Murder With My Husband - 177. Dorothy Stratten - The PlayBoy Bunny Murder

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

On this episode, Payton and Garrett discuss the case of Dorothy Stratten and how her rising career was tragically cut short. https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband The Killing of the Unicorn by Peter Bogdanovich ABC’s 20/20 - https://abc.com/shows/2020/episode-guide/2019-10/18-the-death-of-a-playmate-the-dorothy-stratten-story The Village Voice - https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/02/14/death-of-a-playmate/ ABC News - https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/horrific-murder-playboy-playmate-verge-hollywood-stardom-flaw/story?id=66193166 Harpers Bazaar - https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a12500777/dorothy-stratten-hugh-hefner-playboy-playmate/ Allthatsinteresting.com - https://allthatsinteresting.com/paul-snider Globalnews.ca - https://globalnews.ca/news/7273712/dorothy-stratten-murder-40-years/ Popsugar.com - https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/dorothy-stratten-death-49012299 Good Housekeeping - https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a42125851/how-did-dorothy-stratten-die/ Denofgeek.com - https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/welcome-to-chippendales-grim-real-life-story-paul-snider-dorothy-stratten/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody welcome back to our podcast. This is Myrtle with my husband. I'm Peyton Mourlin. And I'm Garrett Mourlin. He's husband. I'm husband. Today's just gonna be a banging episode. You got a good one going? Yeah. Alright. Are you saying that because you're banks? And because you cut your hair, you're bangs now. What? Are you trying to hit that people, huh? Bang, bang. Peyton got banks.

She could have hair. Shot me down. They look really good. And we support her. Thanks. We have a couple of, actually we just have one announcement. And that would be that if you listen on Patreon or have ever been interested in listening on Patreon,

it is now integrated with Spotify. So you can now get all of our bonus content, ad-free content, everything on Patreon. It is now integrated with Spotify so you can now get all of our bonus content, ad-free content, everything on Spotify. We've been waiting for that. We've been waiting for that. We're pretty excited about that. It'll make it easier for everyone who wants bonus content and ad-free content. If you don't listen on Spotify, then you can check us out on Apple subscriptions. It's all the same content, add free bonus content. And that's what we got. Yeah, just to be clear, I know Garrett just said it, but last time we did this, there was some confusion.

It's all of the same content across Patreon, Apple subscription, and now Spotify, it's just different platforms that you can access that content on. It's up to you, which one you want to support. All right, are you ready for your 10 seconds? I mean, I kind of have to say our 10 seconds, we went to the Taylor Swift concert.

It was actually, okay, so beforehand, I don't know what I was expecting. I'm not like a huge, swifty, Peyton loves Taylor Swift. I felt like for the last about two, three years, you've kind of become a Swiftie. I converted. She converted and, you know, Taylor Swift is good.

It was just, I mean, it was kind of just always there and I was like, didn't know what to expect. And I was like, ah, I mean, there's so many other artists that are good, but we went to that concert and I have a lot more respect for her. She is such an athlete. She was so good. The production was good. She is such an athlete. She was so good. The production was good.

She was great. It was actually really, really well done. I was really impressed. It's like her 20th city. She's doing six nights back to back, three and a half hours of singing. She didn't take a break. It's like she had intermission or she did that thing

where like you hold the microphone to the crowd. She never did that. She's saying every song. And surprisingly, I knew a lot of songs. You knew every song. It's bull crap, I did not know every song, but I knew a lot of songs. Okay, folklore and evermore don't count.

Yeah, I don't know any songs from those two albums, but I don't know. The rest of them you did. I guess I am a Swiftie. What was your favorite song? I think when she did the 10 minute version of All Too Well. That was good. It wasn't 10 minutes.

Was it 10 minutes? Yeah, 10 minutes. Wow, yeah, that was really good. That was really good. I don't know that one too well, but that was pretty good. It's just iconic. If you're not a Taylor Swift fan, I am sorry. Peyton and I went golfing yesterday together.

A little day. Well, I just rode in the cart. Yeah, I painted. I actually rode the cart. It's this true. And I I just wrote in the card. I just wrote in the card. It's this room. And I went in restricted area three times. And I did really, really bad. So I was just trying to impress my wife.

