Amy Locane was a popular actress who appeared in the cult hit Cry Baby and on the nighttime soap Melrose Place. Unfortunately the actress was involved in a brutal accident that would begin a rather strange trip through the court system in New Jersey.
Amy Locane Crimes
On June 27, 2010 Amy Locane who had been to several parties and was three times over the legal limit for alcohol was speeding down a street in Montgomery New Jersey. Locane who was driving nearly twenty miles per hour over the speed limit, 53 mph in a 35 mph zone, when she struck a vehicle that was turning into their driveway killing the passenger in the vehicle.
Amy Locane was charged with aggravated manslaughter and assault with a vehicle. Amy Locane would be convicted during her trial and would be sentenced to three years in prison.
The three years in prison was felt to be way to light of a sentence and the prosecutor appealed the sentence. Amy Locane who would serve over two years in prison would be released on parole in 2015.
The appeal that was filed when Amy Locane was first sentenced was finally heard by the higher courts and they ordered that Locane be resentenced
In 2019 Amy Locane was resentenced to five years in prison however she would file an appeal and would remain free while the appeal was heard.
In 2020 Amy Locane was resentenced to eight years in prison and must served six years in prison before she becomes eligible for parole.
Amy Locane 2021 Information
Amy Locane SBI Number:000637627C Sentenced as:Locane, Amy Race:White Ethnicity:Unknown Sex:Female Hair Color:Brown Eye Color:Blue Height:5’6″ Weight:112 lbs. Birth Date:December 19, 1971 Admission Date:September 17, 2020 Current Facility:EMCF Current Max Release Date:December 20, 2024 Current Parole Eligibility Date:December 20, 2024
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Former “Melrose Place” actress Amy Locane was resentenced to eight years in prison Thursday for a drunk-driving crash that killed a woman in Montgomery, New Jersey in 2010.
Locane was given eight years for second-degree vehicular homicide and 18 months for fourth-degree assault by auto, which will be served concurrently with the eight-year sentence.
Under the No Early Release Act, Locane must serve six years, nine months and 22 days in prison before becoming eligible for parole. She was also ordered to serve three years’ probation after her release.
The sentence was handed down by Somerset County Superior Court Judge Angela Borkowski. It was the fourth time Locane, 48, was sentenced for the crash that killed 60-year-old Helene Seeman.
Fred Seeman, a New York attorney, was driving with his wife around 9 p.m. on June 27, 2010 and turning into the driveway of their weekend home when Locane struck their vehicle while going about 20 mph over the 35 mph speed limit.
According to Borkowski, Locane was at several parties earlier that day drinking wine and believed her then-husband was going to drive her home. But when her husband drove home with their children without her, Locane decided to drive drunk, Borkowski said.
“The fact that you are still trying to place partial blame on others without accepting full responsibility for what happened that day supports the finding that the risk is present that you will commit another offense,” Borkowski said.
Locane was represented by Somerville-based attorney James Wronko, who is now her boyfriend, according to Borkowski. The judge said the relationship does not present a conflict of interest because Wronko only represented Locane during her resentencings, not her trial.
Wronko asked Borkowski to sentence Locane to two years in prison.
“This is a strange a situation because Ms. Locane has literally served a sentence,” he said. “Your Honor has to look at who Ms. Locane was 10 years ago and her progression to who she is today.”
Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Murphy represented the state.
Locane’s last sentencing was in February 2019 when she was sentenced to five years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Kevin Shanahan.
It was the fourth sentencing for Locane, the former actress who starred with Johnny Depp in “Cry-Baby” and came after an appellate court agreed with the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office that retired Judge Robert Reed’s sentence should be modified.
Locane previously had been sentenced to three years in state prison on charges of vehicular homicide and assault by auto.
The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office appealed the sentence. An appellate court decision called Locane’s sentencing “excessively lenient.” The appellate court ordered that she return to Superior Court for a new sentencing.
The appellate court ruled that the third sentencing must be performed by a new judge because Reed, who presided over the trial and the first two sentencings, did not follow the appellate court’s ruling after the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office successfully appealed the first sentencing as being too lenient.
Reed, who presided over the trial, refused to modify his sentence during Locane’s second resentencing.
Locane went to prison in 2013 and was released on June 12, 2015. She was unsuccessful in the appeal of her conviction.
