Johnny Stompanato And Lana Turner’s Fateful Meeting
Born to Italian-American parents in Illinois, John Stompanato Jr. was sent to a military academy before he joined the Marines in 1943 and saw action in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
After he was discharged in China, he met Sara Utush, a Turkish dressmaker. He converted to Islam for her and they wed in May 1946. Stompanato briefly ran a seedy nightclub before abandoning his wife and newborn about a year later.
He moved to Los Angeles where he found work with Meyer “Mickey” Cohen, the infamous L.A. mob kingpin. Stompanato acted as the mobster’s bodyguard and pimp.
Meanwhile, Stompanato had a notorious fondness for starlets and soon set his sights on the foremost femme fatale, international superstar Lana Turner. Turner had first become famous when she was discovered by an agent while skipping class at the Top Hat Malt Shop in Los Angeles in 1936. Over the next 15 years, she became one of Hollywood’s most coveted sex symbols.
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