Because someone told me in golfer, you just supposed to keep dropping a new ball. Oh, shut. Uh-huh. That is not true. Don't listen to her. She's just trying to control all your guys. I just never realized you go through like 10 balls again. That is such true. Don't listen to her. She's just trying to control all of you guys. I just never realized you go through like 10 balls of game.

I don't like those. That is such a full crash. She's trolling everybody. Don't listen to her. Do not listen to her. That's funny. That's a good one, babe. All right, let's get into it.

Our sources this week are the killing of the unicorn by Peter Bogdanovich. Geez. ABC's 2020, the village voice, ABC news, Harper's Bazaar, all that's interesting.com, globalnews.ca, popshugger.com, good house keeping, and den of geek.com. Okay, so, get it. I want you to imagine yourself in this scenario.

You're a teenager, you're working your normal after school job. When someone shows up one day, spots you out of the blue and says they can change your life in unimaginable ways. They tell you you're special, they've never seen anyone like you before, that they have the ability to pluck you from obscurity and make you the biggest star in the world. Yes or no? Personally, I'd probably think they're weirdo. Probably. Yes.

But I mean, go back to 1978. You might be like, hmm, this is the offer that you can't refuse. OK, maybe. I'll consider it. Well, 18-year-old Dorothy Stratton definitely thought so. This happened to her when she met a man named Paul Snyder back in 1978. Not only did he promise to make her a star, he showered her in love, manipulated her, and then rode her coat-tells to the top. And the second she started to slip away, he made sure that she paid for it with her life. Wow, okay.

It's kind of reminding me a little bit of Elvis in a way. Definitely. I think that back then, you think, oh, there's this agent or whoever comes up and says, I can make you a star. I mean, isn't that how all the big stars were made? Yeah. I mean, look, we're no big stars, but we have an agent. And if you're listening,

I'm my eyes on you. Don't even try it. We got two eyes on you, Mr. Agent. Not even try it, guys. Don't you dare try to ride my coat. Yeah, happy funny through listening to this. I don't know if they listen, but that's funny. Yeah. So for most of Dorothy's early years, she was like any young girl debating the possibilities of her future early years, she was like any young girl, debating the possibilities of her future, unsure of whether she'd ever make anything big of herself. Let alone make it out of Vancouver, Canada. Dorothy was born on February 28th, 1960,

to two immigrant parents from the Netherlands. Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten. I think I said that right. Okay. But by the time she turned four, her father had left her, her mother, and her two young siblings behind to start a new life of his own. And from a young age, Dorothy kind of picked up the slack.

Her mother didn't have a very high-paying job. In fact, she worked at Dorothy's school cafeteria, serving lunch. So at 14 years old, the blonde-haired blue-eyed and bushy-telled Dorothy got an after-school job to help her mother pay the bills and she began serving ice cream at the local dairy queen. But at 14, Dorothy was still growing into her beauty. Like most young teenage girls, she didn't quite see it for herself. She felt insecure about her looks, she told her friends she thought she was plain looking

that her hands were too big, she was shy, quiet, and preferred spending her free time writing poetry about boys rather than socializing with them. But by the time she turned 18, she'd only ever had one boyfriend, and she was still working at that dairy queen after school, which was good enough for her. Dorothy figured once she graduated, she would just become a secretary somewhere. Continue living out a simple, quiet life in Vancouver, close to her family. Maybe one day find a husband, settle down, and have a few children of her own. That was until one afternoon, when all of that changed.

Dorothy was standing behind the counter in her dairy queen uniform when a 27 year old man that we talked about stepped up to place his order. He, according to him, couldn't believe how breathtakingly beautiful Dorothy was. And he wasn't shy about telling her. Immediately Dorothy was captivated by the attention she was getting from this older man.

Which, and I mean that's already a little creepy. She's 18 and he's a, I don't know. She's their own I guess. Right. I mean they're both adults so I mean I can't. Yeah. I mean I think nowadays we think it's creepy. I think even going back 10 years you would be like, oh my gosh, this guy came up to me.

And I mean, I mean, I'm more than 27. Imagine you were 18 and I came up to you. Who do you think tells creepy? I don't think so. Okay, so there we go. Well, I don't know. I can't believe I'm back in 18. I know it's hard. It's hard. It really is hard.