Since being released from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Union Township in Hunterdon County, Locane, who says she hasn’t consumed alcohol since the fatal crash, has begun speaking to youth about the dangers of alcohol.
On Thursday, she was again led out of a courtroom in handcuffs, headed back to Edna Mahan.
Selena whose full name is Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was a young singer who career was on the rise when she was brutally murdered by a woman by the name of Yolanda Saldivar who was the founder of the Selena Fan Club
Selena Murder
According to sources Yolanda Saldivar had spoken to Selena father several times about starting a Selena fan club and eventually agreed. The family was so impressed with Yolanda Saldivar that they appointed her manager of one of the boutiques that Selena owned. However soon after the boutiques were losing money and customers and most of it was blamed on Yolanda Saldivar management style or lack of one.
The final straw came when a number of fans had spoken to Selena’s father about sending the Selena Fan Club money and receiving nothing in return. The father began investigating the claims and soon realized that Yolanda Saldivar had been embezzling. When the woman was confronted with the allegation she would go out and buy a gun.
On March 31, 1995 Yolanda Saldivar would approach Selena and would fatally shoot the young singer.
Yolanda Saldivar was convicted of Selena murder and sentenced to life in prison
Selena Killer Yolanda Saldivar 2021 Information
SID Number: 05422564
TDCJ Number: 00733126
Name: SALDIVAR,YOLANDA
Race: H
Gender: F
Age: 60
Maximum Sentence Date: LIFE SENTENCE
Current Facility: MOUNTAIN VIEW
Projected Release Date: LIFE SENTENCE
Parole Eligibility Date: 2025-03-30
Selena Other News
The woman convicted of killing Tejano superstar Selena Quintanilla asked for a new trial earlier this year.
In a petition filed in Federal court on March 28, Yolanda Saldivar requested a new trial based on her belief that the prosecutor withheld evidence that could have proved her innocence. Specifically, Saldivar says the prosecutor, Carlos Valdez, presented white tennis shoes and a black baseball cap during a media interview in March of 2018.
Saldivar says those items were not introduced to the jury as evidence. She claims not only does that violate her right to due process, it deprived her of the ability to provide an adequate defense.
The filing is Saldivar’s second petition for a writ of habeas corpus. It was denied because anyone filing a second such petition must first seek permission from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Saldivar mistakenly filed hers directly with the United States District Court in Waco.
In an interview with Radar Online, Saldivar questioned why the defense would withhold the evidence if it proved she committed the murder.
Saldivar has not filed any petition with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Selena Other News
While fans remember the legacy of Selena, questions also still surround the woman who killed her.
On March 31, 1995, Selena Quintanilla was shot to death in Corpus Christi by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar. Selena was only 23 years old.
Prosecutors say Selena, affectionately known as the undisputed Queen of Tejano by her fan base, had confronted Saldivar about embezzlement allegations.
Saldivar has said the shooting was an accident.
Saldivar, whose trial was moved to Houston due to extensive publicity about the case, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
But what has happened to Saldivar in between the singer’s death and now?
In June 2009, Saldivar lost an appeal because it was filed in the wrong county. According to Billboard, Saldivar had asked for an appeal filed nine years earlier in Nueces County to move forward, but it should have been filed in Harris County where she was convicted.
Since then, rumors and internet hoaxes have sprung up, alleging that Saldivar is dead.
Billboard reported in 2015 that an article from a conspiracy site stated Saldivar was found dead by deputies in her prison cell. But the rumor was quickly debunked.
Saldivar remains in the Mountain View Unit, a maximum-security women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas, about 130 miles southwest of Dallas, corrections officials told ABC News.
The prison houses Texas’ female death row and other high-profile inmates, including Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of killing her neighbor Botham Jean after she said she had mistaken his apartment for her own.
Saldivar will be eligible for parole in 2025, 30 years after Selena’s death.
Frequently Asked Questions
Selena Netflix
In 2020, 25 years after she was tragically killed at the age of 23, Selena is firmly entrenched in popular culture. You know her by that one, single name. Brands like MAC and Forever 21 have built collections around her. Even when it feels like we’re approaching a point of saturation, there’s always something on the horizon—the latest being Netflix’s Selena: The Series, a multi-season look at the singer’s rise to stardom. In a sense, this was what she wanted: to be embraced by both sides of her community, Americans and Mexicans, in Spanish and in English.
