Hollywood Horrors

On Good Friday, April 4, 1958, a violent confrontation inside a Beverly Hills mansion left one man dead and one of Hollywood's biggest stars at the center of a sensational scandal. Lana Turner had everything Hollywood could offer: beauty, fame, and fortune. But behind the glamorous image was a turbulent private life and a dangerous relationship with a man connected to organized crime. What ha...

In 1982, Poltergeist terrified audiences with a story of supernatural forces haunting an ordinary suburban family. But in the years that followed, a series of real-life tragedies would give rise to one of Hollywood's most enduring legends: the Poltergeist curse. Actress Dominique Dunne was murdered just months after the film's release. Julian Beck and Will Sampson, both featured in Polte...

On March 31, 1993, 28 year old Brandon Lee, son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, was fatally shot while filming The Crow in Wilmington, North Carolina. The gun was supposed to be loaded with blanks. The scene was supposed to be fiction. But something went terribly wrong. How did a prop gun become a deadly weapon? Who was responsible for the failures that cost Brandon Lee his life? And why did rum...

On July 1, 1981, four people were brutally murdered inside a house on Wonderland Avenue in the Hollywood Hills. The crime scene was so gruesome that investigators compared it to the infamous Manson murders. At the center of the investigation was John Holmes, once one of the most recognizable names in the adult film industry. By 1981, his life had spiraled into drug addiction, desperate financial c...

Dorothy Dandridge was one of Hollywood’s most glamorous and groundbreaking stars. But on September 8, 1965, she was found dead in her Los Angeles apartment at just 42 years old. What followed were conflicting conclusions about how she died, leaving questions that have endured for decades. In this episode of Hollywood Horrors, we look back at Dandridge’s remarkable rise, the pressures and setbacks...

In 1932, a young actress named Peg Entwistle came to Hollywood with dreams of making it on the silver screen. Just months later, her life would end in tragedy at one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world, the Hollywood Sign. Once a promising stage actress on Broadway, Entwistle struggled to find her place in a rapidly changing Hollywood. Her death at just 24 years old would become one of...

Ramon Novarro was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, a silent screen idol, MGM leading man, and the star of the 1925 epic Ben-Hur. But behind the carefully constructed image of Hollywood's great romantic leading man was a private life that Novarro was forced to keep hidden. On the night of October 30, 1968, two young brothers entered his Laurel Canyon home. By the following morning,...

On the night of November 28, 1981, actress Natalie Wood boarded the yacht Splendour off the coast of Southern California with her husband, Robert Wagner, and her Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken. By morning, one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars was dead. Wood’s body was found floating in the waters off Catalina Island, wearing a nightgown, socks, and a down jacket. Her death was initial...

In 1980, Dorothy Stratten seemed to have everything Hollywood promised. At just twenty years old, she had gone from working at a Dairy Queen in Vancouver to becoming Playboy’s Playmate of the Year, appearing in films, and attracting the attention of some of the most powerful people in Hollywood. But behind her rapid rise was a relationship becoming increasingly dangerous. Paul Snider had discovere...

In 1978, Bob Crane was still known to millions as the quick-witted Colonel Hogan of Hogan’s Heroes . But behind the familiar television persona was a far more complicated private life and a friendship that was beginning to unravel. On the morning of June 29, Crane was found brutally murdered inside his Scottsdale, Arizona, apartment. There was no forced entry, nothing appeared to have been stolen,...

On June 16, 1959, the world lost its first television Superman. George Reeves was found dead in his Los Angeles home from a single gunshot wound to the head. Police quickly ruled the death a suicide, but almost immediately questions began to surface. Conflicting witness statements, unusual physical evidence, and Reeves' connections to some of Hollywood's most powerful figures fueled spec...

Marilyn Monroe was the biggest star in the world. On the night of August 4, 1962, she was found dead in her Brentwood home at just 36 years old. Officially ruled a probable suicide, her death has remained one of Hollywood's greatest mysteries for more than six decades. In this episode of Hollywood Horrors , we examine Marilyn Monroe's extraordinary rise from Norma Jeane to global icon be...

On the morning of January 15, 1947, a woman walking with her young daughter through a vacant lot in Los Angeles made a discovery that would become one of the most infamous crime scenes in American history. The victim was Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old aspiring actress whose brutal murder shocked the nation and gave birth to one of Hollywood's most enduring legends: The Black Dahlia. In this e...

It is the morning of December 16, 1935. One of Hollywood's brightest stars is found dead inside a locked garage. The engine of her car is still running. Police quickly rule it an accident. Hollywood isn't convinced. The death of Thelma Todd stunned the film industry and ignited one of Old Hollywood's most enduring mysteries. Was it an accidental case of carbon monoxide poisoning, a...

It is the evening of February 1, 1922. Hollywood's most powerful director walks his famous guest to her limousine, blows a kiss goodbye, and steps back inside his bungalow. Five minutes later, he is dead. The murder of William Desmond Taylor shocked a nation and exposed the hidden side of Old Hollywood. A crime scene disturbed before investigators arrived. Evidence that disappeared from polic...