You don't look old. And that's what I'm saying. Maybe he didn't, right? No. Yeah. Um, so he tells her that his name was Paul Snyder. Paul was born in 1951 also a Vancouver native. And like Dorothy, his parents split up when he was very young. But Paul was left to fend entirely for himself when this happened. He grew up in one of Vancouver's rougher areas and quit school in the seventh grade to try and make a living for himself. One of Paul's biggest insecurities as a kid was his size. He felt if he was ever to be taken seriously, he needed to bulk up, so he began bodybuilding. But he also grew a mustache and freshened up his wardrobe, but believing if he wanted to be successful, he had to look successful.

Over time, Paul found a niche for himself promoting car and motorcycle shows around town, but he quickly realized the money wasn't enough to support the lavish lifestyle he craved. So I think it's safe to say Paul's a go-getter. Like, he is at a young age is trying to make money for himself. But when he realizes that these normal jobs aren't making enough money for him, he decides to pick up a few illegal sight jobs. And one of them was recruiting young women for sex work. Yikes.

Paul was seen around town wearing a giant mink coat, driving a black Corvette with his star of David Necklace clearly visible under his unbuttoned shirt. All right, so a pimp basically. Well, okay, and I mean, this is a nickname clearly from the 1970s, but he became known around Vancouver in the 1970s as the quote, Jewish pimp. Okay. But even that didn't bring in enough to support his expensive taste, so as he makes more money, his taste just grows. Eventually Paul turned to one of the drug gangs in town for a loan, and when he failed to pay it back, they hung him from his ankles off a 30 story hotel balcony.

That's when Paul decided it was best if he just left Vancouver for a while, so he flew down to California in America and tried finding women for sex work there. In Los Angeles, he traded his black corvette in for a gold limousine and worked his way around Beverly Hills. For a while, Paul even toyed with the idea of breaking into the film industry, perhaps through producing or directing, but he never found a way in. And too many close calls with the law eventually scared Paul back to Vancouver. He returned to Canada in 1977 after telling a friend he'd rather kill himself than ever go to jail. And that's how he ended up standing in front of Dorothy Hoogstratton in 1978,

ordering an ice cream sundae and asking for her name at Dairy Queen. Well, safe to say it was love it for sight, right? Then in there, Paul told her how special she was that she could be a model. And if she gave him a chance, he could easily help her make her dreams come true, which now that you kind of explained this past, it's a little more creepy because he was trying to imp girls out for sex work. Yeah. So I don't know. Right. So, but not knowing about his past in the sex work. Dorothy is like completely flattered. This guy, she's not very confident. She's only had one boyfriend and then this older guy comes in is just probably so smooth

because this is what he does. He, you know, and tells her you are so beautiful and she's flattered. Plus, she liked the fact that Paul was nine years older than her. Even though he was loud and arrogant, Dorothy found his street smart nature charming, and the two actually started dating. But almost immediately, Paul began love bombing Dorothy. He showered her a new clothes and jewelry. He complimented her on the things she felt most insecure about. They spent countless nights together in his trendy apartment where he'd cook her dinner and offer her expensive wine. Paul even bought Dorothy a new gown and escorted her to her senior prom, which would just probably not pass nowadays. What Dorothy didn't realize was this was all part of Paul's plan to groom her.

Obviously we know this is signs of grooming. He had big aspirations for Dorothy. Dreams that of course included his rise to fame as well. And that's when he told Dorothy he was taking her to a photographer. It was time to start making those dreams come true. Dorothy showed up to the photo shoot in a white ruffled dress Paul had bought for her. There, she met the photographer who was the same local photographer who'd taken her senior year portrait. But she thought she was there to take a few harmless pictures of her and Paul. She didn't realize that Paul had already made a deal behind the scenes. The plan was for the two of them to convince Dorothy to take off her clothes so they could submit the photos to Playboy's great Playmate Hunt contest. If this