The series’ expanded approach to Selena’s story offers a new way of looking at the singer, one that’s less a myth-making portrait of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez and more of a collective scrapbook of her family’s experiences. This is a matter of necessity: For better or worse, much of Selena’s story has been covered elsewhere, namely in Gregory Nava’s 1997 film starring Jennifer Lopez. Thus, The Series often sidelines Christian Serratos’s meek version of Selena and looks elsewhere for narrative, as if she’s just along for the ride rather than in the driver’s seat. She spends plenty of time away from the stage, in casual clothes rather than concert-level costumes. It’s a humanizing effort on its face, yet the accessibility feels incomplete because there’s no explanation of what Selena wants and how she really feels. We may never know those things, but it’s strange for a series named after the singer to not even try to imagine them.
Instead, Selena delves into the roles her family and their band, Los Dinos, played in her ascendance. (Not coincidentally, Selena’s family members A.B. and Suzette Quintanilla are credited as producers on the show.) It highlights her dad’s strong will, her brother’s writing and producing skills, and her sister’s emotional support; it shines a light on some of the personalities that had a hand in her rise, like bandmates Pete Astudillo and Ricky Vela, and show host Johnny Canales, who gave Selena y Los Dinos one of their first big breaks.
It’s a pure ensemble show—in a way, the framing demythologizes Selena, making her into just another member of the band. This is the way her family remembers her, or at least what memories of her they feel comfortable sharing. But it’s not one that lines up with the long-held vision of a strong Tejana who took center stage in a male-dominated musical genre. She broke records and sold out shows in her lifetime, how couldn’t she be the star in a show about her? Perhaps that’s the point: At its heart, the value of The Series is the way it will make fans come to terms with Selena the Legend and Selena the Person. She was a gifted singer with undeniable charisma; she was also the annoying little sister who ate her big sister’s chips and got on her brother’s nerves.
One explanation for Selena’s lasting fame is her relatability. Many fans see some part of themselves in her story and presence, whether it’s her family’s hardworking background, her struggle to learn Spanish, or the way she embraced her natural looks despite feeling out of place between cultures—one that didn’t see her as American enough and the other that didn’t see her as Mexican enough.
There’s one great sequence in the TV series where Selena and her family lock horns with outside consultants who try to fashion Selena into—quite literally—an exoticized other. On set, Selena is frazzled by this forced image, at first joking about the awful pan-ethnic looks cooked up by the record label’s team before frustration devolves into demoralization. This is not who she is. Who she is is much closer to home, a mix of Mexican and American cultures, something outsiders couldn’t—or wouldn’t—understand.
Throughout the show, which cleverly includes the English-language songs Selena was listening to at the time, we see Selena live comfortably in that space between two cultures, free to pick and choose between listening to Jody Watley and crushing on Luis Miguel. Selena embraced the freedom of making one’s own identity through one’s disparate cultures. Her story gives those who identify with her some sense of comfort—she succeeded in the face of adversity and didn’t lose herself in the process.
Many versions of Selena’s story fixate on her tragic end, keeping her in a fossilized state of potential, placing unimaginable importance on what she accomplished and what she meant as a star. But her status and purpose as an idol exist in relation to those who idolize her. The series—more focused on Suzette and Selena’s car shopping trips and the Quintanilla siblings’ dynamics—seeks to define her separate from her fans. Her greatness is almost always evident, but The Series posits that the personal, even mundane affects of her life were just as crucial in composing her persona.
Painting a full, vivid picture of Selena is an endeavor many have undertaken since her death. In Lourdes Portillo’s introspective documentaries, Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena and Conversations With Intellectuals About Selena, she explores the way Selena reverberated within popular culture. The films arrived just a few years after the singer’s death, when it was already evident that Selena meant more to many people than your average pop star.
In Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena, we meet everyday admirers, people who knew her closely and in passing, her grief-stricken family, academics who examined her influence, and little girls who saw themselves in Selena. There’s a sense of the person she was from the people who knew her—as family and in passing—and a sense of what Selena meant to her fans. The documentary is both a loving tribute and proof of how one figure can mean so many things to so many different people.
