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Infamous Murders: Hollywood Murders
Tuesday 9 Dec 9.00AM
On 5th September 1932 Hollywood movie producer Paul Bern was found dead on the floor of his home in Hollywood Hills. A handgun and suicide note lay nearby. Bern had married Jean Harlow, a budding Hollywood actress, just two months earlier.
The police were suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Bern's death, but they had nothing to go on and the investigation was closed. Five years later Harlow tragically died from blood poisoning.
It was suggested the following year that Bern had been murdered after all. MGM executives fearful of a major scandal may have used their cinematic skills to set up the scene of the crime to make it look like a suicide.
On 16th December 1935, actress Thelma Todd was found dead, slumped behind the wheel of her convertible. She had obviously died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but was it suicide or murder?
Over 50 years later it emerged that Roland West, Todd's sometime boyfriend, had confessed to killing her. The police chose not to press charges. Had the murder had been hushed up by studio executives to avoid yet another Hollywood scandal?
On 5th April 1958 fourteen-year-old Cheryl Crane was charged with the murder of her mother's boyfriend. The previous night her mother, film star Lana Turner, and Johnny Stompanato were having another violent argument when it was claimed that Cheryl took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Stompanato in the stomach.
Many people believed that the young girl could never have killed the middle aged former marine, but after her mother gave the performance of a lifetime in court, the jury reached a verdict of justifiable homicide, committed by Cheryl Crane in the belief that her mother was in danger.
The police were suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Bern's death, but they had nothing to go on and the investigation was closed. Five years later Harlow tragically died from blood poisoning.
It was suggested the following year that Bern had been murdered after all. MGM executives fearful of a major scandal may have used their cinematic skills to set up the scene of the crime to make it look like a suicide.
On 16th December 1935, actress Thelma Todd was found dead, slumped behind the wheel of her convertible. She had obviously died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but was it suicide or murder?
Over 50 years later it emerged that Roland West, Todd's sometime boyfriend, had confessed to killing her. The police chose not to press charges. Had the murder had been hushed up by studio executives to avoid yet another Hollywood scandal?
On 5th April 1958 fourteen-year-old Cheryl Crane was charged with the murder of her mother's boyfriend. The previous night her mother, film star Lana Turner, and Johnny Stompanato were having another violent argument when it was claimed that Cheryl took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Stompanato in the stomach.
Many people believed that the young girl could never have killed the middle aged former marine, but after her mother gave the performance of a lifetime in court, the jury reached a verdict of justifiable homicide, committed by Cheryl Crane in the belief that her mother was in danger.
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