photographer successfully got the shot, Paul would pay him the $1,000 finder's fee that Playboy awarded as prize money. So when Dorothy stepped before the camera, she wasn't prepared for what was to come. Suddenly, Paul and the photographer were encouraging her to take off that white dress, and Paul wasn't in any of the shots with her. Dorothy became so uncomfortable she began crying right there in the room. She was worried about what her mother would think if she ever found out, but still, Paul, her boyfriend, pressed her further. He began saying things like, please, just do it for me. Eventually, Dorothy gave in and agreed to strip down. At that point she

would do anything to make Paul happy, which meant his attempts to groom Dorothy were already working. And that's so messed up. Dorothy's pictures were sent to Playboy magazine as planned, although perhaps unsurprisingly, Paul never did pay the photographer the finder's fee. And by August 1978, Dorothy received a phone call. Playboy loved her photos and wanted her to hop a plane to Los Angeles for another series of test shots. Do you know if the playboy mansion existed at this time? Yes, the playboy mansion does exist at this time. So she was in the final running for

the great playmate, Hunt. and Dorothy's life, as Paul had promised, was about to change forever. That summer, Dorothy took her first-ever plane ride to Los Angeles alone. Executives from the magazine picked her up from the airport in a limousine and escorted Dorothy to the Playboy mansion. There, she was welcomed by Playboy's editor, Marilyn Garbowski, who said they would take a few more test shots throughout the day. Marilyn knew right away that Dorothy had something special.

After watching her shoot that day, Marilyn claimed she'd never seen anyone so naive and unaware of her beauty as Dorothy was. After a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles, Dorothy went back to Vancouver to wait for the results of the contest. A few days later, she learned that she'd lost the competition to a woman named Candy Loving. Playboy still felt she was too shy and needed a bit more work in front of the camera. But the head of Playboy, Hugh Hefner, didn't forget about Boi-E. Hefner decided to name Dorthy Miss August for the following year in 1979, which the little hard because all those things that have come out, you know, about a few hefter now.

This gave the magazine enough time to prepare her for the shoot. In the meantime, Hefner offered Dorothy a job working as a Playboy bunny at the Playboy Club in Los Angeles. She of course accepted the opportunity and moved to Los Angeles alone without Paul at first, although the two did remain in close contact. The magazine changed Dorothy's name from Dorothy Houges' Stratton to Dorothy Stratton, and they oversaw everything from Dorothy's housing to her fitness to her skin care, routine, her hair. Hefner even helped Dorothy secure a temporary work permit so she could stay in the United States a bit longer. And I do have to say, I feel like at this time, Playboy, I feel like it's looked at differently now

than it was at this time, right? I feel like at this time, it was big. Oh yeah. It was like the talk of the town. I feel like now no one really talks about Playboy anymore, at least I don't really hear much about it. It was a lot of women's gold to become a Playboy. I feel like it was a highly sought after thing. Yes. It was really big. Yeah. And the more experience that Dorothy got in front of the camera with Playboy, the more the photographers became impressed with her.

Eventually, she was put in touch with David Wilder, a talent agent who'd helped transition several other playmates to the silver screen. Over time, Dorothy began booking roles in movies like America Thon and Skate Town USA. She was getting invited to exclusive Hollywood parties and her career was skyrocketing quickly. So if you say she was blowing up in Los Angeles, but she never gave up on her one connection back home. Paul Snyder. She would call him daily with updates on her life and felt that she owed most of her success to him, which is why Paul wasn't too far behind her. By 1979, he moved to Los Angeles to join Dorothy. And to many working with Dorothy, it seemed troubles in the relationship began almost right

away. Dorothy often had a hard time composing herself during a shoot. At one point, she reportedly asked a doctor for a prescription of valium. Perhaps because, aside from trying to write her coat-tells, Paul was getting into some shady side deals of his own. For extra cash, he began promoting exotic male dancers at a nightclub. He was also building up a wet t-shirt contest

at another local bar. Around the same time, he was developing an idea for his own late night spot, a strip club with solely male dancers called Chip and Dells. No way. Paul even had the idea to dress them and callers with bows ripping off the Playboy bunny. Then in the spring of 1979, Paul proposed to Dorothy. Many of Dorothy's friends and colleagues told her marrying Paul was a bad idea.