Its companion film, Conversations With Intellectuals About Selena is just what it says it is. Over margaritas and a meal, experts discuss and debate whether Selena was a bad role model because she was taken out of school at an early age, the role her domineering father played in her life, and the shaping of her legacy. They even sift through some of the tabloid fodder that’s not always talked about when talking about Selena, exploring the queer subtext and framing of her relationship with Yolanda Saldivar and whether or not Selena had an extramarital affair. But what’s most striking about this film—and Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena—is that there is no clear-cut agreement on what the star represents. Not everyone understands her appeal or likes her music, but everyone at the table seems to acknowledge that deeper, almost personal, connection fans have with her.
With all of these deep-seated emotions tied up with the artist and the many things she represents, it seems obvious that Selena: The Series was never going to satisfy everyone. For fans who grew up singing her songs, refreshing shopping pages for the latest Selena merch, and faithfully quoting Nava’s biopic, a new TV series isn’t going to change what she already meant to us. Instead, the show turns its eye toward Selena’s family, and tries to do something that hasn’t yet been done: explain what she meant to them.
It was supposed to be the start of a bright new chapter. Tejano star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was working on her English crossover album, Dreaming of You, following the success of her four Spanish-language albums throughout Mexico and Latin America. But before she could finish her record, Selena was shot and killed by former fan club president Yolanda Saldívar on March 31, 1995. She was 23 years old.
Selena may physically be gone, but the essence of who she was still permeates our culture today—25 years after her death. It’s not just her songs, but her sense of fashion and style, too. Since Selena’s death, there have been everything from Selena-inspired clothing and makeup lines, to tribute albums, concerts, musicals, memorials, Barbie dolls, wax figures, drag shows and various other art forms celebrating her life, including a new series from Netflix. Christian Serratos is spot-on as Selena.
When Selena passed away, I told my family that I was going to try to keep her memory alive through her music,” Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, Jr., told Peoplein March. “And 25 years later I think we, as a family, accomplished that.”
A month before her death, Selena was at the height of her career: On February 26, 1995, she performed with her band Los Dinos for more than 60,000 people at the Houston Astrodome in her iconic purple pantsuit. A few days later she attended the Grammy Awards for a second time, where her fourth-studio album Amor Prohibido was nominated for Best Mexican-American Performance. (She lost, but in 1994, “Selena Live” won the Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album.)
She was also recording “I Could Fall In Love” with noted songwriter and producer Keith Thomas in Franklin, Tennessee. And outside of music, Selena was looking to expand Selena Etc, a boutique brand that she launched the year prior with stores in San Antonio and her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas.
But in early March 1995, Selena and her family discovered financial problems with her fan club and fashion brand. They accused Saldívar—who was promoted to manage the boutiques after her successful work with the club—of not sending fans items that they paid for, as well as embezzling $30,000, the Associated Press reported at the time. Selena tried to recover those records on a few separate occasions, and on one such attempt at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi, Saldívar shot Selena in the back with a 38-caliber revolver. The bullet shattered an artery in her collarbone before exiting her chest, the effects of which also negatively impacted her brain function, according to the Associated Press.
Several motel employees later testified that Selena came running into the motel’s lobby after being shot and chased by Saldívar. She gave Saldívar’s name and room number before she collapsed and was rushed to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, AP reported. This testimony was in conflict with Saldívar’s defense, that she shot Selena by accident. Saldívar was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, though over the years she’s maintained her innocence and filed for several appeals to no avail.
The sudden loss of Selena was so devastating that many couldn’t believe the news at first. Maria Aguirre, a receptionist for Tejano radio station KQQK at the time of the singer’s death, told the New York Timesthat calls from fans poured in as the news of her being shot spread, many of whom were “calling to confirm” that Selena died.
“They cannot believe that it happened,” she had said. “It’s almost like the feeling when John Lennon died. She was the queen of Tejano.”
Phil Hartman was a Canadian American comedian who spent over eight years on Saturday Night Live and was starring in the popular television program News Radio when his life was cut short by his wife Brynn Omdahl.
Phil Hartman Murder
Phil Hartman and Brynn Omdahl were married in 1987 and it was the third time for the comedian. Unfortunately the marriage was not a happy one with allegations of domestic violence and drug abuse. According to sources Brynn Omdahl was struggling with drug addiction and was not happy that Phil Hartman career kept him out of town for long periods of time.
On the night of the murder, May 28 1998, the married couple were arguing about Brynn Omdahl addictions and Phil Hartman was talking about ending the marriage. Phil Hartman would go to sleep and soon after he would be fatally shot by Brynn who would then use the gun on herself.
Phil Hartman was forty nine years old at the time of his murder.
