It was one of Hollywood s most shock-

ing and scandalous tragedies-the

Good Friday 1958 slaying of screen god-

dess Lana Turner s mobster boyfriend,

Johnny Stompanato, by Turner s four-

teen-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane.

Now, thirty years later, Cheryl finally

tells what really happened that terrible

night, offering a searing, moving, and

always gripping account, not just of the

Stompanato stabbing, but of what led

up to it and what came after. It is, as she

puts it, the story of how a "young life of

promise and privilege made a detour

through hell:

In Detour. A Hollywood Story, Cheryl

Crane vividly recalls the phenomenal

pleasures and brutal pains of growing

up as a Hollywood "star baby" in the

1940s and 1950s-a time when the glam-

our factories were at their peak. She

remembers playing in the backyard

with Liza Minelli and being serenaded

by Frank Sinatra. But she also recalls a

movie-star mother willing to give every-

thing but hey time, and a series of

"uncles" and stepfathers, some of

whom ignored her, others of whom lied

to her-and one of whom repeatedly

raped her.