They could see that his proposal was just another attempt at trying to control Dorothy away for him to keep her all to himself. But Dorothy still felt indebted to Paul. She claimed he was always there when she needed him. She wouldn't have this life without him, and that she couldn't imagine herself ever being with anyone else. It seems like he really groomed her well. Like he, it's dangerous, it's scary. Dorothy went through with the marriage

and the two tied the knot on June 1st, 1979 in Las Vegas. After that, Dorothy's career continued to grow steadily. The August issue of Playboy had already hit the new stands with Dorothy as playmate of the month on the cover. Her first movie was about to be released, and she had just been cast in a new Canadian film called Autumn Born. While Dorothy was on set, Paul spent his days apartment hunting for the two of them, searching for a place where they could start their

married life together. He ended up finding a spot through a regular at the Playboy Club, a doctor named Stephen Kushner. Paul moved their things into the two stories Spanish home that the doctor owned in West LA. Paul and Dorothy lived in the spare bedroom in the downstairs area of the house while the doctor lived upstairs. And since Dr. Kushner often spent the night at his girlfriend's home, the couple mostly kind of had this nice place to themselves. Of course, Paul only imagined this as a temporary arrangement. He figured with his and Dorothy's ventures combined, it was only a matter of time

before they bought a house of their own. In the meantime, he furnished their part of the doctor's home with giant nude photographs of Dorothy. He purchased a Mercedes and got vanity plates that read star 80. But it was obvious to others that Dorothy was uncomfortable with Paul's extravagance and his constant spending. Plus, Paul had rubbed her friends the wrong way too. One of those friends being Hugh Heffner.

What a small world, right? It gets pretty crazy that Hugh Heffner's, I mean, I guess, involved in this, but small world. That's something that's crazy about True Crime is you could do a whole podcast just on Hollywood True Crime. Yeah. Like that. There's a lot of weird connections. Yes. So by this point in her career, Dorothy was a regular at the Playboy Mansion attending

most of their lavish parties. She'd also become very close with Hugh Heffner. But not in a sexual way, like some of the other playmates had, to Dorothy Hefner was more of a father figure, which we've heard this. Looking out for her, nurturing her, cheering on her career, in fact Hefner had been so protective over Dorothy that he'd encouraged her not to marry Paul. But after she did, Hefner set her up with a professional accountant and a money manager just to keep Paul away from her money. That's how Paul came off to people. Eventually, Hefner

banned Paul altogether from the mansion parties. This was after multiple other women in attendance had referred to Paul as creepy. Apparently, he had been accused of trying to kiss other playmates in the grotto. At one point, he was even caught with another woman and kicked off the property by security. So not only was Paul trying to control Dorothy, he was also cheating on her. And that's when Dorothy started to slide out of his grip. She was building her own life now. She no longer needed Paul to get by, especially since his own business opportunities were starting to crash and burn. As Chip and Del's became a monumental hit, Paul was pushed out of the business by his partners.

I was gonna say that he start Chip and Del's because... He was part of it. They were huge. Yes, but early on as they became, as they started growing, he was pushed out. Okay. Which, again, how many people have to not like this guy, you know? He was forced to watch the concept thrive as he was regulated to the sidelines. His one chance at his success now completely squashed.

Which meant Dorothy was the only real meal ticket he had left. And now, he was hanging on for dear life. After Dorothy starred in the Playboy Roller Disco and pajama party special in October of 1979, her fame exploded. It was a round then that Hepner decided Dorothy was going to be named Playmate of the Year for 1980, which was one of the highest honors you could receive in the Playboy world. But in January 1980, Dorothy was faced with another exciting opportunity. That month, she reconnected with director Peter Bogdanovich at one of the mansion parties.

The 41-year-old Peter, who was somewhat of a Playboy himself, had been taken with Dorothy ever since he laid eyes on her at the roller disco back in October. And he decided that he wanted to cast Dorothy as the love interest in his new autobiographical film titled They All Laft. Peter contacted Wilder, Dorothy's agent, and asked if they'd come to his home so Dorothy could read for the part. But this was kind of like a ruse because Peter had already made up his mind that he just wanted to spend more time with Dorothy.