Phil Hartman Videos
Phil Hartman Other News
Former “Saturday Night Live” comic Phil Hartman was shot to death early Thursday, apparently by his wife, who killed herself as police were shepherding the couple’s two children from the family’s million-dollar Encino home.
Officers responding to a call of shots fired at the home arrived to find the couple’s 9-year-old, Sean, fleeing out the front door. They took the boy to safety, then returned to get his 6-year-old sister, Birgen. A single shot was heard–Hartman’s wife, Brynn Hartman, 41, apparently killed herself as police took her daughter from the home.
Upon searching the home, police found the Hartmans dead in the couple’s upstairs bedroom in their home in the 5000 block of Encino Avenue, a tree-lined street of pricey homes just north of Ventura Boulevard.
Phil Hartman, 49, clad in boxer shorts and a T-shirt, was lying on his side on the bloody bed.
Brynn Hartman, in a two-piece sleep suit, was on her back.
There was no sign of a struggle, police said.
The two young children, who police said suffered no physical injuries, were distraught as they were escorted away in their pajamas to a police station for questioning, authorities said. A family spokesman said relatives were flying into Los Angeles on Thursday evening to take custody of the children.
Although the coroner’s office did not release a time of death, police believed that Brynn Hartman killed her husband before they reached the house at 6:20 a.m.
“Mr. Hartman had been dead for a while,” police spokesman Lt. Anthony Alba said.
The apparent murder-suicide shocked fellow stars and longtime friends of Hartman, a gifted mimic who was known for masterful impersonations of such figures as President Bill Clinton and Liberace.
Phil Hartman starred in the current NBC situation comedy “NewsRadio,” provided voices for “The Simpsons,” and appears in “Small Soldiers,” a movie set for release next month. He joins Chris Farley, John Belushi and Gilda Radner in the ranks of “Saturday Night Live” alumni who have suffered untimely deaths.
“This is a tragedy in so many ways,” said Mike Scully, executive producer of “The Simpsons,” the animated series for which Hartman supplied the voices of such recurring bit characters as washed-up actor Troy McClure and lawyer Lionel Hutz. “Phil was just tremendous fun to work with. The minute he said hello, you were laughing.”
Some close to the family said the slayings seemed a shocking final burst of anger from Brynn Hartman, who they described as having a mercurial temper.
“She had trouble controlling her anger,” said Steve Small, an attorney who handled Hartman’s two previous divorces and stayed in frequent contact with Hartman.
“She got attention by losing her temper,” said Small, adding that the two had separated more than once. “Phil said he had to . . . restrain her at times.”
Police said they were unaware of any previous visits to the Hartman residence. The couple had been married since 1987.
Reached at their home in North Dakota, Brynn Hartman’s family declined to comment. “We’re still in shock,” her mother, Constance Omdahl, told the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald.
Stan Rosenfield, a spokesman for Brynn Hartman’s brother and sister, said the family was concerned for the welfare of the children.
“This a situation that occurred that redefines tragedy in every conceivable way,” Rosenfield said. “There are two very young children and their needs must be attended to.”
Craig Harvey, the coroner’s chief investigator, said police told him that a man was at the home when police arrived and that the man had placed a 911 call. Police declined to confirm the account.
Harvey said police took two revolvers from the scene. A woman who described herself as a friend of Brynn Hartman said the former model, who recently changed her name from Vicki Jo, bought a gun upon relocating from New York to Los Angeles about six years ago because she felt unsafe in the family’s four-bedroom, five-bath, 4,000-square-foot home.
“She had guns in the house, but I begged her to get rid of them,” said the friend, who met Brynn shortly after she arrived in Los Angeles. “She didn’t feel safe in this house” because he worked long hours and she was alone with the children so much, the friend said.
The woman and her sister said they talked frequently with Brynn and knew of no marital discord. Both described Brynn Hartman as a doting mother who took great pride in her two children.
But other friends and neighbors said there were clues of trouble in the marriage, Phil Hartman’s third.
Andrea Diamond, who said she had been a friend of the couple for six years, said Brynn had spoken to her about problems in the marriage but “I didn’t take it seriously–he’s in the industry, those kinds of things happen all the time.”
“There were rumors,” Diamond said. “But you should have seen how he used to look at her. You could tell he loved her. I don’t know why she would do this to the kids.” Lisa Strain, Hartman’s second wife, said she was “completely shocked” when she heard about the deaths.
