10 Celebrities Who Were Connected To Deadly Crimes

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10 Celebrities Who Were Connected To Deadly Crimes

As we've said before, life in Hollywood is not the "free ride" we often imagine it to be. Just like us, celebrities have highs and lows in their careers. A brush with the law is not unusual in Hollywood, but these 10 stars were all charged, suspected, or associated with deadly crimes:

1. Robert Blake

The star of In Cold Blood and Baretta was charged with murdering his wife in cold blood in 2001, and his unlikely alibi almost became more famous than the crime itself. Blake and his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley went out for dinner one night, and afterwards Bakley was found dead in his car, parked around the corner from the restaurant.

Blake, while in jail.The Lineup

Blake said that someone else must have shot his wife, because at the time of the murder he was back in the restaurant, retrieving a gun which he had left inside. That gun turned out not to be the murder weapon. Blake was eventually acquitted, but then found liable for Bakley's death in a civil trial.

2. Lana Turner

The star of Golden Age Hollywood hits like The Bad and the Beautiful and The Postman Always Rings Twice was in an abusive relationship with gangster Johnny Stompanato. The mobster would allegedly beat Turner and blackmail her. One night, as Stompanato attacked the star, her 14-year-old daughter Cheryl Crane stabbed him with a kitchen knife.

Crane and Turner.IMDB

Crane was charged with justifiable homicide - since she was protecting her mother - and was made a ward of the state for a year. Crane always insisted on her story of the stabbing, but rumors still swirl that Turner was holding the knife herself, and let her daughter take the blame.

3. Snoop Dogg

While he has a squeaky clean reputation as a cooking show host today, Snoop and his bodyguard McKinley Lee were both charged with murder in 1993. Snoop was driving Lee when a rival gang member opened fire and Lee shot back. Since Snoop was behind the wheel, he was held equally responsible for the crime.

Snoop Dogg, during his trial.Express

The men were eventually acquitted because it was a case of self-defense, but Snoop still thanked his "dream team" of lawyers, including O.J. Simpson's lead attorney Johnnie Cochran, for getting him off the hook.

4. Robert Durst

This real estate mogul (his father is the wealthy Seymour Durst) is nicknamed "The Jinx" because he is strongly suspected in the murders of three people: his first wife Kathleen McCormack Durst, his friend Susan Berman, and his neighbor Morris Black.

Durst's excuses and alibis were often contradictory, and he was found guilty of evidence tampering by dismembering Morris Black's body (Durst claims Black shot himself in the face accidentally during an argument).

In 2015 Durst was arrested again in connection with the Berman murder, after a documentary turned up new evidence including a suspicious letter and what some say is a taped confession recorded on a "hot microphone" as Durst used the washroom.

5. Dog the Bounty Hunter

Chapman's mugshot.The Smoking Gun

Yes, it may be hard to believe but one of television's most famous crime fighters served time for first degree murder. Before Dog (real name Duane Chapman) was on the straight and narrow, he was hanging around with some bad company.

Chapman was waiting in a car while his friend got into a disagreement with a drug dealer and wound up killing him. Dog was found guilty as an accessory to the crime. He served 18 months of a 5-year sentence and has been working on the right side of the law ever since.

When a actress was found murdered, the note in her purse pointed a finger at one of Hollywood's biggest stars...

6. Kirk Douglas

Actress Jean Spangler was on the verge of making her big break in Hollywood when she vanished without a trace. Spangler was never found, and police investigated every possible lead trying to track her down. Her ex-husband, the most likely suspect, had a strong alibi.

Then police found Spangler's purse, with a mysterious note inside. It read "Kirk, Can't wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away." Douglas put out a statement after reading about the case, insisting he wasn't the Kirk mentioned in the note, but that did little to quiet the rumors.

One of the most interesting pieces of evidence in Spangler's Case? She appeared in a film with Douglas: Young Man with a Horn.

7. William S. Burroughs

Burroughs was one of the bright lights of the "Beat" generation, and his novels like Naked Lunch are still widely read today. But he was also a morphine and heroin addict with a history of erratic behavior. That may explain the strange circumstances of his wife's death.

While partying with friends in Mexico City, Burroughs pulled out a gun and told his wife Joan Vollmer "It's time for our William Tell act." (William Tell famously shot an arrow through an apple resting on his son's head.) He tried to shoot a glass balanced on Vollmer's head and wound up killing her instead. After a lengthy trial, Burroughs was convicted of homicide but fled to America instead of facing justice.

8. O.J. Simpson

You probably remember this one. Simpson was a former running back and an actor who was charged with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Despite declaring he was "100% not guilty," the evidence against Simpson seemed strong right up until the moment he was acquitted.

Like Robert Blake, Simpson was later found liable for the wrongful death and battery of Nicole and Ronald, and ordered to pay more than $30 million to their families. Simpson also wrote a book titled If I Did It offering a description of the crime, but since he hadn't paid his sentence the rights to the book went to Goldman's family.

Simpson was jailed for an unrelated robbery.ABC

This year, Simpson was finally released from prison for an unrelated robbery he helped commit in 2007.

9. Mark Wahlberg

Before he was a musician, actor and producer, Wahlberg was a teenage cocaine addict who was involved in a disturbing assault case. At age 16, Wahlberg attacked a middle-aged Vietnamese man with a wooden stick, knocking him unconscious while shouting racial insults.

While he was sentenced to two years in prison, Wahlberg served less than two months.NY Daily News

Later the same day Wahlberg sucker punched another Vietnamese man. Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder, pleaded guilty to assault, and served 45 days in prison for his crime.

10. Phil Spector

As a record producer, Spector worked with huge acts including the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. But Spector's reclusive lifestyle and odd habits came to light after he murdered actress Lana Clarkson in his enormous mansion.

Lana Clarkson.Wikimedia

Spector called Clarkson's death an "accidental suicide," but he was quoted on an emergency call from his home saying "I think I've killed someone." Spector, who was 63 when he Clarkson died, was found guilty of murder and given 19 years to life. He will be 88 by the time he is eligible for parole.

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