Like he was infatuated with her. She got the role and began shooting in March 1980 in New York City. Paul was obviously desperate to tag along, but Dorothy had already started to put her foot down with him. She told him he had to stay back. He'd only be a distraction. She was filming opposite major stars like Audrey Hepburn and John Ritter. Paul couldn't get in the way. That March, Dorothy checked into her suite at the Windham Hotel, and for the first time in a long time she was free of Paul who was constantly lurking over her shoulder.

But over time, rumors surfaced about Dorothy. Rumors that, for once, had nothing to do with Paul Snyder. Dorothy and Peter seemed to be co-zing up to one another. This is the director, flirting behind the cameras. Then, only a few weeks into shooting, Dorothy checked out of the window and moved into Peter's suite at the Plaza Hotel. Even though Paul Snyder was over 2,000 miles away, he could sense Dorothy was slipping through his fingers. When he called her, he could tell there was coldness in her voice.

She no longer seemed excited to speak to him. When he told her he loved her, she wouldn't say it back. Eventually, she just stopped taking his calls all together while she's out shooting this movie. Yes, so she was over it. Yes. In late April 1980, Dorothy took a break from shooting to return to Los Angeles for a few playmate of the year appearances.

One of them included a luncheon where she accepted her awards and her title. Now apparently, playmate of the year comes with a long list of incredible gifts. Because not only did Dorothy receive a $25,000 check, she also got a $26,000 Jaguar of $15,000 diamond necklace, a $13,000 brass bathtub, a $65,000 Russian fur coat, a diamond ring, and more. Holy crap, I'm gonna go be a playmate. You wanna be a playmate of here?

I wanna be a playmate of the year. So Dorothy set for a while at least. But during this luncheon, she also has to maintain appearances, which means Paul Snyder is there glued to her side. And many noticed that Paul was clinging on for dear life, that he was needy. Dorothy seemed uninterested in his old antics. She kind of mostly avoided him. And she was seen brushing him off whenever he tried to touch her,

things just weren't good between them. Like many were taking bets on how much longer it was going to last. Because it's pretty obvious at this point that Dorothy doesn't need Paul. He needs her, especially because much of her money was running through the accounts Hefner had set up for her. And she finally recognized this in June of 1980. See, that's when Dorothy sent Paula letters saying she wanted a separation physically and financially. She closed the one joint bank account they had and instead began sending Paul an allowance through her business manager until he got back on his feet. Okay.

So what did Paul do? He turned to all of those gifts Dorothy received for playmate of the year. Of course he did. He sold them, huh? He called a friend with a pawn shop to see how much he could get for each item. For example, I know he was able to sell Dorothy's new Jaguar sports car, but still he's grasping for straws, desperately seeking new means of income, and one of them comes in the form of a 17-year-old girl named Patty Lorman. Paul finds Patty working at a car show and decides he's going to try and groom her

just like he did Dorothy now that Dorothy's kind of moved on. That maybe she can be his next meal ticket. His next big fine for Playboy. That maybe she can be his next meal ticket, his next big fine for Playboy. He even moved Patti into the house he shared with Dorothy and Dr. Kushner to keep a close watch on her. Then finally, that summer of 1980, Paul made one final attempt at making money off of Dorothy. Prior to their wedding, he'd organized a photo shoot of her wearing roller skates in a skimpy outfit. He blew the images up and believed that selling

them as posters would make him a small fortune. But a lot had happened after the couple got married and the idea sort of fell by the wayside. But now, a year later, Paul is scrambling and he decided to revisit the idea. He contacted the husband and wife photographer who'd shot the image and asked them if they could get in touch with Dorothy. The photographers went to New York, found Dorothy at the plaza, and asked for her approval to sell the images. Dorothy refused, which meant Paul was finally out of options.

In July of 1980, Dorothy finally wrapped, they all laughed, in New York. When she returned to Los Angeles, she moved into Peter's home in Bel Air, and with the latest film under her belt, there were whispers of what her next role would be. She'd been approached to play Marilyn Monroe in a maid for TV movie. She was even in talks of becoming one of Charlie's Angels. I'm surprised I haven't heard of her before. Right. Or this in general.

