Johnny Stompanato

Ex-US Marine and gang enforcer (1925–1958) John Stompanato Jr. (October 10, 1925 – April 4, 1958) was a United States Marine and gangster who became a bodyguard and enforcer for the gangster Mickey Cohen. In the mid-1950s, he began an abusive relationship with the actress Lana Turner. In 1958, he was stabbed to death by Turner's daughter, Cheryl Crane, who said she did it to defend her mother from a vicious beating by Stompanato. His death was ruled as justifiable homicide because he had been killed in self-defense. Early life John Stompanato (front left) during the Pacific War in WWII, with his comrades, Anthony “Duke” Falco (top left), Anthony “Sag” Sylvester (top right),(gathering behind the grave of Pfc. Joseph J. Petillo of Asbury Park, New Jersey. KIA Okinawa. Photo courtesy of the Falco Family of Asbury Park, NJ. John Stompanato Jr., was born into an Italian American family in Woodstock, Illinois. His father, John Sr., owned a barber shop and his mother, Carmela, was a seamstress. Both parents were born in Italy but were married in Brooklyn. They had moved to Woodstock in 1916. Stompanato was the youngest of four children: he had two older sisters, Grace and Tere