“He always talked about his children, and how he and Brynn were working it out,” said Strain, who divorced Hartman in 1985 but remained friends with him.
Hartman was born in Canada in 1948, and the family moved to Los Angeles in 1960. His father, Rupert, sold roofing supplies and building materials.
Phil Hartman attended schools in Westchester and showed an early interest in drama. During his junior high school years at Orville Wright Junior High, he shared the stage with Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who is serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of then-President Gerald R. Ford.
Even after Hartman left Westchester and became famous, he never lost touch with old friends and remained down to earth, a comment repeated over and over during interviews Thursday.
Nora Kanoy, 49, said Hartman was her first love during the time the two attended elementary school together. Back in town for a high school reunion, Hartman paid her a visit.
“We barbecued at the beach. We talked about old times and he met my girls, which they loved,” Kanoy said. “He wasn’t bigheaded. He was always funny. He was an honest, good, down-to-earth person.”
Phil Hartman attended Santa Monica College and Cal State Northridge, where he majored in graphic design. An early highlight was designing the logo for Crosby, Stills & Nash.
In 1975, he joined the Groundlings, an improvisational Los Angeles comedy group. Tim Stack, a former member of the Groundlings, recalled the actor/comedian as a generous friend and devoted family man.
At a lunch the two men had at a San Fernando Valley deli two weeks ago, Hartman talked about reducing his workload this summer so that he could spend more time with his family.
Phil Hartman never talked of trouble within the family or marriage, Stack said. “In fact, that was the weird thing,” he recalled. “He had such great affection for Brynn. He said, ‘This is the one that’s for real.’ The crazy years were behind him.”
Phil Hartman helped create the Pee-wee Herman persona of comedian Paul Reubens after meeting him in 1978, and shared co-writing credit on the 1985 feature “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” However, his career didn’t really take off until he joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 1986.
Hartman’s average looks and poker face helped him do imitations of more than 50 characters, including Ed McMahon, Ronald Reagan and Jack Nicholson.
NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield spoke of Hartman’s importance to “Saturday Night Live.”
“Phil just flourished there,” Littlefield said. “He was the go-to everyman. He became so many characters and such an integral part of the ensemble through some great years.”
Phil Hartman left “Saturday Night Live” in 1994. In 1990, he began doing regular voices on “The Simpsons” and in 1995, he began starring in the role of a self-centered and arrogant anchor on “NewsRadio.” Littlefield said no decision has yet been made about the future of “NewsRadio,” which is scheduled to return in the fall.
Phil Hartman was also active in the community, participating in such causes as Heal the Bay, to restore the Santa Monica Bay, and the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica. He also served as honorary sheriff of Encino.
With material success secured, friends and family said, the Hartmans had increasingly expressed a desire in recent years to focus on their children.
Their son Sean was a particular source of pride, according to Stack. He followed in his father’s footsteps as a graphic artist, and Hartman would brag that the boy’s talent far exceeded his own. Daughter Birgen, other friends said, had Hartman’s gift for comedy.
Hartman’s death, friends said, came at the peak of a long climb toward success.
“I have a plane. I have a boat. I have a great house. I have a great family. In fact I have everything I ever wanted,” film director Joe Dante recalled Hartman telling him recently. “It feels great.”
Rebecca Schaeffer was a promising young actress whose life was cut brutally short by a stalker by the name of Robert Bardo. The laws surround stalking would change following the Rebecca Schaeffer murder. Lets take a closer look at the sad event
Rebecca Schaeffer Murder
According to court documents Robert Bardo became interested in Rebecca Schaeffer three years before the actual murder. Robert Bardo had even attempted to get onto the lot in order to meet Schaeffer as she was filming the television program My Sister Sam, Bardo who was armed with a knife was turned away by security.
Robert Bardo lost interest in Rebecca for awhile but when a move titled Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills came out he became incensed as the young actress was in bed with a man. Robert Bardo would travel to Los Angeles, after paying a private investigator to find the home address of Rebecca Schaeffer, and after wandering around her neighborhood asking people if she actually lived there.
Robert Bardo would knock on her front door and when Rebecca Schaeffer would answer the door, Brando would explain how Rebecca once wrote him back and declared his love for her, Rebecca politely asked Bardo to leave her alone.