Her transition from playmate to actress was pretty unprecedented and the opportunities ahead of her seemed endless. She was like your best option of a playboy bunny. Meanwhile Paul was coming apart at the seams. His roommate, Dr. Kushner, had come home one evening to find Paul unresponsive in the living room. He'd spend hours crying over Dorothy, riding her incoherent letters and poetry, begging her for forgiveness. And eventually that heartbreak turned into a dangerous level of paranoia. What's crazy is that, like, why did he cheat on her?

Because at that point, he thought he's still hot under his grips. He's so weird. It's like, dude, you have a plame of the year. What are you doing? Right? Well, I mean not that just play me of the year makes it all Well, but I mean she's super successful right by this point Paul and much of the world were still unaware of Dorothy Impeter's affair like no one knew that this was happening we do do, obviously. But Paul could sense something was happening there, so he made a drastic decision. Oh, because they weren't divorced. They were just separated.

That's correct. He hired a private investigator named Mark Goldstein to follow Dorothy and Peter around. Peter quickly found out that they were being told and was obviously furious. But Dorothy didn't seem to alarm by it. She told Peter she was going to smooth things over with Paul, that they were going to work on some sort of amicable agreement. And on August 8, 1980, she agreed to meet Paul for lunch, but the meeting didn't go

as planned. Dorothy confessed to Paul that she was in love with Peter, but she wanted to give Paul some sort of financial settlement which she promised to work out at a later date She then took her belongings from the house. She shared with Paul and said goodbye And I mean it seems to me like she's pretty much like yeah, she's done Watch her hands. I'm over it But Paul wasn't going to let her walk away that easily So one evening he called a friend to ask if he could borrow their 38 revolver Once he had the weapon in hand, he went to Paul's house in Belair and sat outside waiting

for either Peter or Dorothy to come out. Paul sat there for more than two hours. Eventually, he gave up, went home, and later returned the gun to his friend. But a few days after that, Paul decided he wanted a weapon of his own. He had a few friends over to the house for a barbecue including the PI, Mark Goldstein. He pulled Mark aside and asked him to find Paul a machine gun. It was just for home protection. Paul claimed. Mark talked him out of the absurd notion, but Paul found a way around it. On the evening of Wednesday, August 13, 1980, he located a 12-gauge shotgun in a classified

ad and picked it up from a stranger in the San Fernando Valley. That same day, several people said he seemed to be in a great mood. He told them, yeah, things are looking up with Dorothy. He claimed she was coming over the next day to talk about their financial settlement, and that she'd agreed to look at a new house that Paul believed would be a good investment for her. Both Peter and Hugh Heffner discouraged Dorothy from going to this meeting. They told her it wasn't safe that she should keep her distance from Paul now that she'd

kind of called things off with him, but Dorothy never believed Paul was a real threat. So on that Thursday morning, August 14th, Paul made sure both Patty and Dr. Kushner were out of the house when Dorothy came over that day. Remember, Patty is the 17-year-old. He's currently grooming. He said he wanted them to have as much privacy as possible, which is why he made everyone else leave. At around 11.45 a.m. Dorothy parked her 1967 mercury outside of the home. Mark Goldstein, who'd been watching from the outside the house, saw her arrive. Mark Goldstein, who'd been watching from the outside the house, saw her arrive. Then Mark called Paul shortly after 12.30pm to see how things were going between the two of them.

Paul answered and said, everything seemed to be going fine. Then a little while later, Mark called a second time. Only this time, Paul didn't answer. Private investigator Mark tried again, then again, but there was still no answer. And as far as Mark could tell, no one had come or gone from the house. That was until about 5 pm, when Patty returned home with a friend. Patty saw Dorothy's purse on the stairs and assumed the two must still be in the bedroom downstairs, hashing it out.

So she and her friend went upstairs to the living room to watch some television. By 7pm, Dr. Kushner had also returned home and noticed the door to Paul's bedroom was still closed. While he found it suspicious that Paul's bedroom phone had kept ringing, he just assumed the couple had been ignoring it. Maybe they were still discussing their issues. It was close to midnight when Mark Private Investigator finally called Patty and asked her to knock on Paul's door.

Nervous, Patty asked Dr. Kushner if he would be the one to go instead, so Dr. Kushner went downstairs. And after a few seconds of knocking with no answer, he pushed open the door. He claimed the inside of the room looked like a whole new room was splattered with blood and both Paul and Dorothy were naked and lifeless on the floor. So I had figured that's what happened that he killed her and then he shot himself. Yep. Paul was lying on the carpet. The front of his face was missing from the gunshot that he'd fired through his temple. And like one of the most selfish things is if I can't have you no one can

yeah I cannot horrible I can't stand it's also like a big reason women are murdered oh yeah if I can't have you no one can yep and Dorothy was on the other side of the room against the far wall. She'd also been shot in the head. But not just the head, she was actually shot directly in her face. And it almost felt like Paul wanted to be the last one to ever get to see her and appreciate her beauty because her face was completely destroyed. Investigators said it appeared as if she'd been moved after she was killed due to the bloody handprints on her butt and her left leg. They also found long strands of her blonde hair still clutched in Paul's hand. In autopsy later confirmed that Paul had likely sexually assaulted Dorothy either prior

to or after killing her. Oh my gosh. Perhaps this was his one final attempt to gain control over the 20-year-old model. What an absolute horrible human being. One of the first people to spread the word about Dorothy and Paul's death was Mark Goldstein, the private investigator. He actually called the Playboy Mansion shortly after it happened to tell Hugh Hefner directly. Paul had killed Dorothy.

At first, Hefner refused to come to the phone, believing the whole thing was just a prank. But after speaking with the cops on the scene, Hefner learned the truth. His playmate of the year, the young model he'd seen and treated like a daughter, was dead. Hefner was the one to make the call to Peter Bogdanovich. Hefner said during that conversation, Peter barely spoke. He was in complete shock. Playboy felt they had to do something about the October issue of their magazine, which featured nude photos of the now deceased Dorothy. Oh, yeah.

But the issues were already printed and ready to hit new stands. Instead, they pulled her from the 1981 playmate, Calendar, and got rid of a promotional Christmas shoot featuring Dorothy. Many who knew Hefner said he wasn't the same after Dorothy's death. For months, he went into seclusion trying to avoid the press who were quick to blame Dorothy's death on the fast and loose lifestyle of a Playboy bunny. Which is not true.

It's not true at all. It's not true at all. The best chance Dorothy had at getting out of Paul Snyder's clutches was becoming a playboy boy. Was Peter. Yeah. Dorothy's body was cremated and her remains were left at Westwood Village Memorial Park. The same final resting place as her idol and the actress she was being scouted to play

Marilyn Monroe. Four years after Dorothy's death, Peter Bogdanovich wrote a book about the late actress calling it the killing of a unicorn. He also helped to take care of Dorothy's family over the years, claiming he'd planned to marry Dorothy anyway, and in which case, her family would have been his family too. It only felt right to help out after her loss. Oddly enough, Peter did find his way into the family when he married Dorothy's younger sister Louise on December 30, 1988. She was 20. The same age as Dorothy had been when she died.

After Dorothy's death, 20th Century Fox, the studio on They All Left, pulled the theatrical release. They claimed it had tested poorly and they didn't think it would make its money back. But Peter refused to accept the fact that no one would see Dorothy's final performance. He spent all of his money re-acquiring the film and distributing it across theaters himself. Eventually, this led Peter to declare bankruptcy. In 1985.

Oh, wow. Still, Dorothy did get her time on the silver screen. And everyone who knew her remembered her as one in a million, a true unicorn. A groundbreaking model who had a career filled with endless possibilities of head of her. Her only flaw was perhaps trusting too much. Peter put it best in a statement about Dorothy saying, quote, Dorothy looked at the world with love, and believed that all people were good deep down. She was mistaken, but it is among the most

generous and noble heirs we can make. And that is the story of Dorothy. That's so sad. That's so depressing. It makes me that's so mad that he literally couldn't take that his life wasn't going well, so he killed Dorothy. Yeah. And it just, it goes back to what you said, like... It's such like an ego-tistical just... He's a douchebag. Yeah. He's a douche.

And he just couldn't take it and killed her and that's insane. Alright you guys, that is our case for this week and I think we have a bonus episode coming out here soon. So if you want access to that, remember Patreon, Apple subscriptions and now Spotify. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye. you