbringing surrounded by her mother's numerous romantic liaisons, including seven husbands. Lana Turner's fourth husband, actor Lex Barker, sexually abused Cheryl, and her mother divorced him in 1957.
Shortly after her divorce from Barker, Turner became involved with Johnny Stompanato, a Los Angeles hoodlum with gangster ties. Despite violent arguments and physical abuse, Turner stayed with him. On April 4, 1958, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane stabbed Stompanato after overhearing him threaten to kill her mother. The wound punctured his kidney and aorta and killed him almost immediately. A judge ruled that the incident constituted justifiable homicide, and Cheryl was sent to live at a home for problem girls. She escaped in 1960 to live with her maternal grandmother.
Several years later, Cheryl Crane revealed she was a lesbian. She works in real estate and lives with her longtime partner Jocelyn "Josh" LeRoy in Palm Springs, California. Her autobiography, Detour: a Hollywood Story, was published in 1988.
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