Robert Bardo would leave her home and go sit in a nearby diner. After finishing eating Brando would return to Rebecca Schaeffer home and when she opened the door he would fatally shoot her point blank in the chest.
Rebecca Schaeffer was twenty one years old.
Robert Bardo would return to Arizona following the murder and would be arrested soon after for running through traffic on a major interstate highway. As soon as he was arrested he would confess to the murder
Rebecca Schaeffer Killer – Robert Bardo 2021 Information
The inmate shown above is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole and is, therefore, not eligible for parole consideration at this time.
Rebecca Schaeffer Other News
On July 18, 1989, someone rang the front doorbell of actress Rebecca Schaeffer’s house. The 21-year-old up-and-comer was best known at that point for costarring with Pam Dawber on the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam, and on that day, she was reportedly waiting for a script to be delivered to her home.
Specifically, the screenplay was for The Godfather Part III, and Schaeffer reportedly had an audition set up with iconic filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. A part of that caliber might have been a major milestone in her career.
When Schaeffer opened the door though, it wasn’t a studio courier. Instead, it was Robert John Bardo, a 19-year-old “fan” from Tucson.
Bardo had reportedly paid $250 for a Tucson detective agency to locate Schaeffer’s address by using public records from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Once Bardo had that info, he allegedly crossed state lines to use it.
Prior to showing up at Schaeffer’s doorstep, Bardo is believed to have written her numerous “love” letters. In addition, he allegedly tried to gain access to the set of My Sister Sam. Following his failure to meet Schaeffer, Bardo is said to have returned to Arizona and shifted his obsession to other female celebrities.
Reportedly, though, Bardo became enraged after seeing Schaeffer get romantic with another actor in the film Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989), and he refocused his fixation on her — with homicidal intensity.
Once Schaeffer opened her front door that horribly fateful July day, Bardo reportedly said he was a great admirer of hers. It’s believed she wished him well and politely turned him away.
From there, Bardo reportedly grabbed breakfast at a nearby diner and, about an hour later, he rang Schaeffer’s doorbell again. This time, when she answered, authorities say Bardo produced a .357-caliber handgun and pumped a bullet into her chest.
Schaeffer allegedly screamed for help and, 30 minutes after being rushed to a hospital, the rising star was pronounced dead.
According to ABC News, authorities picked up Bardo in Arizona the next day, when he was allegedly spotted running alongside a freeway, yelling, “I killed Rebecca Schaeffer!”
While being questioned, investigators said they made two especially chilling discoveries. The first was that when Bardo shot Schaeffer, he had been carrying a copy of the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger — the same book reportedly carried by Mark David Chapman in 1980 when he gunned down John Lennon.
The second was that Bardo allegedly told a psychiatrist he was inspired to kill Schaeffer in part by a 1982 attack on Raging Bull actress Theresa Saldana by a drifter who went to her apartment and stabbed her with near-fatal consequences.
Heading into trial, Bardo’s attorneys never denied that their client killed Schaeffer, but they maintained he was schizophrenic and should not be held responsible for murder.
Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark — yes, the same Marcia Clark of the O.J. Simpson murder trial — argued against that claim, and the jury agreed with her.
Robert John Bardo was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In the meantime, the shock and heartbreak of the so-called “My Sister Sam murder” is believed to have powerfully illuminated stalking as a crime that many said was not being properly addressed by existing laws.
As a result of public awareness and a widespread push for change, then, in 1990, California passed the first-ever anti-stalking law in the United States, which made it “a felony to cause another, or their family, to be in reasonable fear for their safety and carries a state prison sentence.”
In 2019, all 50 states have anti-stalking laws on the books and countless lives may have been saved by the changes that followed in the wake of Rebecca Schaeffer’s murder.
Phil Spector was at one time the most sought after music producer on the planet but when a woman would die at his home under suspicious circumstances everything would change.
Phil Spector Crimes
On February 3, 2003 actress Lana Clarkson was shot in the mouth and would die slumped over in the chair she was sitting in. At first the violent death was thought to be an accidental suicide however something was not quite right with the scene.
One of the first issues to come up was during the 911 call Phil Spector driver was speaking to the operator where in the background of the call Spector voice could be heard saying “I think I killed someone”. The driver would later testify he saw Spector leaving the home with a gun in his hand.
It would take years before Phil Spector was charged and it was not until 2007 that he would go to trial. That first murder trial would end with a hung jury with two jurors refusing to convict him.
In 2008 Phil Spector would go on trial again for second degree murder. This time the jury would convict Spector of the murder and guilty of using a weapon in the commission of a crime. Spector would be sentenced to eighteen years to life in prison.
In 2021 Phil Spector would die in prison from complications with Covid-19
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US music producer Phil Spector has died at the age of 81, while serving a prison sentence for murder.
Spector, who transformed pop with his “wall of sound” recordings, worked with the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner.
In 2009, he was convicted of the 2003 murder of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson.
His death was confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“California Health Care Facility inmate Phillip Spector was pronounced deceased of natural causes at 6:35 p.m. on Saturday, January 16, 2021, at an outside hospital. His official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner in the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office,” it said.
Spector produced 20 top 40 hits between 1961 and 1965. His production methods influenced major artists including the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen.
His life was ultimately blighted by drug and alcohol addiction, and he all but retired from the music scene during the 1980s and 1990s.
In February 2003, actress Lana Clarkson was found dead at his house in Alhambra, California with a bullet wound to her head. Clarkson, who was known for her work in the sword-and-sorcery genre and starred in films including Barbarian Queen, had met Spector hours earlier at a nightclub.
Spector claimed the shooting happened when Clarkson “kissed the gun” – but his trial heard from four women who claimed Spector had threatened them with guns in the past when they had spurned his advances.
Following an initial mistrial, Spector was convicted of second degree murder and given a sentence of 19 years to life.
Harvey Phillip Spector was born in New York in 1939, to Russian-Jewish parents. His father killed himself when Spector was a boy, and his mother moved her family to Los Angeles.
He began his career in his teens as a performer, forming a band – the Teddy Bears – with three high school friends. They had a hit single in 1958 with a song that took its title from the wording on his father’s gravestone: “To know him is to love him.”
The record went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, but the group split the following year.
Spector founded his own record label, Philles, in 1961. He produced high-profile 1960s girl groups such as Crystals and the Ronettes, including on 1963 hits Be My Baby and Baby I Love You.
He also worked on The Righteous Brothers’ hits You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ and Unchained Melody.
His signature production technique, the “Wall of Sound,” involved layering several instruments, including strings, woodwind and brass, to give a lush, orchestral sound.
In the early 1970s, Spector collaborated with The Beatles on their final album Let It Be, as well as producing John Lennon’s solo album Imagine.
As the decade progressed, the much-feted producer became reclusive and disturbing accounts of his behaviour became widespread. Spector is said to have held a gun to singer Leonard Cohen’s head during sessions for his album Death of a Ladies’ Man.
Ronettes lead singer Veronica “Ronnie” Bennett, who became Spector’s second wife and divorced him in 1974, wrote in her 1990 autobiography that he subjected her to years of horrific abuse. She said he had threatened to kill her and display her body in a glass-topped coffin he kept in her basement.
“I can only say that when I left in the early ’70s, I knew that if I didn’t leave at that time, I was going to die there,” Ronnie wrote of the time.
Writing on Instagram after her ex-husband’s death, Ronnie Spector said he had been “a brilliant producer but a lousy husband”.
“When I was working with Phil Spector, watching him create in the recording studio, I knew I was working with the very best,” she wrote. “He was in complete control, directing everyone. So much to love about those days.
“Meeting him and falling in love was like a fairytale,” she continued. “The magical music we were able to make together was inspired by our love. I loved him madly, and gave my heart and soul to him.
“Unfortunately Phil was not able to live and function outside of the recording studio. Darkness set in, many lives were damaged.”
Singer Darlene Love, who sang on several songs Spector produced, said he “changed the sound of rock ‘n’ roll” but likened their relationship to “a bad marriage”.
“The problem I have with Phil is that he wanted to control Darlene Love’s talent,” she told Variety. “If he couldn’t do that, he was going to do everything in his power to keep my talent from shining.”
Weeks before Lana Clarkson was shot dead, Spector gave a rare interview to British broadsheet The Telegraph.
“I would say I’m probably relatively insane, to an extent,” he told the paper, adding that he had “devils inside that fight me”.
Responding to news of the producer’s death, Blondie guitarist Chris Stein tweeted: “When we went to Phil Spector’s house in the 70s he came to the door holding a bottle of diet Manischewitz wine in one hand and a presumably loaded 45 automatic in the other. Long story.
“I thought he was